MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD – Your Best Friend, the Palico

by Falagar / Articles, Monster Hunter World / 13 Aug 2018

Your Best Friend, the Palico

At the beginning of the game you may have noticed after you made your character, you also made a cat, though in-world that race is called a felyne. That is your Palico, a hunting buddy that will help you out in the field. They wield weapons and armor just as you do, albeit in a smaller scale. While they do take damage in combat, it just takes them out of commission for a while. They do not need consumables for healing and are effectively invincible; you don’t need to worry about its well-being.

At the smithy, choose “Forge Palico Equipment” to make weapons and armor for your Palico. It’s incredibly simple to do so, as there are no upgrading or skills to worry about. There’s only 3 options per set: a weapon, a headpiece, and a chestpiece. Each equipment only requires one to two pieces of common material to make. Given the effective invincibility of your palico, hunters often choose armor based on looks rather than stats.

Indeed, armor stats don’t mean as much, because although your hunter doesn’t have any inherent stats, your Palico does. It gains experience after each quest, and its attack and defense increase each time it gains a level. Your Palico gets progressively stronger as you play.

In addition to weapons and armor, your Palico can equip a Gadget to help support you. It starts out not very good at using it, but as it uses the gadget more, it gains proficiency and the gadget gets more useful. It maximizes usefulness at proficiency level 10.

Your Palico starts with the Vigorwasp Spray gadget, which allows it to summon a vigorwasp to heal you. At level 5, you get the ability to manually call for a vigorwasp in your item bar. At level 10 proficiency, you can call for a Vigorwasp Station, which plants a vigorwasp down on the ground for you to pick up whenever you need it.

Once you unlock all camp sites in the Ancient Forest and track the Bugtrapper grimalkynes, they give your Palico the Flashfly Cage gadget. Your palico will place a cage of flashflies down, which will blind monsters like a flashpod. At level 5, you get the ability to manually call for the flashfly cage, and sometimes your palico will place a weak shock trap. At level 10, you can manually call for a shock trap placement. As a bonus, Bugtrappers will teach your palico to how to ride small Jagras as a mount.

Find the Protectors in the Wildspire Waste by jumping down the small hole in the northeast part of the map, near the anthills. They’ll ask you to find and capture their friends by using the capture net. Do so, and they provide the Shieldspire. This turns your palico into a tank, allowing it to draw the monster’s attention while you get to focus on attacking, sharpening, healing, and so on. Its defensive and attention-drawing capabilities improve with level. The Protectors teach your Palico how to ride Kestodons.

Head to Area 10 in the Coral Highlands to find the Troupers riding a bunch of Shamos. Defeat them all and they will retreat. You’ll find their hideout behind a waterfall in the northeast corner of Area 11. They will give you a quest to hunt two Tzitzi-Ya-Kus. Complete the quest and return for the Coral Orchestra. This is a mini-Hunting Horn that will boost your attack, defense, and status resistances. At higher levels, your Palico will be able to use the instruments more often, and you can manually call for songs to be played. This is highly recommended for any hunt you’re struggling with, as buffs such as stun immunity are invaluable for ensuring victory. In addition, your Palico earns the ability to ride Shamos.

Once you’ve unlocked the lower portions of the Rotten Vale, put some raw meat in your inventory, load up an expedition and search for a Legiana corpse. It can appear in different areas of the map, but if you don’t see one, try leaving and starting a new expedition. If the corpse is there, wait for an Odogaron to come by and pick it up and take it to its nest. Head to area 13 to find a Plunderer grimalkyne run away from you. Place the raw meat on the floor and back away until the Plunderers surround the meat. Speak to them to get the Plunderblade. This allows your palico to earn you more monster materials than you’d normally obtain from a hunt. More proficiency gives you more opportunities to get materials. This is fantastic for farming for armor and weapon sets. Your also Palico learns how to ride Girros.

In order to unlock the last gadget, you must first unlock all previous gadgets. The Lynian Researcher in Astera will ask you to find 10 Gajalaka doodles. They will be found near Gajalakas, the screaming red furry things found in high rank Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, Coral Highlands, and Rotten Vale. If you have trouble finding them, try filtering for small monsters on the map. Once you have all 10, the Researcher asks you to go to Elder’s Recess at night. Sneak into the Gajalaka settlement undetected to receive the Meowlotov Cocktail. This will be fairly easy with the Ghillie Mantle. With the Meowlotov, your Palico will throw explosives at monsters, breaking parts easily. If you place bombs next to a sleeping monster, your Palico will do the same. Finally, your Palico learns to ride Gastodons.

Your palico will fight alongside you on every quest, with these exceptions:

-Arena quests

-There are 3 or more hunters in the quest

-You put your palico on standby when in your home

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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