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Valor MortisGuide & Wiki

Enemy Bestiary & Counters

12 named enemies, each with the tell that gives it away and the specific answer that works. Valor Mortis punishes one habit above all others: applying the same solution to every problem. So this bestiary is organised around the problem rather than the name.

Start from the problem

You probably do not know what is killing you, only what it is doing. Pick the symptom and the list narrows to the enemies that behave that way. Pick nothing to read the whole bestiary.

Showing 12 of 12 enemies

  • Risen Soldier

    Confirmed
    InfantryThreat: Standard

    Tell Standard-issue sabre, standard-issue wind-up.

    Counter Block the basic cuts and answer the recovery. This is the enemy the parry system was tuned against, and the cleanest place to farm the 10-parries-without-getting-hit trophy.

    They arrive in numbers. A one-on-one is a tutorial; a four-on-one is a punishment.

    Problems: They block my dodge lanes

    MeleeParry

  • Risen Musketeer

    Confirmed
    Ranged InfantryThreat: Standard

    Tell Lifts a long gun and stands still to load.

    Counter The reload is the whole fight. Close the gap on the loading animation and it never gets a shot away.

    If two of them overlap their reloads you will eat a volley while dealing with something else. Break line of sight first.

    Problems: It shoots me from range

    DashGrappleMelee

  • Risen Grenadier

    Confirmed
    Ranged InfantryThreat: Elevated

    Tell Throws a grenade from behind cover, then swings something heavy in melee.

    Counter Stay mobile and close the distance. Shooting the bucket off its head is a trophy in its own right, which tells you the head is a legitimate target.

    Do not trade in melee with it. Whatever it swings is heavier than your sabre.

    Problems: It shoots me from range · Big, slow, huge damage

    PistolDodgeMelee

  • Risen Sapeur

    Confirmed
    Heavy InfantryThreat: High

    Tell Winds up a two-handed swing with a long, flat trajectory.

    Counter Dodge, do not block. Its blows are described as breaking guard and punching through a held defence.

    Because you cannot parry it, your posture economy is inverted: you spend stamina dodging instead of parrying. Kill it first in a mixed group.

    Problems: It breaks through my block · Big, slow, huge damage

    DodgeFireStasis

  • Eternal Guardsman

    Confirmed
    EliteThreat: High

    Tell It fences. The footwork is deliberate and it does not rush you.

    Counter Parry its attack rather than trading, then punish the posture break. Bait the combo and answer inside it.

    It defends. Speculative swings get you counter-hit, which is the same mistake the second demo boss punishes.

    Problems: It out-speeds me in a duel

    ParryPistolMelee

  • Volunteer Brute

    Confirmed
    Heavy InfantryThreat: Elevated

    Tell Huge frame, enormous blade, sweeping horizontal arcs at chest height.

    Counter Roll under the sweep rather than away from it. Then take the gap before it resets.

    Its arcs cover the whole corridor. Fighting it in a narrow space is a losing proposition; pull it into the open.

    Problems: Big, slow, huge damage

    DodgeClaymoreMusket

  • Carrion

    Confirmed
    AberrationThreat: High

    Tell A plague-mass that does not react to being cut.

    Counter It is immune to blades. Use Fire, or anything that applies burning, and let the damage tick while you reposition.

    Players who forget the Transmutation wheel stand in front of this thing swinging a sword and dying. This is the enemy that teaches you the left hand exists.

    Problems: My sword does nothing

    FireTransmutation

  • Howler

    Confirmed
    Pack BeastThreat: Elevated

    Tell A scream, then two more of them.

    Counter Do not get surrounded. Break the pack apart with area damage or Stasis, then kill them one at a time from a clean angle.

    The pack is the threat, not the individual. Killing the first one you see while the other two flank you is how this fight is lost.

    Problems: I get surrounded

    StasisBlunderbussFire

  • Lancer

    Reported
    InfantryThreat: Standard

    Tell Cavalry-pattern weapon on foot: long reach, committed thrusts.

    Counter Reach is its advantage, so parrying beats spacing. Let it commit, break the posture, punish.

    Only one source names it and neither describes a specific pattern, so treat the first encounter as a scouting run.

    Problems: Big, slow, huge damage

    ParryDodge

  • Smallsword

    Reported
    InfantryThreat: Elevated

    Tell Light, fast, short reach: a civilian duelling blade in a war zone.

    Counter Fast enemies punish a slow heavy weapon. Switch to the rapier or saber and win the exchange on recovery speed.

    Single source, no detailed pattern. Its threat rating is our read of the archetype rather than a reported difficulty.

    Problems: It out-speeds me in a duel

    RapierParry

  • Shambling Villager

    Confirmed
    Infected CivilianThreat: Low

    Tell Slow, unarmed, and completely unbothered by your presence.

    Counter Low threat alone, real threat in a crowd because they block your dodge lanes. Clear them with area damage before starting anything important.

    They are also the best target in the game for the multi-kill trophies: Scattershot, Flaming Feast and Hood-Snatcher all want a clumped group, and villagers clump.

    Problems: They block my dodge lanes

    BlunderbussFireClaymore

  • Sergeant Gaspard 'Cannonhand' Dubois

    Confirmed
    Named EliteThreat: Very High

    Tell A named soldier rather than a story boss, with a cannon-mount arm.

    Counter He has a dedicated trophy (Statue of Insanity) for fully locking him in Stasis, which means he must be survivable long enough for Stasis to complete. Do not burst him down.

    If you kill him on sight you permanently lose that trophy window for the run. Check your trophy list before you engage anything with a name and a title.

    Problems: It has a trophy I can only get once · It shoots me from range

    StasisDodgePistol

The four habits that keep you alive

Assume the answer changes

Carrion is the proof. If a target is not reacting, the problem is your tool, not your damage.

Clear the small ones first

Shambling Villagers are harmless alone and lethal as a wall between you and a dodge lane.

Never be surrounded

Howlers and Risen Soldiers both punish a player who picks one target and forgets the other three.

Check for a name before you engage

Named elites like Sergeant Gaspard Dubois carry their own trophy. If you kill one on sight, that window is gone for the run.

What this list is, and is not

Every enemy here was either fought in the public demo or named in the developer's own material. It is not the full roster of the retail game, and nobody outside the studio has that. What makes it useful anyway is that the answers are structural rather than creature-specific: a guard-breaking enemy is a dodge problem whether or not you know its name, and a blade-immune one is a Transmutation problem.

Bestiary questions

What enemy is immune to my sword in Valor Mortis?

Carrion. It is a plague mass that does not react to cutting damage. Use Fire or anything that applies burning, and let the damage tick while you reposition.

Why can I not block the Risen Sapeur?

Because its heavy blows break guard and punch through a held defence. This is the enemy that teaches you to dodge rather than block, and it is the clearest example of the game requiring more than one defensive answer.

How do I deal with Howler packs?

Do not get surrounded. Break the pack apart with area damage or Stasis, then kill them one at a time from a clean angle. The pack is the threat, not the individual.

The ten named boss encountersWhich weapon answers which enemyParry and posture fundamentals