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Game pageHollow Knight: Features, Player Impressions, and Who It Suits
Hollow Knight asks you to find your own way through Hallownest, reopening blocked routes and piecing together the kingdom's past.
Its appeal depends on whether you enjoy finding a route before the map is filled in and learning enemies through repeated fights.
What makes it fun
Old paths open up
A high wall you found before filling in your map can become a route once you gain the ability to climb it. Return to a dead end you remember and choose where to explore next.
Learn the opening
As you learn a boss's moves, you start to see where to dodge and when to strike with the Nail. Landing a hit after an attack that once kept you away gives each retry a purpose.
Change the fight with Charms
At a bench, you can swap Charms to strengthen your Nail attacks or support your spells. Changing the combination within your available notches gives you another way to approach the same boss.
Game details
As of Oct 29, 2026- Steam Deck
- Verified
- Release date
- Feb 25, 2017
- Developer
- Team Cherry
- Languages
- Japanese (Full audio), English (Full audio), Simplified Chinese (Full audio), Korean (Full audio) ／ 11 languages total
A typical run
Rest at a bench, change your Charms, and set out along an unexplored route.
A new area has no complete map. You navigate by its terrain and landmarks.
Nail hits build SOUL. During a fight, you decide whether to heal or spend it on a spell.
A new movement ability gives you a reason to revisit walls and platforms you could not pass before.
A bench or shortcut makes the next trip easier to start. If you die in the regular mode, you return to recover your Shade.
Core systems
Charms
Relics equipped at benches that alter combat, healing, movement, or exploration. Each one occupies a set number of notches.
Keep the Charm that shows your position while exploring, or give its notches to attack or healing for a boss. The next bench is where you can change that choice.
SOUL
A resource gained through Nail strikes and spent on Focus to heal or on spells.
When an enemy's attack ends, you can use the opening for Focus or a spell. Focus normally holds you in place, so the length of that opening matters.
Mapping Tools
Maps, the quill, the compass, and pins help make sense of each tangled area.
You can equip the Charm that shows your position or navigate from memory and use its notches elsewhere. Mark an unreachable place on the map, then return when you gain a movement ability.
Dream Nail
A tool that reaches into minds and reveals sides of characters and enemies that ordinary dialogue does not show.
Trying it on inhabitants and foes instead of hurrying onward gives you more clues about what happened in Hallownest.
Steel Soul Mode
A challenge mode unlocked after completing the main game, with much greater weight attached to defeat.
Before setting out, plan a safer route and an upgrade order. You also need to decide when you are ready to face dangerous enemies.
Godmaster
Free content adding characters, secrets, quests, and boss fights. It can be reached during the main journey and includes combat sequences.
You can practise a troublesome boss separately before entering a long sequence. Adding bindings then reduces the room you have for equipment and healing.
What sets it apart
Entering a new area does not fill in its map. Once you have that area's map and the quill, resting at a bench adds the places you have travelled through.
The kingdom's history is not delivered in a long explanation. You piece it together from scenery, brief conversations, the Hunter's Journal, and the Dream Nail.
Later in the journey, Godmaster offers boss sequences. Steel Soul Mode opens after completion and makes you reconsider even familiar routes.
Learning curve and difficulty
In a boss fight, resist squeezing in another Nail hit. Learn which attack recoveries allow a counter and which leave enough time for Focus.
A downward Nail strike gives you a bounce that can keep space from an enemy. It also carries you across spikes and platforms.
Late optional challenges ask you to keep familiar dodges and counters consistent until the end of a long sequence.
Steel Soul Mode, Godmaster's battles, and self-imposed restrictions give players further routes and fights to work on.
Builds and playstyles
Nail-focused
Charms improve the speed or reach of regular strikes, helping you counter after an enemy's attack. Spending less SOUL on spells leaves more for healing.
Spell-focused
SOUL and spell Charms let you attack when closing in is difficult. Each spell leaves less SOUL available for Focus.
Focus-focused
Charms that support Focus turn a short break in an enemy's attacks into a chance to heal. They take notches from offense, which suits players who want longer attempts to learn a pattern.
What longtime players say
After finishing the main journey, players describe taking on Godmaster's boss sequences or Steel Soul Mode. Achievements and self-imposed restrictions provide further goals.
Players who keep returning to bosses learn where to dodge after an attack and when a Nail counter is safe. That improvement gives them a reason to try again.
After the main ending, players return to Hallownest for missed secrets. Others start again and take a different route.
What players like
Changes in art and music from area to area make the places players searched through stay in their memory.
Losing to a boss gradually exposes its attacks, dodge timings, and openings for Focus. Players describe that learning process as rewarding.
In late optional challenges, practising boss patterns toward a full sequence or a hitless win becomes a goal in itself.
Players who enjoy piecing together a story draw on brief dialogue, scenery, and dream scenes to work out what happened to the ruined kingdom.
Nail strikes, jumps, and dodges respond directly to input, making it easier to see what went wrong in a fight or platforming section.
For explorers, remembering a blocked route and returning with a movement ability makes a detour lead somewhere new.
Common complaints
Godmaster's long boss sequences can wear down concentration near the end. Repeating failed sections of the White Palace's platforming has proved tiring too.
Early on, movement options are limited, the map is incomplete, and no destination is marked. Players can feel lost before finding a rhythm in the exploration.
Recovering a Shade after death and walking from a bench back to a boss can interrupt another attempt, especially when the return trip is long.
Readers who want to understand events and character relationships right away may struggle with a story told through brief conversations and scattered clues.
Who it’s for
It suits players who remember blank spaces on the map, suspicious walls, and unreachable platforms, then choose where to return after gaining a movement ability.
It also suits players who want to learn when a boss leaves room for a Nail hit, then adjust Charms and SOUL use as they improve.
Who might not enjoy it
Players who want a marked destination from the start may find the early, incomplete map frustrating. The same goes for those who dislike retracing a route after getting lost.
Anyone aiming to finish Godmaster's long boss sequences and the White Palace's precise platforming should expect to repeat fights and sections.
FAQ
- Is English supported?
- Yes. Steam lists an English interface, subtitles, and full audio.
- Is there cooperative play?
- Steam lists Hollow Knight as a single-player game.
- Can difficulty be selected?
- The store does not describe a selectable campaign difficulty. Steel Soul Mode unlocks after completion, while Godmaster adds separate combat challenges.
- Is the additional content sold separately?
- Godmaster, Lifeblood, The Grimm Troupe, and Hidden Dreams are presented as free content added to the game.
These impressions are based on 100 Steam reviews sorted by “Most Helpful.” They do not represent the views of all buyers.
Image: Hollow Knight on Steam