Mortal Shell guide: Grisha boss fight

Mortal Shell’s first boss, Grisha, is mere feet away from your safe harbor in Fallgrim Tower. You’ll likely stumble into this boss fight within your first hour with the game.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the Grisha boss fight near Fallgrim Tower, and point out the moves you need to watch for. Once you understand this fight, you’ll be much better prepared for all the other boss fights Mortal Shell throws at you.

Grisha boss fight

From Fallgrim Tower, head for the doorway near Sester Genessa. When you get outside, you’ll be facing the tunnel to Grisha’s lair. Just make sure you avoid the bear traps at the entrance of the tunnel.

There are really only two things you need to do to win this fight: walk backward, and Harden mid-swing. We talked about both of these in our combat basics guide, but this fight puts them into practice.

Grisha has a few attacks, and all of them are devastating. The key to this fight, especially early on while you’re still learning, is to understand how much control you really have over Grisha’s actions. By keeping distant, and kiting them around the arena, you’ll only ever need to see one move.

The video above shows the only move you need to win this fight. Once Grisha’s attention is on you, start kiting them backward and around the arena. Grisha won’t attack until you’re pretty close, so you’re in control here.

When you’re ready, step toward Grisha, start a regular swing, and Harden immediately.

Grisha’s first hit will knock you out of Harden. Right after that, you’ll finish your swing, and the momentum will carry you out of the way of Grisha’s second attack.

With their second swing out of the way, light attack Grisha two more times, and then dodge backward.

Don’t swing more than twice even if you think you have time. Limiting your swings will ensure that you never run out of stamina, and you’ll need it to dodge.

If you want even more distance, you can throw in a second dodge while backing away to turn it into a roll. At that point, you’re back to kiting them around. Once your Harden ability resets, repeat the process.

As you get more confident, you can mix in running jump attacks (sprint and then heavy attack) to deal a little extra damage, but it’s entirely possible to win the fight with only this one move.

Grisha boss fight reward

That chest in the middle of Grisha’s lair contains the Mechanical Spike. That item is an upgrade for the Hallowed Sword. You can actually grab it during the fight, and use it to upgrade the sword before you return to claim your Shell.

The Mechanical Spike adds a spear attack — with a period of invulnerability during the animation — to your Hallowed Sword. You’ll need two segments of Resolve to perform this attack.