This guide aims to cover details regarding essence collection in Hollow Knight. In particular, this guide will give the basics of dream nail use to collect essence, the total (known) essence in the game, the locations where you collect essence, and the rewards the Seer gives for reaching certain essence. Whispering Roots are roots filled with Essence found throughout Hallownest. When the Knight hits a Whispering Root with the Dream Nail, it spawns floating Essence throughout the surrounding area for the Knight to collect. After collecting all Essence in the area, the root will grow to a much larger size. Using the Dream Nail on it again will reveal dream dialogue giving vague hints as to the history of that area. Short video showing the location of each of the Dream Warriors in the game Hollow Knight. There are no fights due to me being near completion but I try to sh. Hollow Knight is a 2D adventure/ Metroidvania game for PC, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One! This guide aims to cover details regarding essence collection in Hollow Knight. In particular, this guide will give the basics of dream nail use to collect essence, the total (known) essence in the game, the locations where you collect essence, and the rewards the Seer gives for reaching certain essence amounts. Basics of Essence Collection.
Back to Hollow Knight
Grey Prince Zote
Grey Prince Zote can be found in Bretta’s basement back at Dirtmouth as long as you’ve rescued both Bretta and Zote and defeated Zote in the Colosseum of Fools. He can be fough up to 10 times but only gives 300 Essence the first time you defeat him.
Grey Prince Zote doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing and is constantly falling over. He’s still difficult to defeat as each time he falls over he’ll create a shockwave and he also likes to teleport around the arena before slamming into the ground.
Hollow Knight Wiki Dream Essence
Zote has 1200 health for the first battle. You’ll need to learn which moves create shockwaves so you can time your jumps over them. You can often get in a swipe or two after each shockwave. The Quick Slash and Fragile Strength charms work will for this fight. The Fragile charms won’t break if you lose a dream boss fight.
Failed Champion
The Failed Champion can be found above the arena where you fought the False Knight. After jumping up break the wall to the right and use the Dream Nail on the dead maggot. You can use the Dream Nail on the other Maggots to replenish your soul before entering the fight.
The Failed Champion is a buffed version of the False Knight. Each of his attacks will cause rocks to fall down from the roof but most of his attacks are very similar. When he jumps towards you this gives you a chance to dash underneath. You’ll be able to get in a few strikes before he turns around.
Standing in one of the corners may give you a chance to heal, especially if you have the Quick Focus charm equipped. The Failed Champion will get knocked over a few times, giving you a chance to heal or hit his head for more soul. Eventually he’ll be defeated and go crashing through the floor. Once he’s defeated you’ll receive 300 Essence.
Lost Kin
The Lost Kin can be found in the same place as the Broken Vessel in the Ancient Basin. He has 1200 health and slightly more difficult attacks. During the fight blobs of infection will spawn and chase after you.
The strategy for defeating the Lost Kin is basically the same as the Broken Vessel. stay on the ground because the Lost Kin likes to jump. Use Quick Slash to get in many hits at a time and Desolate Dive to really do some damage quickly. Killing the blobs that spawn give you soul so you should have no problem using spells during this fight.
A few times throughout the fight the Lost Kin will get knocked over for a short while, giving you a chance to heal, but you’ll still need to keep an eye on any infected blobs heading your way. Once the Lost Kin has been defeated you’ll be rewarded with 400 Essence.
White Defender
The White Defender has a lot of health, 1600 HP to be exact. He can be found by using the Desolate Dive just under the room to the right of the Dung Defender, where the lever is located.
The White Defender has many of the same attacks as the Dung Defender but he’s fairly easy to predict and most of the attacks can be avoided. Use Quick Slash to hit him repeatedly while he tosses the dung. Follow him around and get in swipes as he performs the dung eruption. If you’re close to him the dung won’t hit you.
Once the White Defender has been defeated you’ll be rewarded with 300 Essence.
Soul Tyrant
The Soul Tyrant can be found in the same location as the Soul Master. Use the Dream Nail on the corpse to initiate the fight. The Soul Tyrant has 900 health in the first phase and 350 health in the second.
The Soul Tyrant’s attacks are the same as the Soul Master except he’s a little bit quicker and has more fireballs during his spinning fireball attack. Having the Monarch Wings will make it easier to avoid the shockwave from the ground pound attack.
The Soul Tyrant will teleport around the arena making him difficult to catch up to. You may only get in one or two attacks at a time so the Quicky Slash charm is not very effective for this battle.
During phase 2 the Soul Tyrant will smash through the floor and land in the arena below. He performs teleporting slams repeatedly until he eventually floats stationary on one side of the room. This is your chance to kill him. Avoid the fireballs and hit him with the Abyss Shriek or the Nail. Once he’s defeated you’ll be rewarded with 300 Essence.
Back: Fog Canyon Next: White Palace
In this article, I will discuss the main elements of the game, Hollow Knight, and provide a general (without spoilers) overview of the game.
The first thing I want to acknowledge is that this is one of the best games I have ever played to date. I currently have ~100 hours invested in the game, and though I am not technically far from the ending, it’ll likely take me quite a bit of time to get through the final content. This is due to the fact that this game is extremely challenging, especially for me, since I have never played a platformer before.
Hollow Knight, developed by Team Cherry, is classified as a metroidvania platformer, and has many elements to it, making it a very full and rewarding game.
The game takes place in Hollownest – a surprisingly vast and intricate kingdom that has fallen ill with a strange infection, which the protagonist, who I have named the Little Knight, must subdue or defeat. As if it wasn’t impressive enough that all of the art and animation was hand drawn, each section of the map contains it’s own unique art style; and both the complexity of it’s layout and it’s aesthetic make the exploration aspect of the game intriguing and exciting.
And, for you completionists out there, there’s even a few collection features embedded within the exploration element. One such objective involves saving the oh-so adorable grubs, which have been captured within glass jars and hidden throughout the world. There are also Wandering Roots hidden throughout the game that unlock platforming challenges which reward the player with Essence – a form of obtained energy that can be used to unlock rewards. Even the area-maps must be acquired through exploration, which you must purchase from Cornifer the Cartographer, who’s tucked away safely within each section. Secrets are hidden behind breakable walls or concealed entryways, and charms, which can be equipped to enhance the Little Knight’s abilities, can be collected as you explore and fight your way through the poor (and violent!) unfortunate souls that have succumbed to the infection.
The difficulty of Hollow Knight lies within both platforming challenges and the combat found throughout the world. You start off with very minimal movement abilities and a single melee attack, but as the game progresses you learn various spells, additional movement actions (such as wall-jump, double-jump, and dash), and strong attacks that make the combat more varied. As a player, you cannot just rely on learning these new abilities to grow stronger; you’ll have to sharpen your own reflexive skills to quickly react to enemy attacks and tailor clever charm layouts to assist the Little Knight accomplish specific tasks.
Regarding charms and charm layouts, here are some of my favorites:
Exploration Layout (10 charm notches required): Wayward Compass, Gathering Swarm, Steady Body, Grubsong, Mark of Pride, and Quick Slash
Platforming Challenge Layout (10 charm notches required): Hiveblood, Steady Body, Longnail, Sprintmaster, Dashmaster
Boss Battle Layout: because each boss battle is different than the last, you’ll have to play around with charm combinations to find the best layout for each fight, but some of my favorite charms to use are: Dreamshield (I love this charm), Stalwart Shell, Defender’s Crest, and Unbreakable Strength, and in fights that require you to dash through enemies (like the Lost Kin or Hive Knight), the Sharp Shadow + Dashmaster combination works very well.
Note: You start out this game with merely three charm notches, but you’ll collect more as you progress in the game. Also, some charms fill multiple notches (typically the more powerful charms cost more notches).
Enemies are plenteous in the depths of Hollownest. Each with their own specific attack(s) and difficulty. Common enemies wander around aimlessly throughout the world and often only have one type of attack. More difficult, and less common enemies, such as the Husk Guard, are tucked away in specific areas within each region and will have higher health and 2-3 different types of attacks. In addition, there are also mini-bosses and bosses, which do not respawn upon defeat and have the highest amount of health and range of attacks. Mini-bosses average about 3-4 attacks and bosses average with a whopping 4-5 attacks, which occur randomly throughout the fight.
And, as if there were not enough enemy types, there’s also dream warriors, which are slightly more powerful mini-bosses, there’s, what I refer to as, “super-bosses” that deal 2 damage (versus 1) per hit, and finally, there’s dream-bosses, which are insanely more difficult versions of bosses you’ve already defeated. I mean it when I say insanely. These fights will drive you insane.
I dug up some videos to share, of which display some of my early-days in the game, as an example of some of the enemy’s you’ll encounter:
Since I showed you some clips that may make it seem like these successes were a breeze for me, I’ll share with you a video capturing my failed attempts at defeating the Failed Champion (the dream boss version of the False Knight):
Throughout my playthrough of Hollow Knight, my failures far outnumber all of my total successes. When I first started this game, I compared myself to videos of challenge victories that I found on YouTube, and it always left me feeling very disheartened. So, if you are currently playing this game and experiencing some frustrating difficulties – you are far from alone. This game is a rinse & repeat type. It tests your patience, your resolve, and as I have mentioned, even your sanity. So keep your chin up. Defeat is not a testament to your value, it is a learning tool; you’ll fail over and over again as you hone your instinct and sharpen your reflexes. Failure also allows for positive traits like persistence and endurance to grow strong, so, when you’re beating yourself up for all the mistakes you’ve made, which will be present even in your successes, stop, take a deep breath, and focus instead on how far you’ve come. You can do this.
Now! Let’s talk about the platforming challenges! They are my favorite aspect of Hollow Knight, mainly because, though they were often just as difficult and trying as boss battles, they lacked the chaotic, unpredictable nature of those fights. You see, the courses never changed, so even though you’d beat your head over the same metaphorical wall (or in some cases, quite literally) over and over again, once you solved a portion of the puzzle, each attempt was more or less easier than the last, which made progress much easier to track than other elements of this game.
There were a few different ways the game introduced these challenges to the player. Some were simply put in the environment to keep you from progressing to an area until you acquired the proper movement abilities (a way to keep the game paced and leveled), and some were tucked away within the map to hide a treasure of sorts. In most cases, the treasure was a trapped grub in which you were promoted by their sweet, pitiful cries to heroically save from their glass imprisonment. Others led to a charm or a mask shard, etc.
Another type of platforming challenge presented involves gathering Essence, a resource gathered from Whispering Roots and utilized in this game to upgrade your Dream Nail and teleport using the Dreamgate. When one strikes a Whispering Root with the Dream Nail, spheres of Essence are revealed, which the player must collect. And, of course, the game doesn’t make this as easy as it sounds; the spheres, which one must use their wits and deft movements to acquire, are often scattered throughout an intricate platforming course placed in hazardous locations.
One thing in common, however, is that each challenge requires you to utilize all your movement abilities precisely and adeptly.
Below are some examples for your viewing pleasure:
And, finally… THE WHITE PALACE! The most difficult platforming challenge in the game. Not only is this longest, most intricate challenge, but there are no save points. What does that mean you ask? That means that if you were to quit midway and return later, you would have to start the challenge entirely over… yes, I mean all the way from the beginning. Truly, this course is designed to test you mentally, emotionally, and physically.
I started up Hollow Knight late at night thinking to myself… I’ll give the Palace a shot. I have to work in the morning, but it’s okay; I won’t get far. But, oh ho! As fate would have it, that would be the night I finally succeeded!
Halfway through, my fingers were shaking and my palms sweating from the physical toll on my hands. Each level in the Palace harder then the last. I trudged forward. My mental focus unwavering and intent. But, towards the end, the levels were starting to feel like each was the last. There would be a crowd of creatures bowing to me as I passed… a door up ahead… the music became more pleasant and triumphant. I finally got to the end!
And yet, I’d walk through the door, the picture would wane to black, and as it faded back into view, before any visuals were present, I heard it. The damn sounds of saw blades buzzing off somewhere ahead of me. There was more! Seemingly a never-ending maze of saw blades and spikes! Before the true end, I tell you, I was legitimately in tears.
It took me a long time to get through, and when I cut out my errors, my recorded run (originally ~40 min long) was condensed to a measly four minutes. Albeit, this is a partial recording of my entire run, once again because the tediousness of trying to record gameplay via Xbox Capture is not ideal, so there are some parts that are simply lost to time.
Regardless of the percentage of successes versus failures, let me tell you, the elation and jubilation I felt when I finally found myself at the end of that hellscape is incomparable to any other video game experience I’ve had to date.
The White Palace is also home to the Path of Pain. Whereas the White Palace is required to achieve the “good” ending of the game, the Path of Pain is completely optional. I have goosebumps typing this out. Why? Because this particular course is the most deadly, dangerous place in the entire game.
You’ve seen from my platforming videos how when you hit some spikes or make a mistake of any kind, the game kindly puts you back to your last checkpoint. That way you don’t have to start the level entirely over from the beginning. Not only does the Path of Pain have the most difficult, if not nearly impossible, course, if you make ONE mistake, you are sent back to the very beginning. That’s right. No checkpoints. No saves. Just death. Over and over and over and over again.
Essence Locations Hollow Knight
As you can probably tell, I have not gotten very far in this course. Not even far enough to post any video of my attempts and still hold your interest. You may be asking yourself, why? Why, if entirely optional, would anyone take on this endeavor?
Well, for bragging rights, I suppose. And you know what? If you got through it, you deserve to boast. You come to me telling me a tale of your victory over the Path of Pain, and I will be thoroughly and wholeheartedly be impressed. Show me a video of you getting through it, and I might just have trouble holding back my urges to throw myself at your feet. 😉
Though, I have always been a RPG player, Hollow Knight, my first experience with a metroidvania platformer, has become one of my favorite games. Though, I can’t say it beats out Dragon Age: Inquisition as my favorite, I can say that Hollow Knight is a far superior game. Near perfect.
Hollow Knight Collecting Essence
It has just the right balance between challenging and conquerable, it provides a lucrative environment to explore, the music is *astounding* (I often use the soundtrack to heighten the mood intensity of my D&D sessions), and the mechanics are intricately varied so that there are many different play-styles at your disposal. Some people use spells a lot, others use powered attacks, and some prefer taking advantage of charm combinations to unlock special abilities, etc.
And the story! Oh man… I promised no spoilers, but I could write paragraphs just about my thoughts on the story. I will say this, however, the story is INCREDIBLY buried in this game. It is not obvious, not stated, and it requires you to do a lot of digging, exploring, reading, and remembering. You’ll get snippets of conversations, you’ll find things written on stones, and none of it ever really makes any sense. You can think of it like yet another puzzle to piece together. Once you have enough of the pieces, you can put them together, and once you do… what you find will shake you to the core. (I have goosebumps again)
Well, that’s all I have for you, folks.
Silksong, the follow-up, is due to release at some point this year, so if you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you give Hollow Knight a shot. And, it isn’t only me! This game is rated 10/10 by ~74,000 people on Steam and highly rated on all its available platforms. You can find it for sale on Xbox One (included in GamePass), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC for a mere $15, which includes all the expansions.
One final fun fact: This game was partially funded through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, raising over $57,000 by the end of 2014. It makes me happy to know fans had a hand in the game’s creation. 🙂
Until next time…