Thanks for the detailed answer ShadyFigure! (as always) :)
The skills that the Ace Palico gets from the 1st stringers are for it only. The sub palico will only use the skills that it has on itself.
What do you mean by "that it has on itself"? When I open the Palico Skill screen I see it being divided into three part, and the last part has his forte skills. So the Sub Palico technically won't use those and only the top quest skills only?
The pdf mentions the stat modifiers in the forte section
Oh, I missed that. So I'm right by saying that all level 10 Fighting Palicos I'll recruit in game will have the same stats on that level?
Double colors won't go to the extra large size.
OK, this line in the Palico guide makes more sense now: "4 Small == 2 Large == 1 Extra Large". But I'm confused by your statement - according to the guide if I have 4 small red icons they should be worth 1 Extra large?
You'll want to pick a route where a single color will work for most of the monsters and focus on that color.
I'm only at the very start of the game and have only 2 routes to pick from. But I never encountered a route with a single color. Why this method is better then trying to pick all colors associated with the Route? It means otherwise I'll have to lose one fight?
Cutting will help with cutting off tails
In that case, I'll always pick Cutting and Large Target setup (base on the earlier question).
I'm still not clear however on two things:
Are Echo Horn, Herb Horn and Slacker Slap are unique to the Leadership forte and changing my main Palico forte means he will no longer use those? Or my main Palico will ALWAYS have those 3 skills?
Is there any benefit on manually playing Mewster Hunter? Or the Inn-keeper version is good enough?