The Phantom Blade Zero Blizzard Blademaster is arguably one of the hardest bosses in the entire game, thanks to his lightning-fast attacks and ice powers. He can freeze you solid, which is extremely irritating as there are very few ways to counter it other than simply not getting hit by any of the Blademaster's attacks – just be glad this is a one-phase fight! But don't despair as he can be beaten with a bit of guidance and the right equipment, so here's what you need to do to defeat the Blizzard Blademaster.
Phantom Blade Zero Blizzard Blademaster tips
Blizzard Blademaster is an optional boss found at the end of the Four Guardians' Mirror area in the frozen part of Meigu Lake – bear in mind you can only get here if you've opened the Phantom Blade Zero Crimson Manor!
Despite being optional and rather unforgiving with his powerful freezing strikes and dashes, I still highly recommend finding and defeating this boss, both for story purposes and because you get his excellent ice sword as a reward.
Make sure your weapons are fully upgraded (I used the Baishan Stormswords, Armybreaker, Bashpole, and Ink Cut in case that helps) and that you've got the best Phantom Blade Zero Accessories equipped. Otherwise, this is what you should do to beat him:
- Be ready to dodge his first attack: When you walk into the boss arena and get Blizzard Blademaster's attention, he always immediately uses a dash attack that instantly freezes you if it hits. I strongly recommend learning the wind-up timing of this attack and dodging to the side to avoid it rather than parrying. This goes for a few of his other attacks, including a brutally powerful ice wave attack, as I found it was better to avoid getting hit altogether rather than potentially flubbing a parry.
- Don't get frozen: This is much easier said than done as this boss has a couple of freezing attacks, as well as just inflicting freeze buildup with every hit, but getting frozen in place during this boss fight sucks as it can be a death sentence. As far as I'm aware, there's no way to melt faster, and it's pure luck as to whether Blizzard Blademaster will even attack you while frozen. Watch the red debuff icon above Soul's health bar to monitor your freeze build up and frozen duration.
- Use Green Serpent Brew: This medicine removes status effects and temporarily improves your resistance to such effects (make sure you upgrade this Phantom Blade Zero Medicine to improve its effects even more) which means you can minimize freeze buildup. I also found the Phantom Brew Medicine to be useful when fully upgraded as it makes you briefly invulnerable.
- Perfectly dodging his red-flash attack is a huge help: You will be well accustomed to horrible red-flash grab attacks by now – particularly from the likes of the Phantom Blade Zero Gu Wanyue – but it's worth re-iterating for this fight. Blizzard Blademaster's grab is especially awful because he can use it pretty much whenever, even just after you've perfectly parried one of his blue-flash attacks when you might be in the middle of attacking. It's also very fast and difficult to dodge, but perfectly avoid it and you should get a rare opportunity to punish the Blademaster with your own attacks – from my experience, he can sometimes instantly recover!
- Use Power Surges to cancel his attacks: There isn't much that can interrupt Blizzard Blademaster besides a Power Surge attack, so unleash them at the right time to prevent him from hitting you with some of his deadliest attacks. With that said, fighting him up close can be very dangerous in general, so focus on parrying and dodging rather than furiously trying to get your own hits in.
- Sha-Chi management is critical: A few of Blizzard Blademaster's attacks deal a lot of Sha-Chi damage, which, unless you're expertly parrying or dodging, can break your guard and leave you highly vulnerable to getting frozen or killed. Consider using the Agarwood Prayer Beads Accessory if this is happening a lot and make sure you're switching weapons at the right time to fully replenish your Sha-Chi. There are plenty of Medicines and Accessories that can help with Sha-Chi regeneration too.
- Avoid keeping your distance: While I just said staying up close is risky, staying away from the Blademaster is arguably worse as it will encourage him to use his icy lunge attacks more frequently.
Persevere and you'll eventually overcome Blizzard Blademaster, getting his fantastic two-handed sword Whiteshadow that lets you freeze your enemies too. Hopefully you also collected every clothing item in the Four Guardians' Mirror area to get the Boy's Worn Outfit, letting you immediately Soul Temper Whiteshadow too.
I won't spoil exactly what happens next, but you also finally get to use the Yin and Yang crystal eyes which finally leads to the end of the 'Secrets at the Heart of the Lake' side quest, which provides some additional story context and gives you a Soul Tempering item for one of your Phantom Edges.
As an ice-cold boss, you could try the Phantom Blade Zero Flaming Mane weapon. If you're still struggling with this boss, make sure you find as many Long Pillars as you can to fight the Phantom Blade Zero Gold-Masked One for practice.
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