How to manage Kinsects and change elements in Monster Hunter Wilds
Powder up to power up with our guide to raising Kinsects in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Players who choose to tackle the Insect Glaive weapon in Monster Hunter Wilds will soon learn the importance of managing their Kinsect. Kinsects are companion bugs with their own interface and stamina bar that factor heavily into the Insect Glaive’s aerial-friendly combat strategies. They can be equipped, purchased and nurtured back at base camp to create complementary specialisations depending on your weapon build.
In battle, Kinsects can then be targeted at specific monster parts to collect context-sensitive extracts that increase a hunter’s attack, defence and speed, with multiple extracts allowing you to mitigate environmental effects and unlock new combos. Stats like speed, power, attack type and stamina vary between Kinsects, and depending on which Kinsect you choose, they can release specific elemental powders that can debuff monsters with debilitating effects.
In this guide, we’re going to focus on the process of raising, managing and equipping Kinsects in order to nurture a complementary companion and augment your skills with the Insect Glaive in Monster Hunter Wilds.
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How to equip Kinsects in Monster Hunter Wilds
Before we get into the process of managing and raising Kinsects, you need to know how to equip them. You can do this by finding Gemma the Smithy at any zone’s Base Camp, and then selecting the 'Change Equipment' option in the Equipment Menu. You can also find the same Change Equipment option by entering your tent at any given time, and navigating to the second tab.
In the Change Equipment menu, you want to select your Primary Weapon, the Insect Glaive, and then you’ll see a box full of your available glaives and Kinsects. To equip a new Kinsect, simply select it and press the confirm button. The equipped Kinsect will feature a little yellow tick in the lower right corner.
How to manage and raise Kinsects in Monster Hunter Wilds
Insect Glaive players will start out with two Kinsects, Culldrone and Mauldrone. Mauldrone uses the Blunt attack type, while Culldrone offers the Severing style. Similarly, Mauldrone’s Kinsect Powder recovers your health, whereas Culldrone’s powder can accumulate to poison a monster. A Kinsect’s stats are called Nurture Effects in game, and when you upgrade or raise a Kinsect, you’ll be able to select new nurture effects to suit your playstyle.
Over the course of the game, you can upgrade these base bug companions into stronger Kinsects by raising them, which involves spending monster resource parts that you’ll collect during hunts. To raise a Kinsect, you need to visit Gemma the Smithy, and select the Manage Kinsects menu. From here, you can select the Raising Kinsects option, and then select the Kinsect with the nurture effects that you prefer. Bear in mind that the option to raise a Kinsect will only unlock after a certain point in the story, so don’t worry if it’s greyed out initially.
Kinsects are sorted into progression trees, similar to the weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds. Let’s take the Culldrone for example. You can raise the Culldrone to become an Alucanid, Rigiprayne or Windchopper. If you raise the Culldrone into a Rigiprayne, you can then raise it into a Fiddlebrix or a Cancadaman, at which point it will have grown to full size, and feature no further upgrades. Alternatively, you can raise the Culldrone into an Alucanid, and then raise it into a different final form, either an Empresswing or a Monarch Alucanid. This is why you have the option to buy more of the two base Kinsects at the Smithy, in order to explore the many different trees. With that in mind, it’s worth following the nurture effects that fit your playstyle. Maybe you want a high stamina Kinsect with a Paralysis powder effect, or a speedy Kinsect with Recover powder.
Kinsect nurture effects in Monster Hunter Wilds explained
The best way to look at nurture effects is to think of the Kinsect as a little hunter, complete with its own damage capabilities and statistical build. Regardless, the factfile provided alongside each Kinsect can be a little confusing without explanation, so let’s go through them in sequence.
A Kinsect's Attack Type denotes the type of damage it will deal to a monster. Just going off how this works in the rest of the game, Blunt damage has the capacity to exhaust or stun monsters and is more effective when you hit them in the head, whereas Severing damage deals more damage to severable monster parts, and is good for severing tails.
The Element stat is inherited from the equipped Insect Glaive. So if you’re wielding an Insect Glaive that deals Dragon damage, the Kinsect will also deal that damage type.
The Kinsect Powder stat controls what kind of powder the Kinsect creates in combat. The specific elements can be understood as follows:
- Blast - Builds up blast
- Poison - Builds up poison
- Paralysis Builds up paralysis
- Recover - Slightly restores your health
The first three powder types are status ailments that monsters can accumulate over time. Once Blast builds up to a certain point, an explosion occurs dealing extra damage. With Poison, the monster begins to suffer damage over time, and if Paralysis is chosen, the monster will be unable to move for a short period of time once the ailment is sufficiently stacked.
Then we have the Kinsect’s stats, which are Powder Effect, Power, Speed and Stamina. What’s important to know here is that the number of cubes tied to these attributes is bottlenecked by the Kinsect Level stat, which is controlled by your Insect Glaive. In the late game, some Insect Glaives may deal higher damage than their peers, but the tradeoff is that their Kinsect Level is lower, which weakens your Kinsect’s abilities.
Finally, each Kinsect features multiple Kinsect Bonus stats, which can have varying effects, such as bolstering the efficiency of gathered extracts or increasing your weak point damage.
Best of luck raising your Kinsect in Monster Hunter Wilds!