Walkthrough - Southeast Gate: The Autumn Peak | Mortal Shell 2

The Sester's Refuge region of the the Mortal Shell 2 overworld is a part of the overall southern half of the world, corresponding to the Ruins of Mammon region. In a sense, this whole section can be referred to as the "Mammon" half of the world, mainly because the Ruins of Mammon are the most prominent section of this half. The Sester's Refuge is also where the Conquered Temple gate raises. The Refuge and its gate also contain some of the prettiest and most visually striking environments in the game.

We've talked about how the open world nature of the game allows the player to explore at their leisure and get to different sections at different paces and orders. We have, however, crafted this walkthrough following a certain logic where the difficulty spikes are gradual and logical, so if you have been following the walkthrough, this particular region and its gate should be your last before the endgame. Regardless, we are starting this section's walkthrough on a neutral point that you have unlocked by default by beating the earliest beacon.

Sester's Refuge Walkthrough

From Outskirts of Mammon to the Abbey Entrance

Whether you choose to beat the other two gates in the region as we have recommended or hinted in our guides, we are starting the approach to the final gate from a point in the map that you surely have unlocked: The Outskirts of Mammon beacon. 

From the Outskirts of Mammon beacon, go down the middle slope and turn to your left, the same way you use to reach the slums under Mammon. Head through the wooden bridge that leads you to the group of three enemies composed of 1 Crescent Gladiator and a couple of regular soldiers. Behind them, you should be able to spot a Bone Gate at the edge of the cliff. After you dispose the enemies, head to the Beacon Gate and use it to traverse to the next area.

At the other end of the Bone Gate, you'll land on a cliff framed on the right upper section of your screen with a beautifully red tree. In the distance, a female figure starts approaching. This is your first Crimson Sester. Their fight style is not unlike the Dual Blade Assassins and the Tempestress you've encountered in the past. A quick note worth remembering, though, is that these Crimson Sesters hit a lor harder and are capable of parrying and riposting you. 

Once you've dealt with the Crimson Center, you'll see a set of stone steps leading to a large building on your right. However, before going up the steps, direct your attention to the red leaves on the left side, because there you will find the first of many Bloodseeds in this zone. They are found consistently near these red-leaved trees, and well mention the ones that are more prominently on the way to the Conquered Temple gate.

Next, take the steps up to the building in front of the tree with the Bloodseed and enter the edification through the broken door. You will be greeted by 3 sesters. 2 of them are Tophat Sesters and the last one is another one Crimson Sester. In the room, there are 6 Sarcophagi around the sesters. 

Note: The Crimson Sester can be a formidable enemy if it catches you off-guard. Tophat sesters use a hybrid weapon that turn from a ballista to a large mace, making them a reasonable threat on both ranged and melee battles. This particular combination of enemies is meant to prevent you from being hyper aggressive with the Crimson Sester so she has enough time to deal massive damage to you. If you can afford a few hits, we recommend rushing in an focusing on the Crimson Sester first in order to eliminate the bigger threat.

A good tactic in this fight, in case you can't afford to be hyper agressive with the Crimson Sester is to use the sarcophagi to your advantage since it can put distance between you and the Crimson one so you can circle around and deal with the tophat sesters first. Another thing to consider is that they start out standing pretty close to each other, so you can likely get them all with a decent AoE attack, as well. 

After dealing with the enemies collect the loot they dropped and in the sarcophagi, which should provide the following:

• x1200 coins
• x150 Gloom

Go up the stairs and through the door, you should see a Hammer Prophet with his back turned to you through a second archway. Beware that there is another Crimson Sester in wait just after the arch, and to the right, don't let her catch you!

Note: Sesters (Mostly slender, female looking enemies) can dash and dodge your range attacks. In general, you are better off relying on melee against them. It is possible to hit them with range, but be prepared to miss them a lot of the time.

After surviving the ambush and dealing with the Hammer Prophet, you can approach the altar he was guarding, were a corpse lies, and collect the Ventrium between his legs. 

This room has an exit to the right, relative to where you enter the room. Past the doorway, you'll have an option to go left or right. Left is the way to continue advancing, and right has a statue covered by some breakable boxes. Behind the statue there is a coin bag with 150 coins. However, the path to the right also has two of tophat sesters ready to strike as soon as you get through the doorway.

After dispatching the 2 tophat sesters and collecting the coins behind the statue {it's not interactable), you can then turn your attention to the other side. You will notice the doorway lead outside, and you'll immediately spot a new Bone Gate being guarded by a Crimson Sester. There's no ambush past the doorway, so you can proceed directly to confront and kill her, opening up the way to the Bone Gate and looking at the Keep on the other side of the jump, being towered by the Conquered Temple gate we are heading too. Once you use the Bone Gate to make the jump to the next patch of land, you should hear to the tree on the left side and collect the Bloodseed on one side of it, and the Laterite on the other side.

There are no hostiles in this little area, so you won't get attacked or ambushed and can feel free to approach the tree even before activating the beacon right there, but you can also err on the side of caution and activate it anyway if you so choose. In any case, you'll find yourself at the Abby Entrance beacon. From this beacon, you can see a circular tower in the distance, this tower is where to zone's map can be found. 

Exploring the Sester's Refuge

Go up the stairs to the Abbey and press the button to open the Portcullis. There will be a body to the left with an item glowing, drawing you in. This is yet another ambush, and when you walk to about half the length of this small zone, a couple of tophat sesters drop from above in front and behind you. Remember, there is the one that drops in front of you, and the one directly behind you. Try to rush the one in front of you as soon as fast as you can and turn around to deal with the other one. 

Note: This ambush only triggers once. If you've beaten the sesters already, it won't trigger again. 

After dealing with the threat, pick up the coins on that body and step outside into the Sester's Refuge proper. In this courtyard, there is a patrolling Crimson Sester and a Tophat Sester on the left, up the stairs. The stairs only lead to the ledge where the tophat sester is harrassing you from with her ranged attack and 2 Bloodseeds, as well as a ledge to drop to the other side of the Refuge where a couple of funghouls are waiting for you to explore. 

To the other side, which is right from the portcullis, is a straight shot to the area map, with a strong presence of Tophat and Crimson Sesters. 

Note: If you do decide to go for the map first, be mindful of using special abilities while standing on top of the wooden bridge, the stagger from some abilities or even a hiccup on them can make you fall off the bridge with ease. 

The main path we care about here right after the main Portcullis is actually in front of us and to the right. Refer to the image below for an indicator of the way to follow to reach the gate. Make sure to look around the zone before leaving whether for the gate or for the map, as there are a few Bloodseeds in here.

Here's also an aerial view of the zone, including the Abby Entrance, the map location and the Gate location inside the red circle:

When following the main path, be mindful of the Dual Blade Assassin waiting after the second elbow in the road to fight you. She's not alone, for there is a Tophat Sester on the wall above her, refer to the image below.

After dispatching her, go up the ramp with the Bloodseed and follow the only path until you see a set of stairs leading up to your right. Before taking the stairs, however, keep walking straight and collect more Bloodseed from the tree branches in there. Go back and up the stairs to the next area, where you will see a lonely Crimson Sester, except as soon when you start fighting her, a Tophat Sester will join to battle from behind the wall and to the right, so be wary about that. 

Shortly after the fight starts, a second Crimson Sester will appear, likely while you are still fighting one of the first two. Once the enemies are cleared, pick up the Bloodseed next to the stairwell and so up it. The path is left, but you should do a quick detour to the right and pick yet another Bloodseed in the corner leaves, then go around the shack to keep collecting more Bloodseeds. Be mindful that there will be another Crimson Sester at the back of the house.

After circling the shack and walking up the stairs, the Hammer Prophet to your left immediately notices you and turns aggro. He is rather slow, so you could potentially outrun him by going right, which where you are heading anyway. If you want to confront him for the item that he's protecting, keep in mind that this item is only a Bloodseed and nothing else. 

The opposite side of the Hammer Prophet has us facing off against two tophat sesters. They are standing right in front of a portcullis you can open with a button, and shouldn't keep moving without pressing the button and collecting the item in the chest inside. The image below shows with an arrow where the portcullis is in relation to the two tophat sesters.

Open the Portcullis with the lever and access the room to the chest, which contains the Devout Stone tarstone. Directly in front of this room, you'll be able to spot an Urchin Knight lurking around across an archway, however, your objective, the Conquered Temple gate is a few steps away to the left. You can safely ignore the Urchin Knight and head left, where a final Dual Blade Assassin will be waiting for you to kill you right before the beacon. Depending on his position, the Urchin Knight may notice you going left and start moving toward you, but he's slow enough that you can clear the Dual Blade Assassin and activate the beacon to remove him before it reaches you if you don't feel like fighting him.

As you go downstairs, you'll immediately notice the Dual Blade Assassin waiting for you. You should be able to kill her with ease and proceed to the Sester's Gate beacon. Activating the beacon respawns the Urchin Knight but not the Dual Blade Assassin while you're also in the same zone, so you can do that to remove the threat of the Urchin Knight, so you can reset the Urchin and then explore around the red leaves so you can find a good amount of Bloodseeds in this overall zone. 

From this you'll have to beat the Sester's Bastion dungeon inside the beacon in order to progress to the Conquered Temple gate.