Valor Mortis Beginner's Guide: Best Tips for New Players

Valor Mortis drops you onto a Napoleonic battlefield as William, a soldier with no memory and an empty pouch for Catalysts. It plays like a first-person soulslike: you rest at Lanterns, lose your Catalysts when you die, and win fights by reading attacks rather than out-trading them. The campaign runs through 11 main chapters across 12 regions, with 10 bosses, 49 Lanterns and a level cap of 400.

This guide covers the systems the game only half explains: what resting really resets, how death works, when to block and when to dodge, how posture and critical attacks turn a fight, what Nephtoglobin is for, how the Ferrofluid Flask scales, which Ambers to slot first and what to buy from the two merchants. Every number below is pulled from the game data, not guessed.

1. Lanterns: rekindle, rest, travel, level up

A Lantern does four jobs. Lighting one (the game calls it Rekindling) sets your respawn point: when you die, you wake at the last Lantern you Rekindled. Resting at it fully restores Health and Nephtoglobin, but it also revives every non-boss enemy in the world, so resting is a reset, not a free heal. It is also your fast-travel network (you can travel freely between any discovered Lanterns) and the only place you can level up and equip Ambers.

There are 49 Lanterns. Some regions are generous, with six or seven, and some make you work, with only two or three. The table shows how many each region has, so you know when a long stretch without a checkpoint is coming. The full list with screenshots is on the Lanterns page.

2. Catalysts and death

Catalysts are both your experience and your money: you spend them at Lanterns to level up and at merchants to buy materials. When you die you drop all of them where you fell. Go back to that spot to pick them up. Die again before you get there and the dropped Catalysts are gone for good. Enemies give Catalysts per kill (a Risen Soldier is worth 50 at its weakest placement, an Eternal Guardsman 1,200 to 2,700), and bosses pay out between 7,000 and 50,000 on the kill screen.

Three consumables change how death works, and all three are worth knowing before your first boss:

• Remnant's Return automatically absorbs the Catalysts you lost on death. Louis sells four of them for 1,000 Catalysts each once you have finished Chapter 5. More are found in the world and as rewards from the Misericorde and The Choir side quests.
• Sands of Time sends you back to the last Lantern you visited and rests you there. Your Catalysts are kept, but the world resets around you. Nine are placed in the world; no merchant sells them.
• Fading Light guides you to the last-lit Lantern but drops all held Catalysts at your current location. You can still go back for them.

Catalyst Clots are the other big source. Each one is an item that adds a fixed amount when used, from 50 (Common) to 10,000 (Commander's). The Catalyst farming guide lists every tier and where it is placed.

3. Block, parry, or dodge

Defence is a three-way choice, and it depends on the attack.

Blocking (hold the block button) cuts incoming damage and costs Endurance. Endurance is the stamina bar shared by attacking, dodging, blocking and sprinting; it starts at 80 and refills on its own. Damage you take while blocking is recoverable: land a melee hit on an enemy shortly afterwards and you get that Health back. So block, then hit back.

Parrying means pressing block just as the attack lands. A successful parry negates all damage, costs no Endurance and hits the enemy's posture hard. The window is 0.2 seconds for 435 of the 449 enemy attacks in the game files. The few exceptions are shorter, down to 0.05 s.

Unblockable attacks glow red. They cannot be blocked or parried, so you have to dodge them. Dodging gives brief invulnerability, and dodging at the last moment of a red attack is a Perfect Dodge, which empowers your next attack. The data flags 127 of the 449 enemy attacks as unblockable, and bosses lean on them heavily: General Lothaire has 9 red moves, the Orphan 7.

1. 1
   Watch for red

   If the wind-up glows red, stop thinking about your guard and dodge through or away from the attack.

2. 2
   Block what you cannot read yet

   On a new enemy, hold block for the first few strings. It is safe, and it teaches you the timing.

3. 3
   Convert blocks to parries

   Once you know the rhythm, tap block on the impact frame instead of holding it. Every parry costs no Endurance and builds posture.

4. 4
   Hit back to recover Health

   After blocking damage, land a melee hit quickly to reclaim the recoverable Health.

5. 5
   Break posture, then crit

   When the posture bar fills, the enemy is open to a Critical Attack. Take it every time.

4. Posture and critical attacks

Every enemy with a posture bar fills it when you land melee attacks or parry, and parries fill it faster than hits. A full bar opens a Critical Attack for a fixed, large amount of damage. On bosses this is the single biggest damage source you have: a critical deals 400 to General Lothaire (out of 1,800 HP), 700 to the Orphan and 1,200 to the final boss. Posture pools range from 350 (the Sphinx) to 2,000 (Captain Raphael). Slaughtermill has no posture bar at all.

From behind, an enemy that has not noticed you can be backstabbed. Not everything allows it: Howlers, Carrion, Spewers, Swarm Mothers, Abominations and the Remnants of the Iron Regiment cannot be backstabbed. The combat guide goes deeper on parry timing, Stasis and weak points.

5. Nephtoglobin and Transmutations

Nephtoglobin is the resource behind your Transmutations (the Fire, Stasis and Shield powers) and some weapon upgrades. You start with a 100-point reserve. Hold aim to channel a Transmutation and drain it, or tap aim for a weak version. You refill it by striking enemies with melee attacks, by shattering Nephtoglobin Weak Points (the Pistol and the Rapier can do this) and picking up the Nephtoglobin Remnants they drop, by resting, or with a Nephtoglobin Vial (200 Catalysts at Louis's Laboratoire).

• Fire Transmutation fills an Ignite meter; once full, the target burns for damage over time. It also burns dry Nephtoglobin walls. Two bosses take extra fire damage: General Lothaire (+40%) and Experiment 83 (+20%). The Orphan resets its fire weakness to 0% in both phases, so bring your best-upgraded weapon and aim for its head instead.
• Stasis Transmutation freezes enemies and moving gears. Filling a Stasis segment deals damage and knocks out a Nephtoglobin Remnant. It is found at an altar in the Caverns.
• Shield Transmutation blocks every attack while held (at a Nephtoglobin cost) and releases a damaging wave scaled by what it absorbed. It is picked up in the University.

6. The Ferrofluid Flask

Your heal is the Ferrofluid Flask. You start with 3 charges. At base level each heals 50 Health, which is half of your starting 100. There are two ways to improve it, and both happen at a Lantern:

• Ferrofluid Flask Power Upgrade raises potency through 10 levels, from 50 to 140 Health per flask. Reaching level 10 takes 24 upgrades in total. Louis sells one per stock tier for 3,000 Catalysts; the rest are placed around the world.
• Empty Ferrofluid Flask adds one more charge. Nine are placed in the campaign, one each in nine different regions, and Louis sells one for 5,000 Catalysts.

7. Ambers and slots

Ambers are passive bonuses you equip in the Levelling menu at a Lantern. You have up to 5 Amber slots, opening at character levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, so the first few levels you buy are the most valuable in the game. There are 29 Ambers; 15 of them have three ranks (I to III), and the rest are single-rank effects.

The Battlefield alone holds 9 of them: Wound that Heals, Bottomless Well, Life Diverted, Dilated Moment, Iron Grip, Butcher's Carnage, Transmuted Persistence, Volatile End, Duellist's Focus. Good first picks for a new player are Iron Grip (safe heals), Duellist's Focus (a wider parry window), Wound that Heals (slow Health regeneration) and Volatile End (Pistol shots on a Weak Point explode for 50 damage). The best Ambers and builds guide ranks all 29.

8. What to buy on the level-up board

Levelling up happens at Lanterns and is priced in Catalysts. Level 2 costs 400, and the price climbs steadily: reaching level 10 costs 10,273 in total, level 20 costs 67,015 and level 50 costs 602,002. The board behind it has 26 upgrades. Most can be bought four times; three repeatable nodes take up to 100 purchases each. Three attributes frame it: Might (Health and melee damage), Endurance (Endurance, its regeneration and firearm damage) and Sufferance (Transmutation damage and Nephtoglobin tolerance).

Plan it with the level calculator, which totals the Catalysts between any two levels, and the skill tree page for every node.

9. Upgrade materials and the two merchants

Weapons are upgraded at James's Iron Bench and Transmutations and the flask at Louis's Laboratoire. Both set up in the Abandoned Church hub. Their stock grows twice, after Chapter 5 and after Chapter 9. Materials come in four tiers. Taking a blade or firearm from level 1 to 10 costs 6 tier-1, 6 tier-2, 3 tier-3 and 1 tier-4 material; a Transmutation (max level 5) needs 2 + 2 + 2 + 1. Tier-4 materials are never sold, so every max-level weapon depends on the few found in the world.

Most stock is limited (one or two of each material per tier), while ammunition, Whetstones and grenades are unlimited. The merchants page has every price and unlock.

10. Enraged enemies are worth hunting

Some enemies have red, glowing eyes. These Enraged enemies are far stronger, and they do not respawn after you kill them. Many of these elite placements also carry a guaranteed reward: the elite Howlers in Cursed Hollow and the University drop Warrior's Fury, an elite Risen Sapeur in the Vale of Wrath drops Equivalent Exchange, and elite Shambling Civilians in the Caverns hold Dominatus and a Pure Blade Material. If an enemy looks wrong, it is usually worth the fight.

1. Battlefield
   Learn the loop

   Rekindle all three Lanterns, take the Battlefield Ambers, and practise blocking on Risen Soldiers before General Lothaire.

2. Valley of Ashes – Caverns
   Build the kit

   Fill all five Amber slots (level 9), start the flask Power Upgrades and pick up the Stasis Transmutation in the Caverns.

3. After Chapter 5
   Shop opens up

   Tier-2 materials, Remnant's Return, Cleansing Vials and the elemental rounds and Whetstones arrive at the hub.

4. After Chapter 9
   Late upgrades

   Tier-3 materials go on sale; hunt the tier-4 ones in the world to finish a max-level weapon.

• Rekindle every Lantern, even the ones you think you will not need
• Reach level 9 early for all five Amber slots
• Slot Iron Grip as soon as you find it
• Hold block on new enemies, parry once you know the timing
• Dodge every red attack; never try to block it
• Spend Catalysts before boss doors
• Buy the Empty Ferrofluid Flask from Louis when you can afford it