Abilities in Phantom Blade Zero are bought with Remnant Dust at bells. Pressing P on the ability screen resets every ability and refunds the Remnant Dust you spent. The first bell is “The Beginning” in Weeping Creek Valley, in Chapter 1, “AGAINST THE FLOW”.
Quick answer: Open Train Abilities at a bell, select an unlocked node, and hold Space to spend Remnant Dust on it. Press P on that screen to reset all abilities and get your Remnant Dust back.
How to open the ability tree in Phantom Blade Zero
Walk up to a bell and press E. The bell menu has three options: “Train Abilities”, “Save” and “Leave”. Choose Train Abilities, which is Enter on PC.
The screen that opens is an ability tree made of three rows of linked nodes. Each row starts on the left with an item icon and a count next to it. Two counters sit in the top-right corner, and the one on the right is your Remnant Dust. Remnant Dust drops from fights, starting with the first battles of Chapter 1.
Two tutorial lines on this screen explain how the tree works:
- “Collect Blackstones, Sha-Chi Ambers, and other items to increase attributes and unlock abilities.”
- “Use Remnant Dust to activate abilities you’ve unlocked!”
Items unlock nodes and Remnant Dust activates them. A Blackstone’s description reads “A fragment that permanently increases 10% Attack and Guard Break“.
How to train an ability
The first unlocked node is Fluid Form, and it costs 0 Remnant Dust, so training it leaves your total unchanged. Its effect reads “After Perfect Dodging a Red-flash Attack, Parrying a Blue-flash Attack, Guard Breaking or defeating an enemy, press [Left Mouse] or [F] within a short time to perform a Quick Pursuit on a distant enemy.”
How to reset abilities (respec with P)
The reset key is P, pressed on the Train Abilities screen. After you train your first ability, a tutorial bubble appears that reads “[P] resets all abilities and refunds Remnant Dust.” and the footer shows “P Reset”.
Press P to remove training from every node in the tree. Fluid Form then displays “HOLD [Space] TO TRAIN” again, with a cost of 0, and is immediately available to train once more. The reset dialog confirms that all Remnant Dust and Banyan Heart spent on abilities will be refunded.
Esc does not close that first tutorial bubble. Press P to dismiss it, and after that Esc takes you from Train Abilities back to the bell menu.
Phantom Blade Zero ability costs in Remnant Dust
The game lists 32 abilities. Costs run from 0 for Fluid Form up to 85,000 for Against All Odds. Healing Art and Steady Composure are the cheapest paid options at 5,000 each. These are a selection of abilities with their in-game effect text:
- Healing Art (5,000): “Increases Medicine uses by 1.”
- Steady Composure (5,000): “After Dodging or Parrying an enemy attack, your next [Light Attack] is more likely to interrupt the enemy’s move.”
- Thousand-mile Stride (10,000): “After sprinting for 2 seconds, enter a high-speed sprint.”
- Boundless Capacity Lv. 1 to Lv. 4 (10,000 / 40,000 / 65,000 / 80,000), each level: “Adds 1 accessory slot.”
- Flow Like Water (12,500): “Blocking and dodging do not interrupt the current combo.”
- Blood Remedy (20,000): “Defeating enemies has a chance to restore Medicines.”
- Still Mind (25,000): “Grants brief invincibility during a Power Surge.”
- Ascendance Lv. 1 / Lv. 2 (30,000 / 60,000): “Increases maximum Sha-Chi Essence by 1.”
- Unyielding Will (40,000): “Retain Sha-Chi Essence upon death.”
- Redirect Force (40,000): “[Dodge] Dodging or [Block] Parrying an enemy attack restores Sha-Chi.”
- Cicada’s Escape (65,000): “When Guard Broken, automatically retreat and become immune to attacks.”
- Against All Odds (85,000): “Once per battle, prevents one attack that would reduce HP below 10%.”
