Hollow Knight walkthrough: an ordered route through Hallownest

Hollow Knight walkthrough: an ordered route through Hallownest

The first hours in Hallownest feel deliberately hostile. A new player drops into the Forgotten Crossroads with five masks, a fragile nail, and almost no map, and the only reliable guidance comes from the occasional bench or the distant croak of a Husk Miner. The reason a hollow knight walkthrough keeps appearing in player searches is that the game never hands out a quest log, never marks the next objective, and rarely explains why a locked door blocks a path until the right ability is found two regions away. This guide answers the actual player need: an ordered route that reduces backtracking, prevents the most common soft-locks, and explains when a wall is a dead end rather than a missing item.

The route below assumes the first-time path that covers all three Dreamers, breaks the Knight into the City of Tears, unlocks the Abyss through the Royal Waterways, and reaches the Black Egg temple before the Pantheons. It uses only mechanics that are visible inside the game itself. No glitches, no outside saves, and no mod-only skips. Where a step requires a precise ability, the guide names the ability, the rough region, and a fast sanity check, so the player can confirm they are not stuck before grinding.

How this hollow knight walkthrough is organized

Most player questions fall into a small set of buckets: where to go first, when to leave an area, how a difficult boss reacts, and how to avoid missing a permanent upgrade. The structure below mirrors those questions.

• An ordered area route, written as a sequence so the player can stop after any section and still be in a valid state.
• Ability checks that mark each transition between regions, so a wall is diagnosed before the player tries to brute force it.
• Boss fight notes that focus on the attack patterns that actually kill new players, not the patterns veterans already ignore.
• Geo and charm advice limited to the specific decisions that change the run, instead of a general farming guide.
• FAQ entries for the late-game questions that show up the most once the route is mostly finished.

If the reader is returning to a save, jump straight to the section that matches the current ability set. The route does not require the player to backtrack for the story, but it does require three specific abilities: Mothwing Cloak, Mantis Claw, and Monarch Wings. Anything that mentions a higher wall or a black pit is gated by one of those three.

Route map and order of regions

The fastest clean route for a new save visits each region once in a way that respects ability gates, Dreamer placement, and the locations of the two tram stations. The table below is the same sequence described in detail in the following sections. Use it as a quick reference when returning from a previous region.

Step	Region	Entry requirement	Key pickups to confirm	Exit condition
1	Forgotten Crossroads	None	Vengeful Spirit spell, False Knight chest	Mothwing Cloak acquired
2	Greenpath	Mothwing Cloak	City Crest key fragment, Vessel Fragment	Mantis Claw acquired
3	Fungal Wastes	Mantis Claw	Simple Key, Mask Shard from Mantis Village	Tram pass unlocked, legs crossed
4	City of Tears	Tram or mantis path	Monarch Wings, Lumafly Lantern if missed earlier	Royal Waterways access opened
5	Royal Waterways	Monarch Wings or Isma’s Tear from Fungal Wastes	Isma’s Tear, simple key if needed for Dung Defender	City Crest returned, waterways shortcut open
6	Deepnest	Tram to Fungal Core or a quick path from City of Tears	Tram pass to Deepnest, Herrah Dreamer	Two Dreamers located
7	Resting Grounds / Crystal Peak	City of Tears exit	Monomon Dreamer, Crystal Heart	All three Dreamers active
8	Abyss and Black Egg	All three Dreamers awake	Void Heart, Shade Cloak path unlocked	Boss rush ready
9	Dreamers, Hollow Knight, and ending path	Black Egg entry	Ending triggers based on Void Heart choice	Credits reached

Each step assumes the player already explored the previous step to a stable state. The notes that follow explain the room that often confuses new players inside each step, so the route reads more like a checklist than a memory test.

Step 1: Forgotten Crossroads and the first boss

The Forgotten Crossroads has one job: teach movement and force the first ability. The early game is forgiving on health because the Knight starts with five masks, but the forgiving design hides the fact that almost every room in this area is a platforming tutorial in disguise. Falling off a ledge into a spike pit, for example, does not kill the Knight outright, it drops a Shade, and the Shade is where most new players lose their first real cache of Geo.

What to pick up before leaving

• Vengeful Spirit from the Ancestral Mound south of the False Knight arena. It is the first spell and the cleanest way to pressure the early minibosses without losing masks.
• The Geo chest behind the False Knight after the fight. A common soft-lock happens when the player kills the False Knight and then leaves through the wrong door, missing the Geo and the lore tablet entirely.
• A Mask Shard from the False Knight’s arena. Two masks feel like a small upgrade, but they make the next region dramatically more forgiving.

Where players usually get stuck

The wall east of the False Knight is the gate to Greenpath and looks climbable. It is not. The wall is the entry check for Mothwing Cloak, which sits in the dark tunnels just under the Gruz Mother arena. Until that ability is found, the player must drop back into the central hub, find the tunnels under the well, and clear a short sequence of goams. Once Mothwing Cloak is collected, the Greenpath entrance opens without any extra key.

Two other Crossroads soft-locks come up often in player logs. The first is the bench outside the hot spring: the bench looks like a save point, but the surrounding area is full of Vengeflies that respawn on every bench sit, so the player burns masks on the way back. The second is the tram station: it looks like a fast travel hub, but it does not open until the player has unlocked the Fungal Core side later in the run. Both soft-locks are easy to recognize once the player knows the visual difference between a powered tram and a dormant one.

Step 2: Greenpath and the first real platforming

Greenpath teaches a different skill: how to read a region. Moss chargers roll in fixed lanes, Mossy Vagabonds hide inside the soft floor, and the entire region’s acidity damage punishes the player for standing still. The first Hornet fight sits at the end of Greenpath, and it is the first boss that punishes panic rolling. A player who double-jumps into a Hornet dive learns the rule fast: Hornet never punishes the player for waiting, only for committing.

Path through Greenpath

1. From the Crossroads entrance, hug the left wall to find the bench and the first Stag Station.
2. Take the upper paths first to grab the Mask Shard near the Grove. Many new players drop into the arena too early and arrive at Hornet with three masks.
3. Save the Hunter’s Journal entry for the Vengefly King if the player wants a quick charm test. The fight is optional, but it teaches the dash-through-attack pattern that recurs in every boss afterward.

The reward for clearing Hornet is the first major ability in the route: the ability to cut vines and a small heal from the Shade Soul, which most players miss because the spell is hidden behind a breakable wall in the aftermath room. The walkthrough treats that pick-up as part of the same step because the player is already in the room.

Two pickups inside Greenpath are easy to miss on a first pass. The first is the Mask Shard sold by the Hunter in Greenpath for a small Geo fee, which is a fair trade if the player has been collecting Geo. The second is the Vessel Fragment tucked behind a brittle wall near the Hunter’s camp, which the player usually walks past on the way to Hornet and only returns to after the fight. Both pickups are recoverable on a return trip, so the walkthrough flags them but does not block the route on them.

Step 3: Fungal Wastes, Mantis Claw, and the first real wall

Fungal Wastes is the route’s first large hub. Two paths leave it: one leads toward the City of Tears, the other toward Deepnest. Both require the Mantis Claw, which is dropped by the Mantis Lords in the northwest corner of the Mantis Village. The Lords are the first real wall in the game because they punish hesitation, and they punish greed equally hard. The arena’s soft floor also breaks the usual “stay grounded” rule that worked in Greenpath, which is part of why the Lords feel unfair the first time.

What the Mantis Lords actually test

The Lords have three phases, and each phase adds one more attacker without changing the moveset. New players almost always die because they try to heal during the triple-spin attack, which the game explicitly punishes. The reliable strategy is to clear one Lord at a time, heal only during the calm frame before the next dash, and never heal when a Lord is mid-air above the Knight.

Phase	Attackers	What changes	Safe heal window
Phase 1	One Mantis Lord	Single dash, single dive	After the dash, before the dive
Phase 2	Two Mantis Lords	Two attacks overlap	Between the two dashes, only if both Lords are grounded
Phase 3	Three Mantis Lords	Triple spin replaces single dive	Never heal during the spin; only between ground slams

After the Lords drop the Mantis Claw, the entire map opens up. Climb the wall that previously ended Greenpath, cut the vine above the City of Tears entrance, and grab the Simple Key from the Fungal Core if the player wants the Dung Defender later. Fungal Core itself is not a required stop, but it is a fast way to unlock the second tram pass, which saves roughly ten minutes of backtracking later. The Mushroom Core NPC also sells a couple of useful charm upgrades for players who like the Spore Shroom or the Mark of Pride, and both are reasonable spends at this point in the run.

Step 4: City of Tears and the Royal Waterways branch

City of Tears is the route’s longest area, and the most common reason a hollow knight walkthrough search gets triggered here is the Soul Sanctum spell upgrade quest, which is fully optional. The required path through the city is short. Drop into the central plaza, reach the Pleasure House for the simple key, then push east toward the Royal Waterways entrance.

What new players usually miss

• The Monarch Wings pickup, which is the first double jump. The wings are tucked behind a breakable ceiling in the tower above the city’s central bench. Many players walk past the tower twice before realizing the ceiling is the gate.
• The City Crest, which is the second key fragment of three needed to open the City Storerooms. The third fragment is the King’s Pass charm reward if the player has the geo for it.
• The Lumafly Lantern if the player skipped it in the Dark Forgotten Crossroads, because the waterways and Deepnest are not navigable without it.

The City’s vertical design also has a small, easy-to-miss lesson: the Soul Sanctum’s spell upgrade NPCs only sell their upgrades if the player has already bought the previous tier. Skipping the basic spell means skipping the upgrade, and that is a common reason the City feels underpowered on a first save. The walkthrough recommends buying Vengeful Spirit before reaching the Sanctum, even if the player does not plan to use it much.

Step 5: Royal Waterways and the Dung Defender simple key

The Royal Waterways are a linear tunnel that branches twice. The first branch leads to Isma’s Tear, which is required for the acid pools in the lower waterways. The second branch leads to the Dung Defender arena, which is a soft gate on the simple key.

If the player is following the route in the table, the simple key came from the Fungal Core chest. The Dung Defender is an optional boss that gives a Pale Ore and a piece of lore about the Five Great Knights, but the only mechanical reward is a shortcut back to the City of Tears. Many walkthroughs treat this boss as required; it is not, and the route below skips it on a first pass to keep momentum.

The lower waterways also hide a small gruzzer arena that drops a Geo pile large enough to cover a Lumafly Lantern purchase if the player skipped it earlier. The arena is technically optional, but on a tight Geo run it is the cleanest way to catch up before Deepnest. The acid pools in the lower half of the waterways are not survivable without Isma’s Tear, so the player should not drop into them by accident and lose a shade pile they cannot recover.

Step 6: Deepnest and the Herrah Dreamer

Deepnest is the route’s first encounter with aggressive darkness, screen distortion, and enemies that mimic the Knight’s movement. The Herrah Dreamer sits at the far end of Deepnest, inside a spider web that the Knight can only enter once the player brings a Simple Key to the bottom of the web.

Why Deepnest kills new players

The Corrupted Husk, the Little Weaver, and the Carver Hatcher are not the real threat. The real threat is the maze layout. The Deepnest map reveals only the rooms the player has physically entered, and a missed ladder can cost twenty minutes. The fastest mental model is to always go down, never up, and always back to the tram station if the player feels lost. The tram pass in Deepnest is the single biggest time-saver in the area.

Two pickups inside Deepnest are worth the detour. The first is the Tram Pass itself, which sits in the southwest corner and is the single biggest time-saver in the region. The second is the Mask Shard sold by a spider NPC near the bottom of the maze, which is reasonably priced and saves a return trip later. The Distant Village is also the only place in the game where the player can buy a second simple key without farming, and on a tight run that key covers the Herrah Dreamer gate without backtracking to Sly’s shop.

Step 7: Resting Grounds, Crystal Peak, and the Monomon Dreamer

Once two Dreamers are found, the third is locked behind the Crystal Peak superdash. The route picks up Crystal Heart inside Crystal Peak, uses the dash to open the Resting Grounds elevator, and then visits the Seer for the third Dreamer. The elevator is the part most walkthroughs skip, because the game telegraphs it only with one faint music change as the Knight approaches the shaft.

The Monomon fight itself is a puzzle inside a dream. The player must attack the four floating husks that surround Monomon, then land three hits during the calm window. The fight is short, but the surrounding water damages the Knight, so the only safe heal is on the central platform between the husk waves. The Seer NPC outside the dream also has one of the only free heals in the game, so a quick bench-and-talk loop is a reliable way to refill masks before the Hollow Knight boss.

Crystal Peak has a small optional pickup worth flagging: the Pale Ore behind the breakable wall near the superdash tutorial. The walkthrough does not require Pale Ore for the clean route, but it is a useful upgrade for any player who plans to invest in nail damage charms later. The upper half of Crystal Peak, including the optional boss arena, is skipped on a first save to keep the route under 25 hours.

Step 8: Abyss, Void Heart, and the Black Egg decision

With all three Dreamers active, the Knight can return to the central hub and break into the Abyss. The path drops into the void, where the Shade Cloak sits and where the Void Heart choice is made. Void Heart is the only permanent change in the route that affects the ending. The walkthrough flags this as the single point where a save backup matters.

The reason a save backup matters is that the Void Heart upgrade is irreversible. For additional context, It expands the Knight’s shade into a controllable void tendril, and it gates the second ending. On a first save, the walkthrough recommends playing through the Hollow Knight boss with Void Heart equipped, then deciding whether to continue into the nightmare sequence or reload the backup for the first ending.

The Abyss also drops the Shade Cloak, which is the second dash charge most players miss on a first run. Without the Shade Cloak, the Knight only gets one mid-air dash, and a few of the late-game platforming sections become much harder. The walkthrough flags the Shade Cloak as a required pickup for the clean route, and the Void Heart as the only optional decision that changes the credits.

Step 9: Dreamers, Hollow Knight, and the final ascent

The Dreamers are fought inside the Black Egg temple in the order: Galien, Lurien, Monomon. Each fight is short and the same pattern repeats: the Dreamer floats, the Knight dashes through, and the Dreamer slams the ground twice. The safe heal window is the frame after the second slam, before the next dash. The three fights are identical in mechanics, but the visual palette shifts slightly for each Dreamer, which is the only in-game hint that the order matters for lore reasons.

The Hollow Knight boss itself is a longer sequence. The first phase is a beam-and-slam pattern, the second phase adds void tendrils, and the third phase adds Infection burst clouds. New players usually die in the third phase because they try to heal during the burst, which uses the same anti-heal pattern the Mantis Lords used. The Void Heart tendril, when equipped, clears the Infection clouds safely and turns phase three into the easiest part of the fight.

After the credits, the player who has Void Heart equipped can reload the save and continue into the nightmare sequence for the second ending. The walkthrough recommends at least one full normal ending before the nightmare run, because the nightmare sequence punishes undergeared builds and a player who has not seen the late-game charm set yet will likely burn masks on the final phases.

How to spend Geo without wasting the route

Geo in Hallownest is not a stat. It is a routing tool. The player spends it on benches, simple keys, mask and vessel fragments, and the King’s Pass charm. The single biggest Geo decision is whether to buy the first simple key from Sly early or grind it through the Crossroads.

Spend	Cost (rough)	When it matters	Walkthrough recommendation
First simple key from Sly	120	Unlocks Dung Defender and Herrah	Buy it; the time saved exceeds the farming cost
Lumafly Lantern	1800	Required for Deepnest and Waterways	Buy it once the City of Tears is reachable
Mask Shard from Sly’s shop	850 per shard	Indirect health upgrade	Save for the City of Tears bench run
King’s Pass charm slot	3000	Permanent charm slot	Buy it before the Abyss, not before

The most common new-player mistake is buying every charm and then having no Geo for the lantern. The lantern is the more important spend because it gates two regions, while the charm only changes build options. If the choice is between a charm and a lantern, take the lantern. The second most common mistake is selling all relics to the Relic Seeker in the City of Tears before unlocking the tram pass, which removes a fast travel option that the route above depends on.

Boss-by-boss approach notes

The route above already names each boss. This section lists the attacks that actually kill new players, plus the one safe habit that changes the fight. The notes are written in the same order the player meets each boss in the recommended route.

1. False Knight: roll through the overhead slam, hit twice, retreat. The rolling ball of armor is a separate enemy that spawns after the fight and should be ignored on a first run.
2. Gruz Mother: stay in the upper half of the arena and never heal under the body. The body contact damage is the real threat, not the slam.
3. Hornet: pogo on the downward thrust. The thrust is the only attack that has a long recovery window, and it is the only window that lets the player heal.
4. Mantis Lords: already covered above. The single safe habit is to never heal during a triple spin.
5. Dung Defender: optional. Roll through the charge, never stand in the corner, and the fight becomes free. The dung rolls are the real hazard, not the boss.
6. Herrah: the arena tilts, so the player must use the walls as platforms. Dash down-left, then up-right, and never panic dash into the spikes.
7. Monomon: the four-husk sequence is the only part that damages the Knight. Stay on the central platform between waves.
8. Broken Vessel: the arena is wide. The vessel’s lunge is the safe heal window, not the roar.

Two of these bosses, Hornet and the Mantis Lords, share a common rule that catches new players off guard: the safe heal window is the calm frame between attacks, not the recovery after a hit. Learning that frame once at Hornet is what makes the Mantis Lords manageable, and learning it at the Mantis Lords is what makes the Hollow Knight phase three manageable. The walkthrough treats that rule as the single most important habit to bring out of the early game.

Charms, abilities, and what to equip first

The recommended charm loadout changes three times in a first save. The table below lists the three loadouts and the reason each one exists. The walkthrough does not recommend a specific build because the player’s preferred playstyle should drive the third loadout.

Phase	Recommended charm set	Why this set	Switch trigger
Early Crossroads	Wayward Compass + Gathering Swarm	Map clarity, passive Geo income	Once the Stag network is unlocked
Mid route	Quick Slash + Mark of Pride + Longnail	Damage windows for the Mantis Lords	Once Mantis Claw is collected
Late route	Quick Slash + Spell Twister + Shaman Stone	Beam damage for the Hollow Knight fight	Once Void Heart is collected

The early charm set is the most important. Wayward Compass and Gathering Swarm together remove roughly 30 percent of the friction in the Crossroads, and they are the only charms a new player should not skip. Everything else is optional until the mid route. The mid route set is a damage-window build that works because the Mantis Lords spend most of the fight in recovery frames after a dash, and Quick Slash turns each of those frames into a guaranteed hit. The late route set is the only one that depends on Void Heart, because the tendril scales with spell damage rather than nail damage, and a spell build is the cleanest way to clear the Infection clouds in phase three.

Where the route can be safely shortened

The walkthrough above is the cleanest path for a first save. On a second save, or for a player who has already finished the game once, three areas can be skipped without affecting the route’s integrity:

• The Soul Sanctum spell upgrade quest, which is fully optional and only matters for charm builds that depend on Spore Shroom or Soul Catcher.
• The Crystal Peak superdash is required, but the upper half of Crystal Peak is optional. A player who only needs Crystal Heart can clear the entrance room and leave.
• The Queen’s Gardens is optional until the player wants the second simple key. The route above does not need it for a clean ending.

Skipping these three areas turns the route into roughly five to six hours for a new player who already knows the platforming, and seven to eight hours for a player who is still learning the dash. The full clean route, with the optional branches included, lands between 20 and 25 hours for a player who has never seen the game before, which is roughly the same length as the developer’s own estimate for a first completion.

Two more optional branches are worth mentioning for a second save. The Grimm Troupe DLC adds a small charm set and a difficult boss chain, and skipping it cuts the run by roughly three hours. The Godmaster content adds the Pantheons, which is a separate mode that does not gate the main ending. Both are reasonable skips if the player only wants a clean credits roll.

When the walkthrough itself fails

No route survives a missing item. Three cases break the path described above, and the fix is the same in all three: check the ability list, not the map.

1. If the Greenpath entrance never opens, the player is missing Mothwing Cloak. The cloak is in the tunnels under the Gruz Mother arena, not the arena itself.
2. If the Mantis Village walls are climbable but the City of Tears is not, the player is missing Mantis Claw. The Lords drop it directly; it does not need to be crafted.
3. If the Royal Waterways acid pools kill the Knight on contact, the player is missing Isma’s Tear. The tear is a separate pickup, not the Mantis Claw upgrade.

Two more failure cases come up often in late-game saves. If the Crystal Peak superdash is missing, the player never reached the upper Crystal Peak room, and the route stalls at the third Dreamer. If the Shade Cloak is missing, the Knight only has one mid-air dash, and a few late-game platforming sections become a wall. Both are recoverable pickups, and the walkthrough flags them as part of the late-game checklist so the player does not need to reload an older save to fix them.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a hollow knight walkthrough take on a first save?

A first save that follows the clean route in this guide takes roughly 20 to 25 hours if the player explores optional areas, and roughly 12 to 15 hours if the player skips the optional branches listed above. The biggest time sink is not the bosses; it is the platforming sections in Deepnest and the Royal Waterways. The route above reduces both by prioritizing the two tram stations.

Which boss in the route is the hardest for new players?

The Mantis Lords are the first real wall. They are not the most damaging boss in the game, but they are the first one that punishes the player for healing at the wrong time. Once the player learns the anti-heal frame, every other boss in the route becomes manageable on the first or second attempt.

Do I need a simple key to finish the game?

Yes, the player needs at least two simple keys: one for the Dung Defender arena (optional) and one for the Herrah Dreamer (required). The first key is easiest to buy from Sly in the Crossroads for 120 Geo. The second key is found inside the Fungal Core chest on the route above.

Can the walkthrough skip the Dung Defender fight?

Yes. Dung Defender is optional. He drops a Pale Ore and a piece of lore, but neither is required to finish the route. The walkthrough above skips him on a first pass and returns only if the player wants the extra mask shard from the City Storerooms.

Where is the Lumafly Lantern?

The lantern is sold by Sly in the Crossroads after the player rescues him, or found in a small chest in the Dark Forgotten Crossroads. If the player skipped both, the lantern is still required before Deepnest and the lower Waterways. The walkthrough recommends buying it from Sly to save the time spent on the optional chest.

What does the Void Heart change in the route?

Void Heart is the only permanent upgrade that affects the ending. The Knight gains a controllable void tendril that damages the Infection clouds inside the Hollow Knight fight, and it unlocks the second ending. The walkthrough treats Void Heart as the single point where a save backup matters, because the choice is irreversible without reloading.

Do I need to play the Grimm Troupe DLC for this route?

No. The Grimm Troupe adds an optional boss chain and a few charms, but none of the upgrades are required to finish the route above. The walkthrough skips the DLC on a first save to keep the route under 25 hours.

What is the difference between the first and second ending?

The first ending is a single cutscene triggered by defeating the Hollow Knight. The second ending adds a nightmare sequence after the cutscene and is only available with Void Heart equipped. The walkthrough recommends reaching the first ending once before committing to the second, because the second ending is harder and requires charm swaps that the first save may not have unlocked.

Why is the City of Tears so much harder than Greenpath?

The City of Tears introduces Soul Twisters, a flying enemy that the Knight cannot easily reach with a basic nail. The walkthrough recommends the Vengeful Spirit or Vengeful Spirit upgrade, both of which can hit the Soul Twister at range. The city is also the first area where the Knight encounters multi-room vertical jumps, so a missed Monarch Wings pickup is the most common reason the area feels unfair.

Is the route above safe for Steel Soul mode?

No. Steel Soul mode is a permadeath mode and requires a very different route, because the player cannot die at any point. The walkthrough above is designed for normal mode. Steel Soul requires a slow route that prioritizes the Stag network and the City of Tears bench before the Mantis Lords, which is the opposite of the order above.

Where do the three Dreamers actually live?

Galien sits in the Howling Cliffs near the surface, Lurien is inside the Watcher’s Spire in the City of Tears, and Monomon is in the Resting Grounds behind the superdash gate. The walkthrough collects them in a different order to keep the route linear, but the lore is read in any order.

What is the cleanest way to grind Geo early?

The Husk Miner ledge in the Forgotten Crossroads is the fastest early farm, but it is risky because the Husk Miner deals two masks of contact damage. The walkthrough recommends grinding the Gruzzers in the Crossroads over the Husk Miner until the player has at least 1500 Geo for the lantern, then moving on.

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