Monster Farm Showdown: Monster Comparison

For offensive players who spend most of their time in FFXV: A New Empire attacking other players, the addition of the Monster Farm was a dream come true.

The very first Monster Farm monster, the Chocobo, gave us +88% Troop Attack. At the time of its release, this was single greatest attack bonus accessible by buying only one pack.

Now with 9 types of monsters, it’s clear that the Monster Farm is here to stay and we will only see more monsters added as time goes on.

In this guide, we will objectively analyze battle reports using each type of monster from the Monster Farm. These insights have helped us to make better strategic decisions such as which monsters we should use in what situations.

Gear Check

Every offensive player in FFXV: ANE knows that their equipment is half the battle. Knowing what we had equipped, and therefore, what boosts we had active at the time these screenshots were taken, will help you to better understand the context of each battle

As you can see, a majority of our gear is gold and purple quality Glacian’s Gear Set. This gives us massive mage troop armor as well as troop attack.

We are using Luna for this fight because her skill tree further augments the power of Glacian armor. In this picture, we can see that Luna’s Mage HP, Mage Armor, and Mage Attack are all maxed out for her level. We also have an Attack Resistance bonus of 150% on Luna’s skill tree. Attack Resistance, along with Troop HP and Troop Armor, allow us to send Luna into battle while our opponent still has a sizable army at their disposal without fear of her getting captures.

Here are Luna’s total combat buffs active at the time these battles took place.

With stats like this, the natural inclination is to attack with an army of all Mage type troops.

Chocobo Comparison

Chocobos are the very first monster you are able to hatch at the Monster Farm and give all troops an 88% bonus to attack. Read more about the Chocobo if you’re still considering whether or not to unlock the Monster Farm here.

This first screenshot was taken just before this player was zeroed. Since the lowest levels of troops troop die first, that means our Chocobo was up against mostly T4 Troops.

Our poor Chocobo only killed 33,052 troops! Although we managed to kill some of our opponent’s T3 Troops, the T4 Mage we attacked with went toe-to-toe with our opponent’s T4 army of mixed troops.

As a starting monster, the +88% to attack Chocobo gives us is an excelelnt boost, but not nearly as big as the boosts from other monsters in the Monster Farm.

Galvanade Comparison

Since we are using all mage troops, we will use the Galvanade next. Galvanade, along with Grenade and Cryonade, can all be in locked at Monster Farm level 2. Each of these 3 monsters gives +120% attack to Mage, Calvary, and Warrior, respectively.  You can read all about the how to unlock these monsters here.

With Galvanade, we managed to kill a total of 83,967 troops along with 1,842 Pit traps! A closer look at the battle report shows that it was mostly T2 troops that were killed, so it’s no surprise that our Galvanade managed to kill more than twice as many troops than our Chocobo did. Since we used all mage in this attack, the 120% Mage Attack bonus that the Galvanade gives us makes it the perfect Monster to use when equiped with all Glacian gear.

Similarly, if your opponent had a disporportionate amount of Calvary in their empire, you would want to equip your hero with the Grim Reaper gear set and use the Grenade monster to maximize your Warrior attack. Likewise, if you’re fighting an opponent with a lot of Mage troops then you would want to equip Areana’s gear set along with the Cryonade and as many Calvary Attack boosting items as possible.

Marlboro Comparison

The Marlboro offers a unique boost compared to every other monster. Upgrading you Monster Farm to level 3 will unlock the Marlboro, which lends +100% troop HP to any march with your hero. You can read our whole article about the Marlboro here.

In this battle report, you can see that the Marlboro killed the fewest troops when compared to all of the other monsters, however, we also had the most troops come back alive.

Adding an extra 100% troop HP to your marches opens up a lot of possibilities, but if your goal is to kill the most troops with a single march, Marlboro is not very helpful here.

What we see a lot of people use the Marlboro for is when they are attacking an opponent with anti-scout. Since you can’t be sure what your opponent has, it’s better to be safe and attack with a healthy +100% HP than use an attack-focused monster and end up with your hero captured.

Yojimbo Comparison

Yojimbo is another unique monster in that is increases warrior attack, armor, and HP by 60%. You need Monster Farm level 4 to unlock Yojimbo.

To change things up a little, let’s try using a different troop try with different boosts.  Since Yojimbo’s boosts are 60% warrior attack, 60% warrior defense, and 60%warrior HP,we’re going to switch out our Glacian gear for Grim Reaper as best we can.

Now we’re ready to attack with our Yojimbo!

Even after switching gear, Yojimbo only managed to kill 67,566 troops and 2,069 traps, although we lost a lot less warriors in this attack than we did mages when we attacked with the Galvanade.

Tonberry Comparison

Tonberry gives +200% armor piercing and can be used at Monster Farm level 4. Read our full article about the introduction of the Tonberry here.

For this battle, we switched back to our Glacian’s gear.

Using the Tonberry with Glacians gear and T4 mages, we managed to kill almost as many troops as we did with the Galvanade! This is important because the Tonberry’s Armor Piercing bonus is not troop-specific, while the Galvanade can only be used with mage type troops. This means that for those who do not have a full set of Glacian’s gear, Tonberry is an excellent choice for killing of troops quickly.

Wyvern Comparison

Although the Wyvern monster only gives +100% troop attack, it requires your Monster Farm be upgraded to level 5 in order to use. Is it really worth upgrading your Monster Farm all the way to level 5 just to gain 12% more attack than using the Chocobo will give us? We will find out soon enough in the upcoming addition of Wyvern monster battle reports, as well as an upcoming Wyvern Monster Guide!

Spiracorn, Valentine’s Flan, Griffin & Ronin

The new Spiracorn monster, Valentine’s Flan, Griffin * Ronin are the most recent additions to the Monster Farm. While the Spiracorn Monster adds +50% City Assault Troop Attack, +50% City Assault Troop HP, and +50% City Assault Troop Armor, the Valentine’s Flan adds 80% Attack Resistance. Both of these monsters seem to have potentially interesting buffs, but you will have to check back to see our monster battle reports and comparisons to find out how they fare against the other monsters in the game.

Conclusion

When all is said and done, it was our Galvanade that managed to kill the most troops, although our Tonberry was a very close second.

Keep in mind that what worked for us will not work for everyone. The type of monster you should use really depends upon your battle goal, your gear, and your opponent. The beauty of the Monster Farm is its versatility and that you have a monster fit for any type of battle.

Although it was our Galvanade in the end that got the most kills, it could be the Tonberry for the next person. That’s why we encourage you to share your Monster Farm battle reports with us and other players on Discord. You can join our Discord here.