Valor Mortis Difficulty Settings and What Exists Instead

The short answer

The Steam listing for Valor Mortis advertises no difficulty selector, and the developer has answered the question directly: there is no story-mode difficulty, and none is planned. A One More Level staff account said so on the game's own forum during the demo period, and nothing published since has changed that. The relevant thread, "Story Mode Difficulty?", has drawn 72 replies.

What is not the same thing as an answer: absence from the store listing is not proof of absence from the game. Store categories describe marketing-relevant features, not every menu. But in this case the developer's own statement and the store listing point the same way, and the only difficulty-related addition with official backing is a planned New Game+ run — which makes the second playthrough harder rather than the first playthrough easier.

The official evidence

The most concrete evidence is what the store does list, because a difficulty mode would be expected to appear among these and does not.

"Playable without Timed Input" is the one entry worth pausing on, because it is easy to misread as a difficulty setting. It is a Steam category describing a game that can be played without inputs that must be delivered inside a time window — that is, it does not require quick-time events or similar timed prompts. It is an accessibility-flavoured descriptor, not a mechanical difficulty level, and it says nothing about how hard the combat is.

What players are asking for

The request itself is a data point, and it is a well-populated one. The thread "Story Mode Difficulty?" has reached 72 replies, and it was opened on June 7, 2026 — the day the demo went live, months before the full game existed. The demand is therefore not a launch-week reaction to a finished build; it has been on the forum since Valor Mortis was first publicly playable.

The thread is also where the developer's answer appears. A One More Level account carrying the site's [developer] tag replied on June 8, 2026, and the poster marked it as the thread's answer:

"Hey there! We're aiming in classic souls experience, there is no plan at this time for Story Mode difficulty - sorry."

That is the most direct official statement the game has on the subject, and it predates release by four months. Read it precisely: it rules out a story mode as a plan, and it says the design intent is the classic soulslike experience. It is not a promise that no accessibility option will ever be added — the developer separately says it is "thinking about other added modes" — but it does mean anyone describing an upcoming story mode is contradicting the studio rather than anticipating it.

What exists instead

The developer's own description of the game points at systems that play a difficulty-adjacent role, and it is fair to describe them as such while being clear that none is a difficulty menu.

This is the honest shape of the answer: the game's own design language is about adapting through progression, and the one official post-launch addition in this space makes the game harder rather than easier. Anyone describing a "story mode" or an "assist mode" as an upcoming feature is not working from a developer statement.

What is not promised

Two related things have official backing and neither is a difficulty mode.

• New Game+ is committed — it makes a second run harder, with "stronger enemies, more difficulty and new surprises". That is quoted from the developer's launch announcement. See the roadmap page.
• Extra modes are only under consideration — the developer says it is "thinking about other added modes" and asks players to say what they want. No mode is named, no count is given and no date exists. That line sits alongside the June reply rather than replacing it: the studio was open to further modes generally and still ruled out a story mode specifically.

If a difficulty option matters to your decision to buy, the accurate position on October 14, 2026 is this: no story mode or assist mode has been announced, and the developer has said none is planned. That is stronger than the store page's silence, which on its own would prove nothing. What remains genuinely open is everything the studio has not addressed — an accessibility option is not the same thing as a story mode, and no answer covering that has been published. The controller and accessibility page covers the related question of what input and accessibility features are and are not advertised.