ADVANCED STRATEGY GUIDE FOR DRAGON WARRIOR MONSTERS
by Yash P. Gad
For the Gameboy Color

Disclaimer:
This work is protected by international copyright laws, and may not be 
reproduced in any form without express written consent from the author.
Any plagiarism, in part or whole, will constitute a violation of 
copyright.
 
Copyright 1999-2000, Yash P. Gad

Current Versions:
Dragon Warrior Monsters @ The Cerveau Café
www.tiger-marmalade.com/~yash/entertainment/games/dwm.html

Dragon Warrior Monsters Central
members.xoom.com/dwmcentral

GameFAQs
www.gamefaqs.com


Table of Contents:
1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. Basics
4. Monster Rankings
5. Skill Breeding
6. Team Member Selection
7. Team Selection
8. Closing
 
 
 --------------------
 | Acknowledgements |
 --------------------
 
 The breeding, and resistance, information was obtained from the 
wonderful FAQ by Alex Jackson. This FAQ is available at gamefaqs.com and 
contains every breeding combination in the game, as well as some 
insightful analysis.
 
 
 
 ----------------
 | INTRODUCTION |
 ----------------
 
 After completing the game the first time, I was greatly disappointed by 
how little I had actually done in the game. With the wide variety of 
monsters and endless breeding combinations, I still used 3 or 4 main 
monsters throughout the game. Each one was loaded up with the big 
offensive spells. Upon going back, I realized that a lot more thought 
could be put into making each monster. This would result in a more 
strategically laid out teams that would win through skill, not brute 
strength. I set out to make a FAQ that would explain the thought 
process, and provide basic blueprints on how to become a better Master 
Monster Trainer.
 
 
 ----------
 | BASICS |
 ----------
 
 I am assuming that if you are reading this FAQ, you have already played 
through a portion of the game. To recap, you are a young adventurer 
participating in a tournament of monster battles to save your kidnapped 
sister. Much like Pokemon, you will gain monster allies who will make up 
your party. 
 
 There are really three phases that each monster will go through:

1. Getting the monster – The monster will either just join you, or 
           will have to be enticed using meats. This can happen either in the 
           wild or during battles with other trainers.

2. Training the monster – By fighting other monsters, you can 
           increase the levels of your monster, making it stronger and giving 
           it access to stronger skills (up to 8 at a time). 

3. Breeding the monster – The most fascinating part of the game is 
           breeding your leveled up monsters away to make even stronger 
           allies. This is where the bulk of the strategy comes in.

Breeding is done between males and females, and can result in different 
monsters depending on which is picked first (the pedigree). Offspring 
will start with half of the average stats between the parents. 



--------------------
| Monster Rankings |
--------------------

There are 10 different monster families within the game: Slime, Dragon, 
Beast, Bird, Plant, Bug, Devil, Zombie, Material, and Boss. Each family 
has many different members, each with a unique set of skills. Before 
getting to the strategy, it is good to have a grasp of who the "best" 
monsters are from each family. By this, I mean the members who have the 
highest growth rates in the stats, and usually possess the most potent 
skills. After each name, I will list a short analysis of strengths and 
skills. Keep in mind that when I say "High MP" or "Low HP", it refers to 
stat growth, not the stat amount. Consequently, most of the monsters in 
the rankings are necessary in the breeding combinations to obtain BOSS 
family members. 

SLIME
1. GoldSlime – Hands down, the best slime. High resistance to skills,     
   coupled with the awesome BigBang. Very high MP.
2. MetalKing – High resistance to skills and physical damage, coupled 
   with Hellfire. Very high MP, but low HP.

DRAGON
1. Divinegon – The strongest dragon. High everything, coupled with 
   BigBang

BEAST
1. KingLeo – High attack and defense, and quick to grow.

BIRD
1. RainHawk – Quick growth, many resistances, and the unstoppable 
   MegaMagic

PLANT
1. Watabou – Can't get till the end of the game. Very high MP, with many
   odd spells such as Chance, Whistle, and Imitate
2. Rosevine – Very high MP, HP, and attack. Good mixed spells like    
   UltraDown

BUG
1. Armorpion – High attack, though not the greatest spell selection.

DEVIL
1. Durran – High everything, coupled with family cut attacks
2. Akubar – Very high MP, but hard to level up.
3. Jamirus – High in everything except MP, good mixed spells.

ZOMBIE
1. Servant – High everything, with a few offensive spells
2. WhiteKing - 

MATERIAL
1. GoldGolem – Easily the best material. High in everything, coupled 
   with BigBang

BOSS
1. DarkDrium – The best monster, which you can only get by many  
   successive breedings. Very high in everything, and almost impervious  
   to damage.
*Really all members of this family are very good


------------------
| Skill Breeding |
------------------

I. INTRODUCTION

While getting the strong monsters you always wanted, you may or may not 
have paid attention to what skills you were keeping, and what skills you 
were discarding. The first time I went through the game, I just kept the 
powerful skills, such as Gigaslash and BigBang, and didn't really bother 
about what else I had. I only realized later that I lost a skill I 
wanted for that particular monster, but getting it back would be a pain. 
Never fear, for I will detail the thought process for planning out your 
skill breeding alongside your monster breeding. 

II. Rare Skills

Before starting our sample breeding strategy, it is necessary to look at 
what rare skills (mostly offensive) are out there. I am listing this 
first, so that we can refer to them later. I am purposely excluding the 
boss monster family from this, because the specific breeding pattern 
leading to a DarkDrium will accumulate most of these skills. In 
addition, it is more important to see what less powerful monsters have 
these good skills, because they will be more important to the skill 
breeding. A description of these skills can be found elsewhere, so I 
will just list the monsters that have them as inherent skills

GigaSlash – LizardMan, MadKnight
HellBlast – MetalKing, ZapBird 
BigBang – GoldSlime, Divinegon, GoldGolem
MegaMagic – Slime, RainHawk
K.O.Dance – DanceVegi, Shadow, KingCobra, SuperTen
HealUs – Healer, MadCondor, Lionex, DeadNoble
MultiCut – SkyDragon, Balzak

The game is not centered on a handful of powerful offensive skills. 
Sure, it is a no-brainer to pull out your +50 Darkdrium, and just 
Gigaslash everyone to death. You can make the game a lot more 
interesting (and much more fun) by really integrating all the different 
types of skills into your party. 

III. Skill Combining

A not-so-well-known aspect of the game is skill combining. This is when 
two or more skills will combine to give you a powerful skill, given that 
certain level and stat requirements are met. While this is good, it 
overlooks the fact that all the main offensive skills can be learned 
from easy to breed or easy to obtain monsters (except for BigBang, which 
needs monsters that are difficult to come by). So I really won't be 
addressing this aspect, except to say that it is definitely easier to 
grab or breed a quick monster and introduce this skill into your 
lineage, rather than breeding all the necessary combining components 
into your monster. 

IV. The Breeding

Now, in any breeding, you should try to plan out your combinations in 
reverse order. For this example, I will use a GoldSlime(one of my 
favorite characters).

Suppose I want him to have these 8 spells: Gigaslash, MultiCut, 
HellBlast, BigBang, HealUsAll (from HealUs), Revive (from Vivify), 
WhiteAir, and WhiteFire. Keep in mind that to get this kind of spread of 
skills will require a LOT of work. The reason for this is that although 
inherent skills are spread regardless of level, skills learned from 
ancestors can only be passed on ONCE THEY ARE LEARNED. So to get things 
like GigaSlash will take leveling up to about level 32-37, before you 
can pass it on.

Let's work one step backwards now. How do I get my GoldSlime? 
I can breed either:

           SpotKing, KingSlime, or Metalking with a GoldGolem
       Or
           MetalKing with MetalKing

Now just by looking at that, you may not see any difference. But there 
will be a BIG difference in the quality of GoldSlime you get. Remember, 
that the offspring gets half of the average stats of the parents. 
MetalKing are notorious for having very low HP. Breeding two MetalKings 
will result in a GoldSlime with VERY low HP. So, we shall go with the 
first one. But which combination?

Let's choose the KingSlime with a GoldGolem (I like this because it 
avoids throwing in a MetalKing late in the mix). We have one of the 
skills taken care of right away – BigBang (already an inherent skill of 
the GoldSlime). I will break the breeding up into two parts, the 
KingSlime's ancestry. and the GoldGolem's ancestry. 

   a)The KingSlime

We will get one of the skills we need from the KingSlime already 
(Vivify), so now we need to focus on other skills. To get a KingSlime, 
we can use the following breeding combinations:

       SpotKing with GreatDrak, BattleRex, Divinegon, Unicorn, KingLeo,
                      MadCondor, Zapbird, WhipBird, Gigantes, Centasaur,
                      DeadNoble, or WhiteKing

Choosing the SpotKing's mate may seem like an overwhelming task. Many of 
these are hard to come by (such as the Divinegon). In this case I chose 
the MadCondor. The reason for this is threefold. First, the MadCondor 
has the inherent ability of HealUs, which is one of the skills we need. 
Second, the breeding combination for a MadCondor is this:

         LandOwl with a member of the Devil family
      Or
         A member of the Bird family with a CoilBird

In this breeding, I chose the first one. LandOwl are very easy to come, 
and this also gives us the nice chance to breed in a MadKnight (a member 
of the Devil family). This will introduce GigaSlash into our pool. It 
really doesn't matter how you get the MadKnight, because it can be breed 
immediately (if over level 10) with the LandOwl to pass the GigaSlash 
skill. The third reason I wanted to choose a MadCondor is that members 
of the Bird family tend to level faster than any other family. This will 
make reaching the level for GigaSlash a little easier. 

Now, back to the SpotKing. The SpotKing by itself offers none of the 
skills we needed. However, the breeding combination for it offers good 
opportunities to get those skills. The combination is:
       KingSlime or MetalKing with GreatDrak, BattleRex, Divinegon,             
                                   Unicorn, KingLeo, MadCondor, Zapbird,      
                                   WhipBird, Gigantes, Centasaur,
                                   DeadNoble, or WhiteKing

Now, it seems silly to use a KingSlime for this, so instead we will use 
the MetalKing. It can be bred with any of these really, though in my 
particular case I used the Unicorn I made with a Slime and WildeApe. The 
MetalKing is a little harder to get, since it requires either the 
breeding of 2 metabbles (which require 2 Metaly a piece) or breeding a 
SpotKing or KingSlime with a MetalDrak. I personally took the Metaly 
route, though most people might say it was easier to go the other way. 
In any case, the MetalKing gives you the HellBlast skill. This wraps up 
this half of the breeding. Now let's move to the GoldGolem

    b) The GoldGolem

At first glance, this seems like the most trivial breeding, involving 
just an IceMan and a LavaMan (both which are plentiful with trainers in 
the wild). We are still missing the skill MultiCut, which the monster 
Balzak has. To get Balzak you just breed either an IceMan or LavaMan 
with a member of the Devil family. By breeding this balzak with either 
an IceMan or LavaMan as the "pedigree" (first) monster, you will get 
your IceMan or LavaMan back. After leveling this monster up until it 
learns MultiCut, it can be bred with its counterpart to get the 
GoldGolem.

V. Comments

This may seem very drawn out, but it is good to plan this way to avoid 
ending up with the wrong gender, or breeding away a monster you really 
needed. It will also ensure that you end up with the skills you need in 
your "Super Monster" 


-------------------------
| Team Member Selection |
-------------------------

Now that you have seen how to end up with the monster you want (with the 
skills you want), we can move to the next task of building the team. 

The obvious goal is to make the strongest, most successful team. There 
are several "types" of members that you can expect to have. These can be 
either focused on different areas of expertise, or can be theme 
characters (which are just fun to use).

There are really two different schools of thought on this. Some people 
believe that it is better to have all of the monsters on a team with 
both healing and offensive spells. To some extent, this is true. In 
crucial battles, it is necessary to have everyone with a healing spell, 
and some kind of offense. I am offering an alternative strategy to that.

The members I have listed below are different types which can be mixed 
and matched to get different teams (with different strengths and 
weaknesses). I will talk more about this later. Below each member, I 
have listed a few monster types that would be ideal for this type of 
character. Keep in mind that the members of the Boss family will work 
for any of these, and are a powerful addition to any team. 

1. The Healer
This member should have all the best healing spells, evolved to either
HealAll or HealUsAll (from Heal and Heal Us, respectively). This monster 
will also have some kind of spell to bring back the dead, like Revive. 
It will also need something to get rid of status ailments, such as surge 
(to cover everything). Lastly, you can't be just defensive, so you need 
one or two heavy hitter like BigBang, MultiCut, or HellBlast (don't get 
rid of all your MP by using MegaMagic if that monster is to be your main 
healer) or even a GigaSlash (good for taking out one big nuisance)
     Typical skills: GigaSlash, BigBang, HealAll, HealUsAll, Revive, 
                     Surge, Ironize, and Meditate
     Attack Stance: Cautious
     Monsters: GoldSlimes and Metal Slime sub-family members seem 
               uniquely suited for this class. All are very resistant to 
               enemy spells and skills, and have very high MP. There low 
               attacks also make them better suited for this over any 
               other class.

2. The Handyman
This member is just helping everyone on all fronts. He will be equipped
with a healing spell, and maybe a revive. The main thing will be a bunch 
of increasers, like SpeedUp or TwinHit. These will improve everyones 
attacks. Also, he should have some good attacks of his own. A good 
person to have megamagic, because after he builds up everyone, he can 
unload what he has left. Would be nice to have gigaslash too.
     Typical Skills: SpeedUp, TwinHit, MegaMagic, Increase, Surge,    
                     Surround, Hustle, Revive
     Attack Stance: Mixed
     Monsters: Monsters that are suited to this would have good stats 
               across the board, and especially good MP. Also, you need 
               a high agility, to ensure that these effects reach your 
               party and your opponents before the action starts. For 
               this, I would suggest members of the Bird family, such as 
               RainHawk or WhipBird. 

3. The Overkill
Well, for those that don't really care about a finesse win, they just 
need someone that can quickly dish it out. This person should have all 
the awesome attack spells (BigBang, Multicut, MegaMagic, GigaSlash, 
HellBlast). Also, a good physical attack such as QuadHits would be 
useful too. Any supplemental attack spells would be good.
     Typical Skills: BigBang, MultiCut, MegaMagic, GigaSlash, Hellblast,  
                     QuadHits, Revive, WhiteFire
     Attack Stance: Charge
     Monsters: The ideal monster for this would have a very high attack, 
               coupled with average MP. This would cover both physical 
               and spell based attacks. My choices are from the Zombie 
               family, particularly the DeadNoble or Servant.

4. The Dragon
One of the theme characters. This character will have almost all of the 
breath based attacks (BlazeMost, PalsyAir, SleepAir, PoisonAir, 
WhiteAir, White Fire) as well as BeDragon. In addition, this dragon 
character will have SuckAir, to increase breath attack effectiveness. 
Like most theme characters, this monster will have StopSpell (or even 
DanceShut or ThickFog)to prevent any offense other than the big bad 
breath. Though for any theme character, it is good to keep like 1 or 2 
spots open for an offensive (Bigbang, Multicut, GigaSlash) or defensive 
(HealAll or HealUsAll) skill, since the opponents may have a counter for 
your specialty. 
     Typical Skills: WhiteAir, WhiteFire, BeDragon, SuckAir, SleepAir,    
                     PoisonAir, HealUsAll, StopSpell
     Attack Stance: Charge/Mixed
     Monsters: It seems silly to use anyone other than a member of the 
               Dragon family for this. Dragons increase well in all 
               stats, and work well with this set of skills.

5. The Dancer
Another interesting theme character. This character will have all of the 
dance attacks (K.O. Dance, LifeDance, RobDance, PaniDance) and some 
spell stopping attacks (StopSpell, ThickFog, or MouthShut). I would 
include some theme style attacks, like HighJump, SideStep, or BigTrip. 
Again, for any theme character, it is good to keep like 1 or 2 spots 
open for an offensive (BigBang, Multicut, GigaSlash) or defensive 
(Healall or HealUsAll)
skill, since the opponents may have a counter for your specialty.
     Typical Skills: K.O. Dance, LifeDance, RobDance, SideStep, BigTrip,    
                     PaniDance, GigaSlash, StopSpell
     Attack Stance: Charge/Mixed
     Monsters: There is one "dance" monster (DanceVegi), and it is fun 
               to have the theme complement its name. It has a high MP 
               and Agility growth rate (like any good dancer would).

6. The Caller
Since there are not that many different Call skills that this member 
would have, this class ends up being a modified HandyMan. The Call 
skills are YellHelp and whatever "evolution" of TatsuCall (Bazoo, Samsi, 
Diago) you have.  Good person to have MegaMagic (to unload after doing 
its initial TatsuCall and maybe a few YellHelps)
     Typical Skills: YellHelp, BazooCall, Chance, SpeedUp, MegaMagic     
                     HealUsAll, Revive, TwinHit
     Attack Stance: Mixed
     Monsters: Only a few monster have TatsuCall as an inherent skill, 
               but I would be more inclined to choose one of them. This 
               included WhipBird, DeadNoble, and GoldGolem.

7. The Hitman
This guy is ready to lay the smack down on anything he encounters. This
member will have maybe 6 or 7 of the 10 family cut attacks. By narrowing 
down the number of these he is using, he can keep a bunch of attack up 
attacks like TwinHit or Chargup, or Berserker. To go with the theme, may 
want a Gigaslash or Defeat.
     Typical Skills: MetalCut, DevilCut, DrakSlash, CleanCut, 
                    SmashSlime, ZombieCut, GigaSlash, TwinHit.   
     Attack Stance: Charge
     Monsters: The ideal monsters for this class will have very high 
               attack growth. The two best attackers, in my opinion, are 
               Gigantes and Grizzly. Either would work for this. 


8. The Nullifier
This monster will be there to essentially neutralize the enemy party. 
The specialty of this class is to remove spell, breath, and dance 
ability, and make their physical attacks useless (making them sitting 
ducks). The main skill nullifiers are StopSpell, MouthShut, and 
DanceShut. To get rid of physical attacks, there is Radiant and 
SandStorm. To lower their stats, there is Curse (which does random 
things to them), Defense and SlowAll. And to just keep them from doing 
ANYTHING, there is BigTrip and WarCry. Another good person to have 
MegaMagic, since they can unload once the enemy is neutralized. 
     Typical Skills: StopSpell, MouthShut, DanceShut, Radiant, 
                    MegaMagic, BigTrip, Curse, Defense    
     Attack Stance: Mixed
     Monsters: Really any good, FAST, spellcaster would work. They need 
               to be fast to get these effects out before the enemy 
               attacks.

9. The Elemental Master
These monster will take 1 or 2 of the elements and will pool various 
attacks from them. The reason for this, is that there is usually at 
least one or two resistance groups that monster families are weak to 
(besides the MegaMagic and GigaSlash ones), and it might be helpful to 
have these available. The FAQ by Alex Jackson breaks down the 
resistances into several main groups. Pick 1 or 2 groups, and then flesh 
out the skills with enhancers (like for breath attacks). 
     Fire 1: BlazeMost, FireSlash, BigBang
     Fire 2: Firebolt
     Explosive: Explodet
     Wind: Infermost, VacuSlash, MultiCut, WindBeast, Vacuum 
     Thunder: Zap, BoltSlash, Lightning, HellBlast
     Ice: IceBolt, IceSlash
     Fire Breath: WhiteFire
     Ice Breath: WhiteAir
     Poison: PoisonHit, PoisonAir,
Grouping things like all the Fire, or maybe 2 of the Fire and one more, 
would work out well. 
     Attack Stance: Charge
     Monsters: For an Ice Master, maybe a Blizzardy or IceMan. For a 
               Fire Master, maybe a Phoenix or LavaMan. For Thunder and 
               Wind, maybe ZapBird, WhipBird, or WindBeast. And for 
               Poison, a Poisongon.




Remember that after a lot of breeding, most of your final monsters will 
max out their stats (or get really close), and so the stats really won't 
become the deciding factor in what class that monster should be. It then 
becomes a matter of preference. 



------------------
| Team Selection |
------------------

Now that you have seen some of the different types of members, I will 
outline what different teams can be made from combinations of these 
members. 

There are really infinite combinations, each which could work given the 
right planning and strategy. I will add more as this type of strategy 
becomes more widespread.

Team 1 – The Castle
    Monster 1 – The Healer
    Monster 2 – The Overkill
    Monster 3 – The Hitman
  I call this the castle, because it always reminds me of the 
  relationship between wizard (healer), knight (overkill), and archer 
  (hitman) in the castle siege of any good medieval legend. 2 offensive, 
  one good defense to back them up. This is probably the most common 
  team combination, at any point in the game.

Team 2 – The Circus
    Monster 1 – The Dancer
    Monster 2 – The Caller
    Monster 3 – The Nullifier
  I call this a circus because it represents the grouping of a bunch of 
weird skills. The Nullifier here will block the enemy, allowing the use 
of odd skills. The Caller will probably go in for the most damage with 
the MegaMagic. A hard team to play (though very entertaining). Something 
nice to tinker with late in the game.

Team 3 – Circle the Wagons
    Monster 1 – The Healer
    Monster 2 – The HandyMan
    Monster 3 – The Hitman/The Overkill
  Representing the obviously defensive posture of "circling the wagons", 
  this team relies on the offensive power of the Hitman/Overkill to win. 
  Although not a good team to use late in the game, this formation is 
  handy when starting out early in the game with one REALLY good monster 
  and a few mediocre ones. 

Team 4 – Tag Team
    Monster 1 – The Healer
    Monster 2 – The Overkill
    Monster 3 – The Dragon
  Two great offensive powers, protected by a trusted Healer. Very strong 
  late in the game. 

Team 5 – Earth, Wind, and Fire
    Monster 1 – Ice and Wind Master
    Monster 2 – Fire Master
    Monster 3 – The Hitman
  This team relies on the fact that the two elemental masters will be 
  able to really whack most enemies. The Metal Slime sub-family will be 
  taken out first by the Hitman, so no need to worry about those.



-----------
| Closing |
-----------

In closing, I really enjoyed making this FAQ. I hope that it will prove 
useful in playing Dragon Warrior Monsters, and making the most 
unstoppable monsters. Please let me know if you think any additions can 
be made to it, and I will put it in and give you credit.