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Valor Mortis on PC. Click to open it full size.
Valor Mortis is a first-person Soulslike for PC from One More Level, available on Steam and the Xbox app. You play William, a soldier of Napoleon’s army brought back from the grave. You fight plague-twisted soldiers and monsters with a saber, a flintlock pistol and supernatural powers, and every death sends you back to the last checkpoint.
One More Level is the studio behind Ghostrunner, and the speed shows. This is a Soulslike played from your own eyes, not over a shoulder, so parries, dashes and finishers happen right in front of you. You hold a blade in one hand and a gun or a spell in the other.
It came out on October 13, 2026, for Windows 10 and 11, published by Lyrical Games. It has full controller support, and PC Game Pass includes it.
Already playing? Tell us which boss stopped you the longest. Got questions before buying? Reach out to us directly.
What You Need to Know
- On PC it is sold on Steam and in the Xbox app. It is also on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
- PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate include the full game.
- It is single-player only, with no co-op or online mode.
- An SSD is required, and the minimum spec asks for 16 GB of RAM.
- It is rated for mature players. Combat is bloody, with gory finishers.
Quick Facts
How to Download Valor Mortis on Windows
To buy it outright, Steam is the simplest route. You need 60 GB of free space on an SSD.
- Step 1. Install Steam. Download it from the Steam website and sign in.
- Step 2. Open the store page. Go to Valor Mortis on Steam.
- Step 3. Pick an edition and buy it. Click Add to Cart and finish checkout.
- Step 4. Install it to an SSD. Find it in your library, click Install and choose a drive that is not a hard disk.
- Step 5. Launch it from your library. Check the graphics settings before your first fight.
Have PC Game Pass? Open the Xbox app, search for Valor Mortis and click Install. You can also buy it there from the Xbox store page if you want your saves to follow you to an Xbox console.
Valor Mortis Editions and Price
There are two editions. The Deluxe Edition is mostly a pre-paid ticket for content that comes later. The story expansion is the only part that adds new gameplay, and the skins only change how your weapons look.
Prices are the US list prices on Steam and the Xbox store, with regional prices elsewhere. Already own the standard game, or play it through Game Pass? The Deluxe Edition Upgrade sells the same extras for about $20.
☁️ Your PC is too weak? Cloud gaming is an option.
Valor Mortis is cloud playable with Game Pass Ultimate, so you can stream it through the Xbox app or a browser instead of running it on your own graphics card. Use a wired connection or strong Wi-Fi, because a laggy stream makes parry timing much harder.
What Is Valor Mortis?
Valor Mortis is set in an alternate 19th-century Eastern Europe, where Napoleon’s endless war has spread a plague that turns soldiers into monsters. You play William, a British soldier in the Grande Armée (Napoleon’s army) who wakes up in a battlefield grave. The plague that brought him back also gives him his powers.
Your pistol hits weak points from a distance, but ammo is scarce.
It plays like a Soulslike, a style of action game named after Dark Souls. Fights are hard, enemies hit hard, and you respawn at the last lantern you lit when you die. You lose the Catalysts (the currency you spend on upgrades) you were carrying, and you have to walk back to where you died to get them.
Transmutations turn your left hand into a weapon.
Combat runs on three tools at once: a melee weapon in your right hand, a firearm in your left, and Transmutations, magic powers you unlock as you play. Blocking costs a little health, and a well-timed parry hits back hard. The story features a voice cast led by Vincent Cassel as Napoleon and Jennifer English as The Shrike, a resistance leader.
Parrying is the heart of the combat.
Official Trailer
Watch the official launch trailer for Valor Mortis to see the plague monsters, the saber and pistol combat, and Vincent Cassel as Napoleon.
Key Features
Parry, dash and block from your own eyes. Timing matters more than stats, and big enemies fill the whole screen.
Swap between sabers, rapiers and heavier blades, and back them with pistols, muskets or a blunderbuss.
Supernatural powers for your free hand, like bursts of fire, that you unlock and upgrade as the story goes on.
Spend Catalysts to raise your health, stamina and stats. Lanterns are your checkpoints, and dying drops what you carry.
Areas loop back on themselves with doors and ladders you unlock, plus hidden paths and side quests.
One More Level puts the story at around 20 hours, with a story expansion planned for the Deluxe Edition.
Is This Game for You?
Our Take
🎮 Our Take
Valor Mortis does something few Soulslikes try: it moves the camera into the soldier’s eyes. That makes every parry feel close and heavy, and the Napoleonic plague setting is a fresh change from the usual castles and knights. At $39.99 for a 20-hour campaign, it also costs less than most games in the genre. The catch is the PC hardware bar. The minimum spec needs 16 GB of RAM and an SSD, and even then the studio only promises 30 frames per second at 1080p on Low with upscaling. The demo was also pulled over performance problems, so we would check how it runs on your own PC before you commit.
If you have PC Game Pass, play it there first, because it costs you nothing extra. If you love Sekiro or Elden Ring and your PC meets the recommended spec, the standard edition on Steam is an easy pick. Skip the Deluxe Edition until the story expansion is out and you know you want more. If first-person games make you queasy, this one will too.
System Requirements
These are the requirements One More Level lists on Steam. Both tiers assume you turn on upscaling (DLSS, FSR or a similar setting that renders at a lower resolution and sharpens the image), so plan to use it.
A hard drive will not do, and 8 GB of RAM is below the minimum. If your PC falls short, our Best Gaming Desktops guide is a good place to start.
Tips for Beginners
Learn to parry early
Blocking costs health, but a timed parry deals heavy damage back. Practice on weak enemies so it is second nature before the first boss.
Save your bullets
Ammo is scarce. Use your pistol on weak points or to stagger a big enemy, not to finish off something you could cut down.
Spend Catalysts before you explore
You drop every Catalyst you carry when you die. Spend them at a lantern before you push into a new area.
Open every shortcut
Locked doors and ladders often loop back to a lantern. Opening them makes the walk back after a death much shorter.
Dodge what you cannot block
Some attacks are unblockable. Dash out of the way instead of raising your sword, then punish the opening.
Best Valor Mortis Mods to Start With
Valor Mortis has no Steam Workshop. Mods come from Nexus Mods, and the first wave is mostly quality-of-life fixes. These four are the most useful to start with.
These mods are written for the Steam version, and they install into the game folder by hand. The game is single-player only, so there is no online ban risk, but a game update can break a mod until its author fixes it. Back up your save before you add anything.
Valor Mortis Screenshots
Gory finishers, the weapon upgrade menu, a fight in a flooded street and the plague giants of the army camps. Click any image to open it full size.
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- Valor mortis armored boss flooded street from
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- Valor mortis plague giant army camp from
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- Valor mortis root gate cavern from
Valor Mortis FAQ
How long is Valor Mortis?
Is Valor Mortis multiplayer or co-op?
Is there a Valor Mortis demo on PC?
Does Valor Mortis have New Game+?
Do Xbox app saves carry over to an Xbox console?
What are the Valor Mortis system requirements?
Support and Community
- One More Level, the developer’s official website.
- The official Valor Mortis website, with trailers and store links.
- Steam news for Valor Mortis, where patch notes appear.
- The official Valor Mortis Discord, where the developers answer questions.
- r/ValorMortis on Reddit, for builds, boss help and discussion.
- Valor Mortis on Nexus Mods, for PC mods.
- Lyrical Games support, for bug reports and account help.
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