Phantom Blade Zero perfect ending: all requirements

Phantom Blade Zero ends one of two ways. If you leave anything on the checklist undone, Meng Hua is the last fight and you get the normal ending. Finish the list and one more boss steps in after him. No odd choice can lock you out of the list. Moving the story on too early is what does it, which makes timing the whole job.

Perfect ending requirements

Gold icons in the quest menu mark the main story, and you will finish those anyway. Purple icons are the ones that decide the ending. Treat that colour as your checklist.

The two points of no return

The Mirage Estate door in Pangzhen

The story quest The Four Serpent Houses sends you out to three other regions. Each has a Serpent House, and you take one item from the White, the Black and the Red. Carry all three back to Pangzhen and use the back door in the Green Serpent House. That door leads into Mirage Estate. Step through with even one of the ten quests unfinished and the game warns you. You can turn back at that prompt and nothing is lost.

The Last Chance bell at Mount Soulrend

Mount Soulrend is the last region, and the bell called The Last Chance marks the entrance to the boss area. The warning appears each time you ring it, even when your list is clean, since there is no leaving once the fights begin. Talk to Inanis before you go in. If she brings up something you left undone, go back and do it.

The ten quests before Mirage Estate

1. Deep in the Valley
2. Illusion of Inanis
3. Sha-Chi Powered Boat
4. Allure of Vanity
5. Illusory Pipa
6. Pillars of Kunlun
7. Whence the Weeping
8. The Herald’s Illusion
9. Crimson Manor
10. Secrets at the Heart of the Lake

Several of these run across more than one region and rarely close in a single visit. Keep the journal open and check what is still lit up before you leave an area. Three of them need real work, and those are covered below.

Crimson Manor and the Yang eye

Crimson Manor sits in Weeping Creek Valley and it stays shut until Deep in the Valley is done. Lure the respawning Powderkeg enemy to the rubble at the foot of the Weeping Creek Sha-Chi Tower to open a lift. Then walk through all three portals from The Herald’s Illusion, which gives you the Puppet’s Tongue. Use it on the manor door.

The Puppet Scavenger starts the fight alone. Hansui, an Acolyte, joins when the Scavenger is down to half health. Beat them for Crystal Puppet Eye [Yang], Hansui’s Frost Mask and the Alloyed Scythe Blade. The eye and the mask both come into play later.

Mountain of Imprisonment and the Yin eye

This optional region opens through the Illusory Pipa. Collect all the pieces, repair the instrument with Myst, then play it in front of the mist at the Weeping Mistgate in the northeast of Meigu Lake. Clearing the region gets you Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin]. Bi Feng is in here too, about halfway through.

The four Acolyte masks

Secrets at the Heart of the Lake begins once you collect a Memory Flower that belongs to Firefly, found around the Village of Lu. Its later stages need four masks. Each one comes from a scarecrow. Interact with it and you are pulled into an arena against an Acolyte.

Leiting’s scarecrow is hidden behind brambles. Burn them with the Flaming Mane first. Each Acolyte fights with the element of the mask you are chasing. Bring a resistance accessory that matches.

The Meigu Lake mirror

Once you hold all four masks, sail the Sha-Chi boat across Meigu Lake to its western shore, steering past the ice floats toward the snowy mountain. Dock and walk on until you find a mirror. The masks let you through into the Phantom Illusionist Realm. A chapter-ending boss waits inside and so does a Long Pillar. After the boss falls, place the Yang and Yin Crystal Puppet Eyes in the statue and the quest is done.

Bloodline Awakening and the five Long Pillars

This quest begins when you first touch a Long Pillar and it ends with the fifth. Every pillar is a Gold-Masked One fight, and the first one in Weeping Creek Valley shows you how the fight works. You will find them in Weeping Creek Valley, Crimson Forest, the east of Meigu Lake, the Phantom Illusionist Realm and finally Mirage Estate in Pangzhen.

You can take them in any order. Once you accept the quest all five show on your map, and the fights themselves always play out in the same sequence. The last pillar is the one in Mirage Estate, and the quest cannot close until you have gone through the Pangzhen door.

Quick Hand Zhang’s relics

Zhang’s quest starts in the Crimson Forest. Rescue him near the Trail of Cages bell, then talk to him at his hideout by the Thieves’ Camp bell. After that he shows up across five regions, starting in Crimson Forest and ending in Mirage Estate, with Village of Lu, Pangzhen and Meigu Lake in between. Each region hides a set of relics in treasure chests with a green glow. Collect them and bring them back to his hideout in that region. The hideouts also stock the crystals used to polish accessories.

Mirage Estate holds the last set, and you cannot finish him before you cross the Pangzhen door. Make sure the earlier four regions are already handed in by then and the Mirage Estate set is the only job left.

Zhu Yuan and Bi Feng

These two optional blade masters are not on the purple list. The final area closes behind you, so take both before the bell. Zhu Yuan is at the Sha-Chi Tower in Meigu Lake. Bi Feng is partway through the Mountain of Imprisonment, which is the same region that gives you the Yin eye.

The final fights at Mount Soulrend

Ring the Last Chance bell with every box ticked. Meng Hua is the normal final boss. With the list complete, beating him does not end the game. Zuo Shang takes his place, and he exists only on the Perfect route. Win that fight and the ending plays, then the With Heart and Blood trophy unlocks. On Steam it shows as All Comes to Light.

Perfect ending rewards

Both of them arrive in your inventory once the credits end. Aureate levels at a bell like any other weapon, and Broken Long Body is the material for its Soul Temper. The normal ending has no trophy. If you go for the Perfect route on your first run you can pick up every trophy in a single playthrough.

If you already saw the normal ending

You do not need a new save. After the credits the game offers two choices. One is a new cycle, which is New Game Plus. The other loads you back at the Last Chance bell, ahead of the final fights. Take the second, finish whatever the checklist still shows and play the last bosses again.