??? family

??? family, sometimes shown as Unknown family or Boss family, refers to a group of monsters in Dragon Quest series whose type cannot be determined. Monsters in this family are typically evil lords that serve as the major and final bosses in the mainstream games, as well as various bosses encountered throughout the titles. The Incarnus from Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 1, 2 and 3 is also in this family.

In the Monsters series, monsters placed in this family are some of the most difficult to synthesize, no different than Rank X monsters in the other families. With a few exceptions, monsters in the boss family cannot be recruited and must be bred/synthesized to obtain

Characteristics[edit | edit source]

Some monsters are hard to classify because they are demon-forms of a human, thus having both characteristics of Humanoid and Demon family, yet are neither. An example of this is Master of Nu'un, the demonized Jack of Alltrades. Another kind of monster are ones uniquely designed, having no comparison to other families. An example of this is King Godwyn (2nd form) in Gittingham Palace.

There also may be a cross between two families, meaning that they are in the ??? family mainly because their type and characteristics can not be put into any other family, but they will still be programmed to have traits and weaknesses of another family, such as Ruin and the statues of the Hero, Yangus, Jessica, and Angelo who are treated as both members of the ??? and Material family.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King[edit | edit source]

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age[edit | edit source]

Abominable showman
Beastly boy in training
Calasmos
Golden boy
Grandmaster Pang
Heliodorian guard
Heliodorian soldier
Jasper
Jasper Unbound
Jasper Unhinged (Definitive edition only)
Jinxed Jade
Krystalinda
Leader of the Beastly Boys
Masked Rab
Masked Jade
Mordegon
Mordragon
Mordragon's tail
Overweening pride
Restless knight
The Underdigger
The End of Time
Timewyrm
Timewyrm's tail
Sinderella
Shade
Sterling Sylva
Vice-leader of the Beastly Boys
Vince
Whambelina

Dragon Quest Monsters[edit | edit source]

Monsters in the Boss family serve as the bosses at the end of the post-game family gates. These monsters must be bred in order to obtain, and every one of them require the most complex recipes. It should be noted that nearly all members of the boss family are required to obtain Darkdrium, the most powerful and difficult-to-obtain monster.

Dragon Quest Monsters 2[edit | edit source]

Once again, monsters in the Boss family are some of the most difficult to breed for. This time, the |ultimate |forms |of |certain Boss monsters (not seen in the mainstream games) are obtainable. The only Boss monster that is not obtainable via breeding is Darck, the final boss of the game. Instead, his egg is available post-game from the TinyMedal man, in exchange for 10 Mini Medals.

A feature unique to this game is that Boss monsters can be found in the wild (within the Magic Key worlds, indicated by the "Lord" prefix). None of them are recruitable, however, so the breeding requirement does not change.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker[edit | edit source]

The Incarnus is introduced in this game, and its line is the only monster species that are included in the Boss family. The other monsters that would normally be in the Boss family are instead categorized as Rank X (or Rank S, in a few cases) monsters in other families.