Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin guide: The Rite of Channeling

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin’s Rite of Channeling is a complex system designed to power up your favorite Monsties. It’s a high-stakes system that requires you to sacrifice one Monstie in order to give another a new move, and it’s the best way to keep your old Monsties relevant.

In this Rite of Channeling guide, we’re going to explain the basics of the Rite of Channeling and how to use it to your advantage.

Monstie Genes and Skills

Image: Capcom via Polygon

Every Monstie in Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin has a collection of Gene slots in its Gene tic-tac-toe board (nine slots total). These Genes contain active or passive Skills. Some Skills, like Spike Bomb, will cause your Monstie to launch a volley of spikes at the entire group of enemies. If we wanted, we could move Spike Bomb off of our Nargacuga and onto a different Monstie, and then they’d be able to cast Spike Bomb in combat.

Passive Skills are a bit simpler. Some passive Skills like Evasion Ability might just improve our Nargacuga’s ability to dodge attacks, while the Cold Res skill negates Frostbite completely for our Zamtrios.

Rite of Channeling

You’ll need to move these Skills (Genes) around to improve your Monstie’s arsenal or even make them immune to certain effects. Monsties will normally start with only a handful of Genes in their board, and some boards might have locked slots. To enhance a Monstie’s Genes — either by adding new ones or upgrading existing ones — you will need to sacrifice other Monsties through the Rite of Channeling.

You won’t unlock the Rite of Channeling until many hours into your Wings of Ruin adventure, toward the end of the game’s second chapter. Once you’ve unlocked the Rite of Channeling, you can go to your Stable at any time to enhance your Monsties.

First you’ll select the Monstie you want to improve, and then you’ll select the Monstie you want to sacrifice. Once the Rite of Channeling begins, you’ll select one Gene from the sacrificial Monstie’s board and move it to the improved Monstie’s board. The sacrificial Monstie will disappear forever and your improved Monstie will get a new skill.

Note that Monsties will often need to level up to unlock all their Gene slots. There are also some Gene slots that require special items to unlock, which you’ll pick up over the course of the campaign. You’ll need to invest in your Monstie’s board if you want them to be the best.

Bingo bonuses and upgrades

Image: Capcom via Polygon

Moving Skills around is already a powerful ability, but the Rite of Channeling lets you maximize these bonuses if you play smart. Because the Gene board for each Monstie is a 3x3 grid, you can earn “Bingo Bonuses” by matching Gene types vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. If you’re clever, you can make multiple Bingo Bonuses happen on the same board.

Every Gene has an element and pattern. For elements, Genes can be normal, fire, water, electric, ice, or dragon. For patterns, Genes can be blank, Power, Technical, or Speed. If you line up three Power Genes of any element, you’ll get a Power bonus. If you line up three Power Genes, all with a Fire element, you’ll get a bonus for both. If you just cover the entire board in Power Fire Genes, you’ll get a major bonus but your Monstie won’t be very well rounded.

One of your obstacles for lining up the perfect Bingo Bonus is that Monsties can only have one of each skill occupying their board. However, if your Monstie already has a skill you want to transfer, you can place the two Genes on top of each other to level it up. You can level up each Gene twice.

Finally, some Rare Monsties may be born with very powerful Genes, like a rainbow-colored Gene. These act as free spaces on your Monstie’s Gene board, and will help you get even more bonuses.

Collecting a lot of eggs — and knowing how to pick good ones — will help you collect a lot of Monsties to fuel your Rite of Channeling, and improve your Monstie party.