Ostentatious, pro wrestling parody Morrie is an addition to the party members available in the Nintendo 3DS version of Dragon Quest 8. By taking part in his Monster Arena side quest, and indeed defeating Morrie himself, you’ll be able to recruit him to your team, and find yourself the proud owner of by far the simplest of characters in DQ8. He has very low health and defence, as you might imagine given his age, but two fantastic build options that make him capable of dealing with both single targets and groups of enemies.
Utility Morrie
- (Boomerangs) – 100 Points
- (Passion) – 88 Points
There are two weapons that Morrie truly specialises in, and we’re focusing on one of these for his Utility build: The Boomerang. Players of the Dragon Quest series will surely be familiar with this weapon; alongside the whip it has become a quintessential ‘group’ attacking weapon, capable of dealing damage to numerous targets at the expense of damage reduction.
In the hands of Morrie, the Boomerang becomes an absolute superstar. Not only does it have Power and Super Throw, which deal full and extra damage to all enemies respectively, but it can also help you deal with Metal Slimes thanks to the Metal Mower skill. Were this not enough, 100 points will access ‘Swing Both Ways’, which deals a massive 240% regular damage to every single enemy for a meagre 10 MP!
Along with this, Morrie has some essential skills in his Passion section that will help both him and the party. 3 and 8 points will access Oomph and Sap respectively, which are both tremendous ways to boost damage. Better still at 30 points he’ll gain the Intensso skill, which boosts a friendly targets Tension level by two, and at 68 he’ll be able to buff himself with the very same. Finally, at 42 points he’ll get a self-cleanse & heal all in one, and at 88 he’ll even access the full HP resurrect skill, Kazing. All of this combines to make his Passion tree one of the most supportive and useful set of skills in the entire game.
Build Features
- Focusing on the Boomerang, this Morrie build deals tremendous damage to groups, positioning him as the premier random battle destroyer.
- The 100 point Boomerang skill, Swing Both Ways, is absolutely incredible. This hits all enemies for 240% damage, with no reduction at all, for a measly 10 MP.
- Alongside the weapon, this build takes enough points in passion to encompass buffs, tension manipulation and even a full HP resurrection spell.
- Outside of Clubs, which we really do not recommend, this is the only other way that Morrie can contribute to Metal Slime farming, through the Metal Mower Boomerang skill.
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Damage Morrie
- (Claws) – 100 Points
- (Passion) – 68 Points
If our Utility Morrie build is a fine example of group damage, then a build focused on his Claw weapon is the best possible single target option he has. We’ll get into why his alternative options are poor in our next build, but rest assured they do not get anywhere near the usefulness of the Claw when it comes to boss battles. If you’re looking for a way to bring Morrie into your post game team, look no further than this.
Things start out quite slow with Propellor Blade at 9 points, which is an attack versus one target that does normal damage but adds Morries level to the total; technically it scales quite well for a zero MP attack, but it’s not going to win any awards until very late. Things get better once you reach 40 and unlock Hardclaw, which is the Claw version of Falcon Slash, and Rake ‘n’ Break at 66, which is an attack that both deals damage and removes any buffs on the enemy. Finally, 100 points will unlock the fantastic Hand of God, which is a physical attack skill that completely ignores enemy defence, and which can also be improved further by both Oomph and player Tension levels. This last point in particular is why we take 68 points in Passion; along with the great early buffs in the skill tree, Morrie can buff his own tension at level 68, via Grande Gusto. Equip a late game Claw model, like the incredible Orichalum Claws, and watch the boss health disappear!
Build Features
- Claws feature very powerful single target skills. Hardclaw is a double attack that deals 150% damage total, and the 100 point skill Hand of God will completely ignore enemy defence!
- Passion points give you access to some great buffs, like improving a members damage with Oomph, improving their tension by two levels with Intensso, and even increasing his own by two levels with Grande Gusto.
- This is the best possible build for taking down bosses with Morrie, mainly through liberal use of full Tension Hand of God attacks.
- Some of the late game Claw models, including the post game wonder that is the Orichalum Claws.
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Ultimate Morrie Build
- (Claws) – 100 Points
- (Boomerangs) – 100 Points
- (Passion) – 88 Points
We’re not going to waste your time here; the ultimate Morrie build is essentially a combination of the previous two. Getting to this level of skill points is a stretch of course, but if you’re going to go for it then this is by far the best option. You can read our reasons for both Claws and Boomerangs above, so to summarise things evenly we’ll go into why we don’t pick any of his alternatives, Clubs or Fists.
Firstly, Clubs are the option for farming Metal Slimes with Morrie. Sure, Boomerangs have options for dealing increased damage to them, but the higher health versions will take critical hits to remove, and this is where Morrie can contribute. The problem here is that well, you’ve probably already unlocked relevant skills with other characters, and these all exist within a relevant skill tree. Axes with Yangus for example, are very good in spite of their Metal skills, whereas Clubs would offer Morrie little over either Claws or Boomerangs outside of this.
Fisticuffs are similar for Morrie, because whilst their skill list is useful, you’ve likely picked up plenty of ways to deal with enemy groups by now, and besides his Boomerang tree is infinitely better at doing so, thanks to skills like Super Throw and Swing Both Ways. Thin Air scales with Morries level too, whereas Power Throw will be influenced by a frankly excellent choice of Boomerang models available in the late game, the highlight of which has to be the powerful Metal Wing Boomerang.
Build Features
- As you might imagine, this build grabs both the best group target slaying skills from the Boomerang tree, and the single target mashing Claw skills.
- Passion is invested in to get the fantastic Tension buffs, and can be taken all the way to 88 for the full HP resurrect spell Kazing. The 100 point skill is rather poor and RNG based, though it is comical to see at least.
- There are very few benefits to investing in any other weapons for Morrie. Clubs are a possibility if you’re lacking any other Metal Slime killer. Chances are that you already have a member that takes care of this however.
- We would have prefered that another weapon had some form of defensive skill, like Defending Champion or such, because Morrie has very low health and defence. Alas no; Morrie will do a great deal of damage with any of our builds detailed, but he’ll need help defending himself from whatever team you put him in.

Categories: Dragon Quest VIII