Getting Started in Mortal Shell (Beginner’s Guide)

Mortal Shell is the latest game in the “I can’t believe it’s not Dark Souls” subgenre and it brings some interesting new ideas to the table. The game follows the FromSoftware example of throwing the player in at the deep end, which is why Screen Rant has created this guide to help you through Mortal Shell.

The main character in Mortal Shell is a creature that inhabits the bodies of dead warriors (known as Shells), in order to learn the truth about what is happening in the messed up medieval world around them. After a brutally difficult tutorial battle, the player is dumped into a swamp that is filled with enemies, where they will quickly be chopped into pieces.

The Goal & Resources in Mortal Shell

Mortal Shell does a terrible job of explaining what the player is supposed to do, which is most likely an effort to try and emulate the minimalist storytelling of the Dark Souls series. The first goal is to find the tower in the starting area, which has a Sister inside. The Sister acts as both the bonfire and the person who lets the player buy skills. The tower also has a workbench got upgrading weapons, a merchant who sells items for tar (the souls equivalent), and the player can switch weapons/Shells here for free.

There is a giant at the top of the tower who is chained up. The goal of the game is to bring three Glands to him, which are taken from the corpses of bosses. There are three dungeons in the game, each of which with a different theme (fire, ice, and ruins). Once the player defeats one of the bosses, a fog will descend on the main hub and the regular foes will be replaced with fast monsters with a poisonous bite. In order to restore the world to its previous state, just return to the tower, as a new NPC will show up near the workbench. The player can give him Glimpses in order to restore the world to its previous state.

Mastering Combat in Mortal Shell

The main gimmick that separates Mortal Shell from the Dark Souls series is the hardening ability. The main character has the ability to turn to stone for a few seconds, making them almost impervious to harm. This action has a cooldown, so the player needs to be careful when they use it. The attacks used by human-sized enemies will generally bounce off the hardened form, stunning them and giving the player the chance to run in for a few hits. The larger enemies won’t be slowed by the hardened form, so just wait until they’ve finished attacking before dropping it and going in for hits.

Mortal Shell doesn’t have an Estus Flask equivalent (outside of finite items). Instead, the player restores health by parrying enemies and going in for a counter-attack. There is a notable delay between pressing the button and performing the counter, so the player should practice this move on the enemies at the start of the game in order to get the timing down. The attacks used by bigger enemies generally cannot be parried.

It’s also possible to dodge attacks, but this will quickly eat up the limited Stamina meter. The player needs to juggle these three defensive moves in order to succeed in the game.

Save Moonshine For Boss Encounters in Mortal Shell

There are different forms of moonshine throughout the game world. These restore Resolve at the cost of hit points. It’s best to save these for difficult boss encounters that have a Sister nearby. Simply drink enough moonshine to fill the Resolve meter and then speak to the Sister to restore health. This will let the player enter the boss battle with a full Resolve meter, allowing them to perform special attacks with impunity, such as using the spike.

The Spike Is Your Best Friend in Mortal Shell

The spike attack used by the starter sword (after upgrading it) is one of the best attacks in the game, as it grants a few seconds of invulnerability. If it hits, then it will usually insta-kill most regular foes or deal a ton of damage/stunlock bosses, allowing the player to pile on damage with regular attacks. The spike attack is powerful, but it uses two bars of Resolve and some bosses can kick the player to knock them out of the move, so be careful with how often it’s used.

Mortal Shell: Find A Shell You Like & Master Them

There are four different Shells for the player to use in Mortal Shell. The player receives Harros at the start of the game for free and both Solomon and Tiel can be found in the starting hub world. In terms of gameplay, they are all pretty similar and the player won’t miss out too much by focusing on one character. Harros is the all-rounder, with abilities that focus on healing and the hardening skill; Solomon has a high maximum Resolve and has skills focusing on gaining health & Resolve; Eredrim has high durability and his abilities focus on buffs; Tiel has the highest stamina and has abilities that can poison the enemy. Try out all of the characters and pick one, then focus on maxing out their skill tree. The same is true of the weapons in the game – pick the one you like and focus on upgrading it.

Mortal Shell will be released for PC (through the Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 18, 2020.

About The Author

Scott Baird
(2512 Articles Published)

Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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