Phantom Blade Zero Completionist Guide

For players who love to see everything a game has to offer, Phantom Blade Zero presents a deep completion loop - a large arsenal of weapons and secondary tools, character progression, collectibles, difficulty challenges and the mastery that ties them together. Fully unlocking and completing a game like this is a rewarding long-term goal that layers a second experience on top of your first playthrough. Because this is a new release, the exact completion checklist is best confirmed in-game and against current community resources, so this guide stays spoiler-light and principles-first: the kinds of unlockables to expect, how to approach completion efficiently, and how to keep track of what remains so nothing slips through the cracks.

What completion usually involves

Completion in an action game like Phantom Blade Zero typically spans several systems at once. There is the arsenal - unlocking the full spread of primary weapons and secondary tools, and often upgrading them. There is character progression - filling out your skills and abilities. There are collectibles and world content to find and finish. And there are challenge-based accomplishments - clearing harder difficulties and performing specific feats - that reward mastery. Together these form a checklist that keeps completionists busy well beyond the main story.

The key realisation is that these systems overlap. Exploring thoroughly for collectibles also earns the resources that fund your upgrades; clearing harder content both unlocks rewards and builds the mastery that other challenges require. Approaching completion as a set of interlocking goals, rather than isolated chores, lets each activity feed the others and makes the whole endeavour flow more naturally than it first appears.

Work in passes

The most efficient way to pursue completion is in passes rather than trying to do everything at once. A thorough first run is ideal for enjoying the story while gathering collectibles, building your character and unlocking weapons through natural play. This single pass handles a large chunk of the checklist simply because you are engaging with every system as you go, and it sets you up for the more targeted work that follows.

Later passes then clean up what remains: a harder-difficulty run once your build and skills are ready, and focused attempts at specific challenges or any collectibles you missed. Sequencing matters - doing the demanding content after you have the mastery and resources to handle it turns potential walls into victory laps. Each pass makes the next easier, which is the opposite of the exhausting slog completion can become when tackled in the wrong order. Our trophy and platinum guide lays out this run sequencing in detail.

Unlocking the full arsenal

A big part of completion is unlocking and developing the game's full roster of weapons. This is one of the more enjoyable goals, since experimenting with each weapon's moveset is fun in its own right and deepens your understanding of the combat. Work through the arsenal as you play, give each weapon a genuine try, and upgrade the ones that click with you. Even weapons you do not main are worth unlocking for completion and for the occasional situation they answer better than your favourites.

Because the arsenal is large, a loaded, fully unlocked game plays very differently from an early run - it is effectively a sandbox of options. Reaching that state is a satisfying capstone, and it also makes the remaining challenge content easier, since you can bring the perfect tool to every fight. Our weapons guide and upgrade guide help you work through the roster efficiently.

Phantom Blade Zero completion pillars

Pillar	How to approach it
Full arsenal	Unlock and upgrade weapons through natural play
Character progression	Fill out skills around a coherent build
Collectibles / world	Comb each area on a relaxed run; track totals
Challenges / difficulty	Tackle once your mastery and build are ready

Keeping track of what remains

With so many unlockables spread across different systems, the biggest practical challenge of a completion run is simply keeping track. The game's own menus usually help - a weapon list with locked entries, a skill screen, collectible counters per area - and using them as your checklist beats trying to hold everything in your head. Before you consider a run finished, sweep each of these screens to confirm what you have and what is still outstanding.

Cross-referencing the game's menus against a reliable community checklist, once one exists for this new title, is the most dependable method - it catches both the obvious gaps and the conditional unlocks the menus do not fully explain. A few minutes of tracking after each session turns a sprawling completion goal into a clear, shrinking to-do list, and crossing off that final entry is a genuinely satisfying way to put a bow on everything the game offers.

Is full completion worth it?

It is fair to ask whether chasing 100% is worth the time, and for many players the answer is a clear yes. The pursuit deepens your mastery - by the time you have unlocked the arsenal, filled out your build, cleared the hard content and met the challenges, you understand the combat at a level a single playthrough never reaches. That mastery is its own reward, and it is why completionists keep returning to games like this long after the credits roll.

Completion also effectively gives you a second, different game. A fully unlocked Phantom Blade Zero - broad arsenal, developed character, every option available - plays as a playground compared to the tense, lean experience of a first run. Reaching that state and then enjoying the combat with everything at your disposal is a fitting capstone. For players who simply love thoroughness, the structured goal of completion is a pleasure in itself, quite apart from any reward.

Pacing completion to avoid burnout

The single biggest risk to a completion run is burnout, and pacing is the cure. Completion rewards thoroughness, but thoroughness pursued relentlessly in long sessions drains the enjoyment that made you want to 100% the game in the first place. A far healthier approach is to weave completion tasks into your normal play rather than treating them as a separate, grinding phase - grab collectibles as you pass through an area, chip at a challenge when the mood takes you, and tackle the demanding content when you feel sharp rather than forcing it when you are tired. Steady, sustainable progress almost always finishes a completion run that a frantic blitz would abandon.

It also pays to sequence the work so the least enjoyable tasks are spread out rather than saved for a bleak final stretch. If one requirement is genuinely tedious, do a little of it between the parts of the game you love instead of grinding it all at once. Celebrate the milestones - a region fully cleared, the arsenal completed, a tough challenge finally met - because that sense of visible progress is what sustains motivation across a long goal. Completion is meant to be a way of savouring a game you enjoy, not a joyless checklist to endure, and pacing yourself is what keeps it firmly on the pleasurable side of that line all the way to the final unlock.

It also helps to keep sight of why you are doing it. Completion is ultimately an excuse to spend more time with systems and combat you enjoy, seeing every weapon, every ability and every corner of a world you like. Framed that way, the stray collectible hunt or the extra difficulty clear becomes part of the fun rather than an obstacle between you and a reward. Players who finish long completion goals are usually the ones who stayed curious and let the game remain a game, rather than those who turned it into a joyless job - and that mindset, more than any route or checklist, is what carries you to the end.

Starting with everything unlocked

Pursuing full completion is a rewarding grind, and the unlocks mean more when earned through the challenges that gate them. But some players - returning for a replay, short on time, or simply wanting to enjoy a loaded game with every option open from the first minute - prefer a shortcut to that fully unlocked sandbox.

If that appeals, a Phantom Blade Zero modded save on the Phantom Blade Zero services hub can provide an everything-unlocked starting point, and a platinum trophy service exists for the completion that hinges on the hardest content. Both are optional conveniences aimed at post-game and completionist players; for a first experience, earning each unlock as a reward for mastering the game is the most satisfying path - and this guide is your map either way. However you get there, a fully unlocked Phantom Blade Zero is a different, more playful game, and exploring everything it opens up is a fitting reward.

Related Phantom Blade Zero guides

• Phantom Blade Zero trophy & platinum guide
• Phantom Blade Zero best weapons guide
• Phantom Blade Zero weapon upgrade guide
• Phantom Blade Zero skill tree & build guide
• Phantom Blade Zero boss guide

Frequently Asked Questions