You’ve got plenty of things to do to keep yourself entertained inMonster Hunter Stories, but if you’ve had enough of fighting random monsters across the world and want to test your Monstie mettle against other, real-life Riders, then the Network Battles option is for you.
You’ll be able to engage in local or online battles against friends or strangers, testing yourselves and your Monsties in a battle of strength. You’ll receive a variety of Egg Fragments as a reward, but there’s more to Network Battles than others you’ll fight in Monster Hunter Stories - it’s best to get prepared.
You need to be able to connect to the internet using the console on which you’re playing Monster Hunter Stories to engage in Network Battles. This requires aNintendo Switch Online subscriptionfor players on the Switch.
Network Battles Allow You To Fight Other Riders
Beginningafter you’ve restored Albarax, thevillage in the Trese Desertthat’s been plagued by a blighted monster and blocked off by a massive sandstorm outside the town gates, you’ll notice thatyour restoration efforts are paying off! People return to the town in droves, and there are plenty of new things to see as they do. You’re told that a Rider challenge arena of sorts will be built soon, and it’s not long before construction is complete.
Go right from your house in Albaraxafter walking out your front door, beneath the overhang with a dragon and toward thereddish orange building with green and yellow accents, withtwo women in maid outfitsstanding at a desk outside. Here, the woman on the left can help you enter tournaments, while you’ll need tospeak to the woman on the rightto get started with a Network Battle.
After agreeing to eitherlocal or network play, you’ll have plenty of options on how toset up your battle party, which allows you tochoose up to three Monsties to include on your team. Not every battle mode uses all three, soput a strong Monstie in the top spotto ensure nobody gets the jump on you.
From the same menu, you’ll be able tochooseyour Rider’s equipmentlike you can from the Camp menu, a selection ofNavirou stickersyou can use to communicate with other Riders online, andview your statsas they are before the battle. You’ll see that you’re also assigned abattle rank (Btl Rank), which you’llraise by winning Network Battles.
After choosing your Monsties and equipment, you’ll choose aBattle Rules Setfrom one of thefive options.
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Choosing Any Rules is the quickest way to get put into a Network Battleif you’re not particular about how you fight, as it’llpair you to fights using any set of rulessomeone is looking to play with.
From there, you’re able to decide if you’d like your opponent to besomeone on your friends' list, or a random matchmaking from online. Both function the same, but the friend option prioritizes people on your friends list who are also matchmaking at that time. You can also choose acommentto broadcast, ranging from friendly greetings to a bit of smack talk.
After you’ve got someone to battle against, you’ll be able tochoose from several preset Battle Pouch sets, each of which focuses on different elements of battle. There are more balanced bags than anything else, each of which offer afair spread of items that are split between attacking, defensive, and healing, but you can choose tolean into defense, attack, or opt to challenge yourself with ahandicap bag offering limited battle itemsfor you to use.
Win Network Battles To Reliably Earn Egg Fragments
Once the battle begins, how it proceeds depends on the rule set you and your opponent have chosen. The gist, though, is that you’ll need todeplete all the other Rider and their Monsties' heartsbefore they do the same to you. It seems, though, that you canonly get the final KO by knocking out the Monstieon the other team, not the trainer.
In battle, you’ll find your tactics much like they are when you fight monsters in the wild, but now, instead of computers powering the movements your opponents are making, there’s a real person calling the shots who presumably knows roughly as much about the ins and outs of Monster Hunter Stories as you do! This means you’ll need tobe well-versed in the strengths and weaknessesof your Rider and their Monstie throughout the battle toprevent the other team from predicting your moves.
A tactic we found helpful in Network Battles against strangers was using the same kind of move for a few turns to bait them into using moves that negated ours, only to switch it up to something that beat theirs once they got comfortable in the pattern.
For each Network Battle, you’ll earnEgg Fragments(the number of which seems to depend on how you did in battle). After you’ve gathered several different Egg Pieces, you canvisit a stable to assemble theminto a completed Monster Egg, provided you haveone of each pieceto assemble.
After a few battles, be sure to head to the stable to see what you can do with your Egg Fragments - they offer a whole new way to hatch unique monsters, just by kicking some butt online!
