Phantom Blade Zero has been off to a formidable begin since its October launch, capturing to the highest of the Steam charts with an enormous peak of 833,921 concurrent gamers. It offered 4 million copies in its first 72 hours, immediately making it considered one of 2026’s best-selling video games, despite the fact that it was a PS5 console unique and hasn’t had a bodily launch but. Past its gross sales, the wuxia motion RPG has been extensively praised for its stylish visuals and fun martial arts gameplay.
Nevertheless, whereas the sport has been marketed as a way more player-friendly different to FromSoftware and its soulslike kin, some gamers have struggled with a sure early-game boss: Hua, the Lethal Betrothed.
“Why does each recreation have no less than one full BS boss design like this?” a Redditor complained. “Regardless of how nice a recreation is, there’s that one endlessly teleporting, BS boss designed to not problem, however simply infuriate. Repair this BS within the subsequent patch – please!” Whereas not everybody agrees that Hua is overtuned (the put up with that quote is closely downvoted), it appears S-GAME Studio responded regardless.
Phantom Blade Zero’s first main patch, model 1.0302256, comes with an extended checklist of bug fixes and changes, together with modifications to Hua. The patch notes learn: “Decreased the frequency of seize assaults utilized by Hua, Lethal Betrothed on Wayfarer and Pathbreaker difficulties. Different issue settings are unaffected.”
One among Hua’s deadliest assaults is a lunging seize that offers huge injury. Whereas the assault is telegraphed by a vibrant pink flash, it may be tough to keep away from since you’ll must dodge it reasonably than parry or block. That is significantly powerful as a result of she typically does her seize proper after launching spectral white lilies that cowl a lot of the display screen. Though Hua is an optionally available foe, she’s a traditional early-game “filter” boss meant to make sure the participant has mastered sure mechanics earlier than continuing.
What else is within the patch?
Past modifications to Hua, Phantom Blade Zero’s new patch has a number of different smaller tweaks. It consists of improved efficiency in sure areas and has modifications to the shader compilation course of on PC that cut back startup occasions. Different bug fixes embody lowering stuttering when utilizing a controller through Bluetooth on PC, fixes for progress-breaking conditions, cutscene fixes, issues with hair rendering on sure graphics playing cards, and extra.
The complete patch notes will be discovered under.
New Options
● Added “Hit Sound Depth” and “Hit Influence Sound Depth” choices to the audio settings.
● [PC] Added help for remapping “Work together / Speak” for each keyboard and controller.
Enhancements and Changes
● Improved efficiency in sure areas.
● Adjusted the fight habits of sure bosses and enemies, together with the performance of sure environmental mechanisms.
● Decreased the frequency of seize assaults utilized by Hua, Lethal Betrothed on Wayfarer and Pathbreaker difficulties. Different issue settings are unaffected.
● Improved weapon hit suggestions and adjusted the amount of sure sound results and dialogue.
● Up to date weapon descriptions, sure talent descriptions, and controller button icons.
● [PC] Up to date the shader compilation course of to considerably cut back startup occasions. Ray tracing shaders will not be compiled by default at startup. Gamers who beforehand had Ray Tracing disabled might want to recompile shaders on their first launch after putting in this patch. It is a one-time course of and may take solely a short while. Gamers who beforehand had Ray Tracing enabled can begin taking part in with out recompiling shaders. In case you allow Ray Tracing within the settings, the required ray tracing shaders will probably be compiled individually the following time you restart the sport.
● [PC] Decreased stuttering that would happen when utilizing a controller related through Bluetooth.
● [PC] NVIDIA Reflex now works when set to “Auto” with V-Sync enabled.
Bug Fixes
● Mounted points that would stop development below sure situations.
● Mounted environmental points that would trigger the participant character to grow to be caught.
● Mounted numerous points with cutscenes and visuals.
● Mounted a number of combat-related points.
● Mounted a difficulty that precipitated character hair to render incorrectly on sure AMD graphics playing cards with particular driver variations.