Soul Tempering & Weapon Upgrades: Full Guide

Weapons in Phantom Blade Zero do not simply get stronger; they change identity. The Forge raises a base weapon through level brackets, while Soul Tempering at Myst permanently rewrites it into a named form with new behaviour. Because enemies never respawn and Dust is finite, every level you buy is a bet on a weapon you will still be holding three chapters later.

How Weapons, Edges, and Upgrades Fit Together

You carry two primary weapons and two Phantom Edges. Primaries are the 25 base drops; five of them have a Soul-Tempered form, giving 30 “main weapons” in total. There is no colour rarity system — “rarity” in community guides means acquisition class, not an in-game stat tier.

Upgrades run through the Forge at Mandate Outpost in Weeping Creek Valley. Once you have met her, any Bell offers Upgrade Equipment, so you are never far from a workbench. The cap is Lv30, with brackets at 1–10, 10–20, and 20–30, each demanding a different metal and solvent grade.

• Main weapons need class metal, a solvent, and Dust.
• Phantom Edges need a type material and Dust, with no solvent.
• Lv5/10/15/25 are the standard perk milestones; Lv20 and Lv30 upgrade passives.
• Lv10 unlocks a class-wide Execution — Phantom Execution for one-handed, Shadow Execution for dual-wield, Fatal Execution for two-handed.

That Lv10 unlock is the single most efficient early purchase in the game. Getting Sanguine, Sanguine Twin, and Sanguine Reach to 10 gives your whole class the execution, and Revert refunds 100% of what you spent.

The Forge: Costs, Brackets, and Refunds

Costs climb steeply by bracket. A single weapon from 1 to 30 runs roughly 310,000 Dust plus 100+ metal and 50+ solvent, based on the Juggernaut table — class costs vary, so treat that as an estimate rather than a fixed price.

Bracket	Metal (1H/DW/2H)	Solvent	Edge material examples	Dust per level
1–10	Forged / Twinned / Broadplate	Solvent	Exotic Copper, Darkfire Charcoal, Mechanical Gear	~900–5,850
10–20	Polished	Concentrated	Otherworldly Copper, Blazing Charcoal, Precision Gear	~5,445–11,700
20–30	Flawless	Universal	Forged Otherworldly Copper, Searing Charcoal, Ying Gear	~12,870–26,910

For scale: 1→10 costs about 31,590 Dust with 78 metal and 26 solvent. That is the bracket where most of your early budget should live. Spreading levels across ten weapons is the fastest way to end up with none of them functional.

Soul Tempering: Permanent Transformation

Myst, in the Order’s underground tavern in Pangzhen, unlocks Soul Temper around Chapter 4. After that, any Bell → Upgrade Equipment → Soul Temper opens the purple screen. The cost is 5,000 Dust plus one weapon-specific material, and the result is permanent — no revert, no Dust refund, no material returned.

There are 47 temper materials covering 24 weapons and 23 edges. Some are single pickups, some are multi-part assemblies, and some are quest rewards. Five weapons transform outright: Sanguine becomes Infernal Rogue, Sanguine Reach becomes Blazing Edge, Sanguine Twin becomes Shadowless Edge, the Fanatic’s Broken Blade becomes the Drunken Sword, and the Wild Oriole Sword becomes the Tianmiao Wild Oriole Sword. Others gain a named effect instead of a new name.

Weapon	Material	Tempered effect	Where
Jagged Steel	Iron Butcher Mask	Open Wounds — bleed through block	Iron Butcher, Mountain of Imprisonment
White Serpent	Serpent’s Memory	Hundred-Knot Serpents — recall summons serpents	Four serpent parts
Fiend Saws	Heel Reinforcement Part	Endless Fiend Form — 3s unblockable after eruption	Spar Jade Dancer, Crimson Forest tower
Scarlet Wraithblade	Embroidered Shoes	Lingering Grudge — lilies build Red Flower; cheaper Sha-Chi/healing	Grief-Stricken Jin, Meigu Lake
Outlaw Warblade	Six Paths Warrant	Ruthless Outlaw — up to +25% damage while holding Recoverable HP	Near Meigu Songhouse Dock
Parting Hooks	Song of Parting	Foretelling Strike — blue parry auto-Counters	Tiger Cannon cellar, Cliff of Longing
The Lady’s Fan	The Lady’s Crown	Dark Sigil Burst — enhanced Sigil Burst; sustained effects 2x	Meng Hua, Mount Soulrend

Several temper materials double as tool gates. Tiger Cannon opens four caches, Bashpole breaks floors, Flaming Mane burns brambles, Illusory Pipa dispels fog, Flying Guillotine works mechanisms, and four Acolyte Masks open the Meigu mirror. If a route looks blocked, the answer is often an edge you have not tempered yet.

Upgrade Priority: What to Level First

The order below assumes you are not farming, because you cannot. Enemies stay dead after rest or death, with only a few scripted obstacle exceptions, so Dust comes from exploration and one-time caches.

1. Take your starting class to Lv10 for the class-wide Execution. Sanguine, Sanguine Twin, or Sanguine Reach, depending on your opening pick.
2. Commit one main weapon to 25, then 30 if it is your identity weapon. Lv25 is where most weapons get their defining perk.
3. Bring a second weapon to 10 or 15 as a swap partner. Weapon swap quick-attacks refill Sha-Chi, so a functional second weapon is real damage, not a backup.
4. Level edges to 10/15 for utility, not 30 for damage. Bastion, Feather Bow, Hunter’s Chain Sickle, and Inanis’ Radiant Fan earn their slots through function.
5. Soul Temper only when certain. It is the most expensive irreversible decision in the build.

Best long-term investments, per the provisional tiering: Jagged Steel, White Serpent & Crimson Viper, Fiend Saws, Soft Snake Sword, Parting Hooks, and Freezing Chaos. The Wooden Sanguine is a cheap parry trainer and worth its low cost early.

Base Weapons vs Soul-Tempered Forms

The distinction matters because a tempered form is not a stat bump — it is a different weapon sharing a name. The Fanatic’s Broken Blade loses its damage falloff when it becomes the Drunken Sword. Sanguine Twin’s Shadowless Edge gains Phantom Double and unpredictable attacks. Blazing Edge inherits Blade Force from Sanguine Reach and adds fire and shield-break.

Base	Tempered form	What actually changes
Sanguine	Infernal Rogue	Full page unpublished; inherits Sweeping Blade
Sanguine Reach	Blazing Edge	Adds fire/shield-break, keeps Blade Force
Sanguine Twin	Shadowless Edge	Phantom Double, unpredictable attacks, Shadow Execution Lv2/3
Fanatic’s Broken Blade	Fanatic’s Drunken Sword	No falloff, Drunk 20s, Lv30 extends Tipsy
Wild Oriole Sword	Tianmiao Wild Oriole	Mu Tianmiao joins combos, stronger waves, Potent Mark Lv2

Note the gap: Infernal Rogue has no standalone page, so its moveset, Surge inheritance, and upgrade table are unconfirmed. Do not temper Sanguine expecting a documented payoff.

Practical Loadouts by Stage

Early game, Wooden Sanguine teaches parry timing while Jagged Steel delivers the first real damage spike through bleed. Sanguine Twin is the fast dual option and Sanguine Reach handles crowds.

Mid game, the boss kits come online: Scarlet Wraithblade for area control, White Serpent & Crimson Viper for combo and ranged execution, Soft Snake for free guard and sidesteps, Parting Hooks for counter stance, and Baishan Stormswords for Lightning.

Late game favours capstone weapons — Fiend Saws, Freezing Chaos, The Lady’s Fan, Aureate, Whiteshadow, and Bonesaw. These are expensive and want Lv25+ before they justify the slot.

For a bleed and Guard Break boss build, pair Jagged Steel with Scarlet Wraithblade, run Hunter’s Chain Sickle and Dread Axe as edges, and loop bleed into lilies into a Chain Sickle pull and Dread Axe stagger, spending Power Surge on the Guard Break. For a defensive route, Wooden Sanguine plus Soft Snake or Parting Hooks with Bastion and Feather Bow lets you bait blue flashes, parry for Essence, and punish. Red flashes still require a dodge.

If you are still settling your fundamentals, the combat system explained covers Sha-Chi and deflect timing, and the best weapons tier list tracks how these rankings shift. For the full drop list, see all weapons locations.

Dust Economy and Respec Rules

Remnant Dust is the only upgrade currency — no separate gold. The sinks are steep and the sources are finite.

Sink	Typical cost
Weapon 1→10	~31,590 Dust + 78 metal + 26 solvent
Weapon 1→30	~310,000 Dust + 100+ metal + 50+ solvent
Soul Temper	5,000 Dust + 1 unique material
Medicine Gourd 1→7	27,000 Dust + 7 Healer’s Memories
Abilities / polish	5,000–45,000 each

Crimson Forest is the best documented sweep at roughly 11,500 Dust from ten pickups plus kills in about fifteen minutes. Weeping Creek Valley yields around 3,452 Dust from thirteen pickups. The Village of Lu Smuggler’s Tunnel holds a 2,048 single pickup, the highest documented. Equip Treasure Basin for +10% Dust drops before any sweep.

What refunds and what does not:

• Weapon levels — 100% refundable via Revert.
• Abilities — reset at any Bell, Dust refunded.
• Soul Temper — permanent, no refund.
• Accessory polish — permanent.
• Medicine upgrades — permanent.
• Death — costs nothing; you respawn at the last Bell.

Buy Keen Edge, Fortified Body, and Boundless Capacity before luxury weapon levels. Save 5,000 Dust only once the temper material is actually in your inventory.

Sources & confidence

Primary sources are the Fextralife wiki pages for Combat, Weapons, Phantom Edges, Upgrades, Builds, Accessories, Abilities, and Stats, cross-checked against allthings, GameSpot, PC Gamer, GameRant, MP1st, and pbz.gg. The biggest uncertainty is the economy: the ~310,000 Dust figure for a 1→30 weapon is derived from the Juggernaut table and varies by class, and the 47 Soul Temper materials do not cleanly reconcile with the 54+ items some databases list. Tier placements are provisional — S-GAME has not published official damage or frame data, and Infernal Rogue’s full kit remains undocumented.