Deep in the Valley Walkthrough - Gate Key Location & Rewards

What Is Deep in the Valley?

Deep in the Valley is one of the first Mystery quests most players pick up in Phantom Blade Zero, and one of the most consequential for completionists. In game terms it is a two-objective fetch-and-open quest: find a lost key on top of the Steel Tower, then open the outer gate at the tower’s base. In progression terms it is the first ring of the true-ending chain — the gate it opens leads to the lower valley, and that lower valley is where the Crimson Manor route and one of the five Long Pillars are found.

GameSpot’s walkthrough flags why it matters more than its humble setup suggests: this single optional quest opens a huge section of the game’s first region, and that section feeds several other questlines at once.

How to Start the Quest

The quest is hard to miss. After leaving the Outpost and heading north through Weeping Creek Valley, you run into an NPC standing guard in front of a gate. He has lost the key, and the quest log opens with the objective “Search the top of the Steel Tower for the lost key.” Open the Quests tab, select the entry, and press Track so Mind’s Eye (V) can guide you — the marker sits almost straight above the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Summit bell, which is exactly why players wander: the key is roughly 25 metres higher than the highest bell, and one wrong jump drops you back down the tower.

Track the quest early, then keep playing. You cannot finish it yet.

Where the Key Is — and Why You Must Wait

The Sha-Chi Tower Base Camp Gate Key sits on the topmost disc of the Steel Tower, near where you meet the friendly Shadow Warden. The catch, per GameSpot: you cannot reach it until you own a specific Phantom Edge.

That Phantom Edge is the Hunter’s Chain Sickle, dropped by The Hunt at the end of the chapter. Once the boss falls:

1. Do not proceed to the next chapter. Instead, fast travel back to the Valley Sha-Chi Tower Summit bell.
2. Rest, then activate Mind’s Eye — the marker hangs above and behind the summit pavilion’s roof.
3. Beside the bell, find the wooden column with white crossed X scratches and climb it, then climb the second marked wall onto the pavilion’s tiled roof.
4. Take the horizontal iron pipe with wooden planks toward the tower’s top disc — a plank walkway leads up onto it. Do not leap from the roof edge toward the marker; you will fall about 15 metres.
5. On the disc, pick up the glowing key. The item card reads: “A crudely pieced-together key. The original had snapped, and its teeth were hastily fastened onto a short metal shaft.”

Opening the Outer Gate

The second objective — “Open the outer gate at the base of the tower” — is slightly misleading: the gate is not at the tower at all. The marker sits beside the Creek Valley Plains Entrance bell, far southwest of the tower.

1. Fast travel to Creek Valley Plains Entrance.
2. Hold V to reveal the purple diamond roughly 12 metres away, across the cabin’s stone wall.
3. Follow the wall past the stacked crates to the broad wooden doors with an iron padlock — the same gate the NPC guarded at the start (he is gone when you return).
4. Press E on the padlock. The doors swing open and the DEEP IN THE VALLEY / COMPLETE banner fires.

One caution from the community: this key is not the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Key from Pangzhen — two similarly named keys, two different gates.

What the Lower Valley Hides

Opening the gate is the beginning, not the end. GameSpot and games.gg list what the newly accessible lower section contains:

• A Long Pillar (dragon pillar) — leading to a tough optional boss fight tied to the Bloodline Awakening chain.
• Herbs for Yu’er’s Apprentice Healer quest — the plants only grow in this lower section, so healers need the gate open.
• The Sha-Chi Tower furnace area — explore it closely and you will find a lift that leads down toward the Crimson Manor, the hidden dungeon detailed in our Puppet Tongue Key guide.
• Standard upgrade materials and Remnant Dust routes worth farming.

Do Not Miss the Window

Deep in the Valley has no early time limit — KungFuPunk’s quest data confirms the key stays on the tower until you grab it. The real deadline is structural: it is one of the eleven purple-icon quests that must be finished before the Perfect Ending locks in at the end of Mirage Estate. Because the quest physically gates the Crimson Manor route and a Long Pillar, leaving it unfinished cascades into three other unfinished requirements. Our advice: the moment The Hunt falls, detour to the tower, grab the key, open the gate, and clear the lower valley while you are there — see the missable side quests guide for the full cutoff list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you get the key before beating The Hunt? No. The topmost ledge requires the Hunter’s Chain Sickle’s grapple prompt. The Hunt is the intended gate, and the quest is designed around returning to the tower after his defeat.

Where exactly is the gate I open with the key? Beside the Creek Valley Plains Entrance bell in the southwest of Weeping Creek Valley — not at the Sha-Chi Tower itself, despite what the objective text suggests.

Is Deep in the Valley worth doing on a non-completionist run? Yes. The Long Pillar boss and the Crimson Manor lift are both behind this gate, and the manor holds endgame-level rewards including a Crystal Puppet Eye. Even players ignoring the true ending get hours of content from one key.

Sources: gamespot.com (Deep in the Valley quest guide and secret ending guide), allthings.how (Steel Tower key climb and gate location), kungfupunk.com (quest data and missable notes), games.gg (lower valley contents), insider-gaming.com (eleven purple-icon true ending quest list) — launch-week guides, October–November 2026.