A major update for Mortal Shell 2 highlights a big problem for players who jumped right in at launch

Praise and Criticism

The reactions of Mortal Shell 2 players to the Week 1 update have been largely positive.& nbsp;The patch announcement on Steamreceived over 6,000 likes and more than 800 comments. Many fans are praising the developers’ quick response. One user commented: “I can’t wait to try out how it feels with these changes.” Another simply said: “Great job, thanks!”

However, the praise is mixed with some constructive criticism. One player noted: “This is great, but I just wonder why some of these things weren’t fixed before release. It’s really frustrating to have almost finished a playthrough and now be hit with a slew of fixes that should have been there from the start.”

As a result, those who bought and played Mortal Shell 2 at launch are having a worse experience than those who are starting now with the patch. Some fans have critically noted that it might be better if developers took more time from the outset for bug fixing and fine-tuning, so that version 1.0 is as good as possible.

Furthermore, some PC users are reporting technical issues. For example, since the update, frame generation no longer works as intended on some configurations.

New Items

• Fragile Tarsteins: A new class of Tarsteins that shatter once their durability is depleted. When they shatter, they also leave behind a Tarkern.
• Insight Stone: Wears down as you defeat enemies and eventually shatters into Insights.
• Egon’s Stone: Revives you at the entrance of a dungeon at the cost of its durability. When it shatters, it prevents the loss of Shadow Essence upon that death.
• The Justiciar’s Stone and the Darkbound Stone are now breakable, have stronger passive effects, and grant new effects when broken. Breakable Tars Stones are not unique and can be found multiple times in a single run. Existing instances of the Justiciar’s Stone and the Darkbound Stone have been converted into breakable versions.
• Certain enemies now drop the new Fragile Tars Stones, several dungeons award them as rewards, and Merrick has taken an interest in selling them.

Economy

• Insights and Tar Cores are no longer finite resources, so all Shells and Tar Stones can be upgraded in a single run.
• Mother’s Separation is an item used to reset a shell, which you can give to Zhirelle, the Shell Keeper. In return, she severs your bond to a shell, resets it, and reimburses you for all Insights spent.
• Tarsstones now yield more Tarkerne when broken. If your save file already contains upgraded Tarsstones, you’ll find a compensatory supply of Tarkerne in your inventory.
• Tarsstones and Mother’s Separation can be purchased from Merrick and are occasionally restocked throughout the game.

Exploration

• We’ve improved the exploration process while also hiding new secrets for you.
• New Springs of Return have appeared throughout Fainweald and Mammon, though they’re only active during the day.
• After completing certain quest lines, you can find two new cosmetic rewards in the world.
• New items have been added to the world, and some problematic chests have been reset.
• Egon’s Stone can revive you at the entrance of a dungeon if you die inside, and when it shatters, it preserves your Shadow Essence for that death.
• In one dungeon, a teleporter now appears after the pit battle against the Grisha, completely eliminating the need to backtrack.
• You still haven’t found the second Trollgrass.

Rewards and Economy

• We’ve changed how many Tarker a Tar Stone yields when hardened. If you upgraded Tar Stones before this patch, you’ll find additional Tarker in your inventory to make up for the difference.
• Merrick’s assortment has been expanded to include Insight Stones, Egon’s Stones, and Tarkerne once you’ve collected enough eggs. The Collector now also carries Tarkerne.
• The reward chests in the dungeons of the first two regions have been revised, the placement of rewards in Mammon has been updated, and missing rewards in the Arena dungeons have been restored. Some reward chests in the world have been replaced with items that can be picked up directly.
• Additional rewards, including Insights, have been added to the Dark Essence Siphon.
• Mini-springs no longer grant Insights.

Weapons, Items, and Balance

• Obsidian Hammer has received a complete balance overhaul and now deals significantly more damage.
• Blade of the Great Martyr deals more damage. It’s a shame it didn’t quite make the cut in the last patch—to compensate, it’s now even stronger.
• Heavy weapons have generally received a balance and damage overhaul.
• Tar Fragment has been redesigned. It was both overpowered and buggy.
• Axatana: The weapon ability now grants invulnerability phases and applies Fragile stacks, and the active effect of its Battle Tarstone triggers correctly.
• Quaddelkappe is stronger in both its active and passive forms.
• Basic aggression and retreat ranges have been rebalanced throughout the game. Fixed an issue where enemies would ignore you while en route to a patrol point, retreat an unreasonable distance when unable to dodge, and be unable to attack while targeting another enemy.
• Fixed an issue where Tarsteins continued to gain experience after reaching the maximum level, as well as missing tooltips for multiple Tarsteins.
  
• Environment-based status effects have been reworked, including a new treatment for Stasis.

Shells

• Eredrim: The Shoulder Charge no longer keeps your primary weapon holstered permanently.
• Proxima: The same fix applies to the Biosampler. She can no longer get stuck in her grappling hook shot, and an arm that was pulled unnaturally straight has been corrected.
• Genessa: Dodge jumps have been fixed, including in the Corrupted version. Losing a shell no longer interrupts her paired animations, and her “Uncatchable” perk now works against grapple attacks as well. Fixed an issue where astral copies would drift away from their intended target. Doppelgangers now select their targets more effectively and switch targets if their original target dies, rather than remaining idle.
• Smert: Can destroy projectiles while in a sustained combat stance.
• Gragu: Vatra’s Heart no longer follows you in sheep form, and its helmet uses the correct material.
• Blood now renders shell skins correctly throughout the entire roster.
• Interactions with shell summons have been corrected, as have Tarstein summons, which occasionally targeted you.

Bosses and Mini-Bosses

• Most bosses in the game have received general polish and bug fixes.
• The Monolith, in particular, has received comprehensive combat polish and bug fixes. Its laser and rotation attacks now have more consistent, easier-to-read timing and are no longer executed in rapid succession (that was a bug). We’ve also refined animation timings, adjusted incorrect hitboxes, and fixed a nasty bug that caused him to deal double damage on certain hits.
• Zmey, the Uninvited: His tail grab no longer simultaneously reduces both the Shell and Harbinger meters from 100 to 0. We’ve heard that some of you don’t like dying in a single hit—for whatever reason. However, this effect remains active in Night Mode. His ring waves now align correctly with the ground, and his Elemental Stomps have new effects.
• The Lost Child no longer hurls either you or itself across the arena. It now uses the final running animation instead of the placeholder included at launch; the announcement of its Bite has been retimed, its Counter no longer wobbles at the start, and a rare case of endless blood effects has been fixed.
• Droeg, the Conqueror: His arena navigation has been fixed, the alignment of his counterattack and his physical hit reactions have been corrected, and his fire and snow trap effects have received a comprehensive visual overhaul that also improves performance.
• Sir Isaac, the Scholar Prince: His arena navigation has been fixed, a redundant sidestep from a second-phase attack has been removed, and his phase-transition counter against walls has been corrected.
• Hexapod’s area-of-effect attack now deals significantly more splash damage, he can no longer interrupt his own ranged attack, and one of his attacks has been timed more fairly. His arena is smaller and its beacon is lit by default, making combat much easier to follow. He can no longer get stuck in the environment during his dive attack.
• Orrem was displaying the wrong name in-game, which has been corrected. Unnecessary effects have been removed from his death animations, and the fire on his axe no longer flickers.
• Orrem the Reclaimed: The alignment of his attacks and counters has been improved.
• Malborn’s Apprentice no longer interrupts his own sword throw and reliably picks up his sword again.
• The Overseer and Urrig the Executioner have both been reworked—with rebalanced attacks, new ice attacks, and corrected effects. Urrig’s Whirlwind now gives a clear warning that it cannot be parried.
• Vrannic, the Great Illusionist, has received new VFX trails for his projectiles.
• Magdalena, the Mistress of the Forest, no longer spins incorrectly during her charge.
• Blood-Cursed Lithopod no longer causes errors when colliding with other enemies, no longer knocks you into the air while you’re standing still, and damage, movement behavior, and jump attacks have been rebalanced.
• The ranged attacks of Tainted Remnant no longer miss for no reason, and The Wandering Shepherd now teleports sensibly within his arena.

Bugs, Softlocks, and Getting Stuck

• Many locations where you could get stuck have been fixed.
• Fixed: Getting stuck near the closed castle gates.
• Fixed: Getting stuck in a church in the starting region.
• Fixed: Getting stuck in a house in the dungeon of the sunken village.
• Fixed: Getting stuck in the Punisher’s Fortress by walking through a wall.
• Fixed: Getting stuck in the snow on the way to Droeg’s Arena.
• Fixed: Getting stuck in a hole in the floor of Eredrim’s Castle dungeon.
• Collision gaps, floor cracks, and missing collision have been fixed throughout the first two regions.

Softlocks and Lost Progress

• Fixed an issue where an interrupted save could corrupt your save file. Save files are now written in a way that ensures a crash or sudden shutdown won’t leave you empty-handed.
• Fixed: A bug in Vatra’s Temple that permanently locked players out of the area after exploring it.
• Fixed: a potential crash and soft lock during Lazlo’s Reignition.
• Fixed: a soft lock when talking to the innkeeper after Gragus’s death but before collecting the reward.
• Fixed: a soft lock if you were hit inside Hilga’s Cauldron, as well as the surface not returning when climbing out.
• Fixed an issue where skipping the cutscene upon unlocking a shell would leave you invisible and invulnerable until you restarted the game.

Objects and Interactive Elements

• Fixed: an Iron Maiden that could trap you when opened, an elevator lever that caused the elevator to snap back to its starting position, and a wooden elevator that could kill you on the way up.
• Fixed: a chest that self-destructed, several chests that became unreliable after loading a save file, and offerings that weren’t registered when placed in a locked chest.
• Fixed: Gates in the Temple of Vatra that could strand your Dark Essence in an unreachable location, as well as corrupted gates that did not disappear when approached from the sewers.
• Fixed: Items in the starting region that were hidden behind collision surfaces and therefore could not be picked up.
• Fixed: a ceiling collapse that triggered at the wrong time, and a light puzzle with two candles that were no longer connected.
• Sitting down will (hopefully) no longer send you flying into the sky. It never happened to us, but we’ve seen some of you take flight.

Encounters and Spawns

• Fixed: Enemies visible in several encounters before they appeared, as well as spawn triggers that didn’t cover all intended enemies.
• Fixed: The ability to lure Lord Vellen out of his arena, as well as interacting with a traversal point during a boss fight.
• Fixed: resting at a late Source of Return, which attracted enemies, as well as incorrectly referenced spawners in a late encounter.
• Fixed: an infinite Ossinit farm, an exploit for unlimited healing, and shield-wielding enemies that became virtually invulnerable to a certain type of projectile.
• Fixed an issue where personal items were unavailable until a restart after playing the prologue.
• The Wandering Shepherd’s sheep now appear correctly in NG+.

We Learned About the Grishas

• Fixed: a Grisha that respawned endlessly in a dungeon, astral Grishas that appeared embedded in the ground, and enemies that got stuck in the geometry. (RIP Grishamant)
• The active effect of the Grisha PP item is now stronger, its passive spawning has been corrected, and its summoning no longer displays attack warnings intended for enemies.