Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Pharloom's deadliest inhabitants await Hornet's arrival, and you'll need razor-sharp reflexes to survive their unique combat styles. With over 40 bosses planned for the full release, mastering these eight revealed encounters will prepare you for Silksong's most challenging moments. Each boss tests different aspects of Hornet's moveset, from basic platforming to advanced combat techniques.

What Makes Silksong Bosses Different?

Unlike the Knight's encounters in Hallownest, Hornet brings a completely different combat approach to boss battles. Her needle strikes faster but with shorter range, while her silk abilities add vertical mobility options that transform how you approach each fight. These bosses capitalize on Hornet's unique mechanics, demanding precision timing and spatial awareness.

The confirmed roster spans from early-game skill checks to late-game endurance tests. You'll face everything from graceful dancers to massive beasts, each requiring distinct strategies to overcome their signature attacks.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Moss Mother

Difficulty: 2/10

The Moss Mother can be found in the Moss Grotto and serves as the opening boss encounter of Hollow Knight: Silksong. This hovering matriarch acts as an early test of your combat fundamentals, especially your ability to manage attack spacing. She often positions herself just within Hornet’s jumping needle range, forcing you to practice timing and precision. Her primary attacks revolve around swooping stinger strikes, which can be avoided with well-timed jumps.

During battle, she relies on several distinct attack patterns. At times she will slam into the ceiling, causing debris to fall across the arena. She also performs direct stinger swoops from either side, keeping you on your toes. In the second phase of the fight, she increases the pressure by spawning crawling offspring, which divide your attention and make positioning even more important.

The second phase introduces her children as projectiles instead of rocks. These creatures require exactly two needle strikes to eliminate, so clear them quickly to maintain battlefield control.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Bell Beast

Difficulty: 4/10

The Bell Beast can be found in The Marrow and first appears as a challenging opponent before becoming your primary means of fast travel. Despite her eventual role as an ally, she emerges from her silk cocoon as a formidable threat. Her five-legged scuttling movements resemble the Massive Moss Charger from Hollow Knight, but she adds the danger of ground-burst attacks that keep you constantly on guard.

To handle this fight, you need to focus on three key strategies. First, be ready to sidestep her underground rush attacks with quick, early movements. Second, respond to her leap attacks immediately upon landing with fast counterstrikes to keep the pressure on. Finally, keep your distance whenever she prepares to emerge from underground, since this phase of her attack can easily catch you off guard.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Her combat patterns consist of three main moves. The underground rush is best avoided by sidestepping early, leaving a two-second window to strike once she surfaces. The leap attack can be dodged with a jump or dash, and it provides an immediate counter opportunity when she lands. The ground burst requires you to stay mobile, but it leaves her vulnerable for about a second of recovery time.

Once defeated, the Bell Beast shifts from enemy to ally, transforming into your primary mode of transportation across the vast territories of Pharloom.

Trobbio

Difficulty: 5/10

Trobbio is a flamboyant butterfly showman who brings both danger and spectacle to your journey. His performances blend artistry with combat, using fireworks to dazzle and threaten at the same time. The result is a battle that feels as theatrical as it is perilous. His self-proclaimed title, “Master of the Stage, the Brush, and the Voice,” suggests that you will face him in multiple contexts throughout the adventure, sometimes as a performer and sometimes as a rival.

In combat, Trobbio favors dramatic patterns that emphasize style as much as power. He uses rapid wing flaps to trigger lines of fireworks, forcing you to keep track of projectile timing and spacing. His movements often mimic a stage performer, adopting positions that maximize spectacle while leaving you vulnerable if you misread his intentions. It is also likely that he will reappear as a recurring opponent, functioning as a friendly rival who tests your growth along the way.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Seth

Difficulty: 7/10

Seth stands as Silksong’s heartfelt tribute to community member Seth Goldman, blending emotional significance with a mechanically demanding encounter. His fighting style revolves around a shield-and-pin technique that rewards patience and punishes reckless aggression.

When facing Seth, it is important to avoid trying to break his guard through direct force. Instead, wait for his attack animations to fully complete before retaliating. A key moment to watch for is his shield-throw telegraph, which begins when he shifts into a sideways stance.

Seth’s pin weapon has deceptively long reach and can even strike from behind if you are careless with positioning. His shield-throw sequence is particularly dangerous, as it involves leaping to one side, launching the shield across the arena, and then quickly dashing to the opposite side to reclaim it. Mastering the timing of these patterns is essential to overcoming this challenging fight.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Lace

Difficulty: 8/10

Lace is considered one of the most demanding bosses revealed in Hollow Knight: Silksong. She requires players to fully master Hornet’s movement capabilities in order to survive the encounter. As a precise fencer, Lace represents the idea that even the smallest bosses can deliver some of the deadliest challenges, echoing the design philosophy that made the original Hollow Knight battles so memorable.

Her attack sequences are swift and punishing. She often opens with rapid forward thrust combinations that push you onto the defensive. These are followed by wide horizontal swipes that force careful positioning. At times she shifts into stationary flurry attacks, creating relentless pressure in close range. Finally, her diagonal downward dash strikes test both reaction speed and spatial awareness, making her one of the most relentless opponents Hornet will face.

Much like the Moss Mother, Lace can be stunned if you maintain consistent offensive pressure. However, her ability to block makes timing especially important, since reckless attacks are easily countered. The fight is made even more demanding by the presence of lava hazards along both sides of the arena, which add environmental danger to an already challenging battle.

As the fight progresses, Lace introduces new mechanics that steadily increase the intensity. The first phase focuses on basic pin combat and standard dodging. In the next stage, she begins to incorporate teleportation, forcing you to quickly adapt to sudden changes in position. By the final stage, she unleashes powerful combo finishers combined with area-denial attacks, creating relentless pressure that pushes both movement and reaction skills to their limit.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Sharpe

Difficulty: 6/10

Steel Assassin Sharpe applies relentless ranged pressure through his extending proboscis whip attacks. His history as a bug hunter shapes his combat style, making him one of Pharloom’s most persistent and dangerous adversaries. Players can expect him to appear more than once throughout the journey, often escalating the difficulty of his encounters.

The proboscis is his primary weapon, and it comes with several notable mechanics. Its range is far longer than expected, with surprising vertical reach that punishes poorly timed jumps. The attack begins with a long wind-up animation, which gives a brief opportunity to dodge if you anticipate correctly. However, the height of the backstroke prevents simple jump escapes, forcing you to plan your movement with precision.

The most effective strategy against Sharpe involves careful positioning. Move early during his wind-up and aim to slip behind him before the whip fully extends. Later battles against Sharpe become more complicated as companions join the fight, and there are hints that these encounters may even connect to Steel Soul Jinn from the original game, further tying his story into the larger Hollow Knight universe.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Carmelita

Difficulty: 6/10

Hunter Queen Carmelita turns combat into a deadly performance, blending elegance with danger. She wields twin dual-bladed daggers with the grace of a dancer, striking with balletic precision that makes every exchange feel like part of a choreographed battle. The presence of an audience heightens the atmosphere, adding extra pressure to an encounter already defined by speed and spectacle. Her agility further complicates the fight, as her swift movements make her a difficult target to pin down.

Carmelita’s attack patterns mirror the rhythm of a dance. She often uses rapid twirling dagger combinations that keep you locked in close-range combat. At times she leaps into aerial flips, raining attacks down from above with unpredictable timing. She also triggers ground spike eruptions based on your positioning, forcing constant awareness of both her movement and the arena itself. Together, these patterns create a relentless performance that demands precision, timing, and adaptability.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Last Judge

Difficulty: 9/10

The Last Judge is the most physically imposing boss revealed so far, combining sheer size with surprising agility. His war thurible and flame-based abilities create dangerous zones of area denial, while his charges force players to master precise timing in order to survive. This fight challenges you to read his attack patterns carefully and adapt to sudden bursts of power.

His forward charge is one of his most threatening moves, requiring a well-timed jump to clear his path. If executed correctly, this maneuver provides an opportunity for a downward strike while he passes beneath you. The thurible toss has a similar wind-up to his charge but follows a different trajectory, demanding lateral movement to avoid and giving only a brief recovery window to strike back.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Boss Guide: How to Beat All Bosses

Another key attack is his ground slam, which sends shockwaves across the arena. Escaping with a horizontal dash is essential, but this move also leaves him vulnerable for several seconds, creating one of the best opportunities to inflict damage. Finally, his flame eruption ability produces equidistant plumes that appear after his charge attacks, leaving no safe window for counterattacks and requiring pure avoidance instead.

Success in this encounter relies heavily on positioning. Recognizing his attack tells and maintaining proper spacing are the deciding factors between victory and repeated defeat.