Are you thinking about the best items to get early in Mortal Shell 2? There are plenty of goodies to be found all over the ruined lands of Fallgrim. These include melee weapons, sidearms, and consumables. Some, like Tarstones, also help you greatly as they add new effects to your equipped gear. Our guide has all the details that you need as you explore some nearby locales.
Best early-game items in Mortal Shell 2
Before we get started, we do recommend a couple of articles that you can check out. The first is our beacons and maps guide, which gives you a lay of the land while you’re roaming around. The second is our Fainweald exploration guide, which is a step-by-step outline of the places that you need to check out upon arriving in the region.
Marsh Peals
Marsh Pearls are items that you should get early in Mortal Shell 2. You can obtain at least four from an NPC named Gorf just by handing over a single Weltcap. Just keep talking to Gorf and resetting the world via the nearby beacon, all while exhausting his dialogue responses.
Each Marsh Pearl can be sold for 2,000 coins. That’s an easy 8,000 coins very early in the campaign. With all that gold, you can buy a bunch of goodies, as well as spend some on weapon and sidearm upgrades.
The Marsh Pearls from Gorf net you quite a lot of gold.
Leech effect Tarstones
Tarstones with the leech status effect grant bonus health. It might not seem much until you realize that stacks persist even if your character perishes, as long as the weapon with that Tarstone isn’t equipped at that time.
The first Tarstone that you want to get is the Parasitic Stone, which is in the Martyr’s Tomb dungeon. It’s just slightly south of the Great Arbiter of Flesh miniboss.
The second Tarstone is called the Unwieldy Stone, which can be purchased from Merrick in Marrow Keep for 2,000 coins.
The leech effect from Tarstones (left) continuously stacks with each enemy you slay (right).
Troubadour’s Lute
The Troubadour’s Lute, which comes from the One-Legged Wolf Tavern, is one of the best early-game items in Mortal Shell 2. That’s because, unlike other sidearms in the game, it can actually inflict the confusion status effect on enemies. If your target is unable to resist confusion, it will attack its old buddies for a few seconds. By extension, multiple hostiles that are confused would, naturally, just end up killing each other while you stare in disbelief.
Note 1: The tavern where you find the Troubadour’s Lute is also where you can unlock the Gragu shell, provided that you’re able to complete Gragu’s task.
Note 2: The Troubadour’s Lute can be used to play various theme music.
Get ready to cause some confusion with the Troubadour’s Lute.
Grisha Remnant
The Grisha Remnant is another item that you need to get early in Mortal Shell 2. There are several of these found in the game world. In fact, by the time we concluded the campaign, we already had seven.
As for the earliest one that you can get, well, it’s actually in the Flooded Village, the same place where you obtain the Forgotten Crossbow. There’s a Grisha that’s trapped in a pit. If you manage to kill it, you receive its remains as a prize.
So, what exactly makes the Grisha Remnant a must-have item? It’s due to its passive effect, which grants a chance to summon a Grisha spirit. The description says this is an “on-hit” effect, but it’s more of an “on-swing” proc. That means there’s a pretty good chance that a Grisha pops up during tense battles, slamming and pouncing on your foes until they’re beaten to a pulp.
Summon a Grisha to bulldoze your opponents.
Justiciar’s Stone and Gloombound Stone
Both the Justiciar’s Stone (gold boost) and Gloombound Stone (gloom boost) are integral Tarstones in the long run. This is primarily due to how much they increase your resource acquisition as you defeat enemies.
The Jusiticar’s Stone is in eastern Fainweald, in a cavern just past the Broodshell Swarm encounter. The Gloombound Stone, meanwhile, is in the Stones of Remembrance graveyard just a short distance away.
Amass more gold with the Justiciar’s Stone.
Axatana
We consider the Axatana as one of the best weapons in Mortal Shell 2, which is why you should get it early. That said, it’s going to be a long trek:
From the Outskirts of Mammon beacon, keep going south and jump across the massive chasm by way of the bone gates.
At the opposite side, in the fortress known as Castigator’s Keep, continue going south while avoiding the enemies. These include a couple of annoying Ballista-Head creatures.
At the courtyard with the Synaptic Vessel, start heading eastward to the snowy rock outcropping. Keep using the bone gates to jump across the gaps.
Eventually, you’ll reach the Forgotten Tower. Shoot the bell underneath the bridge to fully repair the structure. Alternatively, use the other bone gate to make it across.
Press the switch next to the metal door and defeat the Dagger Sester, then claim your reward.
It’s going to be a long trek (left) just to get the Axatana (right), but it’s well worth the effort.
The Axatana has extremely fast attack animations. Not only does it deal a lot of damage, but the speed itself helps immensely with debuff application.
That does it for our guide on the best early-game items in Mortal Shell 2. Don’t forget to check our beginner’s guide if you need help while starting out. Oh, and we also have articles about all weapon locations and all shell locations if you’re excited to venture across the regions of Fainweald and Mammon.
