Phantom Blade Zero has more than 40 side tales. Black objectives are tales and purple ones count toward the true ending. Many are lost when you beat Jing Ye or Bai Chilian, when you enter Pangzhen or when you cross into the Mirage Estate.
The cutoffs that close tales
Only move on after closing what’s pending
- Jing YeApprentice Healer
- Bai Chilian6 tales
- PangzhenGen and Lan
- Mirage Estatepurple quests
- The CrusherCui
Most important tales and their deadline
| Tale | Where it starts | Deadline or reward |
|---|---|---|
| Flesh Lily | Yu’er (Valley) | Hand over the lilies before Bai Chilian; it ends in Pangzhen (Yu’er’s House, after Blaze): her father gives you the Blessed Jade Pendant |
| Apprentice Healer | Yu’er, after Peng Meng | Before beating Jing Ye |
| Purge the Sect | Old archer (Mandate Outpost) | Before Bai Chilian · gives the Feather Bow |
| A Severed Mindseal | Guardian in the Sha-Chi Tower | First stone before leaving the Valley |
| Triple Threat | Crack next to The Lady’s Rift | Not missable · gives Freezing Chaos |
| Honor Among Thieves | Letter in the Crimson Forest | Before Bai Chilian |
| A Healer’s Mercy | Yu’er (thieves’ camp) | Before Bai Chilian |
| Secrets of the Baishan Sect | Lanlan (great bridge) | Accept before Bai Chilian; then, in this order: Wu Lengshuang → Bi Taotao’s body → Yubi |
| Quick Hand’s Request | Zhang (Trail of Cages) | Before the Mirage Estate |
| The Journey Home | Old Man Gen (Village of Lu) | Accept before entering Pangzhen · gives the War Wagon |
| Young Master Lan | Lan Shaodi (Village of Lu) | Accept before entering Pangzhen |
| Young Mistress | Ribbon on a tree (Village of Lu) | Five ribbons before Mu Xiaokui |
| Cui | Puppet girl after Yuzan | Before The Crusher and the Saw |
| Leave None Alive | Automatic in the Village of Lu | If you push on too far · gives Arrowward and Agarwood Prayer Beads |
| Daughter of the Dark Sect | Dovecote (Mandate Encampment) | Don’t kill Red |
| Don’t Forget Me | Yu Ling (Pangzhen Marketplace) | Gives the Ultimate Talisman |
| Hero’s Lament | Liu Yi (Mountain of Imprisonment) | Gives Ink Cut |
| Ledger of Atonement | Masked wanderer (Mountain of Imprisonment) | Before the Mirage Estate |
Purple quests
There are 11: Whence the Weeping, Deep in the Valley, Pillars of Kunlun, Crimson Manor, Bloodline Awakening, Illusion of Inanis, Secrets at the Heart of the Lake, Illusory Pipa, The Herald’s Illusion, Sha-Chi Powered Boat and Allure of Vanity. You have the checklist in the purple quests and the order by chapter in the true ending guide.
A tale only shows as “Failed” when it can no longer be finished. If you close it the wrong way, it shows as completed but with no reward. Save manually several times per chapter.
Why do some tales fail by themselves when you beat a boss?
Some story bosses change the state of the world and close the area’s pending tales, with no prior warning. The earliest ones: Jing Ye closes “Apprentice Healer” and Bai Chilian closes the rest of Yu’er’s tales (“Flesh Lily” and “A Healer’s Mercy”), “Purge the Sect” and “Honor Among Thieves”. On the Steam forum, several players report losing Yu’er’s entire questline this way. Careful: handing over the lilies in time doesn’t complete “Flesh Lily”, which ends in Pangzhen, at Yu’er’s House (after Blaze), when her father gives you the Blessed Jade Pendant. You have it in order in Yu’er’s quests. Before each story boss, finish whatever you have open in the area. You have the full list in the area order and points of no return.
In what order do you do Secrets of the Baishan Sect?
- Accept it from LanlanOn the great bridge in the Crimson Forest, before beating Bai Chilian.
- Beat Wu LengshuangAt The Confinement (Mandate Encampment).
- Examine Bi Taotao’s bodyAmong the flowers, before you face Yubi.
- Beat YubiShe is Bi Taotao’s puppet form. If you beat her before examining the body, the tale fails and you lose The Last of Baishan trophy.
According to player reports on the Steam forum, the game sometimes doesn’t register that you examined Bi Taotao’s body: the marker stays on the map and the tale fails when you beat Yubi. One player links it to quitting the game or touching a bell between Wu Lengshuang and the body, and recommends examining it right after the fight. It is not an official fix. Save manually before Yubi and check in the journal that the objective changed.
Why does Cui’s tale get stuck?
According to player reports on the Steam forum (not confirmed by S-GAME as the cause), these are the most common problems:
- Lu Sanqian disappears or is left floating: it happens if you explore the cage area or open the door he points you to too early. Do the steps in the order he asks.
- Lu Sanqian doesn’t drop anything next to The Lady’s Shrine bell: one player says you have to give him the Rootless Dew item, which is in the small pavilion where you fought the commander, and that you must pick it up before freeing him from the cage the second time.
- Lu Jieyuan doesn’t show up after the boss of the second-to-last step and stays sitting with the woman: the tale fails and you miss the reward for tempering the Baishan Stormswords. The support team replied in the thread that it passed the report on.
If it happens to you, the only shared way out is loading an earlier save. Save manually before each step of Cui.
Frequently asked questions
Which side quests give a trophy?
Secrets at the Heart of the Lake, Secrets of the Baishan Sect, The Journey Home, Young Master Lan, A Severed Mindseal, the three Yu’er tales, Zhang’s requests and Heart of the Banyan.
Why did Secrets of the Baishan Sect fail if I beat Yubi?
Because you have to examine Bi Taotao’s body after Wu Lengshuang and before Yubi. If you did and it still failed, according to player reports on the Steam forum it may be a bug: it can only be fixed by loading an earlier save.
How do I fix Cui’s tale if Lu Sanqian or Lu Jieyuan don’t show up?
There is no official fix. Players on the Steam forum only solve it by loading a save from before the step that failed.
