Hatch Your First Monster
Every monster in PoetryMonsters starts life as a poem. In this tutorial you will choose power words, drop them into an egg's poem template, and watch the AI generate a one-of-a-kind creature from your words.
Open your collection
From the main menu, open My Collection. This is the home for every egg and hatched monster you own. Un-hatched eggs sit at the top and show the rarity of the poem waiting inside.
Open the poem builder
Tap your egg to enter the Poem Builder. You will see the egg's poem template on the left and your available power words on the right. The poem has blanks — each blank is a slot that accepts a specific type of word.
Every slot is color-coded and labeled with the type it accepts: Element, Species, Environment, Physical Feature, Shape, Action, or Color. You can only place a word of the matching type.
Place your power words
Drag a power word from the tray onto any matching slot, or tap a slot first and then tap the word. Choose deliberately — the words you pick shape everything about the monster that will hatch: what it looks like, how it moves, how it fights.
Complete the poem and hatch
When every slot is filled, the poem reads as a short verse. The Hatch button at the bottom unlocks. Read the poem aloud if you want — the words you just placed will be the DNA the AI uses to generate the monster.
Watch the egg hatch
Hatching takes about a minute. Behind the scenes, the AI is painting a portrait, naming the creature, rolling stats, and writing all twelve of its abilities. Every one of those pieces is shaped by the words you placed. A progress view updates as each stage completes.
Meet your monster
When the pipeline finishes, you are taken to the monster's detail page. Its portrait, name, short description, stats, and abilities are all visible. Scroll to see its combat profile. This monster is now yours to battle with.
Troubleshooting
A slot won't accept my power word — why?
Each slot accepts one specific type: Element, Species, Environment, Physical Feature, Shape, Action, or Color. The slot's color and label tell you which. If your word's type doesn't match, it won't drop in — try a different slot or a different word.
The Hatch button is still greyed out.
At least one slot is still empty. Scroll the poem — the unfilled slots will be highlighted. Fill them and the button activates.
Hatching has been running for several minutes.
Image generation and several LLM passes happen in sequence. A slow pass can add a minute. You can safely navigate away and return later — your monster will be waiting in your collection.
Can two players get the same monster from the same poem?
Yes. If someone else has already hatched a monster from the exact same poem, the server reuses that result. This is rare but intentional — identical poems describe identical creatures.
Fight a Battle
Pick an ability each turn and outlast your opponent in narrated combat.