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Basic information to complete for every boss on Radiant difficulty. Worth noting that even if you’re using this guide’s builds, you won’t beat these bosses first-try.
Other Hollow Knight Guides:
Gruz Mother
Setup: Grubbefly’s Elegy, Fragile Strength, Shaman Stone, Steady Body, Quick Slash.
Stay at your platfrom, get as many hits as possible and use Shade Soul, dodge via shadow dash in correct direction.
Vengefly King(s)
Setup 1: Shaman Stone, Spell Twister, Soul Catcher, Fragile Strength.
Save your double jump in case the second Vengefly King decides to rush down at you after the first one. Stay in the middle and repeatedly strike downwards and use Shade Soul for damage and Descending Dark if you’re overwhelmed by their summons.
Setup 2: Fragile Strength, Defender’s Crest, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Grimmchild OR Weaversong, Mark of Pride.
Welp, here goes exploit. When Vengfly Kings are at the very top left and top right parts of the map, climb up and repeatedly downstrike them offscreen. Use Descending Dark and your summons to clear the board from their minions. Repeat. Victory.
Brooding Mawlek
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Dashmaster, Sharp Shadow, Quick Slash.
Focus on dodging his projectiles and attack repeatedly. Dodge his jumps and his massive attack via dash.
False Knight
Setup: Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, anything else (Grubberfly’s Elegy for damage in his enrage phases).
No comments. You should possess skill to kill at least this on your own with this setup, otherwise you shouldn’t read this guide in the first place.
Failed Champion
Setup: Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Sprintmaster, Weaversong, Grubsong OR Dream Wielder OR Nailmaster’s Glory, Fragile Strength.
Setup explanation first. If you’re good with Cyclone Slash, pick Nailmaster’s Glory, pick Dream Wielder if you want to charge your soul in-between phases faster, or Grubsong for maximum effiency. (Weavers give you soul when they do damage, and they’ll do a lot in this fight)
Don’t stay very close to him and slash via nail, use double jump to dodge shockwaves and dash left (if he stands at the right part of the map) from any other attack. When he goes in the middle, strike him repeatedly.
Hornet Protector
Setup: Shaman Stone, Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride OR Grubbefly’s Elegy, Sprintmaster, Quick Slash.
Not much to say about the bossfight itself. Play carefully, don’t forget that her needle comes back, and git gud. Like with False Knight, if you can’t beat her Greenpath version, you shouldn’t be reading this.
Hornet Sentinel
Setup: Shaman Stone, Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride OR Grubbefly’s Elegy, Sprintmaster, Quick Slash.
Worth noticing that beams from Grubbefly’s Elegy doesn’t push her spike balls. Overall, the only change in this fight is her attack and movement speed, which shouldn’t be a problem.
Massive Moss Charger
Setup 1: Mark of Pride, Quick Slash, Longnail, Heavy Blow, Fragile Strength.
When he jumps at you, shadow dash the other direction. When he walks into you, hit and go just a little bit backwards. If you somehow reached the left corner before he died, double jump and repeat until he dies.
Setup 2: Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride, Longnail, Soul Catcher, Shaman Stone.
Okay, so you can’t make it with option 1 for whatever reason. When he walks into you, double jump left+hit him twice/three times. Repeat until he dies. Use Descending Dark if you can find a room for it.
Flukemarm
Setup: Shaman Stone, Soul Catcher, Spell Twister, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Soul Eater.
Stay where you are and hit Flukemarm repeatedly, gain soul, clear his minions and use Shade Soul.
Mantis Lords
Setup: Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride, Longnail, Sharp Shadow, Sprintmaster OR Grimmchild OR Shaman Stone.
When Mantis throws his circle nail at you, you need to learn when it’s going to fly downwards first and when upwards, which depends on the Mantis position in the arena(when he throws a circle nail from the bottom, it will fly over bottom first, if he throws a circle nail when he is a little bit higher, it’s going to fly upwards first.
Also when two Mantises throw two circles in the middle, stay by the middle throne (the leftmost side of it). That’s basically it. Put Shaman Stone and use spells if you’re skilled enough since Abyss Shriek does a lot of damage, put Grimmchild for extra damage if you can’t utilize spells here but in need of extra damage, or Sprintmaster if you don’t feel enough control over movement.
Sisters of Battle
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Sharp Shadow.
Grubberfly’s Elegy is here for hitting multiple Mantises, and Steady Body to make sure you don’t knockback into one of the three bosses. Same as before, but quicker and now you have to dash one second after they do double circle attack(since the third Mantis will downstrike you shortly afterwards) or use Descending Dark for i-frames. If you’re capable, use Abyss Shriek for extra damage.
Oblobbles
Setup 1: Mark of Pride, Shaman Stone, Stone Catcher, Spell Twister, Soul Eater.
Okay, so hit them very carefully, try to stay at one corner of the map(leftmost or rightmost), abuse walls and use Shade Soul/Abyss Shriek to hit both of them. At the point when one of them dies, you should be able to finish the fight via multiple Shade Souls/Abyss Shrieks before enraged oblobble does his attack.
Setup 2: Shaman Stone, Dreamshield, Longnail, Stone Catcher, Soul Eater.
If you have troubles with dodging while using setup 1, try this one. The only difference is that you probably can’t kill enraged oblobble before he does his attack, but dreamshield might be worth it.
Hive Knight
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Defender’s Crest, Soul Eater.
Not much to write about. Make sure to utilize dash/double jump properly, don’t hit him out from stagger before bees attack ends if you have troubles with dodging him and bees together.
Broken Vessel
Setup: Grubberfly’s Elegy OR Mark of Pride, Shaman Stone, Quick Slash, Defender’s Crest OR Nailmaster’s Glory, Soul Eater OR Fragile Strength.
A lot of ways to beat it. If you’re better up close, pick Mark of Pride, if you’re better from distance, put Elegy on. If you can use Nail Arts, play Nailmaster’s Glory and Fragile Strength, if you can’t, play Defender’s Crest and Soul Eater. All his attacks are visible 2 seconds before they happen, so the only problem is his massive ball spawn attack that requires you to just waste all your soul into killing him when he does it.
Lost Kin
Setup: Grubberfly’s Elegy, Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Soul Eater.
Save as before, now with his summons. You have so many staggers in this bossfight that this fight is over before he does anything.
Setup 2: Defender’s Crest, Glowing Womb, Weaversong, Grubsong, Sprintmaster, Grimmchild, Wayward Compass, Dreamshield.
Stay at the highest point at the wall and wait until your summons eliminate Lost Kin. Proceed to tell everyone that Radiant bosses are 2easy4you, so you beat them with Wayward Compass.
Nosk
Setup: Grubberfly’s Elegy, Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Soul Eater.
Literally nothing to write about. Props to Team Cherry for making this arena linear, so now dodging random projectiles is far more simple task.
Winged Nosk
Setup: Mark of Pride OR Weaversong+Grubsong, Fragile Strength, Shaman Stone, Steady Body, Soul Eater.
Vengefly King on sterioids. When he dives, jump-slash downwards. If you don’t want to risk dying, take Weaversong+Grubsong and double jump over him when he dives, and hit him mostly via shade soul produced by weavers+your hits on Nosk summons.
The Collector/Primal Aspid
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Shaman Stone, Steady Body, Quickslash.
Welcome to the Cancer Room №1. Primal Aspids are the actual bosses in this fight, the rest is secondary. Use shade soul to clear the room whenever necessary. Git gud. That’s about it.
God Tamer
Setup: Mark of Pride OR Grubberfly’s Elegy, Shaman Stone, Fragile Strength, Steady Body, Soul Eater OR Quick Slash.
Yet again, if you’re better up close, pick Mark of Pride+Soul Eater, if you’re not, pick Elegy and Quick Slash.
We’re focusing our damage on the beast, ’cause when he dies, this fight ends.
If you picked close combat version, use vertical abuse. The only attack that can actually counter your air is the gladiator’s downslash, which is a very slow move. If you picked the range version, keep track of the beast’s spit attack, and that’s about it.
Crystal Guardian/Enraged Guardian
Setup: Mark of Pride, Shaman Stone, Fragile Strength, Steady Body, Quick Slash.
Make sure to jump once when you see he’s going to attack you, don’t end up staying in random lasers, make sure to dash and stay close to him. That’s about it.
Uumuu
Setup: Fragile Strength, Shaman Stone, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash.
Welcome to the Cancer Room №2. Only one rule. Don’t rush B while playing this, play this the intended way, 6-minutes long bossfight, and you will obliterate him. Not a hard bossfight by any means, but really annoying one without good openings.
Traitor Lord
Setup: Fragile Strength, Steady Body, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Sharp Shadow.
His direct rush-attack is very visible, jump and make a downslash when he does it. Dash when he does his air attack, dash when he does his groundpound attack, keep track of his circle nail attack when he does it. Shouldn’t be very hard if you know how to time your shadow dash properly.
Grey Prince Zote
Setup: Grubberfly’s Elegy, Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Soul Eater OR Shaman Stone OR Mark of Pride.
Well, here goes tenth candle version of Zote. Make sure to utilize Shade Soul when he summons explosives, clear his summons with your nail and use Descending Dark when he goes offscreen and then falls at you to gain i-frames from his wave and to deal additional damage. If you have troubles gaining enough soul, since Elegy doesn’t give it, pick up Soul Eater. If you don’t have such troubles, Shaman Stone is a better choice. Finally, if you can’t get enough soul even with Soul Eater, pick Mark of Pride to make some extra hits up close easier, but otherwise that’s the worst pick among these since you already have Elegy equipped and they do not stack.
Soul Warrior
Setup: Mark of Pride OR Grubberfly’s Elegy, Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Shaman Stone OR Soul Eater.
Actually, his Colloseum fight is far harder than Radiant one in Godhome, so this boss shouldn’t be a problem for you to beat. Make sure to clear his summons, and that’s about it.
Soul Master/Soul Tyrant
Setup: Fragile Strength, Steady Body, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Dashmaster.
Classic boss fight, not much to say. Dashmaster in setup to make sure that there is no way you can be hit in his second phase by surprise/being too late.
Dung Defender/White Defender
Setup: Fragile Strength, Steady Body, Grubberfly’s Elegy OR Mark of Pride, Quick Slash, Sharp Shadow.
Okay, this article will be mostly about White Defender. Make sure to not dash into him when he does ground poop attack, don’t let him jump from the ground into you, and pick Grubberfly’s Elegy unless you’re REALLY good with accurate close combat. Sharp Shadow for extra damage, as usual.
Watcher Knights
Setup 1: Shaman Stone, Soul Catcher, Spell Twister, Mark of Pride, Soul Eater.
Make sure you can see when the Watcher prepares for his double-slash attack, play with sound so you can hear when the Watchers launch their attacks off-screen, git gud and utilize shade soul.
Setup 2: Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Fragile Strength, Defender’s Crest, Soul Eater OR Sharp Shadow.
Yet again, for whatever reason, version 1 didn’t work out for you. Keep your distance, keep slashing, dash when they do their circle rush at you, don’t be close enough to be hit by their close-combat attacks. If you can somewhat utilize close combat, take Soul Eater to do extra damage by spells, but I assume that if you could, you’d use setup 1, so if you can’t, use sharp shadow instead.
No Eyes
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Grimmchild OR Nailmaster’s Glory.
If you can utilize Nail Arts somehow, that’d be better than everything Grimmchild can possibly do. If you can’t, use Grimmchild for extra damage output. You’re challenging this map, not this boss, so be extra careful and don’t die from spikes. That’s about it.
Marmu
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Grimmchild.
Stand at the leftmost part of the map, jump to whatever height he launches at you, and strike him repeatedly. GG. Grimmchild for extra damage.
Xero
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy OR Mark of Pride, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Grimmchild OR Baldur Shell.
Make sure you don’t fall off the platform, and this fight is a piece of cake. If you somehow get strikes from returning swords, put baldur shell on and start healing when it returns, so Baldur Shell will block the incoming damage. If you don’t need this, pick Grimmchild for extra damage output.
Markoth
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Sprintmaster OR Dashmaster OR Grimmchild.
Welcome to the Cancer Room №3. Make sure you’re damaging him only when he throws his shield at you, otherwise focus on dodge, and play it like you’d play Uumuu. Take sprintmaster for mobility, dashmaster for other type of mobility, and Grimmchild if you don’t feel like you need any more mobility, but in need of extra damage output.
Galien
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy OR Mark of Pride, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Soul Eater OR Grimmchild.
Dodge his starting scythe. Ignore the other two he summons and keep hitting him in the face. The fight will be over in a minute, if you’re using close combat setup+Abyss Shriek properly, probably even faster.
Gorb
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Grimmchild.
Make sure you’re not in a hurry and you’re dodging all three projectiles in his third phase. You actually don’t care a lot about the arena – if you want to, you can win without using any platform but the middle one.
Elder Hu
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Quick Slash, Grubsong WITH Weaversong OR Defender’s Crest WITH Glowing Womb OR Defender’s Crest WITH Soul Eater.
You can shadow dash through all of his attacks, so there is nothing to write about. Pick whatever suits you.
Oro & Mato
Setup 1: Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride, Shaman Stone, Defender’s Crest OR Sprintmaster, Soul Eater.
Watcher Knights on steroids. Make sure to utilize Descending Dark properly in case you feel like their attack is unavoidable, since it gives you i-frames. Pick Sprintmaster if you need more mobility, otherwise Defender’s Crest for damage output.
Setup 2: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Sharp Shadow, Sprintmaster WITH Defender’s Crest OR Grimmchild OR Baldur Shell, Quick Slash.
Not good at close combat with Watcher Knights, eh? Pick Sprintmaster and Crest if you need mobility, Baldur Shell if you feel like you can see their attack but keep dying anyway, and Grimmchild if you don’t need extra mobility or extra safe abilities.
Like with Watcher Knights, make sure you don’t get hit by their close combat attack, as well as Great Slash and Cyclone. And git gud, of course.
Paintmaster Sheo
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Grimmchild OR Dreamshield.
You can see the colour before he attacks, so it shouldn’t be a hard match to fight. If you have troubles dodging blue attacks, pick Dreamshield, if you don’t – Grimmchild for damage output.
Nailsage Sly
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Weaversong.
Don’t stay up close and keep using range attacks. When he does Cyclone Slash, either keep downstriking it, or hit him a couple of times up close when he’s staggered, so you can use Descending Dark on Cyclone Slash to avoid taking damage. Make sure to dash in the other direction from his attack during second phase.
Pure Vessel
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Sprintmaster OR Sharp Shadow..
Let’s make this step-by-step, starting from setup. Sprintmaster allows you more control over movement, which is certainly useful in this fight. Sharp shadow makes your shadow dash 39% longer, which is also useful movement option, the downside is that if you’re playing this match correctly, you’ll never make extra damage out of this. You never want Grimmchild over these two charms, and Dashmaster is completely useless since it doesn’t help with recharging your shadow cloak, and you don’t use dash without it in this match-up.
Now, to his attacks.
Half-circle of swords – jump+dash through it. Launch attack – jump+strike downwards. Groundswords – find a safe spot. High jump to the other direction from him when he prepares his three-hit combo, then downstrike. If you can’t do this, then just double jump over it. Don’t shadow dash over his three-hit combo, because he can launch another attack before your shadow dash recovers. Double-jump through his tentacle attack. Make sure you don’t hit him when he’s trying to parry, make sure you don’t stand up close to him when he explodes his space, and you will prevail.
Grimm
Setup: Fragile Strength, Grubberfly’s Elegy, Steady Body, Quick Slash, Baldur Shell OR Sharp Shadow OR Dream Wielder.
Use baldur shell if you have troubles with bullet hell, sharp shadow if you don’t, dream wielder only if you’re especially good at utilizing spells. Don’t hit him when he bows, that will trigger extra bullet hell.
Double jump when he does Dracula birds attack. That’s about it.
Nightmare King Grimm
Setup: Fragile Strength, Mark of Pride, Shaman Stone, Sprintmaster, Baldur Shell OR Soul Eater.
Okay, learn how to dance his grimm-y waltz before you even try to attempt this.
If you still somehow have troubles on bullet hell, pick up baldur shell. If you don’t, Soul Eater it is then.
Utilize Abyss Shriek after he casts four pillars, that’s a tremendous amount of damage. The rest is up to your dancing skills.
Absolute Radiance
Welcome to the highest peak of cancer and RNG available in Hollow Knight so far, a.k.a. Cancer Room №4. In all of the setups below, exploit Descending Dark i-frames during his lightbeam attack as much as possible(requires a platform), as well as Abyss Shriek enourmous damage. First phase doesn’t differ a lot from the original Radiance, except it’s a whole another level of faster.
The second phase has a lot of RNG elements, such as lightbeam attacks, sidespikes and A-Radiance spawn points, which can decide the outcome of this phase. Basically you need to get lucky with his spawn points and not get hit by two lightbeams in a row, and when you do, try to get i-frames from Descending Dark. Proceed to git gud at the ascension phase. In the new phase, recommended way to dodge fireballs is via correct double-jumps on the right platform, completely ignoring the left platform and getting all the hits on Radiance you can. Abuse Shade Soul, or Abyss Shriek, which depends on A-Radiance`s position.
Setup 1: Dreamshield, Quick Slash, Steady Body, Baldur Shell, Soul Eater.
Dreamshield to block some of his fireballs, steady body to have more control and don’t slide backwards into his attacks, Quick Slash+Soul Eater to have a stable soul supply for Descending Dark/Abyss Shriek during his second phase, and Baldur Shell against unavoidable combinations(when he uses something and you realize it’s going to murder you, try to heal and Baldur Shell will block the attack)
Setup 2: Steady Body, Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Baldur Shell WITH Defender’s Crest OR Shaman Stone, Soul Eater.
Same as above, but without Dreamshield to block fireballs to make more damage and go faster from phase to phase, which can be crucual. If you found out that you can’t figure out how to utilize Baldur Shell or you don’t need it, swap it to Shaman Stone to make more damage via Descending Dark.
Setup 3: Shaman Stone, Spell Twister, Mark of Pride, Soul Catcher, Fragile Strength OR Soul Eater.
Don’t pick Soul Eater over Strength unless you have serious troubles with gaining soul during second phase. The strategy? You’re basically searching for openings to utilize Abyss Shriek the entire fight. Good luck.