Look, let's be real. If you’re playing Hollow Knight, you’ve probably spent at least three hours staring at a "Game Over" screen while a tiny bug with a needle laughs at your corpse. It happens. Hallownest is a brutal, beautiful graveyard, and the bosses are the ones holding the shovels.
The thing is, Hollow Knight all bosses isn't just a checklist. It's a curriculum. Team Cherry didn't just dump 47 boss encounters into a map and call it a day; they built a mechanical ladder. Every boss you face is teaching you something you’ll desperately need for the next one. If you can’t beat the Mantis Lords, you aren't going to survive the late-game dance of Nightmare King Grimm. It's just that simple.
The Hidden Logic of the Boss List
Most people think there are only about thirty bosses. They finish the game, see the credits, and think they're done. Wrong. Depending on how you count them—and whether you include the masochistic delights of the Godmaster DLC—the number is actually 47 unique encounters.
We’re talking about everything from the pathetic Gruz Mother to the literal sun. Honestly, the way the game scales is kind of insane. You start off fighting a guy in a stolen suit of armor (False Knight) and end up challenging the god of dreams.
But here is the catch: most players miss the "Dream" variants. You might think you beat the Soul Master, but have you fought the Soul Tyrant? He’s faster, he has more orbs, and he basically removes your ability to blink. These aren't just "hard mode" reskins. They are the bosses as they existed in their prime, or as they are remembered in the terrifying collective subconscious of Hallownest.
The Big Three: Where Sanity Goes to Die
If you want to talk about the peak of the mountain, you have to talk about the Pantheons. This is where the game stops being a Metroidvania and starts being a boss-rush endurance test.
- Pure Vessel: This is the Hollow Knight before the infection rotted its brain. It is fast. It is surgical. If you try to heal, it will teleport onto your head and end your run. You don't "fight" Pure Vessel; you survive it.
- Nightmare King Grimm (NKG): Most people call this a dance. That’s because it’s 100% rhythmic. If you miss a beat, you take two masks of damage. It’s one of the few fights that feels impossible for the first fifty tries and then suddenly, something clicks, and you're moving without thinking.
- Absolute Radiance: This is the final boss of the final Pantheon. It’s a bullet hell platformer that lasts about ten minutes. One mistake at the very top of the climb sends you back to the start of the entire Pantheon. It's cruel. It's also peak Hollow Knight.
Why You Keep Dying (And How to Stop)
I’ve seen a lot of players make the same mistakes. They try to "face-tank" everything. In some games, you can just trade hits and win. In Hollow Knight? You’ll be back at the bench before you can say "shaw."
Stop relying on your Nail for everything. Seriously. Spells like Descending Dark (the dive) give you "i-frames"—invincibility frames. If you time a dive correctly, you can go right through a boss's attack without taking damage. It’s basically a cheat code once you master the timing.
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Also, your charm build matters more than your skill level sometimes. If you're struggling with a fast boss, why are you wearing Deep Focus? You’re never going to have time to heal for that long. Switch to Quick Focus or, better yet, go full offensive with Strength and Quick Slash. Sometimes the best defense is just killing the boss before they have a chance to kill you.
The Ones Everyone Forgets
Everyone talks about Hornet and the Hollow Knight, but what about the weird ones?
- Nosk: The way this thing mimics your shape and leads you into a deep, dark pit in Deepnest? Genuinely creepy. It’s one of the few bosses that uses psychological horror before the fight even starts.
- The Collector: If you don't have enough Nail damage to one-shot the jars he throws, this fight becomes a nightmare of small enemies very quickly.
- Grey Prince Zote: This boss is a joke that isn't funny. He’s unpredictable because he doesn't actually know what he's doing. He trips, he flails, and because his movement is so "bad," it’s actually harder to read than a disciplined fighter like Hornet.
The Pantheon Grind
If you’re going for that 112% completion, you’re eventually going to hit the Godhome. This is where you’ll find the Sisters of Battle—a fight where you take on all three Mantis Lords at once. It is arguably the best fight in the game. It’s fast, it’s chaotic, and it feels incredible when you finally win.
But Godhome also introduces "Bindings." You can choose to lose your charms, half your health, or your soul capacity. It’s basically Team Cherry asking, "Okay, but can you do it with one hand tied behind your back?"
Myths and Misconceptions
There’s a common myth that you have to beat every boss to get the "True" ending. Technically, you only need the Dreamers and the Void Heart. But if you want the actual finality of the story—the "Embrace the Void" ending—you have to conquer every single boss in the game, back-to-back, in the Pantheon of Hallownest.
Another misconception? That the False Knight is the first boss. You can actually skip him entirely by breaking a wall above the arena door. You don't even have to kill him to progress. Most people don't realize how non-linear this game actually is. You can fight the Brooding Mawlek five minutes into the game if you're good enough at "pogo-ing" on spikes.
Your Path to Mastery
If you're stuck on a boss right now, here is exactly what you need to do:
- Stop attacking. Spend three rounds just dodging. Don't even pull out your nail. If you can survive for two minutes without hitting the boss, you’ve already won; you just haven't finished the job yet.
- Record your gameplay. It sounds nerdy, but watching your deaths in slow motion makes it obvious where you’re panic-dashing into a projectile.
- Change your environment. If a boss is tilting you, go explore a different area. Hallownest is huge. Maybe there's a Pale Ore or a Mask Shard waiting for you in the Crystal Peaks that will make the fight ten times easier.
- Use the Hall of Gods. This is the practice room in the DLC. You can fight any boss you've encountered on "Attuned," "Ascended," or "Radiant" (one-hit death) difficulty. If you can beat a boss on Ascended, you will never lose to them in a normal run again.
The beauty of Hollow Knight's boss design is that it's fair. Every single attack has a tell. Every scream, every twitch of a cloak, every sound cue means something. You aren't losing because the game is "cheap." You're losing because you haven't learned the language yet. Once you do, these bosses stop being obstacles and start being your favorite part of the game.
Keep your nail sharp and your dashes tighter. You've got a kingdom to save.
Next Steps for Completion:
Start by hunting down the seven Warrior Dreams (like Gorb and Galien) to stack up Essence. This unlocks the Awakened Dream Nail, which is the literal key to accessing the hardest boss variants and the true final encounters of the game. Once you have 2400 Essence, you’ve officially mastered the "Dream" world, leaving only the physical endurance of the Pantheons between you and total completion.