After taking another multiweek break from this I played yesterday and today.I revisited areas I had already been to, but hadn’t fully explored them. I beat the Dung Lord without too much trouble. Then I headed back to Mantis Village, where I hadn’t done all the switches because the spikes initially frustrated me.
With a handful of deaths I managed to get to the Mantis Lords and damn they seem tough. I didn’t make it past the first one. I didn’t do too much damage before dying. So that is where I’m going to stop for now.
I looked at the table of contents for a walkthrough and it seems I have a ton left.
I’ve done:
King’s Pass, Dirtmouth, Forgotten Crossroads, Greenpath, Fungal Wastes, City of Tears, some of Crystal Peak, Resting Grounds, Royal Waterways, Fungal Wastes
I haven’t found: Deepnest, Ancient Basin, Kingdom’s Edge, Howling Cliffs, Infected Crossroads, Fog Canyon, Queen’s Garden, The Grimm Troupe, Final Steps
I’ve already played 30+ hours. How long to beat says the average time for the main story is 23 hours. I really suck at this and I’ve only made it this far due to stubbornness. Then I come against something like the Mantis Lords and I wonder if this is going to be the thing to break my will.
The mantis lords are not that hard once you figure out the pattern (also, upgrade your nail!). But I did give up on them initially, until I got better at combat and then beat them in two goes. So keep trying.
To hit them use a downwards slash while you are on the air jumping to evade their dash.
I went back and did several more tries and at least now I can get back to the Mantis Lords pretty fast without losing any / much health :-)
I did manage to beat the first Mantis Lord but quickly after that.
I have 6 charm notches with The Long Nail, the Dreamshield, and the Compass equipped. This is just my ‘default’ configuration. Since I know where I’m going I can take the compass off and equip the Thorns of Agony or the Defender’s Crest. Since the Mantis Lord zips from place to place I’d think the Thorns of Agony would be more helpful. The Baldur’s Shell could be useful, but that costs 2. I need one more charm to unlock the ability to purchase another notch.
I can see where fighting with magic would be helpful in this fight, but I prefer melee.
I took a break and went and bought the fragile heart and fragile strength charms. This gave me enough charms to buy another notch. First I had to farm some geo. Then I made my way back and equipped the Longnail, Dreamshield, Thorns of Agony, and Defender’s Crest charms. My intention was to practice a bit and then equip the fragile strength and fragile heart charms. But, I killed the first one pretty quickly and lasted quite a while after that. A couple more tries and I killed them all. Such a relief. While frustrating, it was enjoyable when I saw myself making progress and lasting longer before dying. Then I knew I had a chance.
Holy crap this has been confusing. I’ve been trying to get back to a known area. I explored much of Deepnest and beat the optional boss. I’m just trying to get back to the starting area. I keep exploring and find The Mask Maker, who does absolutely nothing. It was a long trek. Then I went all the way back down and headed left. I made it to Distant Village where a bunch of guys grabbed me and put me in The Beast’s Den… Now I’m wandering around here without a map. Those large tunnel beasts take some time to kill. I just wanted to see if I had enough essence to upgrade my nail again. I think that was what I needed so I could buy the material to do the upgrade. It’s been so long I’m not even sure.
Edit: Phew - made it out after absorbing a creature with the dream nail.
I started using a walkthrough because I don’t remember why I couldn’t go to some places and I got tired of walking back and forth. It looks like I started when maybe I was 75% of the way through.
I’m close, like really close - but I’m also kinda stuck. I need to win the 2nd challenge at the coliseum so I can get the final upgrade for my nail. I think I was close to that because I got to the part where you need to stay airborne while you fight.
I skipped to the next step and am getting pummeled by The Lost Knight, or Failed Knight, I can’t remember. According to the walkthrough I am close to getting to the final main encounter. Maybe I could just skip ahead to that, but i’m guessing that is really tough.
I’m happy I made it this far - even if I did cheat for the last little bit. I still had to actually do the stuff. Just not sure if I’m going to make it all the way.
Edit: OK, beat the Fallen Knight guy. Going to try again at the coliseum.
Edit: Beat challenge 2 of coliseum!
Didn’t touch this for about a month and The White Palace finally did it. It broke my will to continue. Holy crap it is brutal. It just requires more precision and skill than I can muster over the long haul. I watched a walk through of that level and I’m about 2/3s in. This guy who is good took just over 30 minutes to get through the entire level. I must have played this level for several hours to get where I am in the White Palace.
White palace is only needed for the hidden ending, and it’s definitely the peak of difficulty in the game.
Tip: get the honey charm. With that one you can refresh your hits in the white palace after each fall, making it equally hard, but more unlikely you’ll die and thus will never have to go back and repeat a previous section.
Yeah, I have the honey charm. Progress is just too slow as it takes around 30 seconds to regain the lost health each time. I think I’m pretty bad at this section.
How do you get the non hidden ending? If I can make a dash for that maybe I will.
I retreated from the White Palace and beat the Hollow Knight. I don’t care if it is the worst ending, I finally made it! Percentage was 93% with around 80 hours (yep I’m bad).
As much as I got frustrated I’m happy I played. It is a good game.
Oh, well done. It’s okay to stop somewhere. The game starts as a cakewalk, but I’m amazed at how hard it becomes.
The “fake” final boss is nowhere near as hard as the real final boss, which is nothing next to the optional Nightmare King Grimm.
The normal path through the White Palace is itself pretty easy compared to its optional super hard detour.
And then you can try the whole game on permadeath mode, if you want.
But that’s nothing compared to the super boss rush mode of 40 bosses, which lasts more than an hour with no break. And if that’s not enough, you can try beating the bosses on one hit death mode individually of redo the whole boss rush crippled in four different ways.
