Galien

"Lingering dream of a fallen warrior. Trained in the wilds bordering the kingdom, hoping to become a Knight. A Knight strives not only to protect the land and its people, but the hopes and dreams of the kingdom."

- Galien

Galien is a Warrior Dream boss in Hollow Knight.

Lore
Galien was a brave and undefeated warrior who claimed to be the strongest in Hallownest and desired to prove his valour to the Pale King as a Knight. He travelled to Deepnest in order to test his strength, but eventually found death instead. His husk lies in a cave filled with unusually large glowing mushrooms and a Lifeblood Cocoon, below the Failed Tramway.

In-game events
The spirit of Galien appears above his husk after the Knight acquires the Dream Nail. He greets them as a fellow warrior and proposes a battle to test their respective strengths. After his defeat, Galien is humbled and believes the Knight to have been sent by the Pale King to test him. He still hopes the Knight will get him in the King's good graces. As he prepares to leave the place, the spirit shatters into 200 Essence to be collected by the Dream Nail.

Throughout the encounter, Galien's spirit fails to realise the corpse is his own, nor even that he is dead.

Behaviour and Tactics
Galien has two attacks:
 * Spinning Scythe: Galien commands a scythe that spins rapidly and bounces off the floor, slowly tracking the Knight. The scythe carries a lot of momentum when moving. After nine bounces, he commands it to pause for half a second before sending it off again.
 * Dream Scythes: Galien spawns a small glowing scythe that moves slowly across the screen, reflecting off the floor and the walls when it collides with them. These scythes appear and move entirely independently of the main scythe. Only 2 scythes spawn throughout the entire fight: the first spawns when Galien has reached 70% HP, the second at 40% HP.

Shadow Dashing only when the Knight is absolutely going to take damage is very helpful. Thanks to the Spinning Scythe's "accuracy", if the Knight dodges a guaranteed hit, the Shadow Dash should recover in time to dodge another. It is best to stay on the ground throughout the fight. Upward slashes (with little hops if necessary) are a great way to get Nail damage in. Thanks to Galien not reacting to damage as much as other Warrior Dreams, the Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek Spell is devastating against him, especially right at the beginning of the fight. Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul and a well-timed Desolate Dive/Descending Dark are useful as well. Nail Arts are a good tactic when Galien is getting close to the floor.

It is advised to kill Galien quickly, as his scythes can become overwhelming if they are left for a long period of time.

Counting the main scythe's bounces can help the Knight to predict safe moments to heal. It is possible to heal at all phases of this fight. The Dream Scythes' flight patterns are predictable; the Spinning Scythe and Galien, not so much. It is best to get to a place far from Galien but near where the Spinning Scythe just hit the floor and the where Dream Scythes will not travel to for a while. There might not always be such an exact spot, but the Knight can still heal a Mask safely in many similar scenarios.

To the left of Galien's corpse in Deepnest is a short path that leads to a Lifeblood Cocoon. This is advantageous to use as it lets the Knight take a few more hits.

Location
Galien's corpse can be found in the west part of Deepnest.

Trivia

 * Galien is the only Warrior Dream to control and use a physical weapon.
 * Due to a bug, Hatchlings from the Glowing Womb Charm do not target Galien.
 * While Galien's Spirit and corpse have a crack on his face, only his Spirit has a crack on his body. Whether this is intentional is unknown.