Mortal Shell 2 is an immense and complex Soulslike. While it borrows a lot of mechanics from other games in the genre, it has a particular take on them, not to mention new vocabulary and arcane terms. It’s very easy to play for hours and miss important systems. Here are 10 helpful things to know or remember as you play.
Mortal Shell 2 has eight weapons and eight shells scattered around the sprawling map. There are a couple of ways to find them. The first, of course, is exploration, and clearing all the Beacons’ dungeons and any other dungeons you come across. But maybe you want a more targeted approach. Like everything in life, it’ll cost ya. Merrick the Merchant will sell you maps (for coin) showing the location of weapons. You can unlock shell locations by visiting Zhirelle’s area and spending Glimpses. Note, that while the location of an item could be anywhere in a grey area on the map, the item is usually at the center of the circle in a dungeon-type area or guarded by a boss.
You’ll see bird icons on your map, even in fog-of-war areas. Those are Rúk, a large raven. Rúk gives you map fragments, riddle-like hints and directions to the next objective. When lost, look for Rúk.
One of the rules of every good Soulslike is, if you see something — anything — hit it and see what happens. You’ll see two objects that look like light posts. The ones with the light at the top drop Gloom and crafting materials when destroyed. The ones with the light at the bottom allow you to refill your Resolve when you wail on them. Some of them respawn. Extra hint: if you see one of those Resolve refill stations, that’s a clue that a major combat encounter is coming.
Unlike a number of recent Soulslikes and action games, Mortal Shell 2 does not have a difficulty slider. Except that it sort of does. If you want to make the game easier, you can find the Slayer Seal in the hub area, Marrow Keep. The Slayer Seal takes away your ability to parry in exchange for a powerful riposte attack that stuns most enemies. Additionally, melee combat refills both health and Resolve. A couple of caveats. The wind up for the Slayer Seal attack is very long and can be interrupted, so you need a window free from enemy attacks. Using it also prevents players from getting achievements.
To make the game harder, you need to obtain the Gloombound Flame, found in the area where the early boss, Great Arbiter of Flesh, is standing guard. Take the flame to the top of Marrow Keep and light the torch, turning the game to Night (Hard) Mode. If you want to switch back, you need to return to the torch in Marrow Keep.
In Mortal Shell 2, your healing “flask” is called Mether’s Pulse, and you add charges by finding Revered Glands. As in most games, the number of required Glands increases for additional heals. To increase the amount of healing each use does, you need to collect Synaptic Nodes. The max number of heals is 10.
Mortal Shell 2 is (currently) a single player-only experience. You may be wondering if there are NPC summons. After all, just about every recent Soulslike has them. There is indeed the ability to summon an NPC to help you with major progression bosses. Sure, the summons pulls aggro for a while, but they also increase boss difficulty, and they (in my experience) tend to tap out halfway through the fight. Worth experimenting with, but don’t expect the NPC to do the work for you.
When you clear a dungeon or boss, you often receive ova to take back to Marrow Keep for syphoning. I mean, lore-wise, that’s really why you’re in the world. When you turn in the ova not much seems to happen except you get some Gloom. But a lot is going on behind the scenes. Increasing the number of ova opens up new weapon upgrades and vendor materials. There’s also a more passive benefit, as already collected ova generate additional Gloom and new ova while you are out exploring.
Mortal Shell 2 might look metal as hell and feel pretty dark and gloomy. But there are some surprising moments of humor, too, like a meadow full of sheep that turn violent (great for farming Gloom, BTW). My favorite item is the Troubador’s Lute, a musical instrument weapon. Acting like a sidearm, it turns enemies against one another, can stun them and can turn them immobile. It’s a niche use weapon but what could be better than a medieval lute that kills with power chords? In the open beta/demo the Lute was in Mushroom Village. It has been relocated in the full game. It might be the only weapon that isn’t found in a dungeon or obtained after a boss fight. In the full game, it’s also not upgradeable.
You might be wondering how long of a commitment Mortal Shell 2 is going to be. The first Mortal Shell was short, only 10-12 hours. The developers have estimated that a playthrough of Mortal Shell 2 can be from 20-60 hours. Neither of those extremes will be the norm. On a first playthrough, when you’re finding your way and learning the systems, 40-45 hours is probably realistic.
Upgrading your character and shell are, of course, critical. Equally important, however, are the Seals and Tarstones you equip. The Seals change your approach to blocks and parries. Tarstones are essentially buffs, debuffs, and special coatings — think Elden Ring greases — for both your melee and ranged weapon. You can upgrade Tarstones once you obtain a specific item. Important reminder: you equip different Tarstones to your melee and ranged weapons, and it’s easy to forget to apply, let’s say bleed to your ranged weapon. Access ranged weapon Tarstones by holding down the left trigger.