From awesome Tarstones to exceptional weapons, there are a lot of really good items to find in Mortal Shell 2. While you can miss them if you're not doing your due diligence while exploring, there's an early-game item that you really don't want to miss because of how it trivializes most fights. Unfortunately for me, I missed it and realized way too late, so let me regale you with my troubles in the hopes that you don't make the same mistake as I did.The first boss you fight happens in the prologue. After some light exploration and acquiring your first shell, Haros, you roll up on the Tar Golem, who absolutely wrecks your stuff. It's designed as a forced loss, so actually putting up a fight is pointless, especially since a cutscene plays showing that Haros saves your life anyway.It's here that you loot your now-dead shell for the Vatra's Seal, which hardens your body to nullify incoming damage and freezes you mid-animation. It's actually a pretty overpowered seal. Not only does it cancel out damage, causing enemies to get knocked back if they attack your shell, but it also acts as an animation cancel, letting you interrupt your attacks by hardening your body to guard. Time the harden just right and you've got a perfect parry, which deals massive posture damage and eventually leads to a counterattack.Vatra's Seal is essentially the main ability from the first Mortal Shell. But instead of it being tied to one specific shell, when you loot Haros' corpse in the sequel, you can harden your body no matter which shell you currently have equipped. It rules.Sadly, I totally missed out on this item.Having played--and loved--the beta, I had the option to skip the prologue and get a handful of goodies, including the Vatra's Seal, for free. My silly self insisted I replay the prologue simply because, and right after the Tar Golem fight, I--for whatever reason--just ... sprinted to the next area.So, boom. Haros goes down, I move on, and before I know it, I'm inside Proxima, hookshotting from enemy to enemy and dealing tons of lightning damage. It rules. Except, hm ... something was missing. I check my seals maybe 10 or 15 hours into the game and see that I don't have the Vatra's Seal. So, I Google, wondering if there's a way I can recollect it despite not looting Haros' body and being too far into the game to restart at this point. And, no. Once you leave the prologue area, there's no way to go back and collect the seal.Cue the biggest, longest sigh you've ever heard.I'm making do with the Untarnished Seal, which is one of four seals (or three, if you missed the Vatra's Seal as I did) in the game. It's ... fine. You get a guard that blocks you from incoming damage until your posture meter is broken, at which point you enter a prolonged vulnerable state. And if you guard at the right moment, you can perfect-parry attacks.But the Untarnished Seal is no Vatra's Seal. And while the Infinite Seal lets you animation cancel, you don't get a guard, so missing your parry means you take damage. The Vatra's Seal really is the best of both worlds, as it negates all damage when used, freezes your body mid-animation, and still gives you a perfect parry. And I completely missed it.So, dear player, I implore you: If you're jumping into Mortal Shell 2 for the first time, make sure you loot Haros' body. Even if you don't end up using the Vatra's Seal the entire game, you'll be grateful to have the option. Because I don't even have that.Anyway, developer Cold Symmetry has released a pretty helpful patch for the game that makes some welcome changes, including nerfing bosses and increasing the amount of gold you find in the world. What's not helpful, though, are the bear traps, which are getting on players' nerves.