At that beginning of Mortal Shell, it isn’t entirely clear what you’re even supposed to be doing. With a little exploration, you’ll discover that Fallgrim is connected to three mysterious locations — the Abandoned Chamber, the Temple Grounds, and Eternal Narthex. You can tackle these three areas in any order you want, but you progress the game by defeating each of the three end-area bosses.
These bosses are really challenging — and Tarsus might be the most challenging of them all. He’s the boss waiting for you at the end of the Abandoned Chamber. Tarsus is an ice-based knight with magic spells that will completely ruin you.
You’ll want to be well-prepared before facing off against this knight, so I highly recommend you complete any of the other areas first and save the Abandoned Chamber for second or third. Why? Because at the first mini-boss arena, there is a point of no return until you complete the boss.
More Mortal Shell guides on Gameranx:
- 10 Tips To Help You Survive | Beginner’s Guide
- How To Find All 4 Shells | Class Locations Guide
- How To Get All 5 Weapons | Hadern Boss Tips
- How To Open Fish Statue Chests | Fog Mechanic Guide
- How To Fully Upgrade The Hallowed Sword
- All Weapon Upgrade Locations | Weapon Abilities & Damage Bonuses
- How To Beat Imrod, The Unrepentant | Temple Grounds Walkthrough
- How To Beat Crucix, The Twiceborn | Eternal Narthex Walkthrough
- How To Beat The Last Boss | Final Battle Walkthrough
- How To Get The Secret Baghead Ending | Easter Egg Guide
You have three choices. You can tackle the next challenges in any order — the Temple Grounds, Underground Chamber, or Eternal Narthex each have a boss at the end of the path. I highly recommend you don’t start with the Underground Chamber, as you’ll be trapped on the path once you reach the miniboss arena.
Abandoned Chamber
The Abandoned Chamber is a short lair filled with undead monsters. The ghouls will poison you on contact, so use Tarspore to cure and make yourself immune. They’re weak, so normal attacks will stunlock them.
The heavier undead throw blades, and attack slowly. Use heavy combos to stun them and deal damage before retreating. At about 25% HP, they’ll rip off their own heads and throw them. The area is very short — just take the stairs down and turn right to find the boss door. You can get a weapon upgrade from the chest, guarded by a spike-armed undead on the left path.
Interact with the book relic to unlock the Martyr’s Blade, an even bigger sword that’s slow but packs serious power.
Enshrined Sanctum
To reach this area, go down the stairs and turn right. Run past the large undead, and straight into the boss arena to begin the fight.
Mini-Boss: Enslaved Grisha
The Enslaved Grisha is a harder version of the Grisha you encountered in Fallgrim. He uses similar tactics — entering 3-hit combo attacks and slamming the ground with its giant claws. It has much longer range, and when it slams the ground, causes ice spikes to fall from the ceiling. Avoid the center of the arena when the ice starts to fall!
Use similar tactics to take this guy down. Wait for your Tarnished Seal to glow, and dodge left / right when it’s about to do a groundslam charge. When it’s stuck, use a charging-heavy attack and guard with Harden. Beware, as it will do a small amount of AOE damage after pulling the blade out of the ground. I like to charge a heavy attack to hit him from a distance.
Defeat the Grisha to reach another Sester Genessa. To unlock the door near the Sester, drop down from the interior bridge and backtrack up to the door.
This area is populated by tough Viking Knights — to defeat them easily, use charging-heavy attacks then back away. It takes about 3 heavy jump-attacks to defeat them. Slowly make your way down. You can unlock a shortcut path by backtracking up the stairs at the ice catacomb and defeating the ghost that otherwise blocks your path with an ice wall.
Martyr’s Altar
The Martyr’s Altar is located at the end of the Enshrined Sanctum. It’s a long, long path to the end — prepare yourself with healing items and carefully take down enemies one at a time. There’s a Sester checkpoint waiting at the bottom of the Enshrined Sanctum, so there’s no need to worry about boss fights.
- NOTE: There is a Wellcap located outside the boss arena. Make sure to grab it — and only use them when you’re confident you can win.
Boss: Tarsus, The First Martyr
Tarsus is a fast opponent that uses ice magic and trickery to overwhelm you. At the start of the fight, he’ll lunge from the shadows three times. Listen for the sound of his blade — when you hear it, dodge away to avoid the attacks. The real fight begins when you’re on the ice with Tarsus. Avoid the cold areas on the edges of the arena, you’ll die quickly if you step inside them.
Tarsus has several attacks he’ll enter into — when he turns invisible, you’ll lose lock-on. I recommend backing away, and waiting for him to initiate a standard three-attack combo that ends with an overhead swing. After that overhead swing, he’s vulnerable to a charging-heavy attack.
Tarsus’s most annoying attack is when he pauses and stands still. He’ll slowly lower his sword into the ice, generating an ice cloud in the area. You’ll have time to hit him before the attack is charged, but the AOE lingers long past the ice circle disappears. Stay out of it or you’ll take damage.
One of the most important attacks to watch out for is his sword throw. Listen for a spinning sword, then dodge. Wait for him to leap to grab his sword, then dodge again. If you successfully dodge, you’ll be able to land three heavy sword attacks on the boss before he recovers.
Phase 2:
Defeat Tarsus once, and the second phase will begin. Tarsus moves slower but can counterattack with blistering speed if you aren’t careful. He can slide around on the ice, weeving around your attacks — just keep attacking him and be prepared to use Harden to block him. You’ll need to be more aggressive in this round.
His most annoying new attack is his ice spike summon. Instead of making a flurry of ice AOE damage appear, he summons spikes of ice out of the ground. Touching these will cause you to freeze — once frozen, he’ll lunge at you and deal huge damage. It covers a huge area. When he spins his sword and sticks it into the ground, dodge roll as far away as you can.
When he performs a large sword lunge, he’ll either attack once or twice. After the first swing, dodge-roll toward him and attack. You can hit him three times while he’s trying to dodge, or right after a huge sword lunge. Make sure you have Harden and use it if he tries to use a second sword straight.
Whenever he performs a sword-straight, dodge toward him and attack. As long as you don’t touch the tip of the sword, you won’t take damage. Use Harden often, and when he swings his sword wildly after sliding, dodge away until he hits the ground with a slam. That’s another opportunity to attack.
The second phase is more unpredictable, and very difficult. Defeating it will reward you with the [Crystalline Gland] from the strange creature. You’ll also gain the [Nektar Tar]. Take it back to the Old Prisoner in Fallgrim Tower.
After collecting the gland, you’ll have to fight your way back out of the Enshrined Sanctum. The enemy layout is different now, and it’s very dark — but you can still simply run past the undead and knights to return to Sester. Use the shortcut path (up the stairs) to reach Sester faster. When you reach a Sester, make sure to sip the tar so the enemies chasing you will despawn.
Your goal is Fallgrim Tower. Return there to reach the next stage of the game. You’ll also find Thestus in Fallgrim Tower — at the cost of 1 Glimpse, he will add or remove the fog effect from the area.
Return the gland to the Old Prisoner to gain the [Empowered Riposte]. This is a more powerful parry. You can swap between the two abilities with [Triangle].
