Mortal Shell 2: Every Tarstone Explained

Cold Symmetry’s Mortal Shell 2 uses modular items called Tarstones to change how characters fight. Tarstones occupy four passive Support slots and three slots on each weapon and sidearm, divided into Ability, Combat and Infusion types. Each slot type affects different aspects of combat and not every Tarstone fits every weapon or sidearm.

Support Tarstones provide passive bonuses that alter baseline stats and interactions. Examples include stones that raise melee or ranged critical chance and damage, generate resolve when a sidearm kill occurs, increase stagger on the next melee attack after a kill, reduce damage taken briefly after a kill, and increase coin or gloom drops from defeated foes. Support stones do not change attack animations or projectile behaviour; they change resource generation and core statistics.

Combat Tarstones modify how weapons and sidearms perform in melee and at range. Some add extra strikes to a light attack combo, grant access to special combo finishers that deal break or weak effects, make light attacks stagger-immune, or guarantee critical hits. Other combat stones change projectile behaviour by causing projectiles to pierce, explode in mid-air, pull or push targets with shockwaves, split into multiple shots, or charge sidearms faster. Several combat stones award resolve on specific finishers or actions.

Infusion Tarstones add elemental or status damage to attacks. Available infusions include bleed, poison, lightning, frost, curse, phantom, trauma, burn and stasis. Equipping an infusion changes the damage type of the weapon or sidearm and can be used to exploit enemy weaknesses or to build around status effects.

Ability Tarstones grant active skills that consume resolve. Ability stones include charged light and heavy attacks, plunging strikes, shockwave or area attacks, chainsaw-style sustained attacks that consume resolve over time, heavy rounds that burst or scatter projectiles, rapid homing projectiles, tethered spinning projectiles, and a summoning ability that resurrects the last slain foe to fight alongside the player. Ability stones vary in resolve cost and in whether they are single-use bursts or sustained effects.

Tarstones interact with the game’s five systems: Shells, Weapons, Sidearms, Seals and Tarstones. Weapon and sidearm compatibility matters because some combat and infusion stones will not fit every weapon. Many high-cost Ability stones require reliable resolve generation; pairing them with Support stones that grant resolve on sidearm kills or on special finishers increases their usability. Players often change weapons or Tarstones to align slot compatibility and resolve needs with a chosen ability or damage type.

The Tarstone system changes not only damage numbers but also how combos finish, how projectiles behave, and how often active abilities can be used in combat. The game includes a wide range of named stones across the four categories, allowing players to combine passive boosts, attack modifiers, status infusions and active skills to configure specific combat approaches.