History GuideDangIt / MonsterRancher

* The New Years' Cup seems designed to kill monsters if you don't know what it is ahead of time, as it has a low 500G purse and is Rank F, which going by the alphabet would mean weaker than the standard E Cup. The F actually stands for free-for-all, and if you enter a fresh monster, you'll be faced with A-level monsters and likely end up injuring or killing your monster.

* The New Years' Cup seems designed to kill monsters if you don't know what it is ahead of time, as it has a low 500G purse and is Rank F, which going by the alphabet would mean weaker than the standard E Cup. The F actually stands for free-for-all, and if you enter a fresh monster, you'll be faced with A-level monsters and likely end up killed.

* To unlock Doodle, you need to raise a pure Monol (Monol/Monol) and max his fame to 100. He must also be a C rank minimum. Then you need to decrease his fame a ''lot'' (around or below 25). He will then appear drawn all over as a Scribble, a special sub-breed for Monol. Finally you must mix him in the lab with any other monster to get him.
* The combination seasoning for the Dragon needs to be used with a Dino/Naga and a Naga/Dino in order to successfully create and unlock the breed.

* Unlocking a Mock requires you to raise a tree from seeds at the item shop, gotten by being B-rank, for many years until it dies, and to have at least one monster die. What makes this worse is that if you get all of the shop's expanded stock before hitting B rank, you miss out on Mock for good.

* To unlock Doodle you need to raise a pure Monol (Monol/Monol) and max his fame to 100. He must also be a C rank minimum. Then you need to decrease his fame a ''lot'' (around or below 25). He will then appear drawn all over as a Scribble, a special sub-breed for Monol. Finally you must mix him in the lab with any other monster to get him.

** The Ragnaroks comes from the Monol - Gali myth whose origin can be traced back to the first game and Ragnaroks' [[ChekhovsGun card entry in the second game]].
** Phoenix, which requires you to get 5 orbs from Mocchi, Golem, Suezo, Hare, and Tiger, referencing the Phoenix in the anime whose soul was split into those five monsters.

* The New Years' Cup seems designed to kill monsters if you don't know what it is ahead of time, as it has a low 500G purse and is Rank F, which going by the alphabet would mean weaker then the standard E Cup. The F actually stands for free-for-all, and if you enter a fresh monster you'll be faced with A level monsters and likely end up killed.

* No unlockable breeds except ??? monsters are available from CD, meaning you'll have to get those specific [=CDs=] if you want to breed that monster beyond the first type you get.

* No unlockable breeds except ??? monsters are available from CD, meaning you'll have to get those specific CDs if you want to breed that monster beyond the first type you get.

* Many people have gone through the entire story without knowing it's possible to upgrade the shops. The game never hints at it, but if you keep talking to specific shopkeepers over and over and over again, they will upgrade their shop. Certain food items can only be obtained from upgraded shops.

* Rainbow Discs are only found in post-game dungeons and create 4 specific breeds that cannot be found with any CD or DVD, including Flazer, [=KingTutDuck=], Blobster, and [=ArborMogi=].
* Chaos Monsters, found in rainbow discs, can be combined with the Antlan Rangers to make Dark Antlan, which is never hinted at in-game.

** Parepare Expedition: Week 1 October, C-Rank minimum, must have 140 Life and 50 Fame.

* Getting the Niton, Zilla, and the Undine species requires you to raise a Hopper to Rank B, then have it on your farm during December through February with 0 fatigue and less than 30 stress and it will dig up a hot springs with an Undine slate. While getting the hot springs automatically nets you an item that you can use to fuse and make an Undine, the game only hints that you've now unlocked Niton by saying other water creatures can be raised--the only way to find out for sure is by trying to regenerate a disk with a Niton on it. Zilla also requires the springs, but has the added caveat of defeating the Zilla King in battle through Torble Seas errantries.

* Mixed-breed monsters can be found throughout the game if you're playing on Hard Mode, but unlocking them yourself requires you to get every main monster card in the game and win them randomly as prizes.

* Rainbow Discs are only found in post-game dungeons and create 4 specific breeds that cannot be found with any CD or DVD.
* Zan is the only monster that isn't unlocked by progressing the story, and must be found after you become S-Rank. You'll be asked for a match, and must go to Kalaragi, find Nazzeni, and get the Black Egg.

* During the missing Mocchi quest at Kalaragi Jungle, the exit doesn't spawn on floor 6 while there are 7 floors total. If you don't know that you have to go to a specific spot in a specific room of the exitless floor, you may think something's wong with the game and turn back, gaining a lot of tiredness in the process.

* During the missing Mocchi quest at Kalarago Jungle, the exit doesn't spawn on floor 6 while there are 7 floors total. If you don't know that you have to go to a specific spot in a specific room of the exitless floor, you may think something's wong with the game and turn back, gaining a lot of tiredness in the process.

* ''Monster Rancher'' has a mountain of hidden stats, such as monster lifespan, fatigue, and stress. While these are all numerical values, you can never see said numbers, and the games generally don't tell you how they affect your monster--or how various items affect those stats. Because you almost ''have'' to micromanage your monster's stats, this can get extremely frustrating.

* Attempting to beat dungeons before you beat your rivals results in the exit not spawning and forcing you to turn back, gaining a lot of tiredness in the process.

* The unlockable monsters are not hinted at anywhere, and you can go the entire game without knowing you've unlocked them. Pancho, Durahan, and Dragon unlock automatically when you beat certain ranks, but the game doesn't tell you this, while others must meet specific condition to unlock.

* Getting the Niton, Zilla, and the Undine species in ''Monster Rancher 2'' requires you to raise a Hopper to Rank B, then have it on your farm during December through February with 0 fatigue and less than 30 stress and it will dig up a hot springs with an Undine slate. While getting the hot springs automatically nets you an item that you can use to fuse and make an Undine, the game only hints that you've now unlocked Niton by saying other water creatures can be raised--the only way to find out for sure is by trying to regenerate a disk with a Niton on it. Zilla also requires the springs, but has the added caveat of defeating the Zilla King in battle through Torble Seas errantries.

* To unlock a Jill in ''2'', it requires an expedition to the Torles mountain and a monster with 500 INT for the Big Footsteps to show up, in an area in the top-right corner of the very large map. Then you need to send a B-Rank or above monster on the Papas Mountains Errantry and there's a random chance for Bighand to show up. You have to defeat Bighand to get the Big Boots for combining and unlocking the Jill, but Bighand's stats are on par with the Major 4.
* The wild monster King Ape in ''2'' can only be found with a B-Rank or higher monster in the Parepare Jungle, but only after the shop sells Magic Bananas but ''before'' it sells Nageel. Any time after that, it's locked out forever.
* Several tournaments/bosses in ''Monster Rancher 2'' are also hidden:
** The three strongest opponents are only found in the FIMBA vs IMA match, a Tournament that only appears once every several years, needs you to qualify for it by winning a tournament a month before that (this get explained in game and said match is often found by coincidence), and to face them you need to be Rank S and above. Then, after you can actually enter the Tournament and fulfill the requirements, you need to SoftReset until the game RandomlyDrops said monster for you to fight, but the chance is ''really'' slim for meeting even one of those monsters. The closest you ''can'' get to a hint comes in FridgeBrilliance (it's a meetup battle beetwen two continents, so it's a normal thing to expect them to have powerful monsters that is at least on par with the Major 4 instead of the standard S class you usually meet).
** Elder Cup. The game never tells you about the match, and unlike other special matches, the game doesn't even give a confirmation message with in-game mail. The requirements? Have your monster be at least 6 years and 3 months old and the Freshmen Cup will be changed into this. Monsters are very unlikely to live this long unless you rigorously follow a guide's training methods.
* Combining monsters effectively in ''Monster Rancher 2'' also required a guide.

[[folder:Other Games]]
* ''Monster Rancher'' has a mountain of hidden stats, such as monster lifespan, fatigue, and stress. While these are all numerical values, you can never see said numbers, and the game doesn't bother to tell you how they affect your monster--or how various items affect those stats. Because you almost ''have'' to micromanage your monster's stats, this can get extremely frustrating.
* To obtain a Ghost in ''Monster Rancher 1'', have a monster's nature at Bad or Worst, raise it to Class C, and let it die. Unlock a new monster from the Shrine and enter the first tournament possible. This will give you a 1 in 16 chance at having your monster be cursed. Holly will notice a strange mark on your monster the following week, and you can use this monster in combining for a Ghost.
* To unlock Doodle in ''1'' you need to raise a pure Monol (Monol/Monol) and max his fame to 100. He must also be a C rank minimum. Then you need to decrease his fame a ''lot'' (around or below 25). He will then appear drawn all over as a Scribble, a special sub-breed for Monol. Finally you must mix him in the lab with any other monster to get him.
* In the first game, the combination seasoning for the Dragon needs to be used with a Dino/Naga and a Naga/Dino in order to successfully create and unlock the breed.
* Unlocking the Serket (a special sub-species of Arrowhead) in ''Monster Rancher Advance 2'' requires you to create a "purebred" Arrowhead with a fully Arrowhead family tree, in which each Arrowhead was A-level or higher, and combine it with a Joker at B-level or higher.
* ''Advance 2'' has examples taken from [[ContinuityNod continuity nods]] to previous games, and the anime. Particularly the Ragnaroks, which comes from the Monol - Gali myth whose origin can be traced back to the first game and Ragnaroks' [[ChekhovsGun card entry in the second game]]. Then there's Phoenix, which requires you to get 5 orbs from Mocchi, Golem, Suezo, Hare, and Tiger, referencing the Phoenix in the anime whose soul was split into those five monsters.
* Unlocking the Doodle in Advance 2 requires you to raise a Garu-type monster to a specific level, with certain stats, and have it look in a very specific place in one of the ruins after having unlocked every other monster species.

** Then looks at the baby's stat baseline order to see how well it matches with the parents. Unless there is very high coordination between these elements, the monsters combined will simply not be that good.

* To obtain a Ghost in ''Monster Rancher 1'', cruelly raise a Dark monster (Evil Hare, Monol, etc.) to Class C and let it die. Unlock a new monster from the Shrine and enter the Class E Official Tourney. This will give you a 1 in 16 chance at having your monster be cursed. Holly will notice a strange mark on your monster the following week, and you can use this monster in combining for a Ghost.