Back to playing this. Dropped it when I got into MHW then got inundated with games and it got pushed further back.
Went to buy the Maxima DLC expansion and found I'd already bought it but hadn't installed.
Working on leveling up my Malboro. In a few more levels it can evolve into a Malboro Menace. Not sure if it's better. When you evolve you carry over stats but not all abilities so previous forms remain unique to an extent.
I'm mainly playing with status effect monsters. Malboro has Bad Breath which inflicts several at once.
I just got this little eye robot and when I stacked with Malboro and the human character I got a combined move called Hex Eye which inflicts a few statuses.
I forgot what that video said, but you get new moves with certain combinations.