Phantom Blade Zero best weapons: early tier list

1. S
   Jagged Steel

   You get it about an hour in, from the third story boss, and players still use it 30 hours later. Every hit builds Bleed, and Blood Blade (Lv. 5) adds damage, but Bleed fails on Puppets, Golden Bodies and Phantom Bodies.

2. S
   Outlaw Warblade

   The blade launch reviewers name most as their main or favourite. Its standard hits heal you and its Sha-Chi combo spends HP for damage, but the healing fails on Puppets, Golden Bodies and Phantom Bodies.

3. A
   The Fanatic's Broken Blade

   Two players who finished the game called it their favourite. Drinking puts Soul in the Tipsy state and turns its combos into ranged attacks, which keeps a mounted or fleeing boss at bay.

4. B
   White Serpent & Crimson Viper

   Fast alternating combos that end by throwing the shorter blade, and Viper Mark (Lv. 5) makes the marked enemy take more damage. The launch drop card reads 260 Damage and 110 Guard Break at level 1.

5. B
   Seamless Death

   Twin bladed rings that attack at range: every Perfect Dodge throws a barrage of homing rings, and they can finish near-death enemies from a distance.

6. B
   Juggernaut

   A two-handed greatsword that stores a charge on each parry and releases a red cleave when full. No final-game opinion yet.

7. B
   Soft Snake Sword

   A whip-sword with a timed deflect that drains the attacker's Sha-Chi; demo players called it the hardest weapon to master. No final-game opinion yet.

8. B
   Sanguine

   Soul's starting blade: 200 Damage and 100 Guard Break at level 1. Chi-Infused Blade (Lv. 5) raises its damage for 40 seconds, twice as long as on Sanguine Twin.

9. B
   Sanguine Twin

   The first dual blades in the game, free on a weapon rack within the first hour. They are fast but light (200 Damage, 100 Guard Break at level 1), which makes them a good second slot next to a Bleed blade.

10. B
    Sanguine Reach

    A two-handed long blade that trades speed for reach, with an unblockable Power Surge. No final-game opinion yet.

11. B
    Armybreaker

    A two-handed polearm with high shield-breaking power; switching to it or parrying a blue flash attack fires a forward thrust. No player who finished the game has rated it yet.

12. B
    Scarlet Wraithblade

    One player who unlocked every weapon kept it for the whole game. Its heavy attacks leave a field of red spider lilies that drains the stamina of enemies standing in it.

13. B
    Tianxuan Bronze Sword

    Built for blocking: Natural Order makes guarding cheaper in Sha-Chi but takes away your parry. At level 1 it reads 240 Damage and 106 Guard Break, below the other one-handed blades from the same stage of the game.

A rank counts strong statements from reviewers who finished the game: a weapon named as their favourite, their main weapon, or the one they used for most of the run. 12 reviewers who finished the game named a weapon that way.

S takes three or more of those statements. Jagged Steel sits there with fewer, because it comes in the first hour and players still use it 30 hours in.

A rank above B also needs two independent sources, or one clear number read on the weapon's card. Every other primary sits in B by default, with low confidence, until players post results.

C would mean a reviewer who finished the game called the weapon weak. None has, and several wrote that every weapon is viable to finish the game.

Card numbers are per hit, with no attack speed, so they rarely decide a rank. They lift no weapon at the moment: the highest level 1 reading on a ranked primary is 272 Damage.

Inside a tier, how soon you can get a weapon breaks ties. It never lifts a weapon on its own.

• Oct 29, 2026 White Serpent & Crimson Viper drops from A to B: the launch drop card reads 260 Damage and 110 Guard Break at level 1, not the 312 and 164 read on another save. Four primaries added unranked: Wooden Sanguine, Fiend Saws, Wild Oriole Sword and Baishan Stormswords.
• Oct 29, 2026 Early list: all 13 primary weapons ranked. Jagged Steel moves from A to S beside Outlaw Warblade, White Serpent & Crimson Viper from B to A, and seven weapons enter at B by default.
• Oct 28, 2026 First version: six primary weapons ranked from 12 launch reviewers who finished the game. The Drunken Sword shown before launch is ranked under its in-game name, The Fanatic's Broken Blade.