Mortal Shell II known issues: what's broken, what's acknowledged, what to do meanwhile
By DayOneFix Editorial · August 21, 2026
| Issue | Status | What we know / workaround | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crashes that began with the launch-day patch | Acknowledged | Multiple players report stable Advance Access play until the first update, then constant crashing. A developer replied in the official bug forum apologising and collecting repro details. Three updates have shipped since (Week 1 on 30 Aug, the 5 Sep update, the 15 Sep hotfix); the 15 Sep notes do list “Crash and game stability improvements” under Stability, but no patch note names this crash wave, so it stays amber rather than green. | Steam bug-report forum, incl. developer reply (20–21 Aug); patch notes 30 Aug / 5 Sep / 15 Sep |
| Intro crash at the torch / broken wall cutscene | Open | Independent reports pin the same spot: right after grabbing the torch near the intro boss, crash to desktop within seconds — ‘crashes every time’ for affected players. Still unnamed in all three post-launch updates as of 20 September. | Multiple Steam reports, same location (20–21 Aug); absent from patch notes to 15 Sep |
| Crash when cleansing a beacon | Open | Reported with error-report numbers submitted to the developer; not location-consistent like the intro crash but recurring. The 5 Sep and 15 Sep notes do touch beacons (fast-travel icons, the swamp beacon) but never a crash on cleansing one. | Steam bug-report forum (20–21 Aug); absent from patch notes to 15 Sep |
| Frame Generation crashes (carried over from Advance Access) | Open | Reported through two Advance Access hotfixes without resolution. Frame Generation is not mentioned once across all three post-launch updates, so the workaround still stands: turn Frame Generation off and retest before anything else. | Advance Access player reports (17–19 Aug); no FG entry in patch notes to 15 Sep |
| "Pure virtual function" error crash | Open | Engine-level error message on crash; no consistent trigger identified by reporters. Not named in any patch note; the only related line shipped is the generic “Crash and game stability improvements” in the 15 Sep hotfix. | Advance Access player reports (17–19 Aug); patch notes to 15 Sep |
| Lazlo's Detonation Shell skill crash | Open | One player reproduced it seven times in a row on skill use during Advance Access. **The 15 Sep hotfix did not fix this.** That hotfix fixed “Lazlo’s Temperament perk infinite glitch” and “issue that could trap players in the dungeon after claiming Lazlo” — both different problems. Workaround until patched: avoid the skill. | Advance Access player report (19 Aug); 15 Sep hotfix notes (two other Lazlo fixes) |
| Shell lock-out bug | Open | Reported on the launch-day Reddit bug megathread; players locked out of shells they should have access to. Not named in any patch note. Two adjacent changes did ship — Mether’s Severance, a Shell respec item handed to Zhirelle the shell keeper (30 Aug), and “Fixed Zhirelle not interacting with the player in NG+” (15 Sep) — but neither is stated to address this. | r/MortalShell launch bug megathread (21 Aug); patch notes 30 Aug / 15 Sep |
How this table works: every row is a problem we could source to player reports or the developer’s own posts — the light goes green only when a fix actually ships, not when one is promised. Same rule as our homepage status board.
The launch itself is going well — “Very Positive” at ~80% with nearly 24,000 concurrent players on the first full morning. The issues below are the friction inside that success, and one of them has a developer response already.
The one with an official response
The post-patch crash wave is the row that matters most: multiple players were stable through Advance Access and started crashing constantly after the first update. A developer replied in the Steam bug forum — apologising and asking for repro details (trigger, location, error pop-ups). That moves it to Acknowledged: the studio knows, a fix has not shipped yet. If you are in this group, submitting your crash pattern in that thread is genuinely useful.
The practical bits
- Crashing since the update, generally? Verify files, then check whether disabling Frame Generation stabilises you — the FG crash pattern survived two Advance Access hotfixes and looks alive in the launch build.
- Intro torch crash: no workaround confirmed yet; some players report passing the cutscene after multiple retries. If you crash there, you are not alone and it is not your install.
- Lazlo’s Detonation Shell: avoid the skill until patched if it crashes you.
- A full console shut-off (PS5 powering down) is a different animal — that is thermal protection, not the game; see the pattern we documented for WuWa in the week of 17 August 2026.
What the three post-launch updates actually fixed
A month on from launch, Cold Symmetry has shipped three updates. Read the patch notes against the table above and the useful finding is a negative one: none of the seven problems above is named in any of them.
| Date | Update | What it was mostly about | Anything for the crashes above |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | Week 1 Update | New Fragile Tarstones, Shell respec via Mether’s Severance, Glimpses/Tarcores no longer finite, new beacons, riposte scaling pass | Nothing named |
| 5 Sep | Adaptive Difficulty update | Optional Adaptive Difficulty (off by default), Sariel and Genessa Shell fixes, Gloom-drop logic, damage numbers past 999 | Nothing named |
| 15 Sep | Hotfix | Proxima Biosampler lock, Stone durability bugs, Egon’s Stone dungeon-loading, boss/NPC fixes | One line: “Crash and game stability improvements” — generic, no crash named |
Three things worth pulling out of that, because they are the ones people mistake:
- Frame Generation is not mentioned once in any of the three updates. If FG is what breaks your game, nothing official has changed since Advance Access, and turning it off is still the first thing to try.
- The 15 September hotfix did not fix Lazlo’s Detonation Shell crash. It fixed Lazlo’s Temperament perk infinite glitch and an issue that could trap players in the dungeon after claiming Lazlo. Different problems, similar names.
- The Shell lock-out has no named fix either, though two things landed nearby: Mether’s Severance, the respec item you hand to Zhirelle the Shell keeper (30 August), and “fixed Zhirelle not interacting with the player in NG+” (15 September). Neither is stated to address being locked out of a Shell you should have.
The single “crash and game stability improvements” line on 15 September is real work and may well have caught some of these. It is not evidence that it caught yours, which is why every row above is still red or amber. If your crash stopped after 15 September, say so in the Steam bug thread — that is the only way these get confirmed.
Related
Sources
Every row’s source is named in the table: Steam bug-report forum threads of 20–21 August (including the developer reply), Advance Access reports of 17–19 August, and the launch-day r/MortalShell bug megathread. Review score and player count from Steam at our 21 August morning check. Statuses change only on evidence, and the last-checked stamp above is written by the data file itself.