Phantom Blade Zero Tales: Side Quest Guide

Tales are side quests, and many of them outlast the region where they start. If a quest seems stuck, it usually just needs story progress. These guides show how far each one runs, so you'll know when to move on and when to stop and finish it.

Flesh Lily

Where it runs: Weeping Creek Valley, then Crimson Forest.

This is usually the first side quest you pick up, but you can't finish it right away. Yu'er asks you for a Flesh Lily, which grows beyond the Valley Sha-Chi Tower.

1. Beat Peng Meng at the Outpost, then make your way to the Valley Sha-Chi Tower 1st Floor bell.
2. Drop into the cavern of red spider lilies behind the tower and follow it to a clearing.
3. Defeat the optional boss Hua, Deadly Betrothed. She also gives you the Scarlet Wraithblade.
4. Take the Twinned Flesh Lilies from the corpse by the pavilion.
5. Bring one to Yu'er, who is now beside Forge at the Outpost. She gives you the other as a keepsake.
6. Meet her again at the Thieves' Camp in Crimson Forest, where her story continues.

This chain leads into Apprentice Healer and A Healer's Mercy, which have hard deadlines. See the missables guide before you beat Jing Ye or Bai Chilian.

Four Fierce Axes

Where it runs: Weeping Creek Valley, with a return trip, and ends in Pangzhen.

Finding a Four Axes case file in Broken Puppet Valley starts this tale. After you beat Peng Meng, you need seven more files. All of them are marked on your map.

• Four are in Weeping Creek Valley on your first pass.
• One is in the forge area of the lower Sha-Chi Tower. You'll need the Hunter's Chain Sickle to get the key.
• One comes from the lieutenant in Festering Secrets.
• The last can't be reached until Leave None Alive sends you back from the Village of Lu.

Take the evidence to the Child of Insight in Pangzhen, near the Pavilion of Knowledge Crossroads bell. You'll receive the Blood Oath Dagger, which Soul Tempers the Dread Axe.

Whence the Weeping

Where it runs: across most of the game. It's in the True Ending's list of purple tales.

If you've just started and this quest seems to go nowhere, you haven't missed anything. It looks like an early side quest, but it can't be tracked until later and takes a large part of the game to finish.

1. Keep playing through Crimson Forest. The weeping returns and points you toward the region boss.
2. Talk to Jewel in the Village of Lu about the weeping. She points you to northeast Meigu Lake.
3. Beat Pangzhen's main boss for the Phantom Edge that opens the way to Meigu Lake.
4. Repair the Illusory Pipa, which is a quest of its own, and use it on the barrier in northeast Meigu Lake.
5. Enter the Mountain of Imprisonment and defeat the boss at the top.

Triple Threat

Where it runs: Weeping Creek Valley, then Mirage Estate, then back to Crimson Forest.

The first part is a fight with the Aberrant Three-Faced Puppet, the first optional boss. PC Gamer's advice is simple: come back later. She gives you nothing you need early, and you won't deal much damage at that point.

Part two (late-game spoilers)Click to reveal

In Mirage Estate, a Memory Flower near the Training Grounds bell triggers the next stage. Find the three marked Memory Flowers in the estate, and you'll be sent back to Mirrorwood in Crimson Forest.

Before that fight, PC Gamer says you need Sanguine Reach Soul Tempered into Blazing Edge. That takes the Roaring Flames item, which comes from defeating Zhu Yuan and clearing the third Long Pillar challenge in east Meigu Lake.

The boss, Yucong, gives you the Freezing Chaos sword. PC Gamer calls it the longest and trickiest optional fight it found.

Quick Hand Zhang's treasures

Free Zhang in Crimson Forest and he'll ask you to find jade chests in five areas. Each set earns a reward. Game Rant and Game Informer both list these treasures among the True Ending steps.

Two of the Meigu Lake chests are in the area past the mirror, so you need the four Acolyte masks first. In Mirage Estate, take the Opera House chest on your first pass.

All Tales by region

Tick them off here and they'll update on the 100% tracker. This list comes from PowerPyx's regional guides, and it may not be complete yet.