The Town of Death main chapter for Phantom Blade Zero ends as you walk through the mist from the South Town Pond bell towards the red gate. You then find yourself next to a bell, with The Heart’s Trail chapter opening up in the backstreets of Pangzhen.
This area, and the chapter has a lot to cover – and we will be breaking this down into a 3rd part as well so that we cover everything with the required level of detail, without making this specific guide article too long.
We will keep the numbers for upgrade materials and collectibles in line and continuation with what we started with for the region – so that we can, at the end, have a look at the total completion for Pangzhen, rather than at individual chapter levels.
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Ring the Backstreet Archway bell, and proceed up the steps. You will see what is clearly a boss, waiting for you. Before we deal with him, take the left into the house, and get Polished Broadplate Metal. Now, boss fight time.
Wu Xuan, Fallen General Boss Fight
This is a single phase boss fight, though he turns up the dial and gets a new form and more devastating attacks once his health is down to half. Though, it is one single health bar through the fight – hence the single phase definition.
Ensure that you have either the Iron Gauntlet or the Dread Axe in place for taking down his shield. Also, equip an upgraded Boulderguard accessory. He hits like an absolute truck, and you need all the damage negation you can get.
One of his most devastating movesets is when he swings the hammer vertically and continuously, with each swipe upwards and downwards hurting you. He always ends this with the blue glowing attack. So, either dodge the first few, and get ready towards the end of the combo to parry.
Next, he will rotate the spikes on the hammer like a chainsaw, and sometimes end this with an overhead swing – which again is a blue glowing attack. You can parry all the attacks in this moveset.
Next, is a four overhead slam combo, where he puts his entire body’s force into each slam of the hammer, and ends with a blue glowing attack.
I would strongly recommend to pull out all your shield breaking R2 moves here and get him down where you can then land a critical strike; even if you take some damage while charging up. Upgrade the Dread Axe to reduce it’s charging time to help here.
Once his health is reduced to about half, he starts adding purple – Blight / Chaotic Flame led attacks. The attack patterns remain the same, except for a new slam AoE that he does – stay away from the marked area till the flames are out and it is safe.
Even when he flat on the ground, he will still swing his hammer in circles – this attack is easier to parry, so use it to deplete his Sha-Chi bar.
The other viable strategy is to use the Bastion Phantom Edge in the second phase, where you absorb his full combo and then unleash it back at him to significantly reduce his Sha-Chi bar.
Wolfjaw
Defeating him gets you the Wolfjaw Phantom Edge. This Phantom Edge restores HP as each swing hits the enemy.
Quick Hand Zhang Treasure (2/4)
Cross the arena, and there are two exits. One, with a circular gate, and the other one to its right. Take the circular gate first
. Go up the steps, defeat the enemies, and enter the building to get the Ink Stick. We already have two treasures, and we haven’t even met him yet in Pangzhen. So let’s correct that right away.
Quick Hand Zhang Location in Pangzhen
Now, take the right. Enter the building to get Exotic Copper Ingot and Incense Ash from the chest. Exit from the other side, use the climbable wall on the left. Take out the enemies praying to the shrine on the left and get the Tainted Crystal Shard.
Enter the door to ring the Zhang’s Hideout (Pangzhen) bell. Interact with him to get the Quick Hand’s Request for Pangzhen – this time it is for 4 treasures – looks like our friend is getting greedier.
Now, trace your steps back, and take the other route after crossing the arena – the one with steps leading up. Defeat the enemies, and at the end of the steps, ring the Backstreet Rest bell.
Blackstone Shard #4
From here, go straight, and defeat the enemy waves to get Blackstone Shard # 4 for the Pangzhen region. Get the Polished Forged Metal, Blazing Darkfire Charcoal from the house straight ahead with the red-lit lanterns. Exit the house from the other side, and loot the chest to get Concentrated Solvent, Polished Twinned Metal, and Polished Broadplate Metal.
Go back to the bell, and this time, take the steps hugging the wall on the left to get Remnant Dust. With this done, take the steps next to the bell for progressing the main story. Continue along the linear path, defeating enemies on the way. Get the Exotic Copper Ingot.
Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 4
You will eventually arrive at a climbable wall on your left. The path on the right, past the lit candles only has some Remnant Dust. Go up, collect Mechanical Gear, take the ladder, to arrive at a room with puppets praying to a shrine. Clear the area, and get the Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 4.
Blackstone Shard # 5 | Congeal Talisman
Drop the ladder to the right, grab the Polished Broadplate Metal, and exit straight to see a Powderkeg with the Healers behind. Others will join in. Defeat them all, to get the Blackstone Shard # 5. Continue straight from where the enemies attacked you to get Precision Mechanical Gear, and a chest with the Congeal Talisman.
Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 5
Take the steps on the right to get Polished Forged Metal. Then, take the plank across to the other building and ring the Narrow Alley Residence 2nd Floor bell. Get the Ancient Timber from the balcony with a broken fence, and Darkfire Charcoal from the room with the Slumbering Boy.
Look down from here to get an idea on the next enemy group. Head towards the tree after taking them out, get Polished Twinned Metal from the right, and use the rope to slide across. Defeat the next set of enemies, and open the chest to get Amber Shard #5.
Here, there are the following areas to cover:
- The steps on the left.
- Steps that lead back up behind you, below the area that you used the rope.
- Either sides of the lake, and the lake.
- The path straight ahead – which is the main quest path.
Bug Alert when clearing the lake:
First, let’s clear the lake portion. Get the Polished Broadplate Metal, and Traversal Talisman from the left edge of the lake and make your way up to witness a fight. Join in, and clear out the area. It is important here that a Memory Flower should spawn – nothing will happen if you interact with it – but, it should be there. If not, then reload the most recent save and play this part again.
Go to the first floor of the building to get Otherworldly Copper. Notice the vines at the very end of the lake. We will come back to this later.
Quick Hand Zhang Treasure (3/4) | Memory Flower of Lion Dance Grandmaster (4/6)
Now, from the bell, take the steps on your left, next to the chest that you looted for the Amber Shard. Enter the house on the left to get the Carved-Edge Ink Stone, Quick Hand Zhang’s third item on his treasure list. Get the Memory Flower, and exit from the other side. Take out the 2 dogs, and go ahead to interact with the dog’s corpse to close the Dahuang side quest. Open the cages to get Concentrated Solvent, and Remnant Dust.
With that done, retrace your steps, and now go straight from the point where you landed. On the right will be a short bridge, take that to get Polished Forged Metal. From here, take the steps leading up, and defeat the first set of enemies on the left to get Camphor Timber, and Apprentice Healer Memory, and Tainted Crystal Shard at the very end.
Take the main path now, and this will lead you to the Pond of Fading Song bell. Save here for a tough boss fight.
Gu Wanyue, The Wailing Wraith Boss Fight
You can deal damage here only once her guard has been broken, she remains in the wraith state till that happens. She will throw a blight ball at you, deflect it back.
The other attack is when she throws projectiles at you and then charges at you with a few rapid strikes. This ends with a red glowing attack; or a kick + blue glowing attack.
The most difficult attack is when she puts you in the dark. Hold your guard up, and as soon as the darkness dissolves, ready yourself for a red glowing attack. A good idea here is to use the Fiend Saws and mark the boss – that mark shows up even when in darkness.
When she screams at you, there will be a QTE…press that rapidly and get it over with, as she will mostly be readying a red or blue glowing attack immediately. If you are slow here, you will not have time to counter the follow up attack.
Fanatic’s Fragment: Fixation | Memory Flower: The Search (1/2) and (2/2)
Get the Fanatic’s Fragment: Fixation, and then take the People of Pangzhen Note before jumping into the well. Once down, get the Memory Flower, and take the next linear path. Grab the Traversal Talisman after you climb the ladder. Next is the 2nd Memory Flower, and Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Key.
Continue to next pick up Notes on the Heart Meridian, defeat the enemy to get Signed Contract Note, collect Polished Twinned Metal, Incense Ash, and ring the Well of Wei Sanchuan bell. Up next is another boss fight.
Xie Qiudong Boss Fight
So here’s the setup – as soon as you enter the arena, the first thing to target and get rid of, are the healers.
Even within them, first, make a run for the healer that you have to take a ladder to. Then, bait enemies to a place and make a run for the healer furthest away to have some time for your hits to take it out.
You can also use the explosives kept around the healers to take them out – just be careful you move out before they explode. Once all the healers are done, then, you can do two things – go for the bodyguards, he will heal them but his health will also keep going down, till you get him to a level where you can get him out. Or, ignore the bodyguards completely and just go for the boss.
The one, critical thing – which, although holds true for most bosses but specially this one, is to properly dodge his red glowing attacks, else he will leech health of you, which is just plain annoying.
There is one bodyguard who does ranged damage – so try to keep most of the fight such that those attacks don’t reach you.
The one irritiating fight that the game can be accused of is this one, and it is more due to the fact that with so many enemies, the lock-on keeps moving to the enemy that you don’t want to hit.
Everflow
Once you defeat him, you get the Everflow Medicine. This has 2 uses, and when no heals are left, defeating an enemy restores use.
Exit the boss arena, collect the Polished Forged Metal, and then you have to make your way through a street filled with enemies – if you don’t have any heals left – you may want to go and save and come back. You can also try making it through rooftops to take out enemies with stealth.
Either way, once you are at the end of that street, ring the Green Serpent House bell.
Exploring the area around Green Serpent House
There are 3 main things to do here:
- The Green Serpent House itself.
- The area on the right of the Green Serpent House that opens up a shortcut back to the House.
- The house below the Green Serpent House, that leads to the main story progression and the next bell.
Green Serpent Brew Medicine
Let’s make our way to the Green Serpent House. Collect Patient Record, and Notes on a Flower, and then interact with Xie Xiaorong. You can now finally upgrade Medicines as well, using Apprentice Healer Medicine as the upgrade material.
Completing the interaction with him also gets you the Green Serpent Brew Medicine. Interact with the snake head on the right, to start The Four Serpent Houses quest. Go up the stairs, and get the The Four Serpent Houses Note to progress the quest. Turn your back and get the Serpent Gall: Green Weapon Soul Tempering Material.
Memory Flower: Estate Experiments (1/3)
Return to the Green Serpent House, and this time look to the right to see a collectible. Proceed towards that area. Get the Illusory Incense Ash, and grapple to the roof. Straight ahead is a Memory Flower. Get the Polished Forged Metal, Polished Twinned Metal, and continue along the linear path to arrive into an open area (collect the Solvent from the left) with enemies on the right.
Blackstone Shard # 6 | Memory Flower: Estate Experiments (2/3)
Interact with the furnace on dropping down, and select ‘Dig the Furnace’ to get Bronze Essence to temper the Tianxuan Bronze Sword. Defeat the enemies to get Blackstone Shard #6. Open the chest to get Camphor Timber, Blazing Darkfire Charcoal, and Otherworldly Copper. Collect the Polished Broadplate Metal, Concentrated Solvent, Memories of Xie Yuan 1 and 2 Notes, and open the gate.
Get the Memory Flower, and the steps down will have the Green Serpent House on the left.
Thunderward | Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 6
Continue heading down the steps to enter the house in front. You will get ambushed by 3 enemies. Defeat them, and open the golden chest to get the Thunderward accessory. Go up the stairs and all the way to the other end of the passage to get Amber Shard # 6 for Pangzhen region.
Memory Flower of the Lion Dance Grandmaster (5/6)
Now, exit from the other door to the one that you entered the house (on the right of the golden chest), and you will see the Memory Flower. Get the Camphor Timber in front. Take a right, and get Mechanical Gear and Polished Forged Metal from under the bridge.
Retrace your steps and climb up on the bridge, clear out the puppets, and take a right to arrive at a street decorated clearly for festive celebrations, but empty. At the end, at the branching path, will be three puppets.
Take them down, and go left to arrive at the next bell – Lion Dance Hall. Ring the bell. The main gate with the three enemies currently is locked. Retrace your steps up, but go left across the bridge – towards the yellow main quest symbol on the map.
Here, on the bridge, on the right, you will see enemies afar. Get down here, grab the Tainted Crystal Shard, and Illusory Incense Ash. Then, take out the enemies, get the Otherworldly Copper, and open the chest to get Concentrated Solvent, Polished Broadplate Metal, and Polished Twinned Metal. The area under the bridge is done.
Memory Flower: Bitter Kin (1/2)
So, grapple back onto the bridge, and clear out the puppet enemies straight ahead. At this point, you should be at the position shown on the map above, with a Memory Flower near you. Get that to start the Kin Against Kin side quest. Enter the house and get the Apology Letter. Get the Polished Forged Metal, ring the Ancestral Shrine Square bell.
We will stop the chapter progression here, as there is a mini-boss rush, some major story progression, and a Phantom Edge that opens up previously inaccessible areas, all lined up one after the other. We will take up and complete The Heart’s Trail in the next article for 100% Pangzhen Walkthrough.
