Mortal Shell 2 Axe & Dagger Location: Chapel Key & Shrine of Trials Puzzle

• Weapon: Axe & Dagger (also listed as Axe and Dagger), a dual-wield axe-and-dagger pair.
• Launch location: pedestal / slab at the end of the Shrine of Trials.
• Nearest Beacon: Mushroom Village Beacon.
• Required key: yes — the Chapel Key (older guides still call this the Mushroom Village Key).
• Puzzle: face the king statue, then move backwards into the illusory wall; after that, park sliding stone blocks on pressure plates.
• Beta warning: Open Beta pages that put the weapon on a table inside Mushroom Village Gate Beacon do not match the current launch route.

In the 2026-08-17 / 2026-08-18 launch and Advanced Access build, Axe & Dagger is an early dual-wield weapon inside the Shrine of Trials dungeon.

That shrine is not a separate overworld pin you walk up to. It sits inside the locked chapel by Mushroom Village Beacon in Fainweald. The chapel door is chained shut until you have the Chapel Key.

You do not need a specific Shell, named boss kill, or extra ability just to pick it up. You do need Mushroom Village. Merrick in Marrow Keep sells an optional 50-gold cloth map that marks the weapon; skip it if you are already heading to the chapel.

If this part of Fainweald is still fogged, use the map fragment guide. For Beacon travel, see the gameplay overview.

Yes. Do not follow late Open Beta weapon pages that send you to Mushroom Village Gate Beacon.

The still-visible Fextralife weapon page (last edited 16 July 2026) sends players southeast to Mushroom Village Gate Beacon and a round table inside that beacon. That is preview-build documentation.

Launch / Advanced Access coverage puts the weapon at the end of Shrine of Trials, behind the Chapel Key door, on a pedestal / slab after the statue riddle and pressure plates.

The key pickup is the same shape as preview coverage (bonfire, illusory arch, statue rope). The weapon’s resting place is what changed. If a June/July video still says “it’s on the table in the Gate Beacon,” that is why you are in the wrong room.

Nearest Beacon: Mushroom Village Beacon.

Landmark: a large bonfire / pyre with dancing enemies (often described as witches or old women; one of them plays music). Current location notes also place this stretch northeast of the Ritual Grounds dungeon.

The Chapel Key is not sitting on the chapel door. It is a hidden statue pickup. Launch item text calls it Chapel Key; GamesRadar’s 12 August 2026 article and older wiki pages still say Mushroom Village Key. Treat those as the same key. It is not the separate Cage Key sold by the nearby Hunter.

1. Start at Mushroom Village Beacon.
2. Leave on the right / east path rather than the Hunter-chapel side.
3. Descend to the lower level and cross the rope bridge toward the loud bonfire.
4. Clear the dancing enemies around the pyre if they are in the way (not required to spawn the key, but it makes the arch readable).
5. Find the stone archway that looks out of place beside the pyre. Look through it toward the fire — a statue that is not visible from the other side should appear.
6. Pass through the arch from the side with the steps / from the side that reveals the statue.
7. Take the Chapel Key from the statue (it hangs on the rope the statue holds).

If you reach the arch and see no statue, you are on the wrong face of the portal. Turn around and walk through from the other side instead of circling the stonework.

Shrine of Trials is the dungeon behind the chapel door. The chapel is still anchored on Mushroom Village Beacon, on the opposite side from the bonfire.

1. Return to Mushroom Village Beacon.
2. Take the west / left path through the short passage.
3. You should enter the Hunter clearing: Grisha Hunter NPCs, a caged Grisha Pup, and a dilapidated chapel with a chained door behind them.
4. Interact with that chapel door while the Chapel Key is in your inventory. You do not equip the key.
5. Enter. Current launch wiki notes a lift down into the shrine interior; other launch writeups start you in the first hall with a statue and a handful of enemies.

You are now in the shrine. The next room is the riddle, not the weapon.

There are three puzzle beats after the door: the king-statue riddle, a one-block pressure plate, then a two-block pressure plate. After that, a knight guards the pickup.

Clear enemies before you start sliding blocks. Cultists in the first hall can heal each other, so interrupt the staff-raise if a fight starts dragging.

1. In the statue hall, interact with the plaque. Current launch quotes are: “Gaze upon your king so true. Back and back you shall pass through.”
2. Stand so you are looking at the statue’s face. Do not turn statues, and do not start hitting walls.
3. Move backwards toward the wall opposite the statue while keeping the statue in view.
4. That far wall is illusory. It yields when you back into it. If walking back does not open it, dodge backwards twice while still facing the statue — that input matches the “back and back” line in launch footage writeups.

Success: the wall opens into the next puzzle room.

1. Clear the wraiths.
2. Find one sliding stone block and one floor plate. Standing on the plate yourself opens the door, but it closes when you step off.
3. Read the grooves on the floor around the block. They show the only legal slide directions.
4. Hit the block along those grooves until it rests on the plate (one launch sequence: hit it forward, then onto the plate to the left).
5. Leave the block on the plate so the doorway stays open.

Launch guides agree on the goal more tightly than on one universal hit order: both plates must stay pressed at the same time.

1. Clear the remaining enemies.
2. Identify two sliding blocks and two plates.
3. Slide each block along its floor grooves onto a plate.
4. If a wide light attack shoves both blocks, switch to a heavy attack so only one moves.
5. One documented launch sequence: move the left block left, then forward, then onto the right-hand path; put the right block onto the first plate; then slide the first block back onto the second plate.

Success: the last shrine door stays open.

Current sources do not describe a dedicated reset lever or a punishment for a wrong slide. If a block is off-path, keep hitting it along the grooves until both plates are occupied.

It is an instruction for your facing, not a lore quiz and not a multi-statue rotation puzzle.

• King here is the statue with the plaque in the first shrine hall. Launch guides do not require you to know a named lore king to solve it.
• The object that must “gaze” is you. Keep looking at that statue.
• The action is back up (walk or dodge) into the wall opposite the statue.
• Success is visual: that wall becomes an opening. Hitting walls or standing on random floor tiles is the wrong read.

There is only one gaze statue for this riddle. The later rooms are pressure plates, not extra kings.

1. Go through the last opened door.
2. Fight the knight / mini-boss in that room (launch writeups call it a spear- or two-handed-weapon knight).
3. Interact with the pedestal / slab in the same room.
4. Claim Axe & Dagger.

The weapon does not drop from the knight and does not appear back at the chapel door. If you solved the plates and still have no weapon, you are not in the final room yet.

After pickup, you can leave the dungeon. Current shrine notes treat that as enough to mark the dungeon complete on the map.

Yes, if you want a faster dual-wield moveset than the heavier starters. Launch roundups treat it as an early Mushroom Village detour: axe in one hand, dagger in the other, good at weaving in and out, and a common pairing for an early Tiel run. No late-game upgrade is required first.

If the shrine enemies are deleting you, run a nearby Gloom farm loop and come back. The dungeon is short.

Current launch guides do not document a permanent miss for the Chapel Key, shrine, or Axe & Dagger. Access is gated by reaching Mushroom Village. Treat it as progression-gated, not proven permanently missable.

On a pedestal at the end of the Shrine of Trials, inside the locked chapel by Mushroom Village Beacon.

East / right of Mushroom Village Beacon, at the bonfire. Walk through the illusory arch and take it from the statue’s rope.

Behind the chained chapel door on the west / Hunter side of the same beacon.

Face the king statue and back into the opposite wall, then park stone blocks on the pressure plates. A knight guards the final pedestal.

Keep looking at the plaque statue and move backwards. The far wall is fake. You are not rotating multiple statues.

Yes. Gate Beacon table pickups are preview-build. Launch coverage puts it in Shrine of Trials.

Yes, as soon as Mushroom Village is reachable. No special Shell is required.

Current launch guides do not list a permanent miss. The village can be gated by progression, but no point of no return is documented.

• Mortal Shell 2 Axe & Dagger Weapon Location (GosuNoob) — launch-build route, Chapel Key statue/rope, Gaze Upon Your King dodge, pressure plates, knight then pedestal; explicit Open Beta location warning; checked 2026-08-18
• Best Weapons to Get First in Mortal Shell 2 (GameRant) — Axe & Dagger as early dual-wield, Shrine of Trials west of Mushroom Village Beacon; checked 2026-08-18
• Shrine of Trials Puzzle Solutions and Rewards (GameRant) — statue riddle, two stone-block rooms, knight, slab pickup; checked 2026-08-18
• Where to Find the Chapel Key (GameTyrant) — east bonfire route, illusory arch, west chapel door with Hunter NPCs; checked 2026-08-18
• Where to Get the Axe and Dagger (GameTyrant) — Chapel Key into shrine, face-statue walk-back, plates, pedestal; checked 2026-08-18
• Chapel Key Location and Use Guide (Nerdschalk) — right-hand descent, rope bridge, steps-side arch, former Mushroom Village Key name; checked 2026-08-18
• Chapel Key (Fextralife) — launch item name, chapel-door effect, statue/rope at the bonfire arch; last edited 2026-08-18
• Shrine of Trials (Fextralife) — chapel entrance by Grisha Hunter, plaque quote, illusory wall, plates, Axe and Dagger; last edited 2026-08-17
• Location: Axe and Dagger (Fextralife) — optional Merrick map, 50 gold; last edited 2026-08-17
• Where to get the Mushroom Village Key (GamesRadar+, last updated 12 Aug 2026) — pre-Advanced Access key name; same bonfire/arch/statue route and Shrine of Trials use
• Axe and Dagger (Fextralife, last edited 16 July 2026) — stale Open Beta location at Mushroom Village Gate Beacon; used only as the contrast for the beta-location warning