Valor Mortis' system requirements appear to have been slashed shortly before the first-person shooter soulslike launches.

Background: The June demo-era Steam page set a high PC bar

Valor Mortis is a first-person Soulslike coming to PC on October 13. The source describes that date as tomorrow for readers who do not trust calendars. Around the final demo release in June, the game’s Steam page listed a high minimum hardware bar: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel Core i7-11700 for the CPU, and AMD Radeon RX 6700 or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super for the GPU. That requirement made entry into the plague-sodden battlefields of Napoleonic Europe feel expensive.

Development process: The Steam page now shows lower CPU and GPU choices

The same Steam page now lists AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10600K as the minimum CPU. It also lists AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as the minimum GPU. These changes are a meaningful easing for PC players, because they move the game’s stated floor from a more luxurious configuration to a more budget-friendly one.

The storage requirement moves slightly the other way. The SSD size requirement rises from 50GB to 60GB.

Latest progress: The reductions are visible, but unconfirmed

One More Level has not formally announced the lower requirements anywhere. The author’s request for confirmation remains unanswered. That means the new CPU and GPU listings may not be absolutely final. Still, it would be strange for the team to raise placeholder requirements this close to release.

Performance check: A decade-old GTX 1070 needed upscaling help

The author did not own either listed minimum GPU, so tested with a GTX 1070 instead. At 1080p and Low settings, the game still needed upscaling help to run semi-smoothly. With temporal super resolution at 67 percent, the decade-old Nvidia card reached 41 frames per second in one area and 39 frames per second in another. In one section, it reached 61 frames per second.

The result was not smooth, but it was stable. It was also less demanding than the final demo, suggesting that the visible Steam-page changes were not merely cosmetic.

Current stage: A likely easier PC launch still needs official confirmation

The timeline now runs from the June final demo, to the apparent Steam-page reductions, to the October 13 launch. The important shifts are from Ryzen 7 3700X or Core i7-11700 to Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i5-10600K, from RX 6700 or RTX 2070 Super to RX 5600 XT or GTX 1660 Ti, and from a 50GB SSD requirement to a 60GB SSD requirement.

For readers, the practical takeaway is that Valor Mortis looks easier to run than its June-era requirements suggested, but One More Level has not yet confirmed that lower bar. Until the developer speaks, the October 13 launch should be treated as approaching with a promising but unverified PC requirement reduction.