How to complete the Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret quest

Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret quest progress after speaking to captain — (Image credit: S-GAME)

The Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret tasks you with helping the Mandate clear out some warriors in a sealed-off courtyard that have gone a bit evil due to Transcension. But you'll come up against some major obstacles along the way, the first being that you need to beat a nearby boss to be able to break the chains to the courtyard. The second is that you need to get a key for a gate which you can't reach until you defeat a different boss. To clear up how to complete this quest, I've laid out all the Festering Secret steps below.

Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret walkthrough

Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret soul running up to chained fence — (Image credit: S-GAME)

After hearing the guards in front of the chained fence talking, here's what you need to do to complete the Festering Secret quest:

Defeat Peng Meng to get the Dread Axe.
Go back to the chain fence and use the axe to break the chains. This is also near where you can find the Phantom Blade Zero Cell Key.
Explore the courtyard area and kill everything.
Go to the Mandate captain dressed in white near the Outpost entrance gate and get his orders.
Progress through Weeping Creek Valley, hit the Creek Valley Plains Entrance Bell, and reach the Sha-Chi Tower.
Clear the Sha-Chi Tower and reach the Great Waterfall, then defeat The Hunt to get his Chain Sickles.
Go back to the Sha-Chi Tower, climb to the top, and grab the Sha-Chi Tower Base Camp Gate Key from the platform using the chain sickles to grapple up there.

Phantom Blade Zero Sha-Chi Tower base camp gate key on top of platform on sha-chi tower — (Image credit: S-GAME)

Return to the Creek Valley Plains Entrance Bell and open the gate using the key.
Explore the base camp and find the blue-robed swordsman sitting at a table in a house. Speak to him to give him the captain's orders and you'll get a book page for the Phantom Blade Zero Four Fierce Axes quest in return.

Phantom Blade Zero Festering Secret Soul talking to Blue-Robed Swordsman in sha-chi tower base camp — (Image credit: S-GAME)

Go back to the Outpost captain and speak to him to conclude the quest.

For your efforts, you'll get… nothing – how ungrateful. The captain will, however, tell you about a body on the cliff across the ravine.

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Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.