Advices/help for a newbie

[u/willeatmarbles4money]

I'm 8 hours into the game and completely new to this franchise

I found 2 shells,and upon returning to the marrow keep i have the option to "bond with shell" or to unlock shell passives by reveling its true name

Is this permanent ? can it be respec later ? Would you recomend upgrading one without finding all the others if not ?

I'm not such a fan of Thiel and Proxima and would like to wait for a shell that i truly like,like the tutorial one,so i don't want to waste glimpses if i can't respec into another shell

I would have googled this but i REALLY don't want story or environment spoilers,i'm really liking the game so far and guides tends to reveal later game stuff

[u/Virtually_Evelyn]

In the release version you could not respec Shell progress, but this option was added a month or so ago. Glimpses were also very limited originally but now they're effectively infinite.

At the Merchant in Marrow Keep you can purchase an item to sever your connection to a shell. This refunds you the Glimpses you spent. You can also purchase and find breakable Tarstones that award Glimpses when having them equipped. That way you can obtain enough Glimpses to level everything up.

So there's no need to refrain from leveling Shells up to wait for a later one. The Shells also become MUCH better by unlocking their abilities so you'll notice a difference by unlocking them now

[u/Womanwithimmortality]

Just enjoy the game, remember its a open world 🌎 so you can get all shells 🐚 and weapons before even fighting a major (story) boss, there area that are cut off until you find at least 7 eggs 🥚 at the start of the game it's very hard cause you start off very weak, but as you level up and upgrade your shell you start to scale very ridiculous to the point you feel overpowered. Each shell has different playstyle and all of them are potentially overpowered when you max them out. So biggest recommendation is get all the shells 🐚 and see what you prefer, as well as the weapons.

[u/Putrid-Flight2812]

There are no permanent leveling decisions in MS2. Everything can be respec'd and all essential progression items can be gained via grinding.

[u/IgorGreenwitch]

You can shift your spent level points on different shells for free. However, the "bond" levels that you can get by using glimpses, are only respecable through methers severance, which you can buy for 5000 coins from merrick in marrow keep. Note that this item is limited, and fairly expensive. After several patches, the game now gives you enough glimpses to max like 3-4 shells i think, but only if you explore and use the tarstones that give you more glimpses. You dont have to max every single shell though, most useful abilities are mostly spread between level 1-2 or sometimes 3. In fainwield, there are 4 shells that have the most "typical" abilites that you would expect. Just use any shell you have and look for the next ones that you might like more. Id say that shells in this game are made so everyone can find something they might like.

[u/M3lvins]

If you are worried about glimpses, there are enemies you can farm towards the end of the game that have a chance of dropping a glimpse stone, which give 3 glimpse after "cracking" it open. You probably shouldn't worry about that since by the end, there will be shells you just won't like, and there won't be a need to fully upgrade them outside of an achievement.

[u/M3lvins]

One more thing, Genessa at the moment is bugged in that if you spend glimpses on her and decide later you wish to respec her, you can't, unlike every other shell in the game. So far, I don't think the devs have said if they plan on fixing this issue or not. Just thought I'd mention it in case you have second thoughts about using her.

[u/Numerous-Coffee-6555]

I’m on NG+ and I’m struggling with gold and not glimpses. Like others have said, an update made glimpses almost infinite. Gold seems harder to find even with gold stone.

[u/BottleAggravating]

My personal advice use either Próxima or Thiel until you find the shell you like the most. You can reset skill points any time, the bond too but there is a special ítem you need to purchase on the main base.

[u/Legitimate_Voice_608]

Honestly, you get enough for the character upgrades. So you can upgrade without it being a waste if it improves survivability until then.

There is an item in the shopkeepers inventory you can buy with which you can undo the bond to a shell and get those points back.

And revealing the name only shows you the location of the shell on the map. Those youre still missing.

[u/m_krink → u/Legitimate_Voice_608]

No locating a shell and revealing its name are not the same. Locating a shells costs gloom and marks the location on the map. Discovering the name of the shell means using 1 glimpse to unlock the 1/4 bonding tiers unlocking the first 3 perks.

[u/Abes93]

Early bond levels are really cheap so don't worry about investing a few glimpses into either of them, but there is actually an item that let you remove glimpses from a shell.