Darkfire Charcoal in Phantom Blade Zero: Upgrading the Dread Axe

Each pile below was checked against its nearest Bell on a PS5 playthrough for Map Master, and the Phantom Blade Zero upgrade material maps and guides cover the other edge materials. Darkfire Charcoal upgrades nothing but Destructive edges, so it never competes with your main weapon’s metal.

Phantom Blade Zero Darkfire Charcoal: Destructive Edges to Level 10

Darkfire Charcoal takes Destructive Phantom Edges up to level 10, the heavy, shield-breaking type. The reported Destructive edges are the Dread Axe from Weeping Creek Valley, War Wagon from Crimson Forest, Bashpole from Wan Jun in the Mandate Encampment, Wolfjaw from Pangzhen, and Tiger Cannon from the Mountain of Imprisonment, and the Dread Axe, War Wagon, and the other Phantom Edges compare them.

The first step is cheap: the Dread Axe is reported to need 1 Darkfire Charcoal and 640 Remnant Dust for level 2, and about eight Charcoal in all to reach level 5. Above level 10, Blazing Darkfire Charcoal for the refined levels is reported to take over, so the two never compete for the same level.

Weeping Creek Valley Darkfire Charcoal in Phantom Blade Zero: The Well, the Furnace, and the Loong Cave

The valley’s Charcoal comes in small piles: three by the well at the crossroads northeast of the Creek Valley Plains Entrance Bell, two on the floor inside a house, and two in the furnace on the fourth floor of the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Base. Another pair waits on an upper ledge through the Loong Cave, beside a ladder you can kick down.

The Peddler sells three more at 1,040 Remnant Dust each, 3,120 Dust for his whole stock. The valley’s free piles get the Dread Axe started, and that Dust does more for your main weapon, so leave his Charcoal on the shelf unless a level is one piece short.

Crimson Forest Darkfire Charcoal in Phantom Blade Zero: The Cliff of Longing Piles

A single forest chest gives you 11 Darkfire Charcoal, the wooden chest you drop down to on the way to the Cliff of Longing Bell, and that chest also gives you the Incense Ash for Summon edges. Eight more are behind two puppets near the same Bell, seven are on an upper balcony past the hole in a wooden wall, and six are in a broken cart in the river.

Quick Hand Zhang sells six more at 1,040 each, but piles this size make them a reserve rather than a need. War Wagon is reported to come from this region too, so the forest’s Charcoal can start a second Destructive edge without spending Dust, and the Phantom Blade Zero Crimson Forest map with all pins traces the route between the piles.

Phantom Blade Zero Darkfire Charcoal After the Forest: Village of Lu and Pangzhen

The Village of Lu’s Charcoal comes in stacks of nine, and Pangzhen has a stack of eight, so both regions push a Destructive edge toward level 10 quickly. The Village of Lu map in Phantom Blade Zero with every pin and the Phantom Blade Zero Pangzhen & Mirage Estate pin map place each stack.

Wolfjaw is the Destructive edge reported in Pangzhen, so the city is a natural point to compare it with the Dread Axe before you start the refined levels. Whichever you keep, the Guardian Idol is reported to add 75% damage to Destructive edges, and the Guardian Idol and other fragment accessories cover how to build it.

Spending Darkfire Charcoal in Phantom Blade Zero: Dread Axe First

Raise the Dread Axe before anything else. Its charges are what break the shield in the Jing Ye, The Outlaw boss fight in Crimson Forest, and they help stagger Zhuo Bi in the Village of Lu, so a few early levels pay off in two of the first big fights.

Moving Charcoal to another edge later isn’t a loss, since a Phantom Edge’s materials are reported to come back with a Phantom Reforge Talisman to move edge upgrades. A Dread Axe raised early can hand its Charcoal to War Wagon or Wolfjaw once you find them.