Mortal Shell II Open Beta: How Long to Beat
Mortal Shell II open beta how long to beat: real completion times from player data, what content is included, and how it compares to the full game.
The Mortal Shell II Open Beta takes about 4 to 6 hours to finish, covering roughly the opening 3 hours of story content from the full game. Steam's own beta description clocked a straight run at around 4 hours, while some community reports pushed closer to 6 depending on how much you explore along the way.
How Long It Takes to Beat the Beta
There's no single official number here — it comes down to a handful of player and storefront reports rather than one confirmed figure. Treat the range below as a realistic estimate rather than a hard target.
- Steam's listed completion time: around 4 hours for a straightforward run through the beta's content
- Community-reported time: up to roughly 6 hours depending on play style and how much side content you chase
- In-game content covered: about the first 3 hours' worth of the full game's story
That gap between "4 hours straight through" and "6 hours reported" is mostly about exploration. One creator who covered the beta in depth logged roughly 20 hours in it — not because the critical path is that long, but because the Prologue and first open-world hub hide enough side content (mini-dungeons, puzzles, hidden Seals, secret pickups) to absorb far more time than a beeline to the end.
What's Included in the Open Beta
The beta let you play two of the game's Shells — Harros the Vassal and Tiel the Acolyte — and explore the Dark Morrow hub area. It launched on PC via Steam, and an official announcement on 31 July 2026 confirmed it also reached PS5 and Xbox consoles.
Beyond the critical path, players who spent extra time in the beta found real depth to poke at:
- The Prologue can be rushed in a few minutes, but skipping it costs roughly 4 character levels' worth of Gloom (the game's souls-like currency).
- Every Beacon needs to be both revitalized and separately cleansed to unlock its full rewards — the first Beacon's cleansing reward, the Moradian Actuator, is required before you can upgrade weapons at all.
- Small underground mini-dungeons scattered across the map are good farming spots for gold, Glimpse (used to unlock and level Shells), and upgrade materials like Ladite and Ventrium.
- One-time bonus gold pickups are easy to miss entirely, including a Coin of Mammon worth 500 gold and two separate Tooth of Nocturi items worth 2,000 gold each.
- All three Seals — Untarnished, Vatra, and Infinite — could be unlocked early; the Vatra Seal's Harden is generally recommended for beginners since a mistimed Harden just fails rather than costing full damage.
- A hidden glade held a joke/easter-egg option called the Slayer Seal, which trades Achievement/Trophy eligibility for an easier, gun-focused playstyle.
- The Mushroom Village had a riddle-based dungeon built around light and pressure-plate puzzles instead of combat, plus an illusion/portal mechanic that revealed a hidden statue and key.
The Prologue's final boss can't be beaten
The beta's Prologue ends with a boss fight that's intentionally unwinnable — no amount of skill or damage gets you past it. It's a scripted story beat, not a wall you're doing something wrong against.
Does Beta Progress Carry Over to the Full Game?
Mostly, no. Shells, weapons, currency, and other collectibles you earned in the beta all reset once the full game launches — none of it carries forward. There are two confirmed exceptions, though:
- A cosmetic Flayed Harbinger skin, awarded simply for finishing the beta.
- The ability to skip the Prologue in the full release, if you progressed past the Marrow Keep section during the beta.
Everything else you built up — levels, gear, Glimpse, materials — starts fresh when you begin the real campaign.
The Open Beta has ended
Mortal Shell II released worldwide on 20 August 2026, and the Open Beta period is over — it's no longer playable or downloadable. If you're looking to try it out fresh, that window has closed; the full game is now the only way in.
How the Beta Compares to the Full Game
The beta was never meant to represent the whole experience — it's roughly the first 3 hours out of a much longer campaign. Full-game completion time estimates vary quite a bit depending on the source, since HowLongToBeat's numbers are still based on an early, small sample while outlets like GameRant and Game8 are drawing on full press/community playthroughs.
| Source | Main Story | Completionist / 100% |
|---|---|---|
| HowLongToBeat (crowd-sourced, small sample) | 17h 1m (2 submissions) | Not yet stabilized ("--") |
| GameRant | 30-35 hours (rarely past 40h) | 40-50h secrets; ~60h for all Achievements/Trophies |
| Game8 | 30-40 hours | 50-60 hours |
HowLongToBeat also lists an "All PlayStyles" average of 26 hours 12 minutes across 3 submissions, ranging from an 18h 48m "Rushed" run to a 33h 36m "Leisure" one, plus a "Main + Extras" figure of 44h 34m from a single submission. Its overall site estimate sits at 22½ hours. Given how few submissions that's built on, GameRant and Game8's larger, press-driven numbers (main story around 30-40 hours) are probably the more reliable read for now — but both sets of data are genuine and worth knowing about.
GameRant notes that reaching 100% Achievements/Trophies takes roughly 60 hours total, largely because of the "Seeking the Past: Watch all Shell memories" trophy — it depends on a resource that's limited per playthrough, forcing at least two New Game+ cycles (NG+ and NG++) to complete. Game8 adds that the open world gives little on-screen guidance toward your next objective, and that farming gear and currency against tough bosses eats a lot of time.
For scale, the original 2020 Mortal Shell took roughly 10-15 hours to complete — Mortal Shell II is described as requiring at least double that.