The World of Monstrology
Looking to spruce up your home with unique house guests? Wanting to summon old enemies and face off again? Need a unique companion in battle? If you answered yes to any of those questions, prepare ‘yerselves for the world of Monstrology!
You can find Monstrologist Burke in nearly every world of the spiral. From her, you can train animus collection spells for supported mobs within that particular world. Below is a comprehensive list of Burke’s locations in the spiral, as well as what spells she offers. As long as you have the gold, you are able to purchase any of Burke’s spells at the beginning of your monstrology journey.
Ravenwood
Extract Undead (Free, Given during Know Thine Enemy)
Extract Colossus (100,000 Gold)
Extract Spider (100,000 Gold)
Colossus Boulevard
Extract Gobbler (10,000 Gold)
The Oasis
Extract Mander (100,000 Gold)
Extract Spider (100,000 Gold)
Extract Colossus (100,000 Gold)
Pigswick Academy
Extract Pig (100,000 Gold)
Northguard
Extract Treant (100,000 Gold)
Extract Imp (100,000 Gold)
Zafaria — Polaris
Baobab Crossroads
Extract Elephant (100,000 Gold)
Caliburn
Extract Wyrm (100,000 Gold)
The Zocalo
Extract Parrot (100,000 Gold)
Walruskburg
Extract Polar Bear (100,000 Gold)
Collecting Animus
Between all of the other electives, Monstrology is the easiest to master, as it requires no additional skills. In order to craft a House Guest, Summon Treasure Card, or Expel Treasure card, you will rely on animus collected. In order to get this, you will want to equip an extract animus card into your spell deck. The basic animus extraction card, extract undead animus, is given by Monstrologist Burke in Ravenwood in the entrance quest Know Thine Enemy.
During this quest, you are tasked with traveling to Unicorn Way and collecting a Lost Soul Essence. Once you enter a battle with a Lost Soul, add an animus collection spell to your primary hit card. If animus collection is successful, you will see a small symbol above the mob that resembles the monstrology icon.
If you happen to kill the mob with the hit spell, this works just as well, and is quite quicker. If you do not kill with the hit, you are still guaranteed to collect the animus indicated above the mob—regardless of if you are the one to deal the final blow. Your monstrology level affects if you are able to collect animus from different ranks, so be sure to keep leveling before you try harder mobs within the spiral!
Early on, you may want to create a second deck specifically for monstrology. If you are worried about mixing up your decks in a pinch, you can always rename it “Monstrology Main Deck.” In order to do this, go into your spellbook and enter the spells tab. On the top left of the deck, you will notice a deck icon. When you click this, you are prompted with a wide range of names to call your decks. I recommend using Monstrology Main Deck, that way you can add 1, 2, 3, etc. when you want to add decks to farm specific mobs. Ideally, you should set up your deck with spells specific to the mobs you wish to collect. More specifically, I encourage you to equip spells that will kill in one hit. This will significantly increase the speed at which you gather animus.
If you are not powerful enough to kill the mob in one hit, there is still a benefit to this. Fortunately, animus collection stacks, so if you are able to successfully collect the animus from one hit, you can do it again and again until the mob is defeated—leaving the potential for a great reward!
Monstrodomes
By far one of the coolest elements to monstrosity is the ability to summon mobs within your very own little world—the monstrodome. When you collect enough animus, you can create a summon treasure card that you can then place inside your monstrodome similar to loading other vaults in the game. To add, enter build mode, click on the small animus icon above the monstrodome, and add away! It’s important to note that you can only add one of each type of collected mob here, and once added, these cards can not be removed.
Getting a Monstrodome
As of right now, there are two ways to get a monstrodome. Apprentice crafters can obtain a recipe for a basic monstrodome for 25,000 Gold from Felicia Worthington in Marleybone. To craft, you will need: 10 Summon Foulgaze Treasure Cards, 10 Summon Lady Blackhope Treasure Cards, 10 Summon Lord Nightshade Treasure Cards, 80 Sandstone, 100 Mist Wood, 25 Black Lotus, and 50 Brass.
If you don’t wish to craft one, you can purchase a basic Monstrodome at any time for 2,500 Crowns. For a limited time in the summer, you can purchase a Summer Monstrodome, which offers a unique scene when summoning mobs.
Battling in the Monstrodome
When you add your collected Summon Treasure Cards, you can fight the mobs in waves. Even though you aren’t able to collect more animus during these battles, you can still reap gold and experience from each fight. You cannot bring friends into the monstrodome, so come prepared to defend yourself!
Navigating Your Monstrology Tome
When you have a lot of enemies collected, you’ll need a way to keep track of your progress. Fortunately, the Monstrology Tome (accessible by pressing “T”) is easy to use and quite beneficial to find old enemy descriptions. Within the tome, you can find descriptions of collected mobs, their locations, their school, monstrology rank, as well as how much gold and animus are needed to create a Houseguest, Summon Treasure Card, and Expel Treasure Card. These three creation requirements can be seen under the following icons.
Creating a House Guest allows you to place monsters collected inside of your homes! Now, you are able to see them on a daily basis! Unlike pets, these guests don’t move around, functioning similar to furniture.
Summon Treasure Cards allow you to add different mobs to your monstrodomes, or allow you to summon them in battle as a minion. While in battle, if you happen to be facing a monster you have an Expel Treasure Card for, you can use this card to get them out of the battle. Overwhelmed from battling by yourself? This can be a helpful tool!
Your Inner Monstrologist
Overall, monstrology is such a fun hobby. Instead of spending money on crown packs to get House Guests, you are able to create your own, and plan for what aesthetics you are looking for! Want to see Malistaire in your living room, Morganthe in your courtyard? With monstrology, that’s a possibility! In addition, you no longer have to rely on crowns to get minions different than those you trained in your battles. The possibilities are endless in monstrology as long as you have the patience and the drive to collect some animus.
Let us know how your journey is going and tag us on twitter @wizard101_folio
Happy questing!
Megan Fireheart
Check also:
What other crafting recipes require monstrology? I want to take advantage of the 2x monstrology benefit but I need a good reason to.