Valor Mortis Combat Guide: Parry, Posture & Unblockables

Valor Mortis is won on the defensive. Enemies hit hard, bosses chain long strings, and almost every fight turns on the same three choices: block it, parry it, or dodge it. Then come posture breaks, Critical Attacks, Stasis freezes and elemental statuses.

This guide explains each system with the numbers from the game files: parry windows for all 449 enemy attacks, which ones are unblockable, how much posture each weapon deals, what a Critical Attack does to each enemy, and how Stasis segments, Ignite, Crystallization and Infection work.

Block, parry and dodge

Endurance is the bar under all of this. It starts at 80 and fuels attacks, dodges, blocks and sprinting. Blocking an attack costs Endurance, and on the board the Blocking upgrade cuts that cost by 5% per purchase while raising your recoverable-Health capacity by 30%. Maximum Endurance (two nodes, +5 per purchase) and Endurance Regeneration (+5% per purchase) keep the bar up through long strings.

Parry timing: the real windows

In the ability data, 435 of 449 enemy attacks have a 0.2-second parry window. The shorter windows (0.15, 0.1 and 0.05 s) are mostly on attacks that are unblockable anyway, such as the Iron Marshall's Upperbash and the Risen Soldier's heavy finisher. The main exception is a handful of blockable melee combos used by the enemies in Entropy, the final region, which have 0.05 s windows.

Two weapons change the parry game:

• Rapier: a perfect parry deals 150 posture damage, against 100 for the Saber. The trade-off is that the Rapier's block type allows parries only, so it cannot block attacks properly. Its upgrade tree is built around parrying: Remise, Astute Quarta, Invigorating Seconda and Vigorous Terza all trigger on parries.
• Claymore: it cannot parry at all. It blocks, and its weight is meant for trading blows and channelling Burning and Stasis Waves.

To make parrying easier, slot the Duellist's Focus Amber (a wider melee parry window, found on the Battlefield) and buy Parrying Impact on the board (+5% parry posture damage per purchase, up to four). The Saber's Second Wind upgrade makes parries restore Recoverable Health.

Unblockable (red) attacks and the Perfect Dodge

An unblockable attack glows red and cannot be blocked or parried. In the data, 127 of 449 attacks are unblockable. Bosses lean on them hardest: General Lothaire has 9 unblockable moves, the Orphan 7, and Entity 6 of its own plus many borrowed from earlier bosses. Dodging gives brief invulnerability, and dodging at the last moment of a red attack is a Perfect Dodge, which empowers your next attack. 73 attacks are flagged as Perfect Dodge triggers.

Three upgrades give you an answer other than dodging:

• Showstopper (Blunderbuss, level 2): shots interrupt Unblockable Attacks.
• Impenetrable Defence (Shield Transmutation, level 4): the Shield protects you from Unblockable Attacks.
• Sixth Sense (Amber): more Firearm damage during Perfect Dodges, and dodging bullets briefly slows time.

Posture and Critical Attacks

The posture bar fills when you land melee attacks and, faster, when you parry. When it breaks, you can launch a Critical Attack for a fixed, large amount of damage. The Critical Damage board node adds +5% per purchase and the Dominatus Amber heals you on every Critical Attack.

What a Critical Attack does to each enemy

For most regular enemies, Critical Attack damage equals their HP at every placement level, so a posture break (or a backstab on an unaware target) is an instant kill. The heavier enemies take a fixed share instead.

Bosses

Two patterns stand out. Experiment 83's critical takes 1,000 off its 3,400 HP (29%), the biggest share of any boss. High Justicar Aurelius has the opposite problem: a 1,000 posture pool against only 200 critical damage. The data also gives most bosses a 30-second posture reset delay with slow recovery (1 to 4 points per second; the Iron Marshall recovers 20 per second). In practice that means posture damage on a boss lingers, and you do not have to break it in a single string. Every boss is broken down on its boss page.

Stasis: segments, damage and the freeze

The Stasis Transmutation (and Stasis Whetstones and Stasis-Clad Rounds) builds Stasis on an enemy. The build-up is divided into segments: filling one deals damage and knocks a Nephtoglobin Remnant out of the target. Fill them all and the enemy is frozen, and attacking a frozen enemy deals massive damage. Stronger enemies have more segments, from 2 on most soldiers to 7 on General Lothaire.

A partial break deals 75% of the full value. The Stasis tree has Termination at level 2 (Heavy Attacks shatter Stasis regardless of how much has built up), a choice at level 3 between Eruption (area damage) and Implosion (+50 damage per segment), a choice at level 4 between Hex (Stasis no longer decays) and Control (grapple to frozen enemies), and a choice at level 5 between Expansion (the affliction spreads) and Drain (attacking frozen enemies restores Health). Fully locking the Iron Marshall in Stasis unlocks the Statue of Insanity achievement.

Ignite, Crystallization and Infection

• Ignite (fire): fill the meter and the target burns for damage over time. Your Fire Transmutation, Flaming Whetstone, Fire-Clad Rounds and Oil Grenades apply it. Enemies use it too: torch-wielding Shambling Civilians, Volunteers' flamethrower rifles and Captain Raphael's Fire Slash (70 damage and 1.0 Ignite build-up in a single hit, the most of any attack).
• Crystallization: the enemy version of Stasis. It comes from 18 attacks in the data, all from the Sphinx and Entity (up to 0.4 build-up per hit). Avoid trading hits while the meter is high.
• Infection: inflicted by the Orphan's grab (and Entity's echo of it). The Shield Transmutation also protects you from Infestation effects while held.

A Cleansing Vial (1,200 Catalysts at Louis's Laboratoire after Chapter 5) removes Ignite and Stasis from you. Lunatic's Grasp speeds up your Ignite and Stasis build-up by 30% to 50%, but strips your own resistance to them.

Weak points and headshots

Most enemies have per-part damage multipliers, and the head is usually the prize. Firearms benefit most, since the Headshot Damage board node adds +5% per purchase. Some enemies also carry Nephtoglobin Weak Points. The Pistol and the Rapier can shatter these, and they drop Nephtoglobin Remnants that refill your reserve. Volatile End makes those shots explode for 50 damage.

The Risen Lancer's head (×3) is the biggest multiplier in the game, but its left hand takes only ×0.1, so aim carefully. The Eternal Guardsman is the odd one out: its masked head takes ×0.5, while its chest and groin take ×1.2. High Justicar Aurelius follows the same pattern. Landing ten headshots or Weak Point hits in a row unlocks the God's Trigger achievement.

1. 1
   Read the colour

   Red glow: dodge. No glow: block or parry.

2. 2
   Parry for posture

   Each parry costs no Endurance and fills posture faster than hits.

3. 3
   Break and crit

   A break on a regular enemy is usually a kill; on a boss it is 200 to 1,200 damage.

4. 4
   Layer a status

   Fire for Lothaire and Experiment 83; Stasis for bosses that do not resist it.

5. 5
   Refuel

   Shatter Weak Points and grab Nephtoglobin Remnants to keep Transmutations online.

• Slot Duellist's Focus while learning parries
• Buy Parrying Impact and Blocking on the board
• Never block a red attack
• Carry a Cleansing Vial for Ignite-heavy areas
• Use the Pistol on Weak Points to refill Nephtoglobin