PART FOUR: RAISING TABLET-FRIENDLY MONSTERS (& general methods)
On to the meat of the methodology -- the actual work cycles to follow.
There is no one “perfect” method I’ve found, because different methods work best at different stages of a monster’s upbringing. The work cycle that generates great results in Prime might be very inefficient in late Childhood, for instance. Thus, this is a collection of methods that work well and don’t cause lifespan hits, so you can choose whichever ones work best for your monster at a given time.
All methods assume that you’re starting each work cycle with either (0,0) (0 Stress, 0 Fatigue) or very very close to it. (Some of these cycles don’t end at 0,0, but they will maintain stress/fatigue at safe levels throughout so that LI never goes over 70 (lifespan hits). Enjoy.)
CHILDHOOD/ADOLESCENCE METHODS:
These methods are heavy on Light Drills. It’s not that you can’t use them in Prime, it’s just that you’ll probably get better results from using HDs in Prime for most stats. If you’re at a stage where HDs have petered out (three stars on your better HDs, low gains from the remaining ones, high stats all around) you can certainly go back to these methods.
METHOD 1: The original Energizer Bunny method was used in an experiment to see if no-rest methods would drain lifespan. They don’t, as long as you manage stress and fatigue correctly.
which will keep your monster in equilibrium indefinitely. Form will decrease slowly, thanks to Greats and Cheats; if you’re worried about it, you can make it Candy/NO/ML/NO until it reaches Normal again. If your monster Fails more than once in a cycle or if it Cheats, rest it the next week and continue the cycle as needed. Your monster should never get tired in this system.
METHOD 2: Once your monster gets reasonable results from Hard Drills, work them in on Week 3 as follows:
Adjust the item used in ** as necessary to keep Form steady. Use Candy to add Form and Mint Leaves to reduce it.
METHOD 3: Or if you prefer, try this one on for an additional HD per cycle:
Tablet/HD/LD/HD/LD, NO/ML/NO/ML Tablet/LD/LD/HD/LD, NO/Candy/NO/ML (repeat as two-month cycle)
This will (slowly) lower Form but will work just fine in all other respects. If you need to raise Form, just repeat the second month (the one-HD Candy month).
ADOLESCENCE/PRIME METHODS:
Once your monster is getting good results from HDs, you should try to work as many HDs into your work schedule as possible.
For various reasons, I prefer to start each “work cycle” on Week 4 of a month -- it works out much better that way in terms of stress management. Many of these methods work fine starting on week 4 but would result in lifespan hits if started on week 1 or 2 of the month. Some can start on Week 3 with no ill effects. You can tell which week a method starts on by where the Tablet is shown among the drills.
Once you start going into the serious HD methods, remember this -- if your monster Cheats (scolded, of course) or you mess up somehow (say, if you do a drill forgetting to give your monster the associated item first), rest the next week and continue. Better to blow one week of training than to risk having carryover stress/fatigue that would ruin your lifespan in the long run.
METHOD 4: The first HD method I put together that worked with the stress/fatigue numbers was:
HD/HD/Tablet/HD/Rest, **/NO/NO/ML (** = Candy or Mint Leaf) OR HD/Tablet/HD/HD/Rest, **/NO/NO/ML (** = Candy or Mint Leaf)
Either of these will work fine, so take your pick.
METHODS 5a/b: I wanted to be a little more efficient than that, so I worked out a two-month cycle involving a couple of LDs and less rest.
Five HDs, two LDs, everything stays in equilibrium. Better still, you begin each cycle on Week 4, so if you want to fight in a tournament or go on Errantry, you can do so with minimal disruption.
If fighting, rest in the following Week 1 with a Nuts Oil, and continue the cycle as if the first two weeks were normal.
If going on Errantry, when you return on the following Week 4, rest with a Mint Leaf. That and the Tablet will wipe out your stress. Continue as normal, as the Week 4 rest and Week 1 Nuts Oil should also wipe out all your Fatigue, which means you can do the HD and keep the cycle going.
If you really want a Week 3 variant, there’s this:
This WILL lose lifespan on occasion, even if starting at 0,0. The reason is that Rest w/Stone or Lump heals from 9-12 points of stress; if you happen to be unlucky and get a 9, you’ll lose one week of lifespan every other month until a subsequent bimonthly rest returns either an -11 or -12. Since there’s no big red flag that goes up to warn you that rest healed the minimum stress, you may be losing some life for months on end. Then again... that’s not a HUGE loss, but why take a loss if you don’t have to?
A DAH monster (Durahan, Arrowhead or Henger component) can use either of these variations without fear, thanks to the extra stress reduction they enjoy from Nuts Oils.
I like Method 5a (Week 4 variant) the best, because it gives you the flexibility of two Light Drills (building up SKI most of the time in my case, then wherever the points are needed) in the middle of a HD-intensive schedule, and the two-month pattern is both easy to remember (ML on LD weeks, HD on others) and makes the time fly by. When you need to break for Peaches, Smoked Snakes, extra Candies, etc., just go to a tamer work cycle for one month, using whatever items you need to, then continue the next two-month cycle as if nothing happened.
METHOD 6: If you have a DAH monster, you can use any of the previous methods, or get even more efficient and go without rest at all:
Once your monster has completed its Prime and is getting lower stat gains, you’ll probably be fighting more often than anything else. Use any of the methods that fit your schedule -- when dealing with the Big 4, I often fight on Week 2, rest on Week 3, follow the Method 5 system for two months, then use an LD and rest to get ready for the next Big 4. Or go back to one of the more LD-intensive methods (since your HDs should be maxxed out by now in general) to kill time. Avoid the S-Class tournaments once you’ve beaten them once -- the cash output is half of what you’ll get for the Big 4s. If you’re really starved for cash, you can hit ‘em, as you’ll get good stat boosts from them too.
Win the Legend Cup, use your new superstar to find Peaches (if its INT is high enough) and to beat the Elders Cup year after year (rolling up the cash and Silver Peaches), and start with a new monster all over again...