Valor Mortis Catalyst Farm: 4 Best Spots by Chapter

The best Valor Mortis Catalyst farm depends on how far you are: the three soldiers by the first Lanterns in Chapter 1, the Fallen Village barn in Chapter 3, and then a single Iron Regiment Remnant at Under the Bridge (Chapter 5) or the Chapel (Chapter 10), which guides clock at roughly 11,700 Catalysts a minute. Every route works the same way: kill a group near a Lantern, rest to respawn it, repeat. Below are the four spots, the Amber that raises every payout, and how to avoid losing a stack you spent twenty minutes building.

We checked this against KeenGamer's and Power Up Gaming's farming guides, FinalBoss's early-game guide, PowerPyx's walkthrough and MetaBot's datamined enemy, item and level tables in November 2026.

How Catalysts Work and Why Farming Is Normal

Catalysts are both your experience and your money. You spend them at a Lantern to buy levels and at the two merchants in the Abandoned Church for ammunition, vials and upgrade materials. Every kill pays out, and the amount scales with the enemy's placement level: MetaBot's data has a basic Risen Soldier worth 50 Catalysts at level 1 and 200 at level 6, the highest enemy level in the game. Bosses pay in bulk. MetaBot puts the ten boss rewards at 309,000 Catalysts combined, with the final boss alone worth 100,000.

The reason farming is part of normal play is the cost curve. Level 10 takes 10,273 Catalysts in total, level 25 takes 114,010 and level 50 takes 602,002, while a blade costs 45,000 Catalysts to max if you buy its materials instead of finding them. A run that only kills what is in its way falls behind that curve somewhere around the middle chapters. Our level cap guide has the full table if you want to plan a target.

The rules that make a loop possible are simple. Resting at a Lantern restores Health, Nephtoglobin and flasks and revives every non-boss enemy. The exception is Enraged enemies, the red-eyed elites, which never come back once killed, so they are not farmable no matter how good their drops look.

Chapter 1: The Three Soldiers Near the First Lanterns

Your first loop is available almost immediately. KeenGamer describes it from the Onslaught Arch Lantern: head onto the battlefield, keep right along the main path, pass through a broken crate-like structure with a fire on your right and a torn banner on your left, and you reach three Risen Soldiers standing together. Walk past them to the next Lantern and light it. Power Up Gaming describes the same group from the Trenches Lantern, the next checkpoint along. From then on, the loop is: rest, turn around, burn all three with the Fire Transmutation, tidy up with the Saber, and rest again.

KeenGamer measured about 2,080 Catalysts per minute here, or roughly 124,800 an hour at that pace, plus the occasional Crude Blade Material and Whetstone drop. That is small money later, but in Chapter 1 each level costs only a few hundred to a few thousand Catalysts, so twenty minutes here buys real survivability for the Lothaire fight. Spend it on the basics: Maximum Endurance and Maximum Health are the first picks in most guides, as our best build guide explains.

Chapter 3: The Fallen Village Barn

Once you reach the Fallen Village, the Marketplace Lantern becomes a better base. The barn directly across from it holds a group of weak Shambling Civilians that rush you as soon as you step inside. KeenGamer and FinalBoss both recommend the same trick: back up to the narrow doorway so the group bunches up, then hold the Fire Transmutation over all of them at once and dodge backward if anyone gets close. The run from Lantern to barn is a few seconds, which is what makes this spot so efficient.

KeenGamer's figure for this loop is around 3,300 Catalysts per minute with the Surplus Amber equipped, roughly 198,000 an hour. A couple of details keep it reliable:

• Arrive with Nephtoglobin. Fire burns the resource. If you are low, refill with melee hits or by breaking enemy weak points before you trigger the group, as FinalBoss suggests, or carry Nephtoglobin Vials, which restore 100 each.
• Fix the pull, not the damage. If the group keeps spreading out and you start using consumables, the doorway position is off. The value of this loop is that it is a controlled, repeatable fight.
• Use the spot twice. The same barn is where trophy hunters set up several combat feats, so it is worth learning even if you move on to a richer farm later. Our trophy guide lists which ones.

Chapter 5 and Chapter 10: The Iron Regiment Remnant

The big step up comes in the Vale of Wrath. At the Under the Bridge Lantern in Chapter 5, KeenGamer's route has you climb the ladder beside the Lantern to find a single Remnant of the Iron Regiment, one of the armored Cannonhand soldiers. It looks intimidating, but its weak points make it fast: equip the Blunderbuss, fire twice into the weak points to open it up, then walk in and land a frontal deathblow with your melee weapon. Climb down, rest, repeat.

That route is worth about 11,700 Catalysts per minute by KeenGamer's count, or 702,000 an hour at a steady pace. To put that in perspective, an hour here pays for every level from 1 to 50 with change to spare. The catch is execution: both Blunderbuss shots need to land on the weak points, and the Blunderbuss only holds two rounds and shares its special ammunition with the Musket. Special Cartridges from James's Iron Bench (sold after Chapter 5) keep the loop running.

The Chapel Lantern in Chapter 10 has the same enemy standing directly in front of the checkpoint. KeenGamer does not give a number for it but rates it faster than Under the Bridge, simply because there is no ladder or walk between kills. If you are in the endgame, this is the one to use. One warning from MetaBot's data: the Iron Marshall and the Remnants have some of the tightest parry windows in the game, 0.05 seconds on the Upperbash, so do not try to parry them when you can just shoot the weak points.

Squeezing More Out of Every Loop

The single best farming upgrade is the Surplus Amber, which adds 10% Catalysts per kill at rank I, 12.5% at rank II and 15% at rank III. Rank equals the number of copies you hold. MetaBot's data places three copies, in chests near the Valley of Ashes Military Camp, the Caverns Old Mine and the Outskirts Market Square Lanterns, while FinalBoss refers to two copies, so expect at least two and possibly a third. Amber slots open with your level; PC Gamer reports the first slot at level 5, so you can equip Surplus very early.

Catalyst Clots are the other big pool. MetaBot counts 191 Clots placed in the world, worth 342,450 Catalysts together, which is enough on its own to reach level 39. A Clot sells to a merchant for exactly what it gives when used, and buying one costs double, so there is no profit in trading them. FinalBoss's advice is to hold them unopened until you are standing at a Lantern ready to spend, because using a Clot adds it to the Catalysts you carry, and those drop when you die.

A few more small gains:

• Kill speed beats enemy value. Upgrades that end a loop a few seconds sooner pay back on every lap. Melee Damage and the Fire Transmutation upgrades are the usual picks.
• Warrior's Fury adds up to 20% movement speed for 8 seconds after a kill at rank III, which shortens the walk back on routes with any distance.
• Bosses only pay once. They do not respawn, so their 309,000 combined Catalysts are a one-time bonus, not a farm.

Protecting Your Stack

Farming only works if you keep what you earn. When you die you drop every Catalyst you carry at that spot, and if you die again before reaching it, they are gone for good. Three consumables change those rules, per MetaBot's item data:

• Remnant's Return automatically absorbs Catalysts lost on death. Louis's Laboratoire sells a small stock of four after Chapter 5 for 1,000 Catalysts each, and some side quests give one.
• Sands of Time sends you to the last visited Lantern and rests you with your Catalysts kept, though the world around you resets.
• Fading Light guides you to the last-lit Lantern but drops your held Catalysts where you used it, so it is not a bank.

FinalBoss adds a useful detail for boss attempts: if you die in a boss arena, your dropped Catalysts appear outside it, so you can recover them and level up before trying again. The simplest habit is still the best one: whenever you can afford a level or an upgrade, rest and buy it. Catalysts in your pocket are only potential; levels are permanent. If you want an extra layer of protection on PC, our save file location guide shows where the save lives so you can back it up before a long session.

Skipping the Grind

Even the best loop is still an hour of the same Remnant for a handful of late levels. If you would rather spend that time on bosses and builds, the store's Valor Mortis mega modded save starts you at the very beginning of Chapter I, at the first Lantern, with a level 264 character, every skill active and 999,999 Catalysts in the bank, plus every Ferrofluid Flask, blade, ranged weapon and Transmutation material at 9,999. If you want a normal challenge later, the product page notes you can use Reset Level on the Lantern's Level Up screen to drop back to level 1 while keeping your Catalysts.

It covers PlayStation 5 and PC only, not Xbox, and you must already own the game, since only the save is sold. The Valor Mortis hub lists it alongside the separate PS5 platinum trophy service.

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