Trollweed is the first Permanent Pickup Item you can grab in Mortal Shell 2, and its description is a dare. It says the plant does nothing, then tells you to find 999 more. That number is not a typo, and it is not a Tier III milestone like the ones attached to most Permanent Items. Trollweed genuinely asks for 1,000 copies before it reveals its real effects.
Quick answer: Two Trollweed pickups are confirmed. The first sits behind the wooden house where the Harbinger wakes up in the prologue, and the second hangs from the ceiling in Marrow Keep, where you have to shoot it down with your sidearm. The Marrow Keep one respawns in New Game Plus.
Trollweed location 1: Prologue, behind the starting house
You can reach this one within the opening seconds of the game, before you have a weapon, a Shell, or an enemy to worry about.
Trollweed location 2: Marrow Keep ceiling
The second one is not on the floor, which is the whole trick. It is embedded overhead, and walking through the room normally will never trigger it.
This pickup respawns in New Game Plus, which is the only reliable way to add more Trollweed to the count after your first run.
How to confirm the pickup registered
Open your inventory and select Trollweed. At Level 1, both the Active and Passive lines read “Does… nothing?”, and the Familiarity requirement underneath spells out the rest: find 999 more to reveal further detail about the item. If that counter is showing, the pickup counted. If Trollweed is missing from the Permanent Pickup Items list entirely, you never touched it.
Trollweed Familiarity tiers and effects
Trollweed only has two states. There is no partial upgrade, no halfway bonus at 100 or 500 copies.
| Familiarity | Active | Passive | Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Does… nothing? | Does… nothing? | Unlocked on pickup |
| Level 2 | Turns you into a bush | Grants total immunity | 1,000 total pickups |
The item text itself stays deadpan the entire time: “A rare plant of dubious use. It’s often confused for a far more potent variety.”
At Level 2, equipping Trollweed in the Active slot transforms the Harbinger into a bush, which functions as a stealth option when you would rather not be seen. Slotting it as a Passive grants total immunity from all damage sources.
How the Trollweed counter goes up
Nothing special is required. Every Trollweed you collect automatically adds to the Familiarity total, and duplicates are not converted into throwaway consumables the way spare consumables usually are.
- Trollweed does not need to be equipped in the Active or Passive slot for new pickups to count.
- Permanent Items are never destroyed by use. Using an Active effect spends a charge, not the item.
- Active charges refill when you rest at a Beacon, so experimenting costs you no progress.
- Permanent Items can be swapped freely at any time, so keeping Trollweed slotted is never mandatory.
Note: there is no downside to grabbing one whenever you see it. There is also no reason to detour hunting for them during a first run.
Reaching 1,000 Trollweed across New Game Plus
Here is the uncomfortable math. With two confirmed pickups per playthrough and only the Marrow Keep plant respawning in New Game Plus, the 1,000 total is built one or two copies at a time across repeated game cycles. That puts full damage immunity in the territory of hundreds of completed runs, not a weekend project.
No additional Trollweed locations beyond those two are confirmed. If more exist, they have not surfaced, so treat the count as an extreme long-term collectible rather than something to build around.
The practical takeaway is simple. Grab the prologue Trollweed so it enters your Permanent Item list, shoot the Marrow Keep one down every time you start a new cycle, and slot something with an actual early-game payoff — Weltcap for healing, Common Moonshine for reduced damage taken — in the meantime. Trollweed sits in the inventory doing exactly what its name promises until the counter says otherwise.
