Mortal Shell 2’s First Major Update Is Here — New Items, Boss Reworks, and Over 100 Fixes

Nine days after launch, Cold Symmetry has dropped Mortal Shell 2’s first substantial post-launch update — and it’s a big one. The August 29 patch is being referred to internally as the Week 1 Update, and it goes far beyond the balance tweaks and crash fixes players typically expect from early post-launch patches. New items, economy overhauls, exploration additions, a full riposte system rework, 16 bosses receiving individual attention, five Shells getting fixes, and over 100 individual bug corrections across the entire game. If you bounced off the launch version or were waiting to see how the game shaped up before diving in, this patch is your invitation to jump back in.

Mortal Shell 2 launched on August 20 to strong reviews — an 85 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic with a 90% critic recommendation rate, a notable step up from the original Mortal Shell’s 76. The game clearly landed, but launch brought rough edges that Cold Symmetry has clearly been working through at pace. Here’s what’s in the update.

New Items: Fragile Tarstones, Glimpse Stone, Egon’s Stone

The most notable additions are a new category of Tarstone and two entirely new items that change how resource management works throughout a run.

Fragile Tarstones are a new class that breaks after losing durability — but when they break, they produce a Tarcore, meaning the destruction is part of the design rather than a downside. Two existing Tarstones, Justicar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone, have been converted to the Fragile type with increased passive effects and new on-break bonuses. Fragile Tarstones can be found multiple times in a playthrough (they’re not unique), certain enemies now drop them, several dungeons reward them, and Merrick has added them to their stock.

Glimpse Stone wears down as you defeat enemies and breaks into Glimpses — a direct way to generate one of the game’s most valuable currencies through regular play rather than hunting finite sources.

Egon’s Stone is arguably the most player-friendly addition: it revives you at the entrance of a dungeon when you die inside it, and when it breaks it also prevents Gloom loss for that death. Dying in a dungeon and having to walk back in is one of the more punishing loop elements in the genre, and Egon’s Stone gives players a meaningful tool to mitigate that specific frustration.

Economy Changes: Glimpses and Tarcores Are No Longer Finite

This is the biggest systemic change in the patch, and it directly addresses one of the most common criticisms from launch-week players. Glimpses and Tarcores are no longer finite resources. Previously, if you invested heavily into one Shell or set of Tarstones, you might find yourself unable to fully upgrade others in the same playthrough. That limitation has been removed — all Shells and Tarstones can now be fully upgraded in a single run.

Supporting changes include Tarstones now yielding more Tarcores when broken, and a compensatory cache of Tarcores being deposited directly into the inventories of players who already upgraded Tarstones before the patch — so nobody is penalized for playing before this change landed.

A new respec item has also been added: Mether’s Severance, which can be given to Zhirelle the shell keeper. In exchange, she’ll sever your bond with a Shell, resetting it and returning all spent Glimpses. Both Tarstones and Mether’s Severance can be purchased from Merrick and will restock occasionally as you progress. Merrick’s stock has also expanded to include Glimpse Stones, Egon’s Stones, and Tarcores once players have gathered enough Ova. The Collector now carries Tarcores as well.

Exploration Additions

New content has been added to the world alongside the balance work. New Beacons have appeared throughout Fainweald and Mammon — though these only activate during the day. A teleporter has been added to a dungeon after the Grisha pit fight, eliminating the walk back that many players found tedious. Two new cosmetic rewards can be found once certain questlines are completed, and some previously problematic chests have been reset and corrected. New items have also been scattered throughout the world.

The update also includes a characteristically dry note in the patch notes: “You still haven’t found the second Trollweed.” Cold Symmetry is clearly enjoying themselves.

Combat and Weapons

Several weapons have received meaningful rebalancing. The Obsidian Hammer has had a full balance pass and now hits considerably harder. The Great Martyr’s Blade, which apparently didn’t receive its buff in the previous patch as intended, has been given an even larger damage boost to compensate. Heavy weapons across the board have had a poise and damage pass.

The Salvaged Trebuchaxe’s Tiltshot has been redesigned — it was both overpowered and broken simultaneously, which is a difficult combination. The Axatana’s weapon ability now grants invulnerability frames and inflicts Fragile stacks. Weltcap is stronger in both its active and passive forms. Base aggression and disengage ranges have been retuned across all enemies, fixing several AI issues including enemies ignoring you while walking to patrol points and retreating unreasonably far when they couldn’t reposition.

Riposte System Overhaul

Ripostes received what the patch calls “a full pass,” and the changes are significant enough that the system will feel meaningfully different after the update:

• Damage scaling: Riposte damage now scales with enemy health, keeping it effective in the late game, NG+, and Night Mode rather than falling off.
• Consistent invulnerability windows: iFrames during ripostes are now consistent across the board and last through to the end of the animation rather than expiring mid-animation.
• Faster recovery: Many riposte recoveries end sooner, returning control to the player more quickly.
• Wall behaviour: Riposte animations across the entire enemy roster now behave correctly when your back is against a wall rather than sliding you through it.
• Damage calculation fix: Riposte damage is now calculated and applied by the riposte itself, resolving cases where it was either applied twice or not at all.

Shell Fixes

All five of the game’s named Shells have received individual attention:

• Eredrim: Shoulder Bash no longer permanently stows your primary weapon after use.
• Proxima: Same weapon-stow fix applied to the Biosampler. She can no longer get stuck in her hook shot, and an arm animation issue has been corrected. Losing a Shell no longer breaks her paired animations, and her Intangible upgrade now works during grab attacks.
• Genessa: Dashes fixed, including the corrupted dash variant. Astral copies no longer drift from their intended targets. Doubles now select targets better and switch when their original target dies rather than standing idle.
• Smert: Can now destroy projectiles while in permanent fight stance.
• Gragu: The Heart of Vatra no longer follows you in sheep form, and his helmet now uses the correct material.

Blood marking Shell skins has also been corrected across the entire roster, and Shell summon interactions have been fixed along with Tarstone summons occasionally targeting the player.

Boss and Miniboss Reworks

Sixteen bosses and minibosses have received individual attention in this patch — too many to fully list, but the headline changes include:

One major boss had its laser and spin attacks given more consistent and readable timings (both were bugged and could spam unpredictably), animation timings refined, bad hitboxes adjusted, and a double damage bug fixed. Its tail grab, which could simultaneously bring both the Shell and Harbinger from full health to zero, has been significantly toned down — though the patch notes note that in Night Mode, it remains active. Ring Waves now align to the ground properly and elemental stomps have new effects.

Other boss improvements include: arena navigation fixes across multiple fights, a removed stray lunge from one second-phase attack, phase transition riposte fixes against walls, increased splash damage on one boss’s area attack, a smaller arena for another fight with its beacon light now lit by default (making the fight significantly easier to read), and one boss no longer wedging themselves into the environment during their dive attack. Two bosses have been fully reworked with retuned attacks, new ice attacks, and corrected effects. One boss was displaying the wrong name in-game, which has been corrected.

The Softlock and Bug List

The patch addresses a significant number of ways players could get stuck, lose progress, or encounter broken states. Key fixes include:

• Save file safety: an interrupted save can no longer destroy your save file. Saves are now written so that crashes or sudden shutdowns cannot leave you with nothing — a particularly critical fix for a Soulslike where losing progress can be devastating.
• A bug with Vatra’s Temple that could permanently lock players out of the area has been fixed.
• A potential crash and softlock during Lazlo’s Rekindle has been resolved.
• Multiple environmental softlocks across Castigator’s Keep, the castle gates, a church in the opening region, the sunken village dungeon, the snow approach to the arena, and Eredrim’s castle jail have all been fixed.
• An iron maiden that could trap players as it opened, a lift lever that snapped the lift back to its starting position, and a wooden lift that could kill you on the way up have all been corrected.
• An infinite Ossinite farm exploit, a healing exploit, and shield-carrying enemies becoming effectively immortal against certain projectile types have all been addressed.
• A Grisha that was respawning indefinitely in one dungeon has been fixed. The patch notes mourn “rip Grishamancer” in acknowledgment of those who found the exploit.
• Sitting down can no longer launch the player into the sky. The patch notes add: “it never happened to us but we saw some of you go flying.”
• Mutton is now immune to damage. The patch notes note: “he’s been through enough.”

Performance and Technical Improvements

Frame rate improvements include fixes for a significant hitch after the shader compilation screen (that work now happens while you’re in the menu), a frame rate drop when cleansing tar gates, and flickering textures. Several rounds of dungeon lighting optimisation have been done alongside passes over the final boss arena, lightning, village buildings, and library interiors. Enemy density has been reduced in some of the busiest areas where crowd numbers were costing frame rate rather than adding difficulty.

Frame generation has been reworked — it now applies after a reload rather than conflicting in real time, and NVIDIA frame generation can now be selected on a wider range of cards. Switch Pro and Switch Pro 2 controllers are now supported. The game now defaults to your monitor’s native resolution and pauses when a system overlay opens.

Quick Summary: What This Patch Fixes

• New items: Fragile Tarstones (including Glimpse Stone and Egon’s Stone), Mether’s Severance respec item
• Economy: Glimpses and Tarcores now infinite; Tarstones yield more Tarcores; respec available from Zhirelle
• Exploration: New Beacons in Fainweald and Mammon; dungeon teleporter added after Grisha pit fight; two new cosmetic rewards
• Combat: Heavy weapons buffed; Obsidian Hammer and Great Martyr’s Blade stronger; enemy AI retuned
• Ripostes: Full overhaul — health-scaling damage, consistent iFrames, faster recovery, wall behaviour fixed
• Shells: All five named Shells receive individual fixes
• Bosses: 16 bosses and minibosses reworked or polished
• Softlocks: Save file protection added; dozens of stuck/softlock scenarios fixed
• Performance: Frame rate improvements, shader hitch fixed, frame generation reworked
• Audio: New riposte sounds, ambient stacking fixed, missing sounds restored

Cold Symmetry has shipped a genuinely substantial Week 1 patch — the kind that suggests a studio that was watching launch feedback closely and had fixes in the pipeline before the game even released. If you were holding off, now’s the time. Mortal Shell 2 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. And if you want to catch up on the other big gaming stories from this week while the patches download, the Valve 12TB Steam2 leak is still being picked through by the community with new discoveries coming by the hour, and Phasmophobia’s Quality of Life Part 2 update also dropped this week with its own major changes worth knowing about.