Hey, Let's Rank the Hollow Knight Bosses Again 

Note: The charm recommendations suggested in most of the lower thirds are NOT full loadout recommendations! Your own playstyle might differ from mine, and your own charm loadout should follow suit. The individual charms listed with each boss are simply the ones I found to be the most helpful.

“Written with a code that’s literally smarter than you are” *Well, being smarter than me isn’t that hard*

Alternate title: Rusty ranks HK bosses in order of how pissed off they made him

14:38 “Not even Nosk’s infection attack can reach you if you just stand next to the platform” **Plays a clip of Nosk’s infection attack reaching you while standing next to the platform**

Lost kin in 15th: "This is the easiest of the sequel bosses" White Defender in 17th:😥

I feel like you've written down a lot of these insults with heavy internal frustration

Hornet Sentinel is easy, he says -has shade cloak

"Not only do not all three Mantis Lords fight you at once-" *foreshadowing at its finest*

The massive moss charger alliteration is by far the best dialogue I’ve ever seen in ANY media.

Things Rusty calls the infection: Offbrand dragonballs Orange ball of pain Herpes Snot Orange globs of cancer Sweat beads Orange soda Globs of 'ew' Lumps of concentrated syphilis

Rusty: Please don’t heal 2 masks on pure vessel at a time Me with Shape of Unn and Quick Focus: YOU DARE OPPOSE ME MORTAL

If you are having trouble with lost kin, I recommend the charm that make you have a poison cloud around you and you don't have to worry about the little flying dudes because as soon as they touch the poising cloud, they die

Time stamps: 1:29 Massive Moss Charger 2:11 Gruz Mother 2:58 Vengefly King 3:50 False Knight 4:28 Broken Vessel 5:19 Marmu 6:06 Flukemarm 6:44 Soul Warrior 7:25 Hornet 8:08 Crystal Guardian 8:53 Gorb 9:39 Soul Master 10:36 Elder Hu 11:10 THK 11:56 Mantis Lords 12:42 Xero 13:24 Dung Defender 14:17 Nosk 15:07 Brooding Mawlek 15:59 Oblobbles 16:43 Enraged Guardian 17:23 No Eyes 18:05 Winged Nosk 18:58 Galien 19:41 Oro and Mato 20:26 Uuwuu 21:24 Hive Knight 22:11 Hornet 2 22:56 Grimm 23:43 White Defender 24:21 The Collector 25:10 Lost Kin 25:52 Paintmaster Sheo 26:36 God Tamer 27:20 Soul Tyrant 28:12 Traitor Lord 29:01 Watcher Knights 29:55 Failed Champion 30:35 Great Nailsage Sly 31:21 Sisters of Battle 32:03 Markoth 32:57 Radiance 33:50 Pure Vessel 34:58 Grey Prince Zote 35:45 NKG 36:42 AbsRad 38:32 Outro

I didn't even realise that the moss charger was a boss.....

7:15 "All of his moves can be easily dodged-" *gets hit*

Coming back to this video again and feeling the absolute madness of being able to do multiple bosses radiant while still struggling with Massive Moss Charger Update: I've done it folks, Radiant MMC

24:38 Perfectly explains my feelings towards aspids, and had me howling the first time I watched it

If you’re having trouble with absolute radiance, I found that using wayward compass and gathering storm really helps.

I agree with everything except for hitting Grimm as he’s bowing. Dick move bro

22:53 seeing hornet sentinel with shade dash is cursed af

There are two bosses which I have gotten anxiety from, Winged Nosk and Soul Tyrant. Not because they were actually hard bosses, but because of POH. Winged Nosk is right before Sly and Soul Tyrant is right before Markoth.

14:38 "Not even Nosks infection attack where he stands in the middle of the room and starts flinging his snot everywhere can reach you so long as you stay ducked under the cravace of this platform" *Proceeds to get hit by said attack in said area*

The mantis lords were actually pretty fun.

The charm recommendations really shows his playstyle is mostly with the nail like a lot of bosses spell tools are useful, volt twister for dung defender to force him out the ground, the defenders crest for lost kin or the enraged guardian which is effortless with fluknest and shamans

It's honestly amazing just to see how much opinions differentiate when it comes to Hollow Knight bosses. If anything, I kind of wish more HK channels did this so that I could see what everyone else thought and see just how wildly different others opinions are. I guess I could use myself as an example. I would have placed NK Grimm as easier than Pure Vessel because NK Grimm is very rhythmic, and I never use nail arts at all which help me to get a lot more hits on him. As for tips when it comes to AbsRad, POGO ON THE FINAL PHASE! You don't even need to switch platforms, just doge until she teleports to you and then pogo on her body leading the homing orbs offscreen. Imo it's the easiest phase. Either way, loved the video and especially your sense of humor. It was seriously a joy to watch and I hope more channels do this too.

Secret number 0 boss: The endless army of Zotes. Litterally unbeatable.

#1 is : Primal aspid

The main problem I had with the oblobbles was how their acid balls were just slightly shot at a different angle so you can’t just sit in between the path

One thing to remember in the sheo fight is to pay attention to his brush, as each attack uses different paint, orange for discount dash slash, blue for not so great slash, red for off brand Grimm, and purple for rip off hive knight

The first time I fought the Crystal Guardian, I was just really, really desperate for a bench so I face tanked him in under 20 seconds with a -shitton- of spells and some desperate slashing and came out of that with one mask. Due to this, I never got his attack patterns down and Enraged Guardian took me about 13 tries.

Who else had the privilege of fighting the watcher knights without shade cloak and monarch wings? Edit: So apparently there's a speedrun category that does it without mothwing cloak Edit 2: Making it more clear, since some may have had more upgrades than others: I only had mothwing cloak, mantis claw, vengeful spirit, and a nail that was upgraded only once. I am aware that having ddive/ddark makes this fight a whole lot easier.

The Collector is basically defined by how upgraded your nail is. Coiled and Pure? One of the easiest bosses to deal with. Anything below that, especially Broken, much harder. Remember that on Low Percent Godhome runs he is normally the hardest boss in all the pantheons because spam

Tip: To get my shade back in the enraged guardian fight, I went an inch into the room and jumped up once to lure it towards me :) Another tip: I found that for Nkg’s flame pillar attack, you can hit him once sideways, twice from the bottom, AND still have time to heal. Also, if you can judge distance well you can sharp shadow close to him during his flame bat attack and hit him twice without taking damage. Three hits worth of damage. Didn’t have to use any nail arts. Last tip: I beat broken vessel first try because I spam slashed it while it was “headbanging.” Tanked only 2 hits of damage.

You can drain Crystal Guardian's entire health by standing next to him with the stinky charm before the fight even starts.

11:58 I think they don't all fight you at once because that would be dishonorable. They fight you one on one to see if your an equal to them and then they fight you two on one to see if you are superior to them. I imagine if they saw you as a huge threat that's when they would fight you three on one. That or Team Cherry just realized that would be too hard of a fight to put that early in the game

''tweedle dee, tweedle D#!?head'' made me laugh so hard i fell off mah gaming chair and stubbed my toe

...I just noticed something about Zote's arena. Whenever you get hit, Bretta claps. Whenever Zote is staggered, she gasps. I love little details like this one and Grimm's, but I was too busy getting slammed by Zote to notice.

“The soul warrior is barely even a boss...” Me, who died dozens of times to it, over-leveled, and only managed to beat it due to glowing womb: I’m not proud of my actions.

"Hornets second fight is the exact same as the first except she has 3 times the health and 3 times the *kill you"* Rusty 2019.

Rusty saying that Broken Vessel is easy… Me who almost immediately died to them but like- i didn’t even manage to kill soul Master yet- and even was stuck at soul warrior-

Fun fact: I watch this video like, at least every other week because listening to this guy creatively insult all the biggest bastards of my favorite game is a pastime I’ve grown to enjoy maybe more than I should. Every Hollow Knight player should be subbed to Rusty. and if you aren’t then you’re missing out

1st video: The Mantis Queens are actually pretty hard due to them being very unpredictable 2nd video: ...one of the most predictable patterns in the game

...I feel bad because Hornet the first time around was hard af to me

Rusty: Give this guys a protective cup? Markoth: You're gonna regret that

Broken Vessel is mostly challenging because he’s likely one of the first bosses you’ll meet where you have to multitask. It can easily get frustrating and overwhelming in his second phase when his sky cancer starts swarming you and you have to swat them away while still paying close attention to him and dodging him which sometimes said sky cancer will prevent you from being able to do. Also, no, you cannot stay in one spot to avoid the head bang attacks unless you happen to get lucky they cover pretty much the whole arena and are random.

The great thing about Hollowknight is every player plays differently and has different strengths and weaknesses. So while earlier in this video you feel embarrassed for getting really mad at that one boss, later you're laughing at the screen because you killed another boss in one try.

The Mantis Lords are my favorite Boss in the game because of the set up, your reward, and the fact that the fight is cut in two, one being a time to practice and learn the attacks and the second with using what you've learned from the first one but twice at once and faster.

My best advice for abs rad -take your time in phase one -try to do phase two fast, but heal if possible. You want to go into the climb with max health -pogo on the radiance’s head on the last phase, and make sure to stay above the screen. This way, the orbs won’t get you.

My Watcher Knight charm setup was Grubsong, Defender’s Crest, Weaversong, Glowing Womb, and Grimmchild. I don’t know how, but it worked perfectly.

"Bringing up the very back of this list is the MMC, the MMC. Identified by the Hunter's Journal as the MMC. But as M as that M may C across, this MMC poses only a MMC to your journey. This MMC may use his MMC to mask his MMC, but M to MC, this turns out to be a very MM of his C. Literally just stand in one spot and MM of this C, M it MC that this MMC is but a MM for your C. To MMC, M this MC isn't the MMC, but after you've finished M the M with this C, you can finally move on to something MMC."

"If I don't know what the hell I'm doing than you sure as shit don't." is a true art in fighting styles.

26:35 The fact that u ranked the God Tamer higher than the Lost Kin is genuinely hilarious. My pain brought the Lost Kin joy and euphoria, earning his spot as my second least favorite boss in Hollow Knight. I beat the God Tamer on the first try.

I've watched through this whole video and enjoyed it like 3 times now and Im still getting it in my recommendations.

Me who had more trouble with Hornet than Nightmare King Grimm: I think I’m missing something here-

"Strand of ethereal pasta" "Akimbo flashlight hands" The entire segment about the massive moss charger This video is so well-written it's ridiculous

On the topic of going under the platform for Xero; on my first playthrough I managed to get to the resting grounds through crystal peaks before even getting the dash let alone the mantis claw so I couldn't get back up onto the arena. And every time I died I'd go back to the first crystal peaks bench (the one in the dark room with all the rotating spike platforms).

This commentary is none other than sheer brilliance. Subbed on that alone.

Weird things i do in hollow knight: When a boss bows to me after we fight i WILL bow back Whenever I beat a dream boss i MUST shake my head up and down on their grave I MUST always talk to elderbug everytime i go back to hollownest What about you?

MMC he rhymed with theese letters for basically a minute straight wtf

I came back to this three years later and am still amazed how nobody mentions just how many times this man describes massive moss charger’s fight with mmc descriptions

Despite the many times as I disagreed with placements in this video, I have to say it is extremely well-written. An absolute joy to watch.

me, realizing how much i died over and over to a lot of the lower ranking bosses: ah yes. am bad at video games

"So, Broken Vessel is easier than your mom..." The quality I came for.

Gave a like just for the wonderful alliteration in the first two minutes Bravo!

Thanks for the charm reccomendations on brooding mawleck, it really helped :)

Completely agree with everything, but I played the game in such an awkward order that it took me like 10 tries to kill the SoulMaster but 2 to kill the Mantis Lords

oh so you can get rid of one of the watcher knights, cool. *W A I T H U H*

i love your commentary, actually funny af lol

I did Brooding Mawlek on my first playthrough, with no abilitys other than mothwing Cloak and vengeful spirit. It was so horrible and took me over an hour, but i did it eventually. And i was kinda dissapointed for just getting a mask shard.

I struggled on Marmu, I died about 20 times... until I realised I just had to stop jumping, then I beat him without taking a single hit lmao

12:18 "Random passerby at a grocery store" *bowing down to the knight*

the first time i had fought nosk was after the hidden dreams update so i had legitamately thought i was garbage for dying a couple times cause the hidden dreams update made him harder than i thought he was so i severely underestimated him

I only just started the video, but I can appreciate it when you find dozens of ways to use MMC in a single vid

I feel like I'm watching a documentary on hallownest's bosses by the hunter

1:30 Might you mute your misuse of m? 12:46 “General Grievous maneuver.” 37:03 “Written with a code that’s literally smarter than you are.” Amen to that.

Honestly I found fight with Eyeless warrior annoying at most just because I managed to cheese it XD. Don't stress, just stay at the middle of the floor under the statue. Most of the time NO ONE will touch you XD. You'll have 2 chances to hit her 2-3 times while she TPs to your right or left. I used the Quick Slash and manta's Mark of Pride charms. It's so fun watching you list the enemies I've already fought^^ In most cases patience is the name of the game, boss will come to you. Btw you sir are guilty of me playing the game -^-. I came here from TGN channel when you left and now I love HK so much! Thank you for all the fun and useful videos! You're the best^^

the amount of times ive rewatched this is insane

"If your nail is strong enough" Me: *Proceeds to not find a way to upgrade it till the soul master encounter*

about the hollow knight being "easy", from my perspective it makes A LOT of sense, it may be infected and going crazy, but i beleave its not completely insane by the infection/radiance, and why i think that ? during the fight it literally STABS IT SELF, so it can help the next vessel contain the radiance, if the hollow knight was completely into the radiance it would be impossible, because its literally created to be the perfect knight, (maybe stronger then the 5 great knights) + full power of the infection, we all saw what happened when the mantis lord used his full power + infection full power, he became stronger then his 3 sisters together. THE HOLLOW KNIGHT is easy because it WANTS YOU TO WIN, HK+full infection could be as hard as the radiance her self

I like to come back to this video every so often...its a fun little jaunt through a rather done persons description of a world of bosses to beat the shit out of.

I love your dialogue, it’s hilarious

Just realized for his massive moss charger everything he said had mmc

Rusty: * puts recommended charms * Also Rusty: *dosent use those charms*

2:17 that was the first supposedly? you mean i fought that false knight accidentally? darn…

Honestly just rewatching the absolute radiance fight is giving me a heart attack, I got all the way up to her final phase in the pantheon and died, I sobbed HARD. But luckily later that same night I defeated her. And cried again

How long did it take him to plan out all of those MMC puns lol

*Failed Champion:* Red Bull *Sly:* Cocaine Abuse *Me at 1 Mask:* PURE CAFFEINE INJECTION

i now forever admire this man because ive never heard him stutter

love how you so specifically describe these bosses

[30:54] "If that last guy was using Redbull as a pick-me-up then consider this dude just full-on cocaine abuse" IM WHEEZING

I love the script, my mind choked

fire vid, finally got into the game after seeing people talk about it for what- 7 years now? just beat p5, and i had saved this vid for after it so that I could compare it to my own. love the way this guy creatively insults each boss. also, either the game has changed a loooot or this guy ran the strangest charm setups, which, to each their own. i just find it funny

Here's something I've learned about watcher knights which trivialises the fight. Using Pure nail and Unbreakable strength makes each take 11 hits to kill in Godhome. If you're next to one when their attack ends, you can get 3 hits in (with quickslash), A good player can kill one of the two active knights and quickly kill the other before the newly spawned one even attacks, basically making the fight a 1v1 the whole way. MUCH easier. To do this I would suggest Mark of Pride, Longnail, Quickslash and Unbreakable strength.

The way he wrote the MMC section is just... I’m just... speechless

Except you still forgot the boss fight against zote the mighty.

3rd method for watcher knights, FULL damage build. Mark Of Pride, Strength, Quickslash, last two notches can be whatever but I suggest long nail. The goal is to kill each knight before the next gets a chance to attack you. Each knight takes 7 hits to kill with the pure nail + strength. If you are close the knights almost always use their double slash, you can safely attack three times in between their attacks. If you are quick you can kill each one is turn before the next one spawns, making this a 1v1 the whole way.

Since this was the video that got me into Hollow Knight, I just have to say, thank you so much for helping me enter this rabbit hole filled with bugs.

Me: *never watched a hollow knight video in my life* RU-vid recommendations: I HEARD YOU LIKE H O L L O W K N I G H T

I love these videos because every once in a while on the list I see a boss I beat first try placed higher than one that took well over 30 minutes

I return to this video every once in a while just to hear Rusty’s insane commentary