After meeting Yu’er in the Weeping Creek Valley, she points Soul toward the path leading to the town of Pangzhen, but getting there is no quick journey. There are plenty of enemies lurking ahead and quests to tackle before you can continue.
Your first task is to find the nearby outpost to gather further intel. Trust me, you’ll want to get directions and upgrades early on to ease the challenges ahead.
Make sure to bring along any health potions or items you’ve collected thus far, as they’ll come in handy during your encounters!
Start by making your way to the local outpost and asking the residents for more detailed guidance. The longer you take to gather information, the more time you waste, so get to it!
- Reach The Outpost
- Enter The Outpost Held By The Mandate
- Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale
- Start The Purge The Sect Tale
- Unlock The Blacksmith
- Start The Festering Secret Tale
- Obtain The Cell Key
- Defeat Peng Meng, The Axemaster
- Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale
- The Crane Bell Flashback
- Progress The Festering Secret Tale
- Start The Apprentice Healer Tale
- End Of Chapter
Reach The Outpost
You’ll encounter some enemies shortly after, so don’t slack off; defeat all of them to get a Sha-Chi Amber Shard. It’s an easy grind if you’ve geared up properly.
Before pushing further ahead, open the chest in your path. These little items can be crucial to your success.
As you venture forward, you’ll notice tall grass. Crouch there and sneak around—it’s a perfect opportunity for a stealth takedown on your enemies. Get behind them for an effortless assassination.
If there’s another foe around, execute a chain assassination to keep your streak going.
Soon enough, you’ll come across another Bell. Interact with it, then drop down from the roofs to surprise the enemies below.
Drop-down assassinations are a powerful move here, so take an enemy out from above before handling the rest on the ground.
In an abandoned house to your right, you’ll find a green collectible item. It’s a good idea to grab that too for your loot collection.
Advance to the Outpost gate. The guards here recognize that Soul is not a threat, so they team up with you against any remaining enemies.
Enter The Outpost Held By The Mandate. After clearing out the last of the enemies, check to your left for stairs leading to a locked door.
Enter The Outpost Held By The Mandate
Now, head toward the guard and introduce yourself. They will let you in, and there are several characters to engage with inside the outpost.
Also, keep an eye out for hanging pots around; they require a ranged weapon to break. You don’t need to worry about these yet, as you’ll be able to come back later.
Near the horses outside, talk to the shopkeeper to trade—you’ll unlock the Store feature at the Bell too, which can be handy.
Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale: Move up to the house on the right, where you’ll find a villager hiding. Speaking with him reveals that the Axemaster has morphed into a Maskwalker, and Soul must put him down.
The Axemaster’s location gets shown on your map, so you can plan your next moves accordingly.
Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale
He reveals that his disciples have transformed into Maskwalkers, which he finds shameful. He requests that Soul head to their camp and deal with the situation. This archer’s camp is marked for you at the northern region of the map.
Unlock The Blacksmith: Continue past the old beggar, and you’ll find a female blacksmith. She’s there to help you get stronger and will offer upgrades.
Start The Purge The Sect Tale
With Forge’s help, you can upgrade your weapons using materials found along your journey. Plus, it unlocks the Upgrade Equipment option at the Bell, a must-have!
He’s looking for Soul to journey over to their camp, which is nestled just outside the valley, and lend them a helping hand. You can find the archer’s camp clearly marked on your map, positioned at the very northern edge of the region.
Unlock The Blacksmith
Before leaving, don’t forget to grab the two-handed weapon called Sanguine Reach from behind her. It’s a solid addition to your inventory.
Start The Festering Secret Tale: On the opposite side of Forge, you’ll see soldiers guarding a chained entrance. Soul suspects they might be hiding something valuable.
Unfortunately, without a great axe to breach the chain, you’ll have to leave this for later.
Start The Festering Secret Tale
After completing tasks, ring the Bell to save your progress. From the Bell, you’ll find that the left path is blocked by guards, so take the right one instead.
It’s important to note that you won’t be able to get through the blocked entrance; you’re going to need a great axe to chop through the heavy steel that’s blocking your way.
Once you wrap things up here, don’t forget to give the Bell a good ring to save your progress. After you’ve done that, you’ll see there are two paths before you. Just a heads up, the left path is guarded by two sentries, so it’s best to steer clear of that route for now.
Obtain The Cell Key
With the Cell Key in hand, you can now unlock that door near the Outpost entrance.
Fast-travel back to the Outpost Courtyard and make your way to the locked door. Unlock it and collect the Blackstone Shard.
Defeat Peng Meng, The Axemaster: Now backtrack to the path split and take the left path where the Axemaster is waiting. Be ready for a challenging boss fight!
Go ahead and fast travel to the Outpost Courtyard, then make your way toward the locked door. Once you unlock that bad boy, be sure to grab the Blackstone Shard waiting for you inside.
Defeat Peng Meng, The Axemaster
When you see him lift his foot for a stomp, position yourself to dodge just before he tries to grab you. Alternatively, you can stay out of range if you suspect a horizontal swing.
Now, about the Axemaster—his name is Peng Meng. He wields a massive axe and mainly relies on slow yet powerfully telegraphed attacks. The great thing is, most of his moves have enough of a windup that you’ll have time to react, making parrying a key strategy to keep in mind.
Some enemy attacks will flash blue before they hit. If parrying isn’t your strong suit, back away to escape the attack, but know that if you parry successfully, you can counterattack.
Additionally, he might perform a swing across his body, so it’s wise to either backstep out of the way or time your parry perfectly on that initial stomp if you’re feeling confident.
When it comes to his axe combos, you might notice they often kick off with a nice upward swing, which is then followed by a hefty overhead strike. To handle this without a hitch, make sure to parry that initial hit, then perfectly time your block just before he brings down that overhead slash. This way, you can dodge the follow-up hit and strike back effectively.
Keep an eye out for his combos that wrap up with a flashy blue attack. If your parry timing isn’t quite up to snuff yet, don’t sweat it—just take a step back to avoid the blast safely. On the flip side, if you do manage to parry this particular move, it will disrupt Peng Meng, giving you a golden chance for a counterattack.
When the Axemaster stomps twice on the ground, back off to avoid a damaging area effect.
Consider using the Jarred Steel weapon for its Bleeding Effect, and try to upgrade it for boosted damage. After breaking his guard, unleash your Power Surge and Sha-Chi combos to maximize your damage output.
Once you defeat Peng Meng, you will acquire his Dread Axe as a reward. This weapon won’t replace your primary gear, but it’s essential for unlocking special paths.
While it can be used in combat, it’s particularly valuable for cleaving through barriers and has great armor-breaking capability. Don’t forget you can charge it for extra strength!
Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale after the boss fight, as defeating him yields a new case file, pushing the story forward.
The Crane Bell Flashback occurs next, showcasing a unique Bell with a crane statue and blue flowers. Interacting with it induces a memory flash for Soul.
Your trusty weapon is still a force to be reckoned with in battle! It cuts right through armor in a single, devastating blow and boasts impressive shield-breaking capacity. Plus, if you charge it up, you’ll unleash even more raw power during your attack, making every swing count.
Progress The Four Fierce Axes Tale
With the Axemaster defeated, reliving these memories unlocks more of Zuo Shang’s past, enriching the story as you explore the Discordance.
The Crane Bell Flashback
Once the Axemaster is out of the picture, you’ll notice a distinctive Bell appearing, accompanied by a crane statue surrounded by a bed of lovely blue flowers. When you choose to interact with this Bell, Soul suddenly experiences a wave of discomfort, resulting in him leaning against it for support as he deals with the overwhelming sensation.
Go up the stairs to defeat one last enemy, collecting a Sha-Chi Amber Shard from them and updating your objectives.
Now, make your way back to the Outpost entrance to report to the captain.
The captain updates your quest to send orders to the lieutenant at the giant tower, paving the way for your next mission.
You’ll notice a marker on your map showing the camp location—this is where you’ll head next.
Speak to her and select the “Gather Herbs” option. She is eager to create healing salves, but needs Soul to gather herbs since she can’t go out herself.
The herbs you need are marked on the map, so you can collect these as you journey through the valley.
Progress The Festering Secret Tale
Don’t forget to look around for more loot and collectible books, especially one hidden under a broken house at the camp’s back end.
That’s where we wrap up for now, and it’s clear you’re making strides toward the Great Waterfall that Yu’er mentioned—a reminder that the journey is far from over.
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In the midst of your chat, the captain requests that you send an order to the lieutenant stationed outside the enormous tower. This not only keeps the storyline moving but also helps set the stage for what comes next.
Upon fulfilling that request, you’ll get a nice little update for your quest, along with a handy marker on your map indicating the location of this nearby camp. Don’t worry, we’ll make our way there as we continue our adventure.
Start The Apprentice Healer Tale
You’ve probably noticed by now that Yu’er has arrived at the Outpost and is hanging out by the blacksmith. It’s a good idea to approach her and choose the option that says “Gather Herbs.” Trust me, it’s a step you won’t want to skip!
Yu’er really wants to lend a helping hand to the injured folks at the Outpost by whipping up some healing salve. But here’s the catch—she can’t venture out to find the herbs herself! So, she turns to our hero, Soul, to step in and gather those herbs for her. Let’s get on it so we can help the peeps in need!
You’ll spot the locations of the three herbs clearly marked on your map, and don’t worry, they’re all along the route you’ll be taking through the valley. Keep your eyes peeled, and let’s collect what we need; it should be a pretty straightforward journey!
End Of Chapter
When you’re ready, use fast travel to get back to the Crane Bell, then equip your Dread Axe to smash those pesky chains. From there, just follow the path pointing towards the main objective marker, and it will lead you right up to a camp. Adventure awaits!
As you approach, you’ll trigger a cutscene showcasing the Hunt once more, giving you a glimpse of his merciless rampage in this very camp. But don’t get too comfy; this isn’t where you’ll face the Hunt just yet. He’ll manage to escape again, leaving Soul with a cryptic tease about waiting for him just up ahead. Keep your guard up!
Once the cutscene wraps up, make sure to interact with the Bell nearby and grab the book resting on the table. This little detail is important as it helps you progress in the quest for the Four Fierce Axes Tale. However, remember, you’ll need to seek out more clues to fully unravel this story!
As you wander around this camp, keep your eyes peeled for some Remnant Dust along with other treasures waiting to be discovered. One special collectible you definitely want to hunt down is a book that’s tucked away far behind the camp, tucked beneath a crumbling house. It’s a nice little hidden gem that adds to your collection!
This marks the conclusion of the chapter, but don’t get too comfortable; you still have quite the journey ahead of you before you reach the awe-inspiring Great Waterfall that Yu’er mentioned. So take a deep breath, gear up, and prepare for the adventure that lies ahead!
And that’s another chapter of the Phantom Blade Zero walkthrough wrapped up. We appreciate you sticking with us through it!
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