All vikisBosses by the Numbers
Phantom Blade Zero has 62 boss fights on Game8's list (31 required, 31 optional) against director Liang's "at least 50". On Nov 13, 2026, 85.4% of Steam players had beaten Peng Meng and 29.3% the last required boss, Meng Hua; the biggest drop between two required bosses, 10.3 points, lies between Mu Xiaokui and Flame. Chapter 5 holds the most required bosses, six, and Meigu Lake the most optional ones, nine.
Phantom Blade Zero has 62 boss fights by Game8's count, 31 required and 31 optional (updated Nov 11, 2026), and on Nov 13, 2026 29.3% of Steam players had beaten the last required one, Meng Hua, against 85.4% who had beaten Peng Meng, the first boss who drops a weapon. Every other figure about the bosses we could find measured or stated is below, each with its source and date.
Next: which of the 31 optional fights you can skip, which fights the lists and the vote call the worst or every boss in the order to fight them.
How many bosses
| Count | Who says it | When |
|---|---|---|
| At least 50, one per weapon: 30 main and about 20 secondary | Director Soulframe Liang to 4Gamer | Oct 9, 2026 |
| Just over 60 | PCGamesN's boss guide | Oct 30, 2026 |
| 38 (24 required, 14 optional) | Game8's list | Oct 31, 2026 |
| 62 (31 required, 31 optional) | Game8's list | Nov 11, 2026 |
| 50 boss markers in a 25-hour 100% True Ending video | Gamer's Little Playground (How Long Is Each Chapter) | Oct 31, 2026 |
The 62 are fights, not names: the Gold-Masked One is fought four times, The Hunt and You Loong twice each, and Game8 counts the True Ending's Zuo Shang as one of the 31 required. The first three counts come from Bosses, where Liang's full answer is quoted.
Required bosses per chapter
From Game8's required list, Nov 11, 2026:
| Chapter | Required bosses |
|---|---|
| Prologue, 1 and 3 | 1 each |
| 2, 6 and 8 | 2 each |
| 9: The Way Forward | 3 |
| 4: Snake's Reflection | 4 |
| 10: A Soul's Worth | 4 (Zuo Shang only on the True Ending path) |
| 7: The Heart's Trail | 5 |
| 5: Heartless Remnants | 6 |
Optional fights by region, from the same list: Meigu Lake 9, the Mandate Encampment 5, the Mountain of Imprisonment 5, Weeping Creek Valley 4, Pangzhen 4, Crimson Forest 2 and the Village of Lu 2.
Who has beaten each boss on Steam
Every Steam achievement for beating a boss, as a share of Steam players. The Oct 31 and Nov 12 columns are our earlier readings, on Bosses and Hardest Bosses; a dash means we did not read that achievement that day. Steam counts PC players only.
| Achievement's boss | Kind | Oct 31 | Nov 12 | Nov 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peng Meng | Required | 71.7% | 85.2% | 85.4% |
| The Hunt, second fight | Required | - | - | 80.3% |
| Hua, Deadly Betrothed | Optional | - | 75.2% | 75.7% |
| Hua Qianxiao | Required | 36.9% | 74.0% | 74.7% |
| Bai Chilian | Required | 20.5% | 66.5% | 67.7% |
| Mu Xiaokui | Required | 9.2% | 59.0% | 60.7% |
| Flame, the Lion Dance Grandmaster | Required | 2.0% | - | 50.4% |
| Chief Disciple of the Seven Stars | Optional | 0.9% | - | 44.7% |
| Cavalrybane, Soulclaimer and Heartpiercer | Required | - | - | 41.8% |
| You Loong, twice | Optional | - | - | 38.6% |
| Huangxing | Optional | - | - | 37.3% |
| Zhu Yuan and Bi Feng | Optional | - | - | 37.0% |
| The Puppet Scavenger | - | - | - | 36.9% |
| You Loong, Yan Qiansui and the One-Eyed Archer | Optional | - | - | 36.5% |
| Blizzard Blademaster | Optional | - | 31.9% | 34.8% |
| Lei Dang, the Tiger Cannon | Required | - | 29.2% | 32.2% |
| The four Great Puppets: Yuzan, Yubi, Yuding and Yucong | Mixed | - | 28.0% | 30.8% |
| The Saw and the Crusher | Required | - | - | 30.4% |
| Meng Hua (All Dreams Must End) | Required | - | 26.3% | 29.3% |
The Puppet Scavenger is marked with a dash in Kind because two fights carry that name: Game8's optional one in Crimson Manor, and, in itzTizzle's run, the first phase of Leng Tu on Mount Soulrend (A Soul's Worth).
What the shares say
- The steepest step is the road into Pangzhen. Between Mu Xiaokui, at the end of Chapter 5, and Flame in Chapter 7, the share falls 10.3 points, the largest gap between two required bosses' achievements in a row; the next largest are Flame to the three Shadow Wardens (8.6) and the Wardens to Lei Dang (9.6). From Peng Meng to Meng Hua the whole fall is 56.1 points.
- About one player in three who beats the first weapon boss has finished. 29.3% against 85.4% is 34.3%.
- Optional is not rare. Every achievement for optional bosses is held by more Steam players than Meng Hua's, the lowest being the Blizzard Blademaster at 34.8% against 29.3%.
- Hua, Deadly Betrothed is beaten more than the required boss after her, by a point (75.7% against 74.7% for Hua Qianxiao), and the optional Chief Disciple (44.7%) more than the three Shadow Wardens of the main story (41.8%).
- The late game is still filling. In one day, Nov 12 to Nov 13, Lei Dang rose 3.0 points and Meng Hua 3.0, while Peng Meng rose 0.2: the early drop-off has settled, the late counts have not.
Phases and fight times
Most bosses have two phases, and a death in the second restarts the fight at that phase (Bosses). The exceptions we found: Leng Tu has four, by Game8's walkthrough of A Soul's Worth; Yucong has three, "one of the very few fights in the game with three phases" in itzTizzle's words (Optional Bosses); and he calls Mu Xiaokui's fight "the three epic phases".
No one publishes fight times, so the only clocked figures are a creator's. In itzTizzle's Nov 7, 2026 list, played on Hellwalker, his winning fight with Yubi, No. 21 Swordfighter Puppet "took me 3 minutes and 45 seconds to beat, probably the longest in the game for a single phase fight", after about 50 practice attempts.
He beat the Blizzard Blademaster "in two and a half minutes", "on the longer end of the boss fights at this stage of the game for me", after "right around five" attempts; the One-Eyed Archer, once he played aggressively, in under two minutes; and Bai Chilian took him "definitely over 10" attempts. One player's run on one difficulty, so these are observations, not averages.
Sources
- List of All Bosses, Game8, read Oct 31, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 (updated Nov 11, 2026)
- Global achievements, Steam, read Oct 31, Nov 12 and Nov 13, 2026
- All Phantom Blade Zero bosses in order, PCGamesN (Tom Hopkins), updated Oct 30, 2026
- Phantom Blade Zero Features "At Least" 50 Bosses, Though Director Teases "Even More", GamingBolt, Oct 11, 2026 (translating 4Gamer's interview of Oct 9, 2026)
- A Soul's Worth (Chapter 10) Walkthrough, Game8, updated Nov 7, 2026, read Nov 13, 2026
- PHANTOM BLADE ZERO 100% Full Gameplay Walkthrough / No Commentary【FULL GAME】True Ending 4K Ultra HD, Gamer's Little Playground, Oct 31, 2026 (video; chapter markers read Nov 13, 2026)
- The Top Ten Toughest Bosses In Phantom Blade Zero, itzTizzle, Nov 7, 2026 (video)
Moments
The Top Ten Toughest Bosses In Phantom Blade Zero
itzTizzle
Related
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Chief Disciple of the Seven StarsThe Chief Disciple of the Seven Stars leads the Seven-Star Sword Formation, the Phantom Blade Zero boss of S-Game's Year of the Snake trailer (Jan 21, 2025) and of its 2025 S-Party demo. Seven swordsmen fight as one, then the surviving disciples hang their leader on crimson threads like a marionette for a second phase, the Chief Disciple's Fallen Hope, which the Red Wraith joins if Soul spared her earlier.
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HuangxingHuangxing, the Kunlun Renegade (Huangxingzi, 荒行子), is a Phantom Blade Zero boss, the robed, pyramid-helmeted flail fighter of the 2023 reveal trailer and the final boss of the 2024 World Tour Demo. In the final game he is fought in the Mountain of Imprisonment, has a second, rampaging phase, and drops the Flying Guillotine Phantom Edge, which opens locked areas across the map.
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CharactersThe main character of Phantom Blade Zero is Soul, once the Order's most feared blade, framed for his leader's murder and left with 66 days to live. Around him are his father Mó Yuan (Donnie Yen), his blood brother Zuo Shang, Mu Xiaokui, the Flesh Sculptor and The Hunt. Roger Craig Smith voices Soul in English, Game8 reports, and Donnie Yen voices Mó Yuan.
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Mó YuanMó Yuan (魔渊), Leader of the Bastion of Mó, is Soul's father in Phantom Blade Zero and the role Donnie Yen plays through facial and motion capture and his own voice; Yen has also been the game's Creative Consultant since 2023, shaping its kung fu with his stunt team. He is the man fighting with a baby in the trailers, and Soul fights him several times, last in the Mirage Estate.
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Zuo ShangZuo Shang (左殇) is Soul's childhood blood brother in Phantom Blade Zero, who drives a blade through Soul's heart in the final duel that opens the story. Zhang Xince, a Shanghai University film student, gave the character his face, and Soulframe Liang describes a sickly, cold, white-haired form of him.
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DevelopmentPhantom Blade Zero is developed and published by S-Game, a Beijing studio of about 140 people led by its founder and director Soulframe Liang, in Unreal Engine 5. Planned from 2017, it began as a console and PC game when S-Game turned away from mobile games in 2021, entered full production in 2022, was finished on Aug 6, 2026 and came out on Oct 29, 2026.
See also
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Optional BossesPhantom Blade Zero has 31 optional boss fights on Game8's list of Nov 11, 2026, but only four of them can be skipped at no cost beyond their drop. By our count against the True Ending guides and Steam's 66 achievements, 13 lie on the True Ending's path (the Gold-Masked One's Long Pillars, the four Acolytes, the Illusory Pipa's bosses, Zhu Yuan and Bi Feng) and 14 more are needed for achievements or open new areas.
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Hardest BossesThe Gold-Masked One is the boss players most often call the hardest in Phantom Blade Zero, with 256 of 534 votes in Game8's reader poll on Nov 12, 2026, while Game8's editors rank Yucong, No. 34 Twisted Puppet first and PCGamesN's guide writer picks Lei Dang. Steam's counts show that the optional fights stop few players, and that the first weapon boss, Peng Meng, is where runs end.
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How Long Is Each ChapterChapters 4, 5 and 7 of Phantom Blade Zero hold half its story time. In Gamer's Little Playground's 100% True Ending run, timed from its own chapter markers, Snake's Reflection took 3h 29m, The Heart's Trail 3h 24m and Heartless Remnants 3h 1m of 19h 49m to the first ending, while the prologue and Chapter 1 together took 21 minutes. Scaled to HowLongToBeat's 24h 43m main story average of Nov 13, 2026, Chapter 4 is about 4h 21m.
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The Way ForwardThe Way Forward is Chapter 9 of Phantom Blade Zero, in Mirage Estate: enter through the Serpent Gate with every purple quest done, beat Yuding, No. 12 for the Crescent Blade, use the Opera Ticket, beat Qiu Feng for the Wraith Mask and Lei Dang for the Tiger Cannon, then break the wall past Mourning Hall onto the snowy path. Game8 lists 20 steps and 15 bells.
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Snake's ReflectionSnake's Reflection is Chapter 4 of Phantom Blade Zero in the Crimson Forest: Hua Qianxiao on the bridge, Jing Ye at the Outlaw Trap, the Thieves' Camp, Stone Hand Iron Fever, the Mirrorwood mist puzzle and Bai Chilian. Free Quick Hand Zhang and finish the Outpost and Thieves' Camp quests before Bai Chilian, the game's biggest point of no return.