In the world of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, you play as a Monster Rider, a warrior with the power to tame and befriend monsters. One day, you discover unnatural events have been causing monsters to go on a rampage, and the Flying Wyvern species, Rathalos, are mysteriously disappearing. You and your Monsties have decided to travel the world, find the missing Rathalos, and stop whatever is causing monsters to go berserk.
But the road ahead will be difficult, with terrifying monsters waiting around at every corner. You will need to improve your Monsties' abilities if you are to overcome these monsters, and to do that, you will need the Rite of Channeling. This complex ritual has the power to enhance a Monstie's abilities or give them new ones. However, it can be difficult to grasp. So, today we will help you understand how it works and how to create the best Monsties possible. This is our guide on the Rite of Channeling for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin.
Monstie Eggs
Before we begin using the Rite of Channeling, we need some Monsties to use it on. You can acquire new Monsties by searching Monster Dens, Everdens, and Rare Monster Dens for Monstie eggs.
You can also acquire specific Monsties by throwing a paintball at a monster during battle. If you defeat a monster while it is under the paintball's effects, you might get an opportunity to track the monster back to its den and steal one of its eggs. You can also boost the chances of a monster retreating to its den by fulling certain conditions in battle. Every monster has a unique condition to make it retreat and you can find out what that condition is in their Monsterpedia entry.
When you find the monster's nest, be ready for a fight because sometimes a monster will be guarding it. If a monster is not there, it may come back if you stick around the nest for too long. Sometimes the monster will be sleeping, so you can go around it.
Take note of Navirou's comments about how smelly and heavy an egg is when you find one. This information will be important later for when you hatch it. Another thing to note is that every Monstie egg has a unique color pattern, and they are recorded in a Monstie's Monsterpedia entry. This will help you remember which Monstie an egg belongs to for future den spelunkings. Once you have acquired an egg you want, get out as fast you can before the monster returns.
Rite of Channeling
Now, it's time to hatch it at the stables and begin the Rite of Channeling. The Rite of Channeling takes the genes of a Monstie and transfers them into another Monstie. These genes grant passive abilities that boost its stats or bestow new attacks it can use in hunts. A Monstie has nine slots to insert genes in, but some gene slots are locked. You will need to level up the Monstie or use Stimulant items to unlock these slots.
Remember when I said to take note of Navirou's comments on an egg's smell and weight? This is where that information comes into play. The number of locked gene slots is determined by how heavy an egg is — meaning if it's really heavy, it will have fewer gene slots to unlock. Meanwhile, the smell of a Monstie's egg determines what genes the Monstie will get when it hatches. If it doesn't smell much, it will have basic genes. But if it has an incredible stench, that Monstie will possess rare and powerful genes that could really turn the tide of a battle.
When inserting genes into a Monstie, try to line genes with the same color in a row. This will activate a passive attack bonus granted by the Gene Bingo Chart. For example, if you line three Thunder genes with the Technique attack-type in a row, that Monstie will gain a damage bonus for its Thunder and Technique attacks.
You can also activate the bingo chart bonuses by using the Free Bingo Gene. This rare, rainbow-colored gene will allow you to achieve a bingo bonus by linking multiple genes together. However, you can only insert one Free Bingo Gene, and it doesn't grant passive abilities or special skills of its own.
If you want to increase the power of your Monstie even further, you can upgrade their individual genes. If you stack two of the same genes together, it will increase that gene's attack power, critical hit chance, or status effect rate. You can upgrade a gene up to two times maximum.
The last thing you need to know is that the Monstie you extract genes from will permanently leave the party after the Rite of Channeling is complete. So, make sure to save your game before doing the ritual if you are unsatisfied with the results.
Finished product
This system allows you to create all sorts of strong and versatile Monsties fit to take on any monster. For example, my Anjaneth originally only used Fire and Power-type attacks, so I focused on improving his move-set first by giving him a couple of non-elemental genes that let him learn Speed and Technique attacks. Now my Anjaneth will be able to win any Head-to-Heads against opponents if I command him to use those new moves.
Then I started focusing on improving my Anjaneth's damage output by stacking genes he already had from a couple of other Anjanaths I acquired. I lined up a row of Fire and Power-type genes to achieve the bingo bonuses, but the Non-elemental genes prevented me from getting more. So, I slotted in a Free Bingo Gene in between two rows of Non-elemental genes and Fire genes so I could activate the bingo bonuses for both elemental types.
Final thoughts
And that concludes our guide on how to use the Rite of Channeling. As you can see, this is an incredibly in-depth system, and we hope this guide helps you understand it better. Now get out there and show the world your new Monstie in one of the best RPGs on PC.
