History YMMV / MonsterRancher

%%* QuicksandBox: Part of what makes the games NintendoHard.

* BreatherBoss: Depending on which version of Monster Rancher you're playing, Pixies, Plants, Hoppers, Tigers, or Hares, who are fairly fragile, can be a chance to get an easy win before fighting Golems, Jokers, Dragons, Durahans (except for the particular one in the invitational tournament in ''2''), or [[LightningBruiser Gaboos]], who tend to have high LIF and hit extremely hard.

** The higher tiers of the IMA vs FIMBA battle in ''2''. Given to how [[RandomlyDrops rare they are]] and [[GuideDangIt how hard to find the battle itself is]], they're not as well known as Oakleyman or Most, but they are possibly one of the most frustrating monsters to fight. All of them have 700-750+ stats, effectively making them {{Lightning Bruiser}}s. However, one of the more absurdly powerful ones is a Hare/Plant hybrid named Hammed, fought in the S-Rank. Unlike other Hares, it's custom-designed to be a defensive beast, with 800 Defense (second highest stats in the game, which is remarkably ironic given that its breed has terrible Defense gains) and 991 Intelligence-- 8 less from the {{Cap}}-- effectively making Int-based moves, usually effective against Hares, ineffective thanks to [[GuideDangIt how damage calculation works in this game]]. Against Hammed, Power-based moves are the way to go, forcing you to fight the exact opposite of the way you would fight a Hare.

* BreatherBoss: Pixies, Plants, Hoppers, Tigers, or Hares, who are fairly fragile, can be a chance to get an easy win before fighting Golems, Jokers, Dragons, Durahans, or [[LightningBruiser Gaboos]], who tend to have high LIF and hit extremely hard.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power tech with S force rating and 30 guts which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range tech costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, Burning Palm, a good disposition Power Tech costing 50 guts that deals very heavy general damage with a decent critical hit chance and withering rate that is only balanced out by requiring 350 Power points to unlock, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use and requiring 350 Intelligence points to unlock. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

** The higher tiers of the IMA vs FIMBA battle in ''2''. Given to how [[RandomlyDrops rare they are]] and [[GuideDangIt how hard to find the battle itself is]], they're not as well known as Oakleyman or Most, but they are possibly one of the most frustrating monsters to fight. All of them have 700-750+ stats, effectively making them {{Lightning Bruiser}}s. However, one of the more absurdly powerful ones is a Hare/Plant hybrid named Hammed, fought in the S-Rank. Unlike other Hares, it's custom designed to be a defensive beast, with 800 Defense (second highest stats) and 991 Intelligence-- 8 less from the {{Cap}}-- effectively making Int-based moves, usually effective against Hares, ineffective thanks to [[GuideDangIt how damage calculation works in this game]]. Against Hammed, Power-based moves are the way to go, forcing you to fight the exact opposite of the way you would fight a Hare.

** The word "Errantry" [[YouKeepUsingThatWord does not mean what it's supposed to mean in-series]]--it means "acting like a knight-errant," not "going on an adventure"--but like other things, it's stuck.

** In ''2'', once Troron is unlocked in the shop, the process of raising power type monster up went way faster. Troron allows you to trade off 6 weeks of potential lifespan for +10 Power and +5 Skill after every successful drill for a month giving it a net gain of 40 Power and 20 Skill for every usage. Lifespan increase and lifespan reduction works by moving the monster forwards and backwards on their full lifespan duration, and the monster lifestage is decided based on their remaining lifespan relative to their base lifespan duration. In essence, using Troron during early stages of a monster life allows you to skip the weaker baby stages to quickly reach the first growth point while gaining a lot of extra stats in the process, potentially saving up a lot of money that would probably be spent feeding the monsters had they were raised normally which is especially notable on monster with VERY long baby stages. The expedition-only Paradoxine is even more obscene, offering +30 Power, +30 Skill, -10 Defense, and -10 Speed for every successful drill for 18 weeks of lifespan giving a massive 120 Power and Skill boost per every usage.

** In ''2'', essentially every Rank had one of these. In S Rank, ''every single monster'' is "That One Boss." And the Major 4, the {{Final Boss}}es of the game, [[SerialEscalation are worse]]. Take Loveless for example: a purebred Durahan in one of the Major 4 with extremely high stats in every area except speed, making it a ridiculously formidable MightyGlacier; combined with its extremely damaging techs, ''pray'' that it misses once if it ever takes the initiative to attack your monster first and/or hope your own monster has at least some form of withering in its techs to whittle down your opponent's guts to prevent it from retaliating. If not, well, there's always the reset button...

** Wild Monsters like Bighand and the Zilla King, and invitational tournament opponents to unlock Dragon and Durahan, have stats far above their rank, with Bighand being on par with the Major Four. The exception is the Durahan in the invitational tournament in A rank, as its stats are more comparable to that of a B rank monster, making it more of an AntiClimaxBoss.

* AntiClimaxBoss: In ''2'', Poritoka, a White Suezo who appears in the Legend Cup in odd-numbered years (Most, a White Mocchi, appears in even-numbered years). Downplayed in that Poritoka is still a rather challenging boss to fight against as appropriate for its rank, but its stats aren't as formidable as Most's; only two of its stats, Intelligence and Skill, are of heart-stoppingly high levels. The rest of its other stats have numbers that are in the 500s range, which means it is relatively easy for players to defeat it with a sufficiently trained monster of comparable stats at this stage and win the match in order to have your monster earn a place in the Monster Hall of Fame. The trick here is to avoid its intelligence-based techs and force it to use its physical power-based techs on your monster by way of watching your movement when you control your monster; just don't get too close or your opponent will forcefully push you back, which will give it time to select its more dangerous techs.

** In D rank, the toughest contender you face is Sleetbomb, a purebred Baku with frighteningly high Life and Power stats. If you're in the same rank, your attacks may hardly affect him if he doesn't Dodge (the rate of which is pretty low). However, if he attacks you just once with his Charge and connects, you will take so much damage that you will be left in no position to catch up. Like the aforementioned Oakleyman, Sleetbomb is the WakeUpCallBoss of his respective rank but his size makes him more of a MightyGlacier.
** BonusBoss White Mocchi, Most, has all around high stats and a good move pool. Spamming your strongest low-cost moves is the best strategy for dealing with Most, but those can get neutralized by its high speed stats, as well as its unusually high defense numbers.
** Wild Monsters like Bighand and the Zilla King, and invitational tournament opponents to unlock Dragon and Durahan, have stats far above their rank, with Bighand being on par with the Major Four.
** The higher tiers of the IMA vs FIMBA battle in ''Monster Rancher 2''. Given to how [[RandomlyDrops rare they are]] and [[GuideDangIt how hard to find the battle itself is]], they're not as well known as Oakleyman or Most, but they are possibly one of the most frustrating monsters to fight. All of them have 700-750+ stats, effectively making them {{Lightning Bruiser}}s. However, one of the more absurdly powerful ones is a Hare/Plant hybrid named Hammed, fought in the S-Rank. Unlike other Hares, it's custom designed to be a defensive beast, with 800 Defense (second highest stats) and 991 Intelligence-- 8 less from the {{Cap}}-- effectively making Int-based moves, usually effective against Hares, ineffective thanks to [[GuideDangIt how damage calculation works in this game]]. Against Hammed, Power-based moves are the way to go, forcing you to fight the exact opposite of the way you would fight a Hare.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power tech with S force rating and 30 guts which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range tech costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, Burning Palm, a good disposition Power Tech costing 50 guts that deals very heavy general damage with a decent critical hit and withering rate that is only balanced out by requiring 350 Power points to unlock, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use and requiring 350 Intelligence points to unlock. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power move with S force rating and 30 guts which Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts regeneration rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.
*** Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while it's not too much of a big deal if it missed, it's absolutely devastating to get hit by them; even their most basic moves such as Punch and Kick deal heavy general damage. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a OneHitKill even with max defense and power, which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere; notably Cyclone is one of the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticeably more inaccurate than Cyclone, had a noticeable boost towards withering while still being obscenely strong. In particular, Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique, its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it has high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breeds in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its natural parameter as well as its [[ReluctantWarrior natural aversion to battles]] (which gives it lower stats growth rate after entering a tournament), but several sub-breed choices for Golems offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavily undermines the intended weakness of the breed.

** While Monster Rancher are generally a percentage based game, at their maximum potential Metalner, Golem, and Naga are considered some of the most standout breeds in ''2'':

*** Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while it's not too much of a big deal if it missed, it's absolutely devastating to get hit by them; even their most basic moves such as Punch and Kick deal heavy general damage. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a OneHitKill even with max defense and power, which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere; notably Cyclone is one of the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticeably more inaccurate than Cyclone, had a noticeable boost towards withering while still being obscenely strong. In particular, Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique, its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it has high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breeds in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its natural parameter, but several sub-breed choices for Golems offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavily undermines the intended weakness of the breed.
*** Nagas are what happened when you take the idea of BoringButPractical too far. Excluding their basic moves they have from the get go, Nagas only have 4 moves of each side of the offensive stats with only 2 of even having cost higher than 30, and none of its moves have a force rating higher than B. On the flipside, Naga's heavy hitting move have a guts-to-force ratio that rivals Golem, their more accurate moves comes out really fast and ridiculously cheap which made it possible for them to take advantage of the secondary attributes of those moves. Even Roll Assault, Naga's biggest power technique only costs 45 guts, but it's fairly strong, accurate, and hard to retaliate on hit since it also carried decently high withering rate. Similar to Golems, Nagas can use their heavy moves and Roll Assault to secure an early lead, but thanks to moves such as Stab, Nagas can finish off the opponent fairly reliably. What make this particularly ridiculous is the fact that unlike most other heavy hitters with similar power level, Naga has a very fast guts rate for its size. Some of Naga's sub-breed have an even faster guts rate, and the unique Naga Time Noise have an even faster guts rate, than any possible sub-breed. Nagas also excels in terms of ease of raising, as they have a straightforward stats growth pattern, with high power, skill, and average life and defense which compensates for their terrible attitude and low lifespan.

** In ''2'', essentially every Rank had one of these. In S Rank, ''every single monster'' is "That One Boss." And the Major 4, the {{Final Boss}}es of the game, [[SerialEscalation are worse]]. Take Loveless for example: a purebred Durahan in one of the Major 4 with extremely high stats in every area except speed; combined with its extremely damaging techs.
** In E rank, where you usually start out, the most dangerous opponent is Oakleyman, a Gaboo. Most Gaboos you fight throughout the game have high Life, Speed, and POW, and Oakleyman is no exception. Oakleyman has Straight, which is a very hard-hitting move at this point, a high Dodge rate, and high HP. And worst of all, his Straight always seems to hit right when it would screw you over the most, making this a really good example of TheComputerIsACheatingBastard. This makes its a perfect example of a WakeUpCallBoss.
** In D rank, the toughest contender you face is Sleetbomb, a Baku with insanely high Life and Power stats. If you're in the same rank, your attacks may hardly affect him if he doesn't Dodge (the rate of which is pretty low). However, if he attacks you just once with his Charge, you will take so much damage that you will be left in no position to catch up. Like the aforementioned Oakleyman, Sleetbomb is the WakeUpCallBoss of his respective rank but his size makes him more of a MightyGlacier.

* AntiClimaxBoss: In ''2'', Poritoka, a White Suezo who appears in the Legend Cup in odd-numbered years (Most, a White Mocchi, appears in even-numbered years). Downplayed in that Poritoka is still a rather challenging boss to fight as appropriate for its rank but its stats aren't as formidable as Most's; only two of its stats, Intelligence and Skill, are of heart-stoppingly high levels. The rest of its other stats have numbers that are in the 500s range, which means it is relatively easy for players to defeat it with a sufficiently trained monster of comparable stats at this stage and win the match in order to have your monster earn a place in the Monster Hall of Fame.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Poritoka, a White Suezo who appears in the Legend Cup in odd-numbered years (Most, a White Mocchi, appears in even-numbered years). Downplayed in that Poritoka is still a rather challenging boss to fight as appropriate for its rank but its stats aren't as formidable as Most's; only two of its stats, Intelligence and Skill, are of heart-stoppingly high levels. The rest of its other stats have numbers that are in the 500s range, which means it is relatively easy for players to defeat it with a sufficiently trained monster of comparable stats at this stage and win the match in order to have your monster earn a place in the Monster Hall of Fame.

* EvenBetterSequel: 2, Advance 2, and 4 are considered the best games by the fans.

* ContestedSequel: ''4'' is possible one of the most polarizing games in the series, with one half considering one of if not the best game in the series and the other considering it deeply flawed at best, though nowhere near as disliked as ''Evo''. Fans of the game cite the ability to raise more than one monster, customizing your ranch, faster-paced gameplay, and a great roster. The detractors cite poor balance, especially when it comes to countering, [[ItsEasySoItSucks overall low difficulty]], monsters not showing much personality, too much focus on story instead of letting you be yourself like in previous games, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks and just being way too different from the previous games]] overall. The adventuring feature in itself is also very polarizing, with one side finding it to be a highlight of the game and far more engaging [[LuckBasedMission and less frustrating]] than the expeditions in previous games, while the other finds it to be repetitive.

** While monsters in ''1'' are generally hideously overpowered, 2 particular monsters stand out as far and away the best monster in the game: Plant with Pixie sub-breed and Pixie with Tiger sub-breed. Guts rate for monsters in the first game are programmed individually, instead of being the average of sorts between the main and sub-breed of the monster. Plant/Pixie and Pixie/Tiger both shares the distinction of having the fastest guts rate in the game and extreme withering on Monster Rancher 1's version of Toxic Nectar, Toxic Pollen, Drain, and Kiss. Toxic Nectar is a 21 Guts B hit rate move with B withering, while Toxic Nectar is a 24 Guts A hit rate move with A withering. Drain is a 50 guts move with B hit rate, B damage rating, and S withering. Kiss is an S withering with D hit rate but between its 20 guts cost, and Pixie/Tiger guts rate it was heavily spammable. All of these are made worse by the fact that in ''1'', guts correction as a mechanic haven't been implemented yet so there's no downside at all towards having faster guts rate. The result of this is massive nerfing towards Plant and Pixie in the second game, the most notable one being Kiss now didn't deal damage at all stopping Pixies from being able to use it exclusively for the entire match and the introduction of guts correction mechanic and the standardization of guts rate calculation are implemented to avoid the same mistake. Queen Plant's status as a massive GameBreaker in ''1'' was then referenced in ''2'''s card entry [[MemeticBadass where it is said to be considered as the strongest monster in the FIMBA area]].

* BaseBreaker: ''4'' is possible one of the most polarizing games in the series, with one half considering one of if not the best game in the series and the other considering it deeply flawed at best, though nowhere near as disliked as ''Evo''. Fans of the game cite the ability to raise more than one monster, customizing your ranch, faster-paced gameplay, and a great roster. The detractors cite poor balance, especially when it comes to countering, [[ItsEasySoItSucks overall low difficulty]], monsters not showing much personality, too much focus on story instead of letting you be yourself like in previous games, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks and just being way too different from the previous games]] overall. The adventuring feature in itself is also very polarizing, with one side finding it to be a highlight of the game and far more engaging [[LuckBasedMission and less frustrating]] than the expeditions in previous games, while the other finds it to be repetitive.
* BreatherBoss: Pixies, Plants, Hoppers, Tigers, or Hares, who are fairly fragile, can be a chance to get an easy win before fighting Golems, Jokers, Dragons, Durahans, or [[LightningBruiser Gaboos]], who tend to have high LIF and hit extremely hard.
* CrazyAwesome: Doodle may look silly, and it may have a movepool derived from a ''very'' trippy arcade game from the mid-90s, but that chicken motorcycle is going to hurt if it hits.

* BaseBreaker: ''4'' is possible one of the most polarizing games in the series, with one half considering one of if not the best game in the series and the other considering it deeply flawed at best, though nowhere near as disliked as ''Evo''. Fans of the game cite the ability to raise more than one monster, customizing your ranch, faster-paced gameplay, and a great roster. The detractors cite poor balance, especially when it comes to countering, [[ItsEasySoItSucks overall low difficulty]], monsters not showing much personality, too much focus on story instead of letting you be yourself like in previous games, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks and just being way too different from the previous games]] overall. The adventuring feature in itself is also very polarizing, with one side finding it to be a highlight of the game and far more engaging than the expeditions in previous games, while the other finds it to be repetitive.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts rate, more so if you manage to get your Metalner's Intelligence points up to par, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.
*** Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while it's not too much of a big deal if it missed, it's absolutely devastating to get hit by them. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a OneHitKill even with max defense and power, which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere; notably Cyclone is one of the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticeably more inaccurate than Cyclone, had a noticeable boost towards withering while still being obscenely strong. In particular, Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique, its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it has high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breeds in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its natural parameter, but several sub-breed choices for Golems offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavily undermines the intended weakness of the breed.

* EvenBetterSequel: 2 and 4 are considered the best games by the fans.

** [[BigBad Moo]]--"Muu" Japanese for darkness or emptiness--was a SuperSoldier created by an ancient civilization to win a war. However, Moo realized how powerful he was and viewed himself as too good to be a living weapon, destroying all who wouldn't serve him. [[EmotionEater Feeding off anger and hatred]], Moo turned many monsters into his servants before his battle with the Phoenix ended with his soul sealed into a Mystery Disk. Ages later, Holly's father finds the disk in his search to prove the Phoenix's existence, unintentionally freeing Moo, who [[DemonicPossession possesses the man]] and feeds off his deep rage at being banished. Seeking his real body to resume his conquest, Moo recruits many monsters with anti-human beliefs to aid him, giving them crests that, if removed or destroyed, will kill the wearer. All humans and monster who do not conform to his views are either killed or enslaved. Realizing the Magic Stone can help him find his body, Moo kidnaps Holly, revealing his identity to her to [[ManipulativeBastard bring her to his side]]. Along the way, his crimes include corrupting Tiger's brother Gray Wolf; [[BadBoss killing his minions for any reason]]; and the attempted murder of a little girl after reclaiming his true body. When he is seemingly destroyed, Moo's soul was found by [[TheStarscream General Durahan]] in a bid to grow more powerful, only for Durahan to become Moo's new unwilling host, already [[DrivenToMadness driven insane]] from all the hatred he absorbed and [[OmnicidalManiac aiming to destroy the world]]. [[TheDreaded Feared and hated]] by human and monster alike, Moo stood out in this otherwise fun adventure series as a creature of pure evil.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner backs this up with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate Power move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit chance, and for evil/bad disposition Metalners, Metalner Ray, a long range Intelligence tech that not only is the coolest looking technique in its arsenal, but deals obscene withering damage with above average critical hit chance even against opposing monsters with good guts rate, though it is balanced out by costing 50 guts points to use. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner's ridiculously quick guts regeneration, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner back this with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, and Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit rate. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

** [[TheChessmaster Lilim]] is General Durahan's right-hand woman and convinces him to betray their master, Moo, and take power for themselves. When first attempting to stop the Searchers and take the Magic Stone, she holds a human [[WouldHurtAChild baby]] hostage to force Jagged Hound and Tiger into a fight to the death, then orders it killed once the fight is over. When Jagged Hound seems to emerge victorious, she presents Tiger's Lost Disk to the Searchers and laughs at their despair, then orders them killed, quickly fleeing once it turns out the death was faked and the baby saved. On a later assignment with a Weed to get the Stone, she cruelly wounds him once it's retrieved, then has him gunned down in a display that horrifies the Searchers, who she orders killed in the same way. Lilim soon realizes that Moo is much stronger than Durahan and [[TheStarscream betrays the General]] in a bid for [[IFightForTheStrongestSide more power]], killing his frozen soldiers and setting his ship to self-destruct with the Searchers and everyone else onboard. Ironiclly this ends up leading to her own demise as a NotQuiteDead Durhan corners and kills her right before the ship explodes.
* CultClassic: One of the big three of the mon series back in the early 2000s (The other two being ''Pokemon'' and ''Digimon''). The anime was very well regarded but ultimately fell by the wayside due to Tecmo not making any further entries in the series since 2004. Still the anime has quite the following who remember it fondly.

** Must we refer to villainous {{Mooks}} as "baddies" in every single context, guys? For the kid protagonists, sure, maybe, but the king of evil probably shouldn't call his own minions "baddies". Than again the sub version calls them that too and this was a kid-focused anime so...eh?

*** Metalner has the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breeds with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner guts rate, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner back this with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, and Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit rate. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

*** Metalner have the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breed with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also has a surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner guts rate, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner back this with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, and Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit rate. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.

** While monsters in ''1'' are generally hideously overpowered, 2 particular monsters stand out as far and away the best monster in the game: Plant with Pixie sub-breed and Pixie with Tiger sub-breed. Guts rate for monsters in the first game are programmed individually, instead of being the average of sorts between the main and sub-breed of the monster. Plant/Pixie and Pixie/Tiger both shares the distinction of having the fastest guts rate in the game and extreme withering on Monster Rancher 1's version of Toxic Nectar, Toxic Pollen, Drain, and Kiss. Toxic Nectar is a 21 Guts B hit rate move with B withering, while Toxic Nectar is a 24 Guts A hit rate move with A withering. Drain is a 50 guts move with B hit rate, B damage rating, and S withering. Kiss is an S withering with D hit rate but between its 20 guts cost, and Pixie/Tiger guts rate it was heavilly spammable. All of these are made worse by the fact that in ''1'', guts correction as a mechanic haven't been implemented yet so theres no downside at all towards having faster guts rate. The result of this is massive nerfing towards Plant and Pixie in the second game, the most notable one being Kiss now didn't deal damage at all stopping Pixies from being able to use it exclusively for the entire match and the introduction of guts correction mechanic and the standarization of guts rate calculation are implemented to avoid the same mistake. Queen Plant's status as a massive GameBreaker in ''1'' was then referenced in ''2'''s card entry where it is said to be considered as the strongest monster in the FIMBA area.

** While Monster Rancher are generally a percentage based game, at their maximum potential Metalner, Golem, and Naga are considered some of the most standout breed in ''2'':
*** Metalner have the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breed with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also have surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner guts rate, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner back this with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, and Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit rate. The only downsides with Metalners are their horrible starting stats once you begin training one of them, fairly mediocre stats growth outside of their obscenely high Skill and Defense gains, and their relatively average lifespans which is irrelevant if they are trained well.
*** Golems are designed under the idea that their techniques are mostly inaccurate, including their Hit techniques, they move slowly, and their Guts Rate are very slow, but to compensate for it, Golem's techniques are by far the most obscene in the game. The smaller moves of Golem have obscene guts-to-force ratio which means while its not too much of a big deal if it missed, its absolutely devastating to got hit by them. The more expensive moves in Golem's arsenal offers so much force that getting hit by them can result in a OneHitKill even with max defense and power which allows them to steal a match out of nowhere, notably Cyclone is the most powerful techniques in the game and Roll Assault, while noticably than Cyclone had a noticable hit towards guts while still being obscenely strong. In particular Brow Hit is an absolutely ridiculous move, despite being an 18 guts cost Sharp technique its guts-to-force ratio is on par with the highest caliber of heavy class techniques in the game, it have high critical hit rate, acceptable withering, and is much more accurate for a move with that much power behind it. As with most breed in the game, Golem's obscene techniques are meant to be balanced by its natural parameter, but several sub-breed choice for Golems offers it much higher guts rate, and accuracy which heavilly undermines the intended weakness of the breed.
*** Nagas are what happened when you take the idea of BoringButPractical too far. Excluding their basic moves they have from the get go, Nagas only have 4 moves of each side of the offensive stats with only 2 of even having cost higher than 30, and none of its moves have a force rating higher than B. On the flipside, Naga's heavy hitting move have a guts-to-force ratio that rivals Golem, their more accurate moves comes out really fast and ridiculously cheap which made it possible for them to take advantage of the secondary attributes of those moves. Even Roll Assault, Naga's biggest power technique only costs 45 guts, but its fairly strong, accurate, and hard to retaliate on hit since it also carried decently high withering rate. Similar to Golems, Nagas can use their heavy moves and Roll Assault to secure an early lead, but thanks to moves such as Stab, Nagas can finish off the opponent fairly reliably. What make this particularly ridiculous is the fact that unlike most other heavy hitter with similar power level, Naga have a very fast guts rate for its size. Some of Naga's sub-breed have an even faster guts rate, and the unique Naga Time Noise have an even faster guts rate, than any possible sub-breed. Nagas also excels in terms of ease of raising, as they have a straightforward stats growth pattern, with high power, skill, and avarage life and defense which compensates for their terrible attitude and low lifespan.
** In ''2'', once Troron is unlocked in the shop, the process of raising power type monster up went way faster. Troron allows you to trade off 6 weeks of potential lifespan for +10 Power and +5 Skill after every successful drill for a month giving it a net gain of 40 Power and 20 Skill for every usage. Lifespan increase and lifespan reduction works by moving the monster forwards and backwards on their full lifespan duration, and the monster lifestage is decided based on their remaining lifespan relative to their base lifespan duration. In essence, using Troron during early stages of a monster life allows you to skip the weaker baby stages to quickly reach the first growth point while gaining a lot of extra stats in the process, potentially saving up a lot of money that would probably be spent feeding the monsters had they were raised normally which is especially notable on monster with VERY long baby stages. The expedition only Paradoxine is even more obscene, offering +30 Power, +30 Skill, -10 Defense, and -10 Speed for every successful drill for 18 weeks of lifespan giving a massive 120 Power and Skill per every usage.

*** Metalner have the fastest guts rate in the game at a staggering 5 guts per second. Unlike most breed with similarly fast guts rate, Metalner's techniques are extremely good and most of them have above average withering regardless of type. The most notable being Straight, a technique with 18 guts cost that is fairly accurate and always withers for at least 10 guts. Straight also have surprisingly high critical hit rate to compensate for its low damage rating of D. Its animation time is extremely fast and when combined with Metalner guts rate, several breeds with slower guts rate can get completely locked out from attacking if they are unable to dodge the Straight spam. Metalner back this with several powerful techniques in its arsenal, such as UFO attack, an inaccurate move with S force rating and 30 guts which the Metalner can use every 6 seconds to suddenly finish off their opponent when it hits, and Back Charge, a close range move costing 28 guts that does a little bit of everything a little too well with its obscene critical hit rate. The only downside with Metalners are their fairly mediocre stats growth and it doesn't live long enough to compensate for it which is irrelevant if they are trained well.