Monster Hunter Stories 2 Combat System Explained: Kinship, Attack Types & More

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a new Monster Hunter game releasing on the Switch in July. Unlike the mainline series, though, this isn’t an action game. Instead, you’ll be getting a more traditional turn-based JRPG with various mechanics to get familiar with. Here’s how the combat system works in Monster Hunter Stories 2.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 Combat System Explained

The basics of the combat system are very straightforward; your party will take a turn, then the enemy will take a turn. Your goal is to deplete their HP before yours goes down. However, things start to get complicated when you have to think about the three different attack types, as well as the various skills at your disposal.

We’ll break them down accordingly below.

Attack Types

First off, there are three different attack types in Monster Hunter Stories 2. They are Power, Speed, and Technical, and they function similarly to Fire Emblem’s weapon triangle system, or a rock-paper-scissors system where each attack type is strong and weak against something else.

We’ve listed their strengths and weaknesses below:

• Power is strong against Technical, but weak against Speed.
• Speed is strong against Power, but weak against Technical.
• Technical is strong against Speed, but weak against Power.

Each monster in the game has a tendency to use one particular attack type, so study them closely, then counter with an attack type that’s effective against them.

Each time you attack a monster that’s targeting you, this will trigger a head-on encounter. If your attack type has the upper hand, you’ll deal extra damage to them. Likewise, if you lose the head-on encounter, you’ll take a lot more damage.

Skills and Double Attacks

While you don’t really have much control over your Monstie in Monster Hunter Stories 2, you can choose the same attack type that they tend to favor in battle to trigger a double attack. Whenever you and your Monstie are in sync with each other in terms of which attack types you’re using, you’ll be able to use a double attack which deals even more damage to your foes.

More importantly, double attacks will help to charge your Kinship gauge pretty significantly, which lets you ride your Monsties and perform a Kinship skill.

Regular skills can also be accessed in the command menu, where you can basically execute an even more powerful version of a particular attack type. The skills menu also lets you switch weapon types, which can be handy for breaking monster parts.

Kinship Skills

As mentioned above, acting in sync with your Monstie will fill up your Kinship gauge at the bottom of the screen. Once it’s filled up, a new option appears in the command menu, allowing you to ride your Monstie.

When riding a Monstie, your regular attacks deal more damage, and you can also use a Kinship skill to deal a ton of damage to your enemies. Do note, however, that your character will hop off the Monstie after using it.

Your character will also get knocked off if you take too much damage, or if you lose too many head-on attacks so be mindful of that.

That’s all you need to know about how the combat system works in Monster Hunter Stories 2. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game.