Walkthrough: chapter by chapter

The game opens on a card reading Sixteen Years Ago: a daylight sparring match against Zuo Shang in a bamboo grove, which doubles as the tutorial.

Beat him once and the prologue moves straight to the two men's duel to the death in a thunderstorm, the game's first real boss fight.

Present Day opens on a wagon in the rain: The Hunt, a former comrade from the Order, catches up with Soul there for the second boss fight.

Play then picks up in Weeping Creek Valley, a dark valley that runs mostly in a line but branches upward.

Against the Flow is the first main quest in Weeping Creek Valley: follow the path upstream. Jagged Steel, the third boss, waits in a riverbed past the Broken Puppet Valley bell.

After that fight, the quest asks you to report to the guard by the broken wall, then to enter the outpost held by the Mandate.

Peng Meng, the Axemaster, is the fourth. His Dread Axe breaks the Chain Barrier that Against the Flow sends you through next.

Against the Flow is also a chapter title. Back at the outpost after Peng Meng, a card reads Against the Flow, End of Chapter.

The next main quest, Deep in the Valley, opens with "Search the top of the Steel Tower for the lost key". The key is the Sha-Chi Tower Base Camp Gate Key: it lies among red ropes at the top of the tower, a few steps from the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Summit bell.

With it, the quest moves on to "Open the outer gate at the base of the tower": the key opens the camp gate that leads to the foot of the Sha-Chi Tower, the big wooden gate where the Key Item Missing banner first appears.

Inside the Sha-Chi Tower, the furnace mechanism shows a Key Item Missing banner: it needs one Sha-Chi Furnace Inspection Crank. A masked enemy in the tower drops the crank; the furnace then gives up the Primal Stone that the side quest A Severed Mindseal asks for.

Off the main path, the Aberrant Three-faced Puppet waits just past The Lady's Rift bell. Soul says it is best avoided.

Also optional: Hua, Deadly Betrothed in the red lily clearing behind the Sha-Chi tower, and the Lóng Pillar on the east side of the map, whose trial against The Gold-Masked One starts the quest Bloodline Awakening.

Steel and Steam is the next main quest: "Enter the Steel Tower and find a way to the Hunt's hideout". Just before it starts, The Hunt cuts a man down on a rope bridge.

Its second step, "Settle the score with the Hunt!", leads over a rope bridge to the Great Waterfall bell. The fight is a few steps north, on the riverbank below the falls: The Hunt again, with a second bar, The Hunt, Sixfold Scythe.

He drops the Hunter's Chain Sickle, which pulls Soul to distant anchor points even when it is not equipped. The quest's last step in the valley: "Pass through the cave behind the waterfall".

The chapter Snake's Reflection opens Crimson Forest, the second region. Hua Qianxiao, the Sword Fanatic, stands at its start, on a bridge deck by the Pangzhen Bridge Overlook bell.

Chapter 5 is the one to slow down in: Mu Xiaokui's third phase, and the Fiend Saws with it, only appears if Young Mistress is finished before her fight.

Launch-day guides give the rest of the route, past chapter 7. We have not checked it in footage, so treat it as a plan rather than a record.

• Rushing the main story shuts the true ending: it follows from side quests and the items you carry.
• Ring every bell you pass. Each one is a checkpoint and a fast travel point, and a red thread near Soul points to the closest one you have not found.
• Each region's collection tracker lists how much it hides: bells, weapons, accessories, Amber and Blackstone Shards and Memory Flowers. Counts per region are on the regions map.