Mortal Shell‘s gloomy world has several vendor NPCs to help you on your journey. However, the items they sell (and even those found while exploring) have unknown effects until you use them. Still, the “familiarity” mechanic might help you out when you’ve fully unlocked each item’s potential. Here’s our guide to help you out.
Note: For more information, check out our Mortal Shell guides and features hub.
Mortal Shell: Items, vendors, and familiarity guide
All the items you find in Mortal Shell will have unknown effects until you use them for the first time. The problem is that you’ll never know if something could end up becoming useful much later, and there are even those that can be harmful to your character.
However, if you do continue using an item, you’ll increase your familiarity with it (denoted by the small pips underneath its description). Becoming familiar with an item will also boost its effectiveness.
Note: All the items in Mortal Shell can be found in various nooks and crannies in each location, and others are dropped by mobs or bosses. Some, such as Weltcap and Tarspore mushrooms, continue to get regrow as time passes by. You can, for lack of a better term, farm them.
Still, if you’re in a pinch, you can purchase certain items from vendor NPCs, all of whom are found in the Fallgrim zone. The merchant Vlas has several cheap wares, including a means to obtain the Ballistazooka. Sester Genessa, as mentioned in our beginner’s guide, also acts as your savepoint/bonfire, free healing, and a means to upgrade your “shells.” There’s also a third vendor, the Corrupted Sester, who’s found in a different location in Fallgrim.
Note: There are particular items in Mortal Shell that are of limited quantity even when buying from vendors.
Keep in mind that buying items will cost either tar or glimpses. The former is regularly obtained when you kill enemies, whereas the latter is a rare drop. Some consumables you find will also give you varying amounts of tar or glimpse — i.e., Bag of Tar, Congealed Tar, Glimpse of Futility, Glimpse of Affection, and the like.
Note: I’ve categorized each item prioritizing those sold by vendors and listing those that are purely world drops later in the guide. For some items, I haven’t discovered their familiarity effects yet since they’re of limited quantity.
Vlas the Tower Merchant
You’ll find Vlas at the top of Fallgrim Tower. Just loop around the second-floor area until you see the bell. Go up the staircase to reach him.
He’s also got a cat. Be sure to pet it because cats are awesome!
| Vlas’ Items | |||
| Item | Effect | Familiarity | Cost (Tar) |
| Roasted Rat | Regenerates 35 HP over 10 seconds; consumes resolve. This will be your go-to healing method as you’re exploring Mortal Shell‘s world. The item is cheap and Vlas has an unlimited number of them for sale. | Heal +10 HP more. | 100 |
| Inferior Moonshine | Gives you a bar of resolve at the cost of health. | Reduces HP loss. | 150 |
| Large Bolt | Ammo for the Ballistazooka | N/A | 800 |
| Scripture of Euphoria | Successful parry restores HP | N/A | Not unlocked yet |
| Quenching Acid | Used to enhance weapons. | N/A | 2500 |
| Simple Lute | Uh, play the lute. | More enemies will start to aggro and chase after you even if they’re further away. | 600 |
| Bronze Bell | Gain 10% bonus to tar gains for six minutes. | 10% chance for enemies to drop a glimpse. | 1000 |
| Golden Bell | Increased resolve generation for three minutes. | Slower resolve decay. | 1000 |
| Effigy of Harros | Switch to Harros the Vassal on use. | Reduces HP loss when swapping to Harros. | 1200 |
| Tools | Allows you to craft the Ballistazooka | N/A | 8000 |
Corrupted Sester
The Corrupted Sester is found in another area of Fallgrim. From the tower, head inside Grisha’s cave and crawl through the tunnel to your right.
Follow the pathway straight ahead until you reach another tower in the distance, one that looks very scary.
Don’t go in there unless you want to head to a new zone. Instead, interact with the nearby knight’s shell to obtain Eredrim the Venerable.
As for the Corrupted Sester, look to the left and you’ll spot a narrow pathway hidden behind some pillars.
You’ll find the Corrupted Sester inside one of the small buildings.
| Corrupted Sester’s items | |||
| Item | Effect | Familiarity | Cost (Tar) |
| Tainted Nectar | Rends you from your shell. Don’t use this accidentally in combat because it uses up your second chance mechanic. | Gain +1 tar. | 250 |
| Effigy of Harros | Switch to Harros the Vassal on use. | Reduces HP loss when swapping to Harros. | 500 |
| Effigy of Solomon | Switch to Solomon the Scholar on use. | Reduces HP loss when swapping to Solomon. | 1000 |
| Effigy of Tiel | Switch to Tiel the Acolyte. | Reduces HP loss when swapping to Tiel. | 1000 |
| Effigy of Eredrim | Switch to Eredrim the Venerable. | Reduces HP loss when swapping to Eredrim. | 1000 |
| Forbidden Offering | Use via the workbench to increase a weapon’s resolve generation. This is an expensive item, so you might want to hold off until later in the game. | N/A | 3000 |
Sester Genessa
You might be wondering why you can’t find any items that Sester Genessa is trading, at least if you’ve only started your Mortal Shell playthrough. That’s because:
- All of her items cost glimpses.
- You only unlock her stuff once you’ve maxed-out a shell/obtained all of its upgrades.
- Regardless of her location, she’ll only sell you items if you have a maxed-out shell that’s currently equipped.
- This will also disable her fast travel option and the assumption is that you’re using one of her costly items (the Ornate Mask).
| Sester Genessa’s items | |||
| Item | Effect | Familiarity | Cost (Glimpses) |
| Mortal Token | The next damage taken while hardened is converted to health. | More health is granted. | 2 |
| Spectral Token | Getting struck while hardened boosts damage of the next attack. | Gain more damage. | 2 |
| Ornate Token | Getting struck while hardened reduces the next damage taken. | The next damage taken is completely negated. | 2 |
| Etherial Diapason | Restores the ability to reclaim shell on death (second chance). | Grants resolve when used. | 5 |
| Glimpse of Affection | Glimpse into your shell (gain a small amount of glimpse). This item can be used when you have other shells equipped so they can quickly gain glimpses. | Gain more glimpses. | 6 |
| Quenching Acid | Used to enhance weapons. | N/A | 10 |
| Untarnished Mask | Return to Sester Genessa (no glimpse lost unlike Tarnished Mask). | Grants resolve when used. | 3 |
| Ornate Mask | Allows to you fast travel to the other Sester Genessas you’ve interacted with. One of the best on-use items you can buy. It’s expensive, but totally worth it due to the ease of fast travel. Just remember that you can’t fast travel when you’re carrying a gland. | Gain additional tar for one minute after fast traveling. | 30 |
Other items
These are the other items I’ve found throughout my journey in Mortal Shell. As far as I know, these aren’t purchasable from vendor NPCs. Likewise, I decided not to list down general consumables that give tar or glimpses since they have similar effects — it’s just the amounts you gain that are different.
| Other items | ||
| Item | Effect | Familiarity |
| Weltcap | Regens 30 HP over 30 seconds. This will be another go-to healing method other than Roasted Rat, and you won’t even lose resolve whenever you use it. This fungi’s node regrows over time. | Faster regen. |
| Tarspore | Deals poison DOT to your character. Don’t use this accidentally unless you want to die a slow death. However, if you’ve unlocked one of Tiel the Acolyte’s perks, then this can be used as an alternative healing method.This fungi’s node regrows over time. | Grants immunity to poison damage. This will cancel out the healing method from one of Tiel the Acolyte’s perks. |
| Scripture of Defiance | The next parry attempt is successfully resolved. | Not unlocked yet |
| Scripture of Repent | The next parry immolates the enemy (fire DOT effect). | Not unlocked yet |
| Scripture of Despair | After a successful parry, the next attack deals bonus damage. | Not unlocked yet |
| Scripture of Ardor | The next parry applies a poison DOT on the enemy. | Not unlocked yet |
| Rotten Food | Heals a very small amount of health while greatly costing resolve. | It still heals for a very low amount, and it still costs resolve (though the penalty isn’t as high as before). |
| Tarnished Mask | Teleports you back to the last Sester Genessa that you visited at the cost of all your glimpses. | Teleporting costs only half the glimpses. |
The remaining items are either boss drops, related to weapon upgrades/switching, or obtained via secret chests. You can head over to the following guides if you need help with those drops:
- Hallowed Sword
- Hammer & Chisel
- Smoldering Mace
- Martyr’s Blade
- Secret statue chests and the fog mechanic
Mortal Shell is available via the Epic Games Store. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.
Published: Aug 18, 2020 01:45 am