The Phantom Blade Zero weapons types are three: Single Blades, Twin Blades and Heavy Blades. They differ in reach, speed and how much guard break they carry, and that difference decides what you should be holding when a fight starts. One-handed is fast with the widest parry coverage, dual-wield trades reach for hit count, and two-handed hits hard enough to break a guard at the cost of slow recovery.
Single Blades
One-handed swords carried fast, with short recovery and the widest parry coverage, which makes them the safest default for learning a boss. There are ten of them: Wooden Sanguine, Sanguine, Jagged Steel, Wild Oriole Sword, The Fanatic's Broken Blade, Tianxuan Bronze Sword, Soft Snake Sword, Freezing Chaos, Aureate and Venomous Softblade.
A few stand out from the rest:
- The Fanatic's Broken Blade has an unusually long range for a one-hander, so it can hit from outside an enemy's reach.
- Jagged Steel applies Bleed, which stacks into bonus damage and adds a guard break on top of its raw numbers.
- Soft Snake Sword is so flexible that it reads like a whip.
- Venomous Softblade, which is the Snake Sword, No. 13 from the Seven Judgments set, has a noticeably more forgiving parry window than most.
- Wooden Sanguine rewards precision rather than forgiveness, so its parry timing is tighter than average.
Twin Blades
Two weapons used in pairs, trading reach for hit count. There are nine: Sanguine Twin, Fiend Saws, White Serpent and Crimson Viper, Parting Hooks, Sundering Dual Axes, Baishan Stormswords, Seamless Death, The Lady's Fan and Drunken Sword.
- White Serpent and Crimson Viper spins one blade around Soul for area damage and protection, and its short blade can also be thrown.
- Fiend Saws applies Corrosion and attacks faster than most one-handers. Its Power Surge, Fiend Form, makes your attacks unblockable for about ten seconds and hits hardest against a guard-broken enemy.
- Seamless Death throws chakrams on heavy attacks, giving it reach no other twin blade has.
- Drunken Sword makes Soul stagger as if intoxicated, and its style rewards fast last-second dodges and heavy counters.
Heavy Blades
Two-handed weapons that hit hard and break guards at the cost of slow recovery. There are nine: Sanguine Reach, Scarlet Wraithblade, Outlaw Warblade, Armybreaker, Juggernaut, Whiteshadow, Crescent Blade, Bonesaw and Tiger Cannon.
- Scarlet Wraithblade and Armybreaker are the heavy guard-breakers.
- Scarlet Wraithblade drops Red Spider Lilies that drain an enemy's Sha-Chi.
- Juggernaut gains a charge from every successful parry and turns red at full charge to unleash a sweeping cleave.
- Outlaw Warblade has lifesteal on its attacks, which saves medicine charges but drains your own health on Sha-Chi attacks.
Power Surge
Every weapon also has its own Power Surge, a Sha-Chi Essence ability costing one Essence point that lands direct hits regardless of the enemy's defence. Named examples include Jagged Steel's Rampage, Fiend Saws' Fiend Form, Scarlet Wraithblade's Rouge Bloomstorm and Sanguine Reach's Longblade Chain Slash. Since it costs Essence rather than Sha-Chi, and Essence builds from normal attacks, parries and Ghoststeps, it is best spent into a staggered enemy rather than into a full-health one.
Picking a pair from the Phantom Blade Zero weapons types
In practice you run one fast weapon for pressure and one heavy weapon for armoured or stagger-resistant enemies: break the white defensive bar first, then swap to the fast weapon for the punish window. The best weapons page names the specific weapons that fill those two roles and covers what to pair with them.