Mortal Shell II Three Currencies Explained: Gloom vs Glimpse vs Coin

Mortal Shell II runs three currencies that new players constantly conflate, and the confusion is expensive. Gloom looks like a crafting material but behaves like experience. Glimpse hides behind Shell progression. Coin is the obvious money. Get them mixed up and you will sit at a Beacon wondering why your sword will not upgrade, or hoard Gloom you should have spent before a death. This guide separates all three, explains the two-currency system feeding each Shell’s skill tree, and covers the Tarforge materials that are not currencies at all.

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Table of Contents

1. Preparation: Why New Players Mix Up Gloom, Glimpse, and Coin
2. Core Walkthrough: What Each Currency Does and Where It Comes From
3. Important Notes: Death-Loss Matrix, the Mether’s Breath Tax, and Finite Glimpse
4. Rewards and Easter Eggs: Reliable Sources for Each Currency

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Preparation: Why New Players Mix Up Gloom, Glimpse, and Coin

The HUD lists Coin and Gloom side by side, and both look like tradable counters. Glimpse does not appear in that HUD summary because it is spent at a specific NPC rather than a menu — which is exactly why players miss it. The rule of thumb: if it is spent at a Beacon, it is Gloom; if it is spent at Zhirelle (the Shellkeeper in Marrow Keep) or via the Beacon’s Level Up option, it is Glimpse; if it is spent at a machine or a shop, it is Coin.

A second trap is thinking Glimpse and Shell Points are the same thing. They are not. Shell Points are earned by leveling the Harbinger with Gloom (one per level, shared across every Shell) and buy the perks on your inhabited Shell. Glimpse instead raises Bond Tier, which decides which perk tiers are even available. Glimpse gates; Shell Points fill.

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Core Walkthrough: What Each Currency Does and Where It Comes From

1 Gloom: The Souls-like Currency You Lose on Death

Gloom is your leveling currency. Spend it at any Beacon to strengthen the Harbinger in one pass: Health, Shell Health, Base Damage, Shell Ability Damage, and Critical Damage. The leveling screen also lists your Shell Points.

Death rule: Gloom is lost on death and recovered from your bloodstain, exactly like Souls currency. Die again before picking it up and it is gone for good. The biggest early mistake is carrying a huge unspent Gloom stack into a risky fight. Spend it, then fight.

Hidden tax: Mether’s Breath (fast-travel, extracted via the Glimpse siphon at Marrow Keep) costs the Gloom you are holding to return to Marrow Keep. If you are farming, bank your levels before you travel.

2 Glimpse: The Finite Shell-Bond Resource Spent at Zhirelle or Any Beacon

Glimpse grows your Shells. You spend it with the Shellkeeper (Zhirelle in Marrow Keep, or the Level Up option at any Beacon) to raise a Shell’s Bond Tier, which runs from I to IV. Each tier improves Shell Health on Revive and Revive Efficiency, unlocks a new band of abilities you can buy with Shell Points, and reveals more of that Shell’s Memories. Genessa is the exception: her Bond Tier is raised by speaking with Genessa herself in Marrow Keep rather than through the Shellkeeper.

Glimpse is finite and cannot be refunded once spent, so be deliberate. Sources state a single playthrough does not hand out enough to max every Shell, so you will bond deeply with roughly two Shells and carry the rest into New Game+.

Where it comes from: Glimpse appears as vertical white wisps near Beacons, Corrupted Gates, and Dungeons, and is gathered from chests, cleansing Corrupted Beacons, and certain NPC interactions such as the Grisha Pup in Mushroom Village. Because it is consumed into a permanent Bond Tier rather than carried as a droppable pile, Glimpse is not lost on death the way Gloom is — it is a persistent, committed upgrade resource.

3 Coin: The Flexible Money for the Tarforge and Merchants

Coin is the workhorse. At the Tarforge it pairs with Ventrium for weapon upgrades and is the only cost when tempering a Tarstone (reported around 100 Coin per temper). Merchants want Coin for materials and consumables; The Collector sells Thoracium for 5,000 Coin (night only). Selling gear and treasures you will never use is the fastest way to keep Coin flowing.

Currency	Spent at	Lost on death?	Primary job
Gloom	Any Beacon	Yes (reclaim from bloodstain)	Level the Harbinger
Glimpse	Zhirelle / any Beacon (Level Up)	No (persistent, committed to Bond Tier)	Raise Shell Bond Tier / unlock perks
Coin	Tarforge + merchants	No	Upgrades + purchases

4 The Tarforge Materials That Are Not Currencies

Four materials feed the Tarforge, and none of them is a currency you farm from mobs the way you farm Gloom:

Material	Source	Note
Ventrium	Exploration (chests, side rooms, secret areas)	The common one; gates all weapon upgrades
Dorsalite	Night Mode finds	”Chitinous carapace” lore drop
Laterite	Night Mode finds	”Pieces of the Blessed Mether”
Thoracium	The Collector, 5,000 Coin, night only	The buyable one

Weapon upgrades are not on the Beacon screen at all — they happen at the Tarforge run by Franz in Marrow Keep. Sidearm upgrades stay locked until you hand over the Obsidian Lathe (found in Martyr’s Tomb), and Tarstone upgrades need Etching Needles first. The day-one patch also changed smelting so it now costs Gloom instead of Coin.

Weapon upgrade cost curve (Ballistazooka / Forgotten Crossbow, GameTrek data):

Tier	Cost
+1 to +2	1 Ventrium + 100 Coin
+3	3 Ventrium + 300 Coin
+4	6 Ventrium + 500 Coin
+5	9 Ventrium + 1,000 Coin
+6	12 Ventrium + 1,250 Coin
+7	1 Laterite + 2,000 Coin
+8	3 Laterite + 2,750 Coin

The shape is the reliable takeaway: Ventrium runs out first and cost roughly triples across tiers, so push one weapon rather than spreading Ventrium thin.

5 Farming Coin With Proxima’s Extracted Specimens (Verified)

This is verified by GameRant. Proxima’s Collector skill, unlocked at Tier 3 Shell Bond, gives enemies a chance to drop Extracted Specimens on death. Those specimens sell to Merrick for 100 Coin each, with no farm limit. Collector II adds a 40% chance for one specimen; Collector III adds a 35% chance for three from a single kill. Proxima’s Biosampler active ability also harvests biosamples, reinforcing her as the only Shell that actively farms Coin. The best spot is the sheep pasture across the rope bridge from the Sunken Village Beacon in the Glutted Mire — nine sheep, reset and repeat. Night Mode raises drops further.

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Important Notes: Death-Loss Matrix, the Mether’s Breath Tax, and Finite Glimpse

• Gloom: lost on death, reclaimable from bloodstain; spend early, bank before Mether’s Breath travel.
• Glimpse: persistent and committed to Bond Tier; not a dropped-on-death currency like Gloom. Finite per run — plan which Shells to bond.
• Coin: not lost on death; it is banked progress.
• Mether’s Breath tax: returning to Marrow Keep costs the Gloom you hold. Level up first.
• One Shell Points pool: Shell Points are shared across all Shells, so you can refund and reassign perks freely without wasting Gloom-derived progress.

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Rewards and Easter Eggs: Reliable Sources for Each Currency

Currency	Reliable sources
Gloom	Mob kills, Gloom trees (hit them), boss deaths, bloodstain recovery
Glimpse	Chests, cleansing Corrupted Beacons, NPC interactions (Grisha Pup), white wisps near Beacons / Corrupted Gates / Dungeons
Coin	Selling unused gear and treasures, merchant trades, Extracted Specimens (Proxima), some boss drops
Ventrium	Exploration only — never in merchant stock per guide data
Thoracium	The Collector (5,000 Coin, night only)

The deeper reward of understanding the split is efficiency: spend Gloom before you die, spend Glimpse only on Shells you will actually run, and let Proxima’s Collector carry your Coin economy.