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Spend Catalysts at a Lantern before a dangerous route, then concentrate your next investments on the stat, weapon, or transmutation that fixes your current failure. Stamina is the strongest early choice for a parry-and-finisher style, health gives you more room to learn unfamiliar fights, and supernatural power matters when transmutations are central to your damage plan. Keep weapon materials on one dependable carry rather than spreading them across the entire arsenal.
What Catalysts do in Valor Mortis
Catalysts are the game’s progression currency. You use them at Lanterns to improve character attributes, acquire skills and transmutations, and correct a build later through respec. Weapon improvement is handled separately at the workbench, where materials increase a weapon’s raw damage while preserving that weapon’s traits and skills.
The important risk is that unspent Catalysts are not automatically safe. When you die, the pool is dropped at the death location. You must return there to recover it, and another failed attempt can put the currency you were carrying at risk again. This makes a Lantern more than a checkpoint: it is the place to bank progress before you push into an unfamiliar district, a boss route, or a shortcut with no nearby safety.
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The official Valor Mortis Steam description frames the loop as growth through repeated deaths and highlights parries, dashes, finishers, and varied weapons. Your spending should support the part of that loop you actually execute, not an imagined “best” build detached from your play.
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The safest Catalyst routine
- Return to a Lantern before a risky push. Spend the currency you can afford to lose instead of carrying a large balance through an unexplored route.
- Identify the failure that ended your last attempt. Decide whether you ran out of stamina, died while learning attack timings, lacked damage during a short opening, or could not reach an area.
- Buy one upgrade that addresses that failure. A focused change is easier to evaluate than several unrelated purchases.
- Test the change over several encounters. A single boss attempt can be distorted by unfamiliar patterns or a bad approach.
- Bank again before extending the route. Do not let a successful fight tempt you into carrying the entire reward through the next unknown section.
This routine preserves optionality. You can experiment, but the experiment is made with a banked reserve rather than with every Catalyst earned since the previous Lantern.
Choosing between health, stamina, and supernatural power
These attributes solve different problems. The right first investment depends on the actions you perform most often and the reason you are losing encounters.
| Attribute | What it supports | Prioritize it when | What it does not solve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stamina | Parries, dodges, attack strings, and finishers | You frequently run out of stamina before completing a defensive or finishing sequence | It will not compensate for taking unavoidable hits or lacking a damage option |
| Health | A larger margin for mistakes while learning fights | You are trading hits, dying during pattern learning, or losing to chip damage on long routes | It does not improve timing, traversal, or the damage of a weapon by itself |
| Supernatural power | The effectiveness and practical value of transmutations | Your build depends on transmutations for crowd control, mobility, offensive windows, or recovery | It is a weak priority if you rarely activate transmutations |
When stamina should come first
Stamina is the natural opening investment for an aggressive player who builds fights around parries, dashes, and visceral finishers. Those actions form a loop: evade or parry, create an opening, and spend enough stamina to convert it into a finisher or follow-up. If the bar empties during that sequence, the problem is not necessarily your weapon’s damage; you may simply be unable to complete the plan.
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When health should come first
Health is the learning stat. New areas and bosses ask you to recognize timings, spacing, and punish windows, and early attempts are rarely clean. A larger health reserve lets you observe a pattern, survive a mistake, and reach the next attempt without requiring perfect execution.
Health is also sensible for players who prefer measured dodges and occasional trades instead of a no-hit parry rhythm. It does not make poor positioning safe forever, but it prevents one missed cue from ending an otherwise informative attempt. Once you are surviving long enough to understand the encounter, move later investments toward the resource or damage tool that is now limiting you.
When supernatural power should come first
Supernatural power is valuable only when transmutations are part of your normal combat or exploration loop. If a flame-style effect controls groups, an offensive transmutation defines your boss damage window, or a recovery option keeps you alive on a long route, raising this attribute increases the value of a system you already use.
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If you rarely activate transmutations, buying supernatural power early can leave your ordinary weapon attacks and defenses unchanged. In that case, secure the stamina or health needed to perform your basic plan, then invest in supernatural power when a specific transmutation has earned a place on your action bar.
How to spend weapon materials at the workbench
The workbench improves raw weapon damage while retaining weapon-specific traits and skills. That means an upgrade does not erase the identity of a cutlass or another favored weapon; it makes the tool you already understand hit harder without replacing the moves that made you choose it.
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Concentrate on a carry weapon
Keep materials on the weapon that actually ends most of your encounters. A concentrated carry reaches useful damage progression sooner than several half-upgraded weapons, and its performance is easier to judge because your moves, range, and timing remain familiar.
Before spending, ask whether the workbench shows a meaningful damage increase for the weapon you use most. The exact threshold is practical rather than numerical: compare the displayed improvement with the way that weapon performs against the enemies currently stopping you. If your current weapon already handles ordinary foes and your deaths happen while escaping, parrying, or learning a boss, a stat upgrade may have greater immediate impact.
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A second weapon is worth materials when it solves a concrete problem that your carry cannot address efficiently, such as a range, moveset, or encounter requirement you repeatedly face. Do not level it merely because it is available. Its role should be clear enough that you can name the route or enemy where it will replace the primary weapon.
Switching weapons also carries an opportunity cost: every material placed on an occasional weapon delays the damage progression of the one you use every fight. Keep the primary weapon current until the alternate has a demonstrable job.
Buying skills and transmutations without wasting Catalysts
Skills and transmutations are not interchangeable damage buttons. Their value comes from the problem they solve.
| Role | Useful situation | Buying test |
|---|---|---|
| Crowd control | Groups prevent you from isolating targets or create repeated pressure in tight spaces | Can the effect reliably create room or interrupt the group that is killing you? |
| Mobility | A shortcut, ledge, gap, or inaccessible route blocks progress | Does the movement option open a route or safety position you can use immediately? |
| Offensive enhancement | A boss exposes a short damage window or a durable enemy survives your normal punish | Can you activate it consistently during the opening rather than losing the resource while repositioning? |
| Recovery utility | Long routes or repeated chip damage leave you unable to reach the next Lantern | Does it extend a run enough to reduce the specific recovery problem? |
Check whether the ability is already an unlock
Some abilities arrive through the story or secret areas rather than a Catalyst purchase. Before reserving currency for a desired effect, verify whether the route, quest, or hidden-area reward grants it. Buying a substitute and then receiving the intended ability for free is an avoidable opportunity cost.
Use supernatural power to support a real loop
A transmutation purchase makes sense when you can describe its place in an encounter: control a group before drawing a single target, cross a gap to bypass a dangerous approach, amplify a boss punish, or recover during a route that otherwise forces a return. “It looks powerful” is not enough; the ability should be solving a failure you have observed.
Ambers: the passive layer after your core upgrades
The active skill tree is only part of character customization. Ambers provide a wider range of passive effects, so a build that feels complete on the skill screen can still change substantially through its passive slots.
The first Amber slot opens at level 5. Additional slots arrive every ten levels, up to a maximum of five slots. Plan around the slots you actually have rather than assuming that every passive can be equipped at once. A passive that improves your established combat loop is usually more useful than one that requires you to abandon the weapon, timing, or resource pattern you have practiced.
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Because Ambers add variety rather than replacing the basic stat roles, do not postpone a needed health, stamina, or supernatural-power investment while waiting for a perfect passive combination. Use Ambers to refine a functioning plan, not to hide a missing foundation.
A decision framework for every Catalyst purchase
When two upgrades appear attractive, compare them on the same six questions:
- Immediate survival: Which option prevents the next likely death?
- Damage in your actual loop: Does it improve the attacks, finishers, or transmutation you reliably perform?
- Resource efficiency: Will it reduce stamina or supernatural-resource failures rather than merely add theoretical power?
- Access: Does it open a route, shortcut, crowd-control answer, or other option that you currently lack?
- Opportunity cost: What weapon, stat, or skill will be delayed by this purchase?
- Reversibility: If the choice is wrong, can you correct it through a Lantern respec at a cost you accept?
Use the first two questions to break most ties. A weapon upgrade that raises damage on every encounter generally beats a niche skill you rarely activate; a stamina increase that lets you complete your parry-and-finisher chain generally beats a small damage gain if the chain is failing from exhaustion. Access and reversibility matter when the options are otherwise close.
Early-, mid-, and late-route priorities
Early game: bank, survive, and establish a carry
Spend at the nearest Lantern before exploring farther. Pick stamina first if you are actively parrying, dodging, and finishing; pick health if you are still learning enemy patterns or regularly trading hits. Add supernatural power when transmutations are already part of your damage or control loop.
At the workbench, choose the weapon that ends your encounters most often, such as a favored cutlass, and keep its materials concentrated. The goal is not to own a broadly upgraded arsenal; it is to make one reliable tool effective while your fundamentals and route knowledge develop.
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Once your basic survival and carry weapon are stable, buy a transmutation when its role is concrete. Crowd control should address groups, mobility should address a route or ledge, offensive enhancement should address a punish window, and recovery should address route length or attrition. Confirm story and secret-area unlocks first so Catalysts are not spent on an ability that arrives through exploration.
Begin evaluating Ambers as slots open. At level 5 you gain the first slot, and every ten additional levels add another until five are available. Choose passives that reinforce the way you now fight rather than rebuilding around every new effect.
Later game: refine instead of scattering
Later investments should close a specific gap: enough stamina to complete a known sequence, enough health to survive a repeatable mistake while learning a difficult encounter, enough supernatural power to sustain a transmutation-centered plan, or more damage on the weapon that remains your best answer.
At this stage, a scattered collection of partially upgraded weapons is especially expensive. Keep the carry current and add an alternate only when a particular encounter or route demonstrates that the primary weapon cannot efficiently do the job.
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Lantern respec: a correction, not a shopping feature
Lanterns allow you to respec, but the Catalyst price rises with prior levelling. Respec therefore protects you from a genuinely poor allocation without making constant experimentation free.
When to respec
- Your play pattern has changed from weapon-first combat to a transmutation-centered build.
- You invested in supernatural power but discovered that you do not use the relevant abilities.
- Your stamina pool repeatedly prevents the same parry, dodge, or finisher sequence.
- Your health investment is not addressing the route or boss failures you can now identify.
When not to respec
Do not rebuild after every boss attempt. A single failed attempt may reflect unfamiliar timing rather than a defective allocation. Test the current build long enough to identify a repeatable failure, then make one correction and measure whether that failure changes. Frequent reversals consume the same Catalysts needed to strengthen the next version of the build.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common spending mistakes and fixes
Carrying a large unspent pool
Symptom: You die deep in an unexplored route and must recover a large Catalyst balance.
Fix: Return to a Lantern and spend before the next risky push. Banking turns a dangerous recovery into a smaller, more manageable loss.
Upgrading every weapon evenly
Symptom: Several weapons are usable, but none reaches a satisfying damage progression.
Fix: Select the weapon that actually ends encounters and direct materials to it until its role changes. Add a second weapon only for a demonstrated range, moveset, or encounter need.
Buying a skill because it is available
Symptom: A new transmutation consumes Catalysts but rarely appears in your fights.
Fix: Tie every purchase to a crowd, route, boss window, or recovery problem. Check story and secret-area rewards before paying for an effect that may be obtained through exploration.
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Ignoring the resource that breaks your sequence
Symptom: You reach an opening but cannot finish the parry, dodge, or finisher chain because stamina is empty.
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Fix: Raise stamina before chasing more raw damage. If the sequence is failing because hits land before it begins, redirect the next investment to health or a defensive solution.
Respecing before diagnosing the failure
Symptom: Your Catalyst balance shrinks through repeated rebuilds without a clear improvement.
Fix: Keep the build through enough attempts to identify a recurring problem, then respec once. The escalating respec price rewards deliberate corrections.
Three practical spending profiles
Parry-and-finisher fighter
Start with stamina because the build depends on repeated parries, dashes, and finishers. Keep weapon materials on the carry that you can use confidently after a successful parry. Add health if missed timings are ending attempts before the loop starts, and buy supernatural power only when a transmutation consistently improves the punish.
Learning-focused explorer
Start with health when your priority is surviving long enough to read unfamiliar enemies and routes. Bank frequently at Lanterns, use a dependable weapon rather than splitting materials, and add mobility or recovery utility when a specific shortcut or attrition problem blocks exploration. Shift toward stamina after your defensive timings become consistent.
Transmutation-centered build
Choose supernatural power early when crowd control, offensive enhancement, mobility, or recovery is already central to your decisions. Buy only the transmutations that have a defined job, then use Ambers to reinforce that loop as slots open. Keep enough health or stamina to activate the plan reliably; a powerful effect that cannot be reached or afforded during an encounter is not a complete build.
What the available numbers do—and do not—tell you
There are no established named statistics supporting a responsible numerical claim about Catalyst efficiency, damage-percentage gains, level-by-level prices, or farming rates. The useful evidence is qualitative: the game shows visible weapon progression at the workbench, assigns clear roles to health, stamina, and supernatural power, opens Amber slots at level 5 and every ten levels afterward up to five, and makes respec more expensive as prior levelling increases.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsUse those visible changes and your repeated failure pattern instead of treating an invented breakpoint as a rule. The best upgrade is the one that changes the encounter you are actually losing, while preserving enough banked currency to recover from the next death.
Bottom line
Spend Catalysts at a Lantern before danger, then invest narrowly: stamina for a parry-and-finisher loop, health for learning and mistake margin, supernatural power for a transmutation build, and workbench materials for one dependable carry weapon. Buy skills when they solve a named crowd-control, mobility, offensive, or recovery problem; use Ambers to refine the plan as slots unlock; and reserve respec for a diagnosed mismatch because its Catalyst cost increases with previous investment.
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