Monster Hunter Stories: 10 Monstie Eggs To Hatch First

Summary

• Monster Hunter Stories is a different gameplay experience compared to standard Monster Hunter games with the Rite of Kinship.
• Aptonoth, Velocidrome, and Arzuros provide different abilities, attacks, and riding actions for balance and survival in the early game.
• Yian Kut-Ku, Red Khezu, and Nerscylla offer elemental attacks, status ailments, and unique abilities to enhance combat strategies and exploration.

In Monster Hunter Stories, you start in a quaint little village called Hakum and the region surrounding it called the Pondry Hills. Here you go through the Rite of Kinship to be a rider and get introduced to the adventure with your first monstie, a cute little monster who's your 'bestie'.

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In the open plains of Pondry Hills, you'll come across a wide range of creatures to find in monster dens for their eggs. Here you can hatch several different types of monsties with abilities, attacks, and tendencies to balance out your party in the beginning. They each have a decent balance that can ease you into the Monster Hunter Stories gameplay loop.

10 Aptonoth

Egg Type

Herbivore

Tendency

Power

Attribute

Non-Elemental

Riding Action

Plant Detect

Your first herbivore monstie and one of the easier ones to find, Aptonoth is an interesting creature to partner with and rely on. The Slip and Slam Kinship attack allows you to knock enemies over for a turn. Sadly, your Aptonoth will also get knocked over for comedic effect, making them a little useless in this state while you get some free hits on the enemy.

Aptonoth had rudimentary attacks from tail swipes to headbutts. Aside from that, they can heal themselves by grazing on some grass, helping them survive certain attacks with starting enemies. They also have the ability called Soothing Roar, which can heal you during tough battles. They are also very useful in locating plants for item crafting in the early areas.

9 Velocidrome

Egg Type

Bird Wyvern

Tendency

Speed

Attribute

Non-Elemental

Riding Action

Jump

These speedy little raptor alphas are bound to be your main locomotive and combat buddy in the early parts of the game. Velocidromes can counter Aptonoths when it comes to the tendency of attacks and are great partners to help you get accustomed to the fighting system. Velocidrome's Kinship attack also lets you do multiple attacks to quickly chip away at health.

Out in the field, there are certain places you can reach only if you are riding a Velocidrome. These areas are cliff sides marked with a very obvious platform with footprints. On these spots, Velocidrome can leap bounds across the cliff to grant you better gathering spots, finding special treasures, and getting too hard-to-reach eggs.

8 Arzuros

Egg Type

Fanged Beast

Tendency

Power

Attribute

Non-Elemental

Riding Action

Honey Detect, Rock Smash

The fanged beast bear of the Monster Hunter series, Arzuros is a tough mid-level monstie and is great to have in your roster as you get close to completing the first few mainline quests, including the first fights against the blighted Nargacuga. Arzuros can heal himself gradually throughout the fight by eating honey and their attacks can cause tons of damage.

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Arzuros also has multiple abilities that you can use while riding them in the field. One is to find any honey in the area around and the other is smashing up rock obstacles. Of all the starter monsties, Arzuros is a juggernaut that can carry you for completing monster-based side quests that can strengthen your team.

7 Yian Kut-Ku

Egg Type

Bird Wyvern

Tendency

Technical

Attribute

Fire

Riding Action

Monster Detect, Rock Smash

Yian Kut-Ku is the first major elemental monstie you can discover in the Pondry Hills. Obtaining a Yian Kut-Ku means you are ready for the next step in your monster-riding journey. As a technical monstie, their attacks can counter the speed-dependent Nargacuga that you'll face in the end of the Pondry Hills section of the story.

Yian Kut-Ku also has a decent fireball attack that can do significant damage to monsters weak to the element. This makes Yian Kut-Ku an important monstie to hatch that can carry you into the Darj Snowfields when facing fire-weak monsters like Zamtrios, Lagombis, and Khezus.

6 Blue Yian Kut-Ku

Egg Type

Bird Wyvern

Tendency

Technical

Attribute

Fire

Riding Action

Monster Detect, Rock Smash

The Blue Yian Kut-Ku is the first subspecies you may encounter starting into Monster Hunter Stories. Monstie Subspecies tend to be a boosted version of their vanilla relatives, being similar but stronger forms of the base monster. Blue Yina Kut-Ku has a slightly higher attack stat and somewhat boosted elemental resistances.

Both this subspecies and the regular Yian Kut-Ku are important to have in your party setup because the next area you're going to after Pondry Hills is the Darj Snowfields. This is a region full of creatures that are weak towards the fireball attacks and other fire-based moves they have.

5 Red Khezu

Egg Type

Flying Wyvern

Tendency

Technical

Attribute

Non-Elemental

Riding Action

Roar

The crimson-colored subspecies of Khezu, this leech with wings is very effective to have in your team as you enter the Monsonne Plains. Their lightning abilities are much more advanced and potent, and are best for many of the monsters in the area that are weak to the lighting element.

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Some of Red Khezu's best lightning attacks are Sav Thunder Breath and Thunder Fang, both of which give a chance to paralyze enemies for three turns in the battle. Red Khezus also has the Thunder Charge for even higher element damage for three turns. While the Red Khezu sacrificed the Bloodsuck ability for more thunder attacks, that can be remedied with the Rite of Channeling.

4 Nerscylla

Egg Type

Temnosceran

Tendency

Technical

Attribute

Non-Elemental

Riding Action

Monster Search, Ivy Climb

This spider-like monster is unique out of all the different creatures. While they don't have any elemental attacks, Nerscylla makes up for it by being able to apply two status ailments, poison from its fangs, and sleep from its stinger. With the ruthless combination of Sleep Needle and Sleep Chaser, Nerscylla can make short work of any monsters affected.

Nerscylla is also useful in accessing shortcuts or areas that are only reachable with an Ivy Climb. Treasure chests, special materials, and certain monster encounters and nest locations are easier to access thanks to Nerscylla's ability to get there.

3 Lagombi

Egg Type

Fanged Beast

Tendency

Speed

Attribute

Ice

Riding Action

Mushroom Search, Rock Breaker

Lagombi is an important monstie to have during your adventure through the Darj Snowfields. They can destroy rock obstacles to find new paths, can help you search for mushrooms for side quests or crafting materials, and are resilient to the weather in the Snowfields. You wouldn't need to constantly keep track of the hot drinks with lagombi on your team.

Story-wise, getting your first Lagombi is how you learn the Rite of Channeling. The Rites basically allow you to infuse one of your monstie's genes into another, giving you the ability to infuse different monsters with abilities they don't naturally have. For the story, you'd give Lagombi the fire abilities of a Yian Kut-Ku to combat a Khezu.

Outside the story context, Lagombi is a very useful early to mid-game monstie. The monsters of the Trese Desert are mostly weak to the Ice Element, and having a high-leveled Lagombi can help you take on monsters like Monoblos and Diablos.

2 Quropeco

Egg Type

Bird Wyvern

Tendency

Technical

Attribute

Fire

Riding Action

Monster Call

Quropeco is a support-oriented monstie that uses their vocalizing songs to heal allies, fortify defenses, and empower their attacks. As a technical monster, Quropecos can counter speed-oriented monsters, which become an issue during the mid-game of Monster Hunter Stories.

Outside of the many different songs they can do, Quropeco also has a fire-attributed attack, courtesy of the sparks it can make from its wing claw flints.

1 Rathian

Egg Type

Flying Wyvern

Tendency

Speed

Attribute

Fire

Riding Action

Nest Search

The base Rathian resides in Monsoone Plains has a great balance between flame attacks and the poison ailment she can inflict on enemies. She is a great monstie to have before reuniting with Ratha later on and her movesets are a good way to practice setting up for bigger and harder battles.

Rathian's riding skill is also super important for team building and monstie collecting. Nest Searching is vital not just for gaining normal to rare monstie eggs, but it's also important for obtaining as many decent genes as possible for Rites of Channeling to build your team, since the middle of Monster Hunter Stories is where the difficulty will spike dramatically.

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