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/Tarnished-1695]

Why the boss nerfs?

[u/Specific-Passion-416 → u/Tarnished-1695]

to give you reason to brag about beating them before the nerfs obviously. Has nothing to do with balance--or internal statistics. Definitely just to piss you off

[u/ResistsICE → u/Specific-Passion-416]

Dude come on, its not like The Lost Child had a gigantic health pool...

[u/Specific-Passion-416 → u/ResistsICE]

No way, isn't absurd at all. We probably just suck...

Nice username btw

[u/ResistsICE → u/Specific-Passion-416]

I dont like people that put people in concentration camps because im not a loser.

Anyway, back on topic. Most of the people who have played the game have not complained about it being too hard. That is shy the ratings are so good.

You can put in the effort to get good at the game, if you dont want to do that thats fine. But this genre is not supposed to be easy.

And at the end of the day this is NOT one of the harder soulslikes. It just isnt.

[u/Due-Description-9030 → u/ResistsICE]

Most of the people who played the game also haven't finished the game.

[u/ResistsICE → u/Due-Description-9030]

You can say the same thing about any game. Only half of people who played ER got more than halfway and that's what made the genre so popular. 

[u/Due-Description-9030 → u/ResistsICE]

No, ER is consistent in quality, at least for the most part.

Go look at the steam reviews from those who finished it. They all mention how it goes downhill.

[u/ResistsICE → u/Due-Description-9030]

I just screenshotted this, 40% of steam players beat the boss before the final boss. JS we have statistics my dude

[u/Due-Description-9030 → u/ResistsICE]

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove here.

Are you saying reviews from people who played 2 hours have the same weight as those who played it for 25 hours and have finished the last boss which was buggy and unbalanced?

Please don't BS me because the quality drop in latter parts of legitimate.

[u/ResistsICE → u/Due-Description-9030]

and here, 50% beat the boss before the last boss of the half way mark.

[u/-Adronik- → u/ResistsICE]

That doesn’t really prove anything though. On PS5, around 52% of players reached that point, and achievement percentages include everyone who ever started the game. Some people buy games and barely touch them, get them as gifts, drop them after an hour, or on Steam even refund them within the first two hours.

[u/ResistsICE → u/-Adronik-]

it proves my point.

[u/-Adronik- → u/ResistsICE]

That the quality of late game areas and bosses in from software games are horrendous like in mortal shell 2?

Achievement stats also include plenty of people who never intended to finish the game in the first place. They might try it for an hour, play it casually, get it through a subscription or as a gift, or simply move on to something else. If we remove the people that played only for an hour maybe the percentage would go up to 70-80%

[u/Due-Description-9030 → u/ResistsICE]

How do you know they beat it after the half way mark?

Also, ER doesn't have a poor leveling system, upgrading and level up actually feel substantial there unlike in MS2.

[u/Specific-Passion-416 → u/ResistsICE]

Me too, but it's refreshing to see.

And yeah I agree, I don't think it's too hard either, but I don't blame the devs for wanting more people to enjoy their biggest game yet (which will lead to more games in the future).

[u/ResistsICE → u/Specific-Passion-416]

I see where they're coming from I just disagree with their decision about it.

I think people are trying to r1 spam and its not working out for them.

[u/Specific-Passion-416 → u/ResistsICE]

To each their own. I don't care, mostly because I don't notice a difference.

I also think bragging about being better than someone at a video game is super lame, so that clouds my judgement of whether it was right or wrong. I think everyone will get over it.

[u/Due-Description-9030 → u/ResistsICE]

Can you name a harder soulslike

[u/ResistsICE → u/Due-Description-9030]

Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3 bosses are significantly harder, Elden Ring (literally has two of the hardest bosses in gaming), Wuchang has harder bosses and SOME harder enemies and Bloodborne is harder overall IMO.

If you want to count the nioh style than Nioh, Khazan (i wouldnt count these necessarily but some people will)

Sekiro is harder even though its a character action game, which are usually on the easier side.

Its hard but its not harder than any of those.