All you need to know is that lining up genes of either a specific element or attribute in a line will offer a damage multiplayer for skills using either that element or attribute. For most players, however, it's all fully optional.

The specific of gathering multiples of the same monster in order to splice their genes into the ultimate Monstie is a complicated affair, and where the majority of the game's playtime will likely come into play - particularly at the endgame. Eggs with a glow not only tend to have more advantageous combinations of those two attributes, but will also offer a buff to a monster's base stats of HP, Attack, and Defense.

Details like weight and smell will clue you in to how many locked slots will be on a monster's 'bingo board' - more on that later - and how many 'genes' are already filled in. An egg's pattern will always let you know what type of monster is inside it, with specific patterns denoting a monster's classification - and the coloration helping narrow down exactly which monster will pop out once it hatches.

The way that you add new monsters to your party is through inspecting eggs within a monster's den, and your companion Navirou will help let you know the characteristics of the egg that you've gathered. While there are intricacies to Monster Hunter Stories 2's battle system, the meat and potatoes of party building is already decided upon gathering one of these eggs. These dens can either be empty, have a specific monster sleeping at them, or could even have an active and awake monster on the prowl. Across the overworld, you'll find randomly spawning Monster Dens, which are randomly generated and will include a nest from which you can gather eggs that you can bring back to town and hatch. In practice, that means stealing their young, too. If you're not already familiar with Monster Hunter Stories' main gameplay loop, the name of the game is working together with monsters instead of just mercilessly slaughtering them. An expansion on existing ideas and frameworks, rather than a complete rewrite. While Wings of Ruin makes a number of changes to improve the experience, fundamentally they're both very much the same type of game at their core. As you might've gathered, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is the iterative sequel.

Monster hunter stories egg pattern