Most Difficult Hollow Knight Bosses And How To Defeat Them

Key Takeaways

• Hollow Knight boasts some of the hard bosses, pushing players to their limits.
• Certain bosses like Uumuu and Traitor Lord require specific strategies to defeat them effectively.
• The DLC bosses, like Absolute Radiance, take the difficulty of the game to a whole new level for completionist players.

Hollow Knight is one of the best Metroidvania games in a very long time. It took a lot of inspiration from the Souls series while managing to carve its own path in the world of video games. As you venture around Hallownest, you’ll encounter many bosses, and very few of them are not punishingly hard.

However, even as the game teaches you to hone your skills and ‘get good’ you’ll find that a lot of the bosses will push you for everything that you are worth. Hollow Knight’s hardest bosses will put you to the ultimate test.

Updated November 28, 2024 by Tallis Spalding: As fans wait for Silksong, they return to their roots with Hollow Knight. Some people get better at fighting some of the hardest bosses in the game and others still struggle. Whatever the case, as new strategies are developed, it’s worth periodically revising what the hardest bosses in Hollow Knight are and ranking those bosses. Unlike many other games, the DLC is readily included with the base game of Hollow Knight, free as can be, so it’s worth looking at both the DLC and the base game bosses.

17 Brooding Mawlek

Although this boss can swipe at you when you get close, it’s not fast enough to stop you from getting in a few quick hits before running away. However, the problem with this strategy is that it is also able to shoot projectiles, meaning that you’re never really safe.

It’s not the hardest routine to get the hang of, but we feel that as a mini-boss it can get pretty difficult. At the end of it, the main character is rewarded for their bravery with a Mask Shard, making the Brooding Mawlek worth taking on.

16 Uumuu

This infected jellyfish fight is necessary to uncovering the mysteries and lies of the Pale King’s rule. Luckily, you should have the ever-loyal Quirrel to break its defenses, allowing you to strike its core. The boss itself isn’t the challenge here, but rather avoiding the spasms of electricity that follow you around the arena.

Your biggest opponent will be the arena, but thankfully, you should be half decent at the parkour aspects of Hollow Knight when you get to this point. Uumuu isn’t a boss that you can avoid, so you will need to be careful before diving into the fight.

15 Nosk

Deepnest is undeniably the creepiest and most unsettling area of Hallownest, with the sharp violins and heavy breathing acting as background music. As you uncover the secrets of the Pale Kingdom, it’s hard to ignore your twin running from you through the shadows. If you follow your mimic, it will lead past previous victims that all dream of the mimicking beast.

Although there’s a lot of unpredictability when you’re going up against Nosk, equipping yourself with the proper charms makes the fight much easier. Be patient and keep a careful eye on Nosk and you will have defeated it in no time.

14 Failed Champion

The False Knight is the first main boss that you will come across, meaning that he’s not particularly difficult to take down. However, if you return to the arena and strike the remains of the boss with the Dream Nail, you’ll be granted entrance to the Failed Champion fight.

This boss battle is a lot more difficult, forcing you to deal with an enemy that is constantly launching themselves around the arena (while projectiles rain from the sky), not to mention trying to hit the guy at the same time.

13 Enraged Guardian

The first Crystal Guardian fight isn’t too difficult. It taxes you somewhat and tests your skills, but never really pushes them to a level of frustration. When you return to the fight, you’ll find that the Crystal Guardian has now become the Enraged Guardian, presumably angry that it ever lost in the first place.

While its attacks don’t change that much, it becomes much more aggressive, attacking ferociously. As well as this, every single attack causes two points of damage rather than one, which makes the Enraged Guardian dangerous.

12 Hornet (Sentinel)

While Hollow Knight’s first battle against Hornet is a little challenging, it isn’t too hard when compared to the second battle. Her special weapon is capable of pulling off moves with much more range than most enemies. The spiky traps strewn across the arena can also reduce your mobility, throwing you headfirst into a situation where you need to make every move carefully.

Hornet is putting your skills to the test to decide if you’re actually worthy enough to proceed forward and into the final steps of the game. If you’ve done right by the game, your skills should have been slowly built up, and you should know what you’re doing at this point.

11 Markoth

Markoth may not be the toughest boss in Hollow Knight, but he will still give you a run for your money. His revolving shields and constantly targeting projectiles make him an absolute pain to deal with. Although his health might not be absurdly high, he is tedious and frustrating.

If you move too quickly, or you try to predict without fully understanding his telegraphed moves, that could be the end for you. But, with some proper charms – especially the Shape of Unn, which makes you smaller while you heal – you can get past him and collect your victory prize.

10 Traitor Lord

If you aren’t great at the parkour aspects of Hollow Knight, then you should really learn to get better, because this fight will punish you for it. The Traitor Lord is a big fight in a small area, meaning that it’s really easy to get hit if you’re not quick to dash.

Being able to have quick attacks and move quickly is key when you’re going up against this boss. Of course, if you’re also quick with your magic, being able to use the dive attack will benefit you greatly.

9 Great Nailsage Sly

The Great Nailsage Sly is one of the few bosses you can actually call cute, even if they do have a weapon that is bigger than them and can pack a punch that will shock even the most seasoned players of Hollow Knight.

Nevertheless, Great Nailsage Sly is quick, deadly, and will become incredibly annoying to fight. He’s so quick that learning any sort of pattern takes a lot amount of practice and probably (unless you’re incredible at the game) a lot of deaths.

8 Soul Tyrant

When you’ve finally managed to take down the Soul Master, you can choose to go back and take on an even more challenging variant of the boss. However, only the truly brave should choose to do so. The Soul Tyrant is equipped with every single attack that the Soul Master boasts, but he performs them even faster.

This leaves you with even less time to dodge and weave before taking a couple of shots for yourself. We wouldn’t blame anyone for choosing to leave this optional boss behind, so it’s definitely one for the completionist players out there.

7 Watcher Knights

Anyone that has played through Hollow Knight will know that it’s hard enough taking on just two enemies at a time. However, this boss battle ramps up the difficulty by forcing you to try and best six different knights.

You only have to take them on two at a time, yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is difficult on its own, as they chip away at your health. To knock two of them out and see two more reanimate can be very demoralizing, forcing some players to give up entirely.

6 Grey Prince Zote

It’s worth mentioning that the real challenge here comes from the second encounter with Grey Prince Zote. The first one is pretty easy, so the real power of Zote is proven through the second encounter, and power it undoubtedly is.

The main aspect of this battle you need to be wary of is his body slam attack. If you’re not ready for it, then this will absolutely devastate your health and probably your own morale too. However, if you want to take part in possibly one of the best NPC quests in the entire game, then you need to at least try out this fight.

5 Lost Kin

This variant of the Broken Vessel boss is brutal. You have to stay on your toes throughout, employing every ounce of skill you’ve picked up on the way to the fight. In this boss battle, you’ll have to act on instinct, constantly dodging and using any chance you get to attack and chip some health from your foe.

The Balloon attack will probably do its best to destroy your confidence because it happens quickly and it’s a near relentless onslaught. Although this fight is an optional one, it’s a rewarding one to complete since you gain 400 essence.

4 Sisters Of Battle

The Sisters of Battle are the upgraded Mantis Lords fight. They are only available in the Pantheon of Hallownest within the Godmaster DLC. If you thought that the Mantis Lords fight was difficult, then you’re going to be in for a world of pain with this one.

They move and attack faster and in their phase two, you will end up fighting all three of them at once. Being quick on the draw and knowing their patterns is key to getting through this fight alive.

3 Pure Vessel

At this point in the pantheon, you’re going to be focusing on healing a lot, because the last thing you want is to undo all your hard work. The Pure Vessel is an absolutely brutal fight – you are fighting the final boss of the base game in its peak form, and frankly, it’s quite harrowing.

Just being quick on your feet and having a lot of patience isn’t going to get you through this fight – you need to be skilled and know full well what you’re doing. This is one of the few fights where you might want to try out different types of controllers – like the keyboard versus the controller. It’s more than likely though that you’ll find the controller is a lot more comfortable to fight with.

2 Nightmare King Grimm

Nightmare King Grimm speaks for itself when you’re wondering about the difficulty of Hollow Knight bosses; he’s a nightmare. The amount of times this battle has brought players to rage-quit is unreal. He’s ridiculously strong and will force you to watch your health drop in seconds, with no time to heal or even think about what’s going on.

Grimm is just an absolute health vampire and every attack is designed to force you a little closer to death, so avoiding these is crucial. You’ll definitely want to perfect the art of running away and avoiding attacks if you want to defeat Nightmare King Grimm.

1 Absolute Radiance

If you thought Radiance was a tough battle, then you’ll find Absolute Radiance even worse, along with the entire fanbase. It’s one of the most enjoyable battles in the game and ultimately requires you to understand Hollow Knight inside and out if you want a chance at beating this horrible boss.

Ultimately, you need to have a perfect understanding regarding timing, Essence management, and precision to stand a chance. There’s not much to really explain about this boss, because it’ll get so frustrating that you’ll end up learning everything about him by your 50th try.