Current Events > Jeezus. Hollow Knight bosses must be really fucking hard.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have encountered the Brooding Mawlek, and I am helpless against him. Now I have Google the hardest bosses in HK, and Mawlek never appears higher than #15. That means there are at least 14 bosses that are harder than this guy. Wtf.

Yeah, he's definitely one of the more mid-tier bosses. There's a reason some people call HK a Soulslike.

That said, there is one trick that makes Mawlek much easier and would make it much harder without realizing that trick. If you stick to the sides of the central platform, he can't hit you with most of his attacks.

Did you encounter it on your first visit to the crossroads? Its a boss that's usually meant for later in the game, though even still it can be hard to react to the attacks till you get used to it

^ thanks for the spoiler tag. I'm a no-help-plz player of single player games.

Well there's like 40+ bosses after the last update I think. I don't even remember who Brooding Mawlek is so I assume it's either one of those flying spirit dudes or some early main game boss. Vanilla Hollow Knight isn't too tough but my god did the DLC(particularly Godmaster) up the difficulty.

cadcrafter posted...

Did you encounter it on your first visit to the crossroads? Its a boss that's usually meant for later in the game, though even still it can be hard to react to the attacks till you get used to it

This is a good point too. You can get to him with some creative platforming, but he's meant to be fought after you get a traversal upgrade.

cadcrafter posted...

Did you encounter it on your first visit to the crossroads? Its a boss that's usually meant for later in the game, though even still it can be hard to react to the attacks till you get used to it

Definitely not the first time in crossroads. You need the mantis claw just to reach him, don't you? Anyway, I have traverses through Greenpath, Fungal Wastes, Fog Canyon, and Mantis Village. My save has 10 hours logged on it.

God_of_6strings posted...

Definitely not the first time in crossroads. You need the mantis claw just to reach him, don't you?

Well yes, but actually no.

I'll respect your no-help-plz stance though and not explain how.

pegusus123456 posted...

This is a good point too. You can get to him with some creative platforming, but he's meant to be fought after you get a traversal upgrade.

This is true. I was watching a play through, and within the first like half hour or so, they reached the Brooding Mawlek. And died Haha.

He is tricky but once you get used to dodging his attacks he's not too bad. I guess that's true for all the bosses though lol

The issue with Brooding Mawlek isn't that he's hard but annoying to fight. I hate him compared to later bosses that I'd consider fair and much more difficult. I always just end up brute forcing him.

There are harder ones, but a bit like dark souls - maybe the reason you're struggling against him is because 1) you haven't quite pegged the flow of the gameplay yet, and 2) you haven't learned this bosses' patterns.

You have to play hollow knight bosses defensively. Don't get greedy, prioritise dodging over attacking.

I'm quite proud of having beat Nightmare King Grimm. That was fucking difficult and took so many tries.

Man I'm jealous that you're going through Hollow Knight for the first time.

Ugh. I feel like I was about 2 hits away from beating him. I'll get him this time, though.

Beat'd.

Oh wow. Since the exit to his room just takes me right back to a place I've already been, he appears to be an optional boss.

The boss difficulty is my least favorite thing about the game. Everything else makes it worthwhile to tough your way through, but I would have had so much more fun if it wasn't so hard

Once you learn the moves, its makes the bosses easier. Sometimes, when fighting a boss, I just focus on how to dodge and attack for the first few rounds just to understand how they move. Once I understand, I can destroy them

pinky0926 posted...

I'm quite proud of having beat Nightmare King Grimm. That was fucking difficult and took so many tries.

NKG is a very fun boss to learn & fight. Unlike The Radiance, he doesn't rely too much on random attacks so if you get hit its totally your fault.

Doing the boss rush at the end of the DLC, Mawlek was still one of my more annoying fights tbh.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

The issue with Brooding Mawlek isn't that he's hard but annoying to fight. I hate him compared to later bosses that I'd consider fair and much more difficult. I always just end up brute forcing him.

This basically