Combat

 in Mortal Shell is strategic and deliberate, inspired by Dark Souls family of games. Survival demands superior awareness, precision and instincts. You must commit your sword only when an opportunity opens. Calculate your parries to unleash devastating counterblows. Mastery of the gameplay is just one side, though, another is mastery of the various Mortal Shells, their weapons, and skills.

Shells
Shells are presented in the game as characters in the game that you encounter. Through inhabiting their shell, players will be able to learn more about their past and eventually learn their combat style and unlock various abilities. But in order to obtain their shell, you must find out and learn their names which can be done by spending Tar. Alternatively, players may choose to skip using Shells on their playthrough for a more challenging experience in which case they will have to fight as the Foundling which can withstand only 1 hit.

Shells & Abilities
Once the player has discovered the name of the Shell, they'll be able to occupy it and gain access to a number of Abilities that can be unlocked by spending Tar and Glimpses.

Swapping Shells during Combat
Players can use special Consumables such as Effigy of Harros or Effigy of Tiel to swap Shells at any time. This mechanic can be used to adapt to different situations.

Parry, Dodging and Hardening
There are three defensive mechanics in Mortal Shell. You can dodge enemy attacks by using Stamina. You can Parry enemy attacks by using the Tarnished Seal and also perform a riposte if you have enough resolve.

The Hardening mechanic allows your character to turn into stone, preventing all damage that would be dealt them. It’s a fresh take, and expertly weaving it into your attacks can be quite challenging, especially since it has a brief cooldown of about 5 seconds or so. Skilled players will learn to use this at the last possible second, preventing the flow of combat from being interrupted too much.

Consumables
Consumables can be assigned to the quick slot to be quickly used in combat. There can grant both defensive and offensive effects.

Recover life
You can regain life by eating certain consumable items or by performing an Empowered Riposte using the Tarnished Seal.

Workbench & Anvil
At the start of each major Location you'll find an Anvil. Anvils can be used to upgrade both Weapons and the Tarnished Seal. However, upgrading and adding various properties will require specific items in order to do so.

There's a Workbench at the Fallgrim tower that serves the same purpose as the Anvil. The Workbench also allows you to repair the Ballistazooka once you acquire Tools from Vlas.

The Foundling
If you're occupying a shell, chances are you can get knocked out of the shell and is placed in a more vulnerable state which is the Foundling. This happens if the shell's HP reaches 0. When the player is knocked out of the shell, they will still have the chance to recover their shell for a limited number of times, however, players will only have 1 HP when they are in the Foundling state. If you retrieve the shell and reach 0 health again the Foundling will die and you will return to the last checkpoint.

Weapons & Weapon Abilities
There are 5 Weapons in the game that players can use to fight the various enemies. Each weapon has its own move-set and two unique Weapon Abilities that can be used by spending resolve. Weapon Abilities must first be unlocked to be used.