Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Familiar Spotlight – Sillymander

Overview

You won’t run into Sillymander until roughly halfway through your adventure. Once Oliver and friends begin searching for the magic stones you will find yourself in The Vault of Tears where Sillymander is a fairly common foe. Their recruitment chance is a little on the low side but if you want a fast, reliable attacker it is well worth the effort to add one to your party. Sillymander is one of the fastest familiars in the game and begins with a fast growth rate that slows down as it metamorphoses, keeping it relevant well into the later portions of the game.

Proper Care and Feeding

Attack +25
Magic Attack +25

Sillymander is overall one of the most well-rounded familiars available. It has a respectable defense and evasion, the Defend command and an incredible movement speed. The weakest area (if you can call it that) is Sillymander’s offense. Much of the lower attack stat is offset by a fast attack speed, but it never hurts to give it a little boost. Since it learns a handful of elemental tricks, a boost to magic attack helps if you ever get stuck in place or are fighting a foe that is dangerous to approach. If you plan on metamorphosing into Petramander as its final form, we
recommend moving some of those points into defense because of Petramander’s weakness to physical damage.

Metamorphosis

Sillymander is able to metamorphose early, but it is worthwhile to hold off on your first metamorphosis for as long as you are comfortable. Once it metamorphoses into Slamander its stat growth slows a bit, so it’s important to maximize your growth early on. As a Slamander, it also shrugs off Sillymander’s weakness to both physical and fire damage and really begins to put its defenses together.

Pyromander

Sillymander is a familiar whose final forms are nearly polar opposites. Pyromander is geared toward dealing damage, damage, and more damage. It has higher attack scores overall than Petramander and learns some Strong physical and fire elemental tricks to compliment that fantastic movement and attack speed. Pyromander is great at its job, as it can literally run circles around most enemies and really make the most of its power.

Petramander

On the flip side, Petramander makes a great supporting familiar. It regains Sillymander’s weakness to physical attacks which means that even though it has high defense, it’s still going to take some damage if it gets too close to an enemy. To counteract this, Petramander has a 50% resistance to fire, water, and storm elements. I also has an incredible magic defense which at times makes it appear almost immune to damage against foes who rely on elemental tricks.

Best Buddies

The familiars your pair Sillymander with will greatly be influenced by which of its final forms you choose. Being a Vermes familiar it is best suited for teaming with Oliver, but as a Petramander it can fit just fine with Esther or Marcassin, and as a Pyromander it is advisable to put with Swaine as a very mobile attacker to compliment slow moving tanks. With Oliver, Pyromander covers most damage needs and can free up a slot for Oliver to pack along an extra supporting familiar. Alternatively, pairing Oliver with a Petramander can allow him to take over the tanking role against casters and enemies that rely heavily on elemental tricks.

Tips and Tricks

It’s very easy to get carried away with using Sillymander in an offensive capacity but don’t overlook some of the support tricks it learns. Sillymander and its other forms learn a variety of tricks that can lock your opponent in place or cause a variety of status effects that can really help some of your slower allies catch up.

If you’ve got any unique tricks for using Sillymander or a familiar you think it works great with, let us and everyone else know in the comments section below!

Learn more about other familiars like Toko, Oroboros, Mite, Lumberwood, and more.