Phantom Blade Zero Walkthrough Part 2: Sha-Chi Tower Climb and Waterfall Warden Duel

This guide follows the second episode of the full playthrough, picking up at the chain gate outside the survivor camp and running all the way to the arrival in the Crimson Forest. Along the way it covers Yuer's three-herb medicine recipe, the side objective for the lost camp gate key, the climb through the Transcension Tower, the mind seal and primal stone lore, the permanent Blackstone Shard boost, and the two-phase duel against the Shadow Warden at the great waterfall, which pays out the Chain Sickle.

Breaking the Chains: Where Part 2 Begins

The episode opens right where the first one ended, with Soul carrying the massive two-handed axe and its newly unlocked charged ability. The game tells you outright that this giant axe should easily break the chains blocking the road, and that is exactly your first task:

1. Walk up to the chain barrier and hold the attack button down to charge the axe's heavy strike instead of tapping it. The charged swing shatters the chains in one go.
2. During the scripted scuffle that follows, allies fight alongside you. Friendly NPCs cannot be hurt — the player notices mid-swing that you cannot actually damage them yet, and that friendly fire is off entirely, which keeps the chaos manageable.
3. A side area sits off the main route here. The playthrough skips it deliberately and commits to the critical path, but the game makes it clear that side quests and optional NPC conversations are available from this point on. It is easy to sink hours into character building and errands if you want to.

A couple of quick pickups land in this stretch as well: an Amber Shard (the same shard series collected in Part 1) and some charcoal material. Passive health regeneration also appears to be ticking, which the player calls out as a pleasant surprise.

On the platform side: this playthrough tested both the PC and PS5 versions, hit stuttering problems on PC, and settled on a PS5 Pro with ray tracing enabled, where the game runs great — a note repeated later in the episode when the visuals of the valley keep impressing.

Outpost Talk: The Man Who Killed Three and Yuer's Three-Herb Recipe

Before leaving the camp, several NPC conversations flesh out the story and hand you a real side quest.

The Shaken Fighter

One survivor stands over three bodies he should not have been able to touch: "I was never a match for them. But just now, I actually killed them with my own hands." The surrounding dialogue observes that "he's not in his right mind — something must have really shaken him," and suggests asking their captain about it. It is a small story beat, but it plants the same unsettling question that runs through the whole episode: something is making ordinary fighters lethally stronger.

Yuer, Twice

Yuer, the girl from the valley, can be spoken to twice:

1. First conversation. She admits she followed the road out of the valley alone because she was scared, and asks to come along — she can gather herbs, start fires, recognize wild plants, and even show the way. Soul refuses: "Following me would only lead you into more danger. You can't save your father if you're hurt." She brings up the Flesh Lily, the flower she believes will cure her father, and mentions the captain forbade her from going out for herbs. Soul promises to keep an eye out for it.
2. Second conversation (the recipe). Pick the gathering-herbs topic. Yuer overheard the captain and the lady in pink discussing the wounded: too many people were hurt by the mask walkers, their healer "turned into something strange," and now nobody who knows how to treat wounds is left. Yuer's mother was the town's healer, and Yuer carried her herb basket through the mountains long enough to understand the entire herb book. She is three ingredients short of a healing medicine.

Accept her request — "Do you know where those three herbs grow? I'll help you find them" — and she shares the recipe: three herbs, all found around this valley, which she can grind into a paste that stops bleeding and helps wounds heal. She finally learns your name ("Mr. Soul") and asks you to stay safe. The recipe is now in your inventory, and this episode banks the quest for later rather than hunting the herbs immediately, since the critical path calls.

Phantom Edge Upgrades, the Locked Bow, and a Fresh Save

Back at the shop menu, two things deserve attention before you leave:

• The Phantom Edges can be upgraded too. The cost runs on Dark Fire Charcoal plus remnant materials, and the player pays it without hesitation. If you have been hoarding charcoal, this is a good place to spend some.
• Browse the locked entries. One Phantom Edge you do not own yet is a ranged weapon that the player immediately compares to a bow. Remember this entry — the entire rest of the episode features enemy archers, shootable targets, and roped-off spots that all hint the bow-style Phantom Edge matters later.

Roll a fresh manual save (the player keeps separate files per episode), then smash through the breakable barrier ahead to leave the camp area for good.

A Challenger Calls: "Too Slow, Far Too Slow"

A few steps down the road a figure appears on the rocks above the path and mocks Soul's progress: "Too slow. Far too slow." He calls out the slaughter of the Mandate's disciples as evidence that Soul has completely lost it, then muses that even "the coldblooded, merciless Master Soul" can apparently still feel compassion. Then comes the promise that hangs over the rest of the episode: "I'll be waiting up ahead. Don't disappoint me, Master Soul."

The objective updates to continue searching for the great waterfall, and the region opens up with a lot of ground to cover.

The Road to the Great Waterfall: Case Files, Talismans, and Locked Drops

This stretch is pure exploration, and it establishes most of the episode's collectible and progression systems.

What to Search

• The battlefield debris. Dead animals and humans are scattered everywhere — the player searches the corpses for loot and lore, finding an Apprentice Healer note about a life cut short at nineteen.
• Four Axis Case Files. A case-file collectible is picked up here showing 4 of 7 collected. Later, in a different sub-area, the counter reads 4 of 11 — the totals change per area, so completionists should treat each region's set separately.
• Fragments of the Mandate. Story fragments begin appearing on side paths; grab every one you pass.
• Forged Metal hides behind breakables and off-path ledges — "worth it," as the player says after one detour.
• A talisman that restores the Phantom Edge to its initial level is found twice in this episode; the description is worth reading because the Phantom Edge system clearly has levels that can be manipulated.

Navigation Notes

• After breaking a particular barrier, the quest text "Against the Flow — End of Chapter" appears, and the chapter structure of the game becomes visible.
• The great waterfall objective marker is much farther away than it looks — the map has to be zoomed out fully to even find it. The first waterfall you reach is not the right one; if the quest does not trigger when you arrive, it is decoration.
• An area-ambience line sums up the biome: "This forest reeks of Sha Chi. Even the leaves are stained blood red."
• Tapping up on the d-pad accidentally fires off a special ability — worth learning on purpose so it never catches you off guard mid-fight.
• A Traversal Talisman is picked up here; these are your fast travel anchors. Several ledges and drops are flagged for a return trip once more movement tools are unlocked, giving the game what the player calls a light Metroidvania vibe — you leave, gain an ability, and come back.

The No-Respawn Rule

This episode keeps returning to one system-defining fact: enemies do not respawn. Rest at a bell, come back, and the cleared zone stays cleared — "it's just free at that point." Two practical consequences the player calls out:

1. Exploration is never punished. Detouring to loot never costs you a future farming spot, because there is no farming.
2. Aggro management is a one-time expense. Clear the enemies off a bridge or a stairwell once, ring the bell, and you can loot the area at leisure.

Combat-wise, a finisher move gets discovered here — staggered enemies can be executed with a special attack prompt. A Two-Handed Weapons entry reading Level 10 also appears among the menus, alongside other new options, reinforcing how rewarded thorough searching feels at this stage.

Around the Sha-Chi Tower: Directions, Deliberation, and the Dropped Gate Key

A glowing spot on the path triggers a cutscene with a survivor from the outpost: "You came from the outpost. Tell the captain... Go around the Sha-Chi Tower. Go around." That is your routing for the next stretch — circle the tower rather than pushing straight through the front.

The map now shows the base camp gate key as a tracked location, and the player marks it as the one side objective he would actually chase this episode. At the shop, a genuine build decision plays out: upgrade the current best weapon further, or diversify? The reasoning on display — stick to the strongest tool because "there's got to be a max eventually," and resources exist to be spent — settles on another equipment upgrade, draining a noticeable chunk of materials.

Then the side quest proper: a young NPC panics about faceless monsters — "They're inside that tower. The camp key — I dropped it in there... Those pipes are too high. I'm never going back there." Soul answers, "Don't panic. I'll get the key back for you." Conveniently, the critical path through the Sha-Chi Tower and the key retrieval are the same journey.

Fighting Up the Tower Approach: Archers, the Blackstone Shard, and a Chain Sickle Tease

The approach to the tower is a rolling battle, and it is where the combat really opens up.

• Archers are the priority. Shooters pepper you from range, and their bows cannot be picked up and used. The player's mid-fight conclusion: rush the ranged enemies first — "tired of getting shot in the back" — then mop up the melee fighters at leisure.
• A Chain Sickle icon appears on the map partway through the clearing. The player guesses it is the weapon those chain-wielding enemies use, or a variation of it, and notes it for later. (Foreshadowing: this exact weapon drops at the end of the episode.)
• Dark Fire Charcoal drops from the fighting, feeding the Phantom Edge upgrades.
• Expect a couple of close calls. The music staying in combat mode is your cue that someone is still alive and aggroed somewhere.

Permanent Upgrades: Blackstone Shard and a Guard-Break Accessory

Two effect descriptions are shown on screen in this stretch, and they are worth stopping for:

Also confirmed here: another Fragments of the Mandate pickup, the case-file counters differing per area (4 of 7 versus 4 of 11), map completion ticking to 47 percent, a second Phantom-Edge-resetting talisman, and another pass through the upgrade equipment menu.

The Bowstring Omen

Right before the push onward, a small cutscene: "Master. Master. Look. The bow string. Why did it snap?" The camp's last bow is breaking — a bad sign for the survivors, and another nudge that a ranged answer matters. A shootable target sits visible but unreachable ("need a bow, though"), enemy archers are everywhere, and the player openly wonders whether a bow was missed somewhere. An Exotic Copper material is grabbed nearby.

The Broken Bowstring, the Deadly Bridge, and the Shadow Wardens

The main objective now points straight ahead — across a rope bridge that sways visibly. Something moves on or under it, and the player dies to it instantly: "One and done is crazy." Treat every bridge and high ledge in this region as a fall-death zone; later in the episode, fighting near a drop is summarized bluntly — if you fight up there and fall, it is game over.

Other beats in this stretch:

• A red chest sits locked and cannot be opened yet — a classic return-later marker.
• A bell hangs above the path, effectively marking the route upward.
• Shadow Wardens show up as a named enemy presence here — "Shadow Wardens are here already."
• One brief frame-rate stutter hits during the descent, the first on the PS5 Pro setup.
• New casters volley fireballs in unison, "like they're forced to fire" — do not stand in the open when the group winds up, and do not let the burning damage stack while you are committed to an attack.
• The no-resspawn loop gets its cleanest statement: clear the enemies, run back to the bell, reset, and loot in peace. The player compares the overall game favorably to Wuchang: Fallen Feathers — similar flavor, "an overall better game."
• Build musing of the episode: the moment a health-on-kill effect shows up, it is getting slotted permanently.

The Bride's Letters and the Detonating Guards

Two flavor systems decorate the mid-climb:

1. The Bride's letters. A note addressed "to my dear husband" asks, "Does your vow still hold?" Exploration keeps paying out Remnant Dust, so even the non-mechanical detours earn currency. A second, related pledge note appears later in the descent — see the fire-trap section below.
2. Detonating enemies. A new enemy type winds up with an enormous, obvious animation and then detonates. The tell is long enough that the player calls the windup "ridiculous" — respect it anyway, because the blast catches you if you are greedily mid-combo. Crawl-space hiding spots appear around the same area, with a shadowy screen-edge effect while crouched that the player appreciates.

A wall that cannot be climbed yet is noted for a later knock-down, and the route keeps threading upward.

Inside the Transcension Tower: Fragments, Floors, and a Costly Upgrade

The tower interior is a multi-floor climb — "it's all stairs on the other side, but check each floor." What the sweep turns up:

• Fragments of the Mandate numbers 2, 6, and 4, collected thoroughly out of order — the game tracks them individually, so no sequence is required.
• A bell visible above but not yet reachable, marking progress.
• A beam of light that looks exactly like a pickup and turns out to be nothing. Not every glow is loot.
• Steampunk-flavored machinery throughout, which the player singles out as a favorite piece of the art direction.
• More numbered collectible ticks and a pillar interaction as the floors unwind.
• An NPC to speak with, followed by another manual save.

The Big Upgrade Decision

At the store, the current weapon's ceiling is level 10, and the player deliberates hard: commit more Forged Metal to the main weapon because "it does so much damage," or bank the materials for an ability instead? The final call is commitment — five more Forged Metal go in, and the bill visibly stings ("that's a lot of my stuff right there"). Two related notes:

• The secondary weapon he has never warmed to stays parked, and he plans to simply swap it out — every listed weapon shows the same damage numbers except one wooden outlier.
• Nothing gets sold, ever, unless an item explicitly says to sell it. Full hoarder discipline.

The Traitor Warden: Mind Seals and the Primal Stone

The tower's central story scene arrives, and it is the lore payload of the episode. First, the tower itself: "This transcension tower was built long ago by the 11. Most of it's fallen apart. But look at all that steam. The primal stone's probably still here."

Then the defector — a Shadow Warden who refuses to kill Soul:

• He recognizes Soul as "the Order's traitor" and warns that his colleagues have orders to bring back Soul's head — orders he also received.
• "Master Soul's a traitor. And so am I."
• On how he broke free: Shadow Wardens are bound by a mind seal, which is how the Order controls them, and "there's no ordinary way to undo it." He accidentally ingested a primal stone — the energy source for Transcension Towers — and afterward "felt like my own man again, no longer controlled by the mind seal."
• A primal stone is therefore hidden somewhere in these tower ruins; he simply has not found it yet.

This unlocks the side objective Severed: A Mind Seal — find the primal stone. The player logs it but keeps pushing the critical path for now, with an aside worth repeating: going back over the pre-release clips, almost everything shown publicly came from side content, which says a lot about how much optional depth surrounds the main line.

Pillars, Fire Traps, and the Descent to the Waterfall

The descent mixes traversal hazards with the last collectibles:

• Locked jumps. A gap the game simply will not let you jump across, and a shortcut-looking drop that ends in a near-death — the platforming here draws a comparison to Expedition 33's jumping puzzles, "not really what the game's made for, but they still had those in there."
• Fall discipline. Fighting on high ledges is a game-over gamble; several ledges get walked back from.
• Map completion hits 50 percent, with the player openly noting how many visible things remain inaccessible — bow gates among them, feeding the "did I miss a bow?" theory.
• Pickups along the way: a story item, more Forged Metal, and a Traversal Talisman.
• The three pillars. After the earlier "one of three" tick, the second pillar gets activated down here. On-screen text follows about a slain master and the three pillars — "It's finished" — and the quest log updates. With that, Against the Flow is confirmed complete, and a new major objective takes over the tracker.
• A blocked back area gets knocked open for a return path.

Fire Rooms and the Bride's Guardian

• Fire-trap stretches guard the lower route — "I'm going to die here from this fire." The working routine: clear the enemies out first, run back, and then trigger and loot the hazards at your own pace.
• A second note in the bride thread: "Real marriage pledge. She promised me herself."
• And then a voice from the dark: "Another fool trying to steal the bride... today gets no mercy." The guardian is audible before it is visible, and the player opts to keep moving rather than spring the encounter this episode.
• Nearby enemies clutch loot, including a blue-rarity item — "maybe not the best, but down for whatever" — and a mechanism icon that cannot be interacted with yet, another return-later flag.

A last bit of pre-boss atmosphere: the memory of the opening's metal track ("never again"), gratitude that fast travel exists ("if this game did not have fast traveling, it'd be tough times"), and the gut feeling that a boss is inbound — "settle the score."

Pre-Fight Checklist: Abilities, One More Forged Metal, Save File Two

Right before the waterfall, the player runs a textbook pre-boss routine you can copy:

1. Train abilities. Pick the node that caught your eye, plus the supporting node it pairs with — "it kind of all goes together." Skip filler you do not need right now.
2. Buy one more Forged Metal and nudge the weapon up another notch while the shop is open.
3. Sell nothing. The hoard stays intact unless an item says otherwise.
4. Manual save — a dedicated save file two before the arena.

Boss Fight: The Warden at the Great Waterfall

The giant waterfall is the real one, and the duel promised at the top of the episode is waiting: "Master Soul. No escape. [He] will never escape the Order. Eliminate." This is the campaign's second boss and its first two-phase fight.

Phase 1: Respect the Windups

The opener is a straight duel, and the first lesson lands immediately — the player whiffs with a heavy attack and diagnoses it himself: "too much windup." Against this opponent's speed, slow committed swings get punished. Trade in quick strings, keep the finisher ready, and let him come to you. The warden carries at least one showpiece technique that draws genuine praise mid-fight, and the spacing stays fair — heals are available if you disengage at the right moments.

Phase 2: Mind Seal and Transcension Fused

Partway through, the fight transforms — on-screen text frames it as the mind seal and transcension fusing together, and the player's reaction ("you got to be kidding") says everything about the difficulty spike:

• The warden's movement becomes disorienting, at one point seemingly going through the wall — "what is even happening?"
• Several attacks carry ridiculous range; the spacing rules from phase 1 no longer fully apply.
• At least one of his moves is slow enough to become free punish time — the player benches his own slowest attack for the rest of the fight and leans on fast punishes instead.
• The strategy that closes it out is full offense: aggression over caution, burning him down through the chaos rather than turtling.

The kill lands on the first attempt, and the player's honest read is that the fight felt generous — the upgraded weapon's damage output may have carried part of that.

Aftermath and Reward: The Chain Sickle

The post-fight dialogue ties the story together: a voice marvels that Soul took a fatal strike to the heart and still fought on, warns that "the Sha Chi's fading — don't rush," and passes on that more of his old friends wait ahead, that new ones have arrived too, and that the Sovereign is paying attention to him.

Then the drop: the Chain Sickle — the very weapon flagged on the map back on the tower approach. Equip it on the spot. It immediately unlocks an interaction that was impossible before the fight ("we can actually do this now"), and it is what opens the exit route onward from the arena.

After the Duel: The Chain Sickle and the Ability Bottleneck

With the warden down and health hurting, the player limps to a rest point and cashes out:

• The fight's payout leaves roughly 27,000 currency for training abilities — a genuinely large pile at this stage of the game.
• One more ability node goes in, and then the bottleneck appears: the next tier cannot be purchased because the prerequisites show zero obtained. Further power is gated behind completing other content first — a soft nudge toward the side objectives still open (the herbs, the camp key, the primal stone).
• A quick peek at something labeled Exotic draws a surprised "it's like a whole different thing" — worth remembering when more of those appear.
• Another save, then the Chain Sickle gets used to break the path forward when the map points through previously sealed terrain.

The Giant Chain, the Crane Bell, and the End of the Chapter

The closing stretch of the region is atmosphere-first:

• Fragment of the Mandate number 6 is collected, and the player reflects that the game feels genuinely therapeutic — the no-respawn rule plus boss fights that have not been brutal keeps the pressure low even though the genre says otherwise.
• A Reflections statue carries the prayer "The lady, grant us your power."
• A giant chain runs from the depths all the way to the very top of the cavern — massive, unexplained, and deeply eerie.
• One more Traversal Talisman, and a warning on the wind: "Leave while you still can."
• End of chapter. The cinematic plays at a different frame rate and resolution than gameplay (a common technique), and when control returns, Soul stands somewhere entirely new — past and above everything just climbed, with nothing hiding behind the starting rocks.
• A crane bell sits here, visibly different from every other bell in the game. Ringing it triggers a full sequence in the style of the earlier bell cutscene, and the long ride that follows carries Soul out of the region entirely.

The destination screen says it all: the Crimson Forest, a brand-new region — reached with the previous map only a little over 50 percent complete, which tells you exactly how much optional content is still sitting back there.

Lady Ananis and the Chord: The Story So Far

The episode's final cutscene is a dense lore drop, and it reframes everything you just played:

• Soul meets Lady Ananis, who cannot enter the waking realm. Her first question is about his heart: Zuo Shang pierced it with one strike, and the Flesh Sculptor saved him with the tainted heart method.
• This forest is where they once fought alongside the Pillars of Kunlun against the mask walkers — and in that battle, the Chord, his daughter's vessel, played the song of annihilation, turning the depths of the forest into an isolated illusion.
• The weeping that drew Soul here may be the Chord calling for help.
• The betrayal is spelled out: someone within the Mandate conspired with Zuo Shang and sabotaged the operation. The puppet was bound with the art of distant calling — "her voice carries for a thousand miles. She's calling to you even now."
• "My poor shattered child. Someone has hidden her away. We might find some clues in this forest."
• Ananis worries Soul hardly has time left himself; he resolves to linger in the illusion a little longer.

In short, the threads now in play: a traitor inside the Mandate, Zuo Shang's hand in the sabotage, a hidden and shattered Chord calling across a thousand miles, and Soul's own tainted heart on a timer — all pointing deeper into the Crimson Forest in the next episode.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do enemies respawn in Phantom Blade Zero? A: No. Cleared areas stay cleared even after you rest at a bell — the episode repeatedly demonstrates clearing a zone, resetting, and looting it risk-free afterwards. It is the single biggest reason exploration here feels so low-pressure.

Q: Can I get a bow in this part of the game? A: Not in this episode. Enemy archers cannot be relieved of their bows, several shootable targets sit out of reach, and the player openly suspects a missed bow. The strongest hint is a locked, bow-like ranged entry sitting in the Phantom Edge menu from early on.

Q: What does the Blackstone Shard set actually do? A: Collecting the set of four grants a permanent 10 percent increase to attack and guard break. It is flagged as a story item and cannot be equipped. A separate accessory found nearby adds 7 percent damage against guard-broken enemies.

Q: What is the reward for beating the waterfall boss? A: The Chain Sickle — the weapon teased on the tower approach map earlier. It drops straight from the two-phase Shadow Warden duel, equips immediately, and unlocks interactions (and an exit route) that were impossible before the fight.

Q: What are the mind seal and the primal stone? A: The mind seal is how the Order controls its Shadow Wardens, with no ordinary way to undo it. A primal stone — the energy source that powers Transcension Towers — can break the seal if ingested, as one defector warden did. Finding one hidden in the tower ruins is the side objective Severed: A Mind Seal.