Phantom Blade Zero Secrets: Hidden Areas and Key Items

The biggest Phantom Blade Zero secrets are hidden arenas, illusory walls and key items that only work on specific barriers. The Illusory Pipa is the central one — it is the gate that opens the road to the Mountain of Imprisonment — and behind it sit the Discordance, the Mirrorwood maze and a set of optional bosses holding the best gear in the game.

The Illusory Pipa

The Illusory Pipa is assembled rather than found. Five pieces come from five different fights:

Two of those fights are locked behind Memory Flowers. Dusk the Puppeteer is unlocked through Firefly's Memory Flowers and the Temple of Blue Fireflies, and Yan Qiansui waits in the sunken opera house in south Meigu Lake, gated behind Memory Flowers as well. The Backplate only becomes available after the final boss at Mandate Encampment.

Once you have the parts, assemble the Pipa at the Mist Tavern, repair it with Myst in Pangzhen, and play it at the dock on the island in north-eastern Meigu Lake. That dispels the mist and opens the way to the Mountain of Imprisonment. Get every piece before you go, because the Backplate requires the late-game boss.

Hidden arenas and key items

Hua, the Bride fights hidden below the Valley Sha-Chi Tower, and her arena holds the Flesh Lily, which can be given to Yu'er to start one of the three Healer's Legacy tales.

Barriers are elemental rather than mechanical. The Pond of Fading Song barrier has to be burned away with the Flaming Mane Phantom Edge, which opens the route to Old Man Gen's house and the third acolyte scarecrow. The red thread and silk barriers around the Village of Lu gate area open new routes once cleared.

The Mirrorwood maze

The Mirrorwood maze in the Crimson Forest is a sound puzzle rather than a button puzzle. Follow the weeping, then turn left, middle, right, followed by right, left, middle.

Completing the Inanis and Bai Chilian Memory Flower sets in Mirrorwood also changes the Bai Chilian encounter: the Zither Maiden turns up to help you, and the fight becomes a much longer and harder two-character battle.

Long Pillars and Acolyte Masks

The Long Pillars are the main hidden-object chain. Five are required for "Phantom and Blade". The Gold-Masked One shows up at the Midlake Long Pillar and again in the Phantom Illusionist Ruins version, with the Blizzard Blademaster at the end of the ruins. The four Acolyte Masks are needed for the later stages of "Secrets at the Heart of the Lake", and they are used in north-western Meigu Lake to reach the Phantom Illusionist Realm, where another Long Pillar sits.

Blackstones open the Discordance

The Blackstone Fragments have a second job beyond damage. Collecting six of them grants entry to the Discordance, an altered version of a frozen shoal fishing village, and their locations inside it are spread across the fishing village, the prison area, Meigu Lake and the Mountain of Imprisonment. The Blackstone page has the full location list, including the false wall at the Shrine Outer Gate and the Powderkeg that guards another fragment.

Where the Phantom Blade Zero secrets hide the best gear

Optional bosses carry the strongest weapons and Phantom Edges: Hua the Bride drops the Scarlet Wraithblade, Dusk the Puppeteer the Puppeteer's Bell, Yan Qiansui the Illusory Pipa Strings, Yubi the Baishan Stormswords, the Chief Disciple of the Seven-Stars the Swordsman's Summon and the Training Grounds Key, Huangxing the Flying Guillotine, the Blizzard Blademaster the Whiteshadow, and the Gold-Masked One appears three times across the game.