Valor Mortis: How to Upgrade Weapons at James’s Iron Bench (Saber and Pistol)

In Valor Mortis, James’s Iron Bench is in his workshop inside the church at the Abandoned Church, the game’s hub. Each level increases damage and unlocks Enhancements, without using Catalysts. Upgrades consume materials only: melee weapons take Blade Materials, while firearms take Firearm Parts.

Quick answer: After the General Lothaire rematch, meet James at the church to complete Chapter II; then upgrade weapons at the Iron Bench in his workshop. You pay with upgrade materials, not Catalysts.

When James’s Iron Bench unlocks

The Iron Bench becomes available once you have defeated General Lothaire in the rematch and met James at the church to end Chapter II, REGROUP. Approaching the bench before that meeting does nothing because no prompt appears.

Once the Lothaire rematch is over, leave through the arena’s exit gate. This iron gate opens when he dies; continue down the road to the church door.

A cutscene starts when you reach the door. James, a young soldier wearing a blue coat and white cross-belt, approaches and greets William, amazed to find him alive.

Talk to him. When the conversation ends, a tutorial reads “Upgrading Weapons” / “You can upgrade your Weapons at James’s Iron Bench.” / “Levelling up Weapons increases their damage and unlocks various Enhancements.” The banners “REGROUP / CHAPTER COMPLETED” and “RENDEZVOUS / NEW MAIN QUEST CHAPTER” then show, and James hands you Standard Firearm Parts x1.

The Upgrading Weapons tutorial in Valor Mortis saying weapons are upgraded at James's Iron Bench — The tutorial after the talk with James: weapons are upgraded at James’s Iron Bench.

How to upgrade a weapon at the Iron Bench

The Iron Bench is a separate piece of equipment, not James. Its grindstone wheel, candle and hanging pulley identify it; find it left of James’s table in that room, next to an icon of a bearded saint.

Look at the bench until the “[E] USE” prompt appears, then interact with it.

The E USE prompt highlighted over the outlined workbench with its tools and candle — The “[E] USE” prompt showing over the Iron Bench, ready to open its menu.

The “James’s Iron Bench” menu opens with UPGRADE, TRADE and EXIT. A “!” marks UPGRADE whenever an upgrade is ready. Pick UPGRADE.

The Iron Bench menu with Upgrade highlighted above Trade and Exit — The bench menu, with UPGRADE selected to open the weapon trees.

Each weapon you own gets a separate tab under UPGRADE; so far, those are PISTOL [Q] and SABER [E]. Your carried upgrade materials, in four tiers each, appear at the top right. Choose a tab and a node farther along to view its name, effect and Upgrade Requirements alongside your inventory—for example, “Crude Blade Material 1/1”.

Saber upgrade screen showing Lvl 1 Saber, the Advanced Swordsmanship node and Crude Blade Material 1/1 — The Saber tree at Lvl 1, with Crude Blade Material 1/1 in stock for the next node.

Hold left mouse on “(HOLD) UPGRADE”. The weapon climbs a level. The Saber moved from “Lvl 1” at 20 Damage to “Lvl 2 Saber” at 26 Damage, and its level-2 node, Advanced Swordsmanship, now reads “Active”. The next node along shows a “+” icon.

Saber upgraded to Lvl 2 Saber with Advanced Swordsmanship marked Active — The Saber after upgrading to Lvl 2 Saber at 26 damage, with Advanced Swordsmanship now Active.

You know the upgrade landed when the node reads “Active”, the weapon’s level and damage both tick up, and the following node switches to a “+”. Some levels offer a choice of two nodes with a swap icon between them, and the game notes that this choice can be changed at any time.

Saber upgrade tree and costs

The Saber runs to 10 levels. Damage is 20 at level 1, 26 at level 2 and 32 at level 3. The single Crude Blade Material you need for the level-2 node is enough to activate Advanced Swordsmanship straight away.

Level	Node	Material cost
2	Advanced Swordsmanship	Crude Blade Material x1
3	Damage Increase	Crude Blade Material x2
4	Damage Increase	Crude Blade Material x3
5	Pursuit or Careful Preparations	Pure Blade Material x1
6	Damage Increase	Pure Blade Material x2
7	Damage Increase	Pure Blade Material x3
8	Adrenaline Flourish or Second Wind	Distilled Blade Material x1
9	Damage Increase	Distilled Blade Material x2
10	Expert Swordsmanship	Quintessential Blade Material x1

The named nodes do the following. Advanced Swordsmanship: “Every fifth consecutive Attack deals increased damage and restores Endurance.” At level 5 you pick between Pursuit, “Attacks after successful Dodges restore Endurance.”, and Careful Preparations, “Effects applied by Whetstones last longer.” At level 8 the choice is Adrenaline Flourish, “Restores Endurance when killing enemies.”, or Second Wind, “Parrying restores Recoverable Health.” Expert Swordsmanship caps the tree: “Every third consecutive Attack deals increased damage and restores Health.”

Pistol upgrade tree and costs

The Pistol also runs to 10 levels, with damage at 30 at level 1, 33 at level 2 and 36 at level 3. The Standard Firearm Parts James gives you cover the level-2 node.

Level	Node	Material cost
2	Nephtoglobin Infusion — Bullet	Standard Firearm Parts x1
3	Damage Increase	Standard Firearm Parts x2
4	Damage Increase	Standard Firearm Parts x3
5	Resourcefulness or Ruthlessness	Superior Firearm Parts x1
6	Damage Increase	Superior Firearm Parts x2
7	Damage Increase	Superior Firearm Parts x3
8	Robust Chamber or Ingenious Engineering	Exquisite Firearm Parts x1
9	Damage Increase	Exquisite Firearm Parts x2
10	Tactical Reload or Automatic Mayhem	Masterwork Firearm Parts x1

Nephtoglobin Infusion — Bullet works like this: “Hold [R] to infuse your Firearm with a Posture-breaking bullet. The infusion costs Nephtoglobin.” The level-5 choice is Resourcefulness, “Using a Melee Attack on a shot enemy extracts a single Pistol round. This effect can only activate once per enemy.”, or Ruthlessness, “Increases the damage of your next Melee Attack based on the number of rounds fired into the enemy.” At level 8 you choose Robust Chamber, “Increases the Ammunition Capacity.”, or Ingenious Engineering, “Reduces reload time at the cost of a lower Ammunition Capacity.” The level-10 pick is Tactical Reload, “Reloading an empty chamber to full capacity causes the next bullet to deal significantly more damage.”, or Automatic Mayhem, “Drastically increases the rate of fire.”

Pistol screen showing Lvl 2 Pistol and the Nephtoglobin Infusion Bullet node with the R prompt — The Pistol at Lvl 2, with Nephtoglobin Infusion — Bullet active and the [R] infuse prompt shown.

Material tiers for upgrades

Each weapon type pulls from its own four-tier material set, and the trees climb through them in order.

Blade Materials, for melee weapons: Crude, Pure, Distilled, Quintessential.
Firearms require Firearm Parts in these grades: Standard, Superior, Exquisite and Masterwork.
Melee weapons and firearms can reach level 10. Transmutations max out at level 5 and use Transmutation Material.

Buying upgrade materials with TRADE

Choose TRADE at the same bench to open the shop, then select either the BUY or SELL tab. Select a tile and confirm using the BUY bar. Catalysts serve as the currency here, making this the sole point where they factor into weapon upgrades.

The ASSORTMENT at this point has Whetstone at 200 Catalysts, “Use this to increase your weapon damage for the next few attacks.”; Hand Grenade at 200; Deadly Rounds at 200; Pistol Cartridges at 200, “Use it to refill your Pistol’s ammo pouch with 5 rounds.”; Crude Blade Material at 1,500 and Standard Firearm Parts at 1,500, two of each in stock.

BUY tab Assortment with Whetstone selected at 200 and the BUY button ready — The BUY tab’s ASSORTMENT, with a Whetstone selected to purchase for 200 Catalysts.

James’s stock widens later in the story. More materials arrive from Chapter V, Crime, and Chapter IX, In Ruins, including Pure Blade Material and Superior Firearm Parts at 3,000 and Distilled Blade Material at 6,000.