TL;DR
- Find and experiment with different Shells before spending too many Glimpses on upgrades.
- Turn on automatic gold pickup immediately to make exploration less tedious.
- Consumables can offer passive bonuses, so don’t judge them only by their immediate effects.
- Cleanse Beacons and investigate suspicious walls because some of the game’s best rewards are hidden off the obvious path.
- Tarstones can dramatically change weapons and builds, so experiment rather than sticking with the first useful setup you find.
- If you’re struggling, Mortal Shell 2 gives you options to make combat more manageable without forcing you to abandon your playthrough.
Mortal Shell 2 may look familiar to anyone who survived Cold Symmetry’s original game, but the sequel makes enough changes that returning players should not assume everything works exactly the way they remember.
The world is considerably larger, exploration plays a much bigger role, weapons offer deeper customization and combat feels faster thanks in part to the removal of the traditional stamina meter. You’ll also find more Shells to inhabit, dozens of Tarstones to experiment with and more than 80 dungeons scattered throughout the Undermether.
That freedom also means it is very easy to overlook useful mechanics or spend valuable resources before you understand how important they are.
Before you venture too far into Mortal Shell 2, here are some of the most useful things to know.
Turn On Automatic Gold Pickup
One of the first things you should do has nothing to do with fighting monsters.
Open the settings menu and enable automatic gold pickup.
Enemies regularly leave currency behind, but the game’s dark environments and visually busy battlefields can make smaller drops surprisingly easy to miss. Without the setting enabled, you’ll frequently need to stop after encounters and look around the ground for anything valuable.
Automatic pickup removes that unnecessary busywork. Walk close enough to dropped gold and it will be collected for you.
It may sound like a minor convenience, but money becomes increasingly useful as you start purchasing maps and investing in your equipment. Missing a little gold after every encounter can eventually become a considerable amount.
Find A Proper Shell Early
The Harbinger can get you through the game’s opening, but you should not necessarily treat that starting form as the character you’ll use throughout the entire adventure.
Shells effectively function as different character classes. Possessing one gives the Harbinger access to that fallen warrior’s statistics, abilities and progression tree.
Once Marrow Keep opens up and you are given more freedom to explore, finding additional Shells should be one of your first priorities.
Tiel and Proxima are both available relatively early, and their general locations can be marked on your map. Even if you ultimately decide not to use either one permanently, finding them gives you an opportunity to compare different playstyles before investing heavily into a particular build.
The earlier you understand what kind of Shell fits the way you fight, the easier it becomes to spend your resources intelligently.
Do Not Spend Glimpses Carelessly
Glimpses are extremely important because they are used to unlock and improve abilities within a Shell’s progression tree.
That creates a temptation early in the game to put a few points into every Shell you discover.
Try to resist it.
Experiment with different characters first, then concentrate most of your resources on the Shells you genuinely enjoy using. Spreading your upgrades too thin can leave several characters partially developed without giving you one particularly strong build for the game’s tougher encounters.
Glimpses can also serve other purposes, including helping locate Shells and assisting with certain encounters, which makes blindly spending them even less advisable.
You do not need to decide on your permanent favorite immediately. Just make sure you’ve actually tested a Shell before committing a significant amount of progression currency to it.
Proxima Can Help You Earn More Money
Players who enjoy Proxima may eventually be able to turn her into a useful source of additional income.
One of her later abilities gives defeated enemies a chance to drop items that can be sold. Once money starts becoming tighter, turning normal combat encounters into another source of sellable loot can make exploration considerably more rewarding.
The important part is that this ability requires investment.
Don’t choose Proxima simply because you’re worried about gold. Her playstyle should still be the main reason you’re using her. If she already fits your preferred approach, however, the additional economic benefit makes developing her even more attractive.
Suspicious Walls Are Worth Hitting
Mortal Shell 2 rewards players who refuse to take every environment at face value.
Pay particular attention to unusual symbols and glyphs painted on walls, tombstones and other surfaces.
If something looks suspicious, hit it.
Some seemingly ordinary barriers hide passages leading to additional areas or valuable items. The visual clues are not always dramatic, which makes it easy to walk straight past them when you’re concentrating on enemies or trying to reach the next objective.
Developing the habit of investigating strange markings early will save you from discovering hours later that you walked past useful upgrades.
Consumables Can Have Passive Effects
Consumables are more flexible than their name suggests.
Certain items can be used normally for an immediate benefit, but they can also be equipped to provide passive effects that remain active while you play.
That makes experimenting with newly discovered items extremely worthwhile.
A consumable that seems fairly ordinary when used from the inventory may offer a much more appealing passive bonus, including effects related to health regeneration or damage reduction.
Those effects can also become stronger as you discover additional copies of the same item.
Do not fall into the familiar RPG trap of hoarding everything because you’re afraid you might need it later. Mortal Shell 2 actively encourages you to learn how items work and incorporate them into your build.
Yes, The Sheep Can Actually Matter
Among all the monsters roaming the Undermether, sheep probably aren’t what most players expect to become part of their character build.
They can.
An early encounter involving a flock can reward you with the Sheephead Totem. Using it directly provides one very strange effect by temporarily turning your character into a sheep.
The passive bonus is considerably more useful.
Equipping the Totem can reduce enemy health, and finding additional versions can strengthen that benefit.
That means seemingly harmless sheep scattered throughout the world are actually worth paying attention to. What looks like environmental decoration can sometimes lead to a meaningful combat advantage.
Cleanse Beacons Whenever You Find Them
Beacons are among the things you should rarely ignore while exploring.
Many are connected to smaller dungeon-style challenges that can be cleansed for valuable rewards. Completing them can lead to weapons, Tarstones, progression resources and other items that make later encounters considerably easier.
Some locations also contain Ova that become important to your broader progression.
With more than 80 dungeons scattered throughout the world, it can be tempting to ignore side routes and focus exclusively on the main objective. Doing that may leave you dramatically under-equipped compared with someone who regularly explores.
If you see a Beacon nearby, investigate it while you’re already in the area. Your future self will appreciate not having to trek across the map later looking for upgrades you skipped.
The Slayer Seal Can Make Combat More Forgiving
If Mortal Shell 2 is becoming more frustrating than enjoyable, the game gives you another option.
The Slayer Seal can be found around Marrow Keep near Merrick and effectively provides a more forgiving approach to combat.
Its benefits include strengthening your sidearm and allowing successful ripostes to restore health. For players who already prefer defensive builds centered around timing ripostes, the healing potential can substantially increase survivability.
There is an important tradeoff.
Activating the Slayer Seal disables trophies and achievements.
If those matter to you, you’ll probably want to avoid it. If you simply want to experience the game without repeatedly hitting the same difficulty wall, it gives you a legitimate alternative.
Night Mode Is For Players Looking For A Bigger Challenge
The Slayer Seal isn’t the only way to alter the difficulty.
Players looking for something harder can eventually activate Night Mode.
Enemies become considerably more dangerous, gaining additional health while dealing more damage. The tradeoff is access to increased Gloom rewards along with certain vendors and events that are unavailable under normal conditions.
You can begin working toward Night Mode relatively early after reaching Marrow Keep by finding the Gloombound Flame near the Widow’s Overlook area and bringing it back.
That does not mean you should immediately activate it.
Learn the basic combat systems first. Find a Shell you enjoy. Experiment with weapons and Tarstones. Once the normal world starts feeling manageable, Night Mode gives experienced players another reason to revisit familiar areas under much more dangerous conditions.
Experiment With Tarstones
Tarstones are one of the systems that give Mortal Shell 2 considerably more build flexibility than its predecessor.
They can alter weapons, attacks and passive abilities, allowing the same equipment to behave differently depending on how you configure it.
There are dozens to discover, so do not become emotionally attached to the first useful Tarstone you equip.
Try different combinations.
Tarstones grow through use, which gives you another reason to rotate through your collection rather than relying exclusively on one setup throughout the entire game.
Some are also associated with specific weapons. Finding a Tarstone for equipment you have not discovered yet can provide an indirect clue that the corresponding weapon may be somewhere in the surrounding region.
If you’re having trouble locating new weapons, Merrick can also sell maps that point you toward their general locations.
Use The Mushroom Village Area If You Need Early Gloom
There will inevitably be moments when you reach a difficult encounter and realize you’re only a small amount of progression away from an upgrade.
One convenient early grinding location can be found around the Mushroom Village Gate.
From the nearby Beacon, head toward the bridge where a tall creature with large mandibles patrols the area. Defeating it can provide a useful amount of Gloom, and the proximity of the Beacon makes resetting the encounter relatively quick.
That creates an easy farming loop when you only need enough progression to reach the next meaningful improvement.
There is little reason to spend hours grinding unnecessarily, however. Exploration will naturally provide plenty of opportunities to become stronger. Farming is most useful when you’re close to an upgrade rather than as a substitute for actually exploring the world.
You Don’t Have To Fight Every Boss Immediately
This may be one of the most valuable lessons for anyone approaching Mortal Shell 2 with traditional Soulslike habits.
If a boss is destroying you, leaving is an option.
The sequel’s more open structure means another direction may contain exactly what you need. A different dungeon could provide a better weapon. Another Beacon could reward you with a useful Tarstone. A newly discovered Shell might fit your fighting style much better than the one you’re currently forcing yourself to use.
Repeated deaths are not always the game telling you to memorize another five attack patterns.
Sometimes they’re telling you to explore.
Take Your Time Exploring The Undermether
Mortal Shell 2 gives players considerably more freedom than the original, and that freedom becomes one of your most valuable tools.
You do not need to approach every challenge in the order the game first presents it.
Explore side paths. Try another Shell. Investigate suspicious walls. Cleanse nearby Beacons. Test your newest Tarstone. Spend some time understanding what your consumables actually do.
The difference between an encounter feeling impossible and manageable may have less to do with your reflexes than with something useful sitting in a dungeon you walked past 30 minutes earlier.
The Undermether is still going to kill you.
Knowing how all of its systems work simply gives you a much better chance of returning the favor.
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