Blackblood Stone is a Combat Tarstone for Sidearms found in a bone chest inside Mawbreak Cavern, reached through the Pulsing Caves beacon at the Sanguine Caverns gate, and it makes your Sidearm projectiles explode mid-air for splash damage.
The Blackblood Stone is one of the game’s Combat Tarstones, and it exists to change how your ranged fire behaves. Slot it into a compatible Sidearm and every shot detonates before it lands, spraying splash damage across whatever is nearby. Getting it means cleansing one beacon in the Sanguine Caverns and pushing through a short dungeon to the chest that holds it.
Mortal Shell 2 Blackblood Stone details
| Detail | Answer |
|---|---|
| Item type | Combat Tarstone |
| Compatible equipment | Sidearm only |
| Location | Mawbreak Cavern, Sanguine Caverns |
| Container | Bone chest in the left alcove past the tunnel |
| Main effect | Sidearm projectiles explode mid-air for splash damage |
Everything above is what you need before the trip in — the rest is just getting to the chest and knowing when to fire.
How to get Blackblood Stone in Mortal Shell 2
Reach the Stonebleed gate
Reach the Sanguine Caverns gate | ZaFrostPet/YouTubeTravel to the Sanguine Caverns gate, where the Pulsing Caves beacon gates the dungeon beyond it.
Cleanse the Pulsing Caves beacon
Interact with the Pulsing Caves beacon to clear the corruption and open the route into Mawbreak Cavern.
Enter Mawbreak Cavern
Follow the beacon’s path inside and press on until you reach the bridge section.
Cross both bridges
Take both bridges in turn, then head into the tunnel on the far side.
Get the Blackblood stone from chest
Check the left alcove | ZaFrostPet/YouTubeAfter exiting the tunnel, look to the left alcove and open the bone chest to claim the Blackblood Stone.
What Blackblood Stone does in combat
| Level | Effect |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Projectiles explode mid-air for splash damage |
| Level 2 | Splash damage increases to 2 |
| Level 3 | Splash damage increases to 3 |
| Level 4 | Splash damage increases to 4 |
The Blackblood Stone only works on a Sidearm — it can’t be slotted into a melee weapon or any other gear. Once it’s equipped, your projectiles no longer just strike a single target; they burst in mid-air and deal splash damage to everything caught in the blast. That detonation is the whole point of the stone, and it shapes how you should be shooting.
Because the shot explodes before it connects, Blackblood Stone shines against clustered enemies and targets tucked around corners or behind cover. Instead of picking off one body at a time, you can lob a shot into the middle of a group and let the splash do the work. The higher upgrade levels raise how much that burst hurts.
The exact splash figure at Level 1 isn’t nailed down, so treat that first rank as “it explodes and chips a group” rather than a fixed number — the scaling from Level 2 onward is where the numbers firm up.
Fire into the middle of a pack or just past a corner — the mid-air burst hits everything around the point of detonation, so you don’t need a clean line to a single target.
Upgrading Blackblood Stone at the Tarforge
All Tarstone upgrades, Blackblood Stone included, happen at the Tarforge run by Franz in Marrow Keep. Before you can use it, you need the Etching Needles, tucked in a hidden bone chest along the way — hand them to Franz to unlock Tarstone upgrading in the first place.
From there the loop is simple: keep the stone equipped and kill enemies to fill its Tarstone XP bar, then return to Franz to push it to the next level. Each upgrade also costs Coin, and the exact prices have shifted with the game’s economy tuning, so budget for it rather than banking on a set figure.
Naming mix-ups and Sidearm-only limits
Key A lot of the confusion around this stone is just naming. You’ll see the spot called Mawbreak Cavern, the Pulsing Caves, or “inside the Pulsing Caves beacon” — these all point to the same dungeon and the same chest, not separate locations. Cleanse the Pulsing Caves beacon at the Sanguine Caverns gate and you’re already on the right path; don’t burn time hunting the wider Sanguine Caverns for a second version of it.
The other common trap is the equipment slot. Blackblood Stone is Sidearm-only — it will not apply to a melee weapon or any non-Sidearm slot, so don’t expect the mid-air explosion to show up on your main weapon.
Video help
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