Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin gets new Monsties with Free Title Update 3 in Soulseer Mizutsune, Elderfrost Gammoth and Oroshi Kirin. Now, let’s see what they bring.

STARTING OFF

You’ll be able to encounter Soulseer Mizutsune, Elderfrost Gammoth and Oroshi Kirin in the following quests:

• Co-op 8-star: (Explore) Water Eggs
  • Soulseer Mizutsune
• Co-op 8-star: (Explore) Ice Eggs
  • Elderfrost Gammoth
• [ OFFLINE ONLY ] Subquest 8-star: Ice Phantom
  • Oroshi Kirin (Eggs can be found in both Subquest den & Rare dens in Loloska Forest)

Battling the new additions can be quite tough, as they can deal extremely high damage when enraged, while also having lots of HP. For example, the other Elder Dragons or Deviants could take up to 10 turns, but the newest additions can last over 18 turns. The Water Eggs quest includes the Flowery Den egg pool, while the Ice Eggs quest includes the Loloska pool.

SOULSEER MIZUTSUNE

BASIC STATS

ELEMENTAL STATS

SKILLS

OVERVIEW

From stats alone, Soulseer Mizutsune is probably the best new water PVE Monstie, with 8 HP and most defenses at 6 for a tanky creature. Where she lacks is her speed, which is at 5.

Soulseer Mizutsune brings the following genes:

• Piercing Claws Gene (L) – Non Elemental Speed – Spiral Claw – Deals heavy non-elemental damage to one enemy
• S Trap Gene – Fire Speed – Foxflame Trap – Sets a fire trap that activates after 2 turns. Medium chance to inflict Burn. (Cannot be set if you lose Head to Head.)
• Foxflame Gene (L) – Water – Groom – Moderately increases the user’s water attack, but moderately lowers thunder defense. Default duration: 3 turns

Water genes are currently lacking in offensive moves, and Soulseer Mizutsune does not bring any, instead having Non-Elemental, Fire and Self-buff Water genes.

There are many other ways that you can already inflict Burn while dealing damage, as well as a plethora of Fire Monsties – including the upcoming Dreadking Rathalos and Molten Tigrex – making S Trap Gene rather useless. The Foxflame Gene is debatable when you have Pump Up.

Soulseer Mizutsune’s gene pools are pretty bad, so they’re better off replaced with others.

ELDERFROST GAMMOTH

BASIC STATS

ELEMENTAL STATS

SKILLS

OVERVIEW

As with the regular Gammoth, Elderfrost Gammoth comes with max HP base stats. The Elderfrost variant loses 5 points of recovery stats in exchange for 2 more points in Crit Rate. Elderfrost Gammoth has a similar Ice statline to Kushala Daora (8 Ice Attack, 10 Ice Defense). Except Fire Attack (4), most of its offensive stats are at 6, and defenses average at 7. It’s probably the overall tankiest Monstie in the game.

Elderfrost Gamooth brings the following genes:

• Ice Breath Gene (L) – Ice Power – Silver Blast – Deals medium ice damage to all enemies. Low chance to inflict Skillseal for 2 turns.
• Toss Gene (XL) – Ice Power – Silver Cannon – Deals heavy ice damage to all enemies.
• Iceclad Gene (L) – Ice – Snow Armor – Slightly increases the user’s ice attack and moderately increases defense. Default duration: 3 turns.

Silver Blast is essentially Legiana’s Freezing Burst with a different name, costing the same Kinship points, dealing the same damage, and the same chance of inflicting Skillseal. Silver Cannon is great, held back by high Kinship cost, and cannot crit. Snow Armor can provide more defense than Ice Armor (from Zamtrios), so you might opt for that instead depending on your Elderfrost Gammoth. Heroic and Vigilance genes should work best in tandem with its low speed. If you intend to use it in PVP, Kushala Daora’s Sonic Strike T can give Elderfrost Gammoth a priority move it can use despite its lackluster speed.

OROSHI KIRIN

BASIC STATS

ELEMENTAL STATS

SKILLS

OVERVIEW

Going by stats alone, Oroshi Kirin is exactly the same as the base Kirin, with Thunder and Ice advantage swapped and retaining the Fire weakness. Oroshi Kirin is also superior to an Ice Palamute, dealing better damage, having better defenses and recovery. Ice Palamute and Oroshi Kirin tie in Speed and Crit Rate.

Oroshi Kirin brings the following genes:

• Breaking Gene (L) – Non Elemental Speed – Breakthrough Horn – Deals heavy non-elemental damage to one enemy. Medium chance to lower defense for 3 turns. 
• Kirin Gene (L) – Ice – Ice Aura – Adds a Skillseal effect to the user’s attacks. (Default) Duration: 3 turns
• Kirin Gene (XL) – Ice Speed – Icicle Terror – Deals heavy ice damage to all enemies. High chance to inflict Skillseal for 2 turns.

Breakthrough Horn is essentially Bloodbath Diablos’ Hellbreaker with a different name. Skillseal’s usefulness is mostly limited to PVP, and it still requires you to use a Normal attack, which isn’t very useful. There are other options that can apply AOE Skillseal while having low Kinship cost, further reducing the viability of Ice Aura. Icicle Terror is the only skill, as of this update, with a high chance to inflict Skillseal, its main drawback being its massive Kinship cost.

VERDICT

As Monsties, Soulseer Mizutsune, Elderfrost Gammoth and Oroshi Kirin are great. Their gene pools are NOT.

As it were, the Non-Elemental gene pool is massive at 10 pages compared to Water’s 3 and Ice’s 4. The update doesn’t bring much to add to Water and Ice gene options, unfortunately, despite the addition of one Water and two Ice Monsties.

Even the quests, where one might expect to be able to farm element specific genes (e.g. Water eggs for Synchronize) is lackluster. It’s a Thunder gene that is only available on Water monsties, and as we’ve established, is hard to farm for. It’s an invaluable gene for PVE combat, for Double Attack damage. Considering the sponges the new monsters are, well, good luck.

Check out our overview for Hellblade Glavenus and Boltreaver Astalos here. Other guides:

• Finding Elder Dragon and Deviant Eggs
• Quick Gene Farming
• EXP and Nutriment Farming
• Farming Elder Dragon and Deviant Eggs
• Understanding Genes
• Understanding Game Mechanics
• Talismans Farm

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 2021-07-09

Nintendo Switch, Steam

A new adventure awaits you in this second installment of the turn-based RPG series set in the world of Monster Hunter! Become a Rider and form bonds with friendly monsters known as Monsties to fight alongside them as you take part in an epic story.