Mortal Shell: How To Open Fish Statue Chests | Fog Mechanic Guide

Mortal Shell is filled with mysterious mechanics — but the most tantalizing is found very early in the game. In the starting hub of Fallgrim, you’ll discover tons of weird fish-shaped statues that appear to be chests. When you try to interact with them, nothing will happen. There fish chests everywhere, and they contain some very valuable items you’ll absolutely want to unlock ASAP.

Getting them to unlock is a little tricky. It involves a mechanic called Fog. You can turn Fog on and off by talking to a special NPC in Fallgrim Tower — but he’ll only appear after a certain point in the story. If you’re curious to see when you can start cracking open these unique chests, check the full guide below for the short (and long) answer.

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To unlock the strange Fish Statue chests in Fallgrim, you’ll need to acquire the [Nektar Tar] key item from one of the three temple bosses. Gaining the Nektar will cause a green fog to spread in Fallgrim, and make these strange chests accessible.

The chests are filled with useful items — including key items required to upgrade your weapons. Just outside the front door to Fallgrim, there’s a fish chest with a Quenching Acid you can use to upgrade your weapons.

Returning the Nektar to the Old Prisoner in Fallgrim Tower will clear the fog. You can summon it again by talking to Thesus on the second floor of Fallgrim Tower. It costs 1 Glimpse to summon the fog again, or 1 Glimpe to clear the fog. You can swap between the two states as often as you like.

The fog is both a blessing and a curse. Ghouls are everywhere in the fog, but these enemies are only marginally more difficult than the bandits that normally populate the area. Look out for two new Grisha mini-bosses that spawn in the fog.

You can respawn them infinitely by disabling and then re-initializing the fog. The Grisha drop 6 Glimpse each, so you can quickly farm for 25~ or more by defeating them over and over again. You’ll earn 10 (minus -2 Glimpse for Tresus) every cycle.

Search carefully. There are fish chests everywhere in Fallgrim, and they become inaccessible if you clear the fog. I recommend going through and giving the area a full clean sweep to grab any chests you might’ve missed the first time through.