Mortal Shell 2: Best Early Shells and Where to Get Them

Once the prologue in Mortal Shell 2 ends, the Harros Shell you started with is gone, and picking your next one shapes how the rest of the run plays. You are not locked to a single region, so you can chase any Shell you want. Three of them stand out early: a stealth assassin, a gold-farming tank, and a boss-breaker you can grab sooner than you might expect.

Quick answer: Get Tiel first. Head to the Widow’s Overlook beacon in Fainweald and go southeast, following the path downhill until your screen pulses red near a wooden doorway with torches. Tiel is buried in an open grave to your left.

Tiel, the stealth-focused Shell, standing in Mortal Shell 2 — Tiel is the most beginner-friendly Shell in the game. Image: Cold Symmetry

The three early Shells worth chasing

No Shell is truly bad, especially after upgrades, but the early hours reward a few clear picks. Here is how the three best early options compare before you commit to a route.

Shell	Role	Standout trait	Where to find it
Tiel	Stealth assassin	Goes invisible on a perfect dodge; no enemy counters it	Grave southeast of Widow’s Overlook, south of Mushroom Village
Proxima	Tank	Farms biosamples that sell to Merrick for gold	Shattered Beacon dungeon, northeast of Blackridge Pass
Eredrim	Boss-killer	Shoulder Bash fully breaks bosses in two hits when upgraded	Citadel of Penance, in the Warden boss arena

Tiel: The safest first pick

Tiel is a sneaky thief built around critical damage from the shadows, and it is the most forgiving Shell for a fresh run. Its passive, Shadow Dash, turns you invisible for a few seconds whenever you dodge right before an attack lands, which also builds stagger on bosses. That makes one-on-one fights against elites and bosses far more manageable.

The Shell ability, Lingering Shadow, lets you go invisible on command. Follow up with a Light Attack while hidden to trigger Shadow Strike, a heavy hit that scales up with upgrades. You move slowly in this state, but the payoff is that no enemy in the game has any way to see through the invisibility. Fully upgraded, Tiel stays hidden much longer and becomes overpowered, yet it performs well even with zero investment.

Where to find Tiel

Fast travel to the Widow’s Overlook beacon in Fainweald, the only active beacon in the region at this point. From here, head southeast and follow the path downhill.

Map marker for Tiel's grave location below Widow's Overlook

Clear the cultist enemies along the trail and keep going until you reach a large tree, where flying enemies appear. Deal with them, then pass the tree toward the wooden doorway flanked by torches.

The torch-lined doorway near the clearing where Tiel is buried

The moment you enter, the screen pulses red to signal a nearby Shell. Look left to spot Tiel halfway inside a grave in the clearing. Interact with it to trigger a short memory, then enter the house through the left window to let the sequence play out. Once it finishes, you can switch to Tiel and use it right away.

Proxima: The tank that farms gold

Proxima, the defensive Broodseeker Shell, in Mortal Shell 2 — Proxima trades stealth for raw durability. Image: Cold Symmetry

Where Tiel avoids damage, Proxima soaks it up. She carries more health and resistance than Tiel and several other Shells, which suits a berserker, in-your-face style. Her passive, Grafted Armor, gives a 15% chance to mitigate a melee or ranged hit, and any mitigated attack has its damage cut by 50%.

Her active ability, Biosampler, fires a hook that pulls smaller enemies toward her or yanks Proxima to larger ones, then follows with a Lightning attack. The real draw, though, is the biosampling. With her abilities upgraded, she harvests biosamples from enemies, and those samples sell to Merrick for gold. That makes Proxima the only Shell that can actively farm currency, which pays for weapon and sidearm upgrades across the run.

Where to find Proxima

From the Widow’s Overlook beacon, head northeast and push through the enemies along the way. Ignore the side dungeons if all you want is the Shell. Proxima sits inside the Shattered Beacon dungeon, northeast of the Blackridge Pass beacon and right next to the Crumbling Tunnel dungeon.

Keep moving until you spot a glowing beacon you can enter. This is a special beacon, not one of the standard ones you cleanse for an Ovum.

Player approaching the glowing stone portal that holds Proxima

Step inside and the screen pulses red. Proxima is directly in front of you, lying on top of a coffin on the very first level with no guards, so there is nothing to fight. Interact with the Shell, let the memory finish, and you can switch to her immediately.

Eredrim: The early boss-breaker

Eredrim, the heavy boss-killer Shell, in Mortal Shell 2 — Eredrim’s Shoulder Bash can fully break a boss in two tries. Image: Cold Symmetry

Eredrim is one of the strongest boss-killers in the game, and you can reach it early if you know the route. It has two active abilities: Shoulder Bash, which deals heavy Break damage to a single target, and a Bell, which spreads a small amount of Break damage to nearby enemies. Its passive, Executioner, lets you finish off low-health enemies outright.

Shoulder Bash is what makes Eredrim so dangerous against bosses. Once upgraded, it can fully break almost any boss in two uses, opening the door to repeated Riposte hits as long as you keep enough Resolve to fire it off. Chaining that loop turns tough fights into short ones.

Where to find Eredrim

Eredrim waits in the Citadel of Penance, inside the boss arena for “The Warden.” There are two ways to reach that area, and either one works.

Defeat the Bloodcursed Lithopod to earn the Citadel Gate Lever, then enter the Citadel through the gate.
Or interact with the coin pouch on the bridge northeast of the One Legged Wolf beacon to drop straight into the Citadel of Penance prison area.

However you get in, explore upward until you reach the large circular arena at the very top. Stepping onto it summons the Warden and starts the fight. After you win, interact with the knight’s corpse on the ground to unlock Eredrim.

Which one to grab first

For a first run, start with Tiel. Its invisibility carries you through early bosses and elites with no hard counters, and it needs no upgrades to feel strong. Add Proxima next if you want a sturdier front-line body and a steady stream of gold from biosamples. Save Eredrim for when you are ready to trek to the Citadel of Penance and take down the Warden, since its Shoulder Bash makes later boss fights dramatically faster.

You can hold multiple Shells at once and swap between them at beacons and checkpoints, so none of these picks locks you out of the others. Grabbing all three early gives you a stealth answer, a durable brawler, and a dedicated boss-breaker to rotate through as the situation demands.