Walkthrough & Progression Order
A chapter-by-chapter route with the boss order, the gear checkpoints, and the one habit that matters more than any build: clearing optional content before a chapter closes.
Valor Mortis is chapter-numbered, but the numbering is not the same thing as a straight line. The public demo presented Chapter I — Revival and Chapter VII — Witch Hunt, six chapters apart, which told players the game was willing to hand them a late-game environment with a kit they had not earned. The developer has since clarified that those demo levels were bespoke reconstructions built for Steam Next Fest rather than the retail chapters, so treat the demo's structure as a demonstration rather than a preview. A September 2026 preview played the first four retail chapters and reported the story beginning to open up around there.
One correction that matters for planning: General Lothaire is the boss at the end of Chapter II in the retail game, not a Chapter I wall. The demo put him at the end of its opening level where players had about thirty minutes of practice, and the studio names that short runway as the reason he felt unfair. In the retail game you meet him with more time invested and a levelled character, which is the same fight with a smoother ramp.
That combination, non-linear delivery plus permanent missables, is what makes a progression order worth writing down. The rule is simple: before you close a chapter, clear your open threads. Six named side quests all have trophies, which means all six are optional and all six can be lost. Valor Mortis has no map screen, so backtracking to find an NPC you skipped is genuinely hard rather than merely tedious.
The second rule is about gear. Because Catalysts drop where you die and the game expects you to spend them, the level curve is largely self-correcting. What is not self-correcting is your Transmutation loadout: walking into a boss fight without Fire when the encounter includes a blade-immune enemy is a build problem, not a skill problem.
- Length
- Roughly 20 hours; 12–15 for soulslike veterans
- Structure
- Numbered chapters, not necessarily played in order
- Named bosses
- 10
- Named side quests
- 6 confirmed, all missable
- In-game map
- None — navigate by lantern placement
- Missables
- Side quests, a named elite trophy, and at least one story rendezvous
- Difficulty options
- None; four assists instead
Clear your threads before every chapter break
If you take one thing from this page, take this. All six named quests are optional, several are almost certainly triggered by a second conversation rather than a first, and at least one campaign trophy depends on a meeting you can miss. There is no map. Finish what you started before the chapter changes.
Boss order, as far as the record confirms it
Two of these encounters were playable in the demo, so their placement is known. The other eight are ordered by what the trophy list implies about their position in the campaign. That is inference, and it is labelled as such.
- 01ConfirmedChapter IIGeneral Lothaire, the Eagle-Bearer
The demo's first wall. In the retail game he is a Chapter II boss, and that single change is the fix.
Trophy: Torn BannerGuide - 02ConfirmedChapter VIIHigh Justicar Aurelius, Last of the Faithful
The parry exam. Stop attacking and start reading.
Trophy: True OathGuide - 03ReportedFull gameThe Iron Marshall
Named by the trophy list. Everything else is a hypothesis until launch.
Trophy: Ultima Ratio RegumGuide - 04ReportedFull gameThe Sphinx
A plague-mutated beast encounter, judging by the name and the game's bestiary framing.
Trophy: Not a Cat PersonGuide - 05ReportedFull gameThe Slaughtermill
The name reads industrial. Expect the encounter to be built around the arena as much as the enemy.
Trophy: QuixotryGuide - 06ReportedFull gameThe Bride
The trophy name is a metal band reference. The encounter is likely the game's horror centrepiece.
Trophy: My Dying BrideGuide - 07ReportedFull gameExperiment 83
A lab-numbered horror. Expect something assembled rather than born.
Trophy: Lament of the LimbsGuide - 08ReportedFull gameThe Orphan
Demo impressions flagged one story beat that stuck with them: the lost children.
Trophy: Coup de GrâceGuide - 09ReportedLate gameNephtis Superioris
Almost certainly the thing the plague is.
Trophy: BehemothGuide - 10ReportedEndgameThe Entity
The conspiracy the game keeps promising. "In His Own Image" is the tell.
Trophy: In His Own ImageGuide
New Game Plus: reserved, not guessed
Valor Mortis does not have a confirmed New Game Plus. What it has is a commitment: the publisher has said multiple free updates will arrive in the weeks and months after launch to add more ways to play. A second-playthrough mode is the most obvious candidate for one of them, and it is the single feature most likely to change how long this game stays installed, because the campaign is a focused twenty hours and the build space is narrow.
We are reserving this section rather than filling it. The reason to say that out loud is that the largest wiki in this space has already created a New Game Plus page and left it empty, which tells you it is the page type players will look for. If a mode is announced, the specifics will land here: whether it carries your Catalysts and Ambers, whether it raises enemy damage or posture, and whether any trophies require it. Until then, plan a single run plus a trophy cleanup pass.
One thing worth knowing while you wait: because the trophy list requires no second playthrough, a New Game Plus here would be a quality-of-life feature rather than a completion requirement. That is a meaningfully different proposition from the genre norm, and it means you are not missing anything by finishing the game once.
How to plan around an unannounced mode
Do not save anything for it. Bank your Catalysts before the endgame rather than carrying a fortune you cannot spend, finish the six missable side quests on your first run, and treat the loyalty branch between Napoleon and The Shrike as the reason for a second playthrough rather than build variety. If a New Game Plus arrives, you will want to start it from a finished, clean save rather than a half-explored one.
Gear checkpoints
Before your first boss
Spend every Catalyst you have. Turn on Target Lock and Instant Restart. Practise the parry timing on Risen Soldiers until a string breaks rather than merely blocks.
Before Chapter VII content
Add a Transmutation you can rely on. Chapter VII drops you into a maze of plague-hardened streets where Fire is the answer to at least one enemy family.
Before the late-game bosses
One melee weapon, one firearm and one Transmutation fully upgraded. The trophy list defines max-upgrading each as a milestone, which is the game telling you what it expects.
Side content, and when to do it
Oathbound
MissableAn oath is a thing you swear. In a game where the central branch is loyalty to the Emperor versus following The Shrike, a quest called Oathbound is almost certainly about someone who has already chosen.
Laudanum
MissableLaudanum is the nineteenth-century opium tincture, sold as medicine and quietly ruinous. The trophy calls it a bitter cure, which frames this as a story about relief that costs more than the illness.
The Curious Case of Seamus Diggory
MissableA 'curious case' with a full name in the title reads like an investigation. Blood and Wine is either the evidence or the motive.
The Deserter
MissableA deserter is a soldier who walked away. In a game whose protagonist volunteered, this quest is the thematic mirror, and the trophy name suggests it does not end well for someone.
The Unheard Farewell
MissableA message that never reached anyone. The trophy name is oddly tactical for that, which hints the quest is delivered through battlefield documents rather than a conversation.
Monster Hunt
MissableThe only quest name that implies a kill list, and the only trophy named after a document rather than an act. 'The Book of Beasts' suggests an in-world bestiary that fills in as you hunt.
Walkthrough questions
How long is Valor Mortis?
Around 20 hours for a first playthrough according to hands-on coverage, with soulslike veterans finishing in 12 to 15. Replay value is thin: the skill tree is close to linear and the weapon pool is small.
What order should I play Valor Mortis in?
Chapters are numbered, but the demo shipped Chapter I and Chapter VII out of order, so the structure is not strictly linear. The safe habit is to finish optional content before closing a chapter, because quests and named enemies can be permanently missed.
Is there a point of no return?
Almost certainly, because the story branches between loyalty to Napoleon and following The Shrike, and one trophy depends on a rendezvous with The Shrike that is missable. Treat every chapter transition as a checkpoint to clear your outstanding quests.
Written for the October 13, 2026 launch build. Anything shown as Inference is our reading of the confirmed record and should be corrected the moment the game says otherwise.