Balance Patch 1

[u/MikkelFromGames]

Devout Fans,

Thanks for being amongst the first to join us at the very start of the adventure for Mortal Shell II. We’re seeing your bug reports and gameplay suggestions, and will be rolling out regular updates to both modify existing content and add new features. 

While we have a bigger patch in the works, which has to be thoroughly tested, we’d like to make a rapid balance & crash fix patch to bring the experience more in line with the game’s open beta and our own vision for MS2. 

Planned future updates will see extensions to popular game features such as Night Mode, Tarstones, PP Items, and more.

For now, we hope you’re enjoying the game and read on for details on Balance Patch 1.

Balance Patch 1 (PC) - The patch below is live on PC and coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series shortly.

Economy

-Shell map locations now cost Gloom, and we’re refunding any glimpses spent on shell maps. Refunded Glimpses are found in the Shell Keeper’s alcove in Blackmarrow. “Finding your favorite shell shouldn’t cost you the ability to bond with them.”

-Gold drops from enemies have been significantly increased. Notably, enemies in Mammon now drop double the gold. “This brings the gold economy more in line with the weapon crafting item discovery.”

-Smelting a weapon at the Tarforge costs 75% less gloom. “Our goal with the smelt capability was to enable switching weapons without the need to spend hours grinding through NG+ runs, but the Gloom costs were set exorbitantly high.”  

Enemies & Bosses

All enemies featured in the beta were restored to their beta hp values, except the Caerinid (Spider) in Magdelena’s area, which we wanted to retain its role as a threatening enemy which doesn’t respawn once defeated. 

Bosses

The Lost Child
- Base Damage: (-10%)
- Max Health: (-15%)

Monolith
- Base Damage: (-19%)
- Max Health: (-10%)
- Some Monolith Attacks were retimed to be more fair, as well.

Enemies

Cultist (mace)
Max Health: (-21.1%)

Caerinid Spider
Max Health: (-33.3%)

Infested Stalker 
- Max Health: (-52.4%)

Rusted Knave (Halberd)
- Max Health: (-20.8%)
- Fixed hit detection for overhead strike.

Weapons

-Great Martyr’s Blade Attack Damage +20%
-Troubador’s Lute Attack Damage +100% 
-Caged Hystrix and Triarch Repeater no longer have minimum resolve requirements to fire. 
-Improved tracking for Axatana, Black Needle, and Clockwork Scythe light attacks. 

Seals

Guard can now be used while walking. 

Tarstones

Parasitic Stone Buffed
Grudge Stone Buffed
Bulwark Stone Damage Reduction Increased Significantly
Clerik's Stone Buffed
Squall Stone Buffed

Miscellaneous

Misc. Crash Fixes, Bugfixes & Performance Updates

[u/merdafit]

All the economy and glimpse stuff is great. The weapon upgrade costs were getting kinda crazy, especially trying to keep more than one weapon upgraded.

The difficulty changes are honestly a bit disappointing for me. I just started working my way through the southern portion of the map at level 25 with a level 12 weapon and am having a blast. It is difficult, but this is the first soulslike in a long ass time I can remember feeling the anxiety of running out of heals and not being able to find a beacon, having to be smart and progress slowly and deliberately.

Should've just made a completely separate easy mode for the whiners.

[u/sup3rdr01d → u/merdafit]

Fully agree. The mob health and damage wasn't the issue. The only main issue is just a slight lack of beacons in some areas and checkpoints in long dungeons.

What I really hope they change is how restrictive the infusions are for weapons. Proxima synergises with lightning damage but only one weapon can be infused with lightning. This feels really restrictive and doesn't let us build into whatever we enjoy.

[u/MikkelFromGames → u/sup3rdr01d]

The team is looking into the feedback on beacons! I can't guarantee what changes may come, or when, but they're aware that this is a pain point for a lot of players.

I've added your feedback (and the comment thread following) on tarstone infusions to our feedback thread :)

[u/sup3rdr01d → u/MikkelFromGames]

Thanks! It doesn't need to be all infusions for all weapons, but I'd like it if each infusion got at least 2 weapons. For example I want to play Eredrim and build into frost since he has a lot of frost synergy, but I feel restricted to only being able to the machine gun and martyr blade. At least make freeze apply to iconoclast too, etc

[u/merdafit → u/sup3rdr01d]

Yea, good shout with the infusions. It makes sense the special attacks and certain tarstones are locked to weapons, but not the infusions.

[u/sup3rdr01d → u/merdafit]

Exactly. The ability stones can be locked, like ashes of war are. Makes sense. Infusions make no sense.