Stalking Devout

"Worshippers of Herrah the Beast. Shield themselves with hard plated foreclaws, then lash out suddenly to cut down prey. Powerful, well-armoured and fast, these are no mere beasts. Study their movements and watch carefully for an opening."

Stalking Devouts are enemies in Hollow Knight. They are cloaked worshippers of Herrah the Beast who use their foreclaws to shield their head.

Behaviour and Tactics
Found in narrow tunnels, sleeping. Upon engaging, it skitters back and forth, often waiting in one spot before moving again or attacking. It is invulnerable from the front unless it is attacking.

If its foreclaws are hit, it immediately retaliates. To attack, it opens its foreclaws, exposing its face for a moment before leaping forward in a flurry of attacks that deal 2 Masks of damage. Strike it when it is exposed and quickly dash away from its attacks.

When approached from behind, it does not attack unless hit. This provides a good opportunity to hit it with a Nail Art or a Spell or to use the Dream Nail to get SOUL.

It has no retaliation against attacking from above, so if possible, lure it into a more open room and Nail-bounce on it until dead. Using the Great Slash Nail Art on its foreclaws hits twice, once to open it, and one tick of damage while it is vulnerable; be sure to dash away immediately after the second hit to avoid damage. The same method can be used with Dash Slash from certain ranges, allowing a little more distance to be kept from the creature.

Another method to defeat it is to get close to it so that it opens its foreclaws to attack and then quickly swipe at its face before dashing away as it begin its attack sequence. This is the simplest and most risk-free way, but it takes a fairly long time to kill it. However, combining the Sharp Shadow Charm into this tactic can hasten the killing process by simply dashing through it instead of away from it whenever it attempts to attack. If fast enough, striking it again with the Nail immediately after dashing through is possible, making killing it even shorter.

Location
The Stalking Devout can be rarely seen in the west part of Deepnest and Distant Village.

Trivia

 * The Stalking Devout guarding Herrah's chamber disappears forever after Herrah has been killed.