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In this article, I will discuss the main elements of the game, Hollow Knight, and provide a general (without spoilers) overview of the game.

This week we have been fighting Dream bosses and ascending the heights of Hallownest without the double jump Originally Streamed: 2020-11-30 - Watch live at.

1. This guide aims to cover details regarding essence collection in Hollow Knight. In particular, this guide will give the basics of dream nail use to collect essence, the total (known) essence in the game, the locations where you collect essence, and the rewards the Seer gives for reaching certain essence amounts. Basics of Essence Collection.
2. I think you can also get essence from the White Defender and The Grey Prince though, in addition to the 3 main dream bosses, and the White Defender is pretty easy. That said, I'm guessing you want the true ending, and you should probably brace yourself because the true final boss is much, much harder than the normal dream bosses.
3. Lingering Ghosts of particularly strong bugs, Warrior Dreams are a unique form of Boss in that the Knight can only challenge them once they have acquired the Dream Nail. Defeating a Warrior Dream rewards a large amount of Essence.

The first thing I want to acknowledge is that this is one of the best games I have ever played to date. I currently have ~100 hours invested in the game, and though I am not technically far from the ending, it’ll likely take me quite a bit of time to get through the final content. This is due to the fact that this game is extremely challenging, especially for me, since I have never played a platformer before.

Hollow Knight, developed by Team Cherry, is classified as a metroidvania platformer, and has many elements to it, making it a very full and rewarding game.

The game takes place in Hollownest – a surprisingly vast and intricate kingdom that has fallen ill with a strange infection, which the protagonist, who I have named the Little Knight, must subdue or defeat. As if it wasn’t impressive enough that all of the art and animation was hand drawn, each section of the map contains it’s own unique art style; and both the complexity of it’s layout and it’s aesthetic make the exploration aspect of the game intriguing and exciting.

And, for you completionists out there, there’s even a few collection features embedded within the exploration element. One such objective involves saving the oh-so adorable grubs, which have been captured within glass jars and hidden throughout the world. There are also Wandering Roots hidden throughout the game that unlock platforming challenges which reward the player with Essence – a form of obtained energy that can be used to unlock rewards. Even the area-maps must be acquired through exploration, which you must purchase from Cornifer the Cartographer, who’s tucked away safely within each section. Secrets are hidden behind breakable walls or concealed entryways, and charms, which can be equipped to enhance the Little Knight’s abilities, can be collected as you explore and fight your way through the poor (and violent!) unfortunate souls that have succumbed to the infection.

The difficulty of Hollow Knight lies within both platforming challenges and the combat found throughout the world. You start off with very minimal movement abilities and a single melee attack, but as the game progresses you learn various spells, additional movement actions (such as wall-jump, double-jump, and dash), and strong attacks that make the combat more varied. As a player, you cannot just rely on learning these new abilities to grow stronger; you’ll have to sharpen your own reflexive skills to quickly react to enemy attacks and tailor clever charm layouts to assist the Little Knight accomplish specific tasks.

Regarding charms and charm layouts, here are some of my favorites:
Exploration Layout (10 charm notches required): Wayward Compass, Gathering Swarm, Steady Body, Grubsong, Mark of Pride, and Quick Slash
Platforming Challenge Layout (10 charm notches required): Hiveblood, Steady Body, Longnail, Sprintmaster, Dashmaster
Boss Battle Layout: because each boss battle is different than the last, you’ll have to play around with charm combinations to find the best layout for each fight, but some of my favorite charms to use are: Dreamshield (I love this charm), Stalwart Shell, Defender’s Crest, and Unbreakable Strength, and in fights that require you to dash through enemies (like the Lost Kin or Hive Knight), the Sharp Shadow + Dashmaster combination works very well.
Note: You start out this game with merely three charm notches, but you’ll collect more as you progress in the game. Also, some charms fill multiple notches (typically the more powerful charms cost more notches).

Enemies are plenteous in the depths of Hollownest. Each with their own specific attack(s) and difficulty. Common enemies wander around aimlessly throughout the world and often only have one type of attack. More difficult, and less common enemies, such as the Husk Guard, are tucked away in specific areas within each region and will have higher health and 2-3 different types of attacks. In addition, there are also mini-bosses and bosses, which do not respawn upon defeat and have the highest amount of health and range of attacks. Mini-bosses average about 3-4 attacks and bosses average with a whopping 4-5 attacks, which occur randomly throughout the fight.

And, as if there were not enough enemy types, there’s also dream warriors, which are slightly more powerful mini-bosses, there’s, what I refer to as, “super-bosses” that deal 2 damage (versus 1) per hit, and finally, there’s dream-bosses, which are insanely more difficult versions of bosses you’ve already defeated. I mean it when I say insanely. These fights will drive you insane.

I dug up some videos to share, of which display some of my early-days in the game, as an example of some of the enemy’s you’ll encounter:

Since I showed you some clips that may make it seem like these successes were a breeze for me, I’ll share with you a video capturing my failed attempts at defeating the Failed Champion (the dream boss version of the False Knight):

Throughout my playthrough of Hollow Knight, my failures far outnumber all of my total successes. When I first started this game, I compared myself to videos of challenge victories that I found on YouTube, and it always left me feeling very disheartened. So, if you are currently playing this game and experiencing some frustrating difficulties – you are far from alone. This game is a rinse & repeat type. It tests your patience, your resolve, and as I have mentioned, even your sanity. So keep your chin up. Defeat is not a testament to your value, it is a learning tool; you’ll fail over and over again as you hone your instinct and sharpen your reflexes. Failure also allows for positive traits like persistence and endurance to grow strong, so, when you’re beating yourself up for all the mistakes you’ve made, which will be present even in your successes, stop, take a deep breath, and focus instead on how far you’ve come. You can do this.

Hollow Knight Essence Farming

Now! Let’s talk about the platforming challenges! They are my favorite aspect of Hollow Knight, mainly because, though they were often just as difficult and trying as boss battles, they lacked the chaotic, unpredictable nature of those fights. You see, the courses never changed, so even though you’d beat your head over the same metaphorical wall (or in some cases, quite literally) over and over again, once you solved a portion of the puzzle, each attempt was more or less easier than the last, which made progress much easier to track than other elements of this game.

There were a few different ways the game introduced these challenges to the player. Some were simply put in the environment to keep you from progressing to an area until you acquired the proper movement abilities (a way to keep the game paced and leveled), and some were tucked away within the map to hide a treasure of sorts. In most cases, the treasure was a trapped grub in which you were promoted by their sweet, pitiful cries to heroically save from their glass imprisonment. Others led to a charm or a mask shard, etc.

Another type of platforming challenge presented involves gathering Essence, a resource gathered from Whispering Roots and utilized in this game to upgrade your Dream Nail and teleport using the Dreamgate. When one strikes a Whispering Root with the Dream Nail, spheres of Essence are revealed, which the player must collect. And, of course, the game doesn’t make this as easy as it sounds; the spheres, which one must use their wits and deft movements to acquire, are often scattered throughout an intricate platforming course placed in hazardous locations.

One thing in common, however, is that each challenge requires you to utilize all your movement abilities precisely and adeptly.

Below are some examples for your viewing pleasure:

And, finally… THE WHITE PALACE! The most difficult platforming challenge in the game. Not only is this longest, most intricate challenge, but there are no save points. What does that mean you ask? That means that if you were to quit midway and return later, you would have to start the challenge entirely over… yes, I mean all the way from the beginning. Truly, this course is designed to test you mentally, emotionally, and physically.

I started up Hollow Knight late at night thinking to myself… I’ll give the Palace a shot. I have to work in the morning, but it’s okay; I won’t get far. But, oh ho! As fate would have it, that would be the night I finally succeeded!

Halfway through, my fingers were shaking and my palms sweating from the physical toll on my hands. Each level in the Palace harder then the last. I trudged forward. My mental focus unwavering and intent. But, towards the end, the levels were starting to feel like each was the last. There would be a crowd of creatures bowing to me as I passed… a door up ahead… the music became more pleasant and triumphant. I finally got to the end!

And yet, I’d walk through the door, the picture would wane to black, and as it faded back into view, before any visuals were present, I heard it. The damn sounds of saw blades buzzing off somewhere ahead of me. There was more! Seemingly a never-ending maze of saw blades and spikes! Before the true end, I tell you, I was legitimately in tears.

It took me a long time to get through, and when I cut out my errors, my recorded run (originally ~40 min long) was condensed to a measly four minutes. Albeit, this is a partial recording of my entire run, once again because the tediousness of trying to record gameplay via Xbox Capture is not ideal, so there are some parts that are simply lost to time.

Regardless of the percentage of successes versus failures, let me tell you, the elation and jubilation I felt when I finally found myself at the end of that hellscape is incomparable to any other video game experience I’ve had to date.

The White Palace is also home to the Path of Pain. Whereas the White Palace is required to achieve the “good” ending of the game, the Path of Pain is completely optional. I have goosebumps typing this out. Why? Because this particular course is the most deadly, dangerous place in the entire game.

You’ve seen from my platforming videos how when you hit some spikes or make a mistake of any kind, the game kindly puts you back to your last checkpoint. That way you don’t have to start the level entirely over from the beginning. Not only does the Path of Pain have the most difficult, if not nearly impossible, course, if you make ONE mistake, you are sent back to the very beginning. That’s right. No checkpoints. No saves. Just death. Over and over and over and over again.

As you can probably tell, I have not gotten very far in this course. Not even far enough to post any video of my attempts and still hold your interest. You may be asking yourself, why? Why, if entirely optional, would anyone take on this endeavor?

Well, for bragging rights, I suppose. And you know what? If you got through it, you deserve to boast. You come to me telling me a tale of your victory over the Path of Pain, and I will be thoroughly and wholeheartedly be impressed. Show me a video of you getting through it, and I might just have trouble holding back my urges to throw myself at your feet. 😉

Though, I have always been a RPG player, Hollow Knight, my first experience with a metroidvania platformer, has become one of my favorite games. Though, I can’t say it beats out Dragon Age: Inquisition as my favorite, I can say that Hollow Knight is a far superior game. Near perfect.

It has just the right balance between challenging and conquerable, it provides a lucrative environment to explore, the music is *astounding* (I often use the soundtrack to heighten the mood intensity of my D&D sessions), and the mechanics are intricately varied so that there are many different play-styles at your disposal. Some people use spells a lot, others use powered attacks, and some prefer taking advantage of charm combinations to unlock special abilities, etc.

And the story! Oh man… I promised no spoilers, but I could write paragraphs just about my thoughts on the story. I will say this, however, the story is INCREDIBLY buried in this game. It is not obvious, not stated, and it requires you to do a lot of digging, exploring, reading, and remembering. You’ll get snippets of conversations, you’ll find things written on stones, and none of it ever really makes any sense. You can think of it like yet another puzzle to piece together. Once you have enough of the pieces, you can put them together, and once you do… what you find will shake you to the core. (I have goosebumps again)

Well, that’s all I have for you, folks.

Silksong, the follow-up, is due to release at some point this year, so if you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you give Hollow Knight a shot. And, it isn’t only me! This game is rated 10/10 by ~74,000 people on Steam and highly rated on all its available platforms. You can find it for sale on Xbox One (included in GamePass), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC for a mere $15, which includes all the expansions.

One final fun fact: This game was partially funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising over $57,000 by the end of 2014. It makes me happy to know fans had a hand in the game’s creation. 🙂

Until next time…

White Palace is a Location in Hollow Knight. Please see Walkthrough for other areas. The palace of The Pale King that has mysteriously vanished from the kingdom of Hallownest after the spread of The Infection. It is only accessible via the dream world by dream nailing the corpse of a Kingsmould with an Awoken Dream Nail.

General Information

• Previous: Teacher's Archives
• Next: Temple of the Black Egg
• Bosses: N/A
  

Video Walkthrough

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Map

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NPCs in the area

• The Pale King (Corpse)

Bosses

• N/A

Items

Materials & Consumables

• N/A

Equipment & Upgrades

• N/A

Key Items

Enemies

White Palace Walkthrough

Getting into the White Palace

The journey continues as players will set forth into the White Palace. And to do this, you'll need to enter the Dream World by dream nailing the corpse of a knight at the Palace Grounds which is located at the Ancient Basin. However, you'll need to acquire the Awoken Dream Nail to enter.

To acquire the Awoken Dream Nail, you'll have to collect 1,800 Essence from defeating Warrior Dreams, dream bosses variants, and by extracting a few Essence from Whispering Root Trees. Once you have the sufficient amount, head back to Seer and speak to it to upgrade the Dream Nail into the Awoken Dream Nail - upon upgrading it, you can head back to the Palace Grounds at the Ancient Basin and dream nail the knight with the Awoken Dream Nail which will respectively take you into the White Palace via the Dream World.

The White Palace

The White Palace is a difficult area that requires precise platforming and patience. It has three main sections that have Benches in between each one, and each section has a lever that you'll have to reach in order to gain access into the next section. Upon entering, you'll find a bench that you can sit on to rest, and not far from it is a lift but the gates around it are locked - continue heading east from the first bench until you reach a mini-arena where you'll face 1x Kingsmould, you'll have to defeat it for the gates to re-open.

After killing it, exit to the right side of the gate, climb up, then head left where you'll find a lever. Hit it then retrace your steps back to where the locked gates were. Hop onto the platform which will take you up to a higher level that has spikes on a few platforms, simply follow the path until you reach the entrance that will lead you into the second section.

Upon entering the second section, climb up the passageway where you'll hear bugs that are talking. These are the Royal Retainers, they are weak and can be killed with just one strike with The Nail. From here, you'll want to reach the top right corner of the section and into the next segment where you'll find the lever. However, It is blocked by the gates and you'll have to continue heading east where you'll come across a room that has circular saw blades moving horizontally.

Once you've made it across, you'll find yourself in another room that has the same circular saw blades, only this time, it is moving vertically. In order to reach the top, you'll have to simultaneously climb up the wall, then dash towards the other end to avoid getting hit by the blades, just be careful when you're about midway to the top since you'll come across a wall that has spikes and the movement of the saw blades will be different. To get to the top, you'll have to cling onto the wall then double jump in between the blades to avoid getting hit - upon reaching the top, head west towards the next segment where you'll find more saw blades surrounding the room.

Find Dream Essence Hollow Knight

Now, timing and precision are important to avoid getting hit by the blades and the spikes that you'll have to pass through. You'll have to head at the bottom part of the room where you'll come across a spiked area to work your way around to reach the west side of the room. Upon reaching the west side, you should find the exit that will take you into the next room where you'll find a lever at the bottom part. You'll have to do some platforming again while heading down to avoid getting hit by the blades.

Upon reaching the bottom, you'll encounter 2x Royal Retainer and a lever that unlocks the gates of the main switch for the lift. Hit the switch, then continue to your left where you'll find yourself back to where the main switch is, flip the lever then head back outside and head to the southwestern side of the room to reach the second lever to open the gates for the lift. You'll come across yet another platforming section that have circular saw blades, simply follow the path via the platforms until you reach the second main switch. Flip it then continue following the path that will take you back to the lift, ride it to reach the third section of the palace.

For the third section, you'll find yourself in a room that has circular saw blades and multiple Wingmould enemies. These beings cannot be killed and the only way to get through it is either by avoiding it or by hitting it with The Nail which will cause its body to disperse for a short while before it reforms its shell. You'll find a bench that you can use before entering the next portion at the top.

The next portion will be a long path that you'll have to go through in order to reach the switch that unlocks a gate. And you'll have to pass through more circular saw blades and spiked metals that emerge from walls, ceilings, and platforms. Simply follow the path and just keep heading to the top until you reach the throne room of The Pale King.

Upon arriving at the throne room, you'll find the corpse of The Pale King, hit its corpse a few times the other half of the Kingsoul charm gets knocked out from the corpse. Collect the other half to form the Kingsoul charm then head back to The Abyss.

The Birthplace

Once you've acquired the Kingsoul charm, travel back to the bottom of The Abyss. But before heading into the bottom, make sure to equip the Kingsoul charm. Now, head to the west bottom part of The Abyss where you'll notice the ground will start to shake and then open up a path that will take you further into the abyss. You'll encounter more Siblings as you traverse the area.

Simply head to the bottom part then go east until you reach the end where you'll find a large black broken egg. Strike it with the Awoken Dream Nail to enter the birthplace and use the platforms to reach the top where you'll find another Hollow Knight - a cutscene will then follow and the Kingsoul charm will change into the Void Heart charm. Up next, is the Temple of the Black Egg.

Video

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Map

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Trivia & Notes: