Mortal Shell II Update Adds Fragile Tarstones and Respecs

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Mortal Shell II’s first major patch is now available, adding new Fragile Tarstones, a new way to respec Shells, and changes to the Glimpses and Tarcores economy. The update also introduces new beacons, exploration changes, and a full scaling pass for player ripostes.

The patch includes extensive combat refinements, boss and weapon adjustments, softlock and progression fixes, interface improvements, and performance optimisations. Several changes also target enemy tracking, hit detection, crashes, stability, controls, and graphics options.

Patch Notes

New Items

• Added Fragile Tarstones, which break after losing durability and yield a Tarcore when broken.
• Added Glimpse Stone, which wears down as enemies are defeated and then breaks into Glimpses.
• Added Egon’s Stone, which revives the player at a dungeon entrance at the cost of durability and prevents Gloom loss for that death when it breaks.
• Made Justicar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone fragile.
• Increased the passive effects of Justicar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone.
• Added on-break effects to Justicar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone.
• Converted existing copies of Justicar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone into Fragile versions.
• Added Fragile Tarstones as repeatable items that can be found multiple times during a playthrough.
• Added new fragile Tarstone drops to certain enemies.
• Added Fragile Tarstones as rewards in several dungeons.
• Added Fragile Tarstones to Merrick’s stock.

Economy

• Made Glimpses and Tarcores non-finite resources, allowing all Shells and Tarstones to be upgraded during a single playthrough.
• Added Mether’s Severance, a Shell respec item that can be given to Zhirelle.
• Mether’s Severance severs the player’s bond with a Shell, resets it, and returns all spent Glimpses.
• Increased the number of Tarcores returned when Tarstones break.
• Added compensatory Tarcores to inventories for saves with previously levelled Tarstones.
• Added Tarstones and Mether’s Severance to Merrick’s stock, with the items restocking occasionally as players progress.
• Expanded Merrick’s stock with Glimpse Stones, Egon’s Stones, and Tarcores after gathering enough Ova.
• Added Tarcores to the Collector’s stock.
• Revised dungeon reward chests across the first two regions.
• Updated reward placement in Mammon.
• Restored missing rewards in arena dungeons.
• Replaced some world reward chests with straightforward pickups.
• Added additional rewards, including Glimpses, to the Gloom Siphon.
• Removed Glimpse rewards from Mini-Beacons.

Exploration

• Added new Beacons throughout Fainweald and Mammon.
• New Beacons are active only during the day.
• Added two cosmetic rewards to the world after completing certain questlines.
• Added new items to the world.
• Reset some problematic chests.
• Added a dungeon teleporter after the Grisha pit fight, removing the return walk.

Weapons, Items and Balance

• Increased the damage of the Obsidian Hammer.
• Increased the damage of the Great Martyr’s Blade.
• Adjusted poise and damage for heavy weapons.
• Redesigned the Salvaged Trebuchaxe: Tarred Fragment.
• Added invulnerability frames and Fragile stacks to the Axatana weapon ability.
• Fixed the Axatana combat Tarstone active.
• Increased the strength of Weltcap’s active and passive effects.
• Retuned base aggression and disengage ranges across the game.
• Fixed enemies ignoring the player while walking to patrol points.
• Fixed enemies retreating unreasonably far when unable to reposition.
• Fixed enemies being unable to attack while locked onto a different target.
• Fixed Tarstones continuing to gather experience after reaching maximum level.
• Fixed missing tooltips on several Tarstones.
• Reworked environmental status hazards.
• Added a new handler for Stasis.

Shells

• Fixed Eredrim’s Shoulder Bash leaving the primary weapon permanently stowed.
• Fixed Proxima’s Biosampler and hook shot issues.
• Fixed an issue causing an arm to be pulled unnaturally straight for Proxima.
• Fixed Genessa’s dashes, including the corrupted version.
• Fixed paired animations after losing a Shell.
• Fixed Genessa’s Intangible upgrade during grab attacks.
• Fixed astral copies drifting away from their intended targets.
• Improved target selection for doubles.
• Made doubles switch targets when their original target dies instead of standing idle.
• Added the ability for Smert to destroy projectiles while in permanent fight stance.
• Fixed the Heart of Vatra trailing behind Gragu in sheep form.
• Fixed Gragu’s helmet using the incorrect material.
• Fixed blood marking Shell skins incorrectly across the roster.
• Fixed Shell summon interactions.
• Fixed Tarstone summons occasionally targeting the player.

Bosses and Minibosses

• Applied a general polish and bug-fix pass to most bosses.
• Improved boss combat timing, animation timing, hitboxes, arena navigation, riposte alignment, physical hit reactions, attack behaviour, visual effects, and performance across multiple encounters.
• Adjusted laser and spin attack timings to make them more consistent and readable.
• Fixed an issue causing certain boss attacks to deal double damage.
• Fixed a tail grab that could simultaneously take both the Shell and Harbinger from full health to zero.
• Improved Ring Wave ground alignment.
• Added new effects to elemental stomps.
• Fixed a boss launching itself or the player across the arena.
• Replaced a placeholder walk animation with the finished animation.
• Retimed bite anticipation.
• Fixed riposte wobbling at the beginning of an animation.
• Fixed endless blood effects.
• Repaired arena navigation for multiple bosses.
• Removed a stray lunge from a second-phase attack.
• Fixed a phase-transition riposte against walls.
• Increased splash damage for a boss area attack.
• Prevented a boss from interrupting its own shooting attack.
• Retimed an attack to make it fairer.
• Reduced the size of one boss arena and enabled its beacon light by default for improved visibility.
• Prevented a boss from becoming wedged in the environment during a dive.
• Corrected an incorrect boss name displayed in-game.
• Removed stray effects from death animations.
• Fixed flickering fire on a boss’s axe.
• Improved attack and riposte alignment.
• Fixed a boss interrupting its own sword throw.
• Made a boss reliably retrieve its thrown sword.
• Reworked two encounters with retuned attacks, new ice attacks, and corrected effects.
• Added a warning to an attack that cannot be parried.
• Added new projectile visual effects trails.
• Fixed incorrect rotation during a charge.
• Retuned damage, turning, and jump attacks for an affected enemy.
• Fixed ranged attacks that could miss without reason.
• Improved teleport behaviour within an affected boss arena.

Bugs, Softlocks and Getting Stuck

• Fixed getting stuck near the closed castle gates.
• Fixed getting stuck in a church in the opening region.
• Fixed getting stuck inside a house in the sunken village dungeon.
• Fixed getting stuck in Castigator’s Keep by walking through a wall.
• Fixed getting stuck in the snow on the approach to an arena.
• Fixed getting stuck in a hole in Eredrim’s castle jail.
• Patched collision holes, ground gaps, and missing collision throughout the first two regions.

Softlocks and Lost Progress

• Fixed interrupted saves being able to destroy save files.
• Saves are now written so that crashes or sudden shutdowns cannot leave the player without a save.
• Fixed a progression lockout in Vatra’s Temple after exploring the area.
• Fixed a potential crash and softlock during Lazlo’s Rekindle.
• Fixed a softlock when speaking to the barkeep after Gragu’s death but before collecting him.
• Fixed a softlock caused by being struck inside Hilga’s Cauldron.
• Fixed the interface failing to return after climbing out of Hilga’s Cauldron.
• Fixed declining the Shell unlock cutscene leaving the player invisible and invulnerable until restarting.

Objects and Interactables

• Fixed an iron maiden that could trap the player while opening.
• Fixed a lift lever that could snap a lift back to its starting position.
• Fixed a wooden lift that could kill the player while travelling upwards.
• Fixed a chest that could destroy itself.
• Fixed chests becoming unreliable after loading a save.
• Fixed offerings failing to register in a locked chest.
• Fixed Temple of Vatra gates that could strand Gloom in unreachable locations.
• Fixed corrupted gates that would not clear when approached from the sewers.
• Fixed items in the opening region being hidden inside collision.
• Fixed a ceiling collapse triggering at the wrong time.
• Fixed a two-candle light puzzle that had stopped being connected to the ceiling collapse.
• Fixed an issue where sitting down could launch the player into the air.

Encounters and Spawning

• Fixed enemies appearing before they had spawned in several encounters.
• Fixed spawn triggers that did not cover the intended enemies.
• Fixed an issue allowing an enemy to be lured out of its arena.
• Fixed an issue allowing interaction with a traversal point during a boss fight.
• Fixed a late Beacon causing enemies to attack the player after resting.
• Fixed mis-referenced spawners in a late encounter.
• Fixed an infinite Ossinite farm.
• Fixed an exploit allowing unlimited healing.
• Fixed shield-carrying enemies becoming effectively immortal against a type of projectile.
• Fixed personal items becoming unavailable until restarting after playing the prologue.
• Fixed an issue with enemies not properly respawning in New Game Plus.

Grishas

• Fixed a Grisha respawning indefinitely in one dungeon.
• Fixed astral Grishas spawning embedded in the floor.
• Fixed enemies becoming stuck on geometry.
• Increased the strength of the Grisha PP item active.
• Fixed passive Grisha PP item spawning.
• Fixed Grisha PP summons displaying enemy attack warnings.

Parrying, Dodging and Ripostes

• Applied a full pass to ripostes.
• Made player riposte damage scale with enemy health.
• Ensured riposte damage scales appropriately into the late game, New Game Plus, and Night Mode.
• Standardised invulnerability windows between ripostes.
• Extended riposte invulnerability through the end of the animation.
• Shortened many player riposte recovery times.
• Improved control recovery after ripostes.
• Fixed enemy riposte animations when the player’s back is against a wall.
• Fixed ripostes sliding the player through walls.
• Changed riposte damage calculations so damage is calculated and applied by the riposte itself.
• Fixed riposte damage being applied twice or not at all.
• Fixed Proxima’s riposte alignment.

Enemy Tracking and Hit Detection

• Restricted maximum enemy tracking and magnetism values.
• Fixed projectiles failing to register against enemy weak points.
• Fixed sidearm projectiles selecting incorrect targets.
• Fixed brigand shield collision launching the player into the air.
• Fixed projectiles failing to appear in shields.
• Improved alignment for several enemies on sloped ground.
• Fixed dungeon champions failing to stand correctly on the ground.
• Made fallen wooden bridges easier to hit.
• Improved collision for destructible carts.
• Fixed corrosion failing to apply after a projectile had been reused.

Story, Characters and Scenes

• Fixed characters turning, staring, drifting, or fading at incorrect moments across multiple scenes.
• Fixed overlapping and skippable dialogue in several memories.
• Retimed voice and sound in The Vision, The Search, and The Censer.
• Fixed story moments taking too long to appear.
• Fixed Milos becoming silent at random.
• Fixed Milos’s greeting before he moves on.
• Cleared Zhirelle’s dialogue before a memory begins.
• Prevented Merrick, Vratko, and Egon from being interrupted while dying.
• Corrected the order of Franz’s conversations.
• Made Franz return to his crank after being interrupted.
• Fixed Marigold starting two conversations at once.
• Fixed the barkeeper speaking to the player through the tavern wall.
• Prevented Baghead from taking damage.
• Fixed Baghead’s ending unlocking early.
• Added correct weapon-holding behaviour for Grisha Hunters.
• Added new reactions for Grisha Pups.
• Made the Grisha Matron vulnerable to ranged weapons.
• Updated Larreth, the Brigand King’s appearance so he appears without his helmet.
• Prevented Larreth’s guards from disappearing if he is killed first.
• Made Ruk’s greetings react to player progress.
• Fixed Ruk’s dialogue remaining on screen when entering a boss fight.
• Refreshed Egon’s interactions after offerings.
• Fixed interaction problems with Gorf.
• Corrected a subtitle that did not match Ruk’s recorded dialogue about the Lost Child.
• Fixed numerous typos and missing punctuation.

Interface and Map

• Added weapon level information to inventory slots.
• Fixed completed map offering objectives.
• Fixed the camera key appearing blank in the launcher when using mouse and keyboard.
• Fixed the interact key ignoring custom rebinding.
• Fixed the Hide Subtitles setting resetting incorrectly.
• Fixed the Change Shade option disappearing after opening the Change Masks menu.
• Fixed overlapping text in the Shell revive message in Simplified Chinese.
• Fixed long Tarstone names colliding with temper notifications.
• Fixed panels and icons overlapping at higher interface scales.
• Fixed misaligned details on Mether’s Breath.
• Added a tutorial scale setting.
• Added a separate tutorial scale setting for console.
• Improved several tutorials.
• Clarified colourblind setting descriptions.
• Updated the open gate icon.
• Added correct icons when a mask is unlocked.

Audio

• Added new riposte stingers.
• Restored missing riposte audio for the Bloodcursed Lithopod.
• Added new sounds for Fragile Tarstones wearing down and breaking.
• Added audible warnings for unparryable enemy attacks.
• Fixed ambient sound stacking when multiple sources overlap.
• Fixed village dance music collapsing to a single point when approaching.
• Fixed the player continuing to bleat after transforming back from a sheep.
• Reprocessed older voice recordings.
• Added missing sounds, including the Marrow Keep elevator lever.
• Fixed Lazlo’s armour audio loop.
• Fixed the game selecting a saved audio device that no longer exists at startup.
• Added new speaker presets.

Performance

• Reduced enemy counts in some of the busiest areas where crowds were affecting frame rate without adding difficulty.
• Rebuilt spawners in the dense prison area.
• Fixed the significant hitch shortly after the shader compilation screen.
• Moved shader compilation work into the menu.
• Fixed frame rate drops when cleansing Tar Gates.
• Fixed flickering textures.
• Optimised dungeon lighting.
• Optimised Droeg’s effects.
• Optimised the final boss arena.
• Optimised lightning.
• Optimised village buildings, stairs, books, and library interiors.
• Fixed arrow volleys in the final siege arriving simultaneously.
• Reduced background work across weapons, hit detection, and movement.
• Improved rendering of destructible objects.
• Fixed corrupted terrain in several locations.
• Rebuilt affected landscapes.

Crashes and Stability

• Added numerous crash fixes covering enemy spawning, audio, attribute changes, interface loading, save loading, and shutdown.
• Removed settings implicated in graphics driver crashes.
• Added a crash diagnostics option.
• Added more context to crash reports.
• Improved Steam ownership check handling.
• Updated to the current Steamworks release for improved Steam Deck detection and controller support.

Options, Platforms and Controls

• Added Geometry Budgets as a graphics option.
• Geometry Budgets is disabled by default and uses less video memory when off.
• Reworked frame generation so it applies after a reload rather than conflicting in real time.
• Prevented frame generation from activating before the world has finished loading.
• Expanded NVIDIA frame generation support to a wider range of graphics cards.
• Added support for Switch Pro and Switch Pro 2 controllers.
• Added an option to swap Switch Pro and Switch Pro 2 controller glyphs.
• Updated Steam Deck and Steam Controller button displays.
• Made the game default to the monitor’s native resolution.
• Added pausing when a system overlay opens.
• Fixed ray tracing options not working as intended.
• Fixed post-process options having no effect.
• Fixed firing not working on some controllers.
• Fixed rumble for riposte damage, held attacks, Beacon interactions, and dungeon transitions.
• Applied a broad rumble pass across sidearms, items, and Shell abilities.

Miscellaneous

• Made Mutton immune to damage.

Known Issues

• A possible Malborn Offspring bug can occur when using Grisha Remnant Summon during a boss fight.

Mortal Shell II’s Week 1 Update is now available. The game was developed by Cold Symmetry and published by Playstack.

Have you noticed these changes? Share your thoughts in the comments!