Ink Cut Phantom Edge Guide: How to Get & Radiant Wheel Skills

Overview

The Ink Cut is the Martial Phantom Edge hidden inside one of Phantom Blade Zero’s saddest Tales: Hero’s Lament, the Mountain of Imprisonment story of Liu Yi, a caged disciple still searching for his dead master Moji’s sword. Mechanically it is the game’s delayed-damage specialist — a three-hit mid-range string where cutting the combo short is the whole point, because ending after hit two leaves a spinning Radiant Wheel that grinds enemies down and then explodes.

How to Get It: The Hero’s Lament Chain

The Ink Cut is the reward of the Hero’s Lament Tale, available in Chapter 6 once you reach the Mountain of Imprisonment through the Meigu Lake mist gate. The chain, mapped in full on our quest page: free the caged Liu Yi near the Hanging Cage Cavern bell, recover the Detached Cage Lever from the ruined building at Commander’s Platform, defeat Kui Yanyan, the Deranged for the Missing Lift Crank, ride the chained lift house up to Shrine Outer Gate, and lower the last hanging cage — which carries Moji’s Bloodstained Sword. Return it to Liu Yi and the Tale ends with the Ink Cut, his master’s blade, in your arsenal.

One warning: Liu Yi must stay alive. Kill him or let an enemy do it and the Tale fails permanently — so no careless area attacks near the cage. GameSpot’s Moji’s Relic guide and GameRant’s Phantom Edge locations coverage both confirm the reward, and Destructoid’s launch-day list slots it among the 25 collectible Edges.

Full Skill List

Game8’s Ink Cut archive documents the complete kit — eight skills, every one feeding the Radiant Wheel loop. Level gates per AllThingsHow’s art table:

The design intent reads clearly: half the kit extends the wheel’s lifetime, and the other half rewards interacting with its detonation. Game8 also notes the Ink Cut has no exploration skills — this is a pure combat Edge.

How the Radiant Wheel Loop Plays

The base rotation is simple: two strikes, stop, wheel out, reposition. From there the kit branches. Final Radiance (level 5) turns the five-second wait into a choice — detonate early the moment an enemy commits to a string. Ink-Forged Blade (level 15) makes patience profitable: every tick of wheel damage feeds the follow-up strike’s damage and Sha-Chi Depletion, so letting the wheel cook before you cash out is mechanically correct. Ink Piercer (level 25) is the style capstone — a precisely timed press as the wheel self-detonates converts the explosion into a third-strike trigger for a bigger blast. DualShockers’ ranked list pegs the Ink Cut among the ten best Phantom Edges precisely because the wheel controls space while you are free to act elsewhere: it stops enemies in their tracks and then detonates for area damage.

Soul Tempering: Twin Radiant Wheels

The Ink Cut’s temper material is the Plain Sword Tassel, a world pickup near the Corpse-Eating Xue boss arena in the Mandate Encampment — AllThingsHow clocks it about 224 m from the Moji’s Cenotaph bell. The pickup route is listed in our Soul Temper materials index, and the Myst process (unlocked in Chapter 4, 5,000 Remnant Dust per temper) is explained in the Soul Tempering guide. Game8 flags one caution: unlike regular upgrades, Soul Tempering is irreversible, so be sure before you commit the tassel.

The tempered art is Twin Radiant Wheels: while a wheel is active, press again to cast a second one. The additional wheel cannot trigger Twin Radiant Wheels again, and if both Final Radiance and Twin Radiant Wheels are available, Twin Radiant Wheels takes priority. Two wheels means two lingering damage zones and two explosions — for group fights and boss phases with adds, it doubles the Edge’s entire value proposition.

Where Ink Cut Fits Your Loadout

With 400 Damage at level 1 — the hardest-hitting Martial Edge bar the Thunder Spear’s 450, with a class-leading 324 Guard Break per IGN’s Phantom Edges table — the Ink Cut competes on raw numbers as well as utility. Its slot logic is coverage, not doubling: pair it with a traversal Edge like the Hunter’s Chain Sickle, since the Ink Cut opens no paths on its own. Against bosses it is a fire-and-forget damage engine; against groups it is area denial. The community ranking context sits in our best Phantom Edges tier list, and the full acquisition picture for its region is on the all Phantom Edges catalog.

Verdict

The Ink Cut asks one small discipline — stop swinging at two hits — and pays out a spinning, scaling, optionally doubled damage zone for it. It is the rare Phantom Edge whose skill tree is a coherent thesis rather than a grab bag, and the Hero’s Lament chain that unlocks it is worth running for the story alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hero’s Lament missable?

The Tale itself fails permanently only if Liu Yi dies before you return the sword. He is safe in his cage unless you attack him or catch him in area attacks, so finish the quest promptly once started.

When can I play Hero’s Lament?

Chapter 6 (Treason and Confinement), after reaching the Mountain of Imprisonment through the Meigu Lake mist gate — which requires the repaired Illusory Pipa.

Can you detonate the Radiant Wheel early?

Yes — that is the level 5 Final Radiance skill. While the wheel is active, press the Phantom Edge button to perform the third strike and manually detonate it.

Sources

• Game8 - How to Get Ink Cut | Phantom Blade Zero (skill list, stats, temper)
• IGN - Phantom Edges (level 1 stat table)
• GameSpot - Where To Find Moji’s Relic In Phantom Blade Zero - Hero’s Lament Guide
• GameRant - Where to Find Every Phantom Edge in Phantom Blade Zero
• DualShockers - Phantom Blade Zero: 10 Best Phantom Edges, Ranked
• AllThingsHow - How to Get Plain Sword Tassel in Phantom Blade Zero
• Destructoid launch-day Phantom Edge list (October 29, 2026)

Source: launch-week guides, October 29 - November 5, 2026. Quest steps cross-checked against the in-site Hero’s Lament walkthrough.