Hollow Knight Charm Ranking & Analysis 

I always use Grimmchild, not because he's good. But because he's my son and I want to show him around the kingdom.

when i was fighting nightmare king grim i was so close to beating him and i acedentally dashed into him, and i had 2 masks left, but i forgot i had sharp shadow on and the damage made me win. which is why i personaly assault anyone who says sharp shadow is bad

I feel like people forget you can un-equip charms and switch them out for different scenarios. For that reason, I always use Compass and Gathering Swarm when traversing Hallownest. It makes it so much easier for me. And if I’m struggling with a boss, I just use Shaman’s Stone instead.

Little Disclaimer: The "hundreds" when he names the price at which divine will make leg eater's charms unbreakable are meant to be "thousands".

Even though it is a bad charm, Dreamshield will always have a soft spot in my heart for one reason alone. I wasn't very good at combat and I was trying to beat Markoth. I spent a LONG time trying to beat him and I just couldn't. I was about to give up when I said "Screw it, I'm putting on Dreamshield" so I did and Dreamshield got the kill. "HAHA! Your own weapon/defense killed YOU! TAKE THAT SUCKER!!!"

I was doing a steel soul run with grimchild equipped while exploring, and let me tell you. You do not know fear until you bring that child into the fog canyon charm notch room.

One of my favorite things about Hollow Knight is that immediately upon scrolling to the comments, I see people defending low tier charms and describing the ways they use them. It's really fun and I appreciate that no charm is truly useless. Edit: yay I get to do it too! I actually think Dream Wielder is crucial for colosseums, since it lets me grind out soul between waves on weaker enemies. I can just watch one of them float towards me, nail it, and repeat until my gauge is full, as opposed to only getting a bit from just killing it.

Compass is unironically one of my favorite charms. Its notch cost and geo cost is incredible. Even after beating p5 with 112%, I still use it on new playthroughs because sometimes I forget where I’m going.

I found Heavy Blow really useful in Colosseum of Fools - I attacking from above, I could strike flying enemies into spikes, getting rid of them quickly.

Shaman Stone being so easy to find is both a crime and a miracle tbh

Joni’s blessing helped me so much with later bosses. It’s very hard to find a window to heal in later bosses due to their aggression, and often times, I find myself only being able to heal when the bosses stagger. Joni’s blessing provides a massive health buff so you don’t need to heal, as long as you dodge well enough. It got me through the failed champion, grey prince zote, and nightmare king grimm easy peasy.

S-Tier charms 57:40 A-Tier charms 47:40 B-Tier charms 30:36 C-Tier charms 13:00 D-Tier charms 3:00

40:46 actually unbreakable heart costs 12,000 geo, not 1200, which is a pretty hefty price but still ultimately generally worth it

Kingsoul does has its usage: Overcharmed flower quest. I did it right after White Palace and right before Void Heart, Sealed Siblings and Radiance. Synergy: Shaman stone + Grubberfly's Elegy + Mark of Pride + Nailmaster's Glory + Kingsoul Overcharm The ridiculous cost is now nullified as you mustn't take any damage, and Kingsoul ensures unlimited spells

spore shroom is good in the lost kin fight because it can insta-kill the infected balloons making it safe to heal when he is staggered

Sprintmaster has always been one of my favourites mainly because boss fights like pure vessel or Grimm with the pillar attack makes it easy to dodge the pillars. It helps for dodging attacks not for traversing!

I just wanted to say that although yes, sporeshoom's damage is pretty neglegable later on, but in early game its actually pretty nice. You can get this charm before any of the nail upgrades, and then 24 spore schroom dmg vs 5 nail dmg doesnt sound that bad Either way, an amazing video!

I want to say I love Grimmchild, it was an amazing clutch in a lot of bosses for me and I love having that little companion.

So in defense of the hive's blessing combo, lifeblood cannot be recovered by focusing, so having a bigger delay on the regeneration makes sense as it's usually not supposed to heal back.

Weaversong + Grubsong was my favorite combo when I discovered it lol. Who needs Kingsoul? You can cheese a good number of bosses with them by clinging to the wall at the top of the arena with Crystal Dash and just letting your buddies go to town, with the Weavers providing the Soul needed to spawn Glowing Womb babies if you've got that one on as well. Optionally throw on Grimmchild, Dreamshield, Defender's Crest, or maybe even Spore Shroom/Thorns of Agony if you've got a spare notch or two, and you can KO bosses without ever needing to use your nail or any spells at all! It's such a scumbag build but I love it lmao. I don't need to get good at this game my friends can do it for me

honestly i'm surprised sharp shadow wasn't an a- or even s-tier, considering how fun it is and how useful it is in boss fights. i pretty much never take it off except when i'm platforming or doing flower quest

I used DreamShield as part of a passive build, for bosses that spawn flying adds like lost kin or Soul Warrior, because the shield kills adds like them and leaves me to not worry about attacking them instead of the enemy. Also, when you Focus, the shield spins like twice as fast.

What I like about Hollow Knight is that your combat-level is so fluid throughout the course of the game. Not only do you get better, faster and more responsive on a mechanical and numerical level, but as you unlock new charms you experiment more with magic, what properties of nail besr fits your style, going for maximum damage or a more passive playstyle, all without having to devote to a fixed level up or class system. Not only does the game become more fluid, but the player's mindset becomes more fluid too, just not in a sexual orientation-type way.

The one instance the dream shield worked very well was the crystal boss guy sleeping on the bench with the lasers. I stood there and let the shield beat him before he even woke up.

Actually heavy blow with the hidden function is actually arguibly optimal against a few bosses, inculding lost vessel, its counterpart and Sly. It`s pretty decent compared to a lot of other charms that are never good to use in the whole game, as opposed to being a great choice a couple of times in the whole game is a bit better. Sprintmaster is also pretty good actually. Max cheapness, and it`s useful for NKG and absolute radiance, especially radiant versions

Frankly I think in a lot of these tier list videos they don't take into account how hard it is to get a charm. I mean of course unbreakable strength is good, but you don't have it for 70% of a playthrough because of the 15k geo cost. Either way, good video!

Dreamshield holds a special place in my heart, as my first time fighting Nosk took me WAY TOO LONG. The time when I defeated him, I was so close to finishing him off but I was down to 1 mask shard. I kept dodging and dashing but he eventually got me and I died. Little did I know, the dream shield delivered the final blow AFTER I DIED. Best feeling I got while playing Hollow Knight.

Dream shield is actually pretty useful in crystal peaks because it can kill enemies you can't otherwise

I use Weaversong and Grimmchild when I fight Sly, because I REALLY suck at hitting him and finding spots to heal simultaneously. The build is basically perfect. At the final stage of the fight, I can almost never hit him without getting hit myself, and usually don't have enough Soul to heal and am at low-ish health. The Weavers give me constant Soul in case I get hit, and Grimmchild does most of the work when Sly's zipping around in the air. Tbh, only reason I stand a chance at p3 is because of these two.

Oi oi! I can't agree with Sprintmaster's placement in D-tier. It has little use for traversing the map, but when utilized in combat I praise it with the same merits you attributed to Steady Body; "it reduces the amount of gymnastics you need to perform to stay in safe zones." There are situations where the set-distance covered by a dash overshoots. Sometimes that means you'll end up being too close to the enemy, or too far, requiring you to waste time walking back into striking range. I'm a nail-focused guy myself, and Sprintmaster helps to maximize my up-time thwaking away at bosses as the extra walking speed makes positioning and sticking to bosses a breeze. The setup that I used to beat the Pantheon of Hallownest was Fragile Strength, Quick Slash, Mark of Pride, Steady Body, and Sprintmaster in order to create the ultimate nail build. It feels especially gratifying to use against bosses like Sly, as I'm able to weave in attacks in between his combos as I dart in and out of his attack range.

Baldur Shell+Thorns of Agony+Spore Shroom+Quick Focus absolutely carried me through Flukemarm

Me and my gf made an amazing build that destroyed the pantheon and everything else and it doesn't look too good on the surface Quick focus, deep focus, spore shroom, shape of unn, and grub song Quick focus + deep focus + shape of unn let's you run around quickly while healing 2 health Sporeshroom is just bonus damage that can help alot when healing this much Grubsong let's you do the main focus of this build, healing more We first tried Sly in the pantheon and I really didn't understand how people were having trouble with him but I understood when I fought him normally, so if you want an easy mode just use this build

This is a nice video, what a *charming* host!

A little note about the deep focus: Although it is true that it's usually useless in regular combat scenerios, i found one where its actually decent- Nightmare King Grimm. With Shape of Unn it allows you to heal though some of his attacks (fire bats and, floor spikes and fire pillars). Combine that with the fact that he is pretty hard to hit, meaning that you probably wont have that much soul to work with, so any soul that you can save ia valuable. Does it make it viable? Not really, it still costs you a lot of charm notches that could have been used on something more offensive, but still, its good for survival in this fight

One of my favorite challenges for myself is to beat Pure Vessel with only Sharp Shadow. No nail, no spells, no other charms, it's more fun than it sounds

Shape of Unn is still my favorite charm, I love the cute synergies and being able to heal while dodging specific attacks is very satisfying (I remember in the radiance fight being able to heal during the light beam attacks was very useful).

I took that intro to heart. I started my first playthough just a few hours later. Im currently about halfway through the game, and im loving it.

I think that Steady Body is actually a pretty good charm, I picked it up and started using it for boss fights halfway through my game. I already knew how to fight with knockback, but combined with quick slash, I dealt a LOT of damage. Steady Body is good. But not early in your first run.

Furry of the fallen is really useful if you keep almost winning boss fights and just need a little extra push

Dream Wielder is under appreciated by the content creator here. It's legitimately an S tier charm and for the cost of one notch turns any build into one that can spam spells at will. Cannot recommend this charm enough.

I don’t understand how Glowing Womb has 2 Function. For about a full soul charge, it deals 36 damage. For that same amount of soul, you could use Descending Dark, which does 60 damage, and that’s without Shaman Stone. It also interrupts healing. I wouldn’t equip it if it *gave* me charm notches. Also to anyone who doesn’t know, Grubberfly’s Elegy does not increase melee damage, the beam only hits enemies that don’t get hit by your nail. If I knew this it would have saved me a lot of trouble with GPZ 10 and some radiant bosses

OMG, at the end of the video when I saw the number of views I was shocked. You are truly underrated!

thanks for making this video and putting the thought and detail you did. I had this saved to watch later as I didn't want to spoil anything until I collected every charm, and blind test it. Hollow knight has quickly become one of my favourite games and I really love how every charm even when bad has a situational usefulness or unique fan tactic changing ability.

Great video! I've watched TONS of HK lore videos, this by far was the best breakdown of every charm!

Honestly, I clicked on this video to see what you have to say about Thorns of Agony. That's my favorite charm and I love having it equipped especially with Grubsong. See, despite playing Hollow Knight for... hundreds of hours... I'm pretty clumsy and often bump into enemies missing to hit them. With thorns dealing damage in this kind of situation, I can beat the boss much faster and not worry at all about small enemies. If equipped with Grubsong it will even give me soul allowing me to heal or use a spell, thus turning tragedy into not so bad encounter. And it's only one notch per charm! I can see why experienced players might not find it useful, but for clumsy beans like me I say it's a must-have

Fantastic video! I've always wanted to play HK, and this will be really helpful information to have as I start to collect/use the charms.

dude thank you for this vid. i was not aware of pretty much any of the charm synergies and this just gave new life to my perspective on charms

I love how pretty much everyone (including me) has atleast once equipped Grimmchild while exploring not to actually explore, but to show Grimmchild around the kingdom.

Wayward compass on top for sure

I actually think that sprintmaster is genuinely useful charm late game when conserving shadow dash is either crucial for dodging attacks or using sharp shadow and you cannot just dash whenever. I also found the synergy with weaversong and grubsong to be a lifesaver for heavy soul cost activities and general utility.

Great video man, really well thought out and this is a really helpful ranking. I was always wondering which charms might be better to use, and you even mentioned many times what charms are helpful to pair together with certain other ones. lots of hard work went into this video, that's easy enough to tell. awesome dedication, keep it up

Awesome video. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!

Even though quick focus + deep focus costs 7 charm notches, it is definitely worth the cost. In the pantheons, that combination single handedly allowed me to win. Combine it with sharp Shadow to dash away from threats faster and/or dealing damage, and even spore shroom, you have a really good healing/sustainability build. Also, quick focus is OP, should be SS tier imo. It allowed me to win nightmare grim and pure vessel, which otherwise I get destroyed by. Quick focus also help getting used to bosses’ attack patterns to. I got so used to nightmare grim’s attacks, I can basically no hit him now with relative ease.

Personally carefree melody is one of my favorite charms, especially in pantheons. I mostly play steel soul mode and this charm is super useful when it comes to steel soul.

I love how certain combos can work together really well in certain situations. For radiant fights, I usually use quickslash and mark of pride with grubberfly and weaversong. The first 2 buff grubberfly and weavers are for extra damage when they're doing spam attacks where I need to focus on dodging.

Very nice video! I actually used dream shield very often against boss fights. It might not be optimal, but it allowed me to change my play style to something safer and it worked. After watching the video I'm convinced Baldur's she'll would've done the same thing, but so many in this game is just personal preference... Amazing content

The best video on this masterpiece of a game iv seen. Very informative! Thx 🙏

Love the video, but I wouldn't put Soul Catcher ANYWHERE above the C rank. The difference is just so neglectible 95% of the time...

amazing video! helped me so much on my charm decisions

43:02 same here, I also love Sharp Shadow. Just the feel of hurting/killing your enemies by piercing right through them like a bullet is amazing to me! Especially better when you don’t get hurt from it!

34:46 My first playthrough, I thought dream wielder functioned like a cheaper soul catcher, and that the faster dream nail was just an added bonus. After dream nailing some fools in the colosseum a few times to see what they’d say, I ended up realizing that dnail gives soul, and ended up using it so I could heal off of shielded fools, death loodles, battle obbles, and sharp baldurs every time they appeared on screen, and is why I was never running low on resources by the time I made it to god tamer in the trial of the fool

on my first playthrough steady body was the charm i defaulted to whenever i had a spare notch available, meaning it was equipped about half the time. i always felt it was a nice bonus without being crucial. I'm a bit surprised to learn it's so controversial

Thank god there was still a video about Hollow Knight I hadn't watched, and a good one, thank you! Back to waiting for Silksong news now I guess :D

The statistics on most of these I guessed at, and it ended up being very similar on almost every one. Very solid list with only perception-based nitpicks to mention like steady body etc, liked it alot.

Shape of Unn in A-tier would make Merg feel proud.

I actually defeated NKG on radiant the first time with 3 charms from "the bad ones" tier. I couldn't defeat him with any other build. NKG is one of the top 3 hardest bosses in the whole game so only being able to defeat him with the worst build in the game shows just how useful any charm can be depending on who you are and what you fight (Minion build btw). Each type of build can be the best on multiple boss fights if you're not a very high level player.

great stuff and super helpful my guy, you got a sub!

Damn, starting video with Dung Defender theme, love it! Were trying to beat White Defender 3 last couple of days... Steady Body changes a lot indeed, as knockback sometimes is useful, for example to jump to an enemy over a spike pit and safely return back with basic movement only. I got used to it so much in trial of the fool that when I tried to do the trial with SB equipped I were sticking to the platforms, as I was dropping into the spikes each time I tried to do it.(That showed me I'm not as used to pogoing as I thought I was though)

One of the charms I think is great is Balfour Shell. When fighting the radiance, I never took it off as it prevented me from taking double damage at a failed heal. It is quite useful.

It's strange that they made Grimmchild so inefficient considering it's essentially the 'reward' for beating a whole DLC and definitely one of the harder charms to get, especially at full refinement. However, Grimmchild's cuteness makes up for it to me.

On my first playthrough, I was struggling with lost kin. I remembered that I had compass on, because who prepares for fights on a first playthrough, and went to changed it for steady body, since I figured it would help me chase him after pushing him away. Never really needed to unequip it, since a core build needs just 9 slots for quick slash, shamans and strenght. Filled last slot with grubsong and eventually beat p5 with that build. If I knew how good spell twister was I may have changed it, but idk

44:58 that sync with the nail hits wow

i like defenders crest... i like to think it carried me through broken vessel, that 1 damage every time i dodge his dash slash or slams seems like it added up

Heavy blow combined with steady body, sprintmaster and quick slash can be incredibly good with a very aggressive playstyle. Heavy blow can be good for any aggressive method of nail combat. Deep focus is also good for healing during staggered bosses.

I find that tier-listing charms for general map-roam and exploration vs for boss battles vs for colosseum of fools, all 3 are very different conversations, where say a good bit of low tier charms can shine really well in the colosseum for example, which is about when charm choices started to really really really matter lol

Love the Mark of Pride. Always favoured it over Quick Slash, because I wanted my nail to feel 'tanky', which is strange. Great video!

Dreamshield is my 14th favorite charm, you're insane. Also OF COURSE dreamshield doesn't compare to other 3 slot charms, it has the competition of quickslash, quick focus, unbreakable strength and mark of pride! The only probably is the main builds it fits into are not good builds, but just equip dreamwielder and it is a pretty good A tier charm. Ok and I now completly agree with you, glowing womb is some ass. 2nd to worst charm behind carefree melody. I would put Grimmchild a bit higher, though there is a good reason everyone hates it. My 6th least favorite charm. Same spot I put heavy blow as well, it sure does blow heavily. And also same spot I put Kingsoul, 5 charm notches when Grubsong out classes it and only costs 1. I put spore shroom a couple spots higher, but it still isn't good at all. I don't hate sprintmaster, I used this in my build and it fits quite nicely for a one slot charm. It still is worse than all the good 1 slot charms, but this is only my 11th worst instead of 7th. WHAT. I'm sorry, did I hear that right? My 10th favorite charm, Baldur Shell, at 8th worst???? This charm is great in a healing build, I use it with quick focus, deep focus, and fragile heart in a build. This charm rules, and you cannot change my mind. I just said I used deep focus in a healing build. You may know that quick focus and fragile heart are amazing charms, and I love baldur shell as well. The only charm here that isn't good? Deep focus. Because a fast paced boss battle needs a slow double heal. Tell me this. How in the FUCK are you going to get a heal off in Traitor lord or Galien with this thing equipped. I would love to hear it. I agree with this one, it is a harmless 1 slot charm, but defender's crest is outclassed in every way by better passive damage charms like *ahem* DREAMSHIELD! Greed is good early game, so I would say it is more of a midtier charm, but Gathering swarm was better. I don't know whether to disagree with you or say "FINALLY SOMEONE REALIZES HOW BAD THIS CHARM IS!" I know this charm is really good, but I hate it. I think it's the learning curve to using your nail the entire game and then using this thing. Hiveblood is a very contrevertial charm for me, but honestly I think you overrated it a bit. The only major use is in white palace. I used to think this charm was great, until I realized you can't heal. Still not awful, but when do you use this besides melee boss fights? Heart is way better than core, let me explain. You buy heart for 250 geo, and get 2 extra lifeblood. You have to go to the abyss, have 15 lifeblood when you get there, do a difficult platforming challenge and find the charm....... for 4 extra lifeblood. NOT WORTH! Ok can we all agree stalwart shell is the most forgetable, noobie MID charm in the entire game. Have you seen on a random comment section anyone saying "Stalwart Shell is so good, it's in my build!" or "Stalwart shell really sucks lol" No, you haven't. I actually use this charm in a damage build. Thorns are OP, and when I say OP I mean 16th best. Compass is the Charm I use to seperate the A tier charms from the B tier charms, with Compass being the highest B. This is so useful on your first playthrough though. Weaversong is my 3rd least favorite charm in the game. Melee enemies are all awful, unless grubsong is used, and in that case that doesn't make weaversong a good charm. It makes grubsong a GREAT charm. Carefree Melody is awful. You get this charm late in the game. I don't need invincibilty when I already have 8 mask shards, 32 nail damage, a shriek that does 120 damage, and every single power up. ALSO 3 SLOTS FOR A NEXT TO USELESS CHARM. This charm would be great if it were in the early game and cost 2 slots, and mods don't count. But as is, this thing sucks. Dash master is amazing. 8th favorite charm, and I always equip it while exploring. Also it looks like Sans. Dream wielder is OP. My 6th favorite charm because of the potential for spells and healing. 66 soul per hit on a fast dreamnail is insanly useful in all situations. Honestly, screw thorns, this is better in a damage build. Yea Flukenest is some ass. I think just like Grubberfly it takes a learning curve, but damnit, I want my venegful spirit spell back! Fury is a charm I feel like can be good, but the fact that you have to be at 1 health to use it really brings it down by a lot. I barely use it. Swarm is so good early game, I used it the entire time in city of tears and fungal wastes. Good times. Fragile heart is the 13th best charm in the game, it is really good for health and healing builds and is amazing early and late game. Come on, that's pretty darn useful, getting 7-8 masks before mantis claw. You know how I feel about lifeblood core. PUT IT EARLIER IN THE GAME! You aren't messing with the 7th best charm in the game. Sharp Shadow is by far the most underrated charm. It fits into so many builds, as a lot of the time 2 slots are left over in a build. Sharp shadow is great to equip in any of the builds. Soul eater is wayyyyy better than soul catcher, like come on, 19 soul per hit instead of 12 for 2 extra notches is pretty worth it. I don't like soul catcher that much, as it is the worst of the soul charms, and soul eater is really good. Fair placement though. Also- soul catcher, eater, shaman stone, and spell twister is an INSANE build. Steady body is useless when you don't use it and get used to normally countering the knockback. I loved that function, and steady body not only removed it, it also is hard to get used to. I don't like this charm that much. We all know how much use you can get out of 1 slot with grubsong, it is my 12th favorite charm and fits into a lot of builds, mainly damage and spell builds. Longnail is a great charm.... until you get the much better mark of pride pretty early in the game. Even the longer nail didn't serve that much use to me, as mark of pride even was a secondary option in my main build. I used to think nailmasters glory was good, equipped it all the time until I had a moment and said "Wait, when do I use nail arts?" Quick focus is my 5th favorite charm, and I used it at least 60% of the first playthrough. It's a really good charm obviously, and the fact that if you save up Geo you can get it early makes it even better. I never thought I would say this but you overrated Shape of Unn. It's a pretty good charm, but I never use it as part of my healing build as it seems oddly cheap but at the same time not great in all situations. It's still an A tier charm, but a very low A tier. Soul catcher is ok, but soul eater and all other spell charms are better. Mark of pride is the 4th best charm in Hollow Knight. The nail boost is pretty strong and it is good in a damage build. The only downside is the 3 charms better are all 3 notch charms, so unless you are fighting a radiant boss, this won't be in a normal damage build. Quickslash is my favorite charm. Strength is better, I know, that's what everyone says, but let's do the math. Strength turns 21 damage in 32. You can deal damage 2 times per second, meaning with pure nail and no other charms, that's 64 dps. Quickslash is 21 but 4 damage per second. 21x4=84 meaning quickslash has the dps of 84, higher than that of strength. 84 damage per second with no other charms is godly. Also my third favorite charm. The fact that you can get this mfer for 220 GEO AT THE START OF THE GAME is just crazy. This is the charm I used for the most % of the time out of any charm besides compass my first playthrough, and still use it actively in almost all builds. Spell Builds. This charm is only my 10th favorite, but pair it with shaman stone, soul catcher, and soul eater and boom, best charm in the game, actually no, best combo in the game. Unbreakable strength would be the best charm for me if it was useful early game. The fact that it is only great when you have pure nail brings it down to #2 for me, but once you get that pure nail, the charm is insane. This took 2 hours, hopefully Technovoid sees this!

This feels like it was made by a professional, keep it up!

To beat the Pantheon, I used the combo of deep focus/quick focus/grubsong/unbreakable strength against Pure Vessel and AbRad. I needed this combo for AbRad and had to practice using it against PV (since you can only switch charms before PV). So, this build, centering on Deep Focus, was awesome and IMO makes Deep Focus very good in boss fights where you can find spots to heal.

why am i watching a year old video at 2am of a game ive never even played before, idk either but its nice to listen to so imma keep watching

I always use a Steady Body build purely because I love the charm, simply removing knockback means you can really go brr, even if ya just get one or two extra hits, that makes a HUGE impact. I think it's really good against Pure Vessel, when he uses the spikes attack you can go brr. If ya wanna be safe about it, use MOP so ya don't gotta get dangerously close to the spikes if they spawn near Pure Vessel.

Sharp shadow is an absolute go to for me, makes dodging so much easier and rewards playing safe with damage. Dream shield feels really nice early on, carried me throughthe crystal peak and several bossfights

I am so damn happy that my favourite charm, Long Nail, is in the Great Ones section, as I myself think A- It looks really cool B- Is great for melee modes like I use often in battles C- Is a nice passive that just works all the time, and is not subjective to the ammount of hearts or damage. Also, hear me out on a melee charm option So LongNail - increases nail length MarkOfPride - increases nail length (now its a LONG nail) QuickFocus - as meleeing will make you lose a mask or two and if you have the slots (IDK how many there are in total to get) SoulCatcher to heal more

Spore shroom is something I will never unequip,ut helped me soooo much in the watcher knights battle and it handy in close quarters

I've stumbled upon this gem in my recommended today, underrated video for sure!

Weaversong, Grubsong and Sprint Master are a good way of safely generating focus. I used this build along with Sharp Shadow against the Traitor Lord, dashing through him, spamming Shade Soul and generally staying faraway from him. I don't know if I even hit him with the nail once. The fragile health and strength are a must for Dream bosses like Grey prince Zote, Soul Tyrant and Lost Kin.

The most helpful video I've seen on hollow knight yet. Thank you.

I used a healing build on NKG shape of unn saved me so many times. Sahpe of unn is one of my faves and I’m glad you put it in a high teir.

I just want to say if you combine defender's crest with sharp shadow, it becomes great combo.

6:04 I mean it makes sense for it to be weak from a lore standpoint since it is a baby

Quick Focus is a charm that I always have equipped because it's invaluable in boss fights. Especially against later ones. Bosses like Traitor Lord, Radiance, Pure Vessel, both Grim's, and all of the dream fights heavily benefit from the faster healing

during your video I beat NKG. Great video for background sound for comfort while I'm shaking with Grimm. Thank you.

59:47 it's not 65%. You can't do a nail attack until your nail's previous hitbox is gone so quickslash has an effective attack rate of 0.28 seconds. So it ends up being ~45% increase in dps, less than unbreakable strength. 1:04:04 entirely wrong. Soul catcher gives a 27.3% increase in your nail's soul generation while spell twister gives a 37.5% increase in the value of soul used for spell casting. If you don't heal, it's a direct upgrade.

1:05:05 I bought strength thinking it’d be a normal charm, I then came to the realization that it breaks if I die (I die to stupid things) And I kid you not out of pure coincidence I decided: what if I just summon Grimm, he sounds fun. Happiness peaked when I realized the vendor next to Grimms place could actually make them unbreakable However my happiness depleted once I realized it costed 15k and I was broke 💀

absolutely agree with so much that's been said. Thorns of Agony was indispensible in my casual playthrough, but since getting quite good at the game, doing pantheons and other high-level combat stuff, i have no use for it anymore. since in my casual playthrough i was taking damage a lot more than i take now, it was very useful.

I have a “main loadout” Unbreakable Strength, Quickslash, Quick Focus and longnail. It’s always helped me Nkg, Pure Vessel And Absrad were my biggest challenges and this loadout really helped me

you are extreamly undrated and your content is amazing

I thought about Hiveblood at some point and came to the conclusion that it's usefulness depends on how good you are If you suck at the game it won't find much use because you get hit too often for the regen to take place If you are decently good you could probably stay out of trouble for long enough to heal from the occasional hit If you are god then it will be worthless because you won't get hit This is just what I think

48:04 I love how he almost spoils the grubfather twist but realizes and stops himself

6:27 that reference is golden