The Effects of Inventory Items
Thanks to Nevistar for this info, I found it (like 90% of this stuff) at the advanced topics section of the message board at monster-rancher.com in the thread "Life Span Hits"
6/24 - Added effects for Fire Stone

Correction was made to Effect #1 of the Lump of Ice (detailed below)
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Although it is not completely necessary that you do this, I STRONGLY suggest that you are familiar with the system for Lifespan loss (read the "Lifespan Hits" thread, first post).

**NOTE BY DK**I felt that this is rather important so I am including the aforementioned post here as well. enjoy.**
Lifespan Hits

Ok. There are a few things that I would like to clarify about Lifespan hits (unnecessary losses of remaining lifespan).

First of all, your monster loses life at the very very beginning of the week, when the screen is black and the date appears in the corner. It is EXTREMELY important that you remember this.

Second of all, we were under the impression that you begin to take lifespan hits once your Stress hit 25 or once your Fatigue hit 50. This is actually not the case, but it can be. The point at which you begin losing Lifespan is based on the addition between your monster's Fatigue and Stress. (Also, before I forget, Fatigue AND Stress both go to 100. Stress goes up at a much slower rate, but it is far more dangerous, as you are about to witness).

Use this following equation to determine if you are losing lifespan:

Fatigue + (2 * Stress) = Lifespan Index (Call this whatever you want. It's just a calculated number.)

The first lifespan hit comes when your Lifespan Index reaches 70. For example, let's say that your monster has 10 Fatigue and 30 Stress. Multiply your Stress by 2 and add it to your Fatigue. If this is 70 or above, you will lose 1 week from your monster's lifespan at the very beginning of the following week. Another example: your monster has 60 Fatigue and 4 Stress. Multiply your monster's Stress by 2 and add it to your Fatigue, giving you a sum of 68. Since 68 is less than 70, your monster will not lose any additional lifespan at the beginning of next week.

The following is a list of the critical points of Lifespan loss:

LI = Lifespan Index (Fatigue + (2*Stress))

LI >= 70: -1 week from remaining Lifespan
LI >=105: -2 weeks from remaining Lifespan
LI >=140: -3 weeks from remaining Lifespan
LI >=175: -4 weeks from remaining Lifespan
LI >=210: -5 weeks from remaining Lifespan
LI >=245: -6 weeks from remaining Lifespan
LI >=280: -7 weeks from remaining Lifespan
(Note: your monster will usually run away or go to the hospital if the LI is 250 or more)

So, for those of you out there who are creating methods, keep this in mind when you are trying to calculate how much life your monster will lose on any given week.

Disclaimer: the LI critical points were found while raising a Zuum, a Pixie, and a Durahan (all yielded identical results). Also, there were no items in my inventory while I performed this research. The Stable size was changed several times, but this had no impact on the LI critical points.

-Nevistar (LoginFailure)

The Effects of Inventory Items
SCULPTURE:

The Sculpture reduces Fatigue in your monster at the very beginning of each month. The amount of Fatigue reduced by the Sculpture varies as follows:

Current Fatigue --- Amount Reduced
- 0 to 33 Fatigue: Sculpture has no effect
- 34 to 66 Fatigue: -1 Fatigue
- 67 to 99 Fatigue: -2 Fatigue
- 100 Fatigue: -3 Fatigue

The effects of multiple Sculptures ARE cumulative. So, if your monster has 80 Fatigue at the beginning of the month, having 2 Sculptures would reduce that to 76 Fatigue. However, this is where the problems begin......

When you have multiple Sculptures, the effects of each on are evaluated 1 at a time. Let's say that your monster has 70 Fatigue at the beginning of the month and you have 3 Sculptures in your inventory. This is what happens:

1) Your monster has 70 Fatigue. The effects of the first Sculpture are evaluated (refer to the above chart). Your monster's Fatigue is reduced by 2 points, bringing it to a total of 68 Fatigue.

2) Your monster now has 68 Fatigue. The effects of the second Sculpture are evaluated. Your monster's Fatigue is reduced by 2 more points, bringing it to a total of 66 Fatigue.

3) Your monster now has 66 Fatigue. The effects of the third Sculpture are evaluated. Now, since your monster has only 66 Fatigue, the last Sculpture will reduce your monster's Fatigue by only 1 point (refer to the above chart if necessary).

So, -5 Fatigue for 3 Sculptures. That's not terrible, but let's take a case that's a bit more extreme.

You hear that Sculptures reduce Fatigue and that the multiple Sculptures have a cumulative effect. So, you go ahead and fill all 20 spaces of your inventory with Sculptures (yes, I ACTUALLY tried this). At the beginning of the month, your monster has 34 Fatigue. This is what happens:

1) The first Sculpture takes effect. Your monster's Fatigue is reduced to 33 points.
2) Now, since your monster only has 33 points of Fatigue, the other 19 Sculptures have absolutely no effect, other than taking up inventory space.

Guess what, it gets worse......

While the Sculpture takes effect at the beginning of the month before feeding, it doesn't occur until AFTER the lifespan hit process takes place. So, if your monster has 70 Fatigue and 0 Stress, and one Sculpture reduces this to 68 Fatigue, you STILL TAKE THE LIFESPAN HIT, even though you are now in the safe zone.

GEMINI'S POT:

The Gemini's Pot works EXACTLY like the Sculpture, but for Stress instead of Fatigue. If you've read the "Lifespan Hits" thread, then you should know that Stress reduction is twice as important as Fatigue reduction, so the Gemini's Pot is better, right??? Consider the following: the Gemini's Pot does not even begin to work until your monster has 34 points of Stress. If you have a mere 2 points of Fatigue, then you will already be taking a lifespan hit. I do my best to keep my monster's Stress under 20 points at all times, so if you ask me, I think that the Gemini's Pot is even more useless than the Sculpture (but that's just my opinion. You've been given the data, so form your own....)

LUMP OF ICE:

Now here's a useful item. I still can't believe that it only sells for 150g, but I think that's the point, so that people throw it out without realizing just how good it is.

The Lump of Ice has two effects, which are as follows:

Effect #1) The Lump of Ice does act as a Sculpture at the beginning of May, June, and July, but it does not act as a Gemini's Pot, even though it does reduce Stress. Some of the Stress reduction values for the Lump of Ice are identical to those of the Gemini's Pot, but the two have different rates of Stress reduction. My apologies for the confusion, as I originally stated that the Lump of Ice worked in exactly the same manner as the Gemini's Pot as well. Anyway, the Lump of Ice reduces Stress in the following manner:

Current Stress ----- Stress Reduction
- 0 to 49 Stress - Lump of Ice does nothing
- 50 to 99 Stress - 1 point of Stress reduced
- 100 Stress - 2 points of Stress reduced

Once again, the effects of multiple Lumps of Ice are cumulative for this Fatigue and Stress reduction, and each Lump of Ice takes effect individually in the same manner as the Sculpture and Gemini's Pot.

I also re-checked my material on the Gemini's Pot to make sure that I did in fact record everything correctly, and I did. The Gemini's Pot is a Sculpture for Stress. Why does the Lump of Ice behave exactly like the Sculpture and NOT the Gemini's Pot, I don't know. I am actually beginning to question the sanity of Tecmo's programmers..... =)

Effect #2) The Lump of Ice, however, does have an effect which is active all year round (even in the winter): it enhances Rest.

Normal Rest - reduces 33-47 points of Fatigue and 5-10 points of Stress
Rest with LoI - reduces 43-55 points of Fatigue and 9-12 points of Stress

A bit of an odd change if you ask me, but I've been Resting monsters for years at a time and haven't seen anything higher or lower. Once again, your monster has a better chance of recovering 55 Fatigue than it does of only recovering 43 Fatigue (normal Rest is weighted in a similar manner). All Stress recovery probabilities are equally likely.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), multiple Lumps of Ice do NOT enhance the Resting effect. If you have only 1 or if you have 20, the Rest enhancement is identical. Multiple Lumps of Ice only enhance the first effect which was described above (see Effect #1).

FIRE STONE:

Ok. You're never going to believe this one. The Fire Stone works EXACTLY like the Lump of Ice, the only difference is that it gets effect #1 of the Lump of Ice in November, December, and January instead of May, June, and July.

So what happens when you have the Fire Stone AND the Lump of Ice? It's like having 2 Lumps of Ice or 2 Fire Stones: the Rest bonus is not increased one bit.

-Nevistar