Mortal Shell II’s First Balance Patch Cuts Tarforge Costs by 75%

The central correction is structural rather than cosmetic: Shell discovery no longer consumes the same currency players need for bonding and broader progression. Cold Symmetry has moved Shell map-location costs from Glimpses to Gloom, removing an early trade-off that could penalize players for exploring different builds.

Anyone who already spent Glimpses on Shell maps must collect the refund manually at the Shell Keeper’s alcove in Blackmarrow. It is not delivered automatically. The change arrived in Mortal Shell II’s first major post-launch balance update, which deployed on PC ahead of consoles, alongside a wider pass on combat difficulty and resource flow.

The Tarforge adjustment is the most measurable economy change. Weapon smelting now costs 75% less Gloom, substantially reducing the cost of changing weapon plans after committing resources. Enemy gold drops have also increased across the game, while enemies in Mammon now drop double gold. Together, those changes make ordinary combat a more productive route to upgrades and reduce the need to preserve resources for a single weapon path.

Combat tuning is similarly direct. The Lost Child has lost 10% base damage and 15% maximum health. The Monolith has 19% less base damage and 10% less maximum health, with selected attacks retimed to make its patterns more readable. Several standard threats also received large health reductions: Infested Stalkers are down 52.4%, Caerinid Spiders 33.3%, cultists with maces 21.1%, and Rusted Knaves with halberds 20.8%. The latter also received a fix for its overhead-strike hit detection.

Enemy and boss health values were returned to beta levels in many cases, while Caerinid remains an intended high-threat exception because it does not respawn once defeated. The update also permits guarding while walking, buffs certain weapons and Tarstones, and includes crash fixes. Players returning to an early route should first retrieve their Blackmarrow refund, then reassess Shell and weapon spending under the cheaper Gloom economy.