A guide of beginner to advance tips for Palicos and Palamutes along with skillsets useful for hunts.
Palicos are still extremely utility-oriented as their damage sucks, they are best utilzied for their status effect and support.
Make sure to set your palico's behavior to Large First. That way they won't go after small shitter monsters unless there is no large monster around.
Weapons are easy for palicos. Pick the one with the highest status that you want to inflict.
Paralysis is the generally best CC status but if you're playing solo or a coordinated group.
If you have a weapon with a big wakeup (Heavybowgun with Wyvern Ammo, Hammer Users or Greatsword Users) then sleep might be more worth it.
For damage status, Blast is generally better than Poison. In my opinion: Paralysis > Sleep > Blast > Poison.
Remember to "Use the Felvine!" in your action bar when you have a palicos. It makes your palicos use their support moves more frequently and gives them access to a special multihit attack.
It also heals the palico to full HP. It takes no resources to use so try to pop it right as you roll up to a monster and maybe once more during the hunt. It lasts 90 seconds with a downtime of 5 min after it expires.
It is very important when you get the option to unlock Secret Moves, Support Move Swaps and Buddy Lessons that you do so first thing. It is quite powerful to have these at your disposal for future hunts.
How these functions work is relatively simple:
Secret Moves are an additional Support Move that can add a massive boost to your damage (Felyne Powered-Up) in a hunt, or a massive heal (Healing Clover bat) or a very useful KO to a monster (Lottery Box AKA the Kittenator.).
Support Move Swaps allows you to change the lvl 5, 10 and 15 support move slots to whatever you like, which is huge for customizing your palico to the skillset i've established below for the best possible setups.
Buddy Lessons are the next biggest thing which ultimately makes palicos and palamutes legendary in hunts.
Buddy Lessons allow you to change their skills to whatever you want it to be, provided you have a sufficiently lvled up palico that can teach said skill to another.
As an example; Buddy Partbreaker is a lvl 45 skill. A palico must be lvl 45 to teach another palico the skill. If you are hiring a new palico with that said skill, you must level it up first to 45 then teach your main palico the ability, after that you can delete that palico as your main palico will be able to teach it in the future making the temporary palico obsolete, palico min-maxing!
| Skill Name | Type | Level | Slots | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Up (S) | Attack | 5 | 1 | Increases affinity. (Will stack) |
| Attack Up (S) | Attack | 5 | 1 | Increases attack. (Will stack) |
| Health Up (S) | Defense | 5 | 1 | Increases maximum health. (Will stack) |
| Defense Up | Defense | 5 | 1 | Greatly increases defense. Also negates the effects of Defense Down. |
| Negate Paralysis | Defense | 5 | 1 | Prevents paralysis. |
| Negate Poison | Defense | 5 | 1 | Weakens the effect of poison. Also prevents poison and lethal poison. |
| Knockout King | Attack | 10 | 1 | Increases likelihood of stunning and tiring monsters. |
| Negate Sleep | Defense | 10 | 1 | Prevents sleep. |
| Negate Tremor | Defense | 10 | 1 | Prevents staggering from tremors created by large monsters. |
| Omniresistance | Defense | 10 | 1 | Boosts all resistances. Also negates the effects of Resistance Down. |
| Webproof | Defense | 10 | 1 | Prevents webbed status. |
| Health Up (L) | Defense | 10 | 2 | Increases maximum health. (Will stack) |
| Negate Stun | Defense | 10 | 2 | Prevents stun. |
| Artful Dodger | Defense | 10 | 2 | Increases the likelihood of blocking and deflecting attacks. |
| Earplugs | Defense | 10 | 2 | Prevents flinching from most monster roars. |
| Negate Wind Pressure | Defense | 10 | 2 | Negates wind pressure from almost all monsters. |
| Deflagration Relief | Defense | 15 | 1 | Prevents blast and hellfire. |
| Element Attack Up | Attack | 15 | 2 | Increases the power of elemental attacks. |
| Critical Up (L) | Attack | 15 | 2 | Greatly increases affinity. (Will stack) |
| Attack Up (L) | Attack | 15 | 2 | Greatly increases attack. (Will stack) |
| Ranged Attack Up | Attack | 20 | 2 | Increases ranged attack. |
| Status Attack Up | Attack | 20 | 3 | Increases the potency of abnormal status attacks. |
| Medic's Touch | Defense | 20 | 3 | Increases amount of health recovered when healing. |
| Ranged-Centric | Attack | 35 | 1 | Prioritizes ranged attacks, making them slightly more powerful. (Doesn't stack with Melee-Centric.) |
| Melee-Centric | Attack | 35 | 1 | Prioritizes melee attacks, making them slightly more powerful. (Doesn't stack with Ranged-Centric) |
| Ailment Artistry | Defense | 35 | 1 | Recovers health after taking an ailment-inducing attack if a skill to nullify that ailment is equipped. |
| Piercing Attack Up | Attack | 35 | 2 | Makes piercing attacks more powerful. |
| Recovery Boost | Support | 35 | 2 | Increases recovery of Palamute Gear when a support move with recovery effects is used. |
| Counter | Attack | 40 | 2 | Causes a counter when a block or deflection succeeds. |
| Buddy Friendship | Defense | 40 | 2 | Makes hunter's health recover as well when a self-healing move is used. |
| Support-Centric | Support | 40 | 2 | Makes it easier to trigger Support Moves and Palamute Gear, but attack and defense are reduced. |
| Buddy Partbreaker | Attack | 45 | 1 | Makes body parts easier to break the more Attack Buddy Skills are equipped. |
| Nine Lives | Attack | 45 | 2 | Increases Attack and Defense upon revival. Effective up to eight times. |
| Pro Parry | Defense | 45 | 2 | Increases chance of blocking for a set period after taking damage. Lasts longer the more Defense Buddy Skills are equipped. |
| Buddy Breather | Defense | 45 | 2 | Will perform healing actions even when not in battle. |
Anti-Monster-Mine is another good viable option, especially when used for Rampage.
Go. Fight, Win is a viable alternative when you can make use of the extra stamina (e.g. as Bow or Dual Blades user).
Flash Bombay & Shock Tripper are the better choices for Palicoes when going up against Elder Dragons - as those cannot be trapped.
I personally would choose utility and versatility over riding a cute dog!