How to Use the Grapple, Wall Run and Swing Kit — and Where the Musket and Napoleon Come In
Most Valor Mortis coverage stops at “first-person soulslike,” which buries the thing developer One More Level is loudest about: this is a soulslike built by the Ghostrunner studio, and the movement kit came with it. Everything below is drawn from first-party posts on the Steam news hub for App 2828710 and the store pages. Where the developer described a system without detailing it, this guide says so instead of guessing — and it flags what is community-reported rather than officially confirmed.
Why the Movement Is Not a Genre Bolt-On
Before you touch a single input, understand the in-fiction reason the kit exists. You play as William, a soldier of Napoleon’s Grande Armée pulled back out of a battlefield grave. The developer ties his abilities directly to the setting’s enabling substance: “the protagonist’s connection to the nephtoglobin plague allows him to grapple, wall run and swing across wide expanses.”
The Fall-2026 trailer post frames it the same way: “William’s ties to the nephtoglobin will grant him the ability to grapple through the air, wall run across cliffs, and manipulate terrain to get to new vantage points for combat.”
That is the structural point players keep missing. The parkour is the same corruption that resurrected William — so traversal and combat are meant to be one system, not two separate modes. Play accordingly: treat every gap and ledge as a combat tool, not scenery.
The Four Traversal Verbs, as Officially Described
The developer has named four movement verbs across two posts. Here is what each one implies for how you actually move:
- Grapple — “grapple through the air.” Point-to-point movement across gaps.
- Wall run — “wall run across cliffs.” Surface-to-surface momentum, Ghostrunner-style.
- Swing — “swing across wide expanses.” Pendulum traversal off anchor points.
- Terrain manipulation — “manipulate terrain to get to new vantage points for combat.” Traversal that feeds positioning in fights.
The last verb is the one to underline. The developer explicitly frames terrain manipulation as a route to combat vantage points, not just to the next platform. Read against the enemies page — where mobility is described as the intended counter to Napoleon’s Eternal Guard — and the movement and combat systems are being pitched as one.
What is not stated anywhere official: whether grapple points are marked or free-aimed, whether traversal consumes a resource, whether any of it unlocks progressively, or how “manipulate terrain” actually works at the input level. The demo is the only place to see it, and specifics should be documented against the retail build rather than guessed now.
Step 1 — Clear the Battlefield Tutorial First
The demo’s structure is officially two modified levels. The first is the ravaged battlefield that returning playtesters will recognize, and it serves as the combat tutorial. Treat it as a controls and combat-primer, not a showcase — the movement spectacle is deliberately saved for level two, so do not expect the full traversal kit here.
Step 2 — Reach the Lighthouse, the Traversal Showcase
The second level is described as “a brand new level that expands the game’s scope dramatically,” and it is where the traversal kit gets to breathe. This is the Lighthouse level, and it is the section you should study if you want to see grapple, wall run and swing chained together. Note that the source description cuts off mid-sentence when describing the exact setup (“The setup, in the d…”), so the precise objective flow for the Lighthouse is not fully documented in the available official material — treat any walkthrough of its exact layout as community-reported until the retail build confirms it.
Step 3 — Practice Chaining the Movement Verbs
Because the developer framed traversal as free-form rather than scripted, the practical approach is to learn each verb in isolation and then chain them:
- Use grapple to cross open gaps point-to-point.
- Transition into a wall run the moment you hit a cliff face to keep momentum.
- Look for anchor points to swing across the widest expanses.
- Finish by seeking a vantage point you can turn into an ambush against Napoleon’s Eternal Guard.
Step 4 — Use the Second Level’s Weapons: the Musket and Shield Transmutation
The Lighthouse level is where the demo’s second-level weapons come into play. Official material names the musket and Shield Transmutation as the demo’s second-level weapons. These pair naturally with the movement philosophy: the musket gives you ranged reach from the vantage points you climb to, while Shield Transmutation is the defensive counterpart to a kit built around repositioning.
The source does not detail exact musket handling, damage values, or how Shield Transmutation mechanically converts — where the developer described something without detailing it, that information simply is not officially available yet.
Who Voices Napoleon
Vincent Cassel voices Napoleon. The casting comes from One More Level’s own posts, so it is first-party rather than rumor. In practice this means the antagonist you orbit around — the figure whose Eternal Guard your movement is designed to out-position — carries a major film actor’s performance. If you are coming to the game for the Napoleon angle, the developer has signposted the performance as a selling point.
Getting a Valor Mortis Wallpaper from the Official Media
There is no officially released wallpaper pack described in the available source material, so the reliable route to a Valor Mortis wallpaper is the developer’s own published media. Screenshots and the cover key art shown on the store pages and Steam news hub are the highest-quality official images, and the ones embedded throughout this guide are drawn from those official listings — the traversal screenshots and the cover art make clean desktop backgrounds. Prefer these over fan reuploads, which often lose resolution.
Quick Tips
- Do not treat the battlefield as a movement tutorial — it is the combat tutorial. Save your traversal practice for the Lighthouse.
- Positioning is a weapon. Terrain manipulation exists to give you combat vantage points, so plan a route that ends on high ground, not just at the next checkpoint.
- The kit is the character. William’s grappling and wall running come from his nephtoglobin connection — narratively and mechanically, movement is his defining power.
- Flag your assumptions. Grapple aiming, resource costs, and terrain-manipulation inputs are all undocumented officially. Verify against the retail build rather than relying on demo impressions or community clips.