Hidden Secrets & Easter Eggs in Phantom Blade Zero

After you pick up your first weapon and the game teaches you the light attack combo there's a small alcove on the right side of the courtyard and the wall at the back has faint crack lines that are super easy to miss because the lighting is dim and I walked past this like three times before I noticed and you just hit it with any heavy attack and it breaks open and the reward is the Blood Sigil Phantom Edge which is the earliest heal Phantom Edge in the game and you can have it before your first real fight and having a heal before the first boss changes the entire early game and most players don't find Blood Sigil until way later so definitely grab this one before moving on.

On the highest rooftop of the Garrison the one you reach by climbing the collapsed watchtower if you look toward the distant mountain peak there's a gap between two buildings that looks like a death drop but it's not and you can walk off the edge toward the smaller rooftop and land on an invisible platform and I found this completely by accident when I fell off and somehow didn't die and then I was standing on nothing and freaking out. To find it stand at the very edge of the highest rooftop and throw any consumable and if the pebble stops mid-air there's a platform and the invisible path zigzags twice so walk slowly because the platforms aren't huge and the reward is a Thunderbolt Shard Phantom Edge which is a ranged lightning attack plus a +1 sword evolution stone and the lightning edge is actually really good against the zone boss so this is worth going back for if you missed it.

After defeating the Serpent Cultist mini-boss you need to backtrack to the grotto entrance before ringing the next bell checkpoint and there's an NPC kneeling by the water who wasn't there before and her name is Yuelin and she has a short quest chain that spans three zones and the quest reward is a Moonlit Pendant accessory that increases Sha-Chi generation by 15% and it's honestly one of the best accessories in the game and completely missable and the trigger condition is you must talk to her before ringing the bell in the grotto depths because if you ring that bell she disappears permanently for this playthrough and I missed this on my first two runs and only found it because someone mentioned it in a forum and I was so annoyed. She reappears in the Crossroads Bazaar after you complete her first task and the quest chain is three steps total and each step gives good rewards so it's absolutely worth doing.

In the large underground lake area of the Crystal Caverns there's a waterfall on the far left wall and you just walk through it and there's a hidden chamber behind it and this one is actually telegraphed if you pay attention because there are glowing blue crystals on either side of the waterfall that don't appear anywhere else in the cavern and inside there's a single elite enemy called the Crystal Guardian guarding a chest and the reward is the Frostbite Edge Phantom Edge which does ice damage and slows enemies plus 2500 spirit coins and a fair warning the Crystal Guardian is tougher than the zone boss and I went in underleveled and got destroyed in about 10 seconds so come prepared or come back later and don't make the same mistake I did.

In the temple basement past the rows of kneeling statues there's a bell checkpoint that doesn't ring and it's covered in rust and the prompt says Ring Bell but nothing happens and most players shrug and move on but don't do that because the solution is to use the Blood Sigil Phantom Edge while standing next to the bell and the blood offering cleanses the rust and the bell rings which unlocks a hidden boss arena and the secret boss is the Fallen Bellkeeper who is a remixed version of the tutorial boss with new attack patterns and he drops the Bellkeeper's Oath accessory which gives +20% Sha-Chi from parries and it's really good for parry-focused builds and an NPC in the Crossroads Bazaar mentions a bell that thirsts if you talk to him three times and that's the dev clue for this secret which is honestly pretty clever.

Behind the weapon merchant's stall there's a narrow alley you can squeeze through and at the end there's a wooden door with no prompt and you have to attack it 66 times and yes really it's a reference to Soul's 66-day countdown and I thought this was a troll when I first heard about it but it actually works and inside there's a small room with developer messages on the walls and concept art you can view and a chest with 6666 spirit coins and one of the wall messages literally says Sorry about the greatsword tracking which is a self-aware nod from S-GAME about a known issue and I love when devs do stuff like this it makes the exploration feel personal and not just another checklist of things to find.