Mortal Shell 2 Tarstones — Complete Guide

Overview

There are exactly 73 Tarstones in Mortal Shell 2, a count every post-launch completionist guide agrees on. Your Tarstone menu shows 75 slots once complete — the two empty slots are intentional, not a missed pickup. Tarstones socket into weapons, sidearms, and Shells, and picking up the final one instantly unlocks the Stoned trophy (Silver). Upgrading is optional for the trophy but is the main endgame power sink, so this guide covers the four types, the Tarforge path, every acquisition method, and the one stone that is permanently missable.

The Four Tarstone Types

Every Tarstone belongs to one of four categories that decide how it works and what it sockets into:

These are partial examples, not a complete roster. Most Combat, Infusion, and Ability stones are restricted to specific weapons or sidearms; guide coverage suggests a 10-stone equip cap (four Shell-compatible slots plus two each for Combat, Infusion, Ability), still pending in-game verification.

Upgrading at the Tarforge

Upgrades happen at the Tarforge in Marrow Keep, but the option stays locked until you hand the Etching Needles to Franz, its operator. The needles sit in an unguarded chest in Glutted Mire (the Fainweald dungeon past the Mushroom Village Gate), after the Tarblighted Shepherd, just before the Magdalena fight — easy to grab later if you skipped it. XP only accrues while a stone is socketed into an equipped weapon, sidearm, or Shell that is killing enemies; idle stones earn nothing, and the XP bar resets after every upgrade. The costs are confirmed:

Two steps max a stone; only the first costs Coins, the second trades Tarcore. That creates the game's biggest economy trap: maxing a stone costs 6 Tarcore, but each stone refunds only 1 Tarcore at Lv2, so you "sacrifice-farm" cheap stones for Tarcore and feed it into your main ones — XP, not Coins, is the real bottleneck. For faster leveling, toggle Night Mode: hand the Gloombound Flame (near the Great Arbiter of Flesh in Widow's Overlook) to the brazier atop Marrow Keep to summon Thestus — enemies hit harder but drop more Coins and Gloom.

How to Obtain Tarstones

Most stones drop from bosses and elites. Confirmed high-value drops include:

A handful are bought rather than found: The Collector (night only, in Abandoned Outpost) sells Weeping, Infused, Fulminant, and Infested; Merrick sells Acolyte's and Unwieldy at 2,000 Coins each; the One-Legged Wolf innkeeper sells Hand of Rock. Three stones sit behind candle offering chests (light three candles each): Auspicious, Siegebreaker's, and Berserker's. A few more sit behind small puzzles — Clockwork Shardstone, Frostshard Stone, Inflamed Clawstone — whose exact routes are still being verified by post-launch guides.

Stoned Trophy & the Missable Berserker's Stone

Stoned pops the instant the last stone lands in your inventory — no upgrades needed. That makes exactly one stone a threat to a clean 73/73: Berserker's Stone. It sits in a candle offering chest in the Temple of Vatra (map north). Once you take the Heart of Vatra and leave, the gate closes permanently — not even NG+ reopens it, so if the area seals, that save can never earn Stoned. Route: from the One-Legged Wolf Beacon, head east through the Bone Gate into the Temple, climb the stairs, and open the offering chest on the left. Light the two candles on the left plus the single candle inside the statue on the right (three total) to unlock it. The other candle chests — Auspicious and Siegebreaker's — are not missable.

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