Phantom Blade Zero Combat

An Amber Chip is a fragment of Sha-Chi Amber, and its item card explains why one alone does nothing: "Because of the unwholesome shape, it keeps absorbing Sha-Chi from its vicinity but can't hold the power inside."

Four of them make a whole Sha-Chi Amber, and carrying it permanently expands the Sha-Chi gauge by 30%. In the August 2026 deep dive, the Mandate Encampment's map counts 4 Sha-Chi Amber Shards to find.

Some weapons make their targets bleed. Each hit from Jagged Steel builds the enemy's Bleed Gauge, and a full gauge triggers Blood Loss.

The 2025 demo described the same effect as a Bleeding meter that ends in Hemorrhage. Jagged Steel's Blood Blade and Relentless Bleed fill the gauge faster.

Puppets, Golden Bodies and Phantom Bodies are enemy kinds that shrug off certain effects. The Outlaw's Warblade cannot drain life from them, and Jagged Steel's Blood Blade has no effect on them either.

To breach an enemy, keep attacking until its Sha-Chi runs out. In the game's words: "Breach enemies by depleting their Sha-Chi! Breached targets can't block and take extra damage."

Sha-Chi Combos wear the gauge down faster. In the 2025 demo a Dark Stone, assembled from 4 Dark Fragments, permanently raises Attack and Breach power by 20%.

A Brutal move is an enemy attack marked by a blue flash. Blocking one "takes a big chunk out of your Sha-Chi gauge", so the game asks for a parry instead, and a parry on time triggers a Ghoststep.

The October 2026 preview build's tips call them Blue-flash Attacks: "Parry Blue-flash Attacks to trigger Ghoststep and move behind enemies."

Fire builds up on a target in a Burning meter, one hit at a time. Push the meter past its limit and it ignites: the Flaming Mane's card says "Excessive Burning triggers Ignition, which causes sustained damage."

Each main weapon has two strings of attacks, the Standard Combo and the Sha-Chi Combo. The Character screen lays each out as a row of button presses, four or five for the Standard Combo and two or three for the Sha-Chi Combo.

The Sha-Chi Combo can break off from any swing of the Standard Combo. Backed by enough Sha-Chi it lands harder and breaks guards better, as each weapon's card says. Some weapons rework both strings: The Fanatic's Broken Blade turns them ranged while Soul is Tipsy or Drunk.

Tipsy and Drunk are the states Soul reaches by drinking with The Fanatic's Broken Blade. While Tipsy or Drunk, both its Standard and Sha-Chi Combos become ranged attacks.

Its upgrades build on them: Boundless Thirst makes each drink restore more Sha-Chi, and faster; Drunken Clarity keeps Soul Tipsy 5 seconds longer; Drunken Counter adds a counter while Drunk. S-GAME says the drunken style has Soul stagger as if tipsy while setting up last-moment dodges.

Fist Intent builds with every hit of the Iron Gauntlets. A full meter raises the damage of every main weapon for a set time, so the gauntlets prepare the next main-weapon attack.

A Ghoststep is what a perfect parry or a perfect dodge turns into: Soul flashes behind the attacker, in place to hit back. Each one also builds Sha-Chi Essence.

The October 2026 preview build spells it Ghoststep; the 2024 and 2025 demos and the developers' FAQ wrote Ghostep.

Guard Break is most weapons' second stat: how hard they hit through a guard. Dual-Wield weapons list the same stat as Break Power, and Jagged Steel shows Status Effects in its place.

When a guard gives way, the enemy stays Guard-Broken for a while, an opening some moves are made to punish, Jagged Steel's Blood Blade among them. Heavy shields shrug off light blades; S-GAME's deep dive says they take "the brutal momentum of iron fists and hammers".

A Killer move is marked by a red flash. It "can not be blocked or parried", so the answer is a dodge timed just before it lands, which carries Soul behind the attacker with a Ghoststep.

The 2025 demo's tips put it in one line: "Retaliate against a Killer Move with a timely dodge".

Pressing R3 locks onto a target. If the target dies, the lock jumps on its own to the closest enemy.

Phantom Edges are Soul's secondary weapons, kept in a list of their own on the weapon screens: bows and thrown blades (Long-Ranged), gauntlets (Martial Skill) and contraptions like the Heartrend Pipa (Artifice). A full Phantom Edge combo uses 1 Remnant Spark.

Soul goes into every fight with four weapons: two main weapons and two Phantom Edges. S-GAME puts the full count at 30 main weapons and 25 Phantom Edges.

Recoverable Damage is the share of Soul's lost health that is not gone for good yet. When the Outlaw's Warblade's Standard Combo drains life from an enemy, this is the health it fills first.

The same weapon can run it in reverse: its Sha-Chi Combo "Converts HP into Recoverable Damage to deal increased damage", and combos or healing can then win that health back.

The Reforging Talisman undoes a weapon's upgrades: S-GAME's deep dive says it resets the weapon's level and recovers every material invested, ready to spend on other gear.

The upgrade screen's Revert does the same for one weapon: "The level will be reset to its starting level, and all materials used will be returned." In the October 2026 preview build, reverting Jagged Steel from level 5 to 1 gave back 7,560 Remnant Dust, 16 Forged Metal and 8 Solvent.

Remnant Dust is the currency. It comes in as Soul explores ("Remnant Dust + 460") and goes out on weapon upgrades and Ability Training.

Each weapon level costs more than the last. In the October 2026 preview build the One-Handed blades cost 1,080 for level 2, then 1,620, 2,160, 2,700 and 3,240, and Scarlet Wraithblade's step from 8 to 9 costs 4,860. Ability Training can be reset, and the reset returns "every Remnant Dust and Banyan Heart spent".

Sha-Chi is the gauge every fight runs on, standing for stamina and stagger at once. Blocking eats into it, a precise parry costs nothing and drains the attacker's gauge instead, and switching weapons fills it to the top.

Weapons spend it on Sha-Chi Combos, and some attacks go after an enemy's gauge directly, such as the Heartrend Pipa's blue Sonic Blades and the mark of the Crimson Viper. Sha-Chi Amber makes the gauge permanently bigger.

Sha-Chi Essence is counted in points. Parrying builds it ("With each parry, you gain Sha-Chi Essence"), and so does every Ghoststep.

It is spent a point at a time. Power Surge takes one ("Using Power Surge consumes 1 Sha-Chi Essence"), as does any weapon move whose card reads "Costs 1": Sanguine's Sweeping Blade, for one, and the twin-snake combo of White Serpent & Crimson Viper.

"Crouching makes you harder to detect." From hiding, Soul can assassinate an unsuspecting target by approaching from behind or from above.

Wayfarer is the easiest of the four modes. S-GAME's deep dive calls it intuitive and cinematic, a mode that lets anyone feel like a kung fu master.

The 2025 demo offered it as the "Easy Mode": "A new hero is in town, and the world welcomes him with open arms."

Pathbreaker sits between Wayfarer and Hellwalker on the select screen of the August 2026 deep dive, and finishing the game on it unlocks the 66 Days mode.

In the 2025 demo the middle mode was called Gamechanger: "A son of the Wulin is never content with being just a pawn." The demo described it as the "Normal Mode" with a balanced challenge, recommended for players already familiar with action games.

Hellwalker is the hardest of the three standard modes. In S-GAME's deep dive, its bosses "won't rely on fixed patterns. They react to your spacing, punish your whiffs, and adapt to your habits in real time."

The 2025 demo called it the "Extreme Mode", where every enemy is "a tough piece of work" with moves you have never seen, and said the full game would open it only after one finish on the middle mode.

66 Days turns Soul's sentence into the rules. It runs at Hellwalker intensity, and each death spends one of the days. The deep dive shows the count at work: Soul falls to the Blizzard Blademaster, and the death screen's "Days Remaining: 37" drops to 36.

Once no days are left, a death is final. The mode is locked at first and opens after a finish on Pathbreaker or Hellwalker.