Early on, after completing the Crimson Forest region in Phantom Blade Zero, you arrive at the Crossroads bell on the outskirts of the Village of Lu. Here, while you are told of the road that leads to the Mandate Encampment, you can’t do much beyond getting that solitary bell and the Memory Flower.
It is only when you defeat Gu Wanyue in Pangzhen during The Heart’s Trail main chapter, that you receive the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Key, allowing you to enter and explore this section of the map.
Here is the 100% walkthrough for the Hero or Heretic chapter that takes place in the Mandate Encampment in Phantom Blade Zero, with all its secrets, upgrade materials, side quests and more.
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Exporing Early Mandate Encampment Areas
Enter the Mandate Encampment and collect Tainted Crystal Shard, Precision Mechanical Gear, Zhao Di’s Resistance Declaration Note, and Forged Metal as you make the linear path to the Mandate Encampment bell. Get the Weapon Reforge Talisman, and note the closed gate on the right. Let’s get down to opening this first.
Make your way left of the bell, and ignore the grapple point prompt, we will get there in a bit.
Qinqian’s Memory Flower (1/3)
Straight ahead lies a group, with a flame slinger above. Make sure you get to her first, and then take out the rest. Collect the Guardian Idol Fragment: Head (one of 4 fragments required to assemble the Guardian Idol accessory). From here, take the path that winds up, and stick to the right, to arrive at the next enemy group, with a huge sprawling tree in the middle.
Collect Camphor Timber, and the Memory Flower from the cabin, and Flawless Twinned Metal from the edge that overlooks the area below on the left. Here, you will see the locked gate that we can unbolt from this side. Jump down, and take out the enemies. Collect Solvent from the cabin next to the gate, and get ready for another Banyan Tree Heart.
Challenge (1/1): Banyan Tree
The three waves for overcoming this challenge and getting the Banyan Tree Heart are:
- 5 enemies with the Healer
- 5 Monks – so have the Iron Gauntlet or any other shield-breaking Phantom Edge equipped
- Stone Hand Iron Fever + Iron Fiend, Young Mistress’s Guardian
Once done, get the Banyan Tree Heart and remember to upgrade your skills – its likely that the upgrade would have been stuck due to a missing Banyan Tree Heart.
Now, enter the stream and defeat the two enemies downstream, to get the Universal Solvent at the end, and now proceed upstream.
Get the Traversal Talisman next to the giant broken wheel, defeat the enemies, and use the tree logs to get across the stream. Collect Broadplate Metal, and Forged Metal, and continue on the linear path to arrive at a branching path with a rock in front.
The left leads back to the bell, the right is where we will move for progressing the story. Clear out the enemies, collect the Flawless Forged Metal from the tent, and Skilled Healer’s Memory from the climbable wall. Get down again, and take the path on the right between the wooden fence. Collect Apprentice Healer’s Memory, clear out the enemies, speak to the Dying Mandate Disciple, take the ladder, and ring the Cliffside Walkway Entrance bell.
Clear the next area, taking care not to get mobbed, and loot the chest from the tent to get Illusory Incense Ash, and Solvent. Note the purple shiny that we cannot reach for now – that is, in fact a Blackstone Shard, we will make our way there soon.
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (1/6) | The Seven-Stars Formation quest
For now, make your way across the passageway (with the lit flames). The next area is essentially an ascent, with criss-crossing across the two cliffsides. Get the Memory Flower, and drop down the ladder next to it. This starts The Seven-Stars Formation side quest. Get the loot by shooting the bow above – Solvent and Concentrated Solvent.
Use the iron chains to swing over, and take the elevator. There will be a gate that you won’t be able to open because of the ranged attacks from the other cliff, so let’s get to solving that. Take the planks on the right side of the gate, and ring the Cliffside Walkway Overlook bell.
Take the ladder down to get a view of where you will be going next. But before going there, we have pending business this side. So climb the ladder back up, and take the plank bridge to the left of the bell. This takes you to the other side, to the ranged attackers. After taking them down, collect the Guardian Idol Fragment: Arm, and continue ahead, killing all enemies.
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (2/6)
This will take you to the top with the Mandate Valley Gate Key, and an iron chain that you can now use to swing over to the closed gate. Swing over, get the Memory Flower, and open the gate.
Blackstone Shard # 1
Before going in there, go back to the Cliffside Walkway Overlook bell and go straight where you had started fighting the ranged attackers. However, don’t take the right, go straight through the cave, and you will arrive in an open area.
Defeat the enemies, kick down the ladder, and from here, look to your left. You will see a place where you can drop down to. There is some debris lying there, as a visual cue. Get the Blackstone Shard, and use the ladder to get back up.
Blackstone Shard #2
Now, jump down into the open area that we viewed earlier and ring the Battlefield Ruins bell. From here, quickly move to the right, and use the 2 climbable platforms. Here, in the cluster of enemies, get the ranged crossbow bolts enemy first, and then the balance. Defeat them to get another Blackstone Shard!
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (3/6)
Continue ahead, sticking to the right, and ring the Beneath the Watchtower bell. Defeat the next enemy cluster ahead and get the Memory Flower. Ahead lies a boss fight.
Wan Jun, The Coppermaul
Use the Dread Axe to destroy the barrier, and you will get pulled into the boss fight. This is your typical, slow moving, brute fight who hits big. He has the irritating habit of throwing dust, which remains for a longer time than with other enemies, obscuring your vision. He rotates the weapon multiple times – which are great parry opportunities, and then stays down for some time catching his breath – go in and get a good number of hits in here.
He will hold his weapon down and charge three times – which is easily avoided. You can go in after the third charge to do some damage. He will also leap in the air and slam down – dodge those attacks. Whenever he throws dust, watch out for a red glowing attack that he often does immediately after.
Bashpole
Defeating Wan Jun gets you the Bashpole Phantom Edge. This also allows you to smash down wooden planks that cover the ground – opening up previously inaccessible areas. Ring the Main Encampment Gate bell.
Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 1 | Phantom Remedy
With this ability, go to the following areas in previous regions to get some loot:
- Battlefield Ruins – Phantom Remedy Medicine
- Sunset Path – go east through the gate and to the cabin on the right to get Master Healer’s Memory, and Sha-Chi Amber Shard # 1
- Young Master Lan’s Hideout (Village of Lu) – Border Banner Soul Tempering Material for the Bastion
- Outlaw Trap (Crimson Forest) – go down the Tunnel and to the left to get upgrade material
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (4/6)
Start from Beneath the Watchtower, and go towards the fallen structure as shown in the image. From there, take the path downwards to get Flawless Twinned Metal, and the Memory Flower.
Now return to the Main Encampment Gate. Use the Bashpole right next to it, and drop down to enter a tunnel. Exit the tunnel, collect the Orders for Mandatory Perfect Transcension Note, enter the gate and take out the enemies. Collect A Page from A Healer’s Journal from the tent. Use the ramp to jump over the boundary, clear out the enemies, and get Skilled Healer’s Memory from the tent. Make your way to the Dovecote bell.
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (5/6)
Go behind the building to get the next Memory Flower. Speak to the Disoriented Swordsman to begin Daughter of the Dark Sect quest. Enter the building, take the ladder, and go around the periphery. Here, you will see a route to the right, that leads to a ladder. Take that to collect Apprentice Healer’s Memory, and a chest with upgrade materials.
Sha-Chi Amber Shard #2
Return back, and now, if you see to your left, there will be an area you can crouch and enter to get the purple shiny – which turns out to be Amber Shard # 2.
Take the ladder up to have an encounter with Red, The Mysterious Swordswoman. After a while, Soul will comment that he should avoid her for now and keep moving. Use the iron chain to swing across. Collect Zhao Di’s Letter, and use the Bashpole ability to break through.
Memory Flower of the Seven Stars (6/6)
You will see a Memory Flower that you can’t reach for now. Jump down, defeat the enemies, and it is a linear path through a series of enemies and staircases that will take you to the other side with the Memory Flower. From here, jump down again, and take the steps that lead outside.
Collect the Tainted Crystal Shard, and ring the Three Towers bell.
Exploring the Mandate Encampment Valley
Qianqian’s Memory Flower (2/3)
Start from the Cliffside Walkway Overlook bell, and make your way to the gate that we had opened with the key. Ring the Mass Grave bell, and get the Memory Flower. Use the tree log to get down, to what is clearly a boss arena.
Corpse-Eating Xue Boss Fight
So, while the boss fight says ‘Corpse-Eating Xue’, it might very well be Camera Lock-on fight. This boss fight boils down to identifying Xue among the other summons, and trying to attack her, rather than on whom the camera locks on to, which, for most times, will be everyone else except the boss.
The boss is taller than the rest, and does screams, red attacks that distinguish her from the rest. Everytime you take her out, she will then spawn once again, and you have to identify and lock on to her once more. Use the minions to fill up your health and Sha-Chi bar, and then try and focus the big attacks on the boss.
Memory Flower of Transcension Defyers (2/2) | Xue, Admirer of Heroes quest | Qinqian’s Memory Flower (2/2)
The summons will keep spawning, so you will never be able to whittle them down to just exclusively take on the boss. Defeating her gets you the Xue’s Item List Note, and starts the Xue, Admirer of Heroes quest.
The other side of the boss arena also has a Memory Flower. Continue on the path to get Who are the Pillars of Kunlun Note, Plain Sword Tassel to Soul Temper the Ink Cut, Disciples of Moji Note, and another Memory Flower.
Xue Admirer of Heroes Item (1/3)
Further up ahead is the flame slinger who you were not able to reach from the other side, along with the orange shiny that happens to be the Black Scabbard. With that collected, make your way to the point where you entered the boss arena to defeat Xue.
Now, let’s explore the stream on both sides, starting with the left. Get Otherworldly Copper, and defeat the next set of enemies engaged in a fight to spawn one of those Memory Flowers that you cannot interact with. Collect the Flawless Broadplate Metal, and Traversal Talisman; and make your way now to the other end of the stream.
Collect A Father’s Letter, Twinned Metal, Tainted Crystal Shard from this end, and take the path that goes up, besides the stream. This is a linear path that takes you to Moji’s Cenotaph bell. Collect Illusory Incense Ash from the right. This overlooks the Battlefield Ruins open area. We are done exploring this section. Fast travel to the Three Towers bell, and get ready for a difficult and awesome boss encounter.
Chief Disciple of Seven Stars Formation boss fight
Take the path on the left with the burning watchtowers and drop down to take on the Chief Disciple of Seven Stars Formation.
Apart from the spectacle of 7 enemies fighting in tandem, the moves are easy to predict. The Chief Disciple will frequently use the others to jump off or leap towards you for blue glowing attacks that can easily be parried.
The other disciples will also follow the boss when he sends the blue arcs your way, so be ready to parry them one after the other.
Most importantly – he will also heal from the other disciples – so, it pays to attack the disciples, and get them out of the fight. The boss will then use his own health to respawn them, and that is how his health pool will keep getting depleted.
Once phase 2 starts, the disciples will do the opposite – they will use their health to resurrect him … like a puppet, and he will fight like one too.
Parry his attacks, and watch for the blue flash attack that he pulls out after every 4-5 stabs at you. Parry that and deal some good damage. With that, his health bar will keep depleting, and as you see hope of being able to get through this phase, in jumps Red, The Mysterious Swordswoman that we had briefly engaged with, to join in the fun – on his side, unfortunately.
So, not only now do you have to parry and bring down the balance health pool of the boss, but also that of Red – who, on her own would be an intimidating enough boss.
Watch out for the red threads attack – keep strafing to avoid them till the full attack is over. Each has his/her own fight pattern, blue and red flash attacks. They will also do blue flash attacks together, so parrying those will have both of them open to attack.
The other attack to watch out for is the thrust attack by Red, that can take out a good chunk of your Sha-Chi bar, and needs to be dodged. Getting Red out leads to a new move from the Chief Disciple – where he angrily weaves red threads around and attacks with a flurry of slashes. Keep your distance, and avoid this move. He will also now do more red glowing attacks, so be ready to dodge them.
Swordsman’s Summon | Twin Heroes’ Memory Flower (1/2 & 2/2) | Twin Fish Pendant
Finally defeating him gets you the Swordsman’s Summon, the Training Grounds Key, and the Twin Fish Pendant. Get the 2 Memory Flowers that spawn in the boss arena, and ring the Tower Rear Exit bell.
From the Three Towers bell, if you look down, there is another set of enemies beside a ladder that you can release, with a Healer in tow. Defeat them and collect the Apprentice Healer’s Memory from the tent. Use the climbable wall to get out of the camp, and use the ramp to get on the other side.
Xue, Admirer of Heroes (2/3)
Continue right, to arrive at another area with a fight going on. Kill everyone to spawn the inaccessible Memory Flower. Collect Broadplate Metal from the tent, Solvent from the right, and swing over to the platform up ahead. Get the Phantom Reforge Talisman, take the ladder, and ring the Road to the Training Grounds bell. Collect the Plain Hairpin – 2nd item on Xue’s List.
