Zhuo Bi boss guide: break the shield, not your combo

At a glance

Getting there

After your second meeting with Old Man Gen in Village of Lu, cross the stone bridge up the road. Zhuo Bi wanders that stretch — you run into him rather than walk into an arena, which is why the fight has no walls to hide behind.

The one thing that matters

Every other boss so far rewarded timing. Zhuo Bi rewards bar damage.

He is slow, armoured, and makes no attempt to dodge — his whole plan is to outlast you behind a beast-faced shield. Hitting the shield does not stagger him, and a long combo into it wastes the Sha-Chi you need for the break.

So the fight has exactly one shape: fill the blue bar, execute, reset. Everything below serves that.

How to break him

Dread Axe — the reliable route

Charged hits from the Dread Axe Phantom Edge cut his blue stagger bar faster than anything else you own. Two clean charges put him down, and the stagger window is long enough for a full string.

Iron Gauntlets — the faster route

The Iron Gauntlets are the other answer, and the cheaper one: they spend a single Sha-Chi Essence to chain three charged hits, with a wind-up short enough to use mid-fight. That is a huge chunk of bar in one commitment.

What he does

The shield smash

When he starts mashing the shield into the ground, the first hits are blockable and the last hit is parryable. Block through, then perfect parry the finisher.

The slide

When the screen greys out, he is about to slide at you behind the shield. Getting hit drains your Sha-Chi — which is exactly the resource your break depends on. Dodge it, or interrupt the whole sequence with a weapon skill if you have one charged.

The backward leap

He jumps back and slams the shield down, sending a line of jagged rocks along the ground, then follows with a second attack as he lifts the shield. Dodge both — the rocks and the follow-up are separate hits, and eating the first usually means eating the second too.

He often chains straight back into the shield smash after this. Have the block ready rather than chasing him.

Gear

Both break options cost resources, so the real skill is not spending them on chip damage. Hold the gauge, break on purpose.

Rewards

Bastion — a shield weapon, and the thing that makes several later traversal and defence checks easier.

Notes

• The shield is the boss. Bar damage first, damage second.
• Do not combo into the shield. It costs Sha-Chi and returns nothing.
• Screen greying = slide. Dodge or interrupt, never block.
• Only the last smash is parryable. Blocking the whole string is fine.
• The backward leap is two hits. Dodge the rocks and the follow-up separately.

Related

• Heartless Remnants — the chapter this fight sits in
• Mu Xiaokui — the chapter boss
• All bosses