Range is the distance at which your monster can use certain techniques on its opponent. The ranges are as follows:
- Close or Near (Included in most games)
- Mid-Close (Included in early games)
- Mid (Included in most games)
- Mid-Far (Included in early games)
- Far (Included in most games)
Each technique has a specific range, and in most of the games they only work in that range. However, in some games (like Monster Rancher Advance) you can set an attack in any range that you want. The only drawback is that if it is not used in the range that it was intended for, it may affect the Damage, Hit Rate and Guts cost negatively. For instance, Mocchi's "Slap" is designated as a Close-range attack, and in most games it will automatically appear in close range once your Mocchi learns the technique. However, in some games you could set it in Far-range, but instead of doing 20 damage it may only do 5. This was different for Monster Rancher 3, where some techniques are purposefully intended for several ranges (Baku's "Sleep" can be used in Mid- or Far-range without any drawbacks).
Also in Monster Rancher 3, the range system was modified a bit so that your monster can only have 4 moves in its repertoire at once (unlike in most games, where you can have two sets of 3 or 4 attacks, giving you a total of 6 or 8 in battle, respectively), but these attacks can be of any range. Instead of only being able to have 2 attacks in Close-range, you can have all 4 close-range attacks if you like.
You change ranges during battle by moving toward or away from your opponent during your match. In many of the games, if you and your opponent get too close to each other, there is a button you can use to shove each other backward quickly into a more distant range.
The Range of each technique is listed HERE and in the Monster Info box in your game.