Where to Find the Heavy Lion Hall Gate Key in Phantom Blade Zero
Three Ho-ho lion dancers near Chang Hong's square drop the key, which opens the Lion Dance Hall's red main gate.
Three Ho-ho lion dancers near Chang Hong’s square drop the key, which opens the Lion Dance Hall’s red main gate.
by AllThingsHow Staff
Quick answer: Defeat the three Ho-ho lion dancers in the fog-ringed yard just before Chang Hong‘s backstreet square. The key opens the red main gate at the top of the stairs above the Lion Dance Hall bell.
During The Heart’s Trail story quest in Phantom Blade Zero, you find the key in Pangzhen‘s backstreet after visiting Yu’er’s home. It is a Story Item, and you must collect it before the quest can continue toward the Lion Dance Hall. The full keys list has every other key in the game.
Leave the bell yard through the open gate beside the bell. The lantern gate in the stake fence you came in through stays shut from this side, so don’t waste time on it. Follow the path back up toward the backstreet square where you fought Chang Hong.
Just short of that square, a ring of fog surrounds a yard. Walk into it from the side nearest the square, and three Ho-ho attack together. These are big-headed lion dancers. The fog keeps you inside until all three are down. On Wayfarer, the fight can be won in about 110 seconds without drinking a gourd, and it costs roughly a quarter of Soul’s 1,402 HP.
After the fight, take the two items dropped in the yard: a book, “FRAGMENTS OF THE MANDATE”, with the subtitle “LETTER WITH MESSY HANDWRITING”, and the key.
Check the key in your Story Items. Its card reads “A silver key shaped like a lion dance ball. It opens the main gate to the Lion Dance Hall.” and “When sunlight passes through its openwork, it casts the silhouette of a lion with a ball in its jaws. Its weight seems to hold the echo of drums and gongs from days past.”
Verify that you picked up the key by checking your objective. The Heart’s Trail objective updates to “Open the Lion Dance Hall gate”.
The letter that comes with the key
The book dropped beside the key is written to whoever beats the lion dancers. It opens with “Long ago, I let the wolf into our midst, bringing untold suffering upon the people. That sin is mine to bear.” Then it continues, “Now the ‘Perfect Transcension’ courses through me, and I struggle to suppress the bloodlust in my heart. But my flame gutters in the wind, and the drums will soon fall silent.” Next it addresses you directly: “Since entering this game, you have shaken Heaven and Earth. Like an awakened lion breaking through the mist, each step lands like thunder. I have held on in this darkness until now, waiting perhaps for none other than you, the true one to pluck the green.” It closes with the request that sends you onward: “I have an important task to entrust to you. Take this key and open the door to my lion dance hall.”
From the bell, take the street that runs downhill away from Chang Hong’s square, past the houses. At the bottom of a long staircase, find the Lion Dance Hall bell beside red candles and a stone lion. Ringing it adds Lion Dance Hall to the Pangzhen map, beneath Ancestral Shrine Square.
The bell is watched by a Purple-Robed Guard and two Faceless Spearman Captains. Facing all three together is dangerous, so separate them or rest at the Ancestral Shrine Square bell before the fight.
Climb the stairs above the bell, about 25 m. Halfway up, two Ha-ha sword dolls and a Hmph-hmph block the steps (the enemies list covers these dolls). Lure them down one at a time toward the bell yard. Fought this way on Wayfarer, all three fall in about 100 seconds without Soul taking damage.
The red main gate stands at the stairway’s summit. A large lion-head knocker adorns it, with stone lion statues and red banners flanking the door. Approach and press E.
Soul pushes the doors open onto the hall yard, and the key is used up. A “Heavy Lion Hall Gate Key -1” toast confirms it. The objective then changes to “Venture deeper into the Lion Dance Hall and seek out the Lion Dance Grandmaster.” Be ready to fight as soon as you step through, because two more Ha-ha dolls and a Ho-ho are waiting inside the yard. Once they are down, a Blackstone Shard can be picked up in the courtyard.
What comes next
Inside the hall waits the Lion Dance Grandmaster, listed in the boss list as “Flame, the Mask-Bound Lion Dance Grandmaster”. The hall also holds the Lion Dance Grandmaster memory flowers, and his reward, the Dormant Flaming Mane, carries The Heart’s Trail on to Lei Dang.
