Phantom Blade Zero calls its side quests “Tales,” and the launch-day guides from PowerPyx, PC Gamer, GamesRadar and Maxroll name more than 40 of them across the game’s nine regions. Most can be finished after the credits. A handful fail once you beat certain story bosses, starting at the end of Crimson Forest, the second region. Below is every Tale by region, when each missable one fails, and step-by-step help for the tricky ones, from Yu’er’s Flesh Lily and herbs to the Gentle Thief’s three questions.
Table of Contents
Phantom Blade Zero side quests: quick answer
- Missable Tales are all early. Purge the Sect, Festering Secret, Honor Among Thieves, A Healer’s Mercy and the Flesh Lily hand-in all fail when you defeat Bai Chilian at the end of Crimson Forest, according to PowerPyx and Maxroll.
- Yu’er’s Apprentice Healer fails even earlier. PowerPyx says it fails when you beat Jing Ye. Maxroll puts the trigger at the Crane Bell in the Thieves’ Camp. Either way, finish the three herbs before you leave Weeping Creek Valley.
- Gentle Thief answers: “Stole a landowner’s jade belt”, “Butterfly”, “The letter never said. His fate is unknown.” The reward is the Silent Wrap accessory.
- Save often: PowerPyx suggests a manual save at the start and end of each region (there are 20 slots). Check the Journal for Tales marked red as “failed”.
All Phantom Blade Zero side quests by region
Tale names and regions come from PowerPyx’s nine region guides. Tales that count for trophies are confirmed against the official Steam achievement list. Many Tales carry on into later regions. Regions 6 to 9 are late-game areas, so their names are mild spoilers.
| Region | Tales | Missable? |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Weeping Creek Valley | Flesh Lily, Four Fierce Axes, Purge the Sect, Festering Secret, Apprentice Healer, A Severed Mindseal, Triple Threat, Whence the Weeping | Purge the Sect, Festering Secret, Apprentice Healer; the first step of A Severed Mindseal |
| 2. Crimson Forest | Honor Among Thieves, Secrets of the Baishan Sect, A Healer’s Mercy, Quick Hand’s Request, The Wily Hare’s Three Dens | Honor Among Thieves, A Healer’s Mercy; Secrets of the Baishan Sect must be accepted here |
| 3. Village of Lu | The Journey Home, Young Master Lan, Young Mistress, A Puppet’s Wooden Heart, Dahuang, Cui, Leave None Alive, Secrets at the Heart of the Lake, The Herald’s Illusion | The Journey Home and Young Master Lan (first step); Young Mistress before the region boss |
| 4. Pangzhen | The Sword and the Way, The Undying Heroic Spirit, The Star Performer, The Cube, A Brother Once More, Kin Against Kin, A Mother’s Heart, Illusory Pipa | None flagged by PowerPyx |
| 5. Mandate Encampment | Xue, Admirer of Heroes; Daughter of the Dark Sect | No, but finish the Baishan objective before the Training Grounds boss and Yubi |
| 6. Meigu Lake | Allure of Vanity, Don’t Forget Me, Pillars of Kunlun | No |
| 7. Mountain of Imprisonment | The Broad Saber, Hero’s Lament, Ledger of Atonement | No |
| 8. Mirage Estate (Pangzhen) | Use It Against Them, Heart of the Fist | No, but it’s the cutoff for the true-ending Tales |
| Across the game | Bloodline Awakening (five Long Pillars), Heart of the Banyan (five Banyan Tree challenges) | No |
PowerPyx spells one Tale “Festering Secrets”; PC Gamer and Maxroll write “Festering Secret”. Boss names follow our Phantom Blade Zero bosses list.
Missable side quests: when each one fails
Our bosses list covers the four boss kills that fail Tales. This table adds every other fail point the guides flag.
| Tale | Fails when | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A Severed Mindseal (first objective) | Not done before you leave Weeping Creek Valley. The exact trigger is unknown. | PowerPyx |
| Apprentice Healer | You defeat Jing Ye, the Outlaw (PowerPyx) or ring the Crane Bell at the Thieves’ Camp (Maxroll) | PowerPyx, Maxroll |
| Purge the Sect | You defeat Bai Chilian at the end of Crimson Forest | PowerPyx |
| Festering Secret | You defeat Bai Chilian | PowerPyx, Maxroll |
| Honor Among Thieves | You defeat Bai Chilian | PowerPyx |
| A Healer’s Mercy, and the Flesh Lily hand-in | You defeat Bai Chilian | PowerPyx, Maxroll |
| Secrets of the Baishan Sect (accept from Lanlan) | You defeat Bai Chilian before accepting it | PowerPyx |
| The Journey Home, Young Master Lan | You enter Pangzhen without finishing their first objective | PowerPyx |
The simple rule: don’t fight Crimson Forest’s last boss until Purge the Sect, Festering Secret, Honor Among Thieves and A Healer’s Mercy all show as complete.
How to complete the tricky side quests
Flesh Lily (Yu’er): where to find it
Flesh Lily starts by itself when you meet Yu’er by the waterfall. To get the flower, PC Gamer and GamesRadar give the same route:
- Rest at the Valley Sha-Chi Tower 1st Floor bell. Go up the stairs and circle around the right side of the tower.
- Drop into the hole at the back and ride the long wooden slide down into the cavern of red spider lilies.
- Turn left and head up the candle-lined path to the clearing. A cutscene starts the optional fight with Hua, Deadly Betrothed.
- Defeat her, then take the Twin Flesh Lilies from the corpse by her pavilion (or “dresser”, as GamesRadar describes it).
- Fast travel from the Flesh Lily Fields bell to the Outpost bell and give the lilies to Yu’er. She keeps one and insists you take the other.
That’s only part one. According to PowerPyx, the Tale ends in Pangzhen. After you defeat Chang Hong, the Thunder Spear, use the lily on the old man in Yu’er’s home just ahead. Hua’s Scarlet Wraithblade is in our Phantom Blade Zero weapons list.
Apprentice Healer: Yu’er’s three herbs
Once you’ve beaten Peng Meng, Yu’er waits next to Forge at the Outpost. Ask her about collecting herbs. All three are in Weeping Creek Valley:
| Herb | Where (PowerPyx, Maxroll) |
|---|---|
| Blood-Stopper Vine | Near the Axemaster’s Holding Cell bell, in the small river under the bridge |
| Congealeaf | Behind the houses across the bridge from the Long Pillar Overlook bell, near the door you open with the Rusted Loong Key |
| Blemish Goldweed | Just past the Weeping Creek Valley Long Pillar |
Hand them in to Yu’er. Maxroll lists the reward as the Medicine Case accessory. Do this before you go to Crimson Forest, because the two guides disagree on exactly when it fails.
A Healer’s Mercy: the four wounded thieves
Yu’er gives you this one at the Thieves’ Camp bell in Crimson Forest, along with Yu’er’s Life-Saving Pill (per Maxroll). PowerPyx places the four thieves here:
- In the small cave near the Outlaw Trap bell.
- In the larger cave near the Outlaw Trap bell, by the chest that holds the Sect Leader’s Snuff Bottle.
- Down the giant ladder near the Cliffside Lodge bell.
- Behind the locked door in the Thieves’ Camp. The Thieves’ Camp Dungeon Key is under the lodge cellar near the Cliffside Lodge bell.
Then return to Yu’er; Maxroll lists the reward as the Calming Gourd medicine.
Honor Among Thieves: all Gentle Thief answers
The Tale starts when you kill the Nimble Thief by a campfire on the hill above the cave near the Outlaw Trap bell. He drops a letter. Take it to his brother, the Gentle Thief, in the house just right of the bridge as you enter the Thieves’ Camp (Maxroll). He can’t read, so he tests you on what the letter says. GamesRadar lists his exact questions:
| Gentle Thief’s question | Correct answer |
|---|---|
| “What did he do at thirteen that he never stopped bragging about?” | Stole a landowner’s jade belt |
| “The hairpin that doomed him for life. Do you know what its head looked like?” | Butterfly |
| “Do you know what became of that poor family’s child?” | The letter never said. His fate is unknown. |
Maxroll words the first answer as “Stole the Mandate’s Jade Belt”, so pick the jade belt option your game shows. According to PC Gamer, a wrong answer just ends the conversation and you can talk to him again. The letter is also in the Archive (Wulin Tales, entry 8). The reward is the Silent Wrap, which cuts noise from footsteps and assassinations by 40%.
Honor Among Thieves ends at the Gentle Thief's house in the Thieves' Camp, Crimson Forest. AI-generated illustration
Secrets of the Baishan Sect (Lanlan)
Talk to Lanlan on the giant wooden bridge near the Thieves’ Camp bell before you defeat Bai Chilian. PowerPyx’s steps:
- At the Cliffside Lodge bell, pick up the Crimson Forest Cellar Crank and open the cellar.
- Drop onto the plank between the two platforms for the Crimson Forest Secret Chamber Crank. At the bottom, unlock the door and talk to the girl inside.
- Later, in the Mandate Encampment, skip the Training Grounds boss for now (beating it fails the Tale), then defeat Wu Lengshuang, the Soft Sword near The Confinement bell. Then interact with the body in the flowers further up the path. Skip it and the Tale fails.
- Defeat Yubi, No. 21 Swordfighter Puppet. A cutscene finishes the Tale and unlocks “The Last of Baishan.”
The Journey Home and Young Master Lan
Old Man Gen and Young Master Lan give these out at their hideout bells in the Village of Lu. PowerPyx says to open the locked door at the end of the region, then talk to both again before entering Pangzhen. For Gen, burn the branches on the right-hand path from the Pond of Fading Song bell and check the corpse in his house. For Lan, follow the road from the Pavilion of Knowledge Crossroads to get the Lan Manor Key, rest, clear the enemies there and enter the manor.
A Severed Mindseal (Shadow Warden)
This one runs the whole game, but its first step is missable. Get it from the Shadow Warden at the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Summit bell. Kill the enemy at the bottom of the giant ladder for the Sha-Chi Furnace Inspection Crank. Use it on the furnace on the tower’s first floor and take the Primal Stone back to him. PowerPyx says to pick the crank back up afterwards, because you’ll need it again. The later steps are in Meigu Lake and snowed-over Crimson Forest.
Four Fierce Axes: all case files
The Tale starts when you pick up the first “Four Axes” case file, a book by the tree near the Broken Puppet Valley bell (PowerPyx). According to PC Gamer’s walkthrough, Peng Meng drops another. You then need seven more from Weeping Creek Valley. All are marked on the map. One comes from Festering Secret, via the captain’s letter to the lieutenant at the Long Pillar Overlook bell. The last file only becomes reachable after Leave None Alive starts in the Village of Lu. Give the evidence to the Child of Insight in Pangzhen to get the Blood Oath Dagger, which Soul Tempers the Dread Axe.
Purge the Sect and Quick Hand’s Request
The Brooding Old Archer on an Outpost rooftop gives you Purge the Sect (PowerPyx). Clear the Ruthless Archer Camp for the Broken-String Bow. The archer then repairs it into the Feather Bow Phantom Edge. Quick Hand Zhang, whom you free from a cage near the Trail of Cages bell, wants his jade-chest treasures from each region. PowerPyx counts 17 across five regions (3, 3, 4, 4 and 3). PC Gamer lists rewards such as the Flying Dagger and Goldblaze Phantom Edges.
Whence the Weeping and the Illusory Pipa
Whence the Weeping appears in your journal in the first region, but PC Gamer and GamesRadar both say you haven’t missed anything. It runs alongside the story for about half the game. Later you rebuild the Illusory Pipa with Myst in Pangzhen’s underground tavern and use it to open the barrier in northeast Meigu Lake. Per PC Gamer’s Pipa guide, the Head drops from the secret boss Dusk (Village of Lu), the Backplate sits just past the Mandate Encampment’s final boss, and the Strings drop from Yan Qiansui, the Zither Maiden, in south Meigu Lake.
The Illusory Pipa's head, backplate and strings come from three different bosses, per PC Gamer. AI-generated illustration
Which side quests count for the true ending
No ending details here. PowerPyx’s true ending guide says the requirement is every quest with a purple icon in the story menu. Ten of them must be done before you enter Mirage Estate through the Green Serpent House: 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 and Secrets at the Heart of the Lake. The last one, Bloodline Awakening (all five Long Pillars), can be finished after that. The game warns you before Mirage Estate if anything is missing, and again at The Last Chance bell, the point of no return. Side content adds a lot of hours; see our how long to beat guide.
FAQ
How many side quests are in Phantom Blade Zero?
S-GAME hasn’t published a count. PowerPyx’s guides for the first five regions list 26 Tales. Adding the later regions and the game-long Tales gives more than 40 named quests. Eleven of them are tied to Steam achievements.
Can you do side quests after beating Phantom Blade Zero?
Yes, except the ones that have already failed. PowerPyx says that after the final boss you can return to every area in free-roam before starting New Game+. NG+ is also the only way to retry a failed Tale if you have no earlier save.
Is Whence the Weeping missable?
No. PC Gamer calls it a major quest that follows the main story. If you’re just starting out, our Phantom Blade Zero beginner’s guide is the better place to begin.
Sources: PowerPyx (trophy guide, true ending guide, and region guides incl. Weeping Creek Valley, Crimson Forest and Village of Lu); PC Gamer (Honor Among Thieves, Flesh Lily, Four Fierce Axes, Quickhand’s Request, Illusory Pipa, Whence the Weeping); GamesRadar (Gentle Thief questions, Flesh Lily, Whence the Weeping); Maxroll (Weeping Creek Valley and Crimson Forest walkthroughs); Steam achievement list for Phantom Blade Zero (official Tale names). Checked October 29, 2026, 18:00 UTC.
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Featured image: AI-generated illustration
