The following is an alphabetical list of the recruitable monster species in the party of Dragon Quest V. There are a total of 71 (technically 72) possible types of monster companions, with 67 of them being recruitable only as a chance event, and 4 (or more accurately 5) being special guaranteed recruits.
Mechanics[]
After reaching the city of Fortuna, acquiring the Wagon and talking to the elderly Monty, the monster monitor, the Hero becomes able to recruit specimen of certain monster species as additional party members; in the remakes in particular, the recruitment of monsters remains impossible until Monty, the monster caretaker, is spoken to for the first time.
After reaching the Wagon's ride limit, any surplus monster recruit will be sent to a Monster Den. Monty will open other Monster Den buildings once the party reach Lodestar Harbour, Castle Gotha, and finally Precaria, making the service relatively readily available at each step of the adventure. Up to a maximum of 50 different monsters can be left in his care in the SNES version, while the limit is increased to 80 monsters in subsequent re-releases. While staying with Monty, a monster can be released into the wild or renamed but, just like leaving a human companion at Patty's Party Planning Place, they will not gain any experience points.
The process of recruiting is done by random chance after defeating said monster species in battle. If multiple eligible recruitable monsters appear in the same encounter however, only the final felled foe will have a chance to join the Hero. There is a further caveat: only after the Hero has reaced certain level thresholds can some species of monsters become available for recruiting.
Also, up to a maximum of three members of the same monster species can be recruited, with the probability of success drastically lowering after the first recruitment, and once again after the second. There are 8 tiers of difficulty in recruitment, those being:
- Tier 1 = 1/2
- Tier 2 = 1/4
- Tier 3 = 1/16
- Tier 4 = 1/32
- Tier 5 = 1/64
- Tier 6 = 1/128
- Tier 7 = 1/256
- Tier 8 = 1/1024. Tier 8 is only ever used for the most difficult species to tame, after the first recruitment.
Monster recruitment will never happen if the encounter happens at Mt. Zugzwang, Crocodilopolis, and in any of the T'n'T Boards.
In the Mobile version, a special item was added to the game in 2019, the Monster magnet, a Hero-exclusive accessory which increases quite significaly the chance that a monster will join the party after a battle.
Additionally, both in the original Nintendo DS version the Mobile one, monster allies will only alternate between two lines of dialogue during Party Chat, as opposed to the fuller conversations of human characters.
Unlike most other titles of the series, in Dragon Quest V monster companions can be equipped with armours and weapons and gain Levels. Furthermore, contrary to Human party members, only some monster companions can reach level 99, with the majority of them having instead different level caps depending to their species. This however, is not always really indicative of the true strength of the monsters, as some of these low-level beasts actually have amazingly high stats,
Until a monster has reached a wisdom stat of 20 or higher, it may not always listen to the imparted battle commands, instead acting on their own accord. Some monster species cannot naturally reach such threshold, requiring to be fed Seeds of wisdom to achieve this status.
Special recruits[]
Certain special monsters do not require to go through the intricacies of the standard monster recruitment system in order to join the party, instead they are either obtained after certain story events or as rewards after defeating powerful foes and completing certain T N' T's boards.
These special monsters are:
- Saber, who joins the group as part of the main story twice, first as a young Great sabrecub and later, after years of separation, as an adult Great sabrecat.
- Dwight the Dwarf, who, despite being initially an enemy during the main story, will join the party if spoken to again after the Hero's two kids are born.
- Starkers, son of Estark, obtained after clearing the Stark Raving T N'T board, a board found after defeating Estark himself.
- Rebjørn, reincarnation of Bjørn, obtained by visiting the Pothold again after completing the Stark Raving T N'T board.
In the SNES version, only Saber was available as a special companion. With the exeption of Saber while he was a cub (in which case he has a level cap of 20), all of these monster companions can reach level 99.
List[]
Note: The SNES list is derived from the Japanese Super Famicom release of Dragon Quest V.
Name | SNES | PS2 | DS & Mobile | First tame rate without Monster Magnet | Level required | Maximum level |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Archdemon | ✖ | ✖ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 30 | 99 |
Bad apple | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 7 | 20 |
Barbatos | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄256 | 41 | 99 |
Battle pip | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 99 |
Beastmaster | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 30 | 30 |
Blizzybody | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 26 | 40 |
Bomboulder | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄256 | 30 | 20 |
Brownie | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 7 | 99 |
Chimaera | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 15 | 60 |
Conkerer | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 27 | 99 |
Conkjurer | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 27 | 99 |
Conkuisitor | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 27 | 99 |
Conkuistador | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 27 | 99 |
Cross eye | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 9 | 20 |
Cureslime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 16 | 50 |
Dracky | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 7 | 99 |
Drag-goof | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 18 | 40 |
Epipany | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 99 |
Fandagow | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 9 | 25 |
Fat rat | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄2 | 7 | 30 |
Flamethrower | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 16 | 40 |
Funghoul | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 15 |
Ghost | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄2 | 7 | 99 |
Gigantes | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 34 | 7 |
Golem | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 25 | 50 |
Goodybag | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 16 | 7 |
Great dragon | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 35 | 60 |
Grudgerigar | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 9 | 20 |
Hades helm | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 29 | 50 |
Hawk man | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 23 | 30 |
Healslime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 7 | 99 |
Hellion | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 23 | 30 |
Hoodlum | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 25 | 30 |
Hulagan | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 9 | 25 |
Hyperanemon | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 41 | 23 |
Jailcat | ✖ | ✖ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 99 |
Killing machine | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄256 | 34 | 30 |
King cureslime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 28 | 20 |
King slime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 10 | 30 |
Liquid metal slime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄256 | 20 | 8 |
Magic marionette | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 12 | 30 |
Man o' war | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄2 | 18 | 99 |
Mandrake marshal | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 32 | 50 |
Metal slime | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄256 | 7 | 20 |
Minidemon | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 20 | 30 |
Moosifer | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 30 | 40 |
Mudraker | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 11 | 30 |
Old man of the sea | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 25 | 50 |
Orc king | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 21 | 30 |
Pip fighter | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 99 |
Pocus poppet | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 10 | 30 |
Powie yowie | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 7 | 40 |
Prestidigitator | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 10 | 99 |
Restless armour | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 10 | 99 |
Revaulting horse | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 27 | 50 |
Rockbomb | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄64 | 15 | 20 |
Rotten apple | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄2 | 7 | 20 |
Samigina | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 20 | 50 |
Slime | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄2 | 7 | 99 |
Slime knight | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄4 | 7 | 99 |
Small fry | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 30 |
Snowbird | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 34 | 25 |
Ticking timeburrm | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 7 | 15 |
Walking corpse | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 7 | 30 |
Warhog | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄32 | 28 | 30 |
Wax murderer | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 30 |
Wiz pip | ✖ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 1⁄16 | 7 | 99 |
See Also[]
- List of recruitable monsters in Dragon Quest VI
- The Monster Meadows of Dragon Quest VII
- Recruitable Monsters in Dragon Quest VIII