Gaming

Triple Threat in Phantom Blade Zero: What the Three-faced Puppet Tale Asks You to Do

Where Triple Threat sits in your quest log, which boss it concerns, and the six objective lines it carries.

Where Triple Threat sits in your quest log, which boss it concerns, and the six objective lines it carries.

Soul in the courtyard of the Rift, with stairs and red lanterns ahead, in Phantom Blade Zero

Triple Threat sits in your Tales list in Phantom Blade Zero before the game lets you follow it. Selecting it in Weeping Creek Valley gives you a short message and no map marker. That is expected behavior, not a bug.

Quick answer: Triple Threat is a Tale about the Aberrant Three-faced Puppet in the Rift by The Lady’s Rift bell. Tracking stays off in Weeping Creek Valley, and its objectives point on to the Crimson Forest’s Mirrorwood and the Mirage Estate.


Where to find Triple Threat and its tracking message

Tales are Phantom Blade Zero’s side quests, and they have their own list in the quest menu.

Open the menu and go to the QUESTS tab.
Switch to the Tales list. At this stage it shows FESTERING SECRET, FOUR FIERCE AXES, TRIPLE THREAT and FLESH LILY.
Dark ink-style quest menu listing Tales with Triple Threat highlighted beside a misty map of Weeping Creek Valley.
The Quests menu on the Tales tab with Triple Threat selected, described as “Three turbulent souls, one shared prison”, over a map of Weeping Creek Valley.
Choose TRIPLE THREAT. The subtitle shown is “Three turbulent souls, one shared prison”.

The Weeping Creek Valley entry displays “Quest tracking is not available yet. Explore for now.”, but no marker appears on the map. The tale’s objectives point beyond the valley, to the Mirrorwood Entrance in the Crimson Forest and to the Mirage Estate.


The Aberrant Three-faced Puppet and the Three-Headed Doll

This tale features the Aberrant Three-faced Puppet, an optional boss inside the Rift. Luminous stone statues beside The Lady’s Rift bell mark the Rift’s location in Weeping Creek Valley. Press E to interact.

Soul at the glowing statue pile of the Rift with the E prompt beside The Lady's Rift bell in Phantom Blade Zero

Before entry, a warning appears: “Powerful Sha-Chi pours from the Rift. Challenging it recklessly may be unwise. Enter?”

The warning Powerful Sha-Chi pours from the Rift before entering the Aberrant Three-faced Puppet fight in Phantom Blade Zero

The health bar carries the name ABERRANT THREE-FACED PUPPET. On PATHBREAKER, the default difficulty, her HP is 88,830. Her masks are Steel Mask, Frost Mask and Chaos Mask.

Soul facing the Aberrant Three-faced Puppet in the Rift courtyard with its boss bar on screen in Phantom Blade Zero

According to the codex, the Steel Mask takes the lead in this battle, while the power held by the other two faces remains unknown. Its closing line makes clear that her story continues beyond the Rift.

“Learn this puppet’s weaknesses, and a future encounter may end in her complete defeat.”

Beating her gives you the story item THREE-HEADED DOLL. Its card reads: “A strange cloth doll small enough to rest in one palm, with three little heads lined up atop its rounded body. The leftmost sleeps with its eyes closed; the right draws in on itself, uneasy and timid. The middle alone holds its chin slightly raised, its gaze piercing.”

Items menu showing a cloth doll with three small heads and a text description on the right.
The Three-Headed Doll is shown as a Story Item in the Items menu, with its description of three small heads on a cloth body.

Triple Threat objectives in the quest log

Triple Threat uses these six objective lines:

  • “Learn the Three-Faced Puppet’s identity to strike it down”
  • “Learn more about the Three-Faced Puppet”
  • “Make your way to the Mirrorwood Entrance”
  • “Search the Mirage Estate for the puppet’s remaining Memory Flowers”
  • “Equip the Soul Tempered Sanguine Reach to face the Twisted Puppet”
  • “Venture deeper into Mirrorwood”

What the objectives point to: Mirrorwood, Mirage Estate and the Blazing Edge

Name in the objectiveWhat it isRegion
Mirrorwood EntranceBellCrimson Forest
Memory FlowersPuppet’s Memory Flower itemMirage Estate
Soul Tempered Sanguine ReachBLAZING EDGESanguine Reach at the Outpost, Weeping Creek Valley
Twisted PuppetBoss YUCONG, NO. 34 TWISTED PUPPETCrimson Forest

Mirrorwood and the Mirage Estate

The Crimson Forest contains three Mirrorwood bells: Mirrorwood Entrance, Mirrorwood Depths and Mirrorwood Lóng Pillar. The Mirage Estate is a separate region, associated with MEMORY FLOWER OF THE ABERRANT THREE-FACED PUPPET. Its text: “‘Three souls as one.’ What would that truly look like? Lost in thought, she failed to notice the doll in her hands taking on a different shape. Yet adding two more heads made it seem just right.”

Soul Tempering the Sanguine Reach into the Blazing Edge

The objective asks you to equip the Soul Tempered Sanguine Reach, which is the BLAZING EDGE. Its lore line reads “Soul Tempered from Sanguine Reach, it can convert Sha-Chi into raging flames.” The base Sanguine Reach lies at the Outpost in Weeping Creek Valley.

Sanguine Reach
Sanguine Reach

To temper the weapon, you need the FLAMING GRIP, located in Meigu Lake. Its effect says “Used to Soul Temper the Sanguine Reach.” Restore the Grip using fragments: both THE QUENCHED FLAMING GRIP and SCORCHING FLAMES state “Collect every fragment to restore the Flaming Grip, used to Soul Temper the Sanguine Reach.”

The Twisted Puppet, Yucong

In the Crimson Forest, the Twisted Puppet is YUCONG, NO. 34 TWISTED PUPPET, a boss. Her codex says ice and snow have sealed the Mirrorwood. Bai Chilian’s former home, the tree, is deserted, while the Chaos Puppet from the Rift Estate has taken up residence there. One mind in the puppet fears heat and craves cold; across her three faces, the Chaos Blade shifts among frosted, Chaos Flame and steel-like forms.

That blade is the weapon FREEZING CHAOS (see the weapons list), with Threadbound Great Tree in the Crimson Forest as its nearest bell. Its lore line reads “An enigmatic blade once wielded by Twisted Puppet No. 34, Yucong.” and its description reads “Honed to sever all things, the blade rises with bone-chilling frost and falls with black flame that scorches the heavens.” It switches between Steel, Frost and Chaos forms through the art Threefold Shift, the same three faces you met as masks back in the Rift.