How To Escape Prison In Valor Mortis — Chapter 10 Shackled Guide

Q: Where is the Armoury Key in Valor Mortis Chapter 10?

On the kitchen table . To reach it, climb to the upper floor of the prison and walk the rafters across the large guarded room. Drop down from the center of the rafters into the kitchen below — the key is on the table there.

Q: What is the Silver Lockpick in Valor Mortis?

The Silver Lockpick is a hidden item found in Chapter 10. Burn the hanging corpse in your starting cell using Fire Transmutation to recover it. Use it to open a locked cell elsewhere in the prison that contains an Eternal Catalyst Clot worth 5,000 Catalysts .

Q: How do you get through the web blocking the sewer exit in Valor Mortis?

Use your Fire Transmutation to burn it. The webbing blocks the passage down into the sewers near a Shrike symbol on the wall. You'll also need to shoot a red Nephtoglobin bulb nearby before the web appears. Fire Transmutation clears the path and opens the final escape route.

TL;DR

Chapter 10: Shackled begins in Napoleon’s Prison with William stripped of all his weapons.
Leave your cell, navigate the prison block quietly, and avoid or sneak past patrolling guards.
Climb to the upper floor and walk the rafters to the center of the large guarded room, then drop into the kitchen.
Pick up the Armoury Key from the kitchen table.
Return to the locked armoury, recover your equipment from the chest inside.
Use Fire Transmutation to burn the web barrier near the Shrike symbol and drop into the sewers.
Reach the sewer Lantern to complete the escape and finish Chapter 10.
This area cannot be revisited. Complete The Choir quest and collect everything before leaving.
Optional: Burn the hanging corpse in your starting cell with Fire to find the Silver Lockpick — worth 5,000 Catalysts.

Chapter 10 of Valor Mortis is one of the most distinctive sections in the game. After one of the toughest boss fights you’ve faced, William wakes up in Napoleon’s Prison with nothing — no weapons, no gear, just his wits and whatever Transmutations he still has access to. The escape is equal parts stealth and exploration, and the stakes are higher than usual because you cannot return to this area once you leave. This guide walks you through every step, including the missable content you absolutely should not skip.

Table of Contents

How Chapter 10: Shackled Starts in Valor Mortis

After defeating the boss at the end of Chapter 9: In Ruins, the cutscene plays and William ends up imprisoned in Napoleon’s Prison, located within a temporary version of the City of Orphans. The Shackled main quest begins automatically.

You start in your cell with no melee weapons and no firearms. Your Transmutation abilities are still with you, which matters — particularly Fire Transmutation, which you’ll need later to clear the web barrier blocking the sewer exit.

One thing to know before you do anything else: if you die anywhere in the prison, you respawn back in your starting cell — not at a Lantern. There’s no checkpoint inside the prison other than the cell itself. Keep that in mind when you’re exploring.

Secret First Step — Burn the Corpse in Your Cell

Before you leave your cell, look at the hanging corpse inside it. Use your Fire Transmutation to burn it. This is easy to miss entirely if you just head for the exit, but it’s worth doing — burning the corpse reveals the Silver Lockpick hidden on it.

The Silver Lockpick lets you open a locked cell elsewhere in the prison that contains an Eternal Catalyst Clot worth 5,000 Catalysts. That’s a significant chunk of XP, especially heading into the final stretch of the game. Don’t leave without it.

If you need to spend those Catalysts wisely, check our best stats to level first guide before heading into Chapter 11.

How to Navigate the Prison — Stealth Tips

Napoleon’s Prison is heavily patrolled. Without your weapons, direct confrontation is a bad idea in the early section. Here’s how to move through it safely:

Follow the linear path from your cell through the connecting rooms. The route out is reasonably clear — you’re moving through corridors and passages in the prison walls.
Wait for patrols to turn. When a guard is blocking the path, hold back, watch their route, and move when they turn away.
Use the upper wooden walkways. When the route runs through a room with floor patrols, look for wooden beams and platforms above. You can often move through the upper level entirely and avoid guards below.
Crouch through tight passages. Some routes require crouching through gaps in walls. These often bypass guarded areas entirely.

Once you recover your weapons from the armoury later in the escape, combat becomes a fully viable option. Until then, patience is the strategy.

How to Find the Armoury Key in Valor Mortis Prison

The Armoury Key is the main item you need. Here’s exactly where it is:

Step 1 — Reach the Upper Floor

Work through the prison passages until you get to the upper floor. You’ll pass through a larger room with multiple patrolling soldiers on the ground level. Don’t go down to them — look up for the rafters running across the ceiling of the room.

Step 2 — Walk the Rafters to the Center

Climb up and get onto the rafters. Walk across them toward the center of the room. This lets you pass over the patrolling guards without being spotted. Take it slowly — falling off the rafters into the guards below is a bad time when you’re still unarmed.

Step 3 — Drop into the Kitchen

From the center of the rafters, drop down into the kitchen area below. This is a separate section from the main guarded room — it’s accessible through the rafter route specifically.

Step 4 — Pick Up the Armoury Key

The Armoury Key is sitting on the kitchen table. Pick it up. While you’re here, check the small room directly beside the kitchen — this is where you’ll find Prison Warden’s Journal Part Two if you’re working on The Choir quest (more on that below).

How to Recover Your Weapons — The Armoury

With the Armoury Key in hand, head back down into the prison toward the locked armoury door. Use the key to open it.

Inside the armoury, next to a torch, is a chest containing all of William’s confiscated equipment. Open it. Your weapons, gear, and full inventory return the moment you loot this chest. From here, the rest of the prison becomes much more manageable — you can fight through the remaining guards properly instead of sneaking past everything.

If you want a refresher on which weapons suit your current build, take a look at our full all swords and guns weapons list.

How to Escape the Prison — The Sewer Exit

With your weapons recovered, push through the remaining prison rooms and wooden platforms toward the exit route. You’ll eventually come across a Shrike symbol on the wall — this marks the passage toward freedom.

Near it you’ll find a red Nephtoglobin bulb. Shoot it to clear the path. Then look for webbing blocking the passage. Use your Fire Transmutation to burn it — this opens the route down into the sewers beneath the prison.

Follow the sewer passage through. It connects to a route that leads back toward the city. When you reach the sewer Lantern, the prison escape is complete and Chapter 10 ends. William is out.

The Choir Quest — The Only Missable Side Quest in Valor Mortis

The Choir is the only permanently missable side quest in the entire game. Once you escape the prison, you cannot return — ever. If you leave without completing The Choir’s prison steps, it’s gone.

Here’s what you need to do inside the prison before leaving:

Step 1 — Find Prison Warden’s Journal Part One

As you move through the prison escape route, keep an eye on the left side of the corridor. You’ll pass a room containing a horn. Go inside and read the note on the desk — this is Prison Warden’s Journal Part One. Reading it starts The Choir quest.

Step 2 — Interact with the Door in the Large Guarded Room

In the upper section of the prison, where you cross the rafters over the big guarded room — once you’re up there, look for a door at the end of a long hallway. Interact with it to progress the quest.

Step 3 — Find Prison Warden’s Journal Part Two

This is in the small room beside the kitchen — right next to where you pick up the Armoury Key. Read the note on the table there.

Step 4 — Get the Key to the Chapel

On the opposite side of the upper floor from the kitchen, there’s a side room with a memory inside. On the table in that room is the Key to the Chapel. Pick it up.

Step 5 — Go to the Chapel

Use the Key to the Chapel on the chapel door. Head inside and collect the final document — a list of the prisoners’ names from the altar.

Step 6 — Complete the Quest After Escaping

The final step of The Choir can only be done after you’ve escaped the prison and returned to the city. Follow through the main story after the escape to complete it. The reward is a Revenant’s Return consumable.

The Choir is the one quest in the game where you have no second chance. Do all the prison steps before you go down those sewer stairs.

What Else to Do Before Leaving — Don’t Miss These

Beyond The Choir, here are the other things worth grabbing before you walk out:

Silver Lockpick — burn the hanging corpse in your starting cell with Fire Transmutation. Use it to unlock a cell containing the Eternal Catalyst Clot (5,000 Catalysts).
All consumables in the area — the prison has various consumable drops. None are unique collectibles, but they’re worth picking up heading into the endgame.
The Choir journal entries — all prison steps for the quest outlined above.

There are no Ambers, Transmutation materials, or Ferrofluid upgrades locked exclusively to this area, but the Catalyst clot and quest progress are meaningful. Take your time. You won’t be back.

What Happens When You Escape?

Once you reach the sewer Lantern, Chapter 10 ends and Chapter 11: Reflection begins. You emerge into the world again — not locked inside the prison alternate version of the city anymore. The city returns to its normal state and you can revisit any previously explored areas via fast travel.

Chapter 11 takes you to the Ancient Lair and the final encounter with The Entity. If you have unfinished side quests or collectibles elsewhere in the game, now is the time to clean those up before heading into the endgame. Our all achievements and trophy list is useful for checking what you may have missed.

Also worth noting: if you completed The Oathbound questline before this point, you may have access to additional shortcuts or benefits in the final chapter. Check our Oathbound quest guide for full details on how that plays out.

More Valor Mortis Guides

Valor Mortis is available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Frequently Asked Questions — Valor Mortis Prison Escape Chapter 10

How do you escape prison in Valor Mortis?

Leave your starting cell, navigate through the prison, climb to the upper floor via the rafters, drop into the kitchen, and pick up the Armoury Key from the table. Use it to unlock the armoury and recover your weapons. Then burn the web blocking the sewer passage with Fire Transmutation and follow the sewers to the exit Lantern.

Where is the Armoury Key in Valor Mortis Chapter 10?

On the kitchen table. To reach it, climb to the upper floor of the prison and walk the rafters across the large guarded room. Drop down from the center of the rafters into the kitchen below — the key is on the table there.

Can you go back to the prison in Valor Mortis?

No. Once you escape via the sewers, the prison is permanently inaccessible. Complete The Choir quest and pick up everything you want before leaving — including the Silver Lockpick from the hanging corpse in your starting cell.

What is the Silver Lockpick in Valor Mortis?

The Silver Lockpick is a hidden item found in Chapter 10. Burn the hanging corpse in your starting cell using Fire Transmutation to recover it. Use it to open a locked cell elsewhere in the prison that contains an Eternal Catalyst Clot worth 5,000 Catalysts.

What is The Choir quest and can you miss it?

The Choir is the only permanently missable side quest in Valor Mortis. It begins inside Napoleon’s Prison and requires reading both Warden’s Journals, finding the Key to the Chapel, and visiting the chapel before escaping. If you leave the prison without doing these steps, the quest is locked out forever.

What do you do if you die in the prison in Valor Mortis?

You respawn back in your starting cell — not at a checkpoint Lantern. From there you can attempt the escape again. There is no mid-prison Lantern, so every death sends you back to the beginning of the area.

How do you get through the web blocking the sewer exit in Valor Mortis?

Use your Fire Transmutation to burn it. The webbing blocks the passage down into the sewers near a Shrike symbol on the wall. You’ll also need to shoot a red Nephtoglobin bulb nearby before the web appears. Fire Transmutation clears the path and opens the final escape route.