Mortal Shell 2: Illusionist’s Cache Full Puzzle Walkthrough

Illusionist’s Cache is a small stone dungeon that will not hold still. Peer through a carved arch and a sealed wall can vanish. Cross that same arch later and a pit can become a floor, or a doorway can brick itself shut. The loot room only stays usable if you lock the right version of the space in place.

Quick answer: Look through each stone arch to change the room, shoot the hanging bell with a sidearm, push the pillar onto the pressure plate, then walk through the upper arch one more time so the vault stays open.

Illusionist’s Cache location

The dungeon sits on Desolate Peak. Face Baghead on his throne and walk the opposite way. The entrance is a stone door off that stretch of the peak, with grass outside and a dim interior once you step in.

Take the elevator down. The puzzle floor is a narrow tunnel that looks like a dead end until the first arch rewrites it.

Illusion arches and room states

Every important change in Illusionist’s Cache comes from a stone arch. Looking through one shows you a different layout. Walking through it makes that layout real. The dungeon is not hiding a switch behind a painting. It is swapping which version of the room you are allowed to stand in.

The main chamber has two versions at once. One version has a hole in the floor and a clear path into the vault. The other version fills that hole with solid stone and can wall the vault off. You need both versions, in order. First you need the floor so you can shove the pillar. Then you need the open doorway so you can walk into the sarcophagus room without falling.

Upper-arch pass	Pit	Vault doorway
After the bell shot	Becomes solid floor	Walls off once the pillar sits on the plate
One more walk-through	Opens again	Stays clear while the pillar holds the plate

If the vault is sealed after you move the pillar, you have not taken that last walk through the upper arch. If you cannot reach the pillar at all, the pit is still open and the bell has not done its job.

Illusionist’s Cache puzzle walkthrough

Bring a ranged sidearm. The bell cannot be melee’d from the ledge you first see it from. If Resolve is empty when you need the shot, hit the Resolve-giving stalk beside that perch and fire again.

Ride the elevator to the lower hall. Aim a sidearm down the corridor and drop the two priest enemies before you touch any boxes.

Player aims a sidearm down a stone corridor at an enemy with the crosshair centered. — Clearing a corridor with a sidearm before the first arch. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides

Once the tunnel is clear, move through the dim stone corridor toward the stacked crates beside the first arch. Smash the boxes so the short stairs up to the arch are usable.

Armored character with a spiked axe walking a dim stone dungeon corridor. — Moving through the dim stone halls of Illusionist’s Cache. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides

Look through the arch. The dead-end wall at the far side of the tunnel drops out of view and a farther chamber appears. Walk through the arch so that view becomes the real layout.

The next room holds a pressure plate, a pit, and a movable pillar on the far side of the hole. An open chamber here can also throw a winged, armored creature at you. Close the gap and cut it down before you start shifting stone.

Player swings a large axe at a winged armored creature in close-quarters combat. — Fighting a winged enemy in an open chamber inside the dungeon. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides

In that sunlit room, walk up to the wooden crates stacked beside the pit and smash them. Hit the false wall behind those boxes. Two more priests come out. Defeat them, then take the stairs on the left and break every remaining crate on that landing.

Player with a large black weapon approaching a wooden crate in a sunlit interior. — Breaking wooden crates to uncover stairs and hidden walls. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides

An unreachable illusion arch now sits in front of you. Look through it until you see the metal bell hanging on the other side. Equip a sidearm and shoot the bell. A stone bridge appears and connects your ledge to that arch.

Walk the bridge and jump through the arch. The pit is gone. In its place is a concrete floor you can stand on.

With the pit gone, advance through the hall and get behind the raised stone pillar. Attack it so it slides onto the pressure plate in the middle of the room.

Armored character with a massive polearm advancing through a dim stone hall. — Crossing the rewritten hall toward the movable stone pillar. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides

The vault the plate just opened will now have a wall across it. Return up the stairs and walk through the illusion arch once more. The pit comes back, but the pillar stays on the plate, so the hole no longer matters. The wall across the vault is gone. Enter that room and open the sarcophagus.

Shuddering Stone and leftover loot

The sarcophagus is the proof the puzzle worked. You should walk out with the Shuddering Stone Tarstone and Lavender’s Robe. The clothing unlock prints New Mortal Clothing Unlocked on screen. The Tarstone makes projectiles generate a Knockback shockwave on impact.

Item	Where it sits	What it is
Shuddering Stone	Sarcophagus in the vault	Tarstone. Projectiles generate a Knockback shockwave on impact.
Lavender’s Robe	Same vault, with the stone	Mortal clothing. Unlocks with New Mortal Clothing Unlocked.
Dorsalite	Fake walls behind the sarcophagus	Weapon upgrade material, guarded by another priest.
Ventrium	Elevator landing by the stairs	Pickup after the snake nest.
Laterite	Same lower landing	Pickup after the snake nest.

Hit the fake wall behind the sarcophagus, then the next fake wall after that. A priest and the Dorsalite sit in that pocket. Ride the elevator beside the stairs, kill the snake nesting below, and take the Ventrium and Laterite before you leave.

A leftover chamber can still hold a glowing enemy. Finish that fight, grab anything left on the floor, and take the exit. The dungeon is done when the vault has been looted, the extra walls are open, and the lower landing is clear.

Player character attacking a glowing orb-like enemy in a dark cavern. — A last fight in the leftover chambers after the sarcophagus. Image credit: Cold Symmetry / via @PazarGamingGuides