Hua, Deadly Betrothed is an optional boss fight found early on, near the tail end of the first area in Phantom Blade Zero, and, shock surprise, she is largly considered a test of your ability to master. A test you are likely to fail when you first reach her, though you might not. You might be a better player than me. Defeating her earns the player some nice goodies, but first you have to survive an obnoxious fight to do so.
For starters, I did not beat the boss right away; as mentioned, I progressed past earning the Hunter’s Chain Sickle, which you will earn from the next mainline boss, and I fought the boss with a level 6 Jagged Steel. You shouldn’t get hung up on the gear, honestly, as much of the fight comes down to rhythm more than anything. The one thing that should be non-negotiable, however, is an additional healing gourd usage, which is the first unlock in the bottom row of your training options.
Where to Find Hua
Hua, Deadly Betrothed, is part of the Flesh Lily side quest, which the protagonist Soul should take on as he passes through the Outpost in the first area. You will need to progress all the way to the end of this region, to the Valley Sha-Chi Tower 1st Floor bell. The story wants you to climb the tower, but instead head to the back of this area to find a hole in the ground and a bridge you can slide down.
Head down this path to find yourself in a new region with a few enemies. You can kill them if you want, though if you take damage, that might make at least your first challenge harder. That said, the enemies will not respawn, so there is no real reason not to, since this boss is guaranteed to take more than a few tries. Straight ahead of where you arrive, on the left, is a path up to Hua and the battlefield you will fight her on, so head up that way when ready.
Fighting Hua, Deadly Betrothed
Hua is an obnoxious challenge mainly because of how much she overloads the battlefield, and how much hidden danger there is to all of this. It starts basic enough; she has a large blade she drags around that she will swing at you in combos. You want to try getting the rhythm to blocking this because breaking her Posture meter is most of combating her. This is actually manageable because if you manage to at least get most of the block timing correct, one combo can drain about half of this.
Where all of this becomes more complicated is in a few places. Her most basic annoyance is that she will summon flowers to circle you and her. You cannot block these, so if you let her drag you into a defensive combo, you might find yourself locked in place as these spin, hitting you for serious damage if it piles up. Worse yet, eventually these flowers move into the center, which is about when you need to dodge away from them. The thing is, get as much distance as you can, as they then explode, and this IS one of the most powerful attacks she has. Worse yet, this can stun you for a second, allowing her to combo you.
While contending with that, there are key moments in any combo you need to watch out for. Occasionally she will go for a heavy attack, which is pretty easy to tell. These are not red, so you can parry or block them, but the timing is hard, and they can drain your entire posture, leaving you open to being comboed if you don’t react fast enough. There will also be blue triggers near the end of most long combos, with heavy attacks actually serving to break these combo flows for her to some degree. It is common for her to close distance with a jump and slam sword attack.
During ALL of this, flowers. They spawn on the ground from a lot of her attacks. The heavy slam will typically shoot out an arrow-like shape from them, and most combos will spawn a ring around you. Occasionally, for like no reason, flower patches will appear all around as well. Again, just like the floating flowers, these will explode, deal a shocking amount of damage, and can stun you for her. The good news: dodging seems fairly immune to them exploding, so if you are mid-dodge as they do so, even if you are in range, you will be good.
Finally, there are two more things to worry about. The first are white flowers she shoots out the come straight at you. These are projectiles, so you can hold block. THERE IS A REASON NOT TO DO THAT, THOUGH! That is that her red, dodgable attack takes the form of a grab she will trigger as she teleports to you, and you get a very short window to respond. Hua has a habit of combining it with these flowers, so you cannot even see it coming. These also can eat at your health.
Best Practices
I will admit I was inconsistent with both windows for parrying and dodging. The blue comes at the end of a legthy string, typically, and has an extremely tricky window that requires you to hold for a second after blue flashes before going for that parry. The red can be even harder, with the line between you countering and getting grabbed razer thing, even by other enemy standards. Good news for you: I beat this boss and was atrocious at this, so that bodes well for your chances.
The first thing to note is you NEED to keep moving. The outline above of all her moves does not do justice to just how often flower patches spawn while you are in a ring of flowers, with flowers floating around you and flowers being shot at you. Lots of flowers is the takeaway. In her case. I find it best to dodge back, as her moves extend far, sometimes beyond even your dodge. The thing is, though, you can double up your block while you dodge, which is why this is better. You keep some control of the next attack against you.
Heavy attacks are a dealer’s choice of sorts. I was unable to get key timings down, so I lost a lot of posture, but found the posture I was draining with each block worth the risk. Typically, I found it better to dodge as soon as I could, rather than risk trying to block the next attack. Reset and force a combo to drain posture. You can instead dodge this, not get the posture hit, but maybe get a free hit or two and be fresh for her next attacks. There is no wrong way, but you need to be ready to act quickly.
When she shoots those flowers at you, the big white projectiles, do not block. Always dodge; this prompts her ability to pop up and grab you. I am not joking when I say you might not be able to see her going for it at all. I would say it isn’t even worth the risk of trying to guess the timing. Just dodge; stomach isn’t getting a powerful counter on that. There are other opportunities in the fight where she will use it, so go for the counter then.
The last important note I can give involves your power surge. If you haven’t figured it out by now, never use it after you break an enemy. Breaking posture frees you up for hits, but everything you do breaks posture in some way. The ONE place where you actually have the advantage is that your weapon power surge will cancel anything she was planning, unless she is mid-combo or attack, and drag her. You get decent damage, and it breaks a decent amount of the posture gauge. After you break her, go in for your combo; if you can lead in with the button-prompted attack, do that, then when her gauge has refilled, trigger the power surge for additional damage and some posture depletion right from the go on this next engagement.
What do you earn?
Even with this advice, prepare for a frustratingly dragged-out fight. The best thing I can say is she has no second phase. So, now you finally pulled it off, what does one get for their troubles? The first thing you unlock will be the Scarlet Wraithblade, that thing that has been clobbering you. It begins at 240 damage and 117 guard break. You will also earn the Scarlet Wraithblade trophy/achievement that goes toward your 100% completion.
Where you first encounter Hua, you will see a flower sticking up from the ground. These are the Twin Flesh Lilies, which are part of the Flesh Lily quest. On either side of the battlefield, you can also find two notes concerning Hua. All of these were there before, but since the fight starts as soon as you approach, you can’t interact with them. And there, you have done it; you tasted victory. While the road will get harder, this should show you can meet what comes next.
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