Monster Hunter Stories: 10 Best Kinship Moves

Summary

• Diablos' Fiendish Cyclone kicks off our list with a terrifying tornado.
• The elemental output of Zinogre's Voltage Crash is outstanding — excellent against monsties with low electricity resistance.
• We also have emotional Kinships. Brachydios' Brachy Blow has a lovely flashback scene.

As a Rider, you control many unique monsties in Monster Hunter Stories. The Kinship Attack is one of the most dynamic attacks you can use with your creatures. These are essentially similar to Final Fantasy's Limit Break attacks, which can only be executed while riding them. With the Rites of Channeling, you can also change the elemental effect of these attacks.

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You can already use the Kinship Attack once you're riding your monstie, but you should win at least two head-to-head engagements to boost the Kinship meter from level 1 to level 3 for maximum damage. Depending on the monster, these Kinship Attacks can range from explosive spectacles to hilarious marvels.

10 Fiendish Cyclone

Diablos

Riding on your Diablos, you can dive into the sand and devastate enemy monsters with a classic Diablos-style diving attack that also kicks off a terrifying tornado. This Kinship skill can knock enemies down and give you an additional turn to do extra damage while they're immobilized.

At maximum Kinship level, this skill can cause a tremendous amount of damage and deplete the health of monster parts during story-specific boss fights. Against EX and blighted creatures, this is a great Kinship Attack that can give you that extra edge in the fight.

9 NargacugaDark Thrash

Nargacuga

This track commences once your Nargacuga gets into their typical stance to slash out with their bladed wings. At supersonic speeds, Nargacuga will slash at your enemy like an Iajutsu sword master, leaving the after-effects of the attacks and delivering chain damage to your unfortunate foe.

This attack is great for non-elemental damage and is such a stylish, dynamic attack that shows off Nargacuga's agility and prowess. The Green Nargacuga subspecies has a stronger version of this attack and when it's leveled up at maximum, this skill can do short work on any monster's health bar.

8 Thunderous Blast

Lagiacrus

In a dark, stormy sea, your Lagiacrus dives through the waves, charging up the dorsal shockers on its back. As a massive whirlpool encircles the area, the Lagiacrus erupts from one of the stormy cyclones and unleashes a massive electric blast that does incredible thunder damage.

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Any monsters weak to the thunder element will be utterly demolished and severely weakened if caught in this attack. Ivory Lagiacrus has a more beefed-up version of this attack.

7 Voltage Crash

Zinogre

While riding on your Zinogre, the Kinship starts with your monstie charging its thunder bugs as it runs to your enemy. It'll then leap into the air and, with its charged-up arms and claws, unleash a savage lighting blast that delivers a lot of damage to those poor monsters that can't handle the elemental damage.

Both Lagiacrus and Zinogre deliver a payload of electrical damage with their Kinship Attacks, outclassing monsties like Khezu. Only a few monsties can cause even more shocking attacks than these two powerful attacks.

6 Demolition Dash

Monoblos

This one-horned monstie can charge straight into enemies and gore them with a single critical attack. This delivers a lot of non-elemental damage that can break the parts of large monsters if leveled up to Kinship level 3.

White Monoblos also uses a stronger variation to this attack that can take down subquest bosses and several of the tougher monsters with multiple parts.

5 Piercing Stars

Seregios

With Seregios, the Kinship Attack is a fun reference to the Gate of Babylon attack popularized by Gilgamesh in the Fate series. Your Seregios would fly into the air and unload many of its razor-sharp scales to rain down on the enemy. In addition to these scales, Seregios would also dive like Rathalos.

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This Kinship skill is a dynamic and incredibly stylistic attack that does what many of these Kinships do best, showcasing and exaggerating the monster's abilities with an over-the-top attack.

4 Sky-High Dive

Rathalos

Once you reunite with Ratha, this Kinship will be the one you'll commit to memory. Ratha, or any of the Rathalos types you have, will soar into the sky and dive into your enemy. Flames envelop their talons as they go into a fiery collision that ends in an atomic explosion of fire. Story-wise, a boosted version of this attack was also used to defeat Makili Pietru in the final battle.

Because Ratha would be your best monstie for some time in the middle section of Monster Hunter Stories, getting him to use the Kinship Attack is a guaranteed way for you to burn through any subquest bosses and blighted monsters. Even Dr. Manelger's EX monsters are no match for this explosive attack.

3 Phantasmal Horn

Kirin

According to the lore of monster Hunter, Kirin is one of the fastest monsters in the setting. It is so quick, that its movements are often followed by a streak of lightning. Monster Hunter Stories goes with this interpretation of the Elder Dragon's abilities by making Kirin's Kinship Attack a series of swift movements followed by the lightning left in its wake.

Because of the nature of Elder Dragons, these Kinship Attacks are generally meant to represent their true abilities in the world of Monster Hunter. Oroshi Kirin has a variation of this where its ice pillars jut from the ground. Both Kirin species deliver terrifying amounts of elemental damage to the enemies weak to them.

2 Brachy Blow

Brachydios

This is one of the most charming and endearing of the Kinship Attacks. As your Brachydios powers up of slime-enhanced punch with its right pounder, memories of a training montage involving you coaching your beloved monstie appear. Memories of punching exercises, jumping rope, and carrying cargo together.

These fed your Brachydios with the strength to punch explosively at your enemy, causing tremendous damage. It's not the silliest Kinship Attack, but it's very charming and represents the boxing tone of fighting Brachydios in the mainline Monster Hunter game.

1 Gigantic Meteor

Rajang

While not an Elder Dragon, Rajang is still celebrated as an overpowered, ridiculously impressive monster that packs a powerful punch. The Rajang's Kinship involves the monstie powering up its energized fur, smashing his fists into the ground, and finally jumping its way to the largest of the debris rocks and infusing it with its lightning energy, turning it into a Spirit Bomb.

This Kinship displays the raw power and visceral energy of Rajang, a monster that can topple elder dragons and challenge the biggest and fiercest of monsters. Out of all the new monsters added to be catchable in Monster Hunter Stories, Rajang and its abilities can truly level the playing field.

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