Walkthrough, part 1: valley, tower, forest, village, town

Route order and stop details below are reconstructed from launch-era full-clear route reports and cross-checked between sources; they carry the Reported label throughout. Boss names and Phantom Edge drops are corroborated across independent wikis and carry Confirmed. Where sources disagree or a name is not settled, the text says so.

The prologue

The opening hours are a tutorial disguised as a massacre. Both forks lead to the training yard, where a sparring duel with Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign teaches the game's entire defensive language: blue-glow attacks can be blocked or parried, red-glow attacks must be dodged. Confirmed After the cart ambush you arrive in Weeping Creek Valley and the main quest Against the Flow begins.

You start with the Sanguine (a one-hand sword, and a perfectly viable endgame weapon), a wooden training variant, and the starting Gourd. Near the creek you will hear a woman weeping - that is the start of Whence the Weeping, one of the purple-icon questlines tied to the true ending. Pick it up now; it costs nothing. Reported

Weeping Creek Valley - the Outpost

Follow the creek upstream. Ring the first Bell, loot the shrine-side body, and cross the waterfall on the fallen log. Stealth is introduced here - a few chained assassinations from the grass earn a trophy, so practice now on groups. Below a ladder sits the Mother Statue crevice: ring its Bell, but leave the fighter inside alone for now - it is the Gold-Masked One, and at this level it will delete you. Reported

Ahead, a woman named Yu'er starts Flesh Lily, and a free pair of twin Sanguine blades sits near her Bell. A wall of red silk thread blocks the road; follow the thread west to its source and beat the shield-guardian there to cut it. On the way you will pass the first clues of Four Fierce Axes, a Tale about an axe-murder mystery that resolves much later in Pangzhen. Past the thread waits your first real boss. Reported

Jagged Steel, the Frenzied Brute

You reach him mid-brawl with a pack of enemies - let the trash soften him before you commit. This fight is the game teaching its core loop: hold guard to drain his Sha-Chi, swap weapons to refill yours, and unload when his guard breaks. He drops the Jagged Steel Sword, a bleed weapon that stays useful for chapters. Confirmed

Reported Stop order follows launch route reports; every listed item is also reachable in other orders unless the text says otherwise.

Peng Meng, the Axemaster

From him on, bosses gain a third colour: black-glow heavy attacks. Blocking one empties your entire Sha-Chi meter, so treat every black glow as a dodge instruction. Peng Meng telegraphs two of them - a straight charge and a back-turned ground slam - and otherwise leans on long red-blue strings. Guard through the strings, dodge the black, and bleed him down with the sword you just took off Jagged Steel. The Dread Axe he drops is your first route key: it hacks through the giant chains that block side paths all over the valley. Confirmed

The Sha-Chi Tower

Back at the Outpost, use the Dread Axe on the chained yard - inside is a Sha-Chi Amber shard and the next step of Festering Secret. Yu'er reappears at the forge and starts Apprentice Healer: three herbs, scattered along the route below. East of Peng Meng's arena, the valley opens toward the tower; the archer camp on the way is Purge the Sect - clear it, fast-travel back, and the roof elder hands you the Feather Bow. Do not leave the valley without it; it is the one traversal tool with a Tale deadline attached. Reported

The tower itself hides two optional fights below ground level: behind it, a pit drops into a wedding hall where Hua, Deadly Betrothed waits, and the tower's furnace level holds a switch-and-stone puzzle for the friendly warden you will meet at the top. The story boss is at the Great Waterfall past the tower. Reported

Hua, Deadly Betrothed

She is a puppet, so bleed does nothing - switch back to the Sanguine family. Her danger is overlap: she can run a normal string, spawn homing white flowers, and grow red flowers under your feet at the same time. The white flowers are parryable - block them, because each volley ends with her teleporting onto you. Her own normal strings sprout red flowers that detonate after a few seconds (hers are a brighter red than the ones already in the arena - learn the difference), and periodically the arena's red flowers shrink into a ring that merges into one big blast. When the ring starts closing, leave. She drops the Scarlet Wraithblade, your first shield-cracking weapon. Confirmed

The Hunt, Sixfold Scythe

The pursuer from the prologue, at the Great Waterfall. Two phases, and dying in phase two restarts you there - a mercy worth knowing. Most of his strings are soft; hold guard, chip, repeat. Watch his range: his blue and red cues come out at distances most bosses do not reach. When he vanishes, purple chains fall from above - move sideways out of the markers. His tornado means run, not fight. He drops the Hunter's Chain Sickle, which doubles as a grapple traversal tool. Reported

Reported The Long Pillar here hosts the Donnie Yen cameo challenge - a guest fighter who effectively teaches advanced play. Losing costs nothing; come back stronger if he walls you.

Crimson Forest - the camp and the thieves

A cutscene with a masked figure called Inanis opens the region and registers Illusion of Inanis, another true-ending line - it cannot be finished until much later, but the six Memory Flowers for it are all in this region, and the payoff is real: collect all six and an ally joins the chapter boss fight. The main quest here is Snake's Reflection. Reported

The road to Pangzhen bridge is interrupted - literally; the bridge collapses - which pushes you down into the cave network. A man in a cage is Quick Hand Zhang, the collector-merchant who runs relic-request chains in every region; free him and his treasure hunts begin. In the thieves' camp you pick up three Tales at once: Secrets of the Baishan Sect (rescue a captured disciple), Honor Among Thieves (a quiz, answered below), and A Healer's Mercy (four wounded thieves, one life-saving pill from Yu'er). The chapter's mounted boss closes the route. Reported

Jing Ye, the Outlaw

Fight him on horseback first. He rides you down in wide arcs; stay mobile, and save the Dread Axe for the second half, when he dismounts behind a bramble shield that punishes every normal hit you land on it - charged axe strings shred the shield safely. His worst attack is a smoke-line charge into a black-glow thrust: the smoke marks the lane, so sidestep early rather than late. He drops the Outlaw Warblade, whose light strings heal you - a carry weapon for the rest of part 1. Confirmed

The mirror grove, and the chapter boss

North of the thieves' camp the region splits: a cliff house holding the captured Baishan disciple (two floor switches, one hidden), the camp dungeon whose arrow-trap corridors need a shield you will not have until the next region, and the mirror grove proper. Finish every open Tale here now - the wounded thieves, the quizzes, Zhang's hunt - before walking into the grove. Reported

Stone Hand Iron Fever guards the grove's entrance and drops the Iron Gauntlets. Inside, the grove is a fog-and-mirror maze: follow the light in the fog, and at each trio of mirrors, listen - the guide inscription says to follow the weeping. The correct orders are left, front, right, then right, left, front. The six Inanis Memory Flowers are scattered along this stretch; the set rule means partial collections do nothing, so grab all six before the boss. Reported

Bai Chilian, the Sacrificial Serpent

The chapter boss fights in two gears: a blink-rush pattern where she closes distance mid-string, and a stationary pattern where she stands and combos. Survive the rush phases by keeping Sha-Chi healthy and treating her black-glow point-blank attack as a mandatory dodge; punish the stationary phases. When snake-shaped horrors flood the floor, stop fighting her and run one direction - they do not track. In phase two, if you collected all six Inanis flowers, The Chord arrives to help: your job becomes destroying the summoned puppets - break two and Bai Chilian's guard shatters instantly. She drops the White Serpent and Crimson Viper dual blades, the broken Illusory Pipa (a long repair chain starts here), and an accessory that boosts the pipa line. Confirmed

Village of Lu - the Gatekeeper

You wake at the region's crane Bell with the broken pipa in your bag - its quest, Illusory Pipa, registers immediately. A curio dealer nearby unlocks accessory upgrading; use it. Past her, the road forks: north is the Mandate Encampment (fifth region - locked for now), ahead is the Village of Lu. Old Man Gen - the cart driver from the prologue - gives The Journey Home, and news that Yu'er has been taken starts Leave None Alive. Across the next bridge wanders the region's gatekeeper. Reported

Zhuo Bi, the Gatekeeper

He wields a massive shield - the very item he drops - and blocks everything you throw at him while his guard holds. Do not spend Sha-Chi attacking; parry his (slow, readable) strings until his guard breaks, then mount him on the prompt and stab the eye. One mount per break, about four cycles. The Iron Gauntlets and the Dread Axe chew his shield fastest between breaks. The drop is the Bastion, a shield Phantom Edge that absorbs everything and opens the arrow-trap corridors back in the forest dungeon. Confirmed Do not confuse it with the Bashpole - that is a different Phantom Edge, dropped by Wan Jun in the Mandate Encampment, and some guides mix the two up.

The hidden areas, revisited

With the Bastion in hand, the game springs its grim trick: the valley and the forest you left behind have been massacred while you were away. Leave None Alive sends you back through both. The Outpost's people are dead - the merchant still holds the pinwheel he meant to deliver; the monk by his side drops prayer beads that complete the Tale in the Village of Lu later. The west road, blocked since the tutorial, now opens into the valley's hidden cave: a Bell, an accessory, the pinwheel, and the last piece of Four Fierce Axes evidence. Reported

In the Crimson Forest, the thieves' camp tells its own tragedy - settle it for an accessory - and the dungeon's arrow traps finally yield to the Bastion, opening the dungeon's treasure rooms and the cliff path beyond. Reported

The Village of Lu - three masters and a well

The village's main quest is Heartless Remnants. A well in its center is sealed by three puppet masters; the route to unsealing it doubles as a tour of every side system the game has introduced. Around the river and the blue-fire temple you will assemble the six Firefly Memory Flowers - this set matters beyond the village: it gates a hidden area below the temple and a boss you cannot otherwise reach. Other Tales in this stretch: A Puppet's Wooden Heart (a singing doll's message, delivered by finding a scholar), A Dream of Motherhood, Young Mistress, Dahuang (a hunter's dog), and Young Master Lan, whose first objectives must be done before Pangzhen. Reported

The three master remains become three bosses. Master Bi Yuan of the Tianxuan Sect stands in the statue field and is close to a free win - slow, passive, no killer moves; farm your confidence here and take his Tianxuan Bronze Sword. Master Bi Hai of Kuye Temple, in the smuggler tunnel below, fights by summoning: wave one of three unarmed monks while he is untouchable inside a bell-cage, wave two armed with him sniping from range - clear adds fast, use the gauntlets' shield-break on groups, and repeat. He drops the Kuye Temple Prayer Beads, which summon ally monks. The third master's body sits in a wreck-house in the terraced fields - no fight, just a destruction interaction. Reported

In the fields also waits Acolyte Yanru, the fire-mask boss of the true-ending mask hunt. She is optional and genuinely hard this early; the game expects you to come back after Pangzhen hands you a fire-resistant charm. The scarecrow check happens right after the fight - inspect it. Reported

The well, and the thing below it

With the three masters resolved, the well opens. Two bosses live down there, one gated behind the Firefly flowers: with all six, the fog by the blue-fire temple clears into a hidden pit where Dusk, the Puppeteer waits. He summons puppet waves you can simply out-muscle, then splits into a double - the guide books you picked up along the way told you the tell: red-eyed copy is the fake; hit the black-faced original. His lone killer move is a giant half-puppet palm swipe; dodge sideways. He drops the Puppeteer's Bell and the pipa's head, the second of three repair parts. Reported

At the well bottom, Yuzan, No. 3 Musician Puppet plays a projectile game: her white orbs are parry-reflectable, and reflected orbs are your main damage - stand off and bat them back. When she charges a suction orb, sprint for the arena edge and keep jumping away; the pull is brutal. She drops the Heartrend Pipa. Reported

Mu Xiaokui, Queen of Iron and Jade

The village chapter boss, at the lakeside lift. Standard phase one; phase two adds guardian shades mid-string - respect her black-glow attacks. At low phase-two health she summons her two guardians and withdraws: Jade Fiend is fast and ranged, Iron Ghost is Stone Hand Iron Fever with a new coat - prioritize the ghost, and let the Outlaw Warblade's healing carry the long fight. Reported

After the fight: a lift that breaks behind you (one-way - grab the dock area first, including a free sword on the pier), word to carry back to Old Man Gen and Young Master Lan, and the tunnel north to Pangzhen. The tunnel doubles as a lore dump for the pipa-manufacturing conspiracy - several books here pay off the Crimson Manor line much later. Reported

Pangzhen - east main street

The dead town chapter begins in a smugglers' cellar. Pangzhen is the game's densest region and the first with real verticality - plan on rooftop loops. An early mini-boss fight teaches a pattern several later enemies reuse: a hovering healer-type revives everything around it, so kill the tethered foot soldiers feeding it first, then the healer. Reported

Blaze, the Shadow Warden captain

A chain-wielding warden on the main street; some wikis list him under the subtitle "Phosphor Consciousness". Phase one is guard-bait: slow chains, no blue-glow attacks, one untelegraphed grab that does no damage but ruins your combo - treat the chain-flip tell as a stop sign. Adds crash the fight twice; the Prayer Beads even the odds. Phase two is the trap: the Herald possesses him, his grabs turn red-glow and near-lethal, and parrying is worse than useless - dodge only. He drops the Fire Meteor Phantom Edge, which detonates barrels and lights up crowd fights. Reported

The east half also holds: the market tavern (a Memory Flower on the chairs, a locked second floor you open from a third-floor hole), Cavalrybane, an elite warden whose only real trick is a lance charge you can step-parry (his drop is a heavy blade, unnamed in English sources so far), and the octagonal tower, where handing over the axe-master's relic completes Four Fierce Axes at last. Near the tower, Young Master Lan's house opens - finish his Tale now if you have not. Reported

The Organization's underground tavern is the half's social hub: the Phantom Illusionist registers the Sha-Chi Powered Boat questline and is the smith who will eventually repair the pipa; a brewer-monk starts The Sword and The Way; the dye-house regulars hand out The Undying Heroic Spirit, the Huang mansion key, The Star Performer (with a jar of rouge), and The Cube. The Huang mansion itself is a tragedy in four rooms - its four medicine-jar accessory pieces only assemble if you find all of them - and the rouge, burnt in a censer down the alley, opens Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, where the Star Performer's true body holds the broken dance fan. Reported

Pangzhen - west backstreets

Through the memorial gate the main quest becomes a trace of the heart, and the backstreets open into the game's nastiest mini-gauntlet. Wu Xuan, the Fallen General stands on a round stage: his shield bar is enormous, and attacking into it is a waste - parry his strings instead; every clean parry shaves the shield, and each full break is a free execute plus a punish window. Two cycles end him. He drops Wolfjaw, a Phantom Edge that drains life. Confirmed

The backstreets also host Quick Hand Zhang's fourth hideout (his ink treasure is in a west courtyard), the narrow lanes (a loft Bell, an accessory at the end), and the pond where a disciple defending herself asks for mercy. Save before this stretch. Grant it the moment she asks - the Memory Flower only appears if she dies human, and it cannot be picked up until later; the same rule applies to a swordsman near the slums Bell. Two Tales resolve quietly here: the hunter's dog is found dead at the pond, and the pond fight is Gu Wanyue, the Wailing Wraith - an easy fight with one vision-stealing move and a roar-grab you mash out of. Reported

The well behind her drops into a crawl that surfaces at Xie Qiudong, the Divine Healer. His mechanic is the fight: he heals his tethered minions, and every heal costs him his own health - so ignore him, hunt the free-moving minions, and he kills himself. The reward is the Everflow medicine. In the Green Serpent House beyond, Xie Xiaorong (the Apprentice Healer) upgrades your Gourd line and hands over the Green Serpent Brew, and the serpent statue registers the main quest toward the Four Serpent Houses - the true-ending gate region. Reported

You Loong, and the west's two mascots

West of the serpent house, the Blackwater Crew's leader fights in shallow water and dies quickly to the Wolfjaw-and-Warblade loop; his You Loong's Deluge Phantom Edge sprays water - which matters immediately, because it makes fire enemies Wet and shuts their fire down. Further west, the great tree is the second Banyan's Heart challenge. And with the Deluge in hand, the fire wall south of the market goes out - behind it hides Zhang's final treasure and, once all his treasures are in, the Goldblaze musket. Reported

Chang Hong, the Thunder Lancer

North by the ancestral hall - equip the lightning-resist charm from the big house by the serpent house first. Phase one he is a spearman who calls lightning buffs that build paralysis; run the buff timer out rather than trading into it. Phase two he mounts, and the horse's rear end is a genuine attack - back off when it faces you. His cavalry thrusts are tap-parry-able with generous timing. The Thunder Spear he drops paralyzes enemies. Reported

Yu'er's family home is here - her father's bed triggers the Flesh Lily conclusion and a jade accessory. The Lion Dance hall follows: six Memory Flowers for the grandmaster set are scattered between its yards, and the lion gate key comes from the plaza mobs. The hall's boss is the region's spectacle fight. Reported

The Lion Dance Grandmaster's final dance

Bring the Deluge: spraying the lion once makes it Wet and cancels every fire attack it has - reapply as the status ticks off, and never spray continuously. Phase two, the pilot folds into the lion suit and turns fast; respect the black-glow follow-up after his leaps. Mid-fight he summons pillars for a fireball duel - parry his blue-glow volley back into him or dodge the red-glow version, and trade volleys until one meter empties. The charred lion head he drops goes to Lei Dang at Jingyang Hall - the tall building in town - and comes back as the Flaming Mane, the fire Phantom Edge that burns every thorn wall in Pangzhen at once. Confirmed

The thorn walls, once burned, open the last east-side loops: the roof run down to the dock warehouses, Soulclaimer, an elite warden with one trick - he flashes a counter-stance; hit him during it and he punishes you - wait it out. At the dock, a boat waits. Do not sail yet. The lake region is part 2, and the game lets you commit early. Reported

Two loose ends close the region: the manor gate north of the tavern is the Crimson Manor - sealed until its own questline matures - and Old Man Gen's home in the slums, where his wife holds the keepsake that completes The Journey Home. Behind the slums, a cellar switch opens the backstreet cellars, and north of Gen's house waits the second Acolyte: Lei Ting, the lightning mask of the true-ending hunt - dodge her storms the way you dodged Chang Hong's, and add her mask to the set. Reported

Where part 2 picks up

The route resumes at the boat, with the Mandate Encampment - the optional region holding Wan Jun "Coppermaul" and the Bashpole, Red, the Chief Disciple, and Wu Lengshuang, plus one Tale deadline that triggers the moment Wu Lengshuang falls. After that: Meigu Lake (where the Hunter's Chain Sickle's original owner and the pipa's last repair part wait, and where Secrets at the Heart of the Lake converges with the masks you have been collecting), the Mountain of Imprisonment, Mirage Estate behind the Serpent Door, and Mount Soulrend. The true-ending machinery - masks, eyes, pillars - is documented on the exploration guide; part 2 will walk the road itself.

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