Dusk is the Village of Lu’s add-management exam, and the exam starts at 40% health. Until then she is a giant puppet with slow, heavy hands and a habit of filling the arena with smaller bodies. At 40% a duplicate joins with its own full-looking bar, and the fight becomes a target-priority problem: kill the copy, clear the crawlers, then finish the original.
Location and unlock
Dusk is an optional boss in the Village of Lu, Chapter 3, fought at the Broken Puppet Pit. The unlock is not a simple door: the compendium ties the encounter to the six Memory Flowers, then the ravine past the Broken Puppet Pit. The Village of Lu route lists the pit as an optional detour between Bi Hai and Yuzan, and the secret-boss guide confirms the fight is part of the lake’s larger Memory Flower chain.
That makes Dusk easy to walk past and expensive to forget. She is not on the critical path, but she is on the true-ending preparation route. The Village of Lu walkthrough places the pit in the route, and the secret bosses guide tracks the Memory Flower gate.
Reward and missable warning
The boss table lists the Puppeteer’s Bell, a Summoning Phantom Edge that calls sword-and-spear shield puppets for 15 seconds; the temper adds a third puppet. The Village of Lu route also lists an Illusory Pipa Head from the encounter. The repo does not reconcile the two labels, so treat the Bell as the confirmed edge and the Pipa Head as an additional documented drop.
Dusk is optional, and missed optional bosses remain available in post-story free roam. The practical deadline is the Pangzhen transition and the broader Green Serpent House cutoff for the lake chain. If you are chasing the true ending, do not leave the Village of Lu without clearing the pit. Boss drops are one-per-run and there is no refight.
Fight plan: clear the room, then chase the copy
Dusk has 62,520 HP. Her hand slams hit for around 512 damage on Pathbreaker, which is enough to end an attempt if you are caught under the palm. The arena also spawns crawlers and puppet packs, and Dusk herself has a flurry that punishes anyone standing in front of her.
The priority order:
- Clear the early adds. Do not let crawlers accumulate while you chase the giant. A wide-cleaving main is the documented build for this reason.
- Pressure Dusk until 40%. Punish after the hand slams, not during the wind-up. The recovery is the window.
- At 40%, the duplicate joins. It has its own full-looking bar — roughly 20,840 HP — but the copy’s bar drains faster than the original’s. Kill the copy first.
- Then clear the remaining adds. The crawlers are the real chip threat while you finish the original.
- Finish Dusk. Do not hard-lock the giant; the hands and the copy leave frame.
The compendium’s summary is “kill adds, chase the copy at 40%,” and the detailed breakdown is more specific: kill the copy before the crawlers once it appears, because its bar is the faster kill. Both agree that the copy is the priority target at the phase change.
Attack tells
| Tell | Response | Punish |
|---|---|---|
| Hand slam | Dodge out from under the palm | Punish the recovery |
| Crawler / puppet pack | Clear with wide attacks | Do not let them stack |
| Dusk flurry | Disengage, do not trade | Re-enter after the sequence |
| 40% duplicate | Kill the copy first | Its bar drains faster |
| Copy plus original | Keep both in frame | Free camera, no hard lock |
No colour map or named moveset is published for Dusk. The documented tells are the hand slam, the adds, the flurry, and the 40% duplicate. Apply the universal blue-parry / red-dodge rule to the rest, and treat any ambiguous giant-hand animation as a dodge rather than a block.
Recommended weapon and build
Bring a wide-cleaving main. The fight is as much add control as boss damage, and a weapon that can sweep crawlers while staying near Dusk saves you from constant target switching. A heavy single-target weapon is fine for the copy, but you will spend more time cleaning up the room.
No elemental weakness is documented for Dusk. Puppets are Bleed-immune, so leave the Jagged Steel plan at the door. A summon edge is a reasonable defensive pick here because it pulls add attention, but the documented build is simply a wide-clear main. The best builds guide covers the crowd options for the Village of Lu.
Common mistakes
- Hard-locking Dusk. The giant and her hands leave frame; use the free camera.
- Chasing the original at 40%. Kill the copy first; its bar drains faster.
- Ignoring crawlers. They stack chip damage while you focus the giant.
- Standing under the hand slam. Dodge out, then punish the recovery.
- Bringing Bleed. Puppets are immune.
- Skipping the pit because it is optional. Dusk is part of the lake’s true-ending preparation.
- Leaving the region before the Memory Flower chain closes. The Pangzhen transition is the practical deadline.
Sources & confidence
The 62,520 HP figure, the 40% duplicate, the copy’s approximately 20,840 HP bar, the 512-damage hand slams, the crawlers and puppet packs, the copy-first kill order, the wide-cleaving recommendation, and the hard-lock warning come from the AllThingsHow Dusk breakdown, cross-checked against KeenGamer and the site’s secret-boss guide. The six-Memory-Flower unlock and the ravine route come from the secret-boss material. Puppeteer’s Bell’s summon effect comes from the Phantom Edges table; the Illusory Pipa Head label comes from the Village of Lu route and is flagged as an unreconciled second drop name.
Sources & further reading
- Dusk boss fight — AllThingsHow
- All bosses and rewards — KeenGamer
- Village of Lu walkthrough — PowerPyx
- Phantom Edge locations — Fextralife
We link to the primary source for every hard number. If a source conflicts, we say so in the text.
By the PBZ Guide Team · Reviewed by the editorial desk Written in English from primary sources and cross-checked play routes. Spot an error? Tell us and we will update the guide. We link to the primary source for every hard number. If a source conflicts, we say so in the text.