Part 27: Ultimate Palicoes

"Will it Cat?" Prowlers and Mew: Ultimeowt Edition Part 3



Hello, viewers! I bet you thought I forgot about these. Well, I didn't! Today is the final topic in Prowlers and Mew. Whether you're a Prowler or a boring human hunter, it's dangerous to go it alone! Always bring along some helpful cat buddies. At the very least, the monster might decide to chew on them for a few seconds instead of you. Who knows? They might just save your bacon!

To make the most out of your Palico buddies, I would recommend rolling with a healing cat on any tough hunt. For your second Palico, pick one of Support, Defense, or Charisma. For less serious hunts... you can bring whoever! Lets go over how you should kit out your kittens.



Changes in Generations Ultimate

Quick recap, all Support Biases get an extra teachable slot for Support Moves and Passive Skills in GU, and Charisma cats get an extra on top of that- for a total of three extra slots. This means it's really easy to get the Palico buddy of your dreams!

Have this chart handy when scouting for cats (shoutout again to Gaijinhunter for having the most concise and accessible cat info I could find):



Also remember that at max level, your cat buddy can equip 7 Support Moves and gets 8 slots for Passive Skills. Keep this in mind when deciding what moves/skills to look for on your kitties. Palicoes want rather different kit than Prowlers do. Their job is mainly support.


There are a few things that you're going to see me recommend a lot, so I'll go over them now. Any of the following are great on all Palicoes:

Go, Fight, Win is one of my favorite Support Moves. I put it on pretty much all my Palicoes. It gives Hunters infinite Stamina for awhile, and lowers Prowler Support Move Gauge consumption by one. It's amazing, and it's adorable. You want it!

Health Horn heals as much HP as a Potion to the whole party. I also put this on darn near everybody.

Vase of Vitality automatically heals abnormal statuses in an area and boosts the refill of the red portion of your health bar. Situationally useful, depending on what you're dealing with.

Furlask of Healing is passive health regen. Always handy!

Either Pitfall Purr-ison or Shock Purr-ison are a good choice for any cat as well. Any time a monster spends in a trap is time it spends not trying to eat you! (Plus you can get some free damage in.)


Lastly, there are two passive Skills that you want on all your Palicoes: Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**). These skills will both make your Palico use Support Moves more often. Support Boost is even better than it used to be because it now costs only one slot instead of two! So just assume you have 5 slots to work with for passives, since three of them will be taken up by those skills.

Now, let's take a more in-depth look, shall we?



Charismatic Kittens




Charisma cats are born to buffbot. Having that extra teachable slot only makes them better at that. They can do a little bit of everything, so if you're not sure what kind of monster you'll be facing, bring one of these guys.


Support Moves

For starters, you want a cat with an A slot skill. Health Horn, Pitfall Purr-ison, or Shock Purr-ison are all fine. You'll teach one of the other ones at the Dojo so you have Health Horn and one trap. The next vital skill you want is Go, Fight, Win. I find it's particularly appropriate on Charisma cats.

That's it for the truly vital skills. If you want to go the extra mile, toss on Detox Horn, Furlask of Healing, or Vase of Vitality for extra status healing or health recovery help.

Teach your kitty Health Horn or Pitfall Purr-ison / Shock Purr-ison (whichever one Boots didn't start with), and then Armor Horn and Demon Horn. You have yourself the ultimate buffbot.


Suggested Support Move Skillset: ABBC


Passive Skills

Start with Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**). Charisma cats can also toss on Slacker Slap(*), and keep your other Palico from being a lazy shitter. From there just load up your kitty with status resistance. Non-Stick Fur (*) is particularly useful, as your Palicoes will stay in one place when they're Snowmanned, which is not particularly helpful. If they have Non-Stick Fur, they can just shrug it off and go help you out of it! Negate Sleep (*) is another good choice. Basically, you want to block anything that prevents your Palico from moving and potentially smacking you out of said status.


Suggested Passive Skillset: BBCCCC



Fighting Felynes



Fighting cats are a much better fit for your main Prowler than your Palico buddy, but you can still bring them along! I'd give them pretty much the same kit that Prowlers get. If you're a human, you could even do some gimmicky shit like load up on the skills Team Player and TeamLeader and just let Mittens murder everything!


Support Moves

Your Palico buddy can figure out how to use the Piercing/Big Boomerangs, so make sure it has both! Claw Dance is a good skill for Boots to have in his back pocket, too. There's no reason not to have Go, Fight, Win, so toss it on.

Then round your cat's moves with some support. Dung Bombay would be my preference.

Teach Mittens Demon Horn at the Dojo, and also either Pitfall Purr-ison or Shock Purr-ison


Suggested Support Move Skillset: BBCCCC



Passive Skills

Get Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**), like usual, so Mittens can machine gun those boomerangs. You'll also want Critical Up S(*), and Boomerang Pro(*), same as Prowlers. Give Socks some status protection. Either Negate Sleep (*), or Non-Stick Fur (*) are the best choices. Then teach Boots Anger Prone(**). Being angry gives your cats some nice stat bonuses. You want them to be ticked off as much as possible, but it's not worth going after an A skill for that.


Suggested Passive Skillset: BBCCCC



Purr-tective Palicoes




Defense cats are an excellent choice for your Palico buddy. Their superior defense and built-in blocking skills help ensure they spend more time distracting HELPING and less time knocked out. Plus, their signature move- Taunt, makes monsters focus on them for a few seconds, which is invaluable.



Support Moves

For a defense cat you're using as your Palico, rather than your Prowler, you want Armor Horn. Scout one with an A move so you can give it Health Horn. And of course you want Go, Fight, Win, because every cat should have that. From there, pick your favorite support B-slot Support Move. My recommendations would be Flash Bombay or Detox Horn / Vase of Vitality. Then round everything out with a C skill of your choice. Top picks being Dung Bombay and Furlask of Healing.

Tutor Boots Demon Horn and optionally a trap. If you'd rather have a different Support Move, teach her one of the recommended B or C moves instead. There are a lot of good options! Regardless, you'll have a stalwart kitty who can heal and buff you and stay in the game a good long time!


Suggested Support Move Skillset: ABBC



Passive Skills

Start with the usual Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**). From there, though, you'll want some different stuff. The blocking skills Guard (S) (*) and Guard (L) (**) will both make your Palico block more often, which you want it to do! Equip Guard Boost (**) on your kitty and scout for Guard (L) (**). It'll help your buddy's survivability. Then finish up with a status immunity skill, like usual. Negate Sleep (*), and Non-Stick Fur (*) being the standouts.

Suggested Passive Skillset: BBBCC



Trapping Tiggers



Support cats are super handy to have with you on any hunt. You can't say no to free traps! Your suppawtive buddy can even tell you when a monster is capturable, fatigued, or mad as hell! What's not to like?



Support Moves

For a Support cat who will only be doing Palico duty, the variable Support Move isn't so crucial. I'd take Cheer Horn over Emergency Retreat, but it's not a big deal either way. What is important is loading up Tigger with as many traps as he can manage! Your faithful Trappurr will already have Poison Purr-ison, but why stop there? Make sure you scout a cat with an A slot Support Move so you can load her up with even more traps! Fill Tigger's extra slots with whichever trap he didn't start with (so you end up with three traps total), and also Health Horn, because Health Horn is always useful.

Know what else is always useful? If you guessed Go Fight Win, you're correct! For your other B skill, pick your favorite. Flash Bombay, Detox Horn, and Vase of Vitality are all good to have.


Suggested Support Move Skillset: ABBC



Passive Skills

All right, Support cats are actually super duper easy to kit out in terms of passives! Aside from Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**), you can pretty much just toss on their other two fixed Skills- Monsterdar (**) and Pro Trapper (***), and call it good! Maybe ensure Mittens has some status immunity skills, just in case. You might want to toss some of those on in place of Pro Trapper if you know you're facing a monster with a lot of annoying status attacks.


Suggested Passive Skillset: BBBCC or BBCCCC



Healing Helpers




On to healing cats! These are a must-have for any tough hunt. They keep your ass alive so you can keep on kicking ass!


Support Moves

For the ultimate healing and all around support buddy, start with the old standbys of Go Fight Win and Detox Horn, and also nab Furlask of Healing. From there, you have some options. Firstly, definitely teach Kitty Health Horn, because you can't have too many healing moves. Fill the other extra slot with either Flash Bombay, or Vase of Vitality. Up to you. I would also go for Ultrasonic Horn and Dung Bombay. Obviously you won't be able to equip all these at once. Mix and match depending on what you'll be facing. Oh, and your choice of variable Support Move isn't so crucial here either. My preference is for Armor Horn, but Cheer Horn is also fine if you'd rather have a Hunter Arte/Support Move Gauge boost over a defense buff.


Suggested Support Move Skillset: BBCCCC or BBBCC



Passives


Like Support cats, Healing cats don't need a whole lot in terms of passives. You start with Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**) because that's what you always start with. From there, you equip the Healing cat's default skill Horn Virtuoso (***). It'll help your healing friends pump out the healing horns faster! Then all you need is some status protection. My personal picks would be Negate Sleep (*), and Non-Stick Fur (*), but you probably already figured that.


Suggested Passive Skillset: BBCCCC or BBBCC



Bombing Bros




Do you like living on the edge? Do you ever wish your hunts were a bit more... explody? Is your day never complete unless something blows up? Well then do I have the Palico friend for you! The best way to run Bombing cats as your Palico buddies is to either use a ranged weapon- to avoid their "friendly" fire, or be a Bombing cat yourself and join in the explody fun! Explosions for all!



Support Moves

You'll want your Bombing kitty to have Demon Horn over the other option. Camouflage would make Boots drop aggro, and why in the world would you ever want him to do that? Otherwise, just load up on the explosions! Your Bombing Buddy will come with Mega Barrel Bombay, but why stop there? You can also get her Big Barrel Bombay and Explosive Roll! You still want more? Oh, just scroll down the list and pick anything with Bombay in the name! Flash Bombay or Dung Bombay would be good choices. Exploding poop? Why not! Wait, still not satisfied? Well then how about tutoring Mittens Giga Barrel Bombay? That should be enough explosions for anyone!

Suggested Support Move Skillset: BBCCCC



Passives

Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**) will help your kitty fling explosions like it's her job! On that note, you'll definitely want to make sure Mittens has Anger Prone(**). For once, it's worth scouting for an A passive for that. Palicoes can only use some of the bombing moves while in Fury mode, so you'll want to make sure Fluffy gets pissed off as much as possible! Then you just equip Bombay Boost(***), and you're golden!

Suggested Passive Skillset: ABBC



Gathering Gatos



Gathering cats are a great choice for both your main Prowler and your Palico companions! Even if you don't have any interest in being the cat for normal hunts (sad...), you still have to admit that Prowlers are purrfect for gathering! Have an annoying gathering quest to do? Need some rocks and bugs to finish your fancy new armor set? Grab a Gathering Prowler and two Gathering Palicoes to help out! They'll make the whole business much less painful, trust me.


Support Moves

Gathering cats want Piercing Boomerangs, all the time, no question. That's because Camouflage is just hot garbo. Get your buddy Big Boomerangs too, just in case you get in a scrape. Once again, you'll want to scout for a cat with an A skill, but not for a trap this time! Instead, you want Pilfer. This rare move is a melee attack similar to the Gathering cat's signature move Plunderang. Like Plunderang, if you hit a monster with it, it drops extra loot in the form of a red shiny. This shiny can be picked up by anyone in your hunting party, so it's great to use in multiplayer hunts too! You can use Plunderang and Pilfer each once, for a total of two extra shiny bits per monster.

I recommend Ultrasonic Horn for those pesky transport quests. Ultrasonic Horn makes the annoying little zit monsters leave you the hell alone, and yes your Palicoes are smart enough to use it while you're carrying something! I'd also toss on Dung Bombay, to make large monsters leave you alone too. Now you and your Palicoes can gather in peace! Oh, and consider tutoring a healing move to your kitties. Sometimes accidents happen, and carting during a gathering quest is just embarrassing. Either Health Horn orDetox Horn are fine for this purpose.

Suggested Support Move Skillset: ABCCC



Passives

Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**), you get the drill. Then equip the Gathering cat's default skills Gathering Pro(*) and Pilfer Boost(***). For your last skill, get Goldenfish Catcher(*). Goldenfish Catcher works like Goldenfish Bait, making Goldenfish and Small Goldenfish more likely to appear at fishing spots. Obviously, don't equip this on your Prowler if you need fish other than Goldenfish, but definitely equip it on your Palicoes because they'll give you an extra fish each catch! With these, you'll have the purrfect gathering pawsee!

Suggested Passive Skillset: BBCCCC



Brave Beasts




Beast cats, like Fighting cats, are a better Prowlers than Palicoes, but that doesn't mean you can't bring one along. If you're a human, consider equipping the skills TeamLeader and Team Player, bring a Fighting cat along as well, and let Mittens RIP AND TEAR!



Support Moves

Like with Fighting cats, I'd give Beast Palicoes more or less the same kit Prowlers get. Weapon Upgrade to pump damage and Claw Dance for general ass-kickery. Give them Vase of Vitality, because status effects bad. Another good support skill is Flash Bombay, to blind monsters and keep them grounded. Consider tutoring Boots Armor Horn, then you can bring along your Fighting cat and have the full range of buffs!

Suggested Support Move Skillset: BBBB



Passives

Aside from Support Boost(*) and Counter Boost (**), again you want to give them similar kit that Prowlers would get. Critical Up L (**), and Non-Stick Fur (*) are both great on Beasts. Then you can equip Recovery Speed Up (**), which pairs nicely with Vase of Vitality and will help Mittens stay in the game longer.

Suggested Passive Skillset: BBBCC


All right, that's it! That is well and truly it! Now you should know everything there is to know about building your purrfect Prowlers and Palicoes! Get out there and scout a wide variety of cat friends for all sorts of occasions! Have fun, and happy hunting!