Upgrading your Phantom Blade Zero medicine is incredibly useful, increasing the potency of its effects and how many uses you get, but you don't unlock this system until about halfway through the game. You've got reach Pangzhen first, which takes many hours, and then you've got to reach a mission-critical Serpent House deep within the town. So, if you're wondering how and when you get to upgrade your medicine in Phantom Blade, I've explained everything you need to know below.
To unlock medicine upgrades in Phantom Blade Zero, you just need to go inside the Green Serpent House in the Backstreets area of Pangzhen and speak to Xie Xiaorong at the counter. Conveniently, the medicine upgrade system is folded into the general 'Upgrade Equipment' menu that you can use at any Bell, so you don't have to keep visiting the Green Serpent House to boost your medicines.
Depending on how far through the game you are, reaching the Green Serpent House might take you a while, even if you're already in Pangzhen. But follow the main quests through the desolate town and you'll eventually reach the house.
Upgrading medicine costs a few thousand Remnant Dust and one Healer's Memory per level. Higher upgrade levels require more Remnant Dust and rarer Healer's Memories – for example, levels 1 and 2 require a single Apprentice Healer's Memory but levels 3 and 4 require a Skilled Healer's Memory, and so on. Healer's Memories of all qualities are found throughout the game and can be bought in limited quantities from the Bell shop.
Importantly, medicine upgrades are permanent and cannot be reverted in the same way weapon upgrades can be. My advice is therefore to focus your upgrades on only the medicine items you're currently using. That way you should have some spare Healer's Memories to perform some instant upgrades if you change your Medicine to something better.
Furthermore, while you're in Pangzhen, you'll eventually get the Phantom Blade Zero Flaming Mane weapon which will finally allow you get inside the other Serpent Houses around the world, which are critical to the main quest.
Before you head off to the Pangzhen Backstreets, you may want to wrap up the Phantom Blade Zero Four Fierce Axes quest first. Then you can go there and hunt down the Phantom Blade Zero Mandate Encampment Key and complete the Phantom Blade Zero Flesh Lily quest.
© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.
