How good are you at finding Easter eggs and hidden secrets? Let’s see what you’ve missed in Hollow Knights.

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania video game with an aesthetically pleasing cartoon art style, where you’ll be exploring a fallen kingdom of Hallownest while trying to unravel its secrets and resolve the issue related to a mysterious disease that caused its fall.

The task is not easy but you’re not an ordinary being. As a brave warrior equipped with a sword and powerful spells that become available as the game progresses, you’ll have access to all the necessary means to complete the quest and heal the dying world.

In addition to an intriguing story and satisfying gameplay, Hollow Knight contains some interesting Easter eggs but some of them are hidden quite well, making them something only the most observant and determined players will be able to find. To make things easier for you, we compiled a list of 10 interesting Hollow Knight secrets you can’t afford to miss. Let’s dive into it.

False Knight’s Mace

False Knight is the first boss you’ll encounter in Hollow Knight. It’s fairly easy, with slow and predictable moves, making it a good introductory boss fight to familiarize with the game’s controls. The boss jumps a lot and uses a big mace to attack.

A fun fact about that mace is that it’s actually alive. If you wait for a moment after the boss is defeated and you start hitting the remains of the mace, it will wake up and leave the place.

Delicate Flower

As you progress further in the game and complete in-game quests, at one point you will be tasked with bringing Delicate Flower to the grave of the Traitor’s Child in the Queen’s Gardens.

What’s interesting is that after the delivery you can get extra flowers and bring them to some NPCs for extra interactions. The possible recipients are Elderbug, Nailmaster Oro, The Godseeker, Eternal Emilitia, and the White Lady, although the two last ones will decline the offer.

Godseeker’s Secret Room

When you free the Godseeker from the cocoon in the Junk Pit, you can then use a Dream Nail on her to access Godhome.

There is, however, a 2% chance that you will be transported to a different place instead – a forbidden memory of the Godseeker, where some extra lore will be revealed. It’s not a particularly huge deal, but easily missed due to its extremely low trigger chance.

Mask Maker’s Secrets

While exploring Deepnest, in one of the small rooms you’ll encounter a mysterious being known as Mask Maker. They will provide you with some important bits of lore from the world of Hollow Knight, explaining the nature of the masks and the reason behind their creation.

There are three interesting facts about Mask Maker. First, when you enter their place, they may be wearing one of the three different masks. Second, none of the masks you see at their place are actually masks worn by any creatures met in Hallownest.

And third, using either Desolate Dive or Descending Dark Spell breaks Mask Maker’s mask and triggers a secret line referring to their revealed face.

Grey Prince Zote

There is a secret optional boss in Hollow Knight many people missed due to its unique activation conditions. That boss is none other than a dream variant of Zote the Mighty, a hero-wannabe comic relief character.

As opposed to his non-dream version, Grey Prince Zote is a formidable enemy that can take a few tries before you figure out the correct approach. What’s more, you can fight him multiple times, and each victory makes him stronger, up to a certain point.

To access Grey Prince Zote boss fight, you’ll have to rescue Bretta and Zote and defeat Zote in the Colosseum of Fools. You’ll also need the Monarch Wings to open Bretta’s basement, where a statue of Zote stands. Hit the statue with a Dream Nail and the encounter will begin.

Land of Storms

Accessing the Land of Storms is close to the most difficult challenge Hollow Knight has to offer. That’s because it requires beating all Pantheons in Godhome with all possible bindings, which are extra challenges that make the fights more difficult by reducing your damage, lowering your life, decreasing soul recovery, and preventing charm usage.

The good thing is that you don’t have to do all bindings simultaneously; you can try beating the chosen Pantheon with one active binding of your choice, and once you’re done, you can proceed to try to do the same with the rest of the bindings. After you’re done, a crack on the wall in Godhome will appear – that’s the entrance to the Land of Storms.

The area itself does not contain particularly important lore bits, but it looks nice and unlocks the Weathered Mask entry in the journal.

The Most Difficult Challenge

We just mentioned a very difficult challenge, but what’s the actual most difficult one? It’s a tough choice between beating the last Pantheon (P5) without being hit and completing it with all bindings active simultaneously.

The reward, however, is just that the central medal will start to glow as proof of completing this nigh-impossible task. The glow is stronger for the “all bindings run” and overwrites the glow from the “hitless run”; the glows don’t stack, so there’s no point in doing both hitless and all bindings at the same time unless you’re in for a self-imposed challenge reserved exclusively for the most elite players.

Royal Hollow Theme

The Pale King is easily one of the most important characters in the entire Hallownest. As you explore the world, you’ll eventually end up in White Palace, where the king’s corpse can be found. If you hit it a few times, it will fall off the throne, allowing you to sit on it. Do it and wait for a few seconds; you’ll hear Royal Hollow Theme playing.

Menderbug

Some events are random and have a very low chance of triggering, making them very well hidden indeed; only a small portion of players would ever see them without referring to a guide. Another example of such an event in Hollow Knight is the Menderbug encounter.

It’s a simple, harmless enemy that appears beneath Dirtmouth, repairing a sign. To have a chance at spawning Menderbug, you’ll have to simply destroy the sign at the entrance of Forgotten Crossroads; the chance to spawn is 2%.

Menderbug will attempt to flee right away, so if you plan to kill it, you’ll have to act quickly. Defeating it unlocks his house and a piece of his lore. How could you, you monster…

Alternate Endings

Hollow Knight features a few different endings; your accomplishments in the game will determine which one you’ll get. If you’re playing the game without a guide, you’ll most likely encounter only one though, Ending 1, because the other ones are locked until you get a special secret item.

A base requirement for unlocking 4 new endings is getting a Void Heart charm which can be acquired by visiting the Birthplace at the bottom of the Abyss with a Kingsoul charm equipped and hitting an egg with the Dream Nail.

With Void Heart, you can now access extra endings. The additional requirements are as follows:

  • Ending 2: near the end of the Hollow Knight boss fight Hornet will attack the boss, staggering it for a few seconds. Do NOT use Dream Nail on the boss. The boss will transform; defeat it.
  • Ending 3: Similar to above, but instead, DO use Dream Nail on the boss. A new boss, Radiance, will await you – defeat it.
  • Ending 4: Use Simple Key to free the Godseeker from the cocoon in the Junk Pit; do NOT give her the Delicate Flower; use Dream Nail on her to unlock Godhome; there, defeat the final boss at the top of the Pantheon of Hallownest.
  • Ending 5: Same as above, but DO give her a flower (requires completing 2 Pantheons first).

Conclusion

Hollow Knight holds surprisingly many secrets and it’s undoubtedly one of the reasons why the game became such a success.

Some secrets remained unknown even to players with hundreds of hours invested in the game; there’s always that sense of excitement whenever you think you know the game inside out and then you stumble upon a completely new, and seemingly obvious secret you never noticed before.

If you know some other cool Hollow Knight secrets, feel free to share them.