How to Ride and Befriend Monsters in Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma

In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, the world is teeming with fascinating creatures. While monsters primarily serve as the main enemy type you'll encounter throughout your adventures, they also offer incredible potential as valuable allies. These formidable foes can be put to work, aiding your money-making efforts and significantly expediting your traversal across the sprawling world. However, this symbiotic relationship isn't immediately available. To unlock their full utility, you'll need to invest time and effort into befriending these monstrous inhabitants. This comprehensive Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma guide will walk you through everything you need to know about successfully befriending monsters, putting them to work, and even riding them for faster exploration.

How to Befriend Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Time to Make Friends with Those Monsters!

The ability to befriend monsters isn't accessible from the very beginning of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. This crucial mechanic is unlocked as a progression point within the main story questline, specifically once you reach the Autumn Village. After you've advanced to the point where you unlock the ability to construct a barn, you will then be able to engage in the process of befriending monsters. Once befriended, you can house them in your barns, and, significantly, collect their valuable produce every day, which serves as an excellent method to bolster your money-making efforts.
Once you've reached this pivotal moment in the story, follow these steps to befriend a monster:

Initiate the "Dance of Bonds": First, identify an enemy monster you wish to befriend. Before engaging it in combat, position yourself in front of it and use your specialized Dance of Bonds ability, utilizing the Sacred Plum Branch.

Confirm the Connection: If the "Dance of Bonds" has been performed correctly and has resonated with the monster, a distinctive smiley face icon will appear above its head. This indicates that the monster is receptive to being befriended.

Defeat and Interact: While the smiley face is visible, you must then defeat the monster in battle. Don't worry, a befriended monster will not permanently disappear. After its HP hits zero, wait for it to stand back up.

Offer a Gift: Once the monster is standing again, approach it and interact with it (by pressing Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, and X on Nintendo Switch). From the ensuing menu, select the 'Befriend with a Gift' option.

The gift-giving element of befriending monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma is arguably the most nuanced and challenging part of the process. You must present the monster with an item that it genuinely likes. If you fail to offer a suitable item three times, you will unfortunately fail the befriending attempt for that specific monster, and it will disappear, requiring you to locate another monster of the same species to try again.

• Success Indicator: If you give a monster an item it truly favors, a heart icon will affectionately appear above its head.
• Multiple Gifts: It's important to note that some monsters require multiple liked items to be fully befriended.4 Even then, success is not always guaranteed on the first try after offering multiple gifts.
• Failure Indicator: If you fail a gift check after an initial heart appears (meaning it liked the item but wasn't fully befriended), a gray icon will appear above its head, allowing you to choose another item to offer.
• Final Success: When you finally succeed in befriending a monster, a delightful burst of flowers will appear above its head. You will then be prompted to name your new addition to the family.

Based on player experience, the success rate of this item-giving systemappears to have a degree of randomness. For example, a Buffamoo might be successfully befriended with some green grass and an onigiri one time,but a subsequent attempt with the exact same items on a differentBuffamoo could fail.

After you've successfully named your new monster companion, you will then assign them to one of your constructed barns. Be mindful of barn space: larger monsters, such as imposing Buffamoos and powerful wolves, will typically occupy two of the three available slots in a barn. As such, always ensure you have at least two free slots available in abarn before embarking on a monster-befriending expedition; otherwise,you may find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to release a newly acquired monster due to insufficient space.

To summarize the monster befriending process:

Use your Dance of Bonds in front of a monster until a smiley face appears.

Defeat the monster in battle, then wait for it to stand back up.

Interact with the monster and select the 'Befriend with a Gift' option.

Give it an item it likes until flowers appear above its head.

Name your monster and assign it to an available slot in one of your barns.

How to Get Produce from Befriended Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Time to Put Them to Work!

Befriended monsters housed in your barns are not merely decorative; they will reliably create valuable produce every day. This produce can vary widely, ranging from essential cooking ingredients like milk and eggs to useful crafting materials such as monster horns or fluff. To gather this daily bounty, simply go to the barn where your monsters are housed and interact with the brown basket located by the gate to their pen. Any produce generated by your animals will be automatically collected andseamlessly added to your inventory or transferred directly to yourstorage box if your inventory is full.

Alternatively, for a more automated approach to resource collection, you can utilize the game's villager assignment system. Access the 'Villagers' menu and assign a villager to the 'Herding' job. Then, select the specific barn where your monsters reside. Once assigned,your chosen villagers will automatically collect the produce from yourmonsters each day and deposit it into the Produce Box, ready to be sold for profit. The sell value of monster produce can vary significantly, but once you've successfully befriended a diverse rangeof monsters that yield valuable crafting materials or cookingingredients, you can consistently earn a substantial amount of moneyeach day.

How to Ride Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Get Around the World Quicker!

Not all befriended monsters can serve as mounts in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. Only certain species are designated as rideable companions. Todetermine if a specific monster can be used as a mount, you can checkits profile within the game. Navigate to the Villagers menu, then select the 'Barns' option in the top left corner (by pressing X on Xbox, Square on PlayStation, or Y on Nintendo Switch). From here, select the profile of a specific monster. At the very bottom of their profile, you will find a clear indicator: a green tick mark next to 'Rideable' confirms that you can indeed use them as a mount.

Once you've identified a rideable monster, the next step is to add them to your active party. Go to the Party menu and select an available slot. Then, move over to the 'Monsters' tab and select the rideable monster you'd like to use as your mount.

It's important to remember that you can only use a monster as a mount in the open world areas outside of a village. When you are in one of these expansive outdoor zones and your monster partymembers are visibly following you, simply walk over to the rideablemonster in your party and press the interaction button (Y/Triangle/X) to seamlessly mount and ride it. While mounted, you gain the ability to utilize special attacks that will be displayed on the right side of your HUD, and, crucially, you can traverse the world at a noticeably faster pace, making long journeys more efficient and enjoyable.

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