This is a WIP article – and as we keep discovering more Tarstones, we will keep adding them to the list below.
Mortal Shell 2 features a plethora of items to help in combat and make your build better by min-maxing the stats. These items are hard to come by, but they are game-changers. Among the unique items the game introduces early on are Tarstones and Seals. Some of the Tarstones are found easily, while others are locked behind Trials, bosses, and puzzles, but the journey to obtain them is worth the bonus perk that you will unlock for your weapons.
Suffice to say, Tarstones will play a major role in setting up a perfect build for your character. And here, we are going to take a look at all the Tarstones available in Mortal Shell 2.
All Tarstones in Mortal Shell 2
Tarstones act like gems (Active/ Support) in Path of Exile; you can slot them inside your melee or ranged weapon to unlock new abilities or just give a simple boost to all of your stats. The fun doesn’t end here; the game also offers different types of Tarstones, each with its own purpose for the weapon and the overall build you are planning to create.
Here we will take a look at all Tarstones, including their stats, locations, and most importantly, whether they are Ability, Infusion, Combat, or Support type.
- Ability: Adds a new ability type to your melee or ranged weapon. It allows you to pull off new moves with your weapons to strategize your gameplay beyond basic attacks.
- Infusion: Infuses or adds a status infliction to the weapon, allowing your hits to deal Burn or Bleed damage on enemies.
- Combat: A simple damage boost such as Leech, Damage over time to kills and attacks.
- Support: Support stat boosts such as Critical Chance, Stagger Damage, or to melee or range attacks.
Note: You can also upgrade your Tarstone by giving Franz the Etching Needles. It’s a quest item that adds more options to the Tarforge in the Marrow Keep. The Etching Needle is obtained just before the Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods boss.
Acolyte’s Stone (Ability Type)
Stats:
- Lv. 1: Consume Resolve to perform a charged Light Attack.
- Lv. 2: The charged attack gains a +15% Critical Chance.
- Lv. 3: The charged attack now deals +150% Critical Damage.
- Lv. 4: The cost of Resolve is now reduced to 0.
Location: This Tarstone can be bought from Merrick, found in Marrow Keep, for 2,000 coins. You can gain access to the shop after obtaining Tiel the Acolyte (obtained by interacting with a corpse in the Mushroom Village).
Acolyte’s Stone allows you to perform a charged light attack in exchange for Resolve. Each upgrade adds more critical chance and critical damage. Once you get the very last upgrade, the requirement for Resolve gets down to zero, which means you can perform the charged light attack as many times as you want without worrying about spending Resolve.
Arbiter’s Prize (Infusion Type)
Stats:
- Lv. 1: Consume 30 Resolve to infuse your weapon with Bloodcurse.
- Lv. 2: Infusion can last for 4 strikes.
- Lv. 3: Infusion can last for 8 strikes.
- Lv. 4: Infusion effect is now permanent.
Location: It can be looted from the Great Arbiter of Flesh, found in the dead tree zone in Widow’s Overlook. Along with Tarstone, you will get Glimpse x1 and Gloom.
Arbiter’s Prize will turn your weapon red, and the strikes will deal more damage per hit. Bloodcurse is basically a bleed build, as it works in most games. Here you infuse your weapon with Bloodcurse; after several strikes, the Bloodcurse will take hold of the enemy and take out a huge chunk of their HP. You can add the effect to a number of weapons to gain extra effect and faster stacks of Bloodcurse.
Corroded Stone (Combat Type)
- Lv. 1: Projectiles will now deal damage over time after a hit.
- Lv. 2: Projectiles will now deal 0.2 damage every 1s for 3s.
- Lv. 3: Projectiles will now deal 0.3 damage every 1s for 5s.
- Lv. 4: Projectiles will now deal 0.4 damage every 1s for 5s.
Location: It’s found in the chest inside the Sunken Village Beacon. There is another one in Wortbriar Encampment.
Corroded Stone Tarstone is perfect for any ranged build, as it deals more DOT effect than a simple damage-dealing strike. If you have any status inflict range weapon, then this Tarstone will fit in perfectly with the sidearm.
Deadman’s Stone (Support Type)
Stats:
- Lv. 1: Increases the melee Critical Chance.
- Lv. 2: Melee attacks now have +10% Critical Chance.
- Lv. 3: Melee attacks now have +15% Critical Chance.
- Lv. 4: Melee attacks gain a +18% Critical Chance.
Location: It’s found in the Mushroom Village area by solving a puzzle by interacting with 3 Offering candles.
Deadman’s Stone is one of the perfect Tarstones in the game, and it is considered one of the best by many. It raises your critical strike chance for all of your melee attacks. You can technically get this one early to make your build stronger and more efficient for early game enemies.
Bug Alert: There are some cases where the chest containing the Tarstone disappeared after lighting the candles. Maybe in the future, we might get a patch for the bug, but for now, you are on your own with this one. If you are unfortunate enough to face this bug on your beta build, then you are out of luck with this one.
Emberseed Stone (Infusion Type)
Stats:
- Lv. 1: Consume 20 Resolve to infuse your sidearm with Burn.
- Lv. 2: Infusion can last for 4 shots.
- Lv. 3: Infusion can last for 8 shots.
- Lv. 4: Infusion effect is now permanent.
Location: It can be looted from the chest inside the Passenger’s Shrine, right after cleansing the Mushroom Village Beacon.
This Tarstone is a perfect fit for a sidearm, where every shot will now inflict the Burn status effect. With more upgrades, the infusion will last longer and become permanent at the end. One thing to note: the Burn status effect only triggers on critical hits with the weapon.
Magdalena’s Memento (Ability Type)
- Lv. 1: Take 70 Resolve to jump into the air to unleash a flurry of ruthless strikes.
- Lv. 2: Each strike will inflict 2 Weak stacks.
- Lv. 3: Each strike has +15% Critical Chance and now deals +50% Critical Damage.
- Lv. 4: Raises the Critical Damage to +100%
Location: It’s found after taking out Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods, in the Sunken Village.
Here you are spending 70 Resolve to unleash a flurry of strikes on enemies, dealing Weak Stacks with critical chance and critical damage. The more you upgrade the Tarstone, the damage and critical chance will also get a boost.
Marksman’s Stone (Support Type)
- Lv. 1: Improves ranged Critical Chance.
- Lv. 2: Ranged attacks now have +10% Critical Chance.
- Lv. 3: Ranged attacks now have +12% Critical Chance.
- Lv. 4: Sets the Critical Chance to +15% on ranged attacks.
Location: The chest containing the stone is found outside the Mushroom Village Gate. Here you must complete a trial before unlocking the Tarstone.
Marksman’s Stone acts the same way as Deadman’s Stone; where Deadman’s Stone was for melee weapons, Marksman’s Stone is meant for ranged weapons. Here you are getting a critical strike chance increase over four of its level upgrades.
Parasitic Stone (Combat Type)
- Lv. 1: Killing enemies grants you Leech.
- Lv. 2: Gain 1 Leech stack per enemy kill.
- Lv. 3: Gain 2 Leech stacks per enemy kill.
- Lv. 4: Gain 3 Leech stacks per enemy kill.
Location: It is found inside the chest in the Martyr’s Tomb dungeon found in the church-like building outside Mushroom Village. It’s the area behind the Arbiter of Flesh boss encounter in the game.
The stacks basically boil down to max hit points; the buff is noticeable above your hit points bar. The effect here doesn’t stay for long; over time, the effect will decay. If you are choosing this Tarstone, then focus on getting more melee kills to get the effect running for a long period.
Shattering Stone (Support Type)
- Lv. 1: Increases the melee Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 2: Melee attacks now deal +150% Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 3: Melee attacks now deal +200% Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 4: Melee attacks now deal a whopping +220% Stagger Damage.
Location: This one can be found in a chest near Tiel the Acolyte’s Grave in the Village outside the Mushroom Village.
Shattering Stone Tarstone allows you to deal stagger damage on enemies, but it doesn’t increase the stagger chance. The Tarstone works well with melee weapons, helping you deal more stagger damage on enemies.
Tip: Most players here confuse Stagger Damage with Break Damage and vice versa, but the truth could not be further from reality. Stagger damage is a completely different beast compared to your break damage. While dealing break damage opens enemies for a riposte or finisher, stagger damage is only meant to interrupt enemies’ attacks.
Shrike Stone (Ability Type)
- Lv. 1: Take 70 Resolve to jump and then perform a plunge with your weapon into the ground.
- Lv. 2: Each strike will inflict 150 Perforation stacks.
- Lv. 3: The cost of Resolve is lowered to 50.
- Lv. 4: Each strike now inflicts damage.
Location: You will find this Tarstone inside the chest in the swampy area of the Sunken Village, directly north of Mushroom Village Gate.
This Tarstone doesn’t boost any of your stats, as it unlocks a new ability move allowing you to leap into the air and perform a plunge at the enemy location while in the air. The attack deals a good amount of damage, but later upgrades unlock further potential of the weapon, such as damage increase and Perforation stack.
Siegebreaker’s Stone (Support Type)
- Lv. 1: Increases ranged Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 2: Ranged attacks now deal +150% Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 3: Ranged attacks now deal +200% Stagger Damage.
- Lv. 4: Sets the Ranged attacks to deal +220% Stagger Damage.
Location: Get to the Sunken Village, swampy section, go through the cleansing gate, and find the hidden chest.
This Tarstone acts just the same as Shattering Stone but only for ranged weapons. All of your ranged attacks deal stagger damage, and getting the second upgrade allows the ranged weapon to deal over 200% stagger damage on enemies.
Note: The stagger effect on a ranged weapon acts the same as a melee weapon; here you are also interrupting the enemy with the stagger effect, nothing more and nothing less.
Tarblighted Trophy (Ability Type)
- Lv. 1: Take 40 Resolve to fire a heavy round that explodes on the target and scatters explosive projectiles.
- Lv. 2: Each projectile now deals 8 splash damage.
- Lv. 3: Each projectile now deals 12 splash damage.
- Lv. 4: Each projectile deals 14 splash damage.
Location: You will need to defeat The Wandering Shepherd in the Sunken Village.
Tarblighted Trophy is a move that allows the side arm to have a new attack style, where a heavy round gets released at the enemy. Once the round touches the enemy, it explodes and rains projectiles below the area. Each level upgrade expands the splash damage of the projectiles, but it limits the round detonation to two times. This means the heavy round will detonate twice, but the follow-up explosion will deal more splash damage with more upgrades.
Unwieldy Stone (Ability Type)
- Lv. 1: Take 25 Resolve to perform a Charged Heavy Attack.
- Lv. 2: The charged attack now grants 2 Leech stacks on an enemy kill.
- Lv. 3: The charged attack grants 3 Leech stacks and restores 20 HP on enemy kill.
- Lv. 4: The charged attack grants 5 Leech stacks and restores 35 HP on enemy kill.
Location: Unwieldy Stone can be bought from Merrick in Marrow Keep for 2,000 Coins.
Unwieldy Stone Tarstone adds leech stacks and also at the same time restores HP on kill. Every time you execute a charged attack, you will gain leech stacks upon killing an enemy. More upgrades will result in more leech stacks on enemies and more HP restored on kill.
Volatile Fragment (Combat Type)
- Lv. 1: Enemies with dying status from a ranged attack will explode and also deal splash damage.
- Lv. 2: Exploding enemies will deal 15 splash damage.
- Lv. 3: Exploding enemies will deal 25 splash damage.
- Lv. 4: Exploding enemies will deal 35 splash damage.
Location: It can be found by looting Vrannic the Grand Illusionist, found in the Hall of Illusion. You must cleanse the Mushroom Village Gate to enter the area.
Volatile Fragment Tarstone creates a more damaging AOE effect when you kill an enemy with the ranged weapon. Once the enemy dies, they will deal splash damage affecting nearby enemies. Unlocking more upgrades will increase the damage dealt by splash damage.
This guide is WIP, as we will keep updating the guide over time.
