Optional Bosses

Phantom 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.

You can skip only four of Phantom Blade Zero's 31 optional boss fights without losing more than their drop: Corpse-Eating Xue, Red, Grief-Stricken Jin and the Iron Butcher. "Optional" on Game8's boss list (updated Nov 11, 2026, read Nov 13) means only that the main story does not make you fight them; we checked each of the 31 against what the True Ending asks for (Endings) and against Steam's 66 achievements, and 13 stand on the True Ending's path while 14 more are needed for achievements, the Platinum or new areas of the map. The 31 fights are 27 names, since the Gold-Masked One is fought four times and You Loong twice.

1:12 Some optional fights are the end of a chain, not one door. In itzTizzle's Nov 7, 2026 list of the toughest bosses, played on Hellwalker, Yucong, No. 34 Twisted Puppet comes with a warning: "you face this boss earlier in the game as just the aberrant three-faced puppet, and if you enter too early, she demolishes you". In the final battle you redo that fight as the first phase, face a new move set in the second and a three-on-one in the third, "one of the very few fights in the game with three phases".

Next: which of these fights the lists call the worst, how many Steam players have beaten each one or the ten purple quests the True Ending fights belong to.

On the True Ending's path: 13 fights

Skip any of these and the True Ending is out of reach. All but the five Long Pillar fights are needed for the Long's Roar ending too, by KeenGamer's conditions. Each is tied to a purple-icon quest, or named outright by a True Ending guide.

Fight	Where	Drops (Game8)	Why the True Ending needs it
The Gold-Masked One, four fights	Weeping Creek Valley, Crimson Forest, Meigu Lake twice	Counterstrike Bracers, Miraculous Scabbard, the Quenched Flaming Grip, Chaos Iron Fragment	His Long Pillar fights make up Bloodline Awakening; without it you get Long's Roar, not the True Ending
Mo Yuan	Pangzhen, by Game8's list	Bastion of Mó Mask	GosuGamers counts five Long Pillars, each a fight with the masked man, the fifth in Mirage Estate; Game8 lists four Gold-Masked fights and this one, its name for the same fighter, so we count it as the fifth (Mó Yuan)
Acolyte Yanru	Village of Lu	Yanru's Blazing Mask	One of the four Acolyte masks the purple quests ask for
Acolyte Lei Ting	Pangzhen	Leiting's Thunder Mask	The second mask
Acolyte Guhe	Meigu Lake	Guhe's Venom Mask	The third mask
The Puppet Scavenger and Acolyte Hansui	Crimson Manor, Weeping Creek Valley	Hansui's Frost Mask, Crystal Puppet Eye Yang, Alloyed Scythe Blade	The fourth mask and one of the two Crystal Puppet Eyes, both from this hidden Crimson Manor fight (GosuGamers)
Dusk the Puppeteer	Village of Lu	Illusory Pipa Head, Puppeteer's Bell	A part of the Illusory Pipa, a purple quest
Yan Qiansui	Meigu Lake	Illusory Pipa Strings, Fanatic's Fragment: Attachment, Fanatic's Obsession	Another part of the pipa; also half of the Fanatic's Broken Blade's tempering (Gu Wanyue)
Zhu Yuan	Meigu Lake	Scorching Flames	KeenGamer lists beating him before the Last Chance bell; also The Two Blade Masters
Bi Feng	Mountain of Imprisonment	Juggernaut	Named with Zhu Yuan by KeenGamer, and the other half of The Two Blade Masters

The four Acolyte masks and the Crystal Puppet Eyes are GosuGamers' list of what the purple quests need; KeenGamer's True Ending conditions add Zhu Yuan and Bi Feng (Endings has both lists). Bloodline Awakening's achievement, Phantom and Blade, was held by 32.3% of Steam players on Nov 13, 2026, more than the 29.0% with the True Ending's, so most players who finish the story have already done these.

Needed for achievements or new areas: 14 fights

Fight	Where	Drops (Game8)	What skipping costs
Hua, Deadly Betrothed	Weeping Creek Valley	Scarlet Wraithblade	The achievement Scarlet Wraithblade (75.7% of Steam players)
Aberrant Three-Faced Puppet	Weeping Creek Valley	Three-Headed Doll	The first stage of the chain that ends with Yucong
Wan Jun, the Coppermaul	Mandate Encampment	Bashpole	Heavenfall Strike, an aerial slam with the Bashpole (17.7%)
Chief Disciple of the Seven Stars	Mandate Encampment	Swordsman's Summon, Training Grounds Key	Sword Against the Seven-Stars (44.7%) and the key his name says
Wu Lengshuang, the Soft Sword	Mandate Encampment	Soft Snake Sword	Bloodless Victory, a deflect with that sword (18.9%)
Yubi, No. 21 Swordfighter Puppet	Pangzhen	Baishan Stormswords, Broken Vessel	The Four Freed (30.8%) and Baishan Tempest, the Stormswords' Lightning Storm (26.7%)
You Loong, twice	Pangzhen, then Meigu Lake	You Loong's Deluge; Loong Trident, High-Power Pump	Turning the Tide (38.6%) and, with Yan Qiansui and the archer, Master of the Misty Waters (36.5%)
One-Eyed Archer	Meigu Lake	One-Eyed Bow	Master of the Misty Waters
Blizzard Blademaster	Meigu Lake	Whiteshadow	The White Shadow (34.8%) and Snow and Frost, freezing an enemy with the Whiteshadow (23.6%)
Kui Yanyan	Mountain of Imprisonment	Sha-Chi Amber and fragments, Missing Lift Crank	A Sha-Chi Amber toward Complete Mastery's ten (19.6%), and the lift its crank is for
Jade-Face	Mountain of Imprisonment	Seamless Death	Perfectly Linked, the rarest achievement below the Platinum (14.8%)
Huangxing	Mountain of Imprisonment	Flying Guillotine	Crossroads of Blood (37.3%), and a Phantom Edge that, in PCGamesN's words, "opens up locked areas in pretty much every map in the game"
Yucong, No. 34 Twisted Puppet	Crimson Forest	Freezing Chaos	The Four Freed, with Yubi and the required Yuzan and Yuding

Steam shares are of Steam players, read Nov 13, 2026. Weapon-use achievements count here because the weapon only comes from that fight: no Bashpole, no Heavenfall Strike.

Skippable at no cost: four fights

Fight	Where	Drops (Game8)
Corpse-Eating Xue	Mandate Encampment	Nothing
Red, the Mysterious Swordswoman	Mandate Encampment	Nothing
Grief-Stricken Jin	Meigu Lake	Embroidered Shoes
Iron Butcher	Mountain of Imprisonment	Iron Butcher Mask

No achievement, purple-quest item or True Ending condition in our sources names these four or what they drop. That is our reading of Game8's list, the True Ending guides and Steam's achievement list on Nov 13, 2026, not a rule S-Game has published: a Tale could still use one of these drops, so if a fight is on your way, it costs little to take it.

How we counted

We took Game8's 31 optional entries and matched each one's drops to three lists: the ten purple quests and the Long Pillars of the True Ending (Endings, from PowerPyx, GosuGamers and KeenGamer), Steam's 66 achievements, whose wording names the boss or the weapon it drops, and the drops that open the map. A fight went into the first group if any True Ending source needs it, into the second if an achievement or a new area needs it, and into the third only if nothing did. Two fights with no Steam achievement of their own, Dusk and the Acolytes, are in the first group by the items they drop. Game8 marks one more fight, after Mu Xiaokui and the Young Mistress quest, as a secret main story fight, not an optional one, and we left it out.