Ritual Monster

Ritual Monsters are Monsters that can only be Special Summoned with their corresponding Ritual Spell Card. Examples include Relinquished, Black Luster Soldier, Magician of Black Chaos, Zera the Mant, Crab Turtle and The Masked Beast.

When a Ritual Monster Card is Special Summoned via its Ritual Spell Card, Tributes must be offered either from your side of the field or from your hand that either meet or exceed the number of stars present on the Ritual Monster in question. The Special Summon is specifically treated as a Ritual Summon.

So, for example, if Relinquished was Ritual Summoned via the Black Illusion Ritual card, only 1 Monster Star is required, so any Monster could be offered as a Tribute, since you can't have a monster with 0 Stars. However, with Black Luster Soldier or The Masked Beast, 8 Stars are required, so you either need to Tribute a few low-level monsters (with around 3 or 4 stars), or one powerful card with 8 or more stars, such as Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

If a Ritual Monster is discarded to the Graveyard (with cards like Delinquent Duo, or Graceful Charity), without it being Ritual Summoned with the appropriate Ritual Spell Card beforehand, it can't be Special Summoned from the Graveyard with cards such as Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, Monster Reborn, or Fulfillment of the Contract. Magician of Faith or Dark Magician of Chaos can be used to return a used Ritual Spell Card back to your hand, while cards like Monster Reincarnation can be used to return the Ritual Monster back to your hand.

If a Ritual Monster was Ritual Summoned successfully and destroyed in any way, or removed from play, it may be Special Summoned by cards like Monster Reborn or Return from the Different Dimension, unless it has restrictions that prevent it from being Special Summoned.

In a sense, Ritual Monsters are easier to summon than Normal or Effect Monsters of the same Level, since all you need is:


 * The Ritual Monster, its corresponding Ritual Spell Card in your hand
 * The required monsters needed for Tributes in your hand and/or on your side of the field
 * A free Monster Card Zone to Special Summon the Ritual Monster to.

This can be useful in getting a powerful monster onto the field very quickly, without needing monsters on the field to Tribute. It does, however, take a heavy toll on your hand. However, cards such as Advanced Ritual Art can forego using cards from your hand and/or field altogether, and use monsters from one's Deck as Tribute Fodder instead.

Strategies
You can Summon a Ritual Monster of any level for free if you either use Ritual Foregone (In which case they live for 1 turn and can't attack) or, if you have enough Normal Monsters, combine Advanced Ritual Art with Samsara.