There was a way in Gen/X, but it doesn't work in GenU/XX. Forte-specific actions cheated onto cats would never be used by the AI anyway, making 99% of potential applications of the loophole pointless. 'Ideal' cheated Gen builds ultimately looked a lot like GenU/XX builds (without the increased memory slots or the new skills/actions) - since typically you could only fit and use 1 extra good skill/action, which became officially possible in GenU/XX via the second learn slot. My loopholed bomb cat in Gen only added Piercing rangs in addition to being taught Emergency Escape - which is legitimately possible in GenU via the second learn slot. Everything else I optimized on my cats was was possible legitimately by getting the right skill/action patterns. The only remaining way to 'cheat' cats that works across all games is to apply the DLC flag to a cat (add 80 to byte 0xE0 after the first letter in the cat's name - which also indicates whether the cat is selected as prowler) and switch the first "B" tier skill with a DLC skill.
Bombing was technically better than Assist for gauge gain in combat mainly due to EVERY action getting increased gauge when fighting a large monster (Assist only benefited from rangs) - at least in Gen. GenU reworked a fair bit of the gauge gain mechanics so only a few points actively stand out as better in specific cases on certain biases. Assist, Gathering, and Healing are technically better for elemental and status effects due to the motion values on the third boomerangs. Bombing gets an adept evade, though, letting you keep up your DPS without worrying about getting hit as much.
As a side note: Bombing also gets ridiculous gauge gain from successful hits with bombs in GenU/XX (it gave zero gauge on hit in Gen/X), so if you master the melee combo -> mini barrel bombay cancel (support actions can cancel the endlag of the combo finishers and mini barrel bombay is fast and lets you move again faster than even barrel bombay) you can potentially build gauge stupid fast and repeatedly nuke monsters with Giga Barrel bombays every 15-30ish seconds for insane flat damage, taking down G rank monsters faster than boomerang builds can. The adept evade implies this may well be an intended strategy for Bomb cats.
Thanks a lot for those info, @iSharingan
I've been trying to create a usable palico but to no avail as they all kinda end up with no action when enter quest so have been running the around with your ultimate bomb cat and have to say he's great. Was originally trying to see if I can abuse the skills using editor by giving them more than they could have equip normally in game like Crit L, Handicraft, Last Stand and so on guess that didn't go too well with the game check every quest. With that said, would you happen to have an Assist cat available since mainly I still run around and rang the monster more than I get close to them.
Last edited by RinKisaragi,