During Phantom Blade Zero’s prologue, your second boss encounter is with The Hunt, Hunter of the Order. This hooded rider appears after the Zuo Shang duel and cart chase. The battle unfolds aboard a cart in motion and ends unlike most boss fights.
Quick answer: Stay on the cart. Hold Right Mouse to block his sickle swings, tap Right Mouse to parry Blue-flash attacks, dodge Red-flash attacks with Left Shift, and hit back with Sha-Chi Combos. The fight ends in a scripted cutscene, not a final blow.
Where you fight The Hunt
This encounter takes place during the quest “To the Death!” Soul sits at the rear of Old Man Gen’s horse cart as it travels through a rocky gorge. Mounted pursuers chase the cart before The Hunt appears. Along the way, individual on-screen prompts introduce every move you’ll need for the fight.
- First, “Hold [Right Mouse] to automatically block attacks by consuming Sha-Chi”.
- Next, a Shift dodge prompt appears over a red swing.
- Then come prompts for Standard Attacks on Left Mouse, Sha-Chi Attacks on F, and Lock-On on the mouse wheel.
- Last, an E execution prompt appears once a rider’s guard breaks.
A rider wielding a glaive vaults aboard and engages you at close range. If you use up your Sha-Chi Essence, the message “Out of Sha-Chi Essence” appears.
A cutscene follows. A hooded rider holding two hooked sickles leaps down from the cliff onto his horse beside the cart. He holds up Soul’s wanted poster and says “Master Soul… killed the Shadow Sovereign…” Soul decides there’s no point in talking, and the boss bar appears with the name “THE HUNT, HUNTER OF THE ORDER”.
Phantom Blade Zero default PC controls for this fight
These are the default bindings, which you can change under Settings > Controls (full list in our controls guide).
| Action | Default key |
|---|---|
| Light Attack | Left Mouse |
| Heavy (Sha-Chi) Attack | F |
| Block / Parry | Right Mouse: keep it pressed to block, or tap it to parry. |
| Dodge | Left Shift |
| Power Surge | Q |
| Heal (Medicine) | R |
| Execution | E |
| Lock On | Mouse wheel click |
The Hunt’s attacks and how to answer them
The Hunt never stays in one place. He switches between his saddle, the cart, and the roadside, and he shouts “Nowhere to run!” while he does it. The tutorial rule is: “Parry blue and dodge red.” Block his sickle swings while he is on horseback.
| Attack | Your answer |
|---|---|
| Sickle swings from horseback beside the cart | Hold Right Mouse to block |
| Leap from his horse onto the cart | Punish with Sha-Chi Combos |
| Long-reach leap from the roadside | Watch the flash color |
| Leap with a blue streak (Blue-flash) | Tap Right Mouse to parry |
| Any Red-flash attack | Dodge with Left Shift |
You can’t block or parry Red-flash attacks. Holding Right Mouse won’t save you from these, so dodge them.
How to beat The Hunt
Blocking drains your own Sha-Chi bar. Don’t hold block for the whole fight. Block an attack, then hit back.
How the fight ends
You aren’t required to drain his health bar. The battle gives way to a scripted scene while some of his health remains. The Hunt sends Soul tumbling off the cart, and Soul drops past a waterfall. No result screen appears, and you never deliver a final blow; the scene ends the fight.
A cinematic featuring the Flesh Sculptor (the Hollow or Tainted Heart scene), titled “One Day Before”, plays next. Soul then awakens in a forest gorge, where Chapter 1, “AGAINST THE FLOW”, starts with the objective “Follow the path upstream”. Once that objective appears, The Hunt is cleared.
