Mortal Shell
Give it 10 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (62%); after 10h it's 1 in 7 (15%).
- The opening is criticised more than in 91% of games we track.
- 15% of players who start reach the ending.
- Most players drop off before “Faded the Fire” (Defeat Imrod, the Unrepentant): only 22% of starters get there.
- 85% of owners got the first achievement.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 12,228 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 293 reviews: 14.4h for positive, 5.5h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (84.7% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Faded the Fire Defeat Imrod, the Unrepentant Most players quit here 22% −78
- Martyr'd the Matyr Defeat Tarsus, the First Martyr 21% −2
- Tragic Loss Defeat Crucix, the Twiceborn 18% −3
- Felled the Glandfather Defeat The Unchained 15% −3
- Crossed the Threshold Complete Mortal Shell 15%
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (37)
story milestone ending side
- Flesh And Instinct Find your first Shell 100%
- Purrfect Petted Vlas's cat 43%
- Step Goal Kill an enemy with bear trap 31%
- Fun Guy Pick 50 mushrooms 29%
- You Seem Different... Unlock all of the shells in the game 29%
- Faded the Fire Defeat Imrod, the Unrepentant 22%
- Bring the Glands Back to Me Bring a gland to Dark Father 22%
- Martyr'd the Matyr Defeat Tarsus, the First Martyr 21%
- Tragic Loss Defeat Crucix, the Twiceborn 18%
- Crossed the Threshold Complete Mortal Shell 15%
- Felled the Glandfather Defeat The Unchained 15%
- Different Kinds of Grisha Defeat all different versions of Grisha in the game 15%
- The Good Time are Killing Me Jam with a brigand 13%
- Brigand Life Waste your life away with Baghead 13%
- Some Assembly Required Transform the Axatana between different modes 12%
- Is This a Sparta? Kill an enemy by kicking them off a platform 9.9%
- Untarnished Parry over 100 attacks 8.5%
- Face Off Defeat Hadern in the tutorial 8.1%
- It's a me Kill an enemy with a hardened plunge 5.8%
- Nailed It Kill Two or More Enemies with one shot from the Ballistazooka 5.3%
- The Nihilist Renounce humankind 5.1%
- Lute Hero Max familiarity with all of the game's lutes 4.5%
- Sugar Baby Spend over 50, 000 Tar in Vlad's Shop 4.5%
- The Answer Fully Upgrade Hadern's skill tree 4.1%
- Gateway Drug Spend 100,000 tar in The Virtuous Cycle 3.2%
- Bars Tended Become familiar with all items 2.8%
- Master of None Acquire all 4 weapon Instincts for the Axatana in one cycle 2.7%
- OP AF Acquire 100 instincts in one cycle 2.7%
- Seedbearer Return your first seed to Twin Sister 2.7%
- Seeker of False Truths Unlock all secret lore 2.6%
- Life is Suffering Beat the game in obsidian dark form 2.4%
- Forever Alone Beat the game without ever bonding with a shell 2.2%
- Change of Heart Return a seed with Hadern in The Virtuous Cycle 2.1%
- There Can Only Be One Beat all variations of the Dark Shells in The Virtuous Cycle 2.0%
- True Nektar Return all seeds to Twin Sister and break the Virtuous Cycle 2.0%
- Fashion Shells Unlock all Shell Shades for The Virtuous Cycle 1.9%
- No Lifer Complete a run in The Virtuous Cycle with the Dark Form Obsidian Shell Shade 1.9%