How to Ride and Befriend Monsters in Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma

In the game Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, monsters make a return as the primary type of adversaries you’ll encounter, but they can also serve beneficial purposes such as earning money and facilitating faster travel around the world. However, these abilities aren’t immediately accessible; instead, you’ll need to invest time in building relationships with these creatures before they can assist you. This guide on Monster Befriending and Riding in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma will provide all the essential information about bonding with monsters and riding them.

How to Befriend Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Time to Make Friends with Those Monsters

In Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, you can’t make friends with monsters right away. However, this feature becomes available as the main story progresses, once you reach the Autumn Village. Once you have the ability to construct a barn, you will then be able to develop friendships with monsters. These creatures can reside in your barn and provide daily produce, helping to boost your income-generating activities.

After you get to this stage of the tale, locate an adversary you wish to become friends with, but before engaging in combat, perform your Dance of Bonds using the Sacred Plum Branch while being directly in front of it. If done successfully, a smiley face will float above the monster’s head. Once the smiley face appears, fight and conquer the monster, then wait for it to rise again. When it does, engage with it by pressing Y on Xbox, Triangle on PlayStation, or X on Switch. Choose the ‘Befriend with a Gift’ option from the menu that appears.

In the game Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, one of the challenging aspects when befriending monsters is that you must offer them an item they prefer. If you repeatedly give them something they don’t like three times, you’ll fail the friendship check and the monster will vanish, forcing you to locate another member of that species to form a bond with.

In this game, providing specific items to certain monsters can cause a symbol of love (heart) to show up over their heads. However, some monsters might need more than one item before they become friendly. Even if you manage successfully, it’s not guaranteed. If things don’t go as planned, a gray icon will take the place of the heart, signaling that another attempt is needed with a different item. On the other hand, if you succeed in befriending the monster, beautiful flowers will appear above its head, and you’ll get the chance to name your newfound companion.

From what I’ve observed, the outcome of using this gift-giving method appears to be somewhat unpredictable. Once, I managed to make friends with a Buffamoo by offering it some green grass and an onigiri, but I couldn’t replicate that success when attempting to befriend another Buffamoo using the same items.

Once you’ve given your new creature companion a name, remember to place them in one of your barns. Keep in mind that bigger monsters like Buffamoos and wolves require two slots each, so ensure there are at least two empty slots in a barn if you plan on befriending more monsters. If not, you might need to free up space by releasing some of them.

To summarize all of that, the steps are:

Use your Dance of Bonds in front of an animal until the smiley face appears.
Defeat the monster and interact with it.
Give it an item it likes until flowers appear above its head.
Name your monster and assign it to a barn.

How to Get Produce from Befriended Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Time to Put Them to Work

In a barn inhabited by monsters, you can find various items like milk, eggs, monster horns, or fluff produced daily. To collect these goods, head to the barn’s entrance and interact with the brown basket near the gate to their pen. Any items generated by the creatures will be automatically added to your storage or inventory (whichever has space available).

Instead, navigate to the ‘Villagers’ section and designate a villager to the ‘Herding’ role. Then, select the barn inhabited by the creatures. Your assigned villagers will gather produce from these creatures daily, which they’ll deposit in the Produce Box for sale. The value of goods from monsters varies, but with several friendly monsters yielding crafting materials or cooking ingredients, you can accumulate a substantial income each day.

How to Ride Monsters in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma

Get Around the World Quicker

Just some monsters are suitable for riding. To find out which ones you can ride, navigate to the Villagers menu, then choose Barns located in the upper left corner. On Xbox, press X; on PlayStation, press Square; and on Switch, press Y. Once there, select a monster, and if they’re rideable, you’ll see a green checkmark beneath their profile marked as ‘Rideable’.

First, navigate to the Party menu and choose an available slot. Next, switch to the ‘Creatures’ section and pick the mounted creature you prefer from the list of rideables.

In the vast open-world regions beyond villages, monsters can serve as your riding companions. If you find yourself in such an area and your group is assembled, simply stroll up to the monster within your party, then press ‘Y’ or ‘Triangle’ or ‘X’ to hop on and ride it.

When riding a beast, you’re able to employ attacks indicated on the screen to your right, and you can move through the environment at a quicker pace too.

2025-06-05 13:54