Hello and welcome back to my blog!
Hollow Knight has some amazing boss fights. I shared one of my favourites in this post. Nightmare King Grimm is such a good boss fight, but very tough to learn.
But there is another boss who gives me the same kind of satisfaction, and it is not too hard either.
Mantis Lords
Mantis Lords are the rulers of the Mantis Village in the Fungal Waste region, which gives you access to the Deepnest. This fight is not as easy as some of the early bosses, but nowhere as challenging as the Nightmare King Grimm.
I completed all three variants of them in the Godhome.
Attuned is the basic one, giving 1 damage each hit, but Ascended gives 2 mask shard damage, and the most difficult one is the radiant level, which kills you in one hit. So, you have to truly master the fight without taking any damage.
The Hollow Knight
If I am talking about the boss fights, how can I miss one of the most iconic fights in the game, fighting the Hollow Knight?
There are multiple endings in the game, the easiest one or the any% ending can be done by just taking out 3 dreamers and going straight to challenging the Hollow Knight.
I wanted to get multiple endings again, and the easiest one I got was for defeating Hollow Knight in about 14 hours. The first time I did it was more than 50 hours, but now that I knew most of the secrets of the game, it took me 14 hours to get to that ending with about 77% completion.
The boss music called the 'Sealed Vessel' is such a trip. And the fight is an emotional one too, imagine you fighting the boss, but you realise it is just a vessel and a hero used to contain the infection.
This is done so beautifully when the Hollow Knight starts stabbing himself mid-fight, and the music changes. Love the use of powerful music during this fight.
To get to the other ending, generally referred to as the True Ending, where you fight the Radiance, the source of the infection, is not easy. You need to get the Void Heart, converted from the KingSoul, which in itself is fragmented into two different locations on the Hallownest.
The right part of this KingSoul is found in the White Palace, the palace of the Pale King, now in ruins. Strangely, there are a lot of platforming sections in this area, and many people give up here, especially in an optional area called the Path of Pain, which I couldn't even complete last time.
Once you get the Void Heart, you will find Hornet standing outside the temple of Black Egg, telling you that she won't help you in the battle.
But she helps us go into the mind of the Hollow Knight to fight against the Radiance, one of the toughest bosses in the game.
The Radiance
I could not beat The Radiance in my last playthrough. This fight frustrated me so much that I gave up here and just went for the easy Hollow Knight ending.
It took me multiple retries, but this time it didn't seem that difficult. I was dodging the attacks better, but the double damage it deals is tough.
It has multiple phases as well, the last phase, when you climb up, dodging the laser attack, is such a thrilling experience. And once you reach the top and you realise that you just defeated the Radiance, it is one of the best feelings. 2 years ago, I thought I could never be able to kill it, but wow, that is done.
Once you destroy the radiance, the knight's shell is broken, and Hornet is the only one to survive. We, as the knight, did something that even the Hollow Knight couldn't do: kill the source of infection rather than just containing it in yourself.
I was doing some Godhome bosses during the time between the first ending and this true ending. The Time it took for me to get this ending was almost 32 hours, more than double that 14-hour time with the easy ending. 105% completion is not bad as well. With the DLC content, the total completion is 112%. I will go for this challenge but getting through the Pantheons is going to take a bit longer, especially the final two Pantheons.
The first Pantheon is the easiest one. I already completed it and is now time to grind the others.
I am aiming for the full 112% completion. I might also start a steel soul run (like a hardcore run) where death is permanent.
Until next shot...
- All the content is mine unless otherwise stated.
- Screenshots are from the game Hollow Knight.