Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign Boss #2 of 74 · Prologue

How to beat Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign

Our strategy, built from the fight's numbers, followed by the game's own codex entry.

• Parry the blue flashes: 1 of Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign's 16 attacks flash blue before they land, and a timed parry stops them.
• Dodge the red flashes: 2 attacks flash red. They can't be parried, so dodge through them instead of blocking.
• The tightest tell is Aerial Flip Critical Art: only 0.26s from the flash to the hit, so react to the flash, not the swing.
• Execution Grab Critical Art is a grab: dodge it, because blocking and parrying don't stop a grab.
• Bring Lightning: it deals 16% more damage to Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign.
• Poison builds up 16% faster on Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign.
• Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign's Sha-Chi bar is 2,400: perfect parries and Guard Break attacks drain it, and an empty bar opens the boss to a finisher.

Every attack Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign can use, read from its ability data. The cards show the in-game animation with its timing: wind-up, the red or blue flash, the hit window and recovery.

Attacks

16

Red flash (dodge)

2

Blue flash (parry)

1

Grabs

5

Tightest tell

0.26s

All 16 attacks

Attack names are ours: the game doesn't name boss attacks. Times are seconds from the start of the attack; the reaction time runs from the flash to the first hit after it.

Parry Trainer

Test your timing on Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign's real attacks: parry the blue flashes, dodge the red ones.

Elemental and status resistances from the boss's own config. Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign is weak to Lightning, Poison.

Base attributes from the boss's config, and the same values at the level the fight runs at.

The game files do not record an area level for this fight, so only the base values are shown.

Other forms of this fight

The same character appears as these boss entries (phases, rematches or story versions).

Boss	Base HP	Sha-Chi
Zuo Shang	2,900	1,400
Zuo Shang, the True Lóng	13,000	3,000

Granted when the fight ends, read from the fight's reward script.

• 3 bonus art pieces unlock in the gallery

Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign lore

The codex entry the game unlocks for Zuo Shang, the Order's Shadow Sovereign.

Once Soul's closest friend. Now his sworn enemy.

With Aureate in hand, Zuo Shang gathers Golden Sword Energy along the blade, its radiance flowing like silk. His sword intent stretches endlessly, his strikes flowing one after another. The youth he once was has long since faded away. His movements have grown ever more unfathomable, and his mastery of the sword and Sha-Chi has reached a transcendent realm. With every swing of his blade, he uses Sha-Chi to command countless weapons, unleashing them in relentless assaults or all at once, leaving his enemies no chance to defend.

In their battle at the training grounds, Soul and Zuo Shang gave everything they had, each exchange matching the other blow for blow. In the end, at the very moment their blades crossed, each pierced the other's heart.

What the people of the Order know is this: Soul slew the former Shadow Sovereign, their adoptive father. Following the Shadow Sovereign's final wishes, Zuo Shang inherited the position of leader of the Order, becoming the new Shadow Sovereign. To avenge his adoptive father's death and give both him and the Order the answer they deserved, Zuo Shang had no choice but to cast aside their past friendship. He sent countless masters and Shadow Wardens after Soul, swearing to end his life.

But... is that truly the whole truth?

In-game codex

Boss order

Boss #2 of 74: the previous fight is Zuo Shang, the next one The Hunt, Hunter of the Order.

Data: Phantom Blade Zero 26367565 (CL-302256, UE 5.7.4). How we source this