Kui Yanyan Boss Guide: Missing Lift Crank Location

Who Is Kui Yanyan, the Deranged?

Kui Yanyan is one of Phantom Blade Zero’s quiet gut-punches: a boss fight that is mechanically simple but narratively brutal. She is a Maskwalker-class enemy fought on the mountain paths of the Mountain of Imprisonment during the Treason and Confinement chapter, at enemy level 22 on a first playthrough, with archive data listing roughly 120,160 HP on Wayfarer.

Her in-game dossier tells the tragedy outright. Her beloved son became a Maskwalker, and the villagers butchered him before her eyes. In her grief she tore the Transcension device from his corpse and implanted it in her own body, sacrificing the blood of an entire village to his memory. Now she wanders the mountain in tattered purple robes and a twisted bronze mask, clinging to the delusion that some “miraculous medicine” can bring her son back. When the Mandate and Huangxing’s followers clashed over the mountain passage, she charged in — convinced the fighters had come to kill her child again and that whatever they were dying over must be the cure.

A corpse on the mountain carries Fragments of the Mandate, which records that Huangxing’s personal guards seized the lift switch from the shrine path, only for the madwoman to charge into the chaos — the crank “fell into the madwoman’s hands.” The lift puzzle you have been staring at since Commander’s Platform is solved right here.

For the region around her, see our Mountain of Imprisonment walkthrough.

Where to Find Kui Yanyan

She blocks the main route through the Mountain of Imprisonment, shortly before the Shrine Outer Gate:

1. Clear Cavern Passage and the Commander’s Platform area.
2. Push toward the Shrine Outer Gate bell — she ambushes you on the mountain path about 48 meters from it.
3. Rest at the bell first. The fight is short, but a respawn point next door saves a walk back.

If you have not unlocked the Mountain of Imprisonment yet, it sits past Meigu Lake behind a mist barrier that requires the repaired Illusory Pipa — the full hunt is covered in our Six Paths Warrant walkthrough.

Kui Yanyan’s Attack Patterns

The dossier’s phrase “no discernible technique” is the honest summary. She is a frenzy fighter, and that is exactly what makes her dangerous on a first visit.

• Wild club strings — She swings the heavy spiked club in long, erratic chains with irregular timing. Do not try to rhythm-parry the whole string; block or space the first swings, then interrupt with your own attacks.
• Spinning smash — She whirls on the spot to sweep the club around herself. Back out of range rather than parrying; the hitbox lingers.
• Blue- and red-flash enders — She can hook either a Brutal Move (blue flash, parry it) or a Killer Move (red flash, dodge into a Ghoststep) onto the end of her normal strings. Watch the flash, not her arm.
• Dagger throws — If you retreat, she hurls daggers. These are parryable, and parrying them builds your Sha-Chi for free.
• Snap phase — Partway through, she loses what little composure she has and attacks everything around her in a blind rage. This is your signal to disengage entirely: run out, let her whiff air, and re-engage when she fixates on Soul again — she comes back even more aggressive, but her strings get sloppier and easier to interrupt.
• Execution window — When she is close to death, a finisher prompt becomes available; use it to end the fight cinematically.

How to Beat Kui Yanyan: Strategy

The counter-intuitive key is aggression. Panic tells you to back off from the screaming woman with the spiked club, but distance is when she throws daggers and resets her strings. Instead, stay glued to her mid-range, block the first one or two club swings, and stuff her with quick light attacks before her strings reach the flash enders.

Build around safe interrupts: fast main weapons with short recovery let you punish between her swings without eating a trade. If your Sha-Chi runs low from blocking, swap weapons to refill the meter rather than giving up ground. When she snaps into her blind rage, do not greed a single hit — spacing out that phase cleanly is what separates a two-attempt kill from a five-attempt one. On Pathbreaker, Hellwalker, and 66 Days her attack value climbs sharply (archive data lists roughly 350 versus 245 on Wayfarer), so parries and Ghoststeps matter far more than guard.

Rewards: The Missing Lift Crank

Defeating Kui Yanyan gives you:

• 84,000 Remnant Dust
• Missing Lift Crank — the key item for the lift
• Sha-Chi Amber Shard (one source lists this as a Sha-Chi Amber Fragment; the reward is one Sha-Chi amber piece either way)

The crank slots into the metal switch box beside the wooden lift house on the cliffside plank path starting at Liu Yi’s cage. Fit it in, call the lift house down, stand on the metal plate, and ride roughly 49 meters up. At the top you push toward the shrine — and the last cage lowered along this route holds Moji’s Bloodstained Sword, the item you hand to Liu Yi to complete the Hero’s Lament side quest. If you are chasing the true ending route, keep following the mountain: Iron Butcher drops his mask for Jagged Steel tempering further in, and the summit leads toward the Herald’s Illusion finale covered in our quest guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Kui Yanyan located in Phantom Blade Zero? On the mountain paths of the Mountain of Imprisonment, about 48 meters from the Shrine Outer Gate bell, during the Treason and Confinement chapter. She is a story-path fight you cannot miss.

What does Kui Yanyan drop and what is the Missing Lift Crank for? She drops 84,000 Remnant Dust, a Sha-Chi Amber Shard, and the Missing Lift Crank. The crank powers the lift on the shrine path; riding it up leads to the last cage and Moji’s Bloodstained Sword for the Hero’s Lament quest chain.

How do you beat the Kui Yanyan boss if she has no patterns? Stay close instead of retreating, interrupt her wild club strings with quick attacks, and parry the daggers she throws when you do create distance. Back off only during her blind-rage snap phase, then re-engage.

Is Kui Yanyan’s son the Maskwalker Jagged Steel? No — her son is never named in-game. He was killed by villagers after becoming a Maskwalker, which is what broke her; the Maskwalker Jagged Steel is a separate boss fought earlier in Weeping Creek Valley.

Sources

• https://pbz.gg/bosses/kui-yanyan/
• https://pbz.gg/items/missing-lift-crank/
• https://wikily.gg/phantom-blade-zero/bosses/kui-yanyan-the-deranged
• https://kungfupunk.com/bosses/kui-yanyan
• https://www.pcgamesn.com/phantom-blade-zero/bosses
• https://allthings.how/phantom-blade-zero-mountain-lift/
• https://phantombladezerobuilds.com/mountain-of-imprisonment/