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What carries over into a second run

A second run is unlocked by finishing the first, and the game is reported to give the mode its own name — New Purpose — rather than a plus sign. The short version of what it does is the two columns below: you cross over intact and the world does not.

What carries over, and what the world takes back

Comes with you

  • Harbinger level and Shell PointsEverything Gloom bought stays bought.
  • Every Shell you claimedWith its bond progress and the memories you unlocked.
  • Weapons, sidearms, Seals, TarstonesAnd every Tarforge rung you paid for on them.
  • The Glimpses, Coin and Gloom you finished onThe purse crosses intact.
  • The map you revealed
  • Fast travel and the healing upgradesMether's Breath, and the Pulse improvements you spent consumables on.

Goes back to how it was

  • Every beacon you cleansed
  • Every dungeon you cleared
  • Every chest you opened
  • The Ova you handed in
  • NPCs you killed, and every errand you were partway through

Both columns are what the community record describes rather than anything we imported, and the two accounts we checked agree on the substance while differing on how much detail they give. Read the left column as reliable and the right column as the reason the mode works.

Why anybody runs it

The mode is unlocked by finishing the game, and the trade it offers is the same one this genre always offers: harder enemies against a character who is already finished. What makes it worth a paragraph rather than a sentence is the second column above — the world resets while you do not, and that combination is what the mode is actually for.

The best argument for running it is the one both accounts land on independently. A single playthrough does not hold enough Glimpses to take every Shell to the top of its tree, and the trophy for watching every Shell memory needs more than a run's supply. A second pass is how that gets finished, because the beacons and gates that pay Glimpses are exactly the things that reset.

The most useful detail is the least obvious one. Gear you already own is reported not to be placed in the world again — those pickups become upgrade materials instead, and of the rarer sort, which means a second run funds the Tarforge rather than repeating the shopping. The consumables that permanently improve your healing are reported to come back as well.

The maths that actually decides it

There are 9 Shells, each with its own bond tree, and a Glimpse spent on one does nothing for another. Our own catalog states that the world's Glimpses come from cleansed beacons, from gates and off bosses — and every one of those is in the right-hand column above. That is the whole argument in one line: the things that pay Glimpses are exactly the things a second run puts back.

The trophy list says the same thing from the other end. 9 of our trophies name a whole set rather than one thing, and the two hardest of them — Seeking the Past — are the ones a single playthrough is least likely to close. The trophy roadmap sequences the rest against a first run.

Three things worth knowing before you cross

  1. Two beacons are reported to be lit from the start rather than none, one in each of the two regions, so the second run does not repeat the walk.
  2. Crossing into it is one-way. Anything left undone in the run you are leaving is left undone for good.
  3. Our cosmetics catalog holds a Harbinger skin whose unlock condition is completing the game, which is the reward one account attributes to reaching this mode.

The last of those is the one to act on. Anything you were saving to do later is now something you will do again from the start, so the sensible order is to clear the missables list first and cross afterwards.

Cosmic Harbinger · Glimpse · Zhirelle · Ova

Should you bother?

If you liked the combat, yes, and for a reason that has nothing to do with difficulty: a second run is the first time you get to play this game with a finished character from the opening minute. Every build argument on this site assumes gear that takes most of a playthrough to assemble. A second run starts holding all of it.

If you are only here to finish a trophy list, the answer is the same but the plan is different. Work out what you are missing first, because the run resets the world and a list of what you actually need is the difference between one more pass and two. The build guides are the other reason — committing to a second Shell is far cheaper on the second time through.

Written from our own catalog and from what the community has documented, checked against both of the major Mortal Shell 2 wikis. Where those two disagree, this page says so rather than picking one quietly.