Mortal Shell 2 Great Martyr's Blade: The Buff That Was Announced Twice

Short answer: the +20% attack-damage buff announced for the Great Martyr’s Blade on 20 August never actually went live. Cold Symmetry said so themselves nine days later. The Week 1 Update shipped a larger, unspecified buff in its place, so the Blade is genuinely stronger now — but if you tested it between 20 and 29 August and concluded the patch did nothing, you were right, and it was not your imagination.

This page previously reported the +20% as an applied change, because that is what the patch note said. The correction below comes from the developer’s own follow-up.

The timeline of the two buffs

20 August 2026 — Balance Patch 1. Under the Weapons heading, the patch notes list:

Great Martyr’s Blade Attack Damage +20%.

A precise, official number. Players who read it reasonably expected a 20% damage increase.

29 August 2026 — Week 1 Update. Under Weapons, Items and Balance, the same developer writes:

The Great Martyr’s Blade deals more damage. It was a pity it didn’t actually make it in the last patch, to make up for it, it’s even stronger now.

That sentence does two things. It confirms the 20 August buff was never in the build, and it states the replacement buff is larger than 20% — without saying how much larger. So the honest position on the current number is: bigger than the +20% that was announced, exact value unpublished.

This matters for anything written in that nine-day window. Reviews, tier lists and “is the Blade bad?” threads posted between 20 and 29 August were testing a weapon that had received no buff at all, while believing it had received 20%. Their conclusions are not wrong about what they measured, but they do not describe the weapon you are using now.

The Blade also benefits from a second Week 1 change: heavy weapons in general had a poise and damage pass. It is a heavy weapon, so it was hit by both.

The 20 August patch did land one thing that stuck — smelting a weapon at the Tarforge costs 75% less Gloom. That makes retesting cheaper. For the broader system, see the Mortal Shell 2 weapons hub and Mortal Shell 2 weapon upgrade guide.

Why players were asking if the Blade was bad

The Steam General Discussions thread titled “Great Martyr’s Blade - am I missing something or is it just bad?” had 29 replies when checked on August 21, 2026 — the day after the buff that never shipped. In hindsight those players were describing an unbuffed weapon accurately.

One commenter on the Balance Patch 1 thread itself wrote, on the day of release: “Not sure if 20% buff for the Great Martyrs blade is quite enough… i think weapons need better balance in general.” They were evaluating a number that was not in the game. Another common complaint in the same thread — that slow weapons need more damage to justify their animation lock — is what the Week 1 heavy-weapon poise and damage pass appears to answer.

The episode is a useful caution about weapon judgements generally:

• A patch note describes intent. It is not proof the change reached the build.
• A slower weapon may feel worse because an attack animation leaves you exposed, independent of its damage number.
• A weapon’s practical result changes with Shell abilities, Tarstones, enemy posture and the current patch.
• Review comments are personal experiences, not a reproducible retail damage test.

A safe way to retest Great Martyr’s Blade after Patch 1

Use a controlled comparison rather than a launch-day impression:

1. Confirm the Week 1 Update is installed, not just Balance Patch 1 — that is the patch that actually changed this weapon. Balance Patch 1 went to PC first, with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series “shortly” after, so console players should check their build before comparing notes with PC players.
2. Use the same Shell, Tarstones, enemy type and attack input for each comparison.
3. Record ordinary hit damage separately from posture damage, criticals and execution effects.
4. Test both a safe opening and a punish window; a high-damage swing that misses or leaves you trapped is not equivalent to a reliable hit.
5. Keep the result tied to the current build instead of presenting one run as a universal weapon ranking.

The 75% Tarforge cost reduction makes this kind of experiment less punishing than the launch economy described in early discussions. It still does not justify copying an unverified “best build” or a guessed upgrade route.

What this guide does not claim yet

The checked official sources do not establish:

• the exact Great Martyr’s Blade acquisition location;
• the complete upgrade-material list or Tarforge cost table;
• a full moveset, scaling sheet or posture-damage table;
• whether the Blade is stronger than every fast or ranged option;
• a universal Shell or Tarstone pairing;
• the size of the buff that did ship. The Week 1 Update says only “more damage” and “even stronger”, with no percentage. Anyone quoting a specific post-Week-1 number is guessing.

Those details belong on a full weapon-location or build page only after the current retail build verifies them. Until then, the reliable answer to “did Mortal Shell 2 buff Great Martyr’s Blade?” is: yes, but not on 20 August. The +20% announced in Balance Patch 1 never shipped; the Week 1 Update on 29 August delivered a larger increase whose value the developer has not published.

For related launch context, read the full Mortal Shell 2 Patch 1 notes and the Mortal Shell 2 Steam reviews snapshot.