When you manage to get a Rathalos, or perhaps level up your Kinship Stone enough to enable to addition of the level five rarity one that comes from scanning in a Monster Hunter Stories Rider and Rathalos amiibo, you can even fly. Maybe keep a Barroth, Diablos, or Cephadrome for Ground Dive.
Arzuros and the Yian Kut-Ku can bust up some smaller rocks with Rock Breaker. You may want to have a Royal Ludroth or Zamtrios on hand, for swimming.
Nerscylla becomes equally vital, as it is the first creature you come across with Ivy Climb. The Velocidrome you start with ends up being incredibly useful for a very long time, all thanks to its Jump ability. You need to tap into monsties’ skills to access every area.
Like the recent Ever Oasis, you can’t see all of the game’s world on your own. Said skills are another thing that makes Monster Hunter Stories so great. I like to add elemental resistances and abilities that inflict status effects or debuffs on enemies, for example, but the feature lets anyone build almost any monster however they’d like. Of course, skills that help you traverse the world can’t be swapped. It’s possible to give monsties skills they never would have otherwise, with the tutorial highlighting this by having you give a Lagombi a Yian Kut-Ku’s Fireball to help with a fight against a Khezu. It makes superfluous monsters you end up acquiring during den dives or that become obsolete after you’ve reached new areas and leveled up useful again. This inheritance is great for multiple reasons. You can fuse another monstie with it to inherit an ability or skill that appears in one of those spaces. Every monster has a 3×3 grid representing the boosts and skills in its DNA. See, Monster Hunter Stories has a fusion system that I suppose reminds me a bit of Shin Megami Tensei or Fire Emblem Heroes. But even if you don’t, you can use them for their genetics. It’s worth trying to find these points, as you can end up with some rather good guys. Each egg has a sweet spot that, when tapped, increases the health, attack, defense, and other stats by a few points. If your background during this portion is yellow, you’ve got a friend with potential on your hands. Once you get back to a safe space, like a town, village, or cabin, you can hatch your eggs. Of course, your own customization efforts can also enhance these beasties. Very light eggs with no smell aren’t worth your time. Heavy, smelly eggs are good, as it means more gene slots and bingo possibilities. You also want to pay attention to his egg feedback. You ideally want him to say he has a good feeling or that he is worried about how dangerous it is, as that means a greater chance of better eggs. His comments on the environment can tell you if eggs will be worthwhile. Upon entering the actual nest, Navirou becomes a valuable resource. But the game is good about offering some impressive standard dens too. These are differently colored, letting you know right away that higher quality and rarer critters are lurking in nests within. Of course, you hope to see a special lair when you’re out in the world. Everyone starts with a Velocidrome, but quickly finds themselves in a world where you can steal new friends to your heart’s content. It all starts with eggs in Monster Hunter Stories. Their stats vary, as well as their genes, and you never know which one could end up being your new best friend and valuable ally. But, they’re also each absolute individuals. Each one can help you run across environments and reach new areas. In Monster Hunter Stories, Monsties are our best friends.