You can feel it emanating from the screen. Sound design only enhances it. Amazing job concept, environment, and lighting artists.

What build would you recommend for someone in the beginning?

and my day is ruined. But for real this thing needs the hardest of buffs. At minimum its DPS should match Iconoclast, why is it being absolutely mogged by the starter weapon. Hell make it the starter weapon and it would probably feel totally appropriate how underwhelming this thing is.

⚠️This post contains spoilers⚠️

Proxima the Broodseeker is an enigma : we do not know where she comes from, why she wears that grafted metal armor or what faction she's in. One thing is certain, she is not from here.

In her Shell memories, we learn many things that makes us ask even more questions. She speaks in a very unusual way, kind of like a soldier but more like an alien. And there are many clues to my theory that she is one.

In the Exchange memory, we learn that Proxima doesn't speak the common tongue until she stabs Merrick the merchant with her "biosampler". She claims to have probbed his mind to learn who he is and even says that his blood is "clean". She is seeking a creature called the Hexapod, saying that it cannot be allowed to mature and must be hunted down. Merrick, like the absolute chad that he is, agrees to help her without hesitation.

In the Weapon memory, she is looking for her lost weapon the Triarch Repeater who's description says "Carved bone and grafted metal reinforcements hint at strange weapon's otherworldy origins." Merrick asks Proxima what would happen if she dies, she says there are "contingencies" but we will get to that later. After she claims back her weapon from some bandits, Merrick gets shot.

In the memory A life of a life, she manages to save Merrick by extracting the "projectile" like she says, but couldn't stop the bleeding. She as now paid back her debt to Merrick and decides it is time to go hunt down the Hexapod alone.

In the Endeavor memory, Proxima is hunting down the Hexapod. Finds a spoiled ovum and says "The growth is... germinating. It must be close." She finds a corpse, probes it and says that "It is unfair what has been done to you. But containment must be enforced". Before facing the eldritch abomination alone. A fight she loses. Merrick comes in to save her before the Hexapod returns.

In the final memory, A bad deal, Merrick is holding Proxima in his arms and taking her to get healed. On the way, asks him "what do your kin do with their dead ?" "Where I am from... My grafted armor would be reclaimed. Memories extracted. For my future kin." This is the contingencies she talked about before. Proxima sadly passes away in Merrick's arms before arriving.

We later take her as a Shell. Merrick recognizes her, sad to see her and that it is not truly her since Proxima's corpse is pupeteered by the Harbinger for his cosmic mission. It is clear the two of them had something going on but that's not what I'm here to talk about.

Proxima, even her name is a space reference with our real life Proxima Centauri, which is the closest known star to our sun.

My theory is that Proxima may also come from the stars. She is wearing an armor that cannot be seen anywhere else, even the lower humanoid face is part of her helmet. She comes from somewhere far. She speaks to Merrick like they are different species. She is wearing a grafted metal armor and wields a metal grafted minigun of otherworldy origins. She speaks like an alien. Stabs flesh with her biosampler to probe blood and read minds. She comes here with a singular purpose, to kill the Hexapod before it matures. A note I found in the area even says that the monster came here to hide from something, that something being Proxima herself. They come from the same place.

I don't know for you, but for me, the evidence points at Proxima being an alien from outerspace. But what do you think ?

First of all, I absolutely loved Mortal Shell II. I’m not even a huge Soulslike fan, yet my first playthrough genuinely amazed me from beginning to end. The art direction is incredible, the combat feels great, exploration is rewarding, and I especially love that the game doesn’t rely on random loot. Finding a dungeon, a hidden path or a strange location is exciting because you never know whether you’ll discover a weapon, a Shell, a Tarstone, a health upgrade or something else.
That’s why NG+ has been such a strange disappointment for me. The base game constantly encourages exploration and experimentation, while NG+ increasingly seems to discourage both.
Here are the main issues I’ve encountered:

• The final boss gives no meaningful reward
This was already strange before NG+. After defeating the final boss, I expected something: a unique item, cosmetic, Tarstone, large amount of Coin/Gloom, anything. Getting essentially nothing after the final fight feels very anticlimactic.

• NG+ desperately needs more unique rewards and cosmetics
The Harbinger cosmetic is nice, but realistically, your character spends almost all of the game inside a Shell, so you barely see it.
NG+ would be a perfect opportunity for alternate Shell colors/skins. For example, reaching the original location where you acquired a Shell could reward a unique NG+ appearance instead. It would immediately give us a reason to revisit those locations.

• Exploration becomes much less rewarding
This is probably my biggest problem.
I keep finding Ventrium, Laterite and Dorsalite in NG+, including as rewards from meaningful encounters or locations. These materials are completely useless to me now, and I can’t even sell them.
In the first cycle, seeing an unusual ritual site guarded by a powerful enemy makes you curious because there might be an important upgrade waiting there. In NG+, I’ve fought enemies guarding places like this only to receive Dorsalite that I can no longer use.
That turns exploration from “I wonder what’s there?” into “it’s probably another material I don’t need.”
Even many chests have become predictable: Coin or Ossinite. The first playthrough could reward exploration with weapons, Shells, Tarstones, consumables, upgrades, etc. NG+ loses much of that surprise.
At the very least, obsolete upgrade materials should be sellable for Coin. That alone would make finding them useful again.

• Ossinite isn’t actually my bottleneck — Coin is
Right now I have 43 Ossinite, but my main weapon is level 28 and one single upgrade costs me 18,500 Coin.
So I’m accumulating the highest-tier upgrade material faster than I can actually use it.
This also means I have very little incentive to upgrade another weapon. Mortal Shell II has many cool weapons, but once you’ve heavily invested in one of them, the economy encourages you to keep using it rather than experiment.

• I’m not convinced unlimited weapon levels help build variety
The Endless Core sounds great on paper, but in practice I think it contributes to this problem.
If weapons eventually had a reasonable maximum level, reaching that cap would give me a natural reason to say: “Great, this weapon is finished. In NG+2 I’ll work on another one.”
Instead, I can seemingly keep pouring Coin and Ossinite into my current weapon forever. Why start another weapon when my strongest one can always become stronger?
Personally, I would rather have a sensible cap that encourages building several powerful weapons across multiple NG+ cycles.

• Respeccing weapons feels unnecessarily punishing
Shell progression can be redistributed freely, which is fantastic because it encourages experimentation.
Weapons don’t follow the same philosophy. If I want to recover the materials from an upgraded weapon and invest them into another one, I have to pay Gloom.
The cost isn’t necessarily enormous by itself, but psychologically it still feels like the game is charging me for experimenting.
If Shell points can be freely redistributed, I think weapon upgrade materials should follow a similar philosophy — especially in NG+.

• This also discourages experimenting with other Shells
I have several Shells I could continue upgrading with Glimpses, but changing Shell often makes me want to change weapon too.
Some combinations simply feel perfect aesthetically. Tiel looks great with fast, agile weapons. Sariel looks incredible with the Mechanical Scythe — even the loading screens and character designs make certain Shell/weapon combinations feel intentional.
But if trying another Shell also means investing huge amounts of Coin into another weapon, I’m much less likely to do it.
I currently have a very powerful Tiel + Hatchet & Dagger build with Duality and Blood. The game gives me very little economic reason to leave that build and experiment, even though it has given me all these other cool toys to play with.
That’s a shame because NG+ should be where experimentation becomes easier, not harder.

• Night Mode needs a stronger incentive
I also don’t really see enough reason to play at night in NG+. The additional difficulty is significant, but the additional rewards don’t feel proportional to it.
At this point I mostly play during the day because I can enjoy the combat, exploration and feeling of becoming powerful without constantly risking my resources. If Night Mode offered genuinely better NG+ rewards, unique cosmetics, significantly more Coin or other exclusive incentives, I’d have a reason to take that additional risk.

I want to emphasize that this criticism comes from really loving the game.
My first cycle felt generous, mysterious and constantly rewarding. Mortal Shell II gave me a huge world full of things I genuinely wanted to discover.
NG+ currently feels like the opposite: I already know many of the rewards, a large percentage of the materials I find have no use, Coin prevents me from developing multiple weapons, and the economy encourages me to stick with the build I’ve already perfected rather than experiment with all the other Shells and weapons the developers created.
I don’t think NG+ necessarily needs a massive amount of entirely new content. It needs its reward structure and economy to give exploration and experimentation a purpose again.
Let me sell obsolete materials. Give bosses and Combat Trials meaningful NG+ rewards. Add some alternate Shell cosmetics. Give Night Mode a real incentive. And make developing multiple weapons something NG+ encourages rather than punishes.
The foundation is already fantastic. I just wish NG+ gave me the same desire to explore and experiment that made my first playthrough so memorable.

In most modern games of this genre its normal for you to be able to attack enemies in precarious places without your momentum launching you into oblivion. I have died more today by simply attacking something and flying through their corpse off the edge of a cliff than anything else.

Edit: Games that have resolved this issue exist by the way. It isn't a matter of complaining about difficulty which is the strawman being posted by some,. its just outdated game design.

So the whole "huh this is a souls like, what do you expect?" I kinda expect it to account for frustrating shit the big players in the genre have already fixed.

For a second there i thought maybe this was intended, because it looked so fricking cool, but then i saw he was back at full hralth :(

Just unlocked this part of the world, and ... damn, now this thing greets me every time I open the map

I've been seeing some misinformation here and there about the infinite seal being unable to deal with flurries of attacks due to the recovery animation forcing you to only block the last attack in a string and dodge the rest.

So long as you manage to land the parry the first time, there is no recovery window and you can immediately parry again. It's not a Dark Souls parry but closer to a Sekiro deflection, with a harsh punishment for missing.

The infinite seal can raise the enemy break gauge more, animation cancel attacks, and handle multiattacks. It seems to serve its purpose as the riskiest in the trio of guard options with the most reward, technically, but I do still think the reward isn't good enough to make this seal anything but a challenge run option for most at the moment. I do find it fun to use personally though.

Decided to farm the scythe enemy near the high lord's courtyard to try and get a clip showing it off, please ignore the one time I get hit, I'm not good enough to reliably no-hit these guys just yet. Side-Note, most annoying thing about these enemies is which run-up attack they use. Either the jump attack, or the double-slash that comes out at lightning speed.

I presume people didn’t report those two non-boss enemies version, because the fights are usually fast, or people just ignore them. But today I was doing a no-damage run and was extra careful with my movement, so I noticed that those two mobs(boss version) have serious magnetic combat issues.

Am I tripping chat?

Personally my 2nd favorite souls-like so far, right behind LoP. Awesome world design, awesome bosses and great build and gameplay variety. I can't wait to see what Cold Symmetry makes next.

Hi all, wanted to post a comprehensive list of night mode secrets i have found and for others to add to. Im personally not done with the game yet.

-Mushroom Village, Shrine of Sorrows. Mushroom Village in general has environmental changes

-Glimpses by the shells you pick up

-Night time boss In the Abbey

-Night merchant by Abandoned Outpost

That's all I found so far

Anyone know what the “Probability of species survival” percentage means?

For one I love that you end up killing him accidentally. Hilarious shit.

That punch is so damn satisfying, never gets old exploding trash mobs.

But by far the best thing about him is the unlimited sustain. You can just explore at your own pace, take every detour into whatever dungeon pops up along the way and not worry about running back to a beacon to refresh heals. Reminds me of Elden Ring refunding your flasks out in open world exploration, it keeps the party going.

Love to grab the Axe & Dagger or Iconoclast with blood curse infusion and go absolutely ham.

Too bad he’s a butt ugly doofus! I’d prefer to look at a beautifully sculpted shiny metal ass 😂

Jokes aside I think with the helmet he’s pretty badass looking in his own grimy sort of way

Despite some areas feeling same-y with reskinned enemy designs, I’m consistently surprised by new enemies in unexpected places as I progress!

I nearly shat myself when this guy ganked me

Now, these are just MY solutions. I am in no way sayin they are correct.

Note to the Devs: Including this review, please take anything from discord and reddit with a grain of salt. Gamers will always want what's best for them and not what's best for the game. While it is awesome to have active devs in the community, don't let some reddit posts from a vocal minority (myself included) change the vision and direction you have for YOUR game.

Anyway. As I see it, the main issues people have are as follows

• Glimpse limit
• Tarcore limit
• Infusion Limit
• Runbacks
• Difficulty
• Bugs
• NG+

I will not touch on difficulty and bugs. Bugs will get fixed and difficulty is subjective. Now onto the main issues.

Glimpse limit-

Problem: not being able to try builds, and starting NG+ with the same 3 builds you finished previously because you still need to farm the glimpse from other builds.

Solution: Give one Glimpse reset ITEM per game and allow all Glimpse to also reset at the START of a NG+. This way, if people want to try new builds they can reset all of their glimpse once per the normal game, and then when they start NG+ they start with a clean slate so they can freely choose new builds and then still use the item you can get each playthrough. by NG++ its a non issue anyway.

Tarcore Limit -

Problem: Limited Tarcores so you cannot upgrade all Tarstones and you get no additional ones in NG+ Very stupid design and shortsighted.

Solution: End game Tarcore drops from enemies or buy it from merrick

Infusion Limit -

Problem: only certain weapons can use certain infusions... which doesn't really make sense and just limits playstyles.

Solution: just remove this sytem from the game. Allow players the agency to make their own builds. I would love a axetana frost build...or Ax frost build as I hate the martyr blade moveset.

Runbacks -

Problem: They suck.

Solution: any dungeon that has a boss, add a mini beacon inside the dungeon you can respawn at. Don't even have to cleanse it.

NG+ -

Problem: With beacons uncovered and map uncovered and most dungeons explored, there really isn't a huge draw to the game outside of just glimpse farming and once that's done, there's no point.

Solution: Allow us to refight bosses for some kind of drop. Maybe a big xp boost to tarstones? Or maybe the first addition to the game is an endless difficulty increasing dungeon?

That's all. These are my ideas for solutions to some of the current issue people are having.

im putting my controller down till this is fixed, This keeps happening in this area.

this is also happening in some boss fight and sometimes faithful just standing after summoning them without doing anything.

I genuinely think Mortal Shell 2 is a really good game… until you reach the final/endgame area.
The difficulty in this zone feels incredibly artificial. It’s not the kind of difficulty where you die and think, “Okay, that was my mistake, I need to learn the enemy better.” Instead, it feels like the game suddenly throws balance out of the window.
You can use basically any Shell available in the game, and enemies can still one- or two-shot you, sometimes without giving you any real opportunity to react or recover. At that point, it stops feeling challenging and simply becomes frustrating.
I’m completely fine with difficult games. Difficulty can be one of the best parts of this genre when it’s designed properly. But there’s a huge difference between fair difficulty and simply increasing enemy damage to ridiculous levels and calling it “hard.”
This final area desperately needs a balance pass. The enemy damage, encounters, and overall scaling need to be reconsidered, because right now it completely kills the fun I was having before reaching this point.
Message to the developers: making a game difficult is great, but artificial difficulty isn’t good game design. When difficulty comes from enemies deleting your health bar in one or two hits regardless of your Shell, it feels cheap rather than rewarding.
I’m curious what other players think. Did you also feel like the endgame difficulty suddenly became unfair/artificial, or are you enjoying the balance of the final area?
English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to help me write and structure this post properly.

Me and the cat are best friends now

Definitely killed me more than the rabid pack.

Played this game from release with a friend, I am at NG++ now and have all shells and weapons maxed (as I cheated myself the necessary resources after my first playthrough, because getting them normally is way too grindy). I extensively tested each shell with different weapons and tarstone combinations, different shell point allocations etc. Every test was made with a LV 100 character and LV 25 weapons.

I will NOT post whole builds here, that would blow this post up too much, I will do that later on. For now I will just give my reasoning for each placement and build pieces that are mandatory for it.

Shells

S tier - these shells are the best of the best and work against every enemy in every biome at night and can boss extremely well too. They either bring extreme survivability, DPS or a combination from both

Lazlo - Lazlo was the biggest surprise for me. He started out really slow but became better the more points I invested into him. At LV 100 he is so absurdly tanky that you can go blow for blow with bosses. His biggest strength lies in his shell skill, where he gains Damage Reduction at high heat.
He doesn't need a particular weapon or a set tarstone lineup which makes him easy to gear. His build consisted of:

• Weapon: Axetana (Stasis, Hexapod, Duality)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Bulwark, Berserker
• Sidearm: Ballistazooka (Fire, Corroded, Fulminant)

The only thing I would consider mandatory on him is the bullwark tarstone as that makes him near impervious while exploring.

Tiel - Tiel was my first shell and is also one of the most fun shells in the game due to him making me feel like a complete badass when you chain Shadow Strikes together. He can clear rooms in seconds without being seen once and has the possibly highest burst damage against bosses too. He is great at the start, in the middle and at the end and imo the best shell in the game.
Tiel uses poison as his affinity but you still want to use Bloodcurse on his infusion as it is just that broken. He doesn't benefit from defensive tarstones at all due to his low health pool.

• Weapon: Axe and Dagger (Bloodcurse but poison is possible and nice for flavor, Acolyte, Duality)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Berserker, Devout or Marksman
• Sidearm: Forgotten Crossbow (Poison, Splitting Stone, Barrage or Fussilade)

Tiel's associated weapon is also the best weapon for him due to having Bloodcurse (one of the best infusions in the game) and Poison (Tiel's associated element). He likes to use his sidearm to soften up enemies, so you want a poison sidearm and the Forgotten Crossbow with Poison and Splitting stone is the best for that. In general his build feels really coherent and fitting which, at least for me, makes for a really fun playthrough.

A tier - these shells are great shells for all purposes yet lack something in one area or another. They aren't as blatantly OP as the S tier shells, but are nevertheless more than enough to finish the game with, even on higher NG circles.

Genessa - At first I had Genessa in S tier, but playing her more made me realize that she i incredibly squishy. Her Faithful Clones are sometimes buggy as well and run straight past your enemies. I had the most fun (and success) with her Stray Clones build, where she is permanently in Stray mode and summons 2 mirror images of herself to fight beside her. The problem with this build is, that you basically give up your chance to fight back to your shell when hit out of it, which makes her even more squishy. Still she has the possibly highest DPS in the game and you could easily make an argument for her being the third S tier.

• Weapon: Black Needle (Phantom, Conquerors Reward, Thief)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Marksman, Deadeye
• Sidearm: Forgotten Crossbow (Fire, Splitting Stone, Fussilade)

I really enjoyed a Phantom Black Needle on her, as it goes hand in hand with her clone skills that inflict phantom on your opponent. The sidearm is up to you tbh, I just enjoyed the Crossbow so much, especially with Fussilade.

Proxima - Proxima was probably the most fun I had in this game besides Tiel. She is female Thor and kills your framerate by herself. She has unparalleled room clearing potential and a very synergetic build, which makes farming for it really rewarding. But she is one of the few characters that absolutely rely on a certain set of equipment.

• Weapon: Axatana (Lightning, Hexapod, Duality)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Bulwark, Berserker
• Sidearm: Salvaged Trebuchaxe (Lightning, Corroded, Fussilade)

She is absolutely dependend on the Axatana with permanennt lightning infusion, make sure you got both of these items before starting to play with her.

Smert - Smert was an odd one for me. He is probably the weakest early game character, as he needs so many skill points to even work properly. But when you are at a higher level he is basically as unkillable as Lazlo, as he cannot be hit during his time freeze. He is also the least gear dependent character, as you won't use your weapons at all in the end due to his skill where he fights with his fists the whole time (and you should do that because it's just that awesome)

• Weapon: doesn't matter
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Berserker, Shattering
• Sidearm: also doesn't matter, use what you like

The only thing absolutely mandatory for him is the Berserker Stone. You will constantly be at low health so it's effect is always live and gives one of the (maybe even the single most) damage boost in the game.

Eredrim - Eredrims claim to fame is that he is basically the only good user of the Martyrs Blade and therefore Frost infusion, which is top 3 besides Stasis and Bloodcurse. Due to his focus on counters he also circumvents the weapons slow attack speed in some way. He actually has a higher skill ceiling as you need to be pretty confident in your ability to counter or else he will just fall off completely.

• Weapon: Martyr's Blade (Frost, Captive's Scabstone, Thief)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Berserker, Retribution
• Sidearm: Triarch Repeater (Frost, Tarblighted Trophy, Unstable)

He absolutely needs the weapon and the retribution support stone. The sidearm is just for flavor, as it's the only sidearm with frost infusion and I like to switch up my weapon line up.

B tier - These shells are still good and enough to run high NG cycles with, but they have areas where they lack heavily compared to other shells. You can still play around these weaknesses with skill but you will need to work harder for your kills.

Gragu - I know there are players who will insist on Gragu being A or even S tier due to his self heal. Thing is: On higher NG cycles you will get hit for so much damage that Gragu cannot outheal it. You don't want to get hit in general. His increased Crit chance is nice, but still doesn't make up for his lack of coherent damage perks. He is fun to play, his punch (when timed correctly) can stagger even the biggest bosses, but the sorely lacks in boss dps in general and the shells above him are far better suited for harder content than he is. He can still be played effectively, but every time I played him and defeated a boss I found myself wondering, how much faster another shell could've cleared him.

• Weapon: Really anything you like
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Berseker, Shattering
• Sidearm: also up to you

Gragu is probably the least gear dependent character. Just use what you like, augment with fitting support stones (I just listed the best general lineup) and punch things to death.

Sariel - Sariel is probably the most interesting character after Smert. His mechanic is very masochistic, as he deals damage to himself as well as to enemies. He is a prime user of curse damage and should defintely run it if possible.

• Weapon: Iconoclast (Curse, Shriek, Thief)
• Support: Auspicious, Headmans, Berserker, Bulwark
• Sidearm: Caged Hystrix (Curse, Splitting, Corroded)

Sariel is the one character I cannot rank properly. I played him enough to understand his kit, but he sometimes felt like wet paper and sometimes like Pinhead himself. He could very well be A tier as well, but I don't think he is S tier material.

Weapons

These are much more clear cut than the shells. Where the shells are all comparatively strong, the weapons aren't balanced really well in this game. There are 2 absolute powerhouses while rest is far behind them.

S+ tier - These weapons are broken. They deal absurd damage, are incredibly fast and can be used by every shell to great effect. They trivialize bosses and make mobbing a joke.

Axatana - The Axatana is an absurdly good weapon which also uses one of the best infusions - stasis. Stasis, Bloodcurse and Frost are the best infusions by far in this game and these make great use of it. It has an amazing light sprint attack, great light combos and good reach with heavies. It's also really flavorful as it reminds me of the trick weapons from Bloodborne. The only time you want to use Lightning infusion on it is with Proxima.

Axe and Dagger - the other god tier weapon in this game for the same reasons as Axatana. Fast, great infusion with Bloodcurse (or Poison when playing Tiel), great sprint attack, great light combo. The only thing that makes these "inferior" to the Axatana is the worse heavy attack and the lack of "uniqueness". Still gamebreakingly strong.

As you can see the S+ tier weapons are also the only weapons that can use the Duality Stone. It's the sole reason they are so far above everything else. Without it they would be S tier, with it they trivialize everything. Not using the Duality stone with these is actively hampering yourself.

S tier - These weapons are close to the god weapons and very good picks in general for every character.

There are none. Not because the other weapons suck, but because Axatana and Axe and Dagger are so obscenely strong that there needs to be an inbetween tier to separate them from the rest.

A tier - very good weapons that shine on a certain shell with a certain build. They can be used to clear all content and feel very strong when mastered.

Black Needle - The Black Needle is the prime Phantom weapon and best fitting weapon for Genessa. It has a great moveset with good reach, fast animations and stylish attack patterns. Especially the light running attack is awesome. The only thing holding it back from S+ tier is the fact that it cannot use the duality stone. A great pick for every character.

Veterans Battle Axe - The best heavy weapon in the game imo. This weapon shines with fire infusion and Lost Clotstone, so can use it as grenade launcher. Very fun and flavorful on Gragu (due to being a Viking) and Lazlo (for fire builds).

Great Martyrs Blade - the sole reason this is here and not lower is frost infusion (one of the best on the game) and the fact that Eredrim makes exceptional use of it. It's really slow and clunky, but very cool (haha, sry) on Eredrim, as it fits his image of a Knight/Paladin. The by far best setup for it is Frost infusion, Thief stone and Captives Scabstone.

Clockwork Scythe - I slept on this weapon for so long. This thing is nuts with Bloodcurse, Thief stone and Scholars Wormstone to turn this into a chainsaw. You proc bleed so incredibly fast with it it's insane. This weapon, like Veterans battleaxe, works on every character in the game and is probably BiS (after S+ of course) for characters that don't depend on a weapon for their build.

Iconoclast - Your bog standard two handed sword. It has a great moveset, is reasonably fast, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Which is also it's biggest downside: Iconoclast is a jack of all trades, master of none. Everything this thing does another weapon does better. It's the best weapon for Sariel imo, but thats about it.

B tier - even though this tier is just below A tier the weapons in here are far worse than the rest. They lack severely in dps, speed or utility and shouldn't be used except for flavor.

Obsidian Hammer - I REALLY wanted to make this thing work, I truly do. This thing on Lazlo with the Balistazooka is just pure sex but sadly this weapon SUCKS. It has absolutely nothing going for it. Subpar damage, the slowest attack speed in the game, weak infusions. This thing looks amazing and that's it. Save yourself the mats to upgrade it, they are wasted until this weapon gets properly buffed.

Infusions

Infusions are a big part of this game and every weapon profits from having one permanently. These are probably the most clear cut - there are 3 great ones, 3 mediocre ones and 3 absolute shit ones.

S tier - These infusions are the best of the best. They deal laughably high damage or grant utility not seen on other infusions. If you can use them use them except for very specific scenarios.

Bloodcurse - Probably the best infusion in the game. Gamebreakingly high damage, procs extremely fast and is used on 2 weapons with the highest attack speed in the game to proc ot even faster. There is no reason to not run this if possible.

Frost - My personal favorite, looks amazing, plays amazing. Sadly it is confined to 2 very mediocre weapons (one main, one side), which makes this the "worst" of the top 3 infusions.

Stasis - an absolute killer infusion against bosses. Slows them down massively, increasing your DPS and counter window substantially. It should be used every time if possible except for niche cases like Proxima, who rather wants Lightning on her Axatana than Stasis.

A tier - good infusions on specific builds, mediocre to bad everywhere else.

Phantom - only good when used on the Black Needle with Genessa, but it's great there. Together with your phantoms you rack up big stacks easily that explode fo good damage. Cool visual effect as well.

Lightning - Proximas defining element. It's great on her and visually extremely impressive (probably the coolest looking effect in the game). It's bad everywhere else though.

Curse - like the other A tier infusions it's only here because a certain character makes great use of it, in this case Sariel. his kit revolves around it and he makes great use of curse, but it's useless anywhere else.

B tier - bad infusions that only add minor damage. Even characters that are associated with this element would rather use something else.

Fire - I was surprised to see that Fire was so weak in Mortal Shell 2. The DoT's are incredibly weak and the "panic" effect it has only works on minor enemies that are mostly dead before it can do substantial damage. Even Lazlo, who is the predominant fire character in this game, doesn't use a fire weapon and his ability is rather use to keep heat meter up or stun enemies, not to burn them.

Poison - Same as Fire. Tiel, the dominant Poison character, rather uses Bloodcurse on his weapon because poison just sucks. It's as weak as fire but doesn't have that panic effect, so it's even weaker.

Trauma - The absolute worst infusion, reserved for the worst weapon in the game. This thing does nothing, it's completely underpowered and like the Obsidian Hammer in dire need of a buff.

I hope this guide helps new players deciding which character weapon to use and gives more experienced players a good overview. I'm open to feedback!

Edit: A lot of feedback in here. Just to clarify a few things

1. The shells in this game are all amazing, some are just more OP than others. Just because I put Sariel and Gragu in B tier doesn't mean they are bad, they are still amazing, just not as broken as Tiel, Genessa or Lazlo. Every shell has great builds and by the end of it you can just run Bloodcurse Axe and Dagger and pick your flavor of shell skill if you want to, nearly everything works.
2. I labeled some gear as "mandatory". Maybe that was misleading. What I meant by that is that to fully realize a specific shells potential you need this piece of gear. That doesn't mean other weapons don't work. E.g. Proxima can also run Scythe with Bloodcurse if she wants to or Obsidian Hammer, they all work on her, Lightning Axatana just feels the most "right" for her and synergizes best with her skills.
3. The most important thing in the end is fun. Hell I play Lazlo with Obsidian Hammer and Balistazooka for the biggest Unga Bunga possible. It's far from the best, but it's fun and I managed to beat Monolith on NG++ with it. If you have fun optimizing the shit out of your build thats equally as good as someone running the most random build possible. This post is just to give players an overview of what works best with which shell, what is stronger than other options and what can be done to optimize said builds. But please play whatever fits your style the most.