Similar to any of the Pokémon games, Monster Sanctuary allows players to capture Monsters and use them in combat against other creatures. Each Monster has its own unique powers and niche areas, including shielding the entire party, adding buffs or debuffs, and dealing massive damage. Monsters' abilities can remain useful throughout the entire game, rather than becoming obsolete over time in favor of heavy damage-dealers.
Players get a starting Spectral Familiar at the beginning of the game who will travel with them throughout most of the campaign. Once players have a few Monsters, they will need to explore the Metroidvania-style overworld to find new ones. Players must defeat a new Monster in JRPG-style, turn-based combat to take its eggs and add that Monster to their collection and party. Players will also need to select skills for their Monsters from deep skill trees to ensure their team is the most powerful in any battle. Naturally, all players will have their favorite Monsters and develop their main party, but there are some creatures who are better to pick up early than others, based on their niche area and skills that can help in early game combat. Here are some of the best Monster Sanctuary Monsters to prioritize getting early in the game and what they can add to a party.
Best Monsters in Monster Sanctuary for Early Game
Players should prioritize creating a well-balanced team from the start of the campaign in Monster Sanctuary. Ideally, players will want to have at least one support Monster, one magical damage dealer, and one physical damage dealer in their main party.
The best Monsters to get early are the ones whose powers can make it easier to defeat other teams, creatures, and Champion bosses, and whose abilities can be useful at nearly every point of Monster Sanctuary's campaign. These include:
- Spectral Wolf: One of the Spectral Familiar choices players will receive at the start of the game. Spectral Wolf can deal high physical damage and especially high critical damage. He can also add the Bleed and Chill buffs to enemies, which can easily halt mana regeneration and quickly kill them.
- Spectral Eagle: Another of the Spectral Familiar choices from the start of a new game. Spectral Eagle can heal and revive teammates and can even self-revive, which can be helpful during particularly difficult fights.
- Frosty: Frosty is an early-game Monster who can debuff enemies using Chill, which will halt mana generation. While Frosty may not be the most powerful character to use Chill, he is a good option at the beginning of the game, as he can be captured early.
- Catzerker: A feline physical damage dealer players can find early in the game. Catzerker has fantastic Attack, Critical Chance, and Critical Damage with both single-target and multi-target strikes. Like Spectral Wolf, it can also add stacks of the Bleed debuff to opponents. Players will find Catzerker in the Mountain Path
- Mad Eye: A floating Eye that has superior elemental coverage abilities and that can stack multiple debuffs against enemies. This Monster is excellent for support and for weakening the other team. Mad Eye can be found in Stronghold Dungeon, one of the options for the third area of the main campaign.
- Magmapillar: A gigantic, chubby caterpillar that can decrease damage and put up helpful shields. Magmapillar can serve as a tank and also deal significant burn damage to enemies. Players can find Magmapillar in Mountain Path or Ancient Woods.
- Yowie: A large, apelike Monster who can act as a damage and debuff amplifier. Yowie can be found early in the game and increase damage dealt by Burn, Poison, and Chill debuffs by 20%. Players can find Yowie in Mountain Path, like Magmapillar and Catzerker.
- Tengu: Mischievous creatures who love to dance, sing, and deal major damage. Tengu have the ability to increase maximum health and mana, deal intense fire magic damage, and increase the damage dealt using debuffs. Players can find it in the Blue Caves.
- Monk: A mysterious humanoid Monster who can be the best all-around fighter based on a player's needs. Monk is excellent for dealing Critical Damage and attacking with high Critical Chance. It also has abilities to heal or quicken teammates and to deal bonus hits that increase the combo meter. Monk can be found in the Blue Caves or defeated as a Champion Monster in Mountain Path.
Players will also want to keep an eye on changes that occur when a Monster is Light-shifted, Dark-shifted, or Neutral and use the added abilities to their advantage to build an even more dynamic and powerful team.
Monster Sanctuary is available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.