Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, guide to the shamanic ritual

Monster Hunter Stories 2

If you have read our review of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, you know that the new Capcom title is inspired by the famous mother series, but uses its imagery in the form of a Japanese role-playing game with turn-based combat. Often associated with Pokémon for its cartoonish style and battles based on power relationships reminiscent of the Chinese morra, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is actually a very different creature. The main campaign lasts about 40 hours, but if you love customizing your monsters and building truly invincible teams you will need many more, and most of the time you will spend it on the Shamanic Ritual: in this article that serves as a bit of a guide. we explain what it is and how it works, starting from the basics.

The dens

The first hours of Monster Hunter Stories 2 are a long tutorial that explains a little bit of everything you need to know about Monstie, eggs, lairs and fighting, but there are things that you will only discover by experimenting that may confuse you at first, especially if you have not played the first title released for Nintendo 3DS and mobile systems a while ago. So let's start from the basics: the dens. You will find them only in some maps, mostly outdoors, and you will recognize them because they look like caves. However, there are two types of burrows. Opening the map, you will find some white cave-shaped icons that mark the position of the special lairs: these lairs, with a square entrance, will never change configuration and will always be in the same points. Inside them you will find above all the chests that contain the Bottle Caps, and when you have collected them all the plate on the map will change its name and will pass, for example, from the North Kamuna Den to the explored Tana, just to remind you that you have not left any collectibles. outstanding. Inside each den you will find a nest, of course, but we will return to this aspect shortly.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Your Grandpa Red in a flashback. Then there are the generic Monster Lairs that appear in random places on the map every time you load it. These dens, which have rounded entrances, are procedural: it means that the interior floor plan is randomly generated the moment you enter. They are also temporary. If you enter a Monster Lair and then exit, the Lair will disappear. The same will happen with all the other lairs if you reload the map, for example using the fast travel or changing the time of the day at the Gattovana. Procedural Monster Lairs are in fact of two types, normal and rare. The rare ones are unmistakable, because the entrance is golden: the Rare Monster Lairs are identical to the others, but in the nest you will have a greater chance of finding a rare egg. We will clarify the matter in a very short time.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: a multiplayer combat. For now, you should know something else: once the campaign is complete, and the extra content is reached, two other types of lairs will be added to this category of procedural lairs. The High Rank Monster Lairs are vermilion, but there is also the golden counterpart, called High Rank Monster Lair Rare: in these lairs you will find the best Monstie in the game. Secondary Mission Lairs and High Rank Secondary Mission Lairs work a little differently: inside you will often find objectives that you must defeat to complete some secondary missions, and until you take down the monster guarding the nest, you won't be able to collect them. eggs. In normal burrows, with a bit of skill, you can take an egg and sneak away without fighting with any monster that presides over the nest. Here's a tip: if you're looking for a particular den type, hop on the back of a Monstie like the Kulu-Ya Ku and use the Find Nests riding action to view procedural ones on the map as well. This way you will know immediately if there is the type of lair you are looking for or if you need to reload the map.

The eggs

Monster Hunter Stories 2: that Monstie will be in this egg ? You found a den, entered and reached the nest inside. And now? Depending on the type of lair, you may find the nest clear, or there may be a monster sleeping in it, or keeping it awake. Either way, you'll need to get out of your Monstie and interact with the nest to collect an egg. Each nest contains one to four eggs. The species of monster that you will find inside the eggs depends on the area in which the lair is located, and you will be able to recognize it by sight by the marks engraved on the shell. Keep in mind that if you can lay an egg and collect another one, you will not be able to go back to the previous one, so any left over is lost and until you have collected an egg you will not even be able to know if there is actually another egg to collect. This means that if you collect an egg that might be right for you but you want to try your luck, the next one could be worse, and the last one left in the nest as well. It's literally a lottery.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: These mysterious riders are on the hunt for the sharp Ratha. We come to the quality of the eggs, a discourse that brings us even closer to the shamanic ritual. Whenever you collect an egg, Navirou will comment on its weight and smell. There are three types of weights and three types of smells, but essentially the more an egg weighs and smells, the better the Monstie genes will be in it. And this too we will explain better shortly. There is one last thing to know about eggs: the moment you collect them, they may glow. If so, hold on to that egg, because it means Monstie's genes are of excellent quality, regardless of weight and smell. If it then shines with the colors of the rainbow, it means that the Monstie has a good chance of possessing genes of the rainbow color, which can serve you in the Bingo of the Shamanistic Ritual. So, even better. Once you have chosen the egg, you will have to carry it out of the cave but, unless the monster that guarded the nest has woken up, you will only have to take a few steps: once you reach the entrance to the nest, the game itself will ask you if you want to exit automatically from the den. Remember that you can carry up to ten eggs with you.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: The maps outside are huge. Once back in town, go to the Stables and select Hatch an Egg to find out which Monstie you found in the collected eggs. You can hatch one egg at a time, or hatch all the eggs you have set aside in one go and enjoy the catwalk of your new Monstie ... all of which will be level 1. Don't worry, actually making them grow is very easy. Capcom has planned the growth via experience points in a very clever way, and a couple of fights with enemies at your height will be enough to bring a new Monstie to the level of your team, but if you want you can also take advantage of the rewards of the secondary missions and Explorations. This is very important because you, after all, care about genes. Each Monstie, in fact, is characterized by a 3x3 grid on which a certain number of genes are randomly arranged. The number and quality of these genes depends on the egg you found.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: the protagonist and Alwin against a Nargacuga. A bright, heavy, smelly egg will have better starting stats and more genes, and the quality of these genes may be higher: for example, a Monstie with Fire Resistance Gene +3 may be born instead of +1, which is a passive ability that reduces the damage dealt by fire element abilities. Genes define Monstie for their passive abilities and the abilities they can use in combat, so a Monstie hatched from a high quality egg will be better than a Monstie hatched from a normal egg. As you level up, Monstie acquire new genes: you can see them in the grid, they are marked by Lv. that the Monstie must reach to unlock them. The genes marked with a lock, on the other hand, must be manually unlocked through some specific consumable items. And with that we finally come to the Shamanic Ritual.

The Shamanic Ritual

Monster Hunter Stories 2: one of the first fights in the game. Now that you know where to find Monstie eggs and how to choose them, it's time to learn how to use the Shamanic Ritual. You will unlock this feature as you progress through the campaign, after which you will find it in the Stables menu. After selecting it, you will see two items: one is Shamanic ritual, and the other is called Use ritual objects. Let's start with the second. It is precisely the function that allows you to unlock the genes under lock and key. Once you have selected the Monstie, move the cursor to the gene marked with the lock and then choose the correct Stimulant: the Universal Stimulant is good for each species of Monstie, while the other stimulants are very specific. If you want to unlock a Brachydios gene, for example, you'll need to consume Brutal Wyvern Stimulant. You will find these stimulants in chests around the world, or you can buy them with bottle caps from the representative of Melynx S.p.A. This process will allow you to open a new space for geniuses in the grid of your Monstie.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Tsukino is a Felyne ninja. The shamanic ritual serves precisely to fill that empty space, but not only: it allows you, effectively, to manipulate the genes of the Monstie, moving them from one monster to another. It works like this. First of all you will have to choose the Monstie you want to change. After that you will have to choose another Monstie that has the gene you want to move. Let's pretend you want to upgrade an Anjanath's Gene Bite ability: just move an identical gene from another monster, and overlap the two genes in the Monstie you want to upgrade. Be very careful, however, because the shamanic ritual will consume the donor. You got it right: the Monstie who donates the gene will disappear into thin air. For this reason you will have to think carefully about the Monstie you want to enhance, since you will actually sacrifice another one to succeed.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Kyle is a novice hunter. The shamanic ritual, however, does not only serve to enhance the genes that the Monstie already possess: you can also overwrite the ones you don't like, replacing them with the genes of the donor Monstie, or you can take advantage of the empty slots, such as those freed through stimulants, to give your favorite monster a new gene. This system gives you enormous freedom of customization. You can strengthen Monstie's weaknesses by transferring the gene that increases resistance to a certain type of element, or you can give Monsties who use abilities of a specific element, such as fire, new abilities of a completely different element. Would you like to have a Legiana that shoots the Yian Kut-Ku Fireball? You can do it. Or you can give a Kecha-Wacha the Chilling Gas ability of the Zamtrios. It will be a bit strange but with the imagination everything is possible. The nice thing is that enhancing a certain element will also change the appearance of the monster: its colors, in fact, will tend to reflect the preponderant element in its genetics.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Ena entrusts you with the Ratha's egg sharp at the beginning of the adventure. Another aspect to consider in building your perfect Monstie is the so-called Bingo. You can access the Bingo list from the page of the genetic grid: it shows you all the bonuses that your Monstie has unlocked. Bingo is achieved by simply placing three genes of the same type or color in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row. You can then model a Monstie all about frost, or mix the cards and Bingo bonuses to make it more versatile. The Shamanic Ritual will make you sacrifice many Monstie on the altar of power: usually the wisest choice is to set aside the best Monstie you have and then work on it, raising other Monstie - perhaps less powerful - to convert their genes into your perfect monster. . And the so-called endgame of Monster Hunter Stories 2 is essentially this: looking for the best eggs in the rarest lairs, combining genes in increasingly powerful Monstie, and then hunting even stronger Monstie like the Elder Dragons. And once the perfect team is prepared, you can challenge the other Riders in multiplayer mode: may the best geneticist win.

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