Cold Symmetry released the Week 1 Update for Mortal Shell 2 on August 29, the soulslike's first full patch since it launched a little over a week earlier. A balance patch arrived on launch day, but this is the first update to change how the game's upgrade economy works, and it is currently available only on PC.
The headline change is that Glimpses and Tarcores, the two currencies used to upgrade shells and Tarstones respectively, are no longer finite resources. Cold Symmetry says every shell and Tarstone can now be brought to maximum level in a single playthrough. Before the patch, GameSpot notes, the two were limited enough that a New Game Plus run was almost mandatory for anyone who wanted to see the full potential of the shells.
New items feed the economy
Three new items carry most of that change. Fragile Tarstones are a new class of Tarstone that breaks once its durability runs out and yields a Tarcore when it does; they are not unique, certain enemies drop them, several dungeons reward them and the shopkeeper Merrick sells them. A Glimpse Stone wears down as the player defeats enemies and then breaks into Glimpses. Egon's Stone revives the player at a dungeon's entrance at the cost of its durability, and when it breaks it prevents Gloom loss for that death.
A respec item, Mether's Severance, can be given to the shell keeper Zhirelle to sever a bond with a shell, resetting it and returning every Glimpse spent on it. Merrick's stock has been expanded with Glimpse Stones, Egon's Stones and Tarcores once the player has gathered enough Ova, and the Collector now carries Tarcores as well. Tarstones yield more Tarcores when broken, and saves that already contain levelled Tarstones receive a compensatory cache. Mini-Beacons no longer award a Glimpse, while the Gloom Siphon has picked up additional rewards including Glimpses.
Weapons and ripostes
Heavy weapons have had a poise and damage pass. The Obsidian Hammer has been through a full balance pass and hits substantially harder, and the Great Martyr's Blade deals more damage, a change Cold Symmetry says missed the previous patch and has been made stronger to compensate. The Salvaged Trebuchaxe's Tiltshot has been redesigned, and the Weltcap is stronger in both its active and passive forms.
Riposte damage now scales with enemy health, which the studio says keeps it in step with the late game, New Game Plus and Night Mode. Invulnerability windows are now consistent between ripostes and last through the end of the animation rather than expiring partway, many riposte recoveries end sooner, and riposte damage is calculated and applied by the riposte itself, resolving cases where it applied twice or not at all. Enemy tracking and magnetism maximums have been restricted, and Cold Symmetry says they will be adjusted case by case in future patches.
Exploration, bosses and platforms
New beacons have been added across Fainweald and Mammon, though they are only active during the day, and a teleporter now appears in one dungeon after the Grisha pit fight to remove the walk back. Two cosmetic headpieces — one a hand-stitched frog, the other a potato sack with an eyehole — can be found after completing certain questlines, and most bosses have had a polish pass, the Monolith among them.
On the technical side, the patch fixes a bug in which an interrupted save could destroy a save file, moves shader compilation work into the menu to remove the hitch that followed it, and cuts enemy counts in the busiest areas for performance. The Week 1 Update is PC-only for now: Cold Symmetry says console patch certification takes longer and has given no date for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S versions, stating only that it aims to get the update to consoles as soon as it can.