Mortal Shell 2 Weapons: Full List & Best Picks

There are 16 Mortal Shell 2 weapons in the full game: eight primary melee weapons and eight sidearms (guns, bows, and stranger things). Two pieces come from the prologue, six hide in Fainweald, and eight wait in Mammon. Below you get the complete location table, the corrected Axe and Dagger route, infusion and tarstone recommendations, and the upgrade system. Verified on 2026-08-18.

All 16 Mortal Shell 2 weapons and sidearms

Every Mortal Shell 2 weapons location, compiled from GameSpot's launch-era testing:

Weapon	Type	Where to get it
The Iconoclast	Primary — starter blade	Prologue, alongside the Harros shell and the Untarnished Seal
Naylshotte	Sidearm — spread-shot firearm	Prologue, same early stretch as the Iconoclast
Axe & Dagger	Primary — fast dual pair	Puzzle tower near Mushroom Village, opened with the Chapel Key (full route below)
Veteran's Battle Axe	Primary — battle axe	King's Crypt sarcophagus, up the dirt path from the Proxima shell site
Troubadour's Lute	Sidearm — confuses enemies	On the stage of the One-Legged Wolf tavern, eastern Fainweald
Salvaged Trebuchaxe	Sidearm — fires axes	Ravaged Hideout reward, dropped by the Bloodcursed Lithopod
Great Martyr's Blade	Primary — two-hand blade	Martyr's Prison dungeon, outside the Citadel of Penance's east walls
Forgotten Crossbow	Sidearm	Flooded Village tower, behind the boarded-up stone arch below Widow's Overlook
Obsidian Hammer	Primary — heavy hammer	Obsidianite Mines, dropped by the Prophet of Profane Infinites miniboss
Ballistazooka	Sidearm — returning favorite	Sentry's Grave inside the Lonesome Spire, guarded by the Subjugated Guardian
Triarch Repeater	Sidearm	Blackwell Cavern, down the cliffside path from Castigator's Keep
Cursed Child	Sidearm	Top of the Revered Beacon tower in Sester's Abbey — shoot the bell, dodge the spotlight
Axatana	Primary — transforming axe and katanas	Forgotten Tower past the Sester's Gate ravine; kill the Dagger Sester and check the niche
Black Needle	Primary — spear	Sester's Gate cleanse: beat the Twin Sesters, then the Stray Sester drops it
Clockwork Scythe	Primary — scythe	Dropped by Sariel in the Chamber of Becoming
Caged Hystrix	Sidearm	Near the Chamber of Becoming exit, after watching Sariel's memory

If you are missing any, buy the maps from Merrick, the merchant in Marrow Keep — each map marks one weapon's region on your in-game map for a small coin cost.

Practical notes from the location runs: the King's Crypt is stuffed with traps (floor spikes, wall arrows), so move slowly. Blackwell Cavern is nearly pitch black — visibility drops to a few feet. For the Ballistazooka's Subjugated Guardian, run straight into its face; up close it stops firing explosive projectiles and resorts to head-slams you can block or parry. In the Revered Beacon, the spotlight that burns you also burns enemies, so bait them into it. The Axatana has no boss gating it at all — just the Dagger Sester guard — and the Great Martyr's Blade pairs naturally with an Eredrim build.

How Mortal Shell 2 weapons work

Every one of them is usable by every shell — there are no class locks, so you can pair any body with any blade. Each weapon has its own moveset, its own locked infusion options, tarstone slots that modify individual moves, and unique weapon abilities that consume Resolve, which you build by attacking first. The roster leans much harder into ranged options than the first game did: rapid-fire crossbows, shotgun-style sidearms, and elemental infusions all show up in the list above.

A few flavor notes from the in-game descriptions, for the lore-minded: the Axatana was forged by an unrepentant smith and once bore the name "Dream Thresher"; the Great Martyr's Blade is the devout weapon of the First Martyr Tarsus, reforged after his final sacrifice; and the Black Needle was stolen from the Twiceborn. The Ballistazooka is the one sidearm returning from the original game.

Axe and Dagger: the release route (beta path is dead)

Of all the Mortal Shell 2 weapons, this one generates the most search traffic, so here is the full release-version route:

Unlocking it also pops the Deep Cuts Bronze trophy — one of eight weapon unlocks on the achievement guide list. The Chapel Key page covers the key itself.

Best Mortal Shell 2 weapons: builds and infusions

Weapons share their movesets across all shells, but each has its own locked infusion options and tarstone slots, and weapon abilities consume Resolve. FightinCowboy's 25-minute breakdown (embedded below) tested all eight primaries with maxed setups; his recommendations:

Weapon	Tarstone	Infusion	Ability note
The Iconoclast	Zealot Stone	Blood Curse (Arbiter's Prize)	Strike Stone; curse staggers attackers back, and the starter stays viable all game
Axe & Dagger	Duality Stone	Blood Curse	Magdalena's Momento; Duality doubles every strike — only dual-wield weapons can use it
Veteran's Battle Axe	Thief Stone	Burn — the only permanent burn infusion	The running heavy is one of the best attacks in the game
Great Martyr's Blade	Light-attack finisher stone	Frost — exclusive to this blade	Captive's Scabstone; frost (from the Warden Stone, far southeast) turns it from slowest to broken
Obsidian Hammer	Cleric Stone	Stasis or Trauma (trauma is hammer-only)	Colossus Stone shockwaves; stasis stacks can lock enemies down entirely
Axatana	Duality Stone	Voltaic, or Stasis when available	Hexapod Core; FightinCowboy's personal favorite of all Mortal Shell 2 weapons
Black Needle	Thief or Zealot Stone	Phantom — spear-exclusive burst stagger	Conqueror's Reward; fast multi-thrust chains
Clockwork Scythe	Thief Stone	Blood Curse or Voltaic Crown	Scholars Wormstone turns on chainsaw mode — every spin adds 35% weapon damage while it drains Resolve

The unique ability stones (Magdalena's Momento, Captive's Scabstone, Conqueror's Reward, Lost Clot Stone, Colossus Stone) all drop from gate bosses at the end of sections, so you collect them naturally. Two statuses stand out as oppressive in testing — curse and stasis — and stasis in particular is a nerf candidate, so enjoy it while it lasts. The Clockwork Scythe's chainsaw mode pairs absurdly well with Lazlo's defense-and-resolve setup if you want a late-game projectile of a build.

Sidearms worth grabbing early

Sidearms are half of the Mortal Shell 2 weapons roster, and three of them are trivially early:

• Naylshotte — free in the prologue; a shotgun-style spread that bails you out of crowds.
• Troubadour's Lute — sit in the One-Legged Wolf tavern (where you also unlock Gragu) and grab it off the stage; it confuses enemies into fighting each other and is one of the best early pickups.
• Forgotten Crossbow — a short detour below Widow's Overlook; bring it home through the Flooded Village.

Six sidearms have their own Bronze trophies, but the Lute and Naylshotte do not — they only count toward the Guns, Lots of Guns Silver.

Upgrading Mortal Shell 2 weapons at the Tarforge

AltChar's advice holds: do not spread materials thin. Push one weapon as far as your resources allow before branching out — a single maxed blade beats five half-upgraded ones, and maxing a weapon also earns the Over 9000 Silver trophy.

That is the full arsenal. This Mortal Shell 2 weapons list will be re-verified after launch week in case any location shifts between the pre-release build and the shipping one.