On Saturday, Mortal Shell 2 received its biggest update yet, a little over a week after release. Developer Cold Symmetry was seemingly keen to address as many points of criticism as possible because the updates touch almost every aspect of the game. The patch is available now on Steam, and soon on PlayStation and Xbox, and it adds new stuff to the game alongside all of the changes.
One of Mortal Shell 2’s most criticised aspects was its frugal economy. That manifested in the rate at which the game doled out various currencies, and how that limited players’ ability to experiment with Shells – the game’s premade classes, and weaponry.
The patch added new Tarstones which are similar to rings in Soulslikes, awarding passive and active bonuses. New Fragile Tarstones yield a Tarcore that can be used to upgrade Tarstones when they break after a certain number of uses, and new Glimpse Stones break into Glimpses after defeating a certain number of enemies.
Glimpses until now have been the game’s rarest resource; the one used to increase your bond with Shells. Previously, only a limited number of Glimpses could be acquired, making it so players were never able to fully explore all Shells.
In short, Glimpses and Tarstones are no longer finite, giving players the opportunity to upgrade all Shells and Tarstones in a single playthrough. And if that’s not enough, the patch also added a Shell respec item called Mether’s Severance, which lets you sever your bond with a Shell, refunding all previously spent Glimpses.
To help encourage the same level of experimentation with Tarstones, each Tarstone upgrade now yields more Tarcores. If you already tempered a few, you’ll find extra Tarcores in your inventory to make up the difference.
Beyond economy and exploration, the patch rebalanced the entirety of the game’s arsenal of weapons as well as all Shells. Several of the major bosses have been updated, too, including with previously missing moves.
Mortal Shell 2’s world offers plenty to discover, but the game was criticised for uneven distribution of Beacons (bonfires), essentially making it so certain areas offered more than needed while others had surprisingly few. Beacons serve as save and resting points, and it’s where you level up. The patch addresses this, adding new Beacons across Fainweald and Mammon.
Egon’s Stone addresses the lack of Beacons within dungeons by making it so you return to the entrance of a dungeon upon death, rather than to the nearest Beacon. The stone breaks after a certain number of deaths, preventing Gloom (souls) loss for that death.
The patch has an entire section on gameplay tweaks but the most notable is that riposes have been overhauled. After parrying an enemy enough times, you can perform a riposte – a high-damage attack with bespoke animations. Before the patch, the riposte damage didn’t scale with enemy health in the late-game, or in NG+ and Night Mode. Now, you should notice a big upgrade to your riposte damage, as well as wider and more consistent Invulnerability windows when performing them.
The Steam patch notes are extensive but worth digging through to see how your particular Shell, playstyle or weapon have been affected. Despite the flaws the patch addresses – and those it doesn’t – it was hard not to be impressed by Mortal Shell 2 when I reviewed it for Eurogamer. It’s a compelling Soulslike action game hybrid that’ll be spoken of in the same breath as the genre’s greats.
