Your loyal companions, Palicoes and Palamutes, are indispensable allies in Monster Hunter Rise. These furry friends not only provide crucial support in combat but also enhance your exploration and resource gathering capabilities. Understanding their roles, skills, and customization options is vital for any successful hunter.
Palicoes: The Feline Support
Palicoes are your feline companions, offering a wide range of support abilities. They can attack alongside you, heal your wounds, provide beneficial status effects, and even deploy unique support moves.
- Palico Types: There are several Palico types, each with a different focus:
- Assist: Focuses on healing and buffing the hunter.
- Healer: Specializes in restoring health and curing ailments.
- Bombardier: Deals explosive damage and can deploy traps.
- Gatherer: Excels at collecting resources and can even steal items from monsters.
- Attacker: Focuses on dealing damage and applying status effects.
- Palico Skills: Each Palico can be equipped with various skills that determine their effectiveness. These skills range from 'Attack Up' and 'Defense Up' to more specialized abilities like 'Regenerator' (HP regen) and 'Status Buster' (cures status ailments).
- Gadgets: Palicoes can also deploy powerful gadgets, such as the 'Meowlotov Cocktail' for area damage or the 'Dango Catnip' to draw monster aggro.
Palamutes: The Canine Mounts and Warriors
Palamutes are your canine companions, offering unparalleled mobility and combat prowess. They can be ridden, allowing for faster travel across the game's vast locales, and they actively participate in combat.
- Riding: A Palamute can be ridden by a single hunter, allowing you to traverse maps quickly, escape danger, or chase down fleeing monsters.
- Combat Prowess: Palamutes attack monsters with their own set of moves, contributing to damage output and sometimes inflicting status effects.
- Palamute Skills: Similar to Palicoes, Palamutes can be equipped with skills that enhance their combat effectiveness or provide utility.
- Buddy Skills: Both Palicoes and Palamutes can learn Buddy Skills, which are passive bonuses that apply to your hunter or the buddy itself.
Buddy Plaza and Training
The Buddy Plaza, managed by Iori, is where you recruit, train, and customize your companions. Here you can:
- Recruit Buddies: Find new Palicoes and Palamutes to join your cause.
- Train Buddies: Improve their stats and unlock new skills through training exercises.
- Equip Buddies: Customize their armor and weapons. Buddy weapons and armor are crafted separately and provide stat boosts and sometimes unique effects.
- Manage Skills: Ass and swap out skills to tailor your buddies to your preferred hunting style.
Buddy Customization
Beyond skills and equipment, you can customize the appearance of your Palicoes and Palamutes, including their fur color, markings, and even their voice. This allows for a truly personalized companion experience.
Buddy Loadouts
You can bring up to two buddies on a hunt (a combination of Palicoes and Palamutes). It's wise to create different loadouts for different types of hunts. For example, you might bring a Healer Palico and an Attacker Palamute for a challenging monster, or a Gatherer Palico for a resource-gathering quest.
Synergy with Hunter Skills
The effectiveness of your buddies is amplified when their skills complement your own hunting style. If you're a melee hunter who relies on aggressive offense, an Attacker Palico and Palamute might be ideal. If you prefer a more defensive approach, a Healer Palico and Assist Palico could be more beneficial.