The Stopped Clock: a Mortal Shell 2 Smert build

1The loadout

• ShellSmert the Apostate

  Miracle is the only ability in the game that takes the fight's timing away from the fight, and Deadly Revelation pays a bar's worth of Faith for standing where nobody wants to stand.

• SealVatra's Seal

  Harden is the only defence that still works once you have committed to a swing, and a build living below half health cannot afford a single answer that arrives too late.

• WeaponAxe and Dagger

  Miracle is expensive and Resolve comes from landing hits, so a paired weapon built on the light string is the shortest road back to the next one — doubly so with the Duality Stone in it.

• SidearmTriarch Repeater

  It fires quickly for a small cost per shot, which makes it the one sidearm that refills the bar faster than it drains it.

When it comes togetherHalf a build from the moment you claim Smert at Prophet's Rest, and a whole one only once the Berserker's Stone is out of the Temple of Vatra and Fervor is paid for. The Triarch Repeater is late — run the Forgotten Crossbow until Castigator's Keep.

2Tarstones

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.

Axe and Dagger

Weapon socket

4 stones

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

1. 1

   Duality StoneCombatslot first

   Your light combo strikes twice, and because Resolve is earned per hit rather than per second, that is your income doubled as much as your damage.

2. 2

   Grudge StoneCombat

   A guaranteed critical on a fixed count of attacks, which is worth far more on a weapon that swings this often than on one that does not.

3. 3

   Unyielding StoneCombat

   Stagger immunity across the light combo, and at low Health being interrupted is the mistake that ends the run rather than the combo.

4. 4

   Parasitic StoneCombat

   Leech on every kill: a trickle rather than a heal, which is exactly right for a build that has to stay wounded to be paid.

Triarch Repeater

Sidearm socket

3 stones

Drawn from a pool the melee slot mostly cannot touch.

1. 1

   Spite StoneSupportslot first

   Ranged damage rises the lower your Health is — by level four, up to 160% at half Health or below, which is precisely the band this build lives in.

2. 2

   Unstable StoneCombat

   Five hits on one enemy triggers an explosion, and four by level four. Nothing else in the ranged slot reaches that count as quickly as the Repeater does.

3. 3

   Volatile FragmentCombat

   Enemies killed at range explode, which turns the mop-up after a detonation into the start of the next one.

Smert the Apostate

Shell socket

2 stones

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

1. 1

   Berserker's StoneSupport

   Melee damage climbing to 165% at half Health or below, once it is at level four. This is the stone the whole loadout is arranged around, and it is in a chest in the Temple of Vatra.

2. 2

   Devout StoneSupport

   Doubled Resolve gain from melee at level four, which is how a build that spends everything on one ability affords to use it twice in a fight.

3Skill tree priorities

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

1. 1

   Fervortake first

   Raises the Health at which Faith arrives from 10% to 35%, which is the difference between a passive that fires as you die and a band you can deliberately live in.

2. 2

   Resilience

   A chance to negate a fatal blow and heal instead, at the exact Health this build refuses to leave. Take it before anything in tier three.

3. 3

   Kicker

   A Kick in Fight Stance that applies Chaos and, one level on, detonates it immediately — a second detonation inside a Miracle that would otherwise pay out once.

4. 4

   Beatdown

   A Ground Punch that hits everything in range with Chaos and resumes time on the spot, which is the crowd answer the rest of the kit does not have.

5. 5

   Last Vow

   The fork, and read it twice before spending on it: Smert permanently enters Fight Stance and stops using a melee weapon at all, which retires every weapon Tarstone above this line.

4How to play it

1. 1

   Open at range with the Repeater and let something hit you — the build does not start paying until the health bar is down.

2. 2

   Work the light combo for Resolve, not for damage. The damage is coming later and all at once.

3. 3

   Harden through the swing you cannot dodge rather than backing out of the string.

4. 4

   Spend the bar on Miracle with the room still full, and punch every target you can reach before the clock restarts.

5. 5

   Detonate, kill what is left with the Repeater, and stay under half Health rather than topping up out of habit.

5If 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.

• 

  The Iconoclastinstead of the Axe and Dagger

  It takes the Grudge, Unyielding and Parasitic Stones too and you already own it — you lose the Duality Stone, which only the Axe and Dagger and the Axatana accept.

• 

  Forgotten Crossbowinstead of the Triarch Repeater

  It holds all three ranged stones above and sits in the Flooded Village, which is most of a game earlier than Blackwell Cavern.