Valor Mortis: How to Beat the Slaughtermill and Claim 30,000 Catalysts

The Slaughtermill sits in the Vale of Wrath during Chapter 5 of Valor Mortis, reached by following the single wooded path away from the Old Windmill Lantern. It is not a sword duel. The boss is a windmill fused with flesh, and beating it means exposing its weak tissue, stopping its blades, surviving a fire barrage, and climbing a collapsing structure to reach the eye on its body.

Quick answer: Shoot the glowing orange and red cores with a firearm, freeze the spinning gears with Stasis Transmutation to pull the blue orbs, dodge the fire waves behind rising cover, then climb to the top arena and destroy every red boil to expose and kill the central eye.

Weapons and abilities to bring

This fight runs on firearms, Stasis Transmutation, and your grapple. The Pistol handles precise shots at distant cores, the Blunderbuss delivers heavy damage when a weak point is close, and Stasis freezes the windmill’s internal gears so you can interact with the blue orbs. An Airborne Aiming perk is worth equipping for the mid-air shots later in the fight.

Tool	Type	Key figures
Pistol	Firearm	30 damage at level 1, up to 60 at level 10; 5-round capacity
Blunderbuss	Firearm	15 damage at level 1, up to 30 at level 10; 2-round capacity
Stasis Transmutation	Transmutation	The damage factor increases from 1.0 at level 1 to 1.5 at level 5; it immobilizes foes and gears in motion.

The Pistol can shatter Nephtoglobin Weak Points and carries more ammunition, so keep it as your default for picking off cores while the Blunderbuss stays ready for the close, clustered hits.

Windmill phase: expose the cores and stop the blades

Approaching the mill starts the encounter and reveals the boss health bar. The structure attacks with sweeping tentacle spikes that originate from its body and a slow ground wave that travels toward you. The tentacle hits are small on their own but the boss spams them, so dodge on the animation. Jump over the ground wave or stand on anything elevated to avoid it.

Shoot the glowing orange and red cores that appear across the mill. These exposed patches of flesh are the only targets that take damage. Firing at the wooden exterior does nothing.

Initial Phase & Stasis Timing — The windmill's lower shutter hides a core behind it, with more cores exposed around the frame. Shown at 00:26 in Jay Dunna’s video. Image: One More Level

After destroying all the exposed cores, turn to the blue orb beside the mill on its left. The rotating blades disrupt your grapple, so pull the low wooden shutter open with it.

Step up to the gear room inside the opened door and cast Stasis Transmutation on the gears. With the mechanism frozen, the blades stop spinning. Return to the blue orb and pull it. The boss throws you backward and a climbing track appears.

Reach the interior eye and survive the fire barrage

Grapple along the track to the top of the mill, timing each swing to vault over incoming ground waves. Enter the rear opening and aim at the giant glowing eye in the centre.

One shot into the eye with any firearm deals 500 damage and blows you back out to the far side of the arena. A new set of red cores then appears while the boss turns more aggressive.

Grapple Point & Interior Core — Shooting the interior eye once deals heavy damage and knocks you back outside. Shown at 00:45 in Jay Dunna’s video. Image: One More Level

Clear the new red cores while dodging tentacle spikes and the summoned flesh enemies. When the mill spins its side blades into a frenzy, fire waves sweep across the ground.

Move to a lit marker in the dirt and raise the stone cover there. Stay behind it until the flames pass, then dash to the next marker and lift the next cover. Continue this way to the last one near the mill, then use your grapple to pull open the front door. The building gives way and drops you underground.

Underground climb and the exploding corpses

You land in a cavern with the mill suspended among wooden scaffolding. A checkpoint activates here, so a failure now restarts you underground rather than at the very start. Movement and timing matter more than damage in this stretch.

Get to your feet and fire at the red core on your left right away. Hook onto the blue orb, then race along the track, dodging the tentacle strikes.

On the first wooden structure, the tentacles start tearing the boards apart. Reach the wooden stick at the far end before the floor collapses under you.

Tower Climbing Section — The climb runs across narrow beams and grapple gaps up the collapsing scaffolding. Shown at 02:13 in Jay Dunna’s video. Image: One More Level

At the end of the run you are launched into the air with no ground below except a gap between four explosive corpses. Touching down kills you instantly, so shoot one of the corpses while still airborne to clear a safe landing. The Airborne Aiming perk makes this shot far more reliable.

Continue the same route. The tentacles break the next boards, so use the platform levers to raise fresh landing spots. You will face a second airborne gap between explosive corpses. Shoot one of them before you land, then continue to the large wooden platform at the top.

The exploding corpses are a one-hit kill on contact. Never rush a jump toward them without clearing a landing first.

Final arena: destroy the boils and the eye

From the large wooden platform you look out at the Slaughtermill covered in red boils, its limbs sweeping across the arena. Circle the platform to stay clear of the striking tentacles and shoot down every red boil you can line up.

Final Phase: Rear Weak Points — Each red boil on the boss is a weak point; clearing them all opens the central eye. Shown at 02:50 in Jay Dunna’s video. Image: One More Level

Once every red boil is destroyed, the body opens to reveal the central eye. Keep moving to avoid the limbs and pour your firearm into the eye until the health bar empties.

How you know it worked and what you get

The fight ends with the ABOMINATION ERADICATED notification and a reward of 30,000 Catalysts. A new journal entry is added and the Crime chapter is marked complete. A route then opens across a wooden bridge toward a lit mine tunnel, with a collectible note on the floor along the way, so sweep the area before you move on. Catalysts are spent at Lanterns for permanent upgrades, so bank this payout toward the encounters ahead.