Monster Life is a new free-to-play social game from French publisher Gameloft that's rather reminiscent of Nintendo's
Pokemon games and Xbox 360 title
Viva Piñata.
In
Monster Life, you take on the role of a monster keeper who has to breed and train a variety of monsters called Tamonos in order to repel the nefarious Chaos. This mysterious threat is rising again following its destruction at the hands of infamous hero Esac. Following?
It's a big task, so we thought you might want a helping hand. That's why we've made this comprehensive guide. God, we're good to you.
The basics
There are three different types of currency in
Monster Life: Gold Coins, Crystals, and Friend Stones.
Gold Coins are the most common currency. You'll earn these when you complete set goals or finish story-related missions, as well as when you take care of your little critters. Once earned, they can be spent on new buildings, food, and toys for your monsters.
Crystals are the game's premium currency, and are generally accumulated - in small quantities - through levelling-up and through in-app purchases. Crystals allow you to purchase powerful monsters; grab special buildings and items; and revive your fallen comrades in battle.
Finally, there are Friend Stones, which you earn by visiting your buddies and taking care of their monsters. The only way in which you can buy power-ups in battle is through Friend Stones (or F-Stones).
Experienced
Additionally, there are two different varieties of experience points (XP).
The first type, player XP, is earned when you pit your monsters against other teams and complete in-game goals, although the amount you'll earn from the latter is hardly worth getting excited about.
The second (and probably most important) type of experience points is monster XP, which - eventually - cause your range of critters to evolve into increasingly powerful beasties.
Monster XP is earned in the midst of battles and when you feed, water, and play with your critters. You can boost your XP income by placing a monster inside of its corresponding habitat, but we'll explain more about that a little bit later on.
Monster mash
You won't get very far in
Monster Life without a selection of monsters. No surprise there, then. Unfortunately, all monsters begin life as an egg, and have to be nurtured before they become useful.
Purchase a critter from the in-game store and its egg will be transferred to your nursery, where you'll be required to feed and play with it until it earns enough XP to level-up once. At level one, your critter can be moved out of your nursery and into a habitat.
Each of your monsters will take the form of one of four different elemental types: earth, water, fire, or air. Placing a water monster in a water habitat will result in XP bonuses every time you cater for its needs.
Like in
Pokemon, your pocket-sized monsters evolve as they gain experience and level-up. There are five stages of evolution: egg, baby, stage one, stage two, and stage three - all of which increase your critters' stats (namely, HP and damage dealt).
Levelling-up will be an extremely slow process if you only rely on the XP you earn in battles, mind, so we suggest that you take care of the needs of your monsters whenever you have the Gold Coins or Crystals to do so.
Icons will appear over a critter's head when it needs attention, so you have no excuse (except for a lack of money) for neglecting it. The icon will let you know whether you need to feed, clean, entertain, or train your lovable lout.
Building up to it
When you're not taking care of your battlers, you'll probably be knee-deep in cement and sawdust as you add new buildings to your ever-expanding farm.
There are three different types of building in
Monster Life - habitats, boosters, and attractions. All three of them have their own unique uses.
Habitats, as we've mentioned previously, house your monsters after they've left your nursery. Each habitat is big enough to shelter three inhabitants, so you will need to purchase more than one if you're hoping to raise a large squad of fighters.
As you progress, you'll definitely want to sell the habitats you unlock early on in the game in favour of newer ones. The Fire Dungeon habitat grants an XP bonus of one, for example, whereas the Fire Temple (unlocked at level 39) grants a bonus of four. Every little helps, as they say.
Boosters, on the other hand, provide XP bonuses to monsters every time you meet one of their linked needs. Basically, if you place a bakery - which is linked to the hunger need - on your farm, you'll receive extra rewards every time your feed your colourful brawlers.
Finally, there are attractions, which will be your main source of income. These buildings, which range from windmills to large statues and markets, produce revenue at varying intervals, which you can collect simply by tapping on them.
We suggest you buy at least a handful of attractions before you begin to purchase multiple creatures, otherwise you'll run out of moolah fairly quickly.
You've been challenged
There's no point in training your critters up to peak physical fitness if you aren't going to allow them to rip your opponents' squads to shreds.
You can't directly control your brawlers during a bout, so it's imperative that you're packing enough power-ups to see them through a bloody war unscathed. The three types of power-ups will boost your attack and defence capabilities for a short period of time and replenish some of your monsters's depleted HP.
During battles, keep your eye on the icon that's situated to the left of your warring party. When it turns into a square shape, tap it to unleash a critical attack. Also, be sure to tap on the coins that scatter as both parties of critters trade blows.
As we're sure you've already guessed, a water-based creature will be super-effective against fire-based creatures in battle. The small table below shows which elemental types are effective against each other.
After a fierce battle, your monsters will be sidelined for a short period of time while they recover. You can instantly skip this recovery period using Crystals, but we suggest that you don't unless you absolutely have to. There are far better things to spend your hard-earned premium currency on, you see.
Friends with benefits
Monster Life allows you to connect to your Gameloft Live and Facebook accounts and bring your buddies along for the ride.
Visit one of your friends' ranches and play with five of their monsters to be rewarded with an F-Stone, which you can spend on power-ups or expanding the boundaries of the land you own. You can only do this once per ranch in a 24-hour period, so be sure to visit your buddies every day.
You can also send gifts to, and receive gifts from, your friends. The item that you send is determined randomly, so you won't always receive what you crave the most. You will, however, get your mitts on some complimentary Gold Coins, items, or power-ups. Handy.
