How to Choose Palico Supports in Monster Hunter Rise

When it comes to Monster Hunter, your Buddies are your best friends. I’m talking about your in-game assistants, the Palico and Palamute. Of the two Buddy types you have available in Monster Hunter Rise, the Palico is the one veterans will be most familiar with. Felyne friends have been essential hunting companions in the series for years, while the dog-like Palamute is a new addition to the squad for Rise. Every Palico has a variety of stats and attributes you’ll need to consider when deciding how to choose and build them out. So if you’ve been wondering which Palico Support type to pick in Monster Hunter Rise, this quick guide is here for you.

Monster Hunter Rise Palico Support Types

From the first Palico you create at the start of the game to the new ones you can hire from the Buddy Plaza, every Monster Hunter Rise Palico has a support type. These support types are assigned at random from a pool of five.

• Assist – Prepares traps to disable and ensnare monsters
• Bombardier – Uses bombs to attack monsters
• Fight – Fights alongside the hunter with their weapon, inflicting damage
• Gathering – Gathers rare items when exploring the map and fighting monsters
• Healer – Provides healing assistance to hunters

A Palico’s type determines which Equipped Moves they get at level 1 and level 20, determining their general behavior during hunts. That means any Palico with, say, the Assist type will have an Assist move at level 1, and will get an Assist move at level 20. The rest of their moves – gained at levels 5, 10, and 15 in the Monster Hunter Rise base game – are assigned randomly from across the whole pool, ensuring a level of variation.

As you advance through the game, spend a bit of time at the Buddy Plaza looking at different Palicos to find one with the right combination of moves and Support Type to suit your play style.

Which Palico Support Types to Choose in Monster Hunter Rise

As mentioned, a Palico’s support type determines their behavior during a hunt. Thus, you should choose which suits you best based on how you want to play. Keep in mind that Palicos have at least three of their moves assigned at random, which means Fight-type Palicos may get Healer moves, Assist-types may get Gathering moves, and so on. As you gain experience, look at a Palico’s moves as well as their skills when deciding which to pick. Thus, the first and last moves on any Palico’s list are the ones you should be looking at when deciding which support type to pick for a hunt.

As general advice for a beginning Hunter, you can’t go wrong with a Healer-type Palico. Healer Palicos will get a Healing move at level 1, Herbaceous Healing, which grows a small healing plant you can hit to deploy a healing cloud. Healer Palicos can provide some critical support as you learn how best to use your chosen weapon and gain experience fighting monsters. Also, since Palamutes cannot using healing moves, Palicos are the only source of in-combat healing besides yourself during the early game. Palicos that get healing moves can also give you some much needed breathing space as you learn a monster’s attack patterns.

More experienced Hunters can pick Assist-type Palicos to make their hunts go faster. Monster Hunter Rise has a robust multiplayer component, but in the absence of other players, Assist Palicos can help disable monsters, allowing you to focus on dealing damage. Even a first-level Assist Palico can use its Felyne Silkbind to hinder a monster’s movement. More advanced Assist moves can drop shock trap and pitfall traps. The “Shock Purr-ison” move is particularly useful, since with the right timing you can disable a monster completely for a brief period.

Meanwhile, the Fight-type Palico can be a bit underwhelming if you expect it to do a lot of damage. While the Fight line of moves has some useful distracting maneuvers, ultimately you will be the source of most damage to a monster, not your Buddy. The “Power Drum” move from level 10, though, is a great-to-have Palico move, as a Palico can use it quite often, giving you a damage and defense boost with high uptime.

The Bombardier and Gathering Palico support types in Monster Hunter Rise are a little more specialized. Bombardier Palicos can throw bombs to damage and stagger monsters. The level 15 move “Flash Bombay” has the same effect as a flash bomb, and can blind a monster and make it vulnerable.

Gathering Palicos can, at high levels, steal materials from the monsters themselves. Gathering Palicos are useful as you start “farming” monsters to make up armor and item sets you want, as they increase your material intake with the Level 20 move “Pilfer”. You’ll start to see a handful of extra parts per hunt, including some pretty rare drops. The Gathering type’s Level 1 move “Endemic Life Barrage” can also be quite useful, but a little inconsistent, as the endemic life that hits the monster has varied effects. A Gathering-type Palico with a healing move in Level 5 or 10 and a trap or power-boost move from the Assist/Fight line is a wonderful “general purpose” hunting companion.

All in all, the best Palico Support Type in Monster Hunter Rise is the one that most suits your personal play style. Make sure to find the right combination of type, moves, and skills to find the perfect buddy for your hunting career.

Monster Hunter Rise is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The Sunbreak expansion launches for PlayStation and Xbox platforms in Spring 2023.