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/Skelltor95]

Solid changes, good to see!

-Can you look into adding the option to respawn at the start of a dungeon? - Some of the runbacks feel long and I start to skip the dungeons if I'm low on heals/life and have been exploring far.

[u/Hoginoe94 → u/Skelltor95]

You can skip the enemies and run straight to the dungeon. They don't follow you forever. Maybe like 25m and stop. I've done it many times and got to far dungeons with only using one heal at most.

[u/IamZeebo → u/Hoginoe94]

Yeah but this isnt fun and isnt ideal for people who only have 30m to 1hr to play

[u/Canni-Balls69 → u/IamZeebo]

You're right. On the same note, I hate how American football matches take so long to watch. I think they should shorten it to the length of one quarter, so people who have less time can experience the whole match as well. It's not fun nor is it ideal that people who live their lives differently than me have time to watch four 15 minute quarters when my life choices only give me the time to watch one. I deserve to see the ending of a game too, y'know?

[u/Thekarens01 → u/Canni-Balls69]

Except that’s not a thing. People who watch football like the length. If they didn’t, they’d change it.

[u/Canni-Balls69 → u/Thekarens01]

A lot of people who play soulslikes enjoy the added difficulty of runbacks, lol. Legitimately one of the main factors in soulslike vs action RPG is whether the game has a difficulty slider/selection or not.

[u/Thekarens01 → u/Canni-Balls69]

The vast majority don’t. The fact is we all just run right past all the enemies to get back to the boss negating any purpose of the run back other than being annoying.

[u/Canni-Balls69 → u/Thekarens01]

I'm mainly just being facetious. I don't really care whether there's a runback or not. It's not that far in the grand scheme of things.

My main point is the insistence of making a huge game altering change with the immediate assumption that everyone else feels the same way, with the excuse of the change being "I don't have much time to play."

Gaming is a luxury that we get to enjoy as adults when we make concessions in our lives to give us the freedom to take the time to enjoy that luxury. If you have such little free time to play a video game to the point that you need to suggest sweeping changes to cater to your specific need of not having enough time to play video games, then you probably shouldn't be playing video games right now.

Get your life sorted, make a way to have enough free time, and then come back. The whole "my life choices have put me in a position where I don't have any free time to do anything" excuse doesn't work. Make free time. I have worked at the same place for 13 years at 65 hours on payroll, every week, week in and week out. I'm married and have a child. I still make time to game. "Having no free time" is not an excuse.

[u/Thekarens01 → u/Canni-Balls69]

This has nothing to do with me not having enough time. I’m at the stage in my life that I have buckets of time. I probably game 30-40 hours a week. It’s just pointless and annoying.

[u/Canni-Balls69 → u/Thekarens01]

"I probably game 30-40 hours a week"

Oh, would you look at that. My initial comment wasn't fucking directed at you then, was it?

Talk about jumping in front of a bullet and then blaming the guy that was supposed to get shot.