Category:Combat (Hollow Knight)

Combat
Enemies	Bosses	Colosseum of Fools
Damage Values	Warrior Dreams	Spells and Abilities
Nail	Nail Arts	Charms
Hall of Gods	The Eternal Ordeal	Pantheons

The massive world of Hallownest boasts a vast array of bizarre creatures, most either Infected or determined to kill any intruders. The Hunter's Journal is a compendium for all these creatures, and defeating a specified number of a certain enemy reveals additional information about them.

Bosses are unique enemies in Hollow Knight that typically have higher health and, sometimes, even deal more damage than the standard enemies in the same area. A boss may have to be defeated to access a new area, acquire an item, complete a quest, or simply further the main story of the game.

When a boss is encountered, their name appears on-screen, and the music changes into a battle theme.

Some bosses have alternate versions that can be accessed by Dream Nailing their corpse and are usually more challenging than the original fight. Defeating these dream bosses awards a large sum of Essence.

Bosses that were already defeated can be re-battled in the Hall of Gods with some twists including more difficult modes. Pantheons are also available in Godhome, with each Pantheon acting like a boss rush with a set selection of bosses. The Eternal Ordeal, which is an infinite waved enemy gauntlet, also exists hidden inside the Hall of Gods.

The Colosseum of Fools is an area in Kingdom's Edge where three Trials may be participated in. In these Trials, waves of enemies can be battled in an arena observed by a crowd of bugs and the corpse of Lord Fool.

SOUL is the term used for the white energy extracted from striking enemies and Soul Totems. It is represented on the HUD by a circular meter that fills up with white liquid, revealing two eye holes and giving the meter the appearance of a face. SOUL is used during combat to perform Spells, or to heal.

Nail Arts are abilities within the game gained from Nailmasters. These powerful attacks have to be charged up but can deliver a powerful blow to finish off or heavily wound an enemy that would've normally taken more hits to kill.

Parrying

While some bosses have a parry move, it is also possible for the Knight to parry certain attacks of enemies and bosses.

Most attacks that have a white line trailing them can be parried. These attacks can only be parried with regular Nail strikes, and not with Nail Arts, Spells or any other form of damage. Parrying an attack grants 0.25 seconds of invulnerability.

Boss Staggers

Staggering is the event of stunning a boss and causing them to be incapacitated for a couple seconds, giving the Knight time to either heal or use a stronger attack such as a Spell or a Nail Art.

• Damage is not calculated for staggering a boss, but rather the number of hits – this can be done through:
  • Nail
  • Spells
  • Nail Arts
  • Thorns of Agony
  • Glowing Womb
  • Sharp Shadow
  • Grubberfly's Elegy
  • Super Dashing
• Not all bosses stagger.
• Hitting most bosses while they are staggered automatically ends the stagger.
• Some bosses stagger in a special manner and have special events.
• Combos decrease the number of hits needed to stagger a boss but have a requirement of doing a certain number of consecutive hits, with each hit being done within a set amount of time in between each other or the hit combo counter resets.
• Heavy Blow decreases the number of hits needed for staggers by 1, including combos.

There are two cases of staggering that do not follow the rules stated above and are based on damage, but are still considered "staggering" due to the resulting animation and sound effect. These two are False Knight/Failed Champion and the Radiance/ Absolute Radiance. Related effects are listed on their pages.

Trivia

Due to a coding mistake Oro's Dash Slash attack can be parried by any source of damage that has a hit direction, including Spells, Crystal Heart, and Sharp Shadow.