Mortal Shell 2: How to Get the Viletongue Hedron Tarstone

The Viletongue Hedron is the Tarstone that puts Bloodcurse on your Sidearm, and it does not appear in a random chest anywhere in the Ruins of Mammon. It sits behind one beacon dungeon, guarded by one mini-boss, and the run to it is short and almost entirely linear once you know which way to point yourself.

Quick answer: Cleanse the Castigator’s Keep Beacon, ride it down into Viletongue’s Domain, drink the Strange Concoction at the candle-lit table, and kill Viletongue Batushka. The Viletongue Hedron and the Sage’s Gate Lever both drop the instant the boss dies.

Viletongue Hedron drop conditions

This is a one-time drop per playthrough. There is no vendor, no duplicate copy later in the region, and clearing the rest of the beacon afterwards does not hand you a second one.

Detail	Info
Type	Infusion Tarstone
Region	Ruins of Mammon
Dungeon	Castigator’s Keep Beacon → Viletongue’s Domain
Source	Defeat Viletongue Batushka
Also drops	Sage’s Gate Lever
Slots into	Sidearm only
Availability	Once per playthrough

Route to Castigator’s Keep from the Outskirts of Mammon beacon

Fast travel to the Outskirts of Mammon beacon. That is your starting point, and everything from here is a single push toward the central ruins.

Run through the Road to Absolution. It is a battle-torn stretch with hostile soldiers scattered along it, and you can sprint past most of them rather than clearing the area.

The Road to Absolution, a ruined courtyard the player crosses on the way to Castigator's Keep — The Road to Absolution is the connecting stretch between the Outskirts of Mammon beacon and Castigator’s Keep.

At the far edge, step onto the jump pad to launch across the canyon and land at Castigator’s Keep. Climb to the beacon at the top of the ruins and select Cleanse Beacon to open the way into Viletongue’s Domain.

Inside Viletongue’s Domain: reaching the Strange Concoction

Follow the corridor in from the entrance. The first chest on the altar only holds gold, so take it or ignore it and keep moving toward the elevator down.

The armored Harbinger stepping through a stone doorway into the dark corridor of Viletongue's Domain — The stone doorway leading into the first corridor of Viletongue’s Domain.

Work through the underground tunnels below. The path runs along rocky ledges with enemies posted at chokepoints, and another jump pad carries you back up toward the ritual area.

The player heading through a rocky cavern toward a web-covered passage inside the beacon — The cavern section leads to a web-covered passage on the way up to the ritual room.

Push through the wooden door into the room with the locked gate. A stone message near the entrance welcomes visitors to the hall of the Great Sage, Batushka, which is your cue that the fight is close.

Dark chamber inside Viletongue's Domain with health, equipment and Resolve shown on the HUD — The dark chamber before the ritual table, where the locked gate sits waiting for the Sage’s Gate Lever.

Walk up to the glowing, candle-lit table. The prompt reads Drink Strange Concoction? — choosing Yes starts the boss encounter immediately, so top up your consumables first.

Beating Viletongue Batushka with inverted controls

Drinking the concoction does two things at once. It summons Viletongue Batushka, and it flips your movement inputs for the entire fight. Hold back and you walk forward; push forward and you retreat. That reversal, not the boss itself, is what kills most players on the first attempt.

Give yourself a few seconds to recalibrate before committing to a dodge or a swing. Batushka is a mini-boss rather than the beacon’s final threat, and it folds fairly quickly once you stop fighting your own thumbs. Heavy weapon abilities land cleanly here — the Shrike Stone plunge is one reliable way to close the health bar.

Viletongue Batushka's boss health bar on screen as the player lands an attack — Viletongue Batushka’s health bar appears as soon as the Strange Concoction prompt is accepted.

How to confirm you have the Tarstone

Two pickup prompts fire the moment Batushka drops: the Sage’s Gate Lever and the Viletongue Hedron. Open the Tarstones menu and the Hedron should be listed at Level 1 with its Sidearm infusion description. If it is there, you are done — nothing else in the dungeon is required to keep it.

Finishing the beacon is optional cleanup. Fit the Sage’s Gate Lever to the nearby gate to raise it, then interact with the corrupt structure to Cleanse Corruption and collect the Ovum. You can walk away and come back for that whenever you like.

Bloodcurse infusion effects and Resolve cost

Equipped to a Sidearm, the Hedron spends 20 Resolve to coat your shots with Bloodcurse. That cost never changes. What scales with the Tarstone’s level is how long each activation lasts before you pay again.

Level	Effect
Level 1	Consume 20 Resolve to infuse your Sidearm with Bloodcurse
Level 2	Infusion lasts for 4 shots
Level 3	Infusion lasts for 8 shots
Level 4	Infusion is permanent

One catch matters more than the shot count. The infused Sidearm only applies Bloodcurse on critical hits, not on every shot that connects. That makes the Grudge Stone, which guarantees criticals, the natural partner — it turns a conditional status into a consistent one.

Bloodcurse itself builds stacks on whatever you hit and then detonates for heavy damage once enough of them land. Permanent uptime at the top level is a much bigger jump in practice than the level table suggests, because you stop rationing Resolve between reapplications.

Upgrading the Viletongue Hedron at the Tarforge

You cannot level any Tarstone until the Tarforge in Marrow Keep has its Tarstone upgrade tier unlocked, and that requires the Etching Needles. They sit in a bone chest just before the Magdalena, the Lady of the Woods boss fight. When you spot Ruk past the bridge, drop through the opening and turn right before the tunnel to reach the small alcove holding the chest.

Hand the Etching Needles to Franz to expand the forge’s options. After that, keep the Viletongue Hedron equipped and kill enemies to fill its XP bar — Tarstones only gain experience while slotted. Once the bar is full, return to Franz and pay Coin to push it to the next level.

Note: Tarstone XP is farmed, not found. Equipping the Hedron for general clearing while you work through the region is far faster than making dedicated trips back to Marrow Keep.

Tarstone XP farm
byu/Imjacksonjames inMortalShell

Which Sidearms can equip the Viletongue Hedron

Only two weapons accept it: the Cursed Child and the Naylshotte. It will not slot into a primary weapon or any other Sidearm, so a Bloodcurse infusion build needs one of those two in hand before the Tarstone is worth anything.

The Cursed Child is the stronger home for it, turning each infused shot into a high-stack projectile for the same flat 20 Resolve. Pair that with the Accursed Stone, the Curse infusion cleansed from the Abandoned Outpost Beacon, and you stack two separate damage-over-time layers on the same target rather than leaning on one status.

Everything about the Viletongue Hedron comes down to one short dungeon run and one awkward fight. Get through the inverted controls once and the rest is upgrade work you can do while playing normally.