Mandate Encampment.

Formerly the alliance's headquarters, the Mandate Encampment is a mountain fort built from stockades, lookout towers and wooden scaffolds, all now rotting. It hosts Chapter 5, Hero or Heretic, and ranks as the game's fifth region. You can't simply stroll in, because the outer gate in Village of Lu stays shut until you bring back a key found during Pangzhen's second chapter.

No basic ending depends on this place, and each boss within it can be skipped. You will find two blades here, along with two Phantom Edges (one that smashes marked floors), a piece of the Illusory Pipa and a portal belonging to The Herald's Illusion. The pipa piece and the portal both contribute to the True Ending.

You pass along cliffside walkways, over a graveyard and a wrecked battlefield to the main gate, and then enter the camp itself, where the towers, The Confinement and the Training Grounds wait. Out of 60 collectibles in the region, a first visit lets you take every one but one. A handful are order-sensitive, though, so plan your sequence before taking on Red or Yubi.

Layout of the region

Since the Mandate fortified this valley and cut a road to their camp through it, the region unfolds along a rather straight line. An outer approach forms the opening half: a cliff path, then a graveyard, then an old battlefield that terminates at the main gate. A river flows beneath the early stretch, and jumping in lets you reach several things you would otherwise stroll past.

The gate leads into the second half. It ascends via the Dovecote to Three Towers, then on to the Road to the Training Grounds, where the route forks. A staircase heads off toward the Path of the Baishan's Fall, The Confinement and the waterfall, whereas a locked door opens onto the Training Grounds, the region's final area.

Sub-areas

Gate of the Main Encampment

The bell sits in the arena of Wan Jun, the Coppermaul, who watches over the gate. After taking his Bashpole, smash the floor in this spot to get into the camp. For the Dovecote, climb the wall and head up the hill to the left.

Rear of the Encampment Waterfall

After passing the body, you reach the trail's end, a cliff you jump off to arrive beside this bell. Head along beyond the building at left until a large one comes into view, with a dock behind it.

Sunset Path

Human-Faced Banyan (Mandate Encampment)

Cliffside Walkway

Mass Grave

Moji’s Cenotaph

Battlefield Ruins

Dovecote

Three Towers

Training Grounds (Mandate Encampment)

Training Grounds (Mandate Encampment)

Path of the Baishan's Fall

The Confinement

Rear of the Encampment Waterfall

Similarly named places

A few names close to this one belong to other places. Mount Soulrend contains the Last Mandate Encampment, Pangzhen has Mandate Lodgings, and Mirage Estate holds a Training Grounds of its own. Although it serves as the way in, the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Bell is part of Village of Lu.

Return trips

After you obtain the Flying Guillotine in the Mountain of Imprisonment, return for the Enhanced Chainsaw at Behind the Encampment Waterfall. The Bashpole additionally unlocks things beyond this region, for instance a Border Banner in Village of Lu, so backtracking pays off.

Characters linked to the region

The named characters present are Moji, Qianqian, Zhao Di, Chang Hong, Wan Jun, Red and the Seven-Star Chief Disciple. Of them, you fight Wan Jun, Red and the Chief Disciple.

Bosses

Every one of these fights is optional. The listed HP is a base figure, which climbs on higher difficulties and in later playthroughs.

Xue and Wan Jun

Wielding a rake without any proper style, Xue conjures shadow copies of herself that converge as one, making it difficult to tell the genuine one apart. Wan Jun fights with an enormous hammer, depending on sheer power, and the ground trembles under his strikes.

Red and the Chief Disciple

The pair are connected. Defeating Red on the tower settles her for good. If she is left alive, she enters the Chief Disciple's fight midway through its second phase, and that is the sole route to her Memory Flower and the Twin Fish Pendant.

Six Seven-Stars disciples accompany the Chief Disciple, and together they form the first phase. During the second, a red thread hoists him up so that he dangles head-down, slashing with his blade and flinging cutting threads.

Wu Lengshuang and Yubi

Wu Lengshuang wields a pliant sword that flexes yet never snaps, and as her Sha-Chi overwhelms her, she lapses into wild slashing. Among the Four Great Puppets, only Yubi fights with a sword. Should Secrets of the Baishan Sect be in progress at the time of Yubi's defeat, a one-off cutscene runs and the tale concludes.

Enemies

Besides the archers along the walkways, these are the named enemy types found in the region.

Fighters that betray you

In a number of spots, a friendly fighter stands amid a group of enemies. When you kill the enemies, the fighter collapses, and 10 to 15 seconds later gets back up as a Maskwalker and attacks. Their Memory Flowers are tied to The Undying Heroic Spirit, so collecting them is impossible until you possess Shattered Hero's Courage.

Their drops are also inconsistent, since a flower occasionally never shows up. Killing the fighter ahead of the transformation appears to improve the odds, though nothing is guaranteed, so save before every encounter and, if nothing falls, load your latest autosave. The fighter at the rear of the large building in Behind the Encampment Waterfall suffers from this most.

The camp's history (heavy spoilers)

Spoiler warning: below, the fate of the Pillars of Kunlun and of the people who defended the camp is revealed.

The Pillars of Kunlun

Yuyin, Huangxing and Moji travelled to the Ye Town region with orders to gather weaker sects and finish the Maskwalkers, running the campaign out of this camp. A year before the game begins they won at great cost, yet the three were never united again. Yuyin disappeared; Huangxing commanded his closest followers to undergo Perfect Transcension. Moji refused, reasoning that answering evil with more evil would leave them no better than the Maskwalkers. Huangxing sealed him inside a statue in the Lady of the Veil's shrine, so all the camp keeps of him is a cenotaph.

Moji's disciples

Huangxing's rule turned the camp into a Maskwalker stronghold. A declaration branding Huangxing a traitor was signed by Zhao Di, Zhuge Feng and Wei Sanchuan. After Moji vanished, his door, which had welcomed everyone, was locked. The outer gate was sealed by disciples. Wei Sanchuan took the key to a meeting in Pangzhen and died there, which explains why it lies in a well so far from the gate.

Those who remained

Xue, a starving survivor rescued by travelling heroes, waited for them outside the camp after they fell and went on living among the graves. Huangxing taught Wan Jun the "dragon body" art, and he kept guard at the gate while his mind slipped away. Red hailed from a sect despised by the Mandate, and the Chief Disciple was in love with her. Its leaders exploited his feelings to hound her, so she went through Transcension to live and seek revenge. The Chief Disciple's seven swordsmen embraced Transcension as well, and the alliance erased their names from its rolls.

Baishan's downfall

Searching for Bi Taotao, her missing master and the head of the Baishan Sect, Wu Lengshuang discovered that her fellow disciples had become Maskwalkers and puppets, and then met the same end herself. Bi Taotao is the one whose body lies among the flowers past The Confinement.

Quests and tales

Xue, Admirer of Heroes

Once Corpse-Eating Xue is beaten, this tale starts, and it asks you to find three belongings of fallen heroes. They lie in the cave ahead of Moji's Cenotaph, where the river ends from Tower Rear Exit, and beside the Road to the Training Grounds Bell. Deliver them to the Child of Insight, on top of the building to the right of the Pavilion of Knowledge Crossroads Bell in Pangzhen, and you receive the Sha-Chi Headscarf accessory.

Daughter of the Dark Sect

Start by speaking to the woman beside the Dovecote Bell, then climb the tower to Red. Fighting her up on the platform advances the objective, whereas leaving her alive until the Chief Disciple's arena yields her collectibles too.

Secrets of the Baishan Sect

Lanlan in Crimson Forest must have given you this before you beat Bai Chilian, and you must have talked with Junior Sister Meng in the chamber beneath Cliffside Lodge. The closing steps take place here, in a strict sequence.

If step 2 is skipped, killing Yubi makes the tale fail.

The Undying Heroic Spirit

Talk to the Purple-Robed Wolf Leader in the basement of Myst's Tavern in Pangzhen, kill the Chief Disciple, and then return with your report. In exchange he hands over Shattered Hero's Courage, which allows you to pick up the Memory Flowers of allied fighters. Another such fighter is found beneath the Pangzhen Slums Bell, in addition to those here. Completing the set rewards you with Hero's Courage, a Tempering Material.

The Herald's Illusion

Second of three, the portal in Training Grounds Depths needs only to be entered, and for now nothing else can be done inside. Look for the first portal in the Puppet Testing Grounds in Village of Lu and the third at the close of the Mountain of Imprisonment. Once you pass the third, the hanging puppet gives you the Puppet's Tongue, which unlocks the Crimson Manor.

Illusory Pipa

Three parts make up the instrument. This backplate is one, the head comes from Dusk, the Puppeteer, and the strings come from Yan Qiansui in Meigu Lake. When all three are in hand, Myst in Pangzhen mends it, and the mended pipa removes the barrier on the way to the Mountain of Imprisonment.

Further quests that cross this region

Secrets of the Baishan Sect

1. Head to The Confinement Bell and kill Wu Lengshuang.
2. Ascend the staircase and examine the body lying among the flowers.
3. Killing Yubi inside the Training Grounds wraps up the tale and gives you The Last of Baishan trophy.

Checklist of collectibles

Sub-area positions are described higher up; here is the tally. Sixty items in all: 17 bells (the Human-Faced Banyan one noted below is not counted), 4 weapons plus Phantom Edges, 6 accessories along with medicines, 1 challenge location, 4 Sha-Chi Amber Fragments, 4 Blackstone Fragments, 19 Memory Flowers, 2 tales and 3 Tempering Materials, making 60.

Memory Flowers with names

Spread over the sub-areas above are all 19 flowers. Some of them belong to the named sets below.

Bells:

• Sunset Path
• Human-Faced Banyan
• Cliffside Walkway Entrance
• Cliffside Walkway Overlook
• Mass Grave
• Moji’s Cenotaph
• Beneath the Watchtower
• Battlefield Ruins
• Main Encampment Gate
• Dovecote
• Three Towers
• Tower Rear Exit
• Road to the Training Grounds
• Path of the Baishan's Fall
• The Confinement
• Behind the Encampment Waterfall
• Training Grounds
• Training Grounds Depths

Tempering Materials:

• Plain Sword Tassel
• Hero’s Courage
• Enhanced Chainsaw

Memory Flowers with names:

• Memory Flower of the Seven Stars
• The Twin Heroes' Memory Flower
• Qianqian’s Memory Flower
• Transcension Defyers' Memory Flower
• Experiment Victim’s Memory Flower
• Memory Flower of Mandate Leaders

Weapons plus Phantom Edges

Medicines and accessories

Key items

Entering

The gate is visible well before it can be opened. At the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Bell in Village of Lu, you get there from the Crossroads Bell by staying on the ridge in front of you and not descending.

Obtaining the key happens far later. During the second chapter of Pangzhen, in that region's west, you face Gu Wanyue, The Wailing Wraith. Jump down the well inside her arena, ascend the ladder in front of you, and pick the key off a corpse beside the coffin in the room beyond. Since it sits along the main route, you can't miss it as long as you grab it.

Use fast travel to reach the Mandate Encampment Outer Gate Bell, open the gate, and walk through the cave behind it. On exiting, the Sunset Path Bell is right in front of you.

Recommended route

1. Unlock the gate, get to the Sunset Path Bell and ascend to the banyan should you want its trial straight away.
2. Traverse the Cliffside Walkway, pick up the Mandate Valley Gate Key and unlock the door leading to Mass Grave.
3. Beat Xue, clear out the graveyard and pick up the cave's first item.
4. Walk by Moji's Cenotaph and the watchtowers; Wan Jun must fall, and he gives up the Bashpole.
5. Put the Bashpole to use at the Main Encampment Gate, and continue to the Dovecote. Once there, take on the tale and swing by Red.
6. Get to Three Towers, fight Red and the Chief Disciple, and afterwards follow the river that starts at Tower Rear Exit.
7. Make a short trip back to Pangzhen to pick up Shattered Hero's Courage, then return to collect the flowers in the river near Mass Grave and Three Towers.
8. Arrive at the Road to the Training Grounds, empty the building, and then use the staircase down to the Path of the Baishan's Fall.
9. Kill Wu Lengshuang, examine the body, and complete Behind the Encampment Waterfall.
10. Go back to the Road to the Training Grounds, unlock the door and beat Yubi.
11. Pick up the backplate and step into the portal, then travel to Pangzhen to see the Child of Insight and Myst.

Content you can miss

After the story ends, free roam lets you gather nearly everything here. The following items are the exceptions.

Nearby locations

Crimson Manor · Crimson Forest · Cliffside Lodge · Village of Lu · Puppet Testing Grounds · Pangzhen · Myst’s Tavern · Mandate Lodgings · Sunset Path · Cliffside Walkway · Mass Grave · Moji’s Cenotaph · Battlefield Ruins · Dovecote · Three Towers · The Confinement · Training Grounds (Mandate Encampment) · Human-Faced Banyan (Mandate Encampment) · Mountain of Imprisonment · Meigu Lake · Mirage Estate · Mount Soulrend · The Last Mandate Encampment · Path of the Baishan’s Fall

Characters

Huangxing · Myst · Moji · Iron Fiend · Chang Hong · Bai Chilian · Iron Fever · Child of Insight · Qianqian · Dusk · Seven-Star Chief Disciple · Wei Sanchuan · Lanlan · Zhao Di · Gu Wanyue · Wan Jun · Corpse-Eating Xue · Wu Lengshuang · Yubi · Yan Qiansui

Weapons

Baishan Stormswords · Soft Snake Sword · Bashpole · Flying Guillotine