Valor Mortis Fast Travel Guide — How to Unlock and Use It

TL;DR

• Fast travel in Valor Mortis is not available from the start — it unlocks at the beginning of Chapter 3.
• To unlock it, you must defeat General Lothaire at the end of Chapter 2 and reach the Abandoned Church.
• Interact with the Abandoned Church Lantern to trigger the unlock prompt.
• After that, you can fast travel from any kindled Lantern to any other you have already activated.
• There is a point of no return late in the game where fast travel is temporarily locked. Activate the Entropy Lantern before you reach it.
• Fast travel restores fully once you defeat the final boss, via NPC Lucjan.
• New Game Plus is confirmed for Valor Mortis but not available at launch.

Valor Mortis is built around backtracking. Its Metroidvania-style world is full of paths you can’t pass yet — a locked door here, a toxic gas cloud there, an obstacle that needs a late-game ability to clear. You are meant to come back. And coming back to things is a lot less painful once fast travel is in your hands.

The catch? You have to earn it first. Here is exactly how, when, and what to know before you get there.

For context on everything the game’s world contains — all 10 chapters, every Lantern name, and all 10 bosses in order — our Valor Mortis all chapters list has the full breakdown. And if you’re still getting to grips with the game’s core systems, start with our Valor Mortis tips and tricks guide.

When Does Fast Travel Unlock in Valor Mortis?

Fast travel unlocks at the start of Chapter 3: Rendezvous. Specifically, it unlocks the moment you interact with the Lantern inside the Abandoned Church — the hub area that becomes accessible after defeating the Chapter 2 boss.

There is no way to skip to this point early or unlock fast travel through any side quest or shortcut. Story progression is the only path. You play through Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 in full, defeat General Lothaire, enter the church, activate its Lantern, and fast travel opens up for the rest of the game.

Once triggered, the game displays a clear on-screen prompt: “You can freely travel between any discovered Lanterns.” From that moment, every Lantern you have already kindled becomes a valid fast travel destination — and every new Lantern you kindle from that point on is automatically added to the list.

How to Unlock Fast Travel — Step by Step

Here is the exact sequence in order:

• Step 1 — Complete Chapter 1: Revival. Fight through the Battlefield. Activate all three Lanterns — Onslaught Arch, Trenches, Field Encampment. You will encounter General Lothaire here but this is not the actual boss fight yet. Progress the story into Chapter 2.
• Step 2 — Play through Chapter 2: Regroup (Valley of Ashes). Push through all six Lanterns — Guidepost, Demolished Path, The Climb, The Other Side, Military Camp, Quarry. Explore the Valley of Ashes fully and follow the story until you encounter Lothaire again.
• Step 3 — Defeat General Lothaire, The Eagle-Bearer. This is the true Chapter 2 boss fight. He is demanding — parrying is the key, and his posture meter needs sustained pressure to break. He guards the entrance to the Abandoned Church. You have to go through him.
• Step 4 — Enter the Abandoned Church. After the boss fight, the path to the church opens. Head inside. This is now your central hub for weapon upgrades, Transmutation upgrades, item buying and selling, and story cutscenes.
• Step 5 — Interact with the Abandoned Church Lantern. Walk up to the Lantern inside the church and activate it. This single action unlocks fast travel across the entire game. The prompt appears. You are done.

How to Use Fast Travel in Valor Mortis

How to Use Fast Travel in Valor Mortis

Using fast travel is simple once it is unlocked. Walk up to any Lantern you have already kindled and interact with it. The fast travel menu opens, showing a list of all your discovered Lanterns organised by chapter and location. Scroll through the list, select your destination, and confirm. William teleports there immediately.

There is also a dedicated shortcut in the menu: “Return to the Abandoned Church.” Since you’ll be visiting the church constantly for upgrades and story beats, this option saves time by removing the need to scroll through the full Lantern list every time you want to head back to the hub.

A few things worth knowing about how the system works:

• Only kindled Lanterns appear in the list. If you skipped a Lantern earlier in a chapter, it won’t show up as a destination until you physically activate it. There is no fast travel to a Lantern you haven’t touched yet.
• Resting at a Lantern before travelling is good practice. Fast travel does not automatically refill your Ferrofluid Flask or restore Nephtoglobin. Resting first ensures you arrive at your destination in full condition, not depleted from the last fight.
• Fast travel does not respawn enemies. Resting at a Lantern does. If you use fast travel without resting first, enemies in your current area stay dead. Resting triggers the standard enemy respawn in the surrounding area.
• The Abandoned Church never requires fast travel to access. Any Lantern in the game has a “Return to the Abandoned Church” shortcut, so the hub is always one step away regardless of where you are.

Why Fast Travel Matters in Valor Mortis

Valor Mortis is not a game where you play through areas once and never look back. Its Metroidvania design means the world is seeded with things you are not supposed to reach on your first visit.

Toxic green gas clouds block certain routes in the early chapters. Collapsed bridges, locked doors, and passages requiring specific abilities appear throughout the campaign. When you eventually gain a new Transmutation or mobility power later in the game, the fast travel network is what makes returning to those blocked paths quick and practical rather than a chore.

Side quests also play into this. Valor Mortis has six named optional quests — all of them missable — and several require revisiting earlier areas to progress or complete them. Without fast travel, running back through cleared chapters on foot would consume significant time for no combat or progression payoff. With it, you drop straight back into whichever Lantern sits closest to what you need.

The design philosophy here is deliberate. One More Level timed the fast travel unlock for the point when the world starts to open up meaningfully. In the first two chapters, the areas are linear enough that you don’t need it. By Chapter 3 onward, the world branches enough that not having it would start to feel punishing.

What to Do Before Fast Travel Unlocks

Since fast travel is locked for the first two chapters, how you play Chapters 1 and 2 matters for later. A few things worth keeping in mind:

• Activate every Lantern you find. Once fast travel unlocks, any Lantern you didn’t activate in Chapters 1 or 2 will still need to be physically visited before it appears in your fast travel list. There’s no catch-up mechanism — you just have to go there. Don’t skip Lanterns.
• Explore side paths before advancing. Some optional paths in the early chapters are genuinely tricky to return to even with fast travel, because the nearest Lantern might not be particularly close to the blocked path in question. Explore on your first pass wherever you can.
• Note the blocked paths you find. The game has no in-game map, so keep a mental note of locations where you spot gas clouds, locked doors, or areas you clearly can’t reach yet. Fast travel makes returning fast, but you still need to remember where to go back to.
• Don’t panic about what you miss. Valor Mortis is designed to reward revisiting. Almost nothing in the first two chapters is permanently missed by pushing forward. The exception is missable side quests — check which ones are available in each area before triggering chapter-end events.

The Entropy Lantern — A Warning

Of the 47 Lanterns in Valor Mortis, one — named Entropy — becomes permanently inaccessible after a specific story trigger late in the game. The exact trigger is tied to progression in the Chapter 10 Fortress area.

After this trigger, the Entropy Lantern disappears from your fast travel list and cannot be reached again in the same playthrough. If you care about completing every fast travel location or unlocking everything the game has to offer, you need to activate the Entropy Lantern before you reach that point.

The practical advice: when you enter the Fortress in Chapter 10, do a thorough sweep of every Lantern in the area before pushing to the final sequence. If you see Entropy in your fast travel list and haven’t activated it yet, treat it as a priority. Once it locks out, it’s gone until a new playthrough.

The Point of No Return — Fast Travel Gets Locked Temporarily

There is a point late in the Valor Mortis campaign where fast travel becomes temporarily unavailable. This is the game’s point of no return — the moment before the final push that signals you are entering the endgame sequence.

At this point, the Lantern you encounter has fast travel removed from its interaction options. The game is signalling that it’s time to commit. Fast travel stays locked through the final encounter.

After you defeat the final boss, speak to Lucjan at the Lantern near the final arena. This interaction fully restores fast travel access, at which point you are free to roam back through the entire world and clean up anything you missed — side quests, Ambers, collectibles, locked paths that needed late-game abilities.

In short: if you have unfinished business, do it before the point of no return. The game gives you full access again afterward, but it’s cleaner to arrive at the ending with your to-do list already cleared.

Does Valor Mortis Have New Game Plus?

New Game Plus is confirmed for Valor Mortis but was not available at launch. It is scheduled to arrive in Q4 2026 as a free update. The game also has a single save file only — there is no slot system — so planning your playthrough around completionism before NG+ lands is worthwhile if that matters to you.

Story DLC is also confirmed for 2027, which will add further content to the base game’s world beyond what the main campaign covers.

Console Performance Modes — A Quick Note for Console Players

Fast travel is instant in Valor Mortis — load times are short regardless of platform. For context on how the game runs:

• PS5 and Xbox Series X — Two graphics modes: Quality (dynamic 4K targeting 30fps) and Performance (dynamic 4K targeting 60fps). The Performance mode is recommended for a first-person soulslike where parry timing demands a clean, stable framerate.
• Xbox Series S — Also has a 60fps Performance Mode at launch, which is a pleasant surprise for the lower-powered hardware.
• PS5 Pro — Confirmed to offer higher resolution and improved visuals beyond the standard PS5 build.
• PS5 install size — 55.88 GB. Clear the space before downloading.
• Load times — Around 6 seconds from the main menu on PS5. Fast by any standard, let alone soulslike standards.

You can grab the game on Steam, the PlayStation Store, or the Xbox store. Full details at the official Valor Mortis website.

Valor Mortis Fast Travel FAQ