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i suck at combat and i want to be prepared for the end fight, I'd rather be over-prepared than under-prepared, I've already defeated Uumuu, i mainly use nail but advice on using spells are very much appreciated as well

When should i go to Deepnest for complete exploration.

I don't want to go there now; that place is dangerous.

I hardly make it out of there.

Instead, recommend to me where I should go next.

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These are the areas i have been to.

So I got an idea for a spin-off of Hollow Knight, but given I don't work there I've been keeping it to myself, it's basically about a Vessel scared by the abyss, he escapes and ends up in an advanced city currently at war, he joins it thinking at least he has another chance at life but soon finds out the city is more connected to his past than he thought.

That was the idea I always wanted to share it but I thought it was cringy, but now I'm getting more confident and wondering if I should write it out now? Like into a comic or story, and I am a stickler for learning and I wanted to ask, is it cringe? Or should I do it?

After like 35+ attempts I finally did it! It was so fun and awesome and I’m glad I’m done.

Can somebody help me

Happy Friday! (or Caturday or Sunday!) Welcome to our weekend flex thread.

This is a place where anyone can talk about what they achieved in the game this past week, areas or challenges they're working on beating, artwork they've been working on, and anything else generally related to Hollow Knight that they're proud of.

Please be respectful and follow reddiquette.

So, as far as I'm aware, there is no reference to a scene like this in any official material. But I've watched some Hollow Knight animations, specifically those about the Pale King, and I've noticed that some include a scene where an infected guard is presented before the Pale King by two other guards, and in some cases, the Radiance speaks to him through it. This appears in "Empires," "Touch-tone Telephone," and "Honey I'm Home" (not that one, the other one).

So does anybody know where this idea originated from? It's a pretty cool idea, so I'd like to know where it started.

First of all, I'm not hating on the game, this is my #1 favorite game of all time, and I have +250 hours in it and have done pretty much everything in the whole game, so I'm not a bad player and I actually know what I'm talking about.

So, this game starts off pretty simple, yet difficult. there are obviously some flaws in this game too, as no game is perfect.

first, I'm gonna talk about the health system.

Health System in late game:

so you have 5 masks, everytime you get hit, you lose one of them. healing takes a lot of skill as you have a limited healing source and the fact that healing takes a while so you actually have to learn when or where to start healing, or how many times you can heal.

This health system, is so good. I've never seen a game with a better health system than this. because you'll actually get punished for every single mistake. doesn't matter you get hit from a boss or the first few enemies, you get punished and that's great because in some other games, you take like no damage from first enemies and bosses, and at the same time you can get 1-2 shotted from some other attacks.

Everything just feels perfect in this game, until late game, Because you get 9 (or even more with charms) masks. collecting them is a fun challenge and doesn't get boring even on +10th playthrough, but I feel like it just makes the game somewhat unbalanced.

here's why:

So, remember the part where I said everything punishes you in this game, no matter a normal enemy or a hard boss?

The extra masks entirely ruin that.

like, you have 9 goddamn masks, so getting hit from regular enemies, or even bosses that don't deal double damage won't matter at that point.

Bosses like Sly, or lost kin, or even hornet Sentinel are actually much more difficult than people think they are. Sly is about the same difficulty as NKG, PV and AbsRad, and Lost kin is just a little easier than Sly.

The reason why people think they're easy is because you have 9 masks and you can almost tank them, now imagine if they had double damage. you would be actually forced to learn their moveset perfectly, just like you do with The top3 (PV, AbsRad, NKG).

They're all really good bosses, but they're kinda forgotten since they don't deal double damage and can be actually tanked. so people won't really remember their battles as much as the Top3.

The i-frames that you get in this game is also balanced, but it becomes OP once you get 9 or 11 masks. since you can just trade damage with bosses.

I think that's enough for the health system, let's get into the next reason why I think late game is OP.

The charms:

Charms are another fun thing to collect, and allow you to make your own unique builds, the one that fits best with your playstyle.

However, charms in Hollow Knight aren't balanced.

Here's why:

So many charms (like grimmchild, dreamshield, glowing womb, thorns, etc), despite being cool and unique, are actually really bad, to a point where I wouldn't use some of them even if they were free.

Their effect is so bad, or that they're too expensive, or that they have a huge downside makes them really useless and nobody uses them.

On the other hand, some charms (Strength, Mark of Pride, Quick Slash, Shaman Stone), are extremely overpowered, to a point where they entirely change the gameplay. Because they have literally no downsides, and they give massive upsides. Strength gives +50% nail damage, WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL? How is that balanced, making your most basic attack 1.5x stronger without any regard? Shaman stone buffing every spell and making them more than twice as strong, and quick slash giving a +33% attack speed isn't balanced at all. you just tank the bosses in lategame, you hit them so hard and so fast that they die in seconds, and you keep healing. the only thing you have to be afraid of is double damage bosses.

The nail range in this game is also perfectly balanced, but Mark of Pride makes this one unbalanced too. +25% nail range is a game changer, you can literally hit the boss in situations that you shouldn't normally be able to. it also makes the most important part of the game pointless, keeping your distance from enemies. contact damage is probably the hardest mechanic, but with mark of pride you can hit everything from a safe distance without having to worry.

There are very few charms that are actually balanced, sadly.

Spell Upgrades:

So, your first spell start off pretty balanced. dealing 3x more damage than your nail, at the cost of 33% of your soul.

In late game, spells are balanced, but they're not in midgame. (I know this post of was about Late game but let's talk about mid game a little too)

So, the problem is that you suddenly upgrade them, and they're roughly 2.25x as powerful.

It would've been better if there were multiple upgrades for them and they would just slowly get stronger, rather than becoming so stupidly powerful with 1 single upgrade in all of a sudden.

The damage you deal to enemies:

In late game, you just one or two shot almost every single enemy. combine that with the fact that taking damage from them REALLY doesn't matter, and the fact that you can hit them from an unreasonably long range with MoP and Longnail. It just doesn't feel right.

some bosses also die incredibly quick with all nail upgrades. More bosses should've gotten their health scaled with nail upgrades Imo.

In summary, the base game apart from the DLC bosses becomes somewhat too easy the more you progress.

When I was trying all bosses without charms and with bindings, I realized that even DLC bosses like PV and NKG where actually balanced around having no charms and base nail range and speed. (AbsRad though, is just not balanced around having no charms, it's so terribly long without strength and shaman stone)

Everything in the game feels much more fun when you have no charms, only 5 masks, and a weaker nail. the enemies die in 3 or 4 hits and it actually requires you to react to them properly.

I just wanted to say, I'm afraid silksong will get even worse than this in terms of game balance. you're definitely gonna have more build options and upgrades, and I'm afraid TC won't balance them probably and it will become something like Elden Ring were you almost 1 hit every boss.

Let me know what you think about the game's balance about charms and other things mentioned in this post, and correct me if I'm wrong.

So I just need some help with some charm combos for P3 because I forgot any good charm combos for the Pantheons and I have no clue what to use. Please don't tell me to use what ever I want because in this case it will do absolutely nothing at all. Please help

the consequences of my actions have hit me and now zote is beating my ass in p3 just because i beat his ass in the colosseum

what's a good strategy for defeating him?

these are the charms i've been using and what carried me through the previous pantheons

Mark of pride, longnail, unbreakable strength, soul catcher and grubsong

the last 2% i need is from p3 and p4 and i'm going crazy because i to get it before silksong

My ADHD usually stops me from fully beating a game pretty much ever because of completionism but I decided to give it a go while my son was napping and I got two endings! Anyway I think that’s enough for me and I’m not particularly worried about the Pantheons or Hall of Gods or AR, I feel like the only thing I haven’t done that I’d really like to do is beat NKG.

I had 3/4 shards of mask, gave my donation to the fountain, grabbed the floating shard, still only have 3/4 shards. What did I do wrong?

Or did it actually give me a piece of soul vessel?