Gaming Hollow Knight - GOAT Metroidvania

dumbo said:
Nice one. I find him the hardest boss in the game in terms of avoiding his attacks, even harder than the true final boss. He has relatively low health though which makes him manageable, until you go back to fight him, then he gets stronger with each defeat. He's the one boss giving me the most trouble in the Pantheons.

I've started doing the Pantheon bindings and am eyeing a full completion. I'm approaching 60 hours now though so I might eventually put it down if I start running into walls.
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I'm now on the third fight and I cannot believe what is happening. You can randomly get into a situation where you're faced with 3 or 4 of those completely unpredictable jumping spawns, plus suddenly a screen full of exploding spawns you can't do anything about, and him jumping or flailing towards you while you simply can't move anywhere because the screen is literally filled with things that hurt you. This makes everything I've ever encountered in Sekiro seem like a walk in the park.

Edit: on the 4th fight, he's doing double damage now. Feck this shit! :lol:
 
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Ainu said:
I just beat Grey Prince Zote, feck that was tough. It seemed such a random battle, it didn't seem like I was improving at all the first 5-10 tries. Now I've beat him once, I'm interested to see how far I can take it, but I've read you need to be almost flawless by the end. And this is already with the pure nail and unbreakable strength.
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Think a lot of players just let him die early in the game instead of saving him. There's a 'Neglect' achievement for it as well if I am not wrong.
 
Moby said:
Think a lot of players just let him die early in the game instead of saving him. There's a 'Neglect' achievement for it as well if I am not wrong.
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He's still a complete twat after saving him, so yeah, if I ever do another playthrough I'm letting him rot. I even read that he doesn't show up in the final pantheon if you don't save him. Not that I'm ever going to attempt that particular ordeal, but it would surely be a lot more manageable without that crapshoot of a fight. I've decided to move on to the rest of the game to spare my sanity.
 
Just got the first ending with 103% completion at 71 hours. The boss wasn't too hard with all masks, vessels and some strong charms like unbreakable strength. Still a bunch of stuff left like all those dream bosses, the Grimm Troupe stuff (only summoned them for charm upgrading so far) and I guess whatever the white palace is that I've seen mentioned all over the place. I'm tempted to give some of godhome a go but I doubt I'll get far before giving up.
 
Fecking white palace. I just missed a platform and instead of dying I actually landed on another platform lower down, replacing my spawn point. That's at least an hour of hard fought progress wiped out. This isn't even path of pain. I could kill right now.
 
Im trying to get into this, but my brain is missing the part that let's you enjoy platforming indie games. Just does nothing for me.
 
feck! Motherfeck! fecking! feck! I just lost 3000 odd Geo and I feel like quitting this game. The only thing that's made me not rage smash up my living room was the company I had...

Tell me this is pocket change and not that deep, tell me I can get it back in no time :(

KirkDuyt said:
Im trying to get into this, but my brain is missing the part that let's you enjoy platforming indie games. Just does nothing for me.
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Keep going....
 
Late game geo is not an issue. If you still want early charms and upgrades then it can be a pain but it's likely only a mild inconvenience. The only time I've lost a shade it had 4k in it and I was annoyed but eventually it didn't matter. You never have the option to drastically overpower your character via currency like in Dark Souls. Affordable charms are the most beneficial way to maximise. I'd just plug on.

The only really expensive thing in the game is modifying 3 charms very late in the game.
 
KirkDuyt said:
Im trying to get into this, but my brain is missing the part that let's you enjoy platforming indie games. Just does nothing for me.
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I'm the same. But I think it's the Metroidvania aspect I'm struggling with. Every time I start, I haven't got the slightest clue what I'm doing :lol:
 
Moby said:
:lol:
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:lol: I felt like an idiot. But I was surprised how quickly I could redo that segment, it didn't feel that hard the second time. I'm finished with the White Palace now but didn't find the entrance to Path of Pain. Perhaps it's for the best. I went ahead and changed the Kingsoul into Void Heart. Man, this game.
 
Ainu said:
Fecking white palace. I just missed a platform and instead of dying I actually landed on another platform lower down, replacing my spawn point. That's at least an hour of hard fought progress wiped out. This isn't even path of pain. I could kill right now.
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I have a feeling I know the exact area, hard to explain but do you have to dash across a spike floor behind a platform so you can wall climb to a check point, then you have to jump across 3 spike floors on platform and if you miss on the right of the 3rd one you fall back down. Happened me there 3 fecking times.
 
afrocentricity said:
feck! Motherfeck! fecking! feck! I just lost 3000 odd Geo and I feel like quitting this game. The only thing that's made me not rage smash up my living room was the company I had...

Tell me this is pocket change and not that deep, tell me I can get it back in no time :(



Keep going....
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Its a fair bit to be carrying to be honest. That said late game you'll have Geo you don't know what to do with. Its only really important early game for certain charms and notches.
 
Dirty Schwein said:
I'm the same. But I think it's the Metroidvania aspect I'm struggling with. Every time I start, I haven't got the slightest clue what I'm doing :lol:
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The good thing with Hollow Knight as opposed to most metroidvania's is you'll almost always stumble on something interesting or new while lost, as oppossed to something like Super Metroid that can leave you endlessly wandering.
 
padr81 said:
Its a fair bit to be carrying to be honest. That said late game you'll have Geo you don't know what to do with. Its only really important early game for certain charms and notches.
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:annoyed: :( I'll go back at some point..
 
padr81 said:
I have a feeling I know the exact area, hard to explain but do you have to dash across a spike floor behind a platform so you can wall climb to a check point, then you have to jump across 3 spike floors on platform and if you miss on the right of the 3rd one you fall back down. Happened me there 3 fecking times.
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Yup, it was exactly that spot. The worst part was I had already cleared those three spike platforms and managed to fall down by messing up the next section. But it's incredible how much better you get at it once you've done it, it became almost trivial the second time.

I just beat Troupe Master Grimm, what a fantastic boss! It's exactly the type of fight I love, fast and relentless but a clear pattern and no gimmicks or rng bullshit. Impossible at first but eventually you recognize each tell and get into a rhythm and feel yourself getting closer with each attempt, and almost without realizing you suddenly beat it. I know there's also a much tougher version, I almost look forward to it.
 
Did any of you guys do a lot of the GPZ fights? I'm attempting the fourth fight again after giving up a couple of days ago, but it really is like bashing your head against a brick wall and seeing what breaks first. I'm on dozens of attempts and I don't feel like I'm getting any better at this fight. I don't really see any strategy I can apply here other than trying to avoid all of his random attacks and hope for decent rng.
 
Ainu said:
Did any of you guys do a lot of the GPZ fights? I'm attempting the fourth fight again after giving up a couple of days ago, but it really is like bashing your head against a brick wall and seeing what breaks first. I'm on dozens of attempts and I don't feel like I'm getting any better at this fight. I don't really see any strategy I can apply here other than trying to avoid all of his random attacks and hope for decent rng.
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I'm up to eight, so it's now a two hit fight. Once you can survive for just a little while longer you can manipulate the charms so that for the majority of the fight you have the Fury charm active (1 mask left). It takes a bit of calculation, combining overcharming with the blessings to make it so that once you get hit you will land on 1 mask. The Fury charm takes him down very fast, so stacking it with the increased I-frame charm is doing the trick.

It still takes me a few goes to get favourable RNG but you don't have to get too much better than level 3 or 4. I can predict his running into me and judge my jumps a bit better but he'll still catch me often.

It's a fight that has to be done quick because some things seem impossible to dodge.

I'd tell you the combination of charms I used but I got lost on the number of Zotes I was on.

The last fight (7 I think) was overcharming with Joni's Blessing.

I'm stuck now with the next calculation (possibly harder than the boss himself now).
 
Ainu said:
Yup, it was exactly that spot. The worst part was I had already cleared those three spike platforms and managed to fall down by messing up the next section. But it's incredible how much better you get at it once you've done it, it became almost trivial the second time.

I just beat Troupe Master Grimm, what a fantastic boss! It's exactly the type of fight I love, fast and relentless but a clear pattern and no gimmicks or rng bullshit. Impossible at first but eventually you recognize each tell and get into a rhythm and feel yourself getting closer with each attempt, and almost without realizing you suddenly beat it. I know there's also a much tougher version, I almost look forward to it.
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Never managed to beat the second version. He’s insanely fast.

My previous playthrough beating The Radiance was my biggest achievement which I remember being super tough.

I still want to finish everything this time round, just haven’t played since my Series X arrived.
 
dumbo said:
I'm up to eight, so it's now a two hit fight. Once you can survive for just a little while longer you can manipulate the charms so that for the majority of the fight you have the Fury charm active (1 mask left). It takes a bit of calculation, combining overcharming with the blessings to make it so that once you get hit you will land on 1 mask. The Fury charm takes him down very fast, so stacking it with the increased I-frame charm is doing the trick.

It still takes me a few goes to get favourable RNG but you don't have to get too much better than level 3 or 4. I can predict his running into me and judge my jumps a bit better but he'll still catch me often.

It's a fight that has to be done quick because some things seem impossible to dodge.

I'd tell you the combination of charms I used but I got lost on the number of Zotes I was on.

The last fight (7 I think) was overcharming with Joni's Blessing.

I'm stuck now with the next calculation (possibly harder than the boss himself now).
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I'm running a pure attack build for exactly that reason, to get him down quick. Unbreakable strength, quick slash, mark of pride and spell twister (I've also tried replacing the last with sharp shadows). The only problem I have with the strength charm is you can't bump the volatile zotelings out of the way as one slash kills them. I want to learn how to abuse desolate dive's i-frames on his ceiling attack but I'm terrible at triggering it with the joystick. Also, I don't know what it is with this fight, but I sometimes feel like certain inputs are lost. Like I swear I pressed jump but it doesn't happen. Maybe I'm panicking and pressing too many buttons at once but I haven't noticed it in other fights.
 
I just finished Zotes.

Last charm set up was: fury, strength, quick slash, I frames, steady body (no overcharming)
2nd to last was: Joni's, Fury, strength, quick slash, lifeblood heart* (overcharmed)

2 hit builds. I didn't use any spells just lots of quick slashes. Spells are apparently very viable but I don't like the vulnerable casting frames against Zote.

*might have been Lifeblood Core if it doesn't add up right.
 
dumbo said:
I just finished Zotes.

Last charm set up was: fury, strength, quick slash, I frames, steady body (no overcharming)
2nd to last was: Joni's, Fury, strength, quick slash, lifeblood heart* (overcharmed)

2 hit builds. I didn't use any spells just lots of quick slashes. Spells are apparently very viable but I don't like the vulnerable casting frames against Zote.

*might have been Lifeblood Core if it doesn't add up right.
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What do you mean by I frames? Sharp shadows I presume? Surprised with the steady body to be honest, how does it help here? I'll give some of these a go later tonight.
 
Ainu said:
What do you mean by I frames? Sharp shadows I presume? Surprised with the steady body to be honest, how does it help here? I'll give some of these a go later tonight.
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This guy:
ceefae5a697de7b396564bceb2254285454dfdb4_hq.jpg
 
That is something I did like about the game, certain areas and bad guys call for different abilities so there was a nice strategy element to the game. How how many here have done the Grim Troupe add on?
 
Gambit said:
That is something I did like about the game, certain areas and bad guys call for different abilities so there was a nice strategy element to the game. How how many here have done the Grim Troupe add on?
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I played through Grimm Troupe yesterday. I loved the Grimm fight but I went for the banish path, so I haven't fought NKG yet. I'll try it in godhome eventually.
 
Ainu said:
Fecking white palace. I just missed a platform and instead of dying I actually landed on another platform lower down, replacing my spawn point. That's at least an hour of hard fought progress wiped out. This isn't even path of pain. I could kill right now.
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White palace almost broke me. Wish they had left that part out of the game.
 
I honestly don't understand how you did it @dumbo. Another hour of non-stop GPZ training and I'm not even a little bit closer. This is fight four. You did ten. You're a god-tier gamer in my book if you can do that. Orphan of Kos or Sekiro's final, four-stage fight were cake walks for me compared to this. I could train this guy 10,000 times and not get closer. Running out of ideas here.
 
Shamana said:
White palace almost broke me. Wish they had left that part out of the game.
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I loved it but it comes very out of left field, there are literally zero tough platforming area's before it and than bam. I'd say instead of leaving it out they could have added one or two tricky platforming bits into the normal games, a couple of tiny pieces of Queens Gardens aside there is none. Its like the platforming difficulty goes from 0 to 100. I used the
hiveblood charm
to allow me to regenerate health to get through it first time, once I knew I couldn't die I was sorted it was a lot easier with no pressure, On my ps4 run it was a breeze I had played it so much on pc.
 
Also fair play Dumbo, thats some amazing dedication. I never beat Zote more than 4 times. Felt like torture.
 
Right, after about 5 hours and a couple hundred attempts, I've finally beaten the fourth fight. I don't think I learned anything, it could probably take me another 5 hours to repeat that. At least a certain NPC is gone, but I'd hoped he'd actually shut up now. He's still standing there spouting his nonsense to absolutely no one. :lol: I really should've let him die in that cave.
 
afrocentricity said:
feck! Motherfeck! fecking! feck! I just lost 3000 odd Geo and I feel like quitting this game. The only thing that's made me not rage smash up my living room was the company I had...

Tell me this is pocket change and not that deep, tell me I can get it back in no time :(
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Turns out that it wasn't that bad of an L. I got most of it back in my next session. Still... It hurt losing all that geo!
 
Can someone give me tips on the quickest and easiest way to complete the main campaign? I've just realised there are charms... What the feck are these? Hahaha any help would be appreciated!
 
Full 10 Zote strats (differs from pantheon Zote):

All shock waves are single jumps. Double only in emergencies. The biggest trick to the fight for me was nailing my jump arc so I'd skim the shock wave and land within striking distance.

It's a two hit fight so forget healing.

Dont use spells. They take too long to launch and I can't afford the charm set up.

Speed is key because I'm not good enough to endlessly avoid being hit. The longer it goes the higher the chance of getting hit.

Good RNG will decide if you have a shot at winning. You can die in the first 10 seconds, or just before you are about to kill him. Thems the breaks.

Forget the shadow dash strike charm and learn the distance of normal dash, you'll need the notches for I frames, quick slash, fury of the fallen and the one-mask health calculation. I do use shadow dash for zote in the pantheon though.

Stand to the left of his initial spawn within hitting distance, two strikes then watch he doesn't walk towards you, if he does try to dash out (not through). He'll still probably tag you.

When he runs at you with sword , slash bounce three times on his head, then double jump up and land over the shockwave for a couple of slashes. (25% chance of missing a slash bounce and getting hit)

When he fake out runs with sword and just falls over, dash out (75% chance of still getting hit).

When he jumps out of screen, dash as far as possible to the largest open area of the screen and he should spawn the other side of you, jump just over shock wave then a few slashes then out. (10% chance he spawns on top of you)

When he shoots mini zotes hit them asap, unless it's late fight then wail on him.

When he summons exploding zotes, dash out and try to find space but keep him in sight if possible, also pray. (50% chance of getting hit by something).

3 and 4 were the hardest zotes.

This is just my strats, other methods might be better.
 
@dumbo nice writeup. When I finally beat fight 4 I think I only took 3 hits, so yeah maybe given enough attempts I could get it. But I don't really see the point at this stage, I'm as good at this fight as I'll ever be, I'm not going to improve anymore. And I seriously need a break from it. There is just too much about it that annoys me, like the way he can suddenly laser jump to your position from anywhere, including off screen (I don't mean the ceiling drop, which is generally doable). Or you get caught in a corner between him and his volatiles and he casually decides to walk into you, so you try to dash through him but, nope, he suddenly decides to move back and your dash iframes are ruined. Having a jumping zoteling around that you failed to deal with immediately also stresses me the feck out. Quite frankly, it's probably the most frustrating boss design I've ever seen in a video game.
 
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