Where every Mortal Shell II weapon is: all 8 melee weapons and all 8 sidearms, in the order you can realistically get them
By DayOneFix Editorial · August 24, 2026
Mortal Shell II has 16 weapons — 8 melee and 8 sidearms — and you start with two of them. Five more sit in Fainweald, the opening region; the rest are in the Ruins of Mammon and the areas around it. Only a handful require a boss.
The full arsenal is fixed and verifiable: every weapon has its own “Unlock the …” Steam achievement, with Lord of War — Unlock all Weapons and Guns. Lots of Guns — Unlock all Sidearms closing both sets.
The two you are given
The Iconoclast (melee) and the Naylshotte (sidearm) arrive in the prologue alongside the Harros shell, which is why they have no unlock achievement. The one they share is You're More Than a Weapon — Claim your first Shell, Weapon and Sidearm, at 92.4% the most common achievement in the game.
Melee weapon locations
| Weapon | Region | Where exactly |
|---|---|---|
| The Iconoclast | Prologue | Given with the Harros shell |
| Axe and Dagger | Fainweald | Shrine of Trials — needs the Chapel Key |
| Veteran’s Battle Axe | Blackridge Cliffs | King’s Crypt, near the end of the dungeon |
| Great Martyr’s Blade | Gloomshade Grove | Martyr’s Prison, end of the dungeon |
| Obsidian Hammer | Mammon | Obsidianite Mines — defeat the Prophet of Profane Infinites miniboss |
| Axatana | Mammon | Forgotten Tower — defeat Dagger Sester |
| Black Needle | Mammon | Sester’s Bastion — defeat Twin Sesters and Stray Sester |
| Clockwork Scythe | Mammon | Chamber of Becoming — defeat Sariel, the Endless |
The Axe and Dagger route, in full
This is the one worth doing first — it is the top-ranked melee weapon and it needs no boss fight. It is also, at 56.1% of all Steam owners, the most-unlocked weapon in the game.
- Get the Chapel Key. From the Mushroom Village beacon, head right and go down past the wooden bridge. You will find several dancing villagers. Deal with them, then look for the stone doorframe nearby — pass through it from the side with the steps to reveal a statue with a rope hanging beside it.
- Enter the Shrine of Trials. Return to the beacon and go left to reach a Grisha Hunter encampment. The key unlocks the tower.
- Three rooms. Room one: face the king pillar and walk backwards to make the fake wall vanish. Room two: strike the stone blocks so they land on the two pressure plates. Room three: kill the Armored Knight and take the reward.
The Mushroom Village key is a small enough obstacle that it became its own Bilibili subgenre: 谜之灭’s 「致命躯壳2 蘑菇村钥匙获取位置」 has roughly 5,800 plays, and 御风逆流’s 「06 最强武器斧子匕首 蘑菇村钥匙」 roughly 8,200 — the same route, found independently by Chinese players.
Sidearm locations
| Sidearm | Region | Where exactly |
|---|---|---|
| Naylshotte | Prologue | Given with the Harros shell, after the Festival, from the Undermether |
| Forgotten Crossbow | Fainweald | Flooded Village dungeon, just north/northwest of the Blackridge Pass beacon — needs the Damp Key from the underground village |
| Salvaged Trebuchaxe | Fainweald | Ravaged Hideout dungeon, south of the Gloomshade Grove beacon — beat the Bloodcursed Lithopod miniboss to get in |
| Troubadour’s Lute | Fainweald | On the stage in the One-Legged Wolf Tavern, southeast of the One-Legged Wolf beacon |
| Triarch Repeater | Ruins of Mammon | Blackwell Cavern, reached from the Castigator’s Keep beacon — in the first lit chamber, after the wraiths |
| Ballistazooka | Ruins of Mammon | Sentry’s Grave dungeon inside the Lonesome Spire — drops from the Subjugated Guardian miniboss |
| Cursed Child | Ruins of Mammon | Revered Beacon dungeon tower in Sester’s Abbey — after destroying the central pillar blocking the golden light |
| Caged Hystrix | Ruins of Mammon | Chamber of Becoming, via the Silent Steps beacon — only after beating Sariel, the Endless twice |
Two notes on this table. The Forgotten Crossbow’s bearing is given as “just north” by one guide and “northwest” by another — same dungeon, same key, slightly different wording, so navigate by the Flooded Village name rather than the compass. And the Troubadour’s Lute stage pickup is described in one source as requiring siphoned Ova to clear corruption blocking the tavern entrance; that gating detail appears once, so treat it as a single-source lead. The tavern is worth the trip regardless — it is also where you unlock the Gragu shell.
Which weapons need a boss or miniboss
Free or puzzle-gated: The Iconoclast, Naylshotte, Axe and Dagger, Veteran’s Battle Axe, Great Martyr’s Blade, Forgotten Crossbow, Troubadour’s Lute, Triarch Repeater, Cursed Child.
Combat-gated: Obsidian Hammer (Prophet of Profane Infinites), Axatana (Dagger Sester), Black Needle (Twin Sesters and Stray Sester), Clockwork Scythe and Caged Hystrix (Sariel, the Endless), Salvaged Trebuchaxe (Bloodcursed Lithopod), Ballistazooka (Subjugated Guardian).
That split is why the early-game answer is always the Axe and Dagger: the best weapon in the game is behind a key and a puzzle, not a health bar.
How rare is collecting them all?
Lord of War — Unlock all Weapons sits at 11.5% of Steam owners and Guns. Lots of Guns — Unlock all Sidearms at 10.3%. For comparison, finishing the game (This is Not an Achievement — Complete Mortal Shell II) is at 5.0%, so a meaningful share of people who collect the full arsenal never see the credits — which fits an open world the developer describes as “compact, tightly interconnected” with plenty off the golden path.
FAQ
Where is the Axe and Dagger in Mortal Shell 2? The Shrine of Trials dungeon in Fainweald, west of the Mushroom Village beacon. You need the Chapel Key, which is on a plateau near that same beacon. No boss fight.
Where do I get the Chapel Key? Near the Mushroom Village beacon: head right, down past the wooden bridge, deal with the dancing villagers, then walk through the stone doorframe from the side with the steps.
Where is the Great Martyr’s Blade? At the end of Martyr’s Prison in Gloomshade Grove.
Which weapons need a boss kill? Obsidian Hammer, Axatana, Black Needle, Clockwork Scythe, Caged Hystrix, Salvaged Trebuchaxe and Ballistazooka — the rest are pickups or puzzle rewards.
How many weapons are there in total?
Sixteen: eight melee and eight sidearms, confirmed by the Lord of War and Guns. Lots of Guns achievements.
Can I miss a weapon permanently? Nothing in the published guides describes a missable weapon, and the game’s open world is designed for backtracking. We have not seen a developer statement either way, so this is an absence of evidence rather than a guarantee.
Related
- Best weapons — all 16 ranked
- All 8 Shells and where they are
- Best builds, Seals and Tarstones
- All 53 achievements with rarity
- Is there co-op? No
- Known issues and crashes, live tracker
Sources
Weapon and sidearm names, the counts, and every completion percentage quoted here are from Mortal Shell II’s own Steam achievement page, read 24 August 2026; Valve computes those percentages across all owners and they move over time. Melee locations are from KeenGamer’s weapon locations guide and sidearm locations from its sidearm locations guide, both checked 24 August 2026. The step-by-step Chapel Key and Shrine of Trials route is Game8’s, from its Axe and Dagger page, checked the same day; the weapon roster was cross-checked against the Fextralife wiki’s weapons page. The Naylshotte’s prologue source and the Troubadour’s Lute’s tavern stage are separately corroborated by published sidearm location guides surfaced 24 August 2026; the Ova-gating detail on the tavern entrance appears in one of them only and is labelled above. The “compact, tightly interconnected” description of the open world is the developer’s own wording on the Steam listing. Bilibili play counts are from a search for 「致命躯壳2」 run 24 August 2026 and are cited to show which routes Chinese players are looking for, not as a source for the routes themselves.