That includes new Shell Shades, letting you customize a Shell’s look and color scheme in different ways. You can also discover ten new Tarstones to imbue equipment with new passive effects, like one that transforms your Shell into a sheep. Why? Well, at this point, why not? The developer also teases that there’s no sheep dungeon, so take that as confirmation.

Keeping with the Halloween season, a new Harbinger Pumpkin Helmet is available. The lute also gets an Impervious skin to go with the new tracks. If that wasn’t enough, a new alternative soundtrack is available. But wait, there’s more, like Photo Mode (perfect for stills of stylish executions), new Nightmode lighting presets, and an Overkill setting in the graphics.

Mortal Shell 2 is out on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here. Interestingly, even more is on the way, though whether that means new content or more fixes remains to be seen.

This Mortal Shell 2 guide has everything there is to know about Shell Bonding, as well as grinding for Shell Points quickly and efficiently.

Glimpse Farming For Faster Shell Bonding

Glimpses are the resource required for Shell Bonding, and need to be acquired from various locations in the world before being taken to the Marrow Keep, so as to access the talent trees and abilities for a particular Shell selected.

You can easily acquire eight Glimpses without any extra effort whatsoever by remembering and returning to the exact locations where you acquire each of the Shells themselves, but in Night Mode. Each spot will have a Glimpse waiting for the taking.

Beacon cleansing is the next steady source of Glimpses, and these regional checkpoints have many other rewards as well. Interact with and select Enter/Cleanse Beacon in order to be transported within its dungeon. Defeat its guardian and recover the drop to perform the Cleanse Corruption, with the Glimpse 

being rewarded after all is said and done.

How To Respec Shells

With 49 core Beacons and 15 hidden Beacons in addition, you will have a steady supply of Glimpses if you elect to simply open up the map as much as feasible with your current build.

Even so, they remain rare enough that you might not be able to invest into more than two Shells up to their absolute maximum fourth tier, especially since the total cost amounts to 25 Glimpses per Shell.

This is also exacerbated by the fact that Glimpses cannot be easily refunded in order to reallocate them to another Shell, unless you get a hold of the consumable item dubbed Mether’s Severance. This item is a rare, high-tier loot drop in endgame zones.

Alternatively, you may be able to purchase from the small stock with Merrick the Merchant at his shop in the Marrow Keep, but it is pricey, at a rate of 5,000 Gold for each.

There is a single free Mether’s Severance secreted in the Marrow Keep as well. Go down the tunnel near Merrick’s spot in the Marrow Keep, and find the destructible wall on the left. Smash through it to find a hidden chest and the item within.

As with all Shell-related matters, Shell respecs are carried out by Zhirelle, the Shellkeeper.

Gloom Farming For More Shell Points

Shell Points are solely acquired by leveling up the Harbinger with Gloom, and even then, they are only granted every other level or so. This means that quickly grinding for Gloom is the only way to upgrade your Shell stats, as well as the Harbinger’s base attributes.

Begin by unlocking the Mushroom Village Gate Beacon, which is distinct and separate from the Mushroom Village Beacon, and has a much shorter travel distance to the target.

Equip your Shotgun Sidearm infused with the Emberseed Stone Tarstone in order to inflict Burn damage, and the latter ideally upgraded to a minimum of level 2 so that it procs on non-Critical Hits too.

Proceed across the nearest bridge to the right of the Beacon to find the elite enemy, and deliver three Shotgun blasts in quick succession, before he finally succumbs to the effects of Burn damage. Collect your roughly 2000 in Gloom, and head right back to the Beacon to do it all over again.

The run takes twenty to thirty seconds tops, and is possibly the highest return Gloom farm for the effort required.

Be sure to equip the Gloombound Stone Tarstone in order to maximize Gloom returns from slain enemies. Each of its four levels increases the bonus by a few percentage points, so prioritize this early on.

With the wide array of Tarstones at your disposal, you really should remember to slot this in at the start of any intentional farming runs.

Consider activating Night Mode via Thestus at the Marrow Keep for the bonus of 20% applied to Gloom gains, counter-balanced by the increased difficulty and associated effort required.

While Glimpses cannot easily be refunded for a respec, Shell Points absolutely can, so you won’t feel the pinch if you find yourself with an unsatisfactory build.

That is all there is to know about Shell Bonding and grinding for Shell Points in Mortal Shell 2.

Those are just two of the improvements in a long list as Cold Symmetry dropped the game’s first update over the weekend. A reworked approach to Tarstones and Glimpses means you get more of them in a single playthrough, and new items help you respec spent Glimpses immediately to unlock all tiers of a new Shell’s abilities. Those improvements alone would have been enough to turn New Game Plus a very attractive option, but they’re joined by more Beacons across the world and reworked rewards make exploring them again worthwhile.

We’re especially thrilled about the stash of Tarstones that’s waiting in your inventory when you boot up the game after the update, and can’t wait to try out the new Fragile Tarstones too. All in all, Mortal Shell 2 is even better, and that’s saying something.

But how does that come about? The answer is in Tarstones, a layer of customization that we believe lends the entire experience a very unique and addictive flavor. With only a limited selection of melee weapons and sidearms available to you, the variety has to come from somewhere if exploring a grim world where everything could send you packing to the nearest beacon has to be justified. Thankfully, there’s enough to Tarstones to make them a facet of the experience that constantly has you feeling like your next exciting discovery is just out of reach.

It makes experimentation and build crafting into an addictive part of your time in Fallgrim and brings exploration and combat full circle into one interconnected gameplay loop. That you keep coming back for more is simply an after-effect of the cohesion that Tarstones bring to anything your character decides to do. Here’s why we think that’s the case.

The Potential of Possibilities

For those of you who haven’t dived into the game, Tarstones essentially work similarly to Elden Ring’s Talismans, conferring specific buffs on your character. However, those effects are nuanced, often coming with upgradeable levels, with each tier expanding on the stone’s functionality. They could alter attacks, let you imbue elemental effects on your weapons, boost your survivability, improve your offensive potential via your weapon or sidearm, and so much more.

Their utility is such that finding one is going to have you diving into its description almost immediately, the curiosity to see what you could do with it overpowering enough to pull you out of a new and improved take on Fallgrim, and that’s saying something. Even one that doesn’t look too powerful at first might work well with one that you find later down the line. It helps that the UI itself is designed to help you identify ones that work well with what you’ve got equipped, as it makes each new discovery come with the same excitement.

It means that every optional dungeon, side path, world location or even a random point of interest could have a Tarstone that changes up the way you play, or even send you to the nearest Beacon to use it with another of your Shells to see how its effects can play out. With the way effects are presented, along with how each Shell’s specific strengths become evident as soon as you begin unlocking its tiered skill trees, experimenting with new Tarstones becomes an essential part of keeping your character powerful enough to take on a variety of situations.

It’s in testing out that potential where you begin to find that Fallgrim is on your mind even when you’re having a busy day at work, or in the middle of a workout. You begin to think about specific Tarstones, lining up what they can do with the rest of what you’ve discovered in-game to see if any of your Shells, weapons, or sidearms could benefit from having one equipped. Every failed experiment is simply a reason to try something else, as there’s always something that could use what you just found. The lack of that simply means that you’ve got more exploring and experimenting to do.

But it’s when your Tarstones begin to work together where a habit begins to emerge.

Steps Towards Synergies

While an individual Tarstone could certainly change things up enough to warrant experimenting with it, that potential for trial and error becomes exponentially increased when you consider potential synergies between ones you find. Multiple effects feeding into each other can mean that your character is an absolute wrecking ball once they begin working together, and seeing your build in action becomes a reward for meticulously putting it together.

It’s a real pleasure when you spend hours discovering seemingly unrelated effects on multiple Tarstones across the four available categories, only to find that they work together across your weapon, Shell, and sidearm to feed into a playstyle that has you feeling nigh on unstoppable until one enemy exposes a fatal flaw that has you back to the drawing board at the nearest Beacon. Perhaps you’re going to swap out one Tarstone for another. Perhaps you’re going to see how a different weapon, sidearm, infusion, or perhaps a different strategy can help. Perhaps you’re going to switch Shells and your entire loadout altogether.

We’re suckers for games that encourage putting builds together on this level, and it’s clear that it was an intended part of the experience on offer in Mortal Shell 2. Even the Beta had us using Tiel’s potential for striking from the Shadows to coat enemies with Poison stacks, each Shadow Strike generating resolve while Tiel’s own passives boosted my damage. The full release had us expanding on that build until I laid my hands on a couple of other late-game Shells that we know still have plenty of potential to uncover as we explore more of Fallgrim.

We know that all it’s going to take is one interesting Tarstone to have us reconsidering all of our plans for the rest of Fallgrim, a place that’s going to have us coming back to it even as other games vie for our attention over the rest of the year. That potential for discovery and constant rebuilding makes each weapon, sidearm, status effect, and Shell a part of a complex puzzle that Tarstones transform into a question that doesn’t really have any wrong answers.

It helps that every new build or idea is an excuse to go back into the world to track down more Tarstones, and become one with a loop that feeds into itself in your head as much as your hands. We found ourselves thinking about our Shells and builds even when we were away from our systems, an obsession that’s fuelled by the potential of one new change shaking the very foundations of our existing setups. That potential is an undercurrent that makes navigating the darkness and desolation of Fallgrim even more enjoyable, the positivity it brings being an intangible contrast to the melancholy that is displayed in its subdued hues and grotesque monsters.

But perhaps our favorite facet of how Tarstones shape the experience is in how they never let you settle into a playstyle even beyond your first playthrough. You only get enough Glimpses to fully upgrade a couple of Shells and perhaps dabble with another. Which means that there are entire skill trees of different effects just waiting for you to try out with your collection of Tarstones. Maintaining a tried and tested setup often clashes with the desire to just experiment with something else entirely.

It’s time to talk a little about how it all comes together in the game.

Building The Best Version Of You

A build you put together through painstaking exploration is so satisfying when it does what you thought it would do. It makes Tarstones an excellent layer of player progression that exists outside of the conventional upgrade system where you trade in Gloom for stats. The depth that exists within your Tarstones is a layer unto itself, as you earn Tarcores by leveling and tempering Tarstones, which you can then use to strengthen others.

That means getting the ones you want working requires using a few others you find alongside them, perhaps sacrificing on one aspect of your build to boost another until you’ve got everything you need in place. You earn your power in a way that makes it worthwhile, and for a reward that justifies all the effort sunk into procuring it. It’s a better approach than the endless loot of something like Nioh 3, an amazing Soulslike on its own with equally viable build potential, but with an approach that’s far more tedious.

There’s a cohesion to Mortal Shell 2’s gameplay loop that has Tarstones as a pillar that props the whole thing up. They’re how the combat, exploration, and Shells come together in a way that has you playing the game as it was intended. It’s what makes builds as fun as they are to use, while the constant expectation that your next big discovery is only a few steps away in any given direction makes the game one that’s very hard to put down.

Well, we know you’re inching ever closer to discovering that all we’ve said is true now that the year’s next big Soulslike is almost here. Now excuse us while we dip back into Fallgrim to investigate what could be our next way to have even more fun in an already enjoyable game.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

This Mortal Shell 2 guide explains how Tarstone leveling is accomplished and how to get the Tarcores required to Temper them.

How To Farm Tarstone XP

The level 1 Tarstone XP bar requires 10,000 points to accumulate in order to reach level 2, and will take a great deal of grinding to accomplish. Fortunately, unlike Gloom, any earned Tarstone XP is not lost on death and is also automatically tallied for every kill, but only as long as the Tarstone is actively equipped.

For maximum effect, you should equip every Tarstone you possibly can to the upper limit of ten. This includes the four applicable to the Shell, and the two each for Ability, Combat, and Infusion.

Once a Tarstone reaches its maximum XP limit, any further Tarstone XP earned is wasted on it, as it does not carry forward to the XP bar of the next level. So be sure to swap them out for another unleveled Tarstone so as to avoid wasting your efforts. There is also another reason why you should be grinding Tarstones to higher levels even if you do not really want to make use of their abilities, and which will be touched on below.

As for actually farming Tarstone XP, this really is a matter of pure combat. So, find a Beacon with the most lucrative run of enemies that you can blast and cleave through as quickly as possible, and just keep resting at the Beacon in order to reset them, rinse, and repeat.

How To Get The Etching Needle And Upgrade Tarstones

Once you have filled a Tarstone’s XP bar at level 1, you can Temper it to level 2 proper at the Tarforge in the Marrow Keep. But this option is unavailable until you acquire the Etching Needle and give it to Franz the TarForge Smith.

The Etching Needle is located in a chest around the area where you battle the boss Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods. Beginning at the Sunken Bridge Beacon, run across the bridge into the sheep pen where the The Wandering/Tarblighted Shepherd miniboss is battled. Smash through the crates in front of the wood gate straight ahead, and then cross another bridge to find Ruk, as well as the Etching Needle chest.

Now wrap this up by taking it to Franz and unlocking the Temper Tarstones menu. Each Tarstone upgraded to level 2 will cost a hundred Gold Coins as well. Once done, the level 2 XP bar of 20,000 points is unlocked, allowing you to equip it for further Tarstone XP grinding in order to reach level 3.

Fully Tempering a Tarstone to level 3 adds another resource to the upgrade requirements: 6X Tarcores, aside from an increase to 150 Gold Coins.

How To Get Tarcores Fast

The only way to get the required Tarcores is by actively Tempering Tarstones at the TarForge. When you upgrade a Tarstone from level 1 to level 2, you also get a single Tarcore in return. With six Tarcores required to then upgrade a Tarstone from level 2 to level 3, you will need to grind XP and temper at least six individual Tarstones to level 2 in the first place.

And this is why it is important to farm Tarstone XP even for Tarstones that hold no particular interest for your build, initially at least. Equally important is efficiently swapping out Tarstones that have reached their maximum accumulated XP, just until you can head back to the TarForge and Temper them to the next level properly.

Fortunately, the Tarcore return on investment scales when you Temper a Tarstone from level 2 to level 3: you will receive three Tarcores back for the six that you spent in the first place. Now you only have to grind Tarstone XP and Temper another three level 1 Tarstones in order to accumulate enough Tarcores to Temper a single level 2 Tarstone. And so on and so forth.

This closed loop of Tarcores earned from Tempering Tarstones implies that you should be cautious and choosy about exactly which Tarstones you finally upgrade to level 3.

That is everything there is to know about upgrading Tarstones and acquiring Tarcores in Mortal Shell 2.

This guide for Mortal Shell 2 is all about grinding for Gloom quickly and efficiently, with as little effort as possible.

Sunken Village Beacon Best Early Game Gloom Farm

A good Gloom farm naturally revolves around a Beacon with a fair number of targets in its immediate vicinity. A good one early on is the Sunken Village Beacon, with its boss known as The Wandering Shepherd.

Eliminate him in order to access the sheep pen directly behind the Beacon and across the narrow bridge. These sheep are your true source of fast and effortless Gloom for each run. Dispose of them with a single strike each, and circle back to the Beacon to rest and reset all enemy placements in the area, then continue to round two and more. Each run should take no more than sixty seconds as a worst case scenario.

At just under a thousand Gloom per run, this is the most minimal effort Gloom farm in the early game. Eventually the returns will decrease in their value to your goals, since Gloom requirements scale higher and higher as you level up, but for now this is an excellent location to grind those starting levels.

Widow’s Overlook Beacon First Gloom Farm

The earliest Beacon you unlock does have a viable Gloom farm, however it may feel tedious to travel the farming loop required. After stepping away from the Beacon, bear right and go down the slope, heading straight for the rundown structure to the left. There is a group of five enemies clumped here, and a single flying enemy to the left, all worth a total of 200 odd Gloom.

Early on, this will be sufficient to not test your patience, and the run itself should take less than sixty seconds including the return trip to the Beacon in order to reset the loop.

Mushroom Village Gate Beacon High Returns Gloom Farm

This Gloom farm involves a single, solitary elite enemy, and requires a solid damage-output build. Begin by unlocking the Mushroom Village Gate Beacon, which is distinct and separate from the Mushroom Village Beacon, and has a much shorter travel distance to the target.

Equip your Shotgun Sidearm infused with your recently acquired Emberseed Stone Tarstone in order to inflict Burn damage, with the latter ideally upgraded to a minimum of level 2 so that it procs on non-Critical Hits too.

Proceed across the nearest bridge to the right of the Beacon to find the elite enemy, and deliver three rapid blasts from the Shotgun, before he succumbs to the effects of Burn damage. Collect your roughly 2000 in Gloom, and head right back to the Beacon to do it all over again.

The run takes twenty to thirty seconds tops, and is possibly the highest return Gloom farm for the effort required, in the game thus far.

Gloombound Stone Tarstone Gloom Bonus

Regardless of where you choose to farm Gloom, you should equip the Gloombound Stone Tarstone in order to maximize Gloom returns from slain enemies. Each of its four levels increases the bonus by a few percentage points, so prioritize this early on.

Given the wide array of Tarstones to equip, you should remember to slot this in at the start of an intentional farming run, at the very least.

Night Mode Gloom Bonus

Once you are familiar with the game mechanics and confident in your skills, consider activating Night Mode via Thestus at the Marrow Keep. The most important thing this has an effect on is the bonus of 20% applied to Gloom gains. Whether it is worth the increased difficulty and associated effort comes down to your skill level.

That is everything there is to know about grinding for Gloom as fast and effortlessly as possible in Mortal Shell 2.

This guide for Mortal Shell 2 is all about grinding for Gold Coins quickly and efficiently, with minimal effort.

Gorf Mushroom Village Gold Coin Reward

A fairly large windfall of Gold Coins can be gained from Gorf, the giant frog located around the Mushroom Village. Simply perform his quest by delivering mushrooms for him to consume, and each successful feeding should net you a Marsh Pearl, up to a maximum of four times. The fifth feeding will reward you with a Poisoned Dagger instead.

Your total net from this quest will be 8,000 Gold Coins after you dispose of them all with Merrick at his shop in the Marrow Keep.

Proxima Shell Specimen Collector

Extracting Specimens using the ability of the Proxima Shell, for eventual sale to Merrick, can be a wider profitable venture. Upgrading the Proxima Shell through to its maximum tier three should be prioritized for best returns, since it increases the chances of harvesting more Specimens and more often, from each kill.

The Specimens themselves can be disposed of for a hundred Coins each, and the drop rate is fair enough that you should be able to combine it with intentional Gloom or Gold farming efforts.

Remember that Merrick will also buy all of the other valuables you may have stumbled upon, so rid yourself of them every so often.

Beacon Farming Enemies For Gold Coins

Your best bet is to make use of the Beacon resting mechanic in order to reset enemies in the vicinity after you slaughter them for their drops, and then farm them all over again. Which Beacon you choose is situational as you progress through the game. The ideal locations have a clump of easily disposable enemies in close proximity to the Beacon itself, thus limiting your travel time to and fro, between resets.

Enemies that are too hard to eliminate will also lengthen the duration of a run. On the other hand, if you can tweak your build for a fast takedown of difficult enemies that drop good amounts of Gold Coins, that can remain a viable option. Just bear in mind that quick repeatability is the ultimate goal.

This method can of course be combined with the Proxima Shell Specimen Collector method for maximum returns on any given run.

The Widow’s Overlook Beacon does have a low output Coin farm, however it may feel tedious to travel the farming loop required. After stepping away from the Beacon, bear right and go down the slope, heading straight for the rundown structure to the left. There is a group of five enemies clumped here, as well as a single flying enemy to the left, but only humanoid enemies appear to actually have a chance to drop Coins, so ignore it unless you are also farming for Gloom.

Chest Farming

While there are Chests scattered across the open world waiting to be cracked open for their loot, Gold Coin drops are secondary to whatever unique items they hold, and are not really a reliable constant as a Coin source.

Settings Tip

Be sure to activate the Auto Pick Up Gold setting in the game settings, so as to reduce the tedium involved in seeking out every dropped pouch of Coins and then manually hoovering them up.

Justiciar’s Stone Tarstone Gold Coin Bonus

Equipping the Justiciar’s Stone Tarstone grants a bonus to Coin drops every time you slay an enemy. Each of its four levels increases the bonus by a few percentage points, so prioritize these upgrades early on.

Given the wide array of Tarstones to equip, you should remember to slot this in at the start of an intentional farming run, at the very least.

That is all there is to know about grinding Gold Coins as fast and effortlessly as possible in Mortal Shell 2.

It’s also an excellent Soulslike, and its critical reception is of no surprise to us at all. It’s quite positive, and has been enough for Cold Symmetry to release an accolades trailer, which even references our own review of the game. There’s a lot to like in this one, from its excellent combat that places a special emphasis on aggressive play reminiscent of another beloved title in the genre, to an open world that isn’t as massive as FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, but manages to capture that air of mystery and intrigue from The Lands Between quite well.

Of course, the Shells and the many ways you can get the most out of their skill sets are a major draw, as are the enemies you use them against. If you’ve been waiting to see what the world’s saying about this one before you dive in, now is as good a time as any. We’ve compiled a few tips to make the opening hours a bit easier.

Well, that’s why we’re here, so let’s dive right in.

1. Find The Slayer Seal Early

Early on in the game, you’re going to find yourself at Marrow’s Keep, which is Mortal Shell 2’s version of the Roundtable Hold. One specific red throne in the Keep has the Slayer Seal waiting for you to pick it up, and its Gloomslayer passive is more than capable of carrying you through to the end of the game. Not only does it restore Health and Resolve on a riposte, but it allows your Sidearm to deal Break damage, which in turn staggers enemies more often to make said ripostes much easier to pull off consistently.

We’re not going to call it the game’s Easy mode, but it does make things significantly more manageable since you’re going to be using Resolve anyway, and having it deal Break damage for you is very useful in a variety of situations. Just know that Achievements/Trophies are disabled when it’s active, but you do have a few more that require it equipped.

2. Night Mode Isn’t Just Cosmetic

Remember how the original Mortal Shell made things considerably more dangerous when you were returning to your base after defeating one of the main bosses. The sequel’s got something similar, although it’s now tied to an NPC called Thestus. It’s a bit of work though, requiring that you find the Gloombound Flame near the Great Arbitrer of Flesh, use it to resurrect Thestus, and then talk to him to summon the night.

Head out, and you’re going to find that enemies are harder to take down and inflict more damage, but all of the rewards you get from them are increased in accordance with that bump in difficulty. Use this well to ensure you’re keeping all your gear topped off level-wise, as well as to farm resources when you need them. You could also choose to tackle the entire game at night if you’re a sucker for punishment.

It’s worth checking out since you can always revert things back to normal by asking Thestus to do the needful.

3. Stay on The Offensive

You’ve probably heard by now that there’s no stamina bar, but what that means in actual combat is that you’re going to want to stay on the move, and always stay within attacking range of your enemies. Button-mashing isn’t going to win you any prizes, but if you’re learning enemy animations and responding accordingly, you’re soon going to be tearing through the ranks of your foes, painting the world like a bloody canvas that exists for you to display your art.

If you’re a Soulslike veteran trying this one out, you’re better off holding your ground and attempting to parry your enemies, hitting them with your firearms, or dodging through a counterattack so you’re well placed to begin your next offensive.

Combat’s faster and more aggressive in this one, and the protagonist is going to need you firing on all cylinders to guide them through.

4. Enemy Posture Matters

While we’re on the subject of aggression, one of the reasons you’re better served staying on the offensive is a posture system that’s going to be very familiar to all you Sekiro veterans out there. Attacking your enemies, parrying their attacks, and dealing Break damage to them fills up a yellow meter below their health bar that staggers them when it’s full, allowing you to step in for a riposte and serious damage.

It’s important for you to remember that chipping away at the HP of tough foes is certainly viable, but isn’t how the game wants you to take them on. Instead, getting right up in their business and proving yourself the superior warrior by standing tall against their most ferocious attacks is why the protagonist is feared as the ultimate warrior.

With the right setup of Seals, Tarstones, attacks, and weapons, you’re going to be defeating enemies, left and right, quite often no matter how imposing a threat they may seem.

5. Keep Resolve Topped Off

While Mortal Shell 2 might have done away with the stamina bar, the Resolve meter acts as a superb alternative. You generate Resolve by attacking enemies and parrying their attacks, and it powers your firearms, special attacks, and spells along with some Tarstone effects such as elemental weapon imbuements like Poison and Burn.

While you might think you can get away with starting a fight with Low resolve and filling it up with a few attacks, things might not always unfold the way you expect in this game. Every opportunity you can find to maximize your Resolve can and should be taken lest you find yourself low at a time when you really need it.

Those golden tendrils you find all around the world are a good place to start if you’re looking to top it off before a tough fight or boss.

6. Your Sidearm Is An Important Part Of Your Arsenal

You’ve probably figured out that combat is all about aggression in Mortal Shell 2. Your sidearms are an important part of keeping up the pressure you need to keep your foes on the back foot. They are ranged weapons that you pull out in a pinch and also serve as a valuable tool that you must consider if you’re looking to specialize your build.

That’s not even considering changes that Tarstones could bring to their functionality, such as elemental infusions, while others come with specialized effects at range. All of this makes your sidearm a part of your build, and a crucial pillar of any strategy you’re formulating against enemies that are going to force you to seek out every advantage you can right off the bat.

7. Build For Tarstone Synergies

When putting different combinations of Tarstone effects together, it’s going to be tempting to slot in ones that come with a big buff to a specific part of your toolkit. However, you might be better served with ones that work with your Shell, choice of weapon, sidearm, and other Tarstones.

Essentially, a synergy between your equipped Tarstones and gear is a whole lot more valuable than straight up buffs, as it’s those synergies that can truly let your protagonist shine when the going gets tough. And considering how often that happens in Fallgrim, using those synergies to boost the crux of your combat strategy, such as status effects, posture breaking, or others, is a very important part of staying alive.

8. Pick A Favorite Shell

The Shells are the obvious flavor of the experience in Mortal Shell 2, and you should totally try each one out once you manage to find it. However, you should ideally pick a favorite and focus on maximising its utility instead of trying to spread your attention across all of the ones you find.

That helps you keep a constant upward trajectory in terms of your overall progress, while letting you get used to the Shell in question to make wielding it a matter of muscle memory. In our case, Tiel was the one who filled that role as his Shadow Strike ability let us take the fight to our opponents from the shadows where we thrived.

Essentially, you’re looking for a Shell that fits naturally with your playstyle, and taking full advantage of that in a world that’s quite unforgiving towards mistakes.

9. Shell Bonding Is A Priority

Another reason we recommend sticking to one Shell is to ensure you’re consistently using Shell Bonding to deepen your Bond with it. That not only gives you a glimpse into the person that Shell used to be, but also keeps new abilities and upgrades open for whenever you have the means to collect them.

Improvements to core stats are another part of it, and having a single Shell setup ensures that you’re maximizing your output in the field instead of being stretched too thin. Of course, the more determined among you might choose to farm out enough to keep multiple Shells going as options depending on the situation, but for with others trying to find your footing in Fallgrim, taking it one at a time is definitely a better approach.

10. Merrick’s Maps Are Worth It

You already probably know who Merrick is and what he does, but what you might not realize is that he sells maps with the locations of weapons and sidearms for you to pick up. They’re quite inexpensive considering the value they offer, and you should make buying them a priority in your early hours in the game.

Of course, one of the things we really like about Mortal Shell 2 is that even those locations you get from maps aren’t accurate, but rather search areas that you then have to explore before you uncover the weapon, sidearm, or Shell in question. Getting as many weapons and sidearms as you can early on is going to let you experiment even more, and that’s a huge part of what makes this game as fun as it is.

11. Franz and the Tarforge

There’s a Tarforge in Marrow’s Keep, operated by an NPC named Franz who requires you to bring him specific materials that he uses to upgrade the forge. This one’s quite important since the forge’s functionality is dependent on upgrading it.

To that end, remember to take the Muradean Actuator, Obsidian Lathe, and Etching Needles back to Franz as soon as you can after you pick them up. It took us a while to figure out what to do with those items, but it’s what unlocks weapons and Tarstone upgrades at the forge.

12. Spend Your Currencies Wisely

Coin and Gloom are your main currencies in Mortal Shell 2, and they’re fairly easy to come by as they’re both dropped by normal enemies frequently enough to ensure you have a generous amount at hand most of the time. However, Glimpses, which you use for Shell Bonding, are quite rare and are scattered all around the world.

You’re going to want to make finding as many of them as you can a priority, knowing full well that the search is going to net you a fair bit of Coin and Gloom to spend on other upgrades in the process. It’s great that progression never feels too grindy in this game, but that doesn’t mean you should be quite deliberate about where you’re spending your rewards for a job well done.

13. Cleanse Those Beacons Sooner Rather Than Later

Yeah, Beacons are valuable as fast-travel points, but they’re so much more than that. Cleansing one usually puts you on a collision course with some challenging fights, with great rewards waiting for you at the end of them. They’re also great places to spend any Gloom you’ve gathered up while exploring, letting you safely square it away in upgrades instead of risking it to a sudden death.

You should be cleansing any Beacons you find as soon as you do instead of saving them for later. It’s quite easy to forget given how distracting this game’s world can be, and you’re almost always missing out on something cool if you do.

14. Go Away From The Main Objective

It’s something we do quite often when we’re left to our own devices in a world like this one, but it definitely bears mentioning that wandering without a goal in mind is a great way to enjoy everything this game has to offer. It’s how you improve every aspect of your toolkit before taking on whatever the main story objective is going to throw at you.

Remember that Merrick’s maps only point you in the direction of some of the cool stuff that’s waiting out there for you, and you should be heading in every other direction other than the one the main story points you in as much as possible. Fallgrim’s a brilliantly designed world, and it’s where the best of Mortal Shell 2’s offerings reside.

15. Mark Completed Dungeons

We really wish we’d known about this one long before we figured it out, but the game doesn’t really help you by marking a dungeon you’ve cleared. It’s one of the few complaints we have with the game, and we’re already hearing chatter from players too.

Whether you’re a completionist or somebody just looking to enjoy as much of the world as they can find, immediately marking completed dungeons is going to save you a lot of time spent poring over your map as you try to jog your memory long after you’ve moved on from a region.

And that’s about it for this one. We can’t wait for you to experience a Soulsborne that’s quite good at making you feel powerful yet hunted in a world whose dark fantasy setting makes you feel right at home. We’ll be seeing you in Fallgrim!

On Steam, it’s off to a strong start already, nearly peaking at 20,000 concurrent players, which blows away the original’s 1,931 player peak. However, keep in mind that the latter launched on the Epic Games Store first, whereas the sequel is available on both storefronts from day one.

And though there are only 120 user reviews at present, Mortal Shell 2 currently has a “Very Positive” rating, with about 80 percent recommending the title. As a standalone follow-up to the original, it offers a larger, more open world to explore, complete with new enemies and bosses.

You’ll still fight using Shells, each conferring unique abilities and playstyles, and when suffering a Fatal Blow, the Harbinger must fight on his lonesome for a short period. A free beta is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC if you’re curious, with some progress carrying over.

Otherwise, check out our review for more details on the game. We gave it a 9 out of 10, praising the world design, combat, and atmosphere.