Monster Hunter (MH) Stories 2 Strategies for New Players

If you are jumping into Monster Hunter Stories 2 for the very first time, maybe you played Stories 2 one maybe you've never played it before and you are starting your story's adventure anew then this guide should give you some handy tips.

 

MH Stories 2 is a game all about collecting best monsters and then battling with said monsters. It is pretty simple you head out, you get eggs, you hatch those eggs and you get those monsters. But there are two primary ways you'll go about doing this the most simple of which is to go out and head into dens, keep in mind dens come in different rarities you will see the regular kind of stone, sometimes you'll see gold dens, later on you may even see slightly different ones but the rare dens of course have a higher chance at getting better eggs.

 

You go into your den, you go to the nest, you pick up an egg and of course you then take this back to stable and you hatch it. Keep in mind whilst collecting eggs you want to pay attention to Navirou's descriptions. Basically, if you want a better egg that has a chance at better slots then you have to look for something that is both heavy and also really stinky like it reeks. You'll also sometimes notice there is a different sort of shine, when you collect the egg you may even get a rainbow shine but basically this is the primary way you'll be going about getting your monsters. However, in the event you're trying to pursue something very particular then you can also make monsters retreat. When you're battling a monster and it is almost dead you want to throw a paintball doing so will basically increase the retreat chance. So upon defeating the monster the chance for it to run away and run back to a den, keep in mind the paintball only lasts for three turns. So make sure you use it towards the end of a battle to get the most out of it. Keep in mind that some monsters this isn't enough. If you go into the Monsterpedia take a look at the monster it'll actually tell you what the retreat conditions are or of course you know how you can go about increasing the retreat rate. So sometimes you also need to break parts with certain weapons but in doing so once you cause a monster to retreat it will actually go back to a specifically spawn den. This is denoted not only on your map by little green icon but also by an egg above the den. In doing so you can run back the monster will be asleep at the nest and if you gather at the pile it will be a guaranteed egg of that monster so you can then use that as a means to pursue something very specific.

 

Now, outside of that as mentioned this is a game where both you collect monsters and you battle them.

So let's go over a few fundamental battle tips.

First things first, combat in this game works around a standard attack triangle Power Beats Technical, Technical Beats Speed, Speed Beats Power. Power is red, Technical is Green, Speed is blue.

 

At a very basic level as you begin to play throughout the game you will start to learn what typical attack types monsters will use and of course you will then want to select the winning attack type. So when you go into head-to-head battles you will win. Of course keep in mind when monsters get enraged they will sometimes change their attacking type so you do need to sort of learn this as you go and adapt and that is of course where swapping monsters and swapping attacks will come in. Additionally in combat you can also pull off double attacks. Double attacks are a great way to interrupt monsters, making them skip a move. They are also a fantastic way of filling up your Kinship Gauge which is used not only for your skills but also your powerful Kinship Attacks and it's also a good way to deal apart damage. in order to pull off a double attack you need to make sure that the monster is either targeting yourself or your monster. You need to make sure that your two attack types match and in doing so you will then pull off a double attack.

As mentioned your kinship gauge is basically your resource for your skills both for you and for your monster. You could select your monsters attacks, so while typically they will attack on their own. You can control what they will use and of course as you build up this gauge and you get the max, you can then jump on the back of your monster and pull off powerful Kinship attacks.

  

However, there are a couple more things worth noting. If you're riding on the back of your monster you cannot die. It is worth noting if there is a really powerful attack coming your way if you get hit by a move that would otherwise have killed you instead it will reduce your monster down to 1 HP and knock you off but it will save your life. It's also worth noting that the Kinship Ultimate attack will actually stop an enemy from attacking. So again, if there is a situation where a powerful attack is coming your way using a Kinship attack to basically make that monster skip a turn is also very useful.

 

Then moving on from there to powering up your team using the Rite of Channeling, the Rite of Channeling is basically your way to move abilities between monsters. You can take abilities that a monster would not inherently have had and then move it onto a monster of your choosing. This can at a very basic level just be a means to give your monsters more attacks. However, you can then use it and go a little deeper and take advantage of the bingo system by lining up matching colors both vertically, horizontally and diagonally to get boost to your stats. You can also line up matching attack types by power, technical or speed to further boost those attacks and you can use this to basically create your ideal monster.

 

Then moving from there, if you are trying to level up some Monsties outside your team a lot more efficiently one of the ways you can do this is to go to expeditions. Later in the game you will unlock expeditions, which is basically if you've played most of the games before think of it as sort of sending out your cats to do things for you, only this time you're sending out your monsters. When you set up an expedition you can choose between different types. There can be expeditions that are exp focused that are focused on getting cool items that are more balanced but of course if you're trying to level up fast you want to put them into the Exp expeditions because they will then come back and level up pretty quickly. However, on top of that if you also want to level up quickly and you put something in your team they will jump up levels very quickly and if you go back to earlier lower level areas then when you go into fights that you would otherwise have just one very easily. You can also use the auto finish by holding down the two triggers to just automatically complete a battle thus completing it very quickly.

 

Now, outside of that of course another part of Monster Hunter a staple is of course armor and weapons. Armor sets are pretty simple you won't have to craft individual pieces you just craft a complete set. Armor sets do of course carry different skills so pay attention to those as you go but when it comes to weapons, weapons fall within one of three main categories slash, blunt and pierce. Your slash weapons are sword and shield and great sword, your pierce weapons are gunlance and bow and your blunt weapons are hammer and hunting horn. They are all very good weapons but sword and shield, the hunting horn and the bow are probably your easiest picks. Sword and shield has no meter to worry about outside of using the Kinship, the hunting horn is the same and the bow you simply need to worry about charging. If you want to get more out of your moves meanwhile, the great sword has a mechanic whereby you have to use certain attacks to fill up your gauge as does the hammer and as does the gunlance. This does not make them bad weapons but in combat they do have a few more things to keep in mind in order to get the most out of them. Make sure when you're fighting a monster that you are using the strongest weapon type against them. If you attack a monster and it then shines then it means the weapon is effective against them. Meanwhile, if it has a red cross through it, it means it is not very effective and you should basically change weapon.

 

Next up on the list make sure you are not sleeping on the Prayer Pot. The Prayer Pot is of course a very useful tool to get buffs throughout the game. You can level this up by feeding it Charms and of course as you level it up higher the percentage bonuses you get from those charms are increased plus you'll also unlock more prayers to choose from. These can vary from things like increasing your health, your defense, your damage, your exp rates, the price of things when you're selling it is very useful and something you want to be using as you play throughout the game.

 

Then finally, don't forget the bottle caps vendor. There is the cat who wi

ll basically give you cool items in exchange for bottle caps Some of these are very important. He has items that will allow you to expand your stables thus allowing you to get more monsters.

 

He has items later on in the game that will give you more expedition slots. So you can send out three separate expeditions and in between that you can of course also use this to get charms weapons and armor. These are typically items you won't be able to craft at the smithy so they are definitely worth your while and for most of the time bottle caps will come from Everdens, you can also get them from side quests and you can also get them occasionally from random chests. But do not worry there was the concern at one point they were sort of finite but as you get towards the end of the game and the end game activities there are ways to far more of these.

 

So for the most part use these as you go but that is pretty much it that's quick rundown on a few things you definitely want to keep in mind whilst you're playing throughout the game that is your kind of complete breakdown of the core systems.