A typical Monster Compendium entry.
Also called a "monster encyclopedia" or "bestiary", this is a feature of various RPGs that allows you to review the types of enemies, monsters, and beasts (if not more) that you've encountered, battled, and slain throughout your quest. Related to the Enemy Scan, except that while the Scan is a tool you use during actual combat, the Monster Compendium is a reference guide for you to peruse later at your discretion.
The amount of actual information shown on a given Monster Compendium page varies from game to game; it can range from mere Flavor Text to a full blueprint of the enemy's statistics (including elemental affinities, money and item drops), possibly even tips for battling them more easily. Occasionally, you may gain the ability to summon the said enemies or utilize their powers by filling in a Monster Compendium page.
As a rule of thumb, Monster Compendiums always start as an empty book, with information on each monster appearing only after you've encountered a monster "in the wild" (this avoids spoiling the player about future monsters or, especially, Boss Battles to come). Sometimes you must actually slay the beast before it will appear on the Compendium's pages, or you need to register it by using the Enemy Scan; on the other hand, sometimes merely spotting the beast on the field is enough to unlock its corresponding Compendium entry. In some games, the Monster Compendium will unlock only a partial entry at first, and you'll need to repeat the unlock (possibly multiple times) to reveal the full entry. There may also be different unlock requirements for different pieces of information. For example, loot that Randomly Drops may be listed only after successfully receiving it.
Achieving 100% Completion on a Monster Compendium (i.e. registering every enemy type in the entire game) is tough work — some monsters, like the Metal Slime, are naturally elusive and thus difficult to register an entry for (especially when you have to successfully defeat them); different variations of the same monster archetype might have different Compendium entries; and some monsters only appear in specific places (or times) requiring the player to really search to find them. Most annoyingly some Compendium entries are permanently missable if they aren't scanned or slain (or otherwise registered) at the first opportunity you get to do so. Fortunately, completing the Compendium is always optional, although some games may actually reward the player (in some manner) for full completion.
Often part of a much broader Lore Codex. In horror-flavored works, the Compendium may be something of a Tome of Eldritch Lore, because the creatures it describes tend to be pretty darned eldritch. The Monster Compendium is a commonly added feature of a Video Game Remake if the original version didn't have one to begin with; it's also one element that generally carries over to a New Game Plus. See also All There in the Manual.
A subtrope of Mon Tech.
Examples:
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Anime
- Pokémon the Series: The Pokédex appears frequently, and, at times, is of use to the protagonists beyond merely identifying species of Pokémon. In three instances, it serves to ruin Meowth's disguise, as it identifies him as a Meowth (rather than the Sunflora, Nuzleaf, and Kirlia, respectively, that he's dressed up as). It has more functions in the game as it is used as an I.D for the owner and it can identify moves that an individual Pokémon can use in battle. In Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, the Pokédex is a full-fledged character in itself as it incorporates a Rotom into it, becoming the Rotom Pokédex.
Fan Works
- The Keys Stand Alone: George becomes a number of exotic creatures that he hadn't done in With Strings Attached but won't explain where he learned about them. The others wonder about this but respect his privacy and don't press. Later, near the end of the book, after they've learned that they're actually in a giant MMORPG, George immediately cries out, “That's what I've been trying to tell you!” Not that he knew all along that they were in a game, but that he'd learned about his new monsters by poring over gaming books and magazines that he'd had his assistants dig up for him. Durothé apologetically explains that she cast a spell on him (all four, actually, which is why they didn't press him) to make him not think about games and gaming, because it would have been disastrous if the four figured out what was going on before she could get to them.
Gamebooks
- Space Assassin: You can get your hands on an item called the "Digital Encyclopedia", which can identify the various kind of mutants and abominations on board the ship of the Mad Scientist main villain you're opposing. The book tends to be rather creative when it comes to describing monsters, for instance referring to a Toroid as a "giant doughnut with teeth".
Literature
- The Bestiary is a 2016 book involving editor Ann VanderMeer (Jeff Vandermeer's wife) and China Miéville providing artwork and a story. The Bestiary is a book containing 28 fictional beasts with accompanying short stories from writers from the New Weird and other fantastical speculative fiction genres including Catherynne M. Valente.
- Dracopedia and its follow-up Dracopedia: The Great Dragons by William Connor, are field guides to the habitat and biology of the many dragon species.
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a guide to the magical beasts which exist in the world of Harry Potter.
- Impossible Creatures (2023) The book begins or ends (depending on the edition) with the Guardian's Bestiary, which lists most of the magical creatures who live in the Archipelago. In-Universe, Frank Aureate wrote it, and he gives it to Christopher when it's time to tell him their family are guardians of the Waybetween.
- InCryptid has a field guide in the back of each book briefly describing the cryptids encountered so far in the novels. The author's website has a much more comprehensive version
, complete with illustrations.
- Invisible Beasts by Sharona Muir is a small press book involving the documentation of many normally invisible beasts as seen by an amateur naturalist who's family has an intergenerational gift for seeing the invisible. Note that humans are a type of beast and one example are the Keen-Ears who are short, hairy humans that can hear the blood pulsing through the veins of a distant animal.
- The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide, an extensive and detailed compendium of magical creatures penned by Arthur Spiderwick. It has considerable value in-universe, as it's the most comprehensive study of these beings in existence — humanity as a whole doesn't know of the magical world, and most intelligent magical beings lack humanity's drive to obsessively pick things apart to learn from them — and as such a lot of people would like to get their hands on it.
- The Spook's Bestiary is a supplemental bestiary of the supernatural creatures featured in The Wardstone Chronicles and includes the means of hunting and defeating them as this book is a guide for those in the Spook occupation.
Live-Action TV
- Teen Wolf: Allison's family, who have been hunters of supernatural creatures for centuries, keep record of everything they've ever hunted. Stiles knows that it's called a bestiary and thinks that it's probably an old book. Allison remembers that she's seen her grandfather with a book like that, and she, Stiles and Scott decide that they need to read it. Later, it turns out that the real bestiary is on a flash drive, and the book that they went to such great lengths to get hold of is actually a cookbook.
- Supernatural: In the earlier seasons, John Winchester's journal serves as the main reference for the creatures Sam and Dean hunted, but they then started consulting Bobby's library and ended up finding the Men of Letters library. Eventually, Charlie wrote an iPad app for this.
- Charmed (1998): The Book of Shadows serves as this, containing entries on the various types of hostile monsters and demons that the sisters encountered (or, at least, everything that their ancestors had encountered before them; sometimes, they would face a threat that would not have been documented previously). It also contained spells and potion recipes, and the sisters themselves would add to it as they mastered their craft.
- Ultra Series: Many attack teams keep profiles of kaiju that either they or previous teams faced so as to have the means to take them down easier in case of a return.
- Ultraman Mebius: GUYS has access to files from all the previous attack teams in the M78 universe, allowing them to prepare themselves for the many returning kaiju and aliens in the show. The only creatures missing in their databases are some such as Nova, which first appeared on Earth after its show's attack team, MAC, was wiped out leaving no one able to make a file based on it.
- Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: ZAP Spacy carries on GUYS' files, but they also got information on Kaiju that had never shown up prior. Sometimes these archives will pop up at the end of an episode detailing a monsters' power and abilities which also started a tradition for later shows to follow.
Tabletop Games
- Almost any pen-and-paper RPG ever conceived has additional material in the form of "Monster Manuals". However, they mostly aren't available in-character; they are reference material primarily for the Game Master's world-building. Much more common in fantasy, space fantasy, or sci-fi RPGs than in modern horror or historical, where the antagonists are usually the same things as the NPCs. The Trope Namer is the old Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Compendiums, which in the game's earlier editions were batches of monsters specific to different themed settings that were sold in a packet. Making lore checks allows players to make an Enemy Scan of sorts.
- The Book of Unremitting Horror was originally D20 supplement but was then reworked to be used for Fear Itself and The Esoterrorists. As such this monster compendium is treated as files and case studies of the various creatures from the Outer Dark and how the Ordo Veritas has dealt with them using modern detective work and occasionally military-grade firepower.
- One of Magic: The Gatherings sets based on Dungeons & Dragons has one of these. Since Monster Manuals are game sourcebooks that don't actually exist in-universe, this qualifies as Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Also...
- Call of Cthulhu and other horror games inspired by the work of H. P. Lovecraft, though, there are often in-setting compendia — Tomes of Eldritch Lore that the heroes must consult, at terrible risk to their sanity, in order to understand what they are fighting.
- An article by Phil Masters on dungeon-delving in the Discworld Roleplaying Game introduces the Order of Subterranean Taxonomy, a group of monks who really do make Monster Manual type books in-universe, and who join delving expeditions to research the monsters.
Video Games
- The Alliance Alive has one that can only be accessed from a Library Guild Tower. It contains information such as HP, dropped items, a description, the enemy's 3D model, and a list of its attacks, which you can see being performed. Some enemies such as Beastfolk soldiers aren't listed.
- Ancient Domains of Mystery and NetHack have their own varieties. ADOM comes complete with some easter eggs thrown in — try entering the Creator's name, the names of several playtesters, or the name of your own character.
- Angband: Built up over multiple plays. Your characters are assumed to pass down a log of their experiences. The first time one of your characters runs into a monster, you get minimal information. As you encounter more of them, do damage, and take damage, the log automatically fills with lower and upper bounds of damage, AC, and hit points. In most variants it will also record damage resistances and immunities, attack types, known spells and spell-like abilities, apparent intelligence, and so forth as these things become visible to the character.
- ANNO: Mutationem: Alongside the Lore Codex, there's a database listing all enemies that were scanned, providing an exposition on them, details about each of their abilities, and their total health/armor points.
- Atlantica Online has an interesting variation in that each enemy of a type you kill has a chance to give you its Monster Info, split into three parts: General, Location, and Items. Getting the complete Info also increases the number of items dropped. The Info can be shared between players and is sometimes required for a certain quest, probably the most concrete use of this trope in gaming history. The game additional also offers tons of information about NPCs, items and other points of interest without the need to unlock it (though information about which monster drops items is obviously tied to the Monster Info).
- The Battle Cats has the Enemy Guide, a list of all monsters you've defeated, each one having a ridiculous bit of text describing them. Since it was added early on in the game's life and hasn't been updated the way that the Cat Guide was, it's just a long list with one enemy after the other, but thankfully the scroll bar at the top can be used to quickly get to the section a given monster is located in.
- Bayonetta has the Hierarchy of Laguna, which provides you with a summary of what the enemy in question's role is and where they rank amongst the other angels (First Sphere, Second Sphere, etc).
- The Binding of Isaac has one featured in Afterbirth+, which chronicles the amount of times you've encountered, killed, were hurt by, and were killed by individual enemies and bosses, though it's a bit buggy, particularly when it comes to multi-segmented bosses like Larry Jr. and adding an "encounter" to Delirium's encounters every time it transforms. Completing it unlocks the "Feels Like I'm Walking On Sunshine!" pill.
- BIONICLE: Maze of Shadows has one of these that fills up with entries after you defeat the monsters.
- Bookworm Adventures: The Tome of Knowledge, which allows you to replay the enemies' attack, hit and defeat animations, as well as read their flavor text. In Volume 2, it also lists the Easter eggs you've found, as well as mention which work (if any) each enemy is inspired by.
- Bravely Default: There's a compendium as part of the larger D's Journal, which also has character profiles and tells what abilities you can learn from them. As the game is a Genre Throwback to the earliest Final Fantasy tiles (which as mentioned above have this feature in their remakes, this makes sense.
- Bubble Tanks 2 has this. One of the enemies (Sapper Fighter) was unobtainable, however, as a bug in the game made it such that it never appeared at all.
- Cassette Beasts: A Bestiary with entries on monsters you've seen or recorded can be accessed from the pause menu. One NPC in Harbourtown, Hoylake, is working on compiling information on monsters and gives you quests related to filling out the Bestiary.
- Castlevania: These provide details on the enemies and bosses found along the way:
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night puts it in the shop/library, but each enemy and boss will only count as registered when, after meeting it for the first time, you return to that location (this includes the last two bosses, so you'll need to use a Library Card in the midst of the battle against Dracula in order to include him and Shaft as well).
- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance: The Monster Tome has to be found to unlock the Secret Info: Encyclopedia, monsters are filled in as they're defeated.
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Monsters are filled in as they're defeated.
- Chrono Trigger: While not present in the original version, the remake includes a bestiary to describe the monsters fought over the course of the adventure.
- Cursed Treasure: The "Evilopedia" in the second game has descriptions regarding the towers and their upgrade path, the human enemies faced in the game ("Enemies", "Champions", and "Bosses"), the spells, structures like the Mana Pool, and the scrolls dropped by enemies.
- Dead Ahead Zombie Warfare: The Zombiepedia records any enemies the player have encountered, listing their stats alongside a short description. (Some of which are misleading or outdated.)
- Devil May Cry: The first game contains elaborate monster descriptions (called "Enemy Files") which grow more detailed as you fight them, recording every attack they use against you. The sequels also have Enemy Files, but they only have short descriptions, paragraphs or Flavor Text, and by nature, are static text without the gimmick of recording every attack information.
- By completing secret in-game tasks in Dicey Dungeons, you unlock profiles for the various enemies, listing their hobbies and motivation for participating in Lady Luck's game.
- Divine Divinity has a log for all the monsters you killed the game. It will also include harmless animals and innocent people that you've slaughtered.
- Dragon Age and Mass Effect both have a giant encyclopedia called a Codex that tells you tons about the setting. For the latter, it's written from the perspective that it's an in-universe encyclopedia with certain facts known by players and Shepards being incorrect such as Sovereign being called Saren Arterius's flagship and not as a Reaper while still being educating on things never shown such as the summary of the Krogan Rebellion or information on other species such as the elcor.
- Dragon Quest:
- The DS remakes of IV, V and VI have the Big Book of Beasts, which shows you every type of enemy you've fought, as well as how many you've beaten, how easy they are to recruit in V (though you shouldn't trust those chances too much), what items you've gotten from them, and their in-battle sprite. You can even press A to see their attack animations.
- VIII has a similar monster list, which also shows their character models and allows you to see their attack animations. Completing the monster list by defeating one of every monster (including bosses) netted you a secret item that would eliminate random encounters.
- IX had the defeated monster list, which showed the models, animations, and obtained drops of all the defeated monsters. The Thief ability "Eye For Trouble" added a second page of flavor text and revealed all the items the monster can drop.
- Endless Ocean has a non-violent version of this, as the player's whole role (before you start receiving threatening e-mails that Vagueness Is Coming) is to catalog the various creatures found around a fictional south Pacific coral reef. You do this by interacting with them.
- Epic Battle Fantasy: These appear starting from the second game, with the second game having 27 entries and the third game having 75. You fill them by using the scan ability.note Filling the Bestiary also gives you medals, which is required to access secret areas in 3.
- Eternal Darkness has the highly memorable autopsy reports conducted on anatomically impossible creatures by a man losing his mind from dealing with them. Said man turns out to be Maximilian Roivas, Alex's ancestor, and once you find them, they get added to the titular Tome of Eldritch Lore as part of its Lore Codex function.
- Etrian Odyssey: The games have the Monstrous Index, which provides a brief description of each enemy, FOE, boss and Mini-Boss encountered so far, as well as their drops, resistances and weaknesses.
- Final Fantasy didn't always have these, but the remakes of I through VI have them, as do some of the newer games.
- Final Fantasy XII in particular, is known for its heavy use of Purple Prose and Antiquated Linguistics in its monster descriptions. Killing a certain number of a given monster unlocks further monster lore, usually about whatever Loot item the creature drops. The lore gives implications that several monster species (like the early-game werewolves, and Malboro Kings) used to be humans, and there are many ways that a slain person will later rise up as a zombie of some variety.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: Monsters have a hidden "Libra" statistic, usually less than 100. Completing that monster's Bestiary entry requires you to accumulate 1000 points. There is an accessory which speeds things up a little.
- Genshin Impact has two: the Enemies section in your Adventurer Handbook and the Living Beings section in your main Archive. The former acts more like a utility piece as it lists each type of enemy, what levels they are currently at relative to your World Rank, what items they carry, and where they can be found. The latter (introduced in Version 1.3) is for general completion purposes, as it lists every distinct enemy and allows you to view their models with some flavor text. They can be added by simply defeating them in battle, and the Archive also includes non-enemy wildlife and the pets in settlements.
- Hades: The "Perilous Foes" section of the Codex serves as a bestiary of enemies that can be encountered in each biome. Compared to the usual examples of this trope, it leans more towards Flavor Text, however, since the Codex entries are written by Achilles and contain his perspectives on them.
- Harry Potter: In the video game adaptations of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, you are given such a compendium. In the GBC RPG and its successor on GBA, you have to cast Informus on enemies to obtain their entries. In the home console version of Prisoner of Azkaban, the book for some reason only contains the Dementor's page when first obtained.
- Hollow Knight has the Hunter's Journal you get from the Hunter in Greenpath, which provides a name and brief description of all the creatures you can fight in the game. Killing enough of each opponent provides an additional blurb from the Hunter himself. For enemies that cannot be killed, there are hidden areas scattered around the map that are related to the enemy somehow, and which will fill in their Hunter's Journal entry when inspected. One entry is automatically filled in when you obtain the Journal: the Player Character's Shade, which only appears when you die, which is provided for free as an Anti-Frustration Feature for people playing in Steel Soul Mode.
- In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, the bestiary of Vertumnan fauna, which provides a brief summary of the alien creatures you encounter on the planet, can be viewed any time at the expedition outpost.
- Infinitode: The Handbook has a section for enemies, describing their traits and tower resistances.
- In Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, the Frogedex documents all 512 frog species: 64 possible primary and secondary color combos for each of the eight patterns, along with their spawn rates in each wetland and their favorite food. There's an achievement for collecting them all.
- Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls works a little differently, since you don't complete the bestiary by defeating the various enemies, but by finding all of the notebooks scattered everywhere in the game world.
- Kingdom Hearts: There's a bestiary maintained by Jiminy Cricket. It also has Character profiles. In Kingdom Hearts II you can also use it to view their reaction commands (and how many times they have been used), while Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and its remake also shows the cards you collected so far.
- Kingdom of Loathing has the donation item Monster Manuel, a haunted monster codex which records monster stats and gives out amusing factoids as you defeat them, as well as letting you obtain items from certain monsters that change your avatar's appearance to said monster.
- Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards has a series of cards which could be collected at the end of a stage. They depict the monsters of the game, including the bosses. Thanks to their random nature, it's possible to get cards for enemies far earlier than you would encounter them; the boss cards are yours after you defeat them.
- Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal has a Bestiary. It only unlocks the full data for each enemy after beating several dozens of them. In the case of bosses, it is needed to fight the rematch for each one in the Momett House.
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails series has the Combat Notebook, a journal that records and lists all of the statistics and details of every enemy encountered.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker features one composed of statues of all the enemies (and the NPCs, too) with short descriptions of each. So how do you fill this out? Three pictograph pictures at a time, one statue a day/night cycle (done faster in the Wii U remake with twelve pictures at a time, three statues a cycle).
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap has a figurine collection, though with a different method of obtaining them. Figurines are obtained by spending Mysterious Seashells at a dispenser machine, with your chances of getting one you don't have yet based on how many figurines you have and how many shells you spend. Most of the figurines are available from the get-go, but others (like bosses, including the final boss) have to be unlocked by progressing through the game and then won from the drawing.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has the Hyrule Compendium feature, a Lore Codex that also covers weapons, flora, fauna and treasures in addition to monsters. Each entry is filled in by photographing the subject with the Sheikah Slate's Camera rune, with the photos you took becoming the icons in the Compendium. They can be replaced by later pictures as long as the subject registers on camera. If you want guaranteed clear photos or have missed a chance to take a picture of something — the game's Level Scaling means that weak monsters are gradually replaced by stronger variants, removing the ability to photograph them — photos can also be purchased from Symin in the tech lab where you get the Camera feature. However, each regular photo costs 100 Rupees while photos of bosses cost 500 Rupees each.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also features the Hyrule Compendium.
- The Legendary Starfy: In the first four games, you get entries by talking to friendly characters and defeating enemies (And getting damaged by the invincible ones). In The Legendary Starfy, they are unlocked via a random-chance toy machine, which makes getting the last few entries a pain.
- MapleStory has a codex that stores information on enemies the player has killed after the player obtains the larger cards with a colored background they have a chance to drop, after which they can see that enemy's health, mana, and item drops. The game tries its best to prevent monsters from becoming permanently lost, such as the Prime Minister boss in the Mushroom Kingdom level who can only be fought once but has his card obtainable from a friendly NPC in case the player misses it.
- MARDEK has an included Bestiary from its Encyclopedia section, which also includes other information obtained throughout the game.
- Mega Man Zero: The collectible secret disks contain data of enemies, bosses and characters, which you can check at Cerveau after you acquire them in the stages (or by talking to people at the base).
- Metroid Prime Trilogy: The log function records not just enemy information, but almost anything you can scan, including item pickups, puzzle mechanisms, local/ancient lore, and so on.
- Monster Hunter:
- Starting with Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (the fifth installment), the series has one within the Hunter's Notes. Instead of flling in naturally (by hunting the monsters), you have to buy them yourself, and it only shows your kill count of said monster and some lore facts about it. So if you want to know what's the monster's weakness, you have to figure it out yourself... or use a guide. Thankfully, later games rectify this: Monster Hunter Generations has a character who updates your Notes as you hunt the monsters, providing one extra page in the recorded entries which goes into detail on how to deal with such creatures. Monster Hunter: World introduced a more useful version of the Hunter's Notes that unlocks info on monster weaknesses and part drop rates as you research the monsters via following tracks and traces, breaking vulnerable parts, and slaying or capturing them.
- Monster Hunter: Stories has two Monsterpedias: one for wild monsters, and one for playable monsties. You get a reward whenever you defeat or hatch a species for the first time. Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin does away with the rewards, but it adds a third encyclopedia for genes.
- Monster Sanctuary has the Monster Journal, which contains lore and unique artwork for every monster encountered in addition to their item drop rates. It's mainly sorted by area, with the exception of monsters added to secret rooms after most of an area was initially developed (such as the Manticorb), and the superbosses.
- Mother 3 has the Battle Memory, which not only gives you info on all the enemies but lets you practice fighting them in safety. Collecting all of them (including the front and back sprites) unlocks some extra features. Said compendium is ridiculously hard to complete thanks to UniqueEnemies, Permanently Missable Content, and the fact that the game moves on in chapters. If you're not following a guide all the time, it's impossible in practice. And if you can only fight an enemy one time, you'd better remember to turn it around to get the back sprite.
- Mousehunt has one for all the mice that can be caught in the game. It also features Flavor Text and shows the number you have caught.
- MS Saga: A New Dawn has one for all of the bad guys and it's possible to get all but one due to being out of the way and only available during one part early in the game.
- Ōkami has an encyclopedia of monsters you encounter, all gorgeously illustrated. It also provides hints on any weaknesses the monster might have.
- Operation Salvage, a video game based on the Walking with Beasts series, includes a database which the player helps to fill by scanning animals and enemy equipment. It also includes information on your equipment, the plantlife in particular time periods, and a lot of other related information.
- Opoona has the Rogue Book. Completing it is actually a sidequest you can get rewards for, and it's more difficult than it appears — some enemies are vanishingly rare.
- Panzer Dragoon Orta has an in-game encyclopedia that contains lore for all the bosses and enemies that you have defeated, such as mutants, pure-type monsters, Imperial machines, and digital lifeforms.
- Pikmin: Starting with the second game, each title has had one in some shape or form. To wit:
- Pikmin 2 features the Piklopedia, which allows players to observe any creatures that have previously been defeated (alongside decorative plants that have been run into) and throw Pikpik Carrots at them to see how they will interact. Additionally, it lists how many Pokos the creature is worth when carried back to the Ship (when applicable), how many Pikmin have been lost to the creature in question (when applicable), and how many of said creature have been defeated (when applicable). Finally, each creature has a description in the form of "Olimar's Notes", which describes the creature from a scientific point of view, presented as notes from the titular captain. Defeating the final boss unlocks a second set of these notes, focusing on Louie and how to properly cook and eat them (when applicable), to varying results. It has distinct sections for regular enemies and bosses and also lists scenery plants.
- Pikmin 3: While not present in the original game, Pikmin 3 Deluxe includes a new Piklopedia, this time listing how many times the creature in question has been killed and where it's usually found, alongside a video demonstration of the creature. Each of the five playable captains has notes describing the creatures; Olimar and Louie follow the same trends they did in 2, while the three Koppai captains have unique outlooks, with Alph taking an engineer's look and describing the creature's structure, strengths, and weaknesses, Brittany describing the creature's appearance and habits, and Charlie noting the creature's attacking techniques and how to fight them.
- Hey! Pikmin features the Creature Log, which displays a model of the creature and a silhouette of a Pikmin to compare the sizes. Again, descriptions for each creature from Olimar's point of view return, though unlike previous entries, it instead lists his personal thoughts on the creature rather than scientific notes.
- Pikmin 4 sees the return of the Piklopedia, unlocked by rescuing the castaway Dalmo. In addition to his comments, the Piklopedia allows you to engage the enemies in training battles, so you can learn their patterns without risking losing your Pikmin for real. As with Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Olimar and Louie have their own comments which are unlocked after reaching certain points in the story.
- Planescape: Torment has a detailed and illustrated encyclopedia of just about everything you encounter in the game, enemy or not.
- Plants vs. Zombies has the Suburban Almanac (a reference to the real-life Farmer's Almanac), which not only contains info on the zombies, it also gives info about your own plants. In addition to useful information, each entry contains humorous Flavor Text that gives more characterization to a game otherwise short on it.
- Pokémon:
- The main series has the Pokédex, which lists every Pokémon you've seen and gives more details on the ones you've actually owned at some point (even if you've evolved, released, or traded them since). From the series' third generation until its sixth, all games begin with a regional Pokedex listing only the Mons native to an individual region, and upgrade it to the National Dex later (usually after beating the game), which lists every Mon in the series up to that point. Pokémon Sun and Moon omit the National Pokédex due to it instead being included in the companion application Pokémon Bank. For the next generation, Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet similarly leave out the National 'Dex, instead having separate Pokédexes for the main regions (Galar and Paldea) and both DLC areas in each game (the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra for the former games, Kitakami and Blueberry Academy plus the new paradox and Legendary Pokémon for the latter games). Since the expansion areas have a lot of the same creatures as the main areas, this means you can start them with over half of the entries already filled in. The National 'Dex is still found in Pokémon HOME, the successor to Pokémon Bank.
- Pokémon Colosseum and its sequel do not give the player a Pokedex, but a "P*DA" instead which performs similar functions: The "Snag List" / "Shadow Monitor" options display information relating to Shadow Pokemon only, while the "Strategy Memo" displays information about any Mon the player has seen in battle. Like the Pokémon Stadium games before them, the player can also view and rotate the Mons' 3D models from any angle.
- Pokémon Ranger does not use a Pokédex either, instead giving the player a "Ranger Browser" which logs every Mon the player has captured in battle and can search through them according to a Mon's field move or elemental Assist type.
- Pokédex 3D and Pokedex 3D Pro, are 3DS apps that are primarily a Monster Compendium, with a few other bonus features besides. The original was released as a stand-alone version of the Unova Regional Pokeédex, while Pro was an upgraded National 'Dex that also included Kalos. Unfortunately, it has not been updated to include any new regions since, likely because an Pokédex function was included in both Pokémon Bank and Pokémon HOME.
- Pronty has one that's literally called a "Monster Compendium", which adds an entry every time you encounter a new enemy or boss. Oddly enough, said compendium lists you (a fish-boy) as well as your Robot Buddy.
- Quest for Glory II: The VGA remake adds a monster compendium to the game, which offers a lot of hints that are very useful due to the upgraded combat system. A new side-quest is also added to the game, and the compendium is the reward for completing it.
- Rakenzarn Tales grants you one in Chapter 6 after Nodoka joins the party. However, since it's impossible to fight every enemy in the game, since some bosses require you to face one form in exchange for the other, you can never get every entry in a single playthrough.
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando has the Monsterpedia. Most enemies you fight are added to the list, along with a picture of them, a brief description, and their stats (health, defense, toughness, and damage). At any point, the list can be accessed from the Help section of the pause menu.
- R-Type Final has a compendium that slowly fills as you rack up kills against those enemies.
- RuneScape has the Slayer Codex, a book of almost every monster in the game that you can assigned to kill by a Slayer Master. In order to complete the Slayer Codex, you must capture a soul from each monster using an item called an Ushabti, which has a chance of capturing a monster's soul every time you kill one, and then turn it in at the sunken pyramid.
- Sabrewulf provides two compendiums, one for "good creatures" and one for "bad creatures." Since the game emphasizes avoidance over combat, you get information on the latter as soon as they appear rather than having to defeat them first.
- Scathe provides a mini-screen on your left that flashes new information whenever you encounter a never-before seen enemy.
- Serious Sam: NETRICSA provides this for each new enemy Sam kills, except the bosses, whose description pops out as soon as they do.
- Shadow Hearts has the Library, which adds entries for every monster you encounter. Covenant and From The New World add their stats and other pertinent information if you take the enemy's picture. There's a reward for getting every enemy; since the game is counting the Final Boss you have to get it on a New Game Plus.
- Shin Megami Tensei:
- Shin Megami Tensei II had the demons you ally stored in the Compendium. This trend continued throughout the entire franchise, and has gameplay purposes beyond being a mere bestiary: as you fuse together your demon allies, the original ones are lost. However, if you recorded your customized demons in the Compendium, you can summon them again and again as long as you have the funds, and use them once more as allies or fusion fodder. Additionally, more recent versions of the Compendium explain the mythology behind each demon.
- Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Both games have, besides the Persona Compendium, the Enepedia, which collects information on the different Shadows you have defeated.
- Skeletal Avenger: The Monsterpedia, which is located in the sorcerer's lair, has information on every monster encountered in the game.
- Solasta: Crown of the Magister has a page with all the monsters and bosses that you've fought. After slaying a monster, your characters will make a DC to see if they improve the monster's lore. Success will give you more entries in the log with additional information, such as feats, skills, saving throws, spells, special abilities, etc.
- Soul Sacrifice: Librom, a sapient diary, contains lore entries for not only the Archfiends and the Foul Creatures, but also the game's entire world.
- Spelunky's HD remake features a journal which fills out with information about enemies, locales, items and traps as you encounter them.
- Spore Creatures: The Sporepedia's Species Guide allows you to view each of the core creatures you have encountered, their stats, available Bio-Powers, the number of them you've killed and befriended, and some brief flavor text about them. There's also the Saved Creatures guide which allows something similar with any player-made creations, albeit without descriptions.
- Starcraft II has the stats for every unit (yours and the enemy's) available in the menu. It even tells you which units are best used to counter each other.
- Strider (2014) features "Character Intel" collectables, which provide some backstory and a model viewer of most enemies and bosses in the game.
- Sudeki: Has a Monster Compendium that starts out blank and grows as you encounter and kill various enemies in the game. It lists their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how best to defeat them.
- The Suffering has detailed entries of all freakish enemies in both games.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Paper Mario:
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has one, although scanning in the first game (as well as the second) also provides a permanent benefit in that you can see the health bars of all further enemies of that type you'll encounter. Thousand-Year Door also avoids one- or two-time entries being lost if you check Professor Frankly's trash can.
- Super Paper Mario turns this feature into a card collection sidequest. Monster cards detail each creature's stats and give you an attack boost against it. Cards drop from enemies but can also be bought at stores in true TCG-style booster packs.
- Paper Mario: The Origami King has the Origami Characters gallery in the Musée Champignon, which lists each kind of enemy that Mario has already defeated in each major in-game area alongside a picture and brief description.
- Luigi's Mansion:
- Luigi's Mansion: The Game Boy Horror has a profile section for the Portrait Ghosts Luigi has captured; the information includes their age, their hobbies (whether before or after death), and on rare occasions how they died.
- Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Luigi's Mansion 3 have E. Gadd's Vault, where the ghosts Luigi has captured in his quests (both in the story mode and in the Scarescraper) are recorded. Each ghost type (be it mook, mini-boss or boss) has its own log entry.
- Super Princess Peach has the Glossary, a list of every enemy and boss that Peach has defeated on the current save file; for invincible enemies such as Big Chain Chomps and Urchins, their glossary entries are unlocked simply by encountering them. Each page includes a brief writeup that either describes the enemy/boss in question or gives a hint on how to defeat them.
- Yoshi's Island DS has a museum of enemies, which are added by hitting them with an egg in the main game.
- Wario: Master of Disguise has a subsection on the treasure guide that lists every enemy Wario has defeated, along with a description of them. If you haven't defeated the enemy yet, there will be a silhouette of them. The bosses, however, do not have a silhouette and have their own pages that appear after completing the level.
- Abducted Toad: In this fangame, there are a different number of Info Discs scattered in each level that show information on each enemy and boss in the game and how some of them came to be.
- The Super Mario RPG remake includes a Monster List which has details about every monster and boss you encountered and marks an entry as complete if you used Mallow's Thought Peek (originally named Psychopath in English) on them which also adds their thoughts. There's a Monster Guide Agent who will fill in any missing entries to avoid Permanently Missable Content. As a bonus, they'll complete the entries before Mallow joined you for free, where you couldn't have used Thought Peek on them.
- Paper Mario:
- Super Robot Wars has one for all characters and mecha, both good and evil. Even more, the pilots tend to have soundbites you can play where they say popular phrases. The same goes for its Gundam-only counterpart SD Gundam G Generation.
- Super Smash Bros.: While it's not the main focus of it, the trophy collection doubles as this, especially in Brawl, as it features a trophy and profile for every non playable enemy in the games.
- Tales Series:
- Tales of Symphonia gives Raine a title if you fill in 100% of all enemies, which are automatically logged when encountered. It's still a good idea to scan them, though, as it will give you information that simply seeing them won't (Health, Weaknesses, etc). However, to truly complete the book, you need to use Raine to scan them. Otherwise, you'll lack their location info.
- Tales of Vesperia: Building a compendium is one of the game's major sidequests for one of your characters who is a monster hunter.
- Terraria has one included in "Journey's End" update, which adds entries about NPCs, critters, enemies, and bosses. The bestiary describes the lore of the entities, their stats, and their drops. The entries need to be filled out depending on how much experience the player had with the entity in question. For critters, it's how many the player came in close proximity with. For NPCs, it's how much they chatted with them. For enemies, it's how much were killed, with more additional info being revealed depending on the kill count, with 50 kills completely filling out the entry. For bosses, the player only has to kill one.
- Touhou Project: The Universe Compendium Perfect Memento in Strict Sense is also one of these, the only official source for information on the various youkai that inhabit Gensoukyou.
- ULTRAKILL: The Terminal contains lore entries for all of the enemies encountered by V1, although they have to be defeated to unlock their lore. Simply encountering the enemy at least unlocks their strategies on how to deal with them effectively.
- Vagrant Story has one which lists the monsters, a written description of the creature and a listing of its elemental resistances.
- Warframe: Scanning enemies adds entries to your codex detailing info about them, including their stats, their weaknesses, their locations and what they drop. Most entries require scanning multiple enemies to complete an entry. Entries about Index combatants and Rathuum executioneers fill out automatically as you meet them (since you can't use scanners there).
- Warhammer Online: The Tome of Knowledge keeps track of the types and numbers of monsters you've killed. Killing certain numbers of them will sometimes reward the player with things like titles.
- The Witcher has an extensive bestiary. Note that you have to acquire that information first through various means. The entries give tips to the monsters' weaknesses and many body parts and alchemy ingredients that you can only collect if you have the appropriate entry.
- The World Ends with You keeps a database of all the Noise you've defeated. It also lists the pins that they drop, combined with the difficulty required, and drop rate. Of course, you actually have to have defeated them at whatever level for it to list. Cue a lot of players getting frustrated at Sho Minamimoto, and the various Elephant Noise.
- Wuthering Waves: The Data Bank system allows players to record the reverberations of the echoes of Tacet Discords they absorbed using their terminals. Keeping an archive of them to revist later, whether it's to find specific information, track down more of them or just to take a look.
- X-COM: The UFOpedia, which contains information on the enemies that you researched after capturing or killing them, as well as their ships, their weapons, their useless but interesting technology, and their society. It also contains all the relevant information on your ships, weapons, items, and base facilities, making it the one-stop-shop for any info you're looking for. Spiritual Successors like the UFO After Blank trilogy, UFO Extraterrestrials and Xenonauts feature a similar mechanic.
- Xenoblade Chronicles X has the Enemy Index, which lists most species of enemy in the game (a few non-unique mission enemies are not recorded), along with their stats and material drops. More information is added as members of each sub-species is defeated (except for bosses and Tyrants). It also displays some notes about the species' biology or culture, and certain special Tyrants may have additional details about them.
Web Comics
- Astral Aves has one from the "monsters'" point of view, describing various human characters.
Web Animation
- Star Wars: Galaxy of Creatures is a look into various creatures of the Star Wars universe, giving facts and information about various creatures of the galaxy, with the end of each episode capping off with extra ones, such as creature size, coloration, and diets.
Web Original
- Goodbye Strangers is a bestiary dedicated to cataloging the mysterious, semi-tangible creatures called Strangers. Solid and visible but completely unnoticed to most of the world and despite resembling living organisms, they defy any known laws of nature or physics.
- Monster Girl Encyclopedia, a bestiary dedicated to cataloging all the different kinds of Cute Monster Girls in the world.
- The Wanderers Library has two books that serve this purpose, Howe's Bestiary and The Spirit World.
Western Animation
- Martin Mystery had the Legendex, a database of every supernatural creature, curse, or event known to The Center accessed through Martin's Super Wrist-Gadget.
Other
- See the Index of Fictional Creatures.