Mortal Shell II Best Tarstones: Top 4 Damage Stones to Equip First

Tarstones are the backbone of every build in Mortal Shell II. They slot into a weapon’s special socket and grant passive or active bonuses that reshape how a Shell fights. Pick the wrong set and you stall on a late-game boss; pick the right four and you delete health bars. This guide ranks the four damage-focused stones worth chasing first, then covers the strong alternates and how to acquire and level them.

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Table of Contents

1. What You Need Before Farming Tarstones
2. The Four Damage Stones Worth Equipping First
3. Synergy Pitfalls and Wrong-Pick Penalties
4. Where the Top Stones Drop and How to Temper Them

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What You Need Before Farming Tarstones

Tarstones are not a single resource you grind for. They are distinct items scattered across Fainweald and Mammon, slotted into weapons, and leveled through combat rather than crafting.

• Type split: Support, Combat, Infusion, and Ability. Support and Combat stones are what damage builds care about; Infusion stones are weapon- or Shell-locked and narrow, so they are excluded from the core four.
• Equip ceiling: You can run 10 stones total — four Support, two Combat, two Infusion, two Ability. The four/two/two/two split is consistent across wiki coverage.
• Pool size: Guides list roughly 73–75 collectible Tarstones. The exact total is reported inconsistently between outlets, so treat the headline number as approximate.
• Leveling method: Equip the stone, kill enemies to fill its XP bar, then pay Coin to Franz. Tiers 3 and 4 also require Tar Cores, so the system ramps in cost.
• Prerequisite: You need the Etching Needle from the chest before Magdalena, Lady of the Woods, to unlock Tarstone Tempering at the Tarforge.

The four stones below multiply raw damage or guarantee crits, and each works across multiple weapons rather than a single gimmick weapon.

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The Four Damage Stones Worth Equipping First

The table summarizes the priority four. Exact max-level magnitudes are flagged where sources disagree.

Stone	Type	Max-Level Effect (reported)	Best On
Berserker’s Stone	Combat	+165% melee damage at HP ≤ 50%	Low-HP melee Shell (Smert, Eredrim)
Headman’s Stone	Support	Large crit-damage multiplier (crit-build core)	Fast weapons + Auspicious Stone
Grudge Stone	Combat	Guaranteed crit every 5th attack	Primary weapons, universal
Devout Stone	Support	Big Resolve gain from sidearm kills	Ability-spam builds

1 Berserker’s Stone — the low-HP nuke

Location: Temple of Vatra, east of the One-Legged Wolf beacon, Fainweald. Action: Enter the Temple of Vatra, light the three offering candles by the central chest, then open it. Outcome: At max level the stone grants +165% melee damage whenever your health is at or below 50%. The +165% ceiling is corroborated by both a dedicated build guide and Chinese strategy coverage. [Sources: GrindNStrat, 163.com]

The highest raw-damage multiplier in the game, it favors Shells that trade hits — Smert’s time-stop or Eredrim’s shoulder-bash — and demands clean Harden timing at half health.

2 Headman’s Stone — the crit-build keystone

Location: Not reliably mapped in current English coverage. Action: Hunt dungeon and beacon interiors; Headman’s is reported as a Support stone found in a late Fainweald or early Mammon chest. Outcome: It multiplies melee crit damage. Build guides name it the critical-damage stone, and some reports cite roughly +100% melee/crit damage at max. The exact number is unconfirmed by Western outlets.

Pair Headman’s with Auspicious Stone (melee crit chance) so the multiplier actually fires. A fast weapon like the Axatana or Axe and Dagger turns this combo into a crit engine. On its own, Headman’s does nothing unless you are already landing crits.

3 Grudge Stone — the guaranteed-crit workhorse

Location: Chest just south of the Citadel of Penance beacon, in the area unlocked by pulling the Citadel Gate Lever. Action: From the Warden arena, take the right past the bridge and open the bone chest by the large tree. Outcome: A guaranteed crit on a fixed cadence: every 10th attack at level 1, every 7th at level 2, every 5th at level 3. The interval is confirmed by GameRant. [Source: GameRant]

Grudge is the universal safety net. Every fifth swing crits no matter your crit stat, which smooths out damage on slow heavy weapons and trivializes break setups on fast ones. It works with every weapon.

4 Devout Stone — the Resolve battery

Location: Reported north of the Sester’s Gate beacon; not mapped in Western coverage. Action: Head north, climb past two ranged enemies, hit the wall mechanism to open a side door, loot the chest. Outcome: Major Resolve generation. A gameplay report cites 28 Resolve from sidearm kills at max, but Western wikis do not confirm the trigger or the number, so the effect is flagged.

Devout’s value is indirect but real: more Resolve means more frequent weapon specials and Shell abilities, which compounds the damage of every other stone here. It is the glue stone for ability-heavy loops.

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Synergy Pitfalls and Wrong-Pick Penalties

• Do not stack two crit-chance stones without a crit-damage stone. Auspicious without Headman’s wastes the upside; Headman’s without Auspicious never triggers.
• Berserker’s without a second health pool is a death sentence. Harros or Tiel give you room to sit at half health; a squishy setup dies before the bonus matters.
• Grudge and Duality overlap well. Duality doubles light-attack damage and Resolve on fast weapons; Grudge guarantees a crit inside that doubled string.
• Infusion stones are weapon-gated. Strong but narrow; skip them until Shell and weapon are locked in.
• Wrong-pick penalty is real. A misfit stone costs a socket you cannot refund for materials, and re-farming late is a long backtrack.

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Where the Top Stones Drop and How to Temper Them

Stone	Drop Location	Tempering Note
Berserker’s Stone	Temple of Vatra (light 3 candles)	Equip + kill; Coin + Tar Core at high tiers
Headman’s Stone	Unmapped (late Fainweald / early Mammon)	.
Grudge Stone	South of Citadel of Penance (Citadel Gate Lever)	Equip + kill; Coin to upgrade
Devout Stone	North of Sester’s Gate beacon	.
Duality Stone	Ravaged Tomb dungeon, SE of Nochtean Gate beacon	Doubles light attacks; Axe & Dagger / Axatana
Arbiter’s Prize	Infusion stone on Axe & Dagger	Applies Bloodcurse (corroborated)

Strong alternates: Duality Stone (double light-attack damage, ideal on Axatana and Axe and Dagger; drop confirmed in the Ravaged Tomb) and Arbiter’s Prize (reported Bloodcurse infusion on Axe & Dagger, corroborated by a Gragu build guide). Level any stone by handing Franz the Etching Needle, equipping the stone, and farming trash mobs; the XP bar fills fast once Tempering is unlocked.