Put your first points into health and endurance, and grab the Rapier near the main hub before you spend any weapon materials. This Valor Mortis guide covers where most people get stuck early: parrying too soon, missing hidden quest routes, and trying obstacles before you have the power that opens them. One thing that saves a lot of stress: you can lose the opening Lothaire fight and keep going, since you get a rematch later.
Plan Your Route: Lantern Skills and Ability-Gated Detours
The walkthrough covers opening-area backtracking, guard rewards and boss counters. Once fast travel becomes available, you can revisit the starting battlefield; fire and grapple powers also open earlier obstacles and traversal routes.
For your first levels, the skill tree guide puts health and endurance ahead of everything else. Lanterns let you reset your allocation by spending Catalysts. Airborne Aiming slows time while aiming a firearm in the air, helping with shooting during jumps.
Win Fights: Parry the Hit and Target Boss Weak Spots
Parry when the attack reaches you, not when it starts; the parry timing guide breaks it down. Waiting through the wind-up helps avoid an early attempt; successful parries damage posture and can open an execution against normal enemies. The Saber lets you block while learning, while the Rapier rewards parries with stronger posture damage.
Each of the bosses wants a different answer: parry Lothaire, use Fire and ammunition against the Iron Marshall's back, and freeze then pull Slaughtermill's opening. Before an Eternal Guard duel, clear the enemies around him. You can lure the opening guard away and collect Duelist Focus behind him before finishing the fight; its bonus widens your parry window.
Choose Equipment: Collect the Rapier Before Spending Materials
Check the full weapon list before committing upgrades. At the main hub, take the opening left of the workbench, follow the graveyard on the right, and pull the Rapier from the corpse at the path's end. It targets weak points directly but cannot block.
To get the pistol, cross the outdoor wooden platforms and look for the blue padded display inside the red decorated room. Approach the gun for the TAKE prompt.
The weapon upgrade guide covers the hub workbench and the material detours. Return with the blue grapple power for Pure Blade Material at the quarry and Distilled Blade Material behind the church. Spent weapon materials cannot be recovered.
Equip ambers at a lantern after you collect them. Surplus increases Catalysts from enemy kills, Dominatus heals through critical attacks, and Bottomless Well slowly restores Nephtoglobin. For Bottomless Well, revisit the opening area's burnable obstruction after gaining fire power.
Finish Optional Goals: Scout Orders and All-Guard Achievements
The side quest guide has routes for the scouts' orders, the Toy behind the Weathered Key pub door, and the beekeeper's Anubis figurine pieces. Returning the scouts' letter earns Sleight of Hand; taking the Toy back to the Marketplace crib completes Lullaby and awards Tomorrow's Promise.
The achievement list has each unlock's exact condition. We Wear the Same Colors requires defeating all Eternal Guardists, while Symphony of Steel requires 10 parries without taking damage.
Recover From Crashes: Restart and Update Graphics Drivers
If the game keeps crashing, compare your PC with the minimum requirements, restart it, and update your graphics drivers before trying again. If crashes continue, report your PC specifications, the location, and the action immediately before the failure. If the audio cuts out mid-level, keep playing; it comes back.