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Hollow Knight
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Pangaea Mar 21, 2021
After dying about a 100 times to a few bosses and the last stretch to the grub in Queen's Garden (managed to get through everything else there), I gave up and downloaded some cheater mods. But funnily enough can't get them to work, as the game crashes. So that means I can't get through to the bitter end after all. Oh well. Sad, but that's how it is. Posted about it on NexusMods, but for all I know it's some oddity with Linux that causes it. Who knows.

Wish the game wasn't so freakishly difficult, because there is no way I'd be able to get through all of that stuff. Up to that point the game is really fun, but they went way overboard with the bosses. All the backtracking is seriously just a waste of time.

Got reminded of a comment I saw somewhere: "A game that can only be experienced on YouTube." It's not wrong.
Pangaea Mar 22, 2021
There is always someone (and yes, I'm aware Hornet "sort of" says that during one of her blurbs).



Funny how difficult it is to step away from this blasted game, tho. After cheating my way through the Collector and Hornet 2, some things opened up, and I was able to enter the Abyss, where another ability was located. Don't see how I could have beaten the Collector, but may have been able to take down Hornet eventually. It's mainly all those spikes that caused an issue, and she is quick to put them back up after I blast them away with the spell. Anywho, after getting shade cloak and being able to safely dash through enemies or obstacles, it was actually pretty easy to take down Elder Hu. Took a while, but when it was 'safe' to get through that cascading fire ring drop, it was easier. Managed to kill the Enraged Guardian too, but unfortunately I died to a ray just as he exploded into money, and when I got back up it was all gone. But main thing was actually beating the bastard legitimately. So, so hard when they do double damage!

With some of these bosses I can sort of envision beaten them, if I'm lucky or manage to dodge their attacks more. But Uumuu? No chance whatsoever. Can barely get in 1-2 hits before I'm dead. Zero chance. The entire screen is essentially nuked with electricity, which chases you around. Just don't see how that is possible (please spare me various "I did it easily without any upgrades, he is very, very easy" that is ever so common on the steam and reddit threads). Galien kicked my arse too, despite having a bunch of extra life from those lifeseeds.

Watcher Knights are vicious too. Died a few times to them as well, though at least I can take down 1-2 knights before getting overwhelmed. Such a chaotic fight. Shadow dash helps, but it only gets you so far, and I'm getting hit now and then, and it's essentially impossible to heal (may get in a heal, then get hit, losing it again, due to being rooted on the spot for a little half-second afterwards). I've done the 'light' trick already.

Did manage to get through the first trial, but have now lost several times to the second lot. Brutal when the entire floor is spikes, and that giant stamper comes into a tiny room. Have managed to take him down, but get so hurt that I die to whatever comes soon afterwards. And those triple spitting bee things.... pure CANCER! However, if I got through that, sounds like I'll get another pale ore, which would enable the last nail upgrade. I know enemy health gets boosted based on nail upgrades, but it should probably still be a net benefit for us.

Repeating myself again, but I wish the bosses weren't so "impossible". The rest of the game is so darn good, but this design is a big stumbling block. Sure, it's nice for the top 1% of gamers that can handle it (even with "ease" (on their 7th attempt)), but for more normal people out there it's not so much fun to die a million times and don't even see a way through.

PS: I've heard of some Grimm chap that can show up, but how? Bretta has showed up in the village now, and that yabbering fool (who promptly roflstomped me when I went down in that house...).

Last edited by Pangaea on 22 March 2021 at 5:42 am UTC
Pangaea Mar 24, 2021
Yes! Finally got them (Watcher Knights). That opens a certain door...



Is Myla in there?

Edit: Well, that was almost anticlimactic. Second try and the guy goes down and the game is over (with 99%, it goes to 112%).
Spoiler, click me


From what I've read it's possible to continue and try to get more endings, so I'll take a shot at that, although that Traitor Lord fight looked surreal. Same with the Trial of the Fool, as I looked it up on YT. Looks very difficult (like everything else in this game really, different degrees of difficult).

Last edited by Pangaea on 24 March 2021 at 3:22 pm UTC
denyasis 8 years Mar 25, 2021
Congrats!! Yeah, I guess there is a "true" ending, although I remember the requirements require a bit of hunting for things. I never got it. Actually that is where I stopped playing. Much like you I really liked the game a lot. But for me, once I had "beaten" it, my motivation stopped. I couldn't justify the grind and I had to refight so many of the bosses dozens of time, I essentially lost track of the story. I had to Google it to figure out what I just played, lol

I hope you enjoyed it. Following the thread has reminded me how good of a game it was.


PS, Myla made me very sad.

Last edited by denyasis on 25 March 2021 at 12:44 am UTC
Pangaea Mar 25, 2021
Quoting: denyasisCongrats!! Yeah, I guess there is a "true" ending, although I remember the requirements require a bit of hunting for things. I never got it. Actually that is where I stopped playing. Much like you I really liked the game a lot. But for me, once I had "beaten" it, my motivation stopped. I couldn't justify the grind and I had to refight so many of the bosses dozens of time, I essentially lost track of the story. I had to Google it to figure out what I just played, lol

I hope you enjoyed it. Following the thread has reminded me how good of a game it was.


PS, Myla made me very sad.
Thanks. It was very nice to get past those Knights and get to an ending. I know about the White Palace, and it's hell in there, which I'm sure I wouldn't be able to handle. Kinda wish I was hollow too. It's utterly soulcrushing to keep losing to Master Grimm within seconds and have zero chance to dodge the attacks that keep coming like machine gun bullets. Like I just wrote in exasperation on the GOG forum, the game would have been much better without so retarded hard bosses.

I'm at 101% right now, but have also run out of fun things to do. Only crazy hard bosses and the Trial of the Fool left. Have even done the blasted flower quest -- twice (to Elderbug too).

Yesterday after getting the 'bad' ending, I looked forward to Silksong. Now I'm thinking "what's the point?". They've already said they want to make it equally hard, so we can assume the bosses are totally absurd there too, maybe even worse since Hornet is quicker with more reach.

This game should have had a RTWP mode.

Myla made me very sad too. I liked to drop in on her now and then, so one time I came there, wondering if she had a third verse. She didn't...
Pangaea Mar 25, 2021
Hmm. Somehow got past the Traitor Lord. Feck knows how. Just relief it was over, no happiness or anything like that. Had 1533 essence when I started, and was worried of spending it all. 1 for each death after all...

Back at dying within seconds against the (normal) Grimm, which is already a fucking nightmare. Have probably racked up 50 deaths already. Feels like I've tried everything.
* stocking up on health
* heavy nail build
* heavy magic build
* a mix of the two
* abyss shrieking him often
* being defensive
* being more aggressive, like facetanking with 17 blue skulls or however many I get
* minion build (which I've never tried anywhere else in the game)
Nothing works. I'm dead within at best 30 seconds. Best I've done is see two of those pufferfish attacks, which happens at 75/50/25%, meaning I'm only halfway there. Everything is simply way too fast to keep up. This stopped being fun about 40 deaths ago :( But I'd really like that last notch, which is the only reason for trying to beat the twunt.

At least the music is calm and nice when I'm just sitting around in the pool in the Crossroads. That's something :D
Pangaea Mar 27, 2021
Been trying out the normal Grimm fight for days, without getting much further. Too fast and chaotic. Then got the bright idea to install the cheater mod again, to practice on him without dying within 20-40 seconds and wasting several minutes each time on backtracking. It helped a little and I got a bit better at countering, but still far short of being able to beat him. But slowly I got in some attacks too, and eventually "beat" him. Not legit ofc, but can't undo these things in this game.

However, it meant I was able to progress, which was rather nice. Had a go at the White Palace, and it actually wasn't as bad as it looked from that YT video. Spent a good hour in there, and managed to get through it.

Bit later I found out how to progress to the ultimate final boss (needed to dreamnail), so now a certain shiny woman has handed me my arse. Crazy tough bosses in this game, holy crap.

If I start over, I'll try to get through absolutely everything without such aid, but for now it was also kinda nice to actually play through some sections I had only seen on YouTube, and I was pleasantry surprised that I was able to play through White Palace legitimately. The Hive charm helps a lot, but still need to succeed on all the tough platforming.

I didn't find the entrance to Path of Pain, but that's probably a good thing. WP itself is hard enough as it I reckon
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