Top 10 Best Hollow Knight Bosses

Hollow Knight marks what is easily one of my favourite games in recent times, taking the metroidvania style gameplay of old, then adding even more freedom, along with an in depth combat system, amazing art style, and simply perfect atmosphere, along with many other amazing components. The game also features a lot of high quality boss battles, further increasing the all around quality of it, with this list detailing my favourites of them.This list will contain any form of boss, including dream variants and the like.
The Top Ten
1 Nightmare King Grimm

Still by far the battle that took me the longest to beat, due to it requiring great deals of skill, with no easy way to get past, meaning that the only way to win is to simply learn the patterns and get better at the game, which is always a sign of a well designed fight. The fight itself is quite fun as well, with a wide moveset making him quite difficult to predict, keeping you on your toes.

A carnival to perform in.

The goat cannot be beat

Fun very balanced

2 Hornet Protector

Okay, this fight took me about 45 minutes to complete, but it felt great. Every time I got knocked down, I managed to get 3 seconds more time to fight. I may have fought with only my nail in Fight 2, but IT WAS STILL GOOD!

3 Pure Vessel

I'll just say that The Hollow Knight is included in this, because that chap is the best boss in the game (in my humble opinion, that is) as you really sympathise with the pain and agony it's going through, especially in the third phase, where the fight slows down a considerable margin and it legitimately starts stabbing itself. The point is it's easy for that point in the game, because it feels like the boss doesn't want to fight: it wants to save The Knight from it's almost inevitable doom. Also, the music is ace.

One of the hardest bosses in the game if not the hardest without counting the Absolute Radiance, its difficulty is VERY high. He has very hard moves to dodge, sometimes he starts doing an attack that you can't even see it because its off-screen and he deals two masks of damage making this fight EVEN more difficult. But if you use your shade dash it will help you with the fight.

This is the Hollow Knight if he didn't keep attacking himself, and was scaled for endgame, making it one of the most difficult bosses due to its difficult to predict moveset and likely lack of experience against it, due to how aggressive it is, especially compared to its main game variant.

Pure vessel was so fun and challenging that I didn't really mind doing the whole pantheon again, even though I died about 15 times fighting him, tied for best boss in the game, because sisters of battle are amazing too.

4 Dung Defender

Fun to fight and nice and easy.

5 Radiance

Very hard moves to dodge and she very unpredictable making her difficulty high, but not as high as the other version (you know of what I'm talking about). But not easy as well, making her difficulty perfect. The music is undoubtedly the best soundtrack in the game and when you see those Siblings (dark enemies in The Abyss) rising up to kill The Radiance together... definitely the best fight in the game.

The massive scale of the boss is what makes it so impressive, with each attack covering the whole stage more or less, along with the fact that due to it being the final boss, being able to accommodate and be built around all of the abilities the player obtains throughout the game, leading to the fight being one of the most complex in the game.

Well it's the final boss, what do you expect. Also I'm not including this boss's far harder variant at the peak of the Pantheon of Hallownest, the Absolute Radiance. That whelk can go to hell.

6 Soul Master

An awesome early game fight. The top of the Soul Sanctum, at the roof of the City of Tears is such an awesome setting and it is also a really fun but challenging boss, probably the most difficult one at that point in the game. The music is really cool too and fits the Soul Master better than any other boss in the game, which is good, because this piece only plays here- making the fight that bit more memorable in my opinion. Also the lore is great, which is covered later in his second encounter in the Dream Realm. And, of course, there is the awesome fake-out section in the middle where you think you've beaten him but in fact that was just the first phase (I love that part and really didn't see it coming). Generally, the Soul Master is an unforgettable fight that is pretty underrated, though the backtracking through the whole Sanctum can get pretty frustrating if you died to this boss as many times as I did.

Definitely a great fight. Takes a few tries for even the best players, and can be either easy or hard, depending on your playing style. I love this fight, though it was, honestly, intimidating at first. His attacks are awesome, especially Desolate Dive - an ability you obtain. He also has a surprise second phase, which is definitely a shocker and a bonus. Overall, great boss fight that took me a good amount of tries.
I'd recommend learning at least one Nail Art (an easy one can be found at Howling Cliffs). I like that all of the previous enemies in the Soul Sanctum prepare you for the fight - e.g., the Soul Warrior helps you with the Desolate Dive and the Soul Twisters help you with the orbs.

Despite this boss being fairly easy, I find it to be a very fun fight, with each attack being well telegraphed and not too difficult, but the fight being all around difficult enough to catch new players off guard. I also find the fake out death to be really amusing, and the short second phase to be a fun way to cap off the good fight,

7 Grey Prince Zote

A pretty entertaining fight packed with humour, especially due to the fact that you're facing off against someone who is usually so unbelievably pathetic. His attacks are all extremely sloppy and amateurish in their execution, with one of his main attacks being running around while flailing his sword, which despite how stupid it looks, works quite well. The battle is amusing and cheesable, yet still decently challenging and fun.

Love his boss theme and the fact that his title gets even bigger each time you beat him plus he is ridiculously hard especially when he can one hit kill you.

Fun and its really satisfying to beat that dummy.

Some rare creatures are so pathetic so irritating that killing them give you no plesure.

8 Sisters of Battle

At the end of the mantis lords fight your like "ha, I bet I could take all three of them at once. This brings that thought to reaality

Take the already awesome Mantis Lords fight, and up the ante by a few thousand notches, making for the fastest fight in the game by far, while also being very fair and undoubtedly fun. The first time they were encountered was also such a surprise, making the battle that much more spectacular.

It was so fun and fast paced I didn't even know what was going on for a bit until I was instinctively dodging like a maniac, and just like that the fight was done. I love this boss, but pure vessel might be better. (I don't know yet)

I like this fight a lot because of its speed, you need to pay attention at every milisecond to try not to get hit, without counting the soundtrack that is beautiful too. All that makes the fight very very enjoyable.

9 Nosk

Kinda creepy and just an intimation of your self.

10 Mantis Lords

Best boss in the game. They built up the Mantis Tribe for the entirety of the Fungal Wastes. With NPCs and tablets talking about how dangerous the Tribe is. So, after getting the Mantis Claw and fighting your way through the Village. You meet the Mantis Lords just vibing on their throne.

The Mantis Lords don't attack you. You have to challenge them. The player challenging a boss is only reserved for The Radiance. This makes the Mantis Lords stick with you.

The fight is an absolute gem. With one Mantis Lord having a few but tough moves. After beating her, you initially think that it's gonna be a one after another fight. However, phase one was a tutorial, and the other two fight you at the same time.

After beating them, you get a few rewards. Hallownest further opens up. The other Mantises bow to you, not attacking you. And you get one of the best charms in the game.

Love this fight. Ridiculously good, makes you feel amazing when you're doing great, but doesn't murder you immediately for one mess up. Usually. Before I completed this boss, I could beat the first Lord hitless, and survive for about a couple minutes with two on the screen (I beat them after Hornet, so I didn't have Desolate Dive/D. Down, or Wraiths, or any Nail Art of any sort... :D) with some basic charms. Had the first Nail upgrade and that made everything a lot easier.

Definitely a highlight of the main game, being very fast paced and punishing in general, yet also easy to beat once you understand how to react to particular telegraphs. When the second mantis comes in, the battle becomes more fun, now forcing the player to keep track of both enemies, while still providing enough time to react and dodge, making for an extremely fun, fair fight.

Makes you feel like a God when you get the patterns down and is incredibly fun.

The Contenders
11 Great Nailsage Sly

The fights involving someone approximately of your size tend to be the more difficult ones, often having less windows in which you can punish them, along with them acting more human than most bosses. Nailsage Sly takes this one step further by not only doing all of this, but actually punishing you for being overaggressive, through folowup attacks that will only be used when the player is close, and otherwise will completely skip these attacks in order for the window of attack to be much smaller. This makes for an extremely cool, unique fight.

Who knew a little shopkeeper could be a great nailsage.

Big sword small boi

Just a fly in a shop.

12 Brothers Oro and Mato

The multiperson fights in this game are really great in general, with them all being highly balanced, providing ample widows both to dodge and to punish. While these guys aren't as fun as most other ones, I still find it to be extremely fun to fight them, with their delayed method of attacking being fun to figure out and play around.

They just wanted to be brothers and by each other again.

13 White Defender

Nice easy and just fun to fight.

14 Failed Champion

I didn't realise they could make the first boss of the game so challenging. The attacks here are lightning quick, leaving very little room to dodge or react. Despite this, once you figure out its ai, it becomes extremely satisfying to then take him down with very little issue, since it's the kind of boss fight that you'll either do near flawlessly, or die horribly, with very little room in between

15 Traitor Lord

The Traitor Lord is a really cool boss because it could go one of two ways, which is pretty nice. Also the gameplay is really fluid, and puts the shade cloak to great use.

Sharp shadow this dude

16 Lost Kin

Iost Kim is definitely a hard bosses due to the the quick and strong attacks. The design for a infected vessel is very unique and great as well!

17 Soul Tyrant
18 WInged Nosk
19 Gorb
20 Markoth
21 Brooding Mawlek
22 Vengefly King

I died three times when fighting this boss and only twice on sly MUch Harder

23 Hive Knight

Although not the biggest name in boss fights, Hive Knight is my favorite. Their theme is one of the best, and really hits home. Their mechanics are fun, even if they take a bit to get used to. And lore wise, the noble knight defending their queen and home, even after it's already fallen is really cool.

Their death animation, of kneeling in front of their dead queen with their nail for support and then finally falling, was really cool.

24 Gruz Mother
25 Hollow Knight
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