TMNT: Splintered Fate Adds 40 Free Co-Op Abilities and Tools in Its Shell Squad Update

Donatello activates a tool, and a nearby teammate becomes temporarily invulnerable. Leonardo uses a Special, granting an ally a protective Light Shell. Another player spends a revive charge, and everyone receives healing.

These are examples of the new interactions introduced by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate's Shell Squad Co-Op Update, released by Super Evil Megacorp on November 10, 2026.

The free patch introduces 24 cooperative powers, eight tools and eight character masteries. All forty additions are designed around teamwork, encouraging players to build combinations that benefit the group rather than simply maximizing their individual damage.

The changes apply to both local couch co-op and online multiplayer, making them available across the game's existing cooperative experiences.

Cooperative powers encourage players to share their bonuses

The twenty-four new powers are distributed across eight power trees, with three additions in each tree.

Passing the Torch allows a player affected by Rapid Fire to transfer its benefits to the first ally they touch. The shared effect continues for as long as Rapid Fire remains active on the original character.

Shared Warmth turns a personal survival resource into a group benefit. When someone consumes Splinter's Revive, every player receives healing based on their maximum health.

Chain Reaction offers an offensive approach. Special abilities have a chance to trigger Chain Lightning, damaging additional enemies through Utrom effects.

Other powers reinforce elemental interactions. Dark Resonance increases the entire team's damage against enemies affected by Darkness, while Twin Blast enhances a nearby ally's Special with bonus Flame damage.

The important change is the relationship between character builds. An ability that offers limited value to its owner may become especially effective when paired with a teammate who uses compatible powers.

Super Evil Megacorp has explained how these effects function, but the announcement does not establish a definitive ranking of the strongest combinations.

Eight tools create new opportunities for positioning

Shell Squad also introduces one cooperative tool for each power tree.

Bubble Trouble creates protective offensive bubbles around the user and the most distant teammate. The bubbles inflict Water damage, Freeze enemies and enhance the Water damage dealt by players.

Tether Beam connects the user to the nearest ally. Enemies caught between the two characters receive Utrom damage over time.

That effect makes movement particularly interesting. Players can change the beam's positioning by adjusting the distance and orientation between their characters, potentially damaging more enemies without activating another attack.

Shadow Pact grants Dark Shell protection to two characters and extends its duration whenever an enemy is defeated.

Sacred Shell instead provides every team member with a Light Shell and a temporary damage increase, making it useful when the whole group needs protection during a difficult encounter.

The selection includes other cooperative tools such as Ricochet Star, a shuriken that bounces between teammates, and Synced Strike, which triggers Photon Lance attacks when players perform Final Strikes.

A new Tool Pack reward option helps players acquire these gadgets. It can appear when choosing room rewards or visiting the in-game shop, opening a dedicated tool-selection interface.

Every playable character receives a cooperative mastery

The eight new masteries give each playable character an additional way to contribute to group encounters.

Donatello can protect the nearest teammate with temporary invulnerability whenever he activates his Tool. Raphael gives all players a chance to turn critical hits into Multi-crits.

Leonardo grants a Light Shell to the closest ally when activating his Special, while Michelangelo shares a Torrent Strike stack with a nearby partner.

The bonus characters also receive unique interactions.

Alopex generates Adrenaline stacks for the whole team when her Special defeats enemies. Casey Jones can bounce his Special Puck off teammates, granting them randomized Light or Dark Shell protection.

Metalhead applies Overdrive to allies touched by his Dash Attack projectile, while Slash increases his teammates' movement speed and damage when he enters an enraged state.

These mechanics expand the tactical identity of each character. Choosing a fighter now influences not only how that individual performs, but also which abilities become available to nearby teammates.

The new content works across multiple game modes

Super Evil Megacorp confirms that Shell Squad's powers, tools and masteries function in cooperative sessions across the main campaign, Arcade Mode and the Rat King content.

This is not a separate limited-time mode. The new systems are integrated into existing cooperative gameplay and can be discovered during regular multiplayer runs.

They are not intended to operate as standalone solo abilities. Their effects are specifically built around interactions between two or more player-controlled characters.

Splintered Fate continues to support cooperative sessions for up to four players, depending on the platform and selected play mode.

Shell Squad does not introduce an eight-player mode or increase the maximum team size. Its purpose is to make the established cooperative format deeper rather than larger.

Character swapping becomes easier in multiplayer

One of the update's most practical changes concerns character selection.

Players can now swap to another available character or costume at the Home Lair character station without leaving an existing cooperative session.

The improvement applies to both online multiplayer and couch co-op, reducing the interruptions previously associated with changing a team composition between runs.

Lucky Dice also receive usability improvements. A new HUD indicator shows when dice are earned, and shop interfaces more clearly communicate when players can spend them to reroll available options.

The visual presentation of dice usage has been updated, alongside a broader refresh of Flame effects.

The inactivity timeout has also been increased from five to ten minutes, giving players a little more room for short breaks during online sessions.

Several bug fixes address more specialized problems, including inconsistencies between host and guest narrative progression, characters spawning in the wrong positions during certain challenges and crashes occurring under specific multiplayer conditions.

These smaller changes may not be as noticeable as the new abilities, but they are relevant to a game where maintaining a cooperative session is central to the experience.

The Trench Coat Pack is a separate paid DLC

The free update arrives alongside the Trench Coat Pack, a paid cosmetic download.

The pack gives the Turtles their familiar trench coats and hats, outfits that have appeared across different versions of the franchise whenever the heroes attempt to blend in with ordinary New Yorkers.

The costumes also extend to additional DLC characters, providing a broader selection of disguises than the original four brothers alone.

Super Evil Megacorp says the pack follows the positive response to its earlier Samurai Armor cosmetics.

The distinction between the two releases is straightforward. Shell Squad's forty cooperative additions and general gameplay improvements are free for players who own the game. The Trench Coat Pack must be purchased separately.

A US price of $4.99 has been reported for the cosmetic pack. Local prices can vary between storefronts and regions.

Another step in a busy year for Splintered Fate

Shell Squad follows several other additions to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate during 2026, including playable characters Alopex and Slash and the major King's Gambit story update.

Super Evil Megacorp previously announced that the game had sold more than one million copies in spring 2026, reflecting its growth beyond the original Apple Arcade release.

Subsequent launches brought the roguelike to Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2, expanding its audience across several hardware generations.

Unlike a conventional story expansion, Shell Squad focuses on the systems players use repeatedly. Its main additions create ways for teammates to protect one another, share elemental effects and turn character-specific skills into group advantages.

This gives cooperative players additional reasons to experiment with different character combinations and power trees, even if they have already completed the campaign's principal encounters.

The Shell Squad Co-Op Update is available now as a free download. Players can access its new cooperative powers, tools and masteries without purchasing the optional Trench Coat cosmetics.