Heavy is the burden of being a game developer, as even as a game launches, there is always still work to be done. Mortal Shell 2 is out today, and while it generally seems to be doing quite well for itself, a game of its ilk, i.e. a Soulslike, doesn't necessarily get everything right the first go around (or I guess second first in this case). So, to smooth out some edges, developer Cold Symmetry have already released the game's first balance patch.
The big thing that's been changed with this patch is the in-game economy. As explained in a Steam discussion thread, for starters, shell map locations will now cost you gloom, and any glimpses you've spent will be refunded. You can find said refunds in the Shell Keeper's alcove in Blackmarrow. Enemies will generally drop "significantly" more gold, with the lot you find in Mammon specifically dropping double the amount they were previously ("This brings the gold economy more in line with the weapon crafting item discovery," the devs explain). And smelting a weapon at the Tarforge costs 75% less gloom, with the devs saying, "Our goal with the smelt capability was to enable switching weapons without the need to spend hours grinding through NG+ runs, but the gloom costs were set exorbitantly high."
Beyond that, there aren't any sweeping changes, though the HP values for enemies and bosses in the beta are back to what they were during the beta, "except the Caerinid (Spider) in Magdelena’s area, which we wanted to retain its role as a threatening enemy which doesn’t respawn once defeated." Several weapons and tarstones have received some buffs, you can now use guard while walking, and a number of crash and bug fixes, and performance improvements have been put in place.
All sounds like it should be fairly welcome! But that doesn't mean what was already there was bad by any means. Jeremy awarded it the coveted RPS Bestest Bests badge in his review, writing, "plenty of Soulslikes feature excellent dungeons, but Mortal Shell 2's feel like they might have been pirated as a "top 100 maps" package back in 1998, which is both a sincere compliment and a massive upgrade from the confusing levels of the first game… And the fact that this game manages to tie retro-feeling maps into an expansive open world that might not be as big as Elden Ring's or Nioh 3's, but is arguably tighter with more interwoven areas, is astounding."
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