Knowing the best Monster Hunter Rise best Palico support type adds a layer of strategy to your recruitment plan.

All Palicoes have something unique to offer, but not every skillset is worth your time. The way Monster Hunter Rise dishes out companion skills means you’re never stuck with just one type of Palico anyway, even if you choose a dedicated Healer.

What is the best Palico support type in Monster Hunter Rise?

Assist and Healer Palicoes are the best, and if you can find an Assist Palico with Healer skills, it should never leave your party. We also recommend recruiting at least one Gathering Palico for exploration missions or when you head out to replenish your resource stock.

Healers are, as the name suggests, devoted to keeping your Hunter and party hale and hearty, while Assist Palicoes have a wide range of skills that buff you and debilitate your foes. Bombardiers and Fighters have some handy skills, but their primary and final abilities just aren’t useful enough to warrant recruiting them specifically.

The way MH Rise skills work means you’ll likely have a Healer or Assist with good combat skills anyway.

What are the best Palico skills in Monster Hunter Rise?

A Palico’s level 1 and level 20 skills are fixed and will always be tied to their support type. Level 5, 10, and 15 skills are drawn at random from a pool of all available Palico skills, however, so your Healer could have an Assist, Gatherer, and FIght skill sandwiched between their restorative abilities.

You should always take the time to preview what skills a Palico learns before recruiting it, and it’s often better to just wait and see what the training center comes up with next time. These are the skills you should be looking for:

Best Palico skills - Level 1

• Herbaceous Healing
• Felyne Silkbind

Herbaceous Healing and Felyne Silkbind are the best picks for your initial skills, and you’ll only get them on Healer and Assist Palicoes, respectively. Herbaceous Healing doesn’t restore much HP, but it gives you space to keep fighting your target monster.

For more veteran hunters, Silkbind is the best choice, though, as your Palico fires a web of threads that slows monsters down and hinders movement.

Best Palico skills - Level 5

• Healing Bubble
• Zap Blast Spinner
• Go, Fight, Win

Always opt for Healing Bubble if possible. The Palico generates more than one bubble, so it’s a solid way to restore plenty of your health and to help other party members.

Zap Blast Spinner is a useful support skill, since the mobile bombs can make monsters flinch and even help break parts.

Go, Fight, Win reduces stamina consumption, which seems basic, but it’s a vital buff in most major monster fights. It’s also a handy complement to some mid- and late-game armor sets.

Best Palico skills - Level 10

• Power Drum
• Anti-Monster Mine
• Vase of Vitality

The level 10 skills are slightly less impressive, though Power Drum and Anti-Monster Mine are still excellent picks. The Mine is self-explanatory and may cause a monster to stagger. Power Drum increases hunter and companion attack and defense, so it’s essential.

Some players rate Vase of Vitality somewhat low on the charts, but nearly every High-Rank hunt has a monster that can inflict some sort of status effect on you. The Vase’s healing properties always come in handy and save you having to concoct potions and take up more inventory space.

Best Palico skills - Level 15

• Shock Purr-ison
• Shock Tripper
• Flash Bombay

Shock Purr-ison is a top-tier skill where your Palico lays down a shock trap, handy for capture missions and regular slaying quests. Shock Tripper creates an electric field that inflicts Thunderblight, while Flash Bombay is essentially a free Flash Bomb.

Best Palico skills - Level 20

• Poison Purr-ison
• Health Horn

The level 20 skills are also fixed, so what you get depends entirely on which support class you choose. As with the level 1 skills, the best picks are Healer and Assist. Poison Purr-ison, the Assist skill, is a poison variant on Shock Purr-ison, and Health Horn restores a large amount of your health and your Buddy’s health.

Getting your Buddy in order is only part of the battle in Monster Hunter Rise. You'll want the best builds for your hunter as well, which means plenty of trips to the smithy. Any hunt is easier and more fun with friends, and Monster Hunter Rise multiplayer is available almost right from the start