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The Curse Carrier: a Mortal Shell 2 curse build

Curse the whole room, then hit one of them.

10Tarstones
4Skill nodes
2Alternatives

This Mortal Shell 2 curse build is the game's only true crowd-clearing loadout, and Sariel the Endless is the whole reason it works: Exodus of Thorns spreads Curse across everything nearby, and Sariel's Affliction node makes damage dealt to one cursed enemy land on all the others. It is for players who keep getting surrounded and would like that to be an advantage, and it comes together at Sariel's fourth tier.

Colour keyAbilityCombatInfusionSupportthe same tone means the same thing on every page

The loadout

  • ShellSariel the Endless

    Exodus of Thorns applies Curse to everything in range, which is the setup the rest of the build cashes in.

  • SealInfinite Seal

    Parry breaks enemies quickly, and in a crowd the fastest way out of trouble is to take one of them out of the fight.

  • WeaponGreat Martyr's Blade

    Wide arcs hit several cursed enemies at once, and this build wants the swing that touches the most targets.

  • SidearmCursed Child

    It takes the Curse infusion, which lets you extend the status to anything the thorns did not reach.

When it comes togetherFunctional as soon as you have Sariel, but Affliction is a fourth-tier node and the build is a different thing before and after it.

Tarstones

Listed in priority order — slot them in this sequence as you find them rather than waiting for the full set. Every stone below is one the named gear actually accepts.

Great Martyr's Blade

Weapon socket
4 stones

Tied to the primary, so changing weapon means revisiting this list.

  1. Captive's ScabstoneAbilityslot first

    A violet arc that strikes everyone standing close — the Blade is the only weapon that takes it, and it is the ideal delivery for a shared-damage effect.

  2. Warden's StoneInfusion

    A second Great Martyr's Blade exclusive, unavailable to any other primary.

  3. Shrike StoneAbility

    A leap that plants the weapon in the ground and, fully upgraded, deals a hundred Break Damage to everything nearby.

  4. Magdalena's MementoAbility

    A flurry from the air, doubling critical damage on every strike, for the target you want removed first.

Cursed Child

Sidearm socket
4 stones

Drawn from a pool the melee slot mostly cannot touch.

  1. Accursed StoneInfusionslot first

    Curse from the ranged slot, permanent at level four, so the status reaches things you have not walked up to yet.

  2. Volatile FragmentCombat

    Enemies killed at range explode, which turns a crowded room into a chain reaction.

  3. Corroded StoneCombat

    Damage over time on every target you tag, ticking across the group while you fight one of them.

  4. Rupturing StoneCombat

    Break Damage on critical projectiles, so the sidearm contributes to more than the status.

Sariel the Endless

Shell socket
2 stones

These fit whatever else you are carrying, which makes them the picks that survive any change of weapon.

  1. Bulwark StoneSupport

    A quarter less damage taken, which is the plainest possible answer to a Shell that deliberately absorbs hits.

  2. Gloombound StoneSupport

    Up to forty percent more Gloom from the dead at level four, and this build produces a great many dead at once.

Skill tree priorities

Nodes from Sariel the Endless's own tree, in the order they are worth spending Glimpses on.

  1. Afflictiontake first

    The keystone: damage to a cursed enemy is dealt to every other cursed enemy, which is what turns a crowd into a single target.

  2. Scourge

    Grants an effect against Curse, which matters on the Shell that is surrounded by it.

  3. Reversal

    Mitigates the downside of Pain, and Pain is what every activation of Exodus of Thorns puts on Sariel — the thorns add to that bar rather than spending it.

  4. Agonize

    Adds an effect at maximum Pain, turning the build's running cost into something you can aim.

How to play it

  1. Let them gather. A single enemy is the worst case for this build and a group is the best.

  2. Open with Exodus of Thorns and get Curse onto as many of them as it will reach.

  3. Fill the gaps with the Cursed Child so nothing in the room is left uncursed.

  4. Then hit whichever one is easiest to reach — the damage is going everywhere anyway.

  5. Watch your Pain rather than your health; that is the meter this Shell actually dies to.

If you have not found it yet

Each of these plays close enough to the piece it replaces that the rest of the page still holds.

  • Caged Hystrixinstead of the Cursed Child

    It also takes the Accursed Stone, and a quill spread applies the status to several enemies in one shot.

  • Obsidian Hammerinstead of the Great Martyr's Blade

    Shockwaves through the ground reach a crowd as reliably as a wide arc does, if you would rather not swing through them.

What it is bad at

Against a single boss, most of the kit does nothing — the shared damage has nothing to share with, and you are left running a Shell that converts half of every hit you take into a second health bar.