Mortal Shell guide: Items, vendors, and familiarity effects

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Mortal Shell Items Guide

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.

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Note: For more information, check out our Mortal Shell guides and features hub.

Mortal Shell Items Guide 1a


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.

Mortal Shell Items Guide 1b

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.

Mortal Shell Items Guide 1c

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.

Mortal Shell Items Guide 2a

He’s also got a cat. Be sure to pet it because cats are awesome!

Mortal Shell Items Guide 2b

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.

Mshell Itg 1

Follow the pathway straight ahead until you reach another tower in the distance, one that looks very scary.

Mshell Itg 2

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.

Mshell Itg 3

As for the Corrupted Sester, look to the left and you’ll spot a narrow pathway hidden behind some pillars.

Mshell Itg 4

You’ll find the Corrupted Sester inside one of the small buildings.

Mshell Itg 5

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).

Mortal Shell Items Guide 3a

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.

Mortal Shell Items Guide 3b

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:


Mortal Shell is available via the Epic Games Store. For more information, check out our guides and features hub.


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Jason Rodriguez
Jason Rodriguez is a guides writer. Most of his work can be found on PC Invasion (around 3,400+ published articles). He's also written for IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, TechRaptor, Gameskinny, and more. He's also one of only five games journalists from the Philippines. Just kidding. There are definitely more around, but he doesn't know anyone. Mabuhay!