Commander Cleave
- Mountain of Imprisonment
- Late
- Story
- 1 phase
- Difficulty 4/5
Commander Cleave is a story encounter in Mountain of Imprisonment, fought during the late stretch of Phantom Blade Zero. It drops no weapon, so the reward is the route it opens rather than the loot.
At a glance
| Region | Mountain of Imprisonment |
|---|---|
| Progression | Late |
| Type | Story |
| Phases | 1 |
| Drops | No weapon or Phantom Edge |
| Difficulty | 4 / 5 |
What this fight tests
Delayed timing. His swings are deliberately erratic, which breaks the rhythmic parry habit the rest of the game trains.
How to beat Commander Cleave
- Count the delay instead of feeling it. The curved blade holds at the top of the arc longer than any boss before him.
- Do not parry on prediction. He is the one boss where reacting late beats reacting early.
- Expect a second swing out of the same stance. The delay exists to make you spend the parry on the feint.
The loop underneath all of it is the same one every boss uses: parry the blue flash, Ghoststep the red one, drain Sha-Chi, then punish the stagger with Power Surge. Phase transitions are invulnerable — heal and reposition instead of swinging into them. And dying in a later phase restarts you at that phase, not at the beginning, so you can throw attempts at the hard half.
The mistake most players make
Trusting muscle memory. This fight is specifically designed to punish players who have been parrying on rhythm.
Where Commander Cleave sits in the roster
There are at least 50 bosses across six regions, many of them optional. This one is part of the Mountain of Imprisonment block.
- Huangxing
- Wan-Jun the Great Hammer — drops Bashpole
- Red Wraith
- Seven Judgments
- Iron Butcher