On the eastern battlefront of the Napoleonic Wars, Valor Mortis pits one man against a zombie horde. The Crimson Plague has swapped the clash between two armies for a fight to survive. These beginner tips cover endurance, parrying, shortcuts, and staying alive.
Table of Contents
1. Endurance is everything
High HP and nephtoglobin stats are useful, but they won’t help you win if you run out of endurance, also called stamina. Without endurance, you can’t attack, block, or dodge, making an untimely death likely.
Spend your first skill points on Maximum Endurance. Later, skills such as Blocking and Melee Endurance Cost can lower how much endurance you use. Keep an eye on the green bar while attacking, and save some stamina for dodging and blocking.
2. Got stuck? Respec!
When your current build isn’t working, reset your skill points and try a different setup. Rest at any lantern, select “level up,” and choose “reset level” at the bottom of the screen.
You’ll need catalysts to reset your points. The cost rises with your level, but it’s reasonable and much lower than the cost of leveling up.
3. Don’t try to parry every attack …
You can’t parry some enemy attacks. When an enemy glows red before a strike, dodge to avoid the damage.
Against an elite enemy or boss, focus on learning a few attacks that are easy to parry, then dodge the others. You can dodge twice or sprint for a moment to catch your breath. Most enemies move slowly, so putting some distance between you can help prevent being overwhelmed.
4. But don’t be afraid of parrying, either
Dodging shouldn’t be your only defense. Parrying takes careful timing: do it too early and you’ll take some damage, but too late and you’ll take the full hit. A successful parry prevents all incoming damage and uses no endurance.
Parrying also inflicts posture damage. Once the posture meter, shown as the light yellow bar below an opponent’s HP bar, is full, the enemy is open to a critical hit. A few successful parries usually do more damage than a long series of melee attacks.
5. Recover HP without ferrofluid flasks
If you miss the parry window but block the attack, you’ll lose HP. Land a few melee hits immediately afterward to recover that health. The chance passes if you wait a few seconds. Recoverable HP is shown as a muted, pale red section of your HP bar.
After the recovery window closes, you can restore HP with ferrofluid flasks. Their charges are limited and refill when you rest at a lantern.
6. Destroy weak spots
Large, tumor-like orange blisters mark the weak spots found on many enemies. Attacking one deals extra damage, and destroying one drops a nephtoglobin orb that restores nephtoglobin when collected.
Some weak spots can’t be destroyed, but the ones that bulge the most usually can. Shoot them or strike them with the rapier.
7. Don’t fixate on one weapon
Match your weapons and transmutations to the situation. If an enemy has weak spots, swap your sabre for a rapier so you can stab them.
Fire transmutation can burn a group of minor enemies at once, which is more efficient than taking them on one by one with your sword. When an enemy throws an explosive, shoot it before it leaves their hand.
8. Always check for shortcuts
The main route is linear, though it may circle back to a previous lantern. Once it does, the path often divides: one branch leads to a shortcut back to the lantern, and the other continues to the next area.
Before you move on, find and unlock the shortcut. It lets you replenish HP and nephtoglobin, and if you die, you’ll have less distance to travel to recover your catalysts.
9. Return to previous areas
Keep track of locked doors, indestructible walls, and ledges you can’t reach as you explore. You can revisit them after finding a suitable item or exploration ability, such as a key or grappling hook.
Optional areas reached by backtracking usually hold valuable loot, including ambers and ferrofluid flask upgrades.
10. See any crates? Destroy them!
Valor Mortis has a finite supply of tools, such as weapon upgrade materials, ambers, and throwables. Search each area before leaving. Shrubbery, walls, or haystacks may hide some items, but most are out in the open and hard to miss. Others sit inside old wooden crates or barrels, so smash any old crates you find.
Red, embellished chests typically hold the most important loot. Don’t break red barrels, since they’re explosive. Instead, wait until an enemy is nearby, then shoot a barrel from a distance.
