In Phantom Blade Zero, bells are your checkpoints. You rest at one to recover, and you return to one when you die. Whether the enemies you killed come back depends on which group you cleared and where it stands.
Quick answer: Respawns depend on the enemy group. Resting at a bell revives select sets, including the puppets in the Mirage Estate Training Grounds yard. Many other groups remain absent through rests and deaths.
Enemies that stayed gone in Weeping Creek Valley
Climb from The Axemaster’s Fall bell and pass the breakable palisade; a Brute, a Spear Brute and a Mad Arsonist are waiting beyond it. Defeating them keeps them gone: they were still absent after two rests at The Lady’s Cave bell and three deaths followed by respawns at The Axemaster’s Fall bell. The palisade remains broken after you smash it.
Right beside The Lady’s Cave bell are two Yellow-Robed Brutes and a Thorn Brute. Clear them, then rest twice at that bell; they do not return. After each rest, the area within 40 m of the bell was empty.
A pack on the plateau near The Lady’s Cave also stays cleared. That pack is a Shielded Brute, a Madwoman, a Throwing Brute and a Spear Brute, and it was still gone after the second rest.
Enemies that do come back
In the Mirage Estate, resting at a bell respawns the group of three puppets in the Training Grounds yard. A rest does not bring back the two Shadow Assassins on the ridge or the Halberd War Puppet near the Opera House. A death on its own does not reset the yard group either.
Bosses follow a different reset rule: dying in a fight sends you back to the bell with the boss at full health.
What this means
In areas such as Weeping Creek Valley, cleared paths generally stay clear, so you can rest or die without battling those same groups again.
