Given the new policy being forced down in April, I think we'll need a rules page that's clearly listed and easily found from the main page, possibly from the drop down bar or something.
It'll probably need some thinking about and updating, too, because it rather sounds like they're handling a few bad admins by reducing the power of *all* admins when it comes to anything not clearly listed in an easily-found rules section.
I wouldn't jump to assuming it's locked out though. I disagree strongly about being buggier than the PS1 games - those have too many issues.
After playing the games thoroughly, I find that the problem with the Advance games is a lot less 'bug locked me out' and a lot more 'instructions unclear, too much waiting around waiting for random event to trigger' - I had exactly two things across both games that I couldn't unlock without a cheat device. One is the Octopee that no one can get without cheating, and the other was a Tiger that I'm still not entirely certain if the game actually bugged, or if the information is wrong, or if the RNG just decided it hates me. (Stupid wandering monsters...)
I'm not sure if the pixie itself really needs to be champion; I haven't thoroughly tested that myself. The main thing is having the pixie on the farm during the yearly examinations that Talt starts doing.
I'm pretty sure the event will only trigger once the 'story' of the examinations is otherwise done - so it probably can't happen at all the first few times when the doctor is going with and overseeing Talt on her rounds. Maybe not even the time after that since there's still some dialogue about here getting used to doing things alone, but I'm less sure there.
Again, I haven't done full testing myself, but I recommend casually raising some other monsters for cash or other unlocks or whatever until all those events pass, then bringing out the pixie for the next examination after those, see if that works out for you.
Scolding it at every chance, making it train or fight when tired, that sort of thing. Be aware that it will probably break your barn to run away or end up in the hospital along the way, which is rather costly.
Unfortunately, only Monster Rancher 2 has really been data-dived well enough for clear numbers on individual lifespans.
On average though, most monsters live around 2-3 years depending on how you raise them, if that helps.
There really is no *best* answer, that's just how the game is.
As for some basic tips though, it mostly depends on your monster's stats and your personal playstyle. Plants have a mix of POW and INT techs and tend to be more focused on a defensive playstyle, though you don't *have* to raise it that way.
The exact mechanics of combining unfortunately aren't documented as well for the first game as they are for the second, but basically you want to raise the second monster to have a similar spread of stats. Again, what breed would do best depends on how you raised your plant.
Hello! Pardon my probably messy edits - I'm not very experienced with this sort of thing, but I'd still like to help improve the wiki. I could use a little instruction, particularly when it comes to uploading - and then linking - images. I can't help but the notice that a lot of those are still needed, and that some of the ones already present...rather clearly have the legendcup watermark on them.
