Phantom Blade Zero patch nerfs boss Hua and shortens shader startup times

S-GAME has released a new patch for Phantom Blade Zero, which launched on October 28. The patch notes for version 1.0302256, posted on Steam on November 4, make the boss Hua, Deadly Betrothed use her grab attacks less often on the Wayfarer and Pathbreaker difficulties and rework shader compilation to significantly reduce startup times.

The game remains one of the most played on Steam. On November 3 it ranked fourth on the most played chart with a daily peak of 790,954 players, after not being in the top 100 a week earlier. On November 4 at 17:41 UTC, 247,833 people were playing, with a peak of 687,823 that day.

What the patch changes

GamePro calls this the first update since the day-one patch and notes that the Hua fight stays untouched on the two higher difficulties. Push Square describes Hua as an optional boss in the first main region, Weeping Creek Valley, and confirms she behaves as before on Hellwalker and the 66 Days modes. Push Square's writer thinks she is designed as an encounter "you return to later on in the campaign". S-GAME also adjusted the combat behavior of certain other bosses and enemies, though, as GamePro points out, without getting more specific.

On the technical side, ray tracing shaders are no longer compiled by default at startup. Anyone who previously had ray tracing disabled has to recompile shaders once on the first launch after the patch, which S-GAME says should take only a short time; players with ray tracing enabled can start right away. The patch also reduces stuttering with Bluetooth controllers, makes NVIDIA Reflex work on Auto with V-Sync, fixes hair rendering on certain AMD graphics cards and addresses bugs that could block progression or leave the character stuck. New audio options for hit sound intensity and remappable Interact / Talk controls round it out. According to Push Square, the update is out on PS5, where it is listed as update 1.3, and on PC.

Launch numbers and PC issues

SteamDB recorded a peak of 833,921 concurrent players on November 1, and PCGamesN reports the game has kept around 400k players even at quiet times of day. According to Push Square, S-GAME said it sold over 4 million copies in 72 hours; Push Square itself puts the critic average at 87 on PS5. On Steam, 93 percent of 121,164 user reviews are positive, for a Very Positive rating.

The PC launch was not smooth. Notebookcheck reported a 5GB day-one patch that, according to Liang, can "significantly improve ray-tracing and path-tracing performance", and S-GAME advised players to roll back their Nvidia driver. PC Gamer notes the team did not explain how the older drivers are better. In the Steam forum, players report stutters, with one saying the second location, the Crimson Forest, stutters much more frequently; some say a newer Nvidia hotfix driver helped them.

As a Wuxia action RPG in which you play Soul, a warrior with sixty-six days left to live, the game shares the Souls-like, Hack and Slash and Dark Fantasy tags with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - GOTY Edition. Sifu shares its Martial Arts tag, and Black Myth: Wukong its Action RPG and Dark Fantasy tags.

Phantom Blade Zero costs $59.99 on Steam with no discount. Players who had ray tracing turned off should expect a one-time shader recompile after updating, and S-GAME warns that some third-party mods are incompatible with the patch and should be removed if problems appear.