Phantom Blade Zero: How to Get the True Ending (Secret Ending)

Phantom Blade Zero has three endings in a normal run: one is bad, one is slightly less bad, and the third is the True Ending, while a fourth is locked to 66 Days Mode (after you beat the game).

The True Ending (which some call the “Secret Ending”) is the good, real, ending and what you should be aiming for. And today I am here to give you the most complete guide to getting the True Ending in Phantom Blade Zero.

Spoiler warning: this guide names quests, bosses, and the final stretch of the game.

The Short Version

Things are a lot more complex than what I could summarize below, but if you want a general overview of what’s expected from you to get the True Ending, here it is:

Requirement	What it involves
Secrets at the Heart of the Lake	Four Acolyte Masks, the mirror in northwest Meigu Lake, the Yin and Yang eyes, and a ritual to shut down
Bloodline Awakening	Five Long Pillar fights against the Gold-Masked One
Quick Hand’s Request	Treasures and relics found in each region and delivered to Quick Hand Zhang
Remaining story quests	Every story quest with a purple icon that isn’t tied to the main mission

Also read: Phantom Blade Zero: Answers for the Thief Questions

The Most Important Early Mission: Mirage Estate/The Four Serpent Houses

Once you finish the main mission in Pangzhen, the game sends you to the Mirage Estate, only to find here’s no way in through the steps or the main thoroughfare.

The quest changes to The Four Serpent Houses, and the answer is a hidden passage behind the snake door in the Green Serpent House. Collect the items that open that doorway and you can continue onward.

If you still have important quests left to complete, the game warns you that you have “unfinished business.”

While it might depend on what quests you actually have unfinished, I didn’t find it to have any influence, as you can still fast travel back to other regions if you wander into the Mirage Estate too early.

But the True Ending requirements might fail if you do so, so it’s best to complete them all before this point of no return.

Two missions can wait because they are related to the Mirage Estate: the fifth Long Pillar and Quick Hand Zhang’s final hideout.

Crossing also cuts off a handful of Crimson Forest bells (Parting Mists, Mirrorwood Depths, Threadbound Great Tree, Burial Grounds and the Sha-Chi Tower), so finish that region too.

The Ten Purple Quests

Make sure that you complete these 10 purple quests (check them out in your Story tab and make sure they’re all completed):

• Deep in the Valley
• Illusion of Inanis
• Sha-Chi Powered Boat
• Allure of Vanity
• Illusory Pipa
• Pillars of Kunlun
• Whence the Weeping
• The Herald’s Illusion
• Crimson Manor
• Secrets at the Heart of the Lake

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The Three Serpent Parts That Open the Door

The Four Serpent Houses main quest wants three items before the Serpent Door at the back of the Green Serpent House in Pangzhen will open:

Red Serpent Tongue: Located in the Red Serpent House in Crimson Forest. Burn the branches blocking the entrance with Flaming Mane, the Phantom Edge from Flame, the Mask-Bound Lion Dance Grandmaster.

Black Serpent Fang: Located in the Black Serpent House in the Village of Lu. Use Flaming Mane on the wooden obstacles up the hill from the nearby bell.

White Serpent Eye: Located in the Meigu Lake, via the Sha-Chi Powered Boat quest. Reach the island with the bell, beat two regular enemies, then Heartpiercer, Elite Shadow Warden.

At the Mirage Estate approach, Inanis stops you if the lake quest is unfinished and offers two choices: “There’s still unfinished business. Return later.” and “No turning back now. Forward it is!”

The first sends Soul back with no penalty and gives you a chance to complete the unfinished business. The best approach here is to make a manual save before you open that door, so a missed quest won’t ruin the entire run.

Quest One: Secrets at the Heart of the Lake

This is the spine of the whole True Ending, and it sprawls across four regions. It’s also tied up with The Herald’s Illusion and Inanis’s role in the story, so expect it to keep resurfacing.

It Starts in the Village of Lu

The quest begins when you find one of Firefly’s Memory Flowers in the Village of Lu. Six of them are scattered around the village, and collecting all six opens an optional area near the Temple of the Blue Fireflies, a settlement full of friendly puppets.

Jump down the pit there and beat a boss named Dusk, the Puppeteer, which gives you rewards and triggers a cutscene.

The flowers glow blue beside a dry-stone wall above the arena where you fight Zhuo Bi, the Gatekeeper.

Collecting all six also grants a permanent +10% HP, and the fog wall to Dusk’s Refuge opens only once you have all six. Dusk drops the Puppeteer’s Bell Phantom Edge and the Illusory Pipa head.

Defeating an acolyte scarecrow in the farm fields to the north also clues you in that the whole scarecrow business belongs to this quest.

Hunt Down the Four Acolytes

You need all four Acolyte Masks, and each scarecrow acolyte lives somewhere inconvenient:

Acolyte	Location	How to reach them
Yanru	Village of Lu	Right in the starting village
Lei Ting	Pangzhen	Pick up the Flaming Mane Phantom Edge on the west side of town, then burn the barrier near the Pond of Fading Song bell
Guhe	Meigu Lake	On the east village dock island
Hansui	Crimson Manor	Fix the Illusory Pipa, complete Whence the Weeping, and clear the Mandate Encampment area

Hansui is the long one. Reaching the Crimson Manor stacks several other quests in front of you, so budget real time for it.

Several of those prerequisites also feed other parts of the True Ending, which makes the detour less painful:

• Deep in the Valley opens the lower section of the first region, where the Crimson Manor and a Long Pillar are.
• Whence the Weeping and Pillars of Kunlun are handed to you a few hours into the campaign and finish when you clear the Mountain of Imprisonment.
• Illusion of Inanis and Sha-Chi-Powered Boat wrap up as you explore other regions, and the boat is what takes you to Meigu Lake.
• The Illusory Pipa dispels impenetrable barriers and opens new areas.
• The Herald’s Illusion sends you looking for the Three-Eyed Puppet’s domains.

Collect the Yin and Yang Eyes

The hanging puppet is the Three-Eyed Puppet, and it stays silent until you open three magic doors, one each in the Village of Lu, the Mandate Encampment and the Mountain of Imprisonment.

That is the Herald’s Illusion quest. The door in the Mountain of Imprisonment sits in a chamber under Huangxing’s arena and opens after you beat him.

With all three doors open, the puppet hands over the Puppet’s Tongue and Crystal Puppet Eye [Yin].

Give the tongue to the Mute to open the Crimson Manor, where the Puppet Scavenger and Acolyte Hansui drop Crystal Puppet Eye [Yang] and Hansui’s Frost Mask in one fight.

Shatter the Mirror in Northwest Meigu Lake

Take the four masks to the Four Guardians’ Mirror in the frozen lands of northwestern Meigu Lake.

Using them shatters the mirror and opens the area beyond, known as the Phantom Illusionist’s domain and the Meigu Lake Discordance.

Poke around for loot, because the place is generous with it, and keep in mind that the fourth Long Pillar is in here too.

The area ends with the Blizzard Blademaster. Beat that boss and a puppet statue appears in front of you.

Interact with it and insert the Yin and Yang eyes, which teleports you to the ritual at the Heart of the Lake. Kill every puppet monk (the cultists) to end the ritual. That leads to another encounter with Inanis and completes the quest.

TIP: Rest at the Whiteshadow’s Fall bell before you press E on Puppet No. 99, because the ritual against The High Elder starts instantly. Afterward, talk to Inanis in the Realm of Mirage to receive the Violet Blossom. The endings check that conversation, so do not skip it.

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Quest Two: Bloodline Awakening

The Bloodline Awakening quest has you fighting the Gold-Masked One at five Long Pillars, and the True Ending wants all of them.

The later pillars hand out Soul Tempering materials for some of the game’s best weapons, so skipping them hurts you twice.

Pillar	Location	Notes
First	Weeping Creek Valley	Use the Hunt’s Scythes to grab the key on top of the Sha-Chi tower, which unlocks the area holding the pillar
Second	Crimson Forest	Just off the main path after Stone Fist Iron Fever’s arena, near the start of the Mirrorwood
Third	East Meigu Lake	On an island
Fourth	Phantom Illusionist’s domain	Needs the Acolyte masks, so grab it while you’re there for the Heart of the Lake quest
Fifth	Mirage Estate	Second-to-last area, close to the Willow Pavilion; backtrack a little and you’ll find a path you can grapple to with the Hunt’s Scythes

For the first pillar, the key you want is the Rusted Long Key. For the fourth, you need the Dread Axe to break a sealed gate near the fishing village.

Early in the game, a pillar offers only a Continue or Leave prompt and a vague sense that something enormous is sealed inside.

Once a trial opens, you fight the Gold-Masked One, who takes damage only after you parry or perfectly dodge his attacks or break his Sha-Chi. (Blue attacks can be parried. Red attacks need a perfect dodge.)

Here are the rewards each pillar gives later on:

Pillar	Reward
First	Counterstrike Bracers
Second	Miraculous Scabbard
Third	The Quenched Flaming Grip
Fourth	Chaos Iron Fragment I
Fifth	Bastion of Mó Mask (completes Bloodline Awakening)

Quest Three: Quick Hand’s Request

You meet Zhang caged near the Trail of Cages bell in Chapter 3: Steel and Steam. Free him and you get the Quick Hand Pendant, which adds 10% one-handed weapon damage, plus The Wily Hare’s Three Dens questline.

He then runs five hideouts, each wanting relics from green-glowing chests nearby. Here’s where to find them:

Region	Hideout
Crimson Forest	Thieves’ Camp.
Village of Lu	Cavern near the village centre, past the Zhang’s Hideout Bell.
Pangzhen	Abandoned house west of the village, ladder under the floorboards.
Meigu Lake	Northeast edge of the island by the Meigu Village West Dock bell.
Mirage Estate	Left path at the flooded split, up the staircase with flames on both sides.

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Quest Four: Two Blade Masters Nobody Warns You About

These are two optional bosses that I am not 100% sure lock you out of the true ending.

I did some research and found some guides not recommending them, but since I defeated these bosses and got the true ending, I think it’s safest if you do the same. It’s not too much of a detour, but to high of a risk:

• Zhu Yuan, the Searing Blade: at the Sha-Chi Tower on Meigu Lake. Reward: Scorching Flames.
• Bi Feng, Giant Saber Commander: near the Cavern Passage bell in the Mountain of Imprisonment. Reward: Juggernaut.

Back Inside the Mirage Estate

Once your side quests are done, enter the Mirage Estate and fight through enemies and bosses. Along the way, finish the fifth Long Pillar and Quick Hand’s last hideout.

Eventually you’ll acquire the Tiger Cannon, a Phantom Edge that blows up destructible walls, and you’ll need it to reach Soulrend Cliff, the last region in the game.

You can also fast travel from the Mirage Estate and from Soulrend Cliff, up until just before the last bell.

If you’ve done everything above, Inanis tells you right before you step out onto the peak of Mount Soulrend that she can’t do anything more to prepare you. Take that as the green light.

The Final Fights and the Loot

The True Ending has you fight Leng Tu, Meng Hua, and Zuo Shang. The other endings skip Zuo Shang’s second form, which makes this the only route to that extra boss fight.

After the supposed final boss goes down, one more encounter follows. It should be obvious that this one really is the last, so sit back and enjoy the cutscenes afterward.

Completing everything above also gets you:

• The Hunt outfit
• The Kindred outfit
• The Blizzard outfit
• The Legacy outfit
• The Radiant Heart story item

Afterward, you can speak to Inanis to start New Game+, and you can adjust the difficulty at that point. Your weapons and Phantom Edges carry over.

Missed Something? What You Can Still Fix

Finishing the credits does not end your shot in some cases. After the ending, you can load back to The Last Chance bell and finish the fifth Long Pillar or the last Zhang relics, then fight the final bosses again.

The bell sits after the Mirage Estate door, so a purple quest that locked at the door stays locked.

For those, you need a manual save from before the door or a new cycle, which starts by talking to Inanis in the Realm of Mirage.

Wrapping Up

I don’t think that it is a big surprise that getting the True Ending is so complicated. It makes sense in such a challenging game, but now that you know exactly what to do, you can easily get it.

Now over to you. If you have additional questions or suggestions for fellow players hoping to get the true ending in Phantom Blade Zero, let us all know in the comments down below.