Soul Tyrant

"In my dreams I could see it. The Kingdom's salvation, the cure for the plague... the answer was in the soul that animates our bodies."

The Soul Tyrant is a hidden boss in Hollow Knight. It is the dream variant of the Soul Master, faster and tougher than its physical counterpart.

Behaviour and Tactics
Phase 1 Soul Tyrant uses all the same attacks as Soul Master, but at a much faster pace, with minor adjustments to some attacks:
 * Clock: Soul Tyrant now summons six (two rows of three) orbs that rotate around him.
 * Slam: The shockwaves produced from the slam are taller, larger, and travel at a faster pace.

Phase 2
 * Altered Slam: The impact radius of each slam is much larger.

Soul Tyrant teleports much more rapidly than Soul Master which is one of the main difficulty changes to the fight. It can be very difficult at times to score hits on him and fill up SOUL, so Charms like Soul Catcher and especially Soul Eater are quite useful.

Despite his Clock attack being modified, the time right when the orbs start to travel away is still the best time to heal during the fight - right in the middle of the arena.

After Phase 1 ends, Soul Tyrant smashes through the floor, and Phase 2 begins when the Knight follows him down. However, enough floor remains that the Knight can stay up and heal to full before triggering the second Phase.

For Phase 2, there is virtually no more time to heal, as his orbs come at a non-stop pace, one after the other. During this phase, Soul Tyrant's health is also considerably low, so using high damage Spells like Abyss Shriek or Desolate Dive on him while he summons orbs is a good way to kill him quickly before too much damage is taken. Soul Tyrant, unlike his weaker counterpart, does not perform a Fake Out Altered Attack.

Location
The Soul Tyrant is the Dream Boss variant of Soul Master. He is accessible upon returning to Soul Master's Corpse and striking it with the Dream Nail.

Trivia

 * During Phase 2 of the fight, there is a bug where if Soul Tyrant is killed as the Knight takes damage, his death animation does not go through, leaving him in a state where he is in his dying animation, but the Infection does not burst out of him. If this occurs, the Knight is soft-locked (stuck) and the only way out is to quit the game.