Gaming Hollow Knight - GOAT Metroidvania

You will need to do this a fair bit too be fair. But don't worry about Hollow Knight. He's easy. Especially for the first ending because what normally makes HK a bit difficult is that you equip your charms for Radiance, so HK felt tougher.

But if you are going for a version without taking on Radiance, just equip Quick Slash, Unbreakable Strength, Long Nail and Sharp Shadow and that way you can tank him in 30 seconds.
Yeah that should work well. He should be easier than the first Grimm right?
 
By that point of the game he feels pretty easy. Typically Watcher Knights is one of the last boss fights you'll do before the Hollow Knight and they are considerably harder in my opinion. I definitely spent more time on Mantis Lords and Hornet 2 as well.
 
He's easier than most of the tougher bosses, including Grimm.
Makes me wanna drop my work right now and go slap his ass. What kinda shit vessel can't contain a stupid infection!

My plan is probably:
1. Re-do the trials as they are mostly fun and get other two unbreakable charms.
2. Finish the Grimmchild quests, attempt the second Grimm although going by the feedback here I'm likely to banish him.
3. Go after the dream warriors as most of them are one trick pony asses. I finished Zero, Gorb, Galien, Elder Hu. How many more are there?
4. Get remaining charms. Think I also have one last notch to find.
5. Remaining actual bosses. I think only Hive Knight and Traitor Lord are left.
6. Dream variants. I am still haunted by the ass whooping Failed Champion gave me when I took a shot at him earlier in the game. I am more upgraded now, need to facetank him.

I can go after HK after all that.

Also question: Once you reach the top of Crystal Peak where you find the Pale Ore, is there any area beyond that? I jump and land back in Crystal Peak but looking at the map it seems incomplete.
 
Yeah found it. I'm not doing it till I get the dream gate. Even though with Pure Nail and Unbreakable Strength it shouldn't be any hassle.

Yeah the boss is handy enough once you've got those but the trek from gate to boss is such a pain its offputting.
 
By that point of the game he feels pretty easy. Typically Watcher Knights is one of the last boss fights you'll do before the Hollow Knight and they are considerably harder in my opinion. I definitely spent more time on Mantis Lords and Hornet 2 as well.
I feel bad having overlevelled by the time I reached Watcher Knights. I had heard everyone going after them a lot of times. It took me one try, because all I had to do with slap them with the pure nail and quick slash. Literally all 5 of them went down with single nail sprees.

Mantis Lords was fun. I wish I could fight them again. I went at them mid-game, so it took a few tries.

Hornet 2 made me go for the Unbreakable Strength. But after that it was straight up wham bam thank you ma'am. After a point I even stopped jumping to evade her dash. Shaaa into me one more time bitch, I double dare ya!

Grimm is easily the most fun I've had so far. Good variety attacks. Very little window to realize what's gonna happen next. I struggled most against that attack where he dashes at you, then jumps up and drops 5 fireballs, because I was too stupid to remember I could use the shade cloak through him for those, so just ended up learning how to space myself between those fireballs. The spikes in the ground are great window for healing, probably the only window as well. In the end, once you get the hang of the pufferfish shite and start getting past that without any damage he can be taken down. But still it was a fight where I had to have my eyes dug at the TV screen. Took my like 30-40 minutes, my head was dizzy by the end of it. :lol:
 
Makes me wanna drop my work right now and go slap his ass. What kinda shit vessel can't contain a stupid infection!

My plan is probably:
1. Re-do the trials as they are mostly fun and get other two unbreakable charms.
2. Finish the Grimmchild quests, attempt the second Grimm although going by the feedback here I'm likely to banish him.
3. Go after the dream warriors as most of them are one trick pony asses. I finished Zero, Gorb, Galien, Elder Hu. How many more are there?
4. Get remaining charms. Think I also have one last notch to find.
5. Remaining actual bosses. I think only Hive Knight and Traitor Lord are left.
6. Dream variants. I am still haunted by the ass whooping Failed Champion gave me when I took a shot at him earlier in the game. I am more upgraded now, need to facetank him.

I can go after HK after all that.

Also question: Once you reach the top of Crystal Peak where you find the Pale Ore, is there any area beyond that? I jump and land back in Crystal Peak but looking at the map it seems incomplete.

The thing with these guys is they are easier the weaker you are (well pretty much the same) their health scales off your nail damage. harder you hit, the tankier they are. Easiest way to wipe them is with a nail with zero upgrades, then use Shade Soul with shaman stone equipped. They take about 10 seconds each provided you can beat the Soul Warrior guy with no upgrades.
 
Yeah the boss is handy enough once you've got those but the trek from gate to boss is such a pain its offputting.
Absolutely. I ventured into the area earlier thinking it was a bog standard area so didn't even bother to save at the tram bench before entering. They just kept coming at me after that. That big bastard bee pissed me off.

The area I hate the most would be between Deepnest and Kingdom's Edge. The former because it has a pathetic creepy vibe the whole time. And KE purely because of the fecking swarm of primal aspids. I used the King Station bench for Hornet 2 fight, which has a couple of those on the way. The absolute agony of getting a damage from those when you really wanna have full health before encountering the mental bitch.
 
I feel bad having overlevelled by the time I reached Watcher Knights. I had heard everyone going after them a lot of times. It took me one try, because all I had to do with slap them with the pure nail and quick slash. Literally all 5 of them went down with single nail sprees.

Mantis Lords was fun. I wish I could fight them again. I went at them mid-game, so it took a few tries.

Hornet 2 made me go for the Unbreakable Strength. But after that it was straight up wham bam thank you ma'am. After a point I even stopped jumping to evade her dash. Shaaa into me one more time bitch, I double dare ya!

Grimm is easily the most fun I've had so far. Good variety attacks. Very little window to realize what's gonna happen next. I struggled most against that attack where he dashes at you, then jumps up and drops 5 fireballs, because I was too stupid to remember I could use the shade cloak through him for those, so just ended up learning how to space myself between those fireballs. The spikes in the ground are great window for healing, probably the only window as well. In the end, once you get the hang of the pufferfish shite and start getting past that without any damage he can be taken down. But still it was a fight where I had to have my eyes dug at the TV screen. Took my like 30-40 minutes, my head was dizzy by the end of it. :lol:
You can! Just go to Godhome and enter the Hall of Gods on the lowest level. Find the Mantis Lords statue and fight them as many times as you like. Attuned, Ascended or Radiant, bindings, etc. I think I find them the most enjoyable fight in the game and I actually fought them again and again for fun in the Hall of Gods. I would like to fight their Sisters of Battle version as well but I don't want to go through the Pantheons to unlock it.
 
Makes me wanna drop my work right now and go slap his ass. What kinda shit vessel can't contain a stupid infection!

My plan is probably:
1. Re-do the trials as they are mostly fun and get other two unbreakable charms. Why do you need the other unbreakables this close to the end? You won't use them most likely, especially greed.
2. Finish the Grimmchild quests, attempt the second Grimm although going by the feedback here I'm likely to banish him. He is for me the toughest boss by a mile (although I never faced Absolute Radiance). I initially banished him. But my feeling of Stone Cold turned into feeling of The Miz. So I grinded him in Godhome and eventually beat him there.
3. Go after the dream warriors as most of them are one trick pony asses. I finished Zero, Gorb, Galien, Elder Hu. How many more are there? I think there are 7 in total. They're jobbers.
4. Get remaining charms. Think I also have one last notch to find. To get the full charms, you'll have to finish White Palace I'm afraid to get the whole Kingsoul (which you can swap for Void Heart). If you do manage this, go to that fat bitch at the end of Forgotten Crossroads and she'll give you a useful upgrade.
5. Remaining actual bosses. I think only Hive Knight and Traitor Lord are left. Hive Knight isn't hard. Traitor Lord on the other hand I found to be one of the harder normal bosses. But I wasn't that upgraded when I faced him. You are so it should be ok.
6. Dream variants. I am still haunted by the ass whooping Failed Champion gave me when I took a shot at him earlier in the game. I am more upgraded now, need to facetank him. Some of these are super tough and some not so much. I initially found Lost Kin really tough but I was not ready (upgrade wise). Once I upgraded, he got that stunner too. All of them are worth taking on though.

I can go after HK after all that.

Also question: Once you reach the top of Crystal Peak where you find the Pale Ore, is there any area beyond that? I jump and land back in Crystal Peak but looking at the map it seems incomplete.
I remember running around finding things to do to prolong finishing the game but at a point the only things left were those that are out of my skill level :lol:
 
The one thing I'll say about Traitor Lord is that the run to the fight can be soul destroying. By far the worst in the game. I HIGHLY recommend putting a dream gate before that fight. Do any remaining dream warriors and dream bosses first if you haven't reached the highest essence threshold yet, in case you're worried about wasting essence.
 
You can! Just go to Godhome and enter the Hall of Gods on the lowest level. Find the Mantis Lords statue and fight them as many times as you like. Attuned, Ascended or Radiant, bindings, etc. I think I find them the most enjoyable fight in the game and I actually fought them again and again for fun in the Hall of Gods. I would like to fight their Sisters of Battle version as well but I don't want to go through the Pantheons to unlock it.
Ah I didn't know that. Sounds good, there are a lot of bosses I'd like to fight again.

I remember running around finding things to do to prolong finishing the game but at a point the only things left were those that are out of my skill level :lol:

I just thought I'd get the other two unbreakable charms as well even though it's a random chore. Get to do the trial a few times which is fun, so nothing that tough.

Ah yes Salubra gives something at the acquisition of all charms. Sucks that it involves White Palace.

For Traitor Lord yeah I realized that. I actually haven't even explored Queen's Garden yet, only area left so probably good I left it for last.

There are going to be some withdrawal symptoms for sure, and like you say at one point you can just repeat the previous stuff. I can see myself randomly going from one area to another at 2 AM in the night smashing minions for no reason apart from having to keep playing this. Come a long way from basically having quit this a while back. :lol:

The one thing I'll say about Traitor Lord is that the run to the fight can be soul destroying. By far the worst in the game. I HIGHLY recommend putting a dream gate before that fight. Do any remaining dream warriors and dream bosses first if you haven't reached the highest essence threshold yet, in case you're worried about wasting essence.
Cheers, that's a great tip. I didn't know it was bad. Sounds like it was right to leave Hive Knight and Traitor Lord for last as they have pretty long treks.

As for essence, is there strictly a limited amount you can get? So far I have used to whispering roots, and those random souls in that spirits glade. I've noticed sometimes when I kill random enemies I seem to get a small amount of essence, but say someone runs out of it due to using the dreamgate often, is there a way to always get it back? I am guessing once you get the rewards all the essence you have collected is pretty much useless and can be used for this.
 
As for essence, is there strictly a limited amount you can get? So far I have used to whispering roots, and those random souls in that spirits glade. I've noticed sometimes when I kill random enemies I seem to get a small amount of essence, but say someone runs out of it due to using the dreamgate often, is there a way to always get it back? I am guessing once you get the rewards all the essence you have collected is pretty much useless and can be used for this.

It's technically unlimited as you can randomly gain 1 essence when defeating enemies, but that's not something you want to rely on. If you do all trees, dream warriors and dream bosses you'll be well over 3000 or something. You need 1800 to get the Awoken Dream Nail (to get entry into the White Palace) which is your only real target. You get another piece of lore at The Seer at 2400, which is your secondary target. After that, it doesn't matter. I started spending essence liberally at some point and never dropped below 3000.

What exactly does this mean by the way?

Attuned = regular boss fight.
Ascended = double damage, extra health on the boss and sometimes a variation in the environment.
Radiant = Ascended difficulty but you will die in one hit. You're entering the realm of video game legends like @dumbo here.
 
It's technically unlimited as you can randomly gain 1 essence when defeating enemies, but that's not something you want to rely on. If you do all trees, dream warriors and dream bosses you'll be well over 3000 or something. You need 1800 to get the Awoken Dream Nail (to get entry into the White Palace) which is your only real target. You get another piece of lore at The Seer at 2400, which is your secondary target. After that, it doesn't matter. I started spending essence liberally at some point and never dropped below 3000.
Cool, should be fine then.

Attuned = regular boss fight.
Ascended = double damage, extra health on the boss and sometimes a variation in the environment.
Radiant = Ascended difficulty but you will die in one hit. You're entering the realm of video game legends like @dumbo here.
This sounds a lot of fun. Basically in-game modded content for junkies who can't get enough.
 
Wait. WHAT?

Yeah their HP is scaled to your attack score. So basically if you don't upgrade the nail but upgrade the shit outta your magic, you can wipe them all in 4 or 5 hits from shade soul. Because of its damage output, there are a few other enemies in the game who HP scale too but none from the main plot.

I had a fully upgraded nail first time through them all on pc back in the day, second time through on ps4 I got as many of them outta the way early doors as I could and it was much easier with a magic build. As soon as you can get to city of tears and upgrade vengeful spirit is when they are at their easiest.

For example, No Eyes HP scale is 200 / 320 / 416 / 500 / 570 So with a basic nail and shade soul + Shaman Stone, 5 hits = 200 damage. So going in with a full 3 shots pretty much ends it before it starts.

With a fully upgraded nail you are looking at 21 damage per hit so 8 shade soul hits for 320 damage and 14 or so nail hits. Even with fragile/unbreakable strength you are looking at 32 damage per nail hit but magic weakened you are wanting to land .
 
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Yeah their HP is scaled to your attack score. So basically if you don't upgrade the nail but upgrade the shit outta your magic, you can wipe them all in 4 or 5 hits from shade soul. Because of its damage output, there are a few other enemies in the game who HP scale too but none from the main plot.

I had a fully upgraded nail first time through them all on pc back in the day, second time through on ps4 I got as many of them outta the way early doors as I could and it was much easier with a magic build. As soon as you can get to city of tears and upgrade vengeful spirit is when they are at their easiest.

For example, No Eyes HP scale is 200 / 320 / 416 / 500 / 570 So with a basic nail and shade soul + Shaman Stone, 5 hits = 200 damage. So going in with a full 3 shots pretty much ends it before it starts.

With a fully upgraded nail you are looking at 21 damage per hit so 8 shade soul hits for 320 damage and 14 or so nail hits. Even with fragile/unbreakable strength you are looking at 32 damage per nail hit but magic weakened you are wanting to land .
No idea how I missed this. :lol:

I did wonder why my fight with Elder Hu felt like it would never end. He has two moves so you can keep playing for eternity without taking damage and I kept bashing him but he kept going on. Makes me glad I took out Galien as he seemed super tricky for a longer duration fight.

Well nothing can be done now as I've a maxxed out nail...
 
:lol: Beat the hollow knight in first attempt what the feck.
Told you, he's easy. Disappointing considering he is the titular character.

So you're done? Did you smash all the dream variants? And Nightmare Grimm?
 
Told you, he's easy. Disappointing considering he is the titular character.

So you're done? Did you smash all the dream variants? And Nightmare Grimm?
No not done yet. I'm at 90%. Just thought I'd go check out how the Hollow Knight fight is and ended up killing him. :lol:

On the other hand. Gave Nightmare Grimm a try. Yeah that's gonna take some time to learn. I banished them accidentally anyway. Other than that I just beat random jobbers like Hive Knight and Marmu. So yeah a few dream bosses and variants still to go. Was also hunting grubs which is almost done.

The main thing is white palace which I think I'll attempt once. Hiveblood is awesome for tough platforming. I did that Greenpath Spike Zone to reach Sheo and that's like a beginner level stuff. But having Hiveblood meant infinite attempts.

Also tried doing False Knight Radiant and saw how tough it would be to do radiant bosses. @dumbo is a God level gamer for doing all of them.

But yeah will spend some more time although feels it has kinda come to an end overall. Just gonna do stuff for percentage sake.
 
Hollow Knight is one of the easiest bosses in the game but also quickly becomes the biggest pain in the arse when you are trying to beat The Radiance.
 
So I made it into the White Palace after beating some dream warriors and Failed Champion and Lost Kin. Made it around 60 percent or so. But after a point just gave up. Those pogo off horizontal spikes which are coming in and out is too much.

I was worried I couldn't get back out and had to clear a bit of route just to come out. But thankfully I am out. I dont need that much stress for a game haha. I'm fine without that whole part with kingsoul etc. Think overall I'm probably done now. Will probably check in from time to time to smash some bosses in godhome but think this is all. 95 percent I think. Might get that up slightly more.

Can't be more grateful that such a masterpiece was on PS plus. Absolute amazing time playing as much as I managed to!
 
So I made it into the White Palace after beating some dream warriors and Failed Champion and Lost Kin. Made it around 60 percent or so. But after a point just gave up. Those pogo off horizontal spikes which are coming in and out is too much.

I was worried I couldn't get back out and had to clear a bit of route just to come out. But thankfully I am out. I dont need that much stress for a game haha. I'm fine without that whole part with kingsoul etc. Think overall I'm probably done now. Will probably check in from time to time to smash some bosses in godhome but think this is all. 95 percent I think. Might get that up slightly more.

Can't be more grateful that such a masterpiece was on PS plus. Absolute amazing time playing as much as I managed to!
I'm glad you went back and finished it mate. Really happy you did that. Well done. 95% nothing to sniff at for players like us, who were really struggling at first.

I'm assuming you've seen the lore after finishing White Palace and getting Void Heart in The Abyss on YouTube? Check it out if you haven't.

How did you find Traitor Lord?

I think this thread will die down a fair bit now until Silk Song releases.

I wasn't really enjoying Hollow Knight until I found this thread (and got past Soul Sanctum!) So I'm really thankful!
 
I'm glad you went back and finished it mate. Really happy you did that. Well done. 95% nothing to sniff at for players like us, who were really struggling at first.

I'm assuming you've seen the lore after finishing White Palace and getting Void Heart in The Abyss on YouTube? Check it out if you haven't.

How did you find Traitor Lord?

I think this thread will die down a fair bit now until Silk Song releases.

I wasn't really enjoying Hollow Knight until I found this thread (and got past Soul Sanctum!) So I'm really thankful!
Cheers man. Your words definitely motivated me to give it another shot.

Yeah I've seen the main endings. Even the absolute radiance one. I never really thought I would be getting near then anyway.

Traitor lord was tricky. Just got him few minutes back. Tried everything then resorted to smack smack smack and gone. I've been fecking playing this for like last 17 hours. Including the partial white palace trek. :lol:

Exploring new areas in this was awesome. Combat obviously is great as well. Let's see how Silksong goes. Previews look quite good.
 
Cheers man. Your words definitely motivated me to give it another shot.

Yeah I've seen the main endings. Even the absolute radiance one. I never really thought I would be getting near then anyway.

Traitor lord was tricky. Just got him few minutes back. Tried everything then resorted to smack smack smack and gone. I've been fecking playing this for like last 17 hours. Including the partial white palace trek. :lol:

Exploring new areas in this was awesome. Combat obviously is great as well. Let's see how Silksong goes. Previews look quite good.
Did you see the origin of the Knight? That's the lore you get when swapping king soul to void heart.
 
What's with that point in Queens garden saying Traitors child lives here or something?

Attempted the first pantheon but failed at the last guys oro and mato. But beating these beginner bosses in a row was fecked up. Let alone all the ones in the game that some do.
 
Think I’ll give this a play. I was looking for good indie games for the Switch and this is one name that kept popping up.
 
What's with that point in Queens garden saying Traitors child lives here or something?

Attempted the first pantheon but failed at the last guys oro and mato. But beating these beginner bosses in a row was fecked up. Let alone all the ones in the game that some do.
I think that's who you deliver the delicate flower to in exchange for a mask shard.
 
Good thing is this is exactly where me and @Dirty Schwein got stuck and it's just a really tricky area which is also holding important abilities you need to get into other areas so you gotta just do it. Soul Warrior was where I quit the game for ages. Then came back and once he was done the difficulty curve is back to normal. Just gotta keep patience with him. Forget healing. Strike him whenever you get a chance. He has three moves. Soul Master is actually less tricky as it's a larger area and you can easily heal with Quick Focus. Just get past this shite and you will love the rest of it.
Finally beat him, wanted to get another charm notch from salubra before fighting the soul master, didnt have enough charms to buy it, decided to farm some more geo, and go looking for charms, got cocky and died because of one of those mini boss types in forgotten crossroads, wanted to go back to legeater to get fragile greed fixed and buy the rest of his charms, took a wrong turn and ended up at the lowest bench near the mantis village, died on the way up to legeater and dead again to one of those exploding projectiles from the plants right before where my shade was and lost all the geo I'd farmed so when I finally did get to legeater I had just enough money to repair fragile greed and couldn't get the other charms. It's funny how careful you sometimes are moving around bosses but then die because of some silly sh!t like those damn plants. Lost all the geo I'd farmed around greenpath, forgotten crossroads, howling cliffs -_-'

Which charms would you recommend against soul master? I also still need to fight the mantis lords but I don't really want or need access to deepnest right now.
 
Finally beat him, wanted to get another charm notch from salubra before fighting the soul master, didnt have enough charms to buy it, decided to farm some more geo, and go looking for charms, got cocky and died because of one of those mini boss types in forgotten crossroads, wanted to go back to legeater to get fragile greed fixed and buy the rest of his charms, took a wrong turn and ended up at the lowest bench near the mantis village, died on the way up to legeater and dead again to one of those exploding projectiles from the plants right before where my shade was and lost all the geo I'd farmed so when I finally did get to legeater I had just enough money to repair fragile greed and couldn't get the other charms. It's funny how careful you sometimes are moving around bosses but then die because of some silly sh!t like those damn plants. Lost all the geo I'd farmed around greenpath, forgotten crossroads, howling cliffs -_-'

Which charms would you recommend against soul master? I also still need to fight the mantis lords but I don't really want or need access to deepnest right now.
I totally get what you mean and it keeps happening throughout the game. Couple of tips for that. If you ever find yourself in a tricky spot while moving around with money just quit the game when low on health. You respawn at the same bench and don't lose any money plus you don't have to travel all the way back to get your shade. Second don't sell your item to Lymm in City of Tears right until you are totally ready to buy something. That's like your own safe bank.

For Soul Master you can go without that much worry. If you have unbreakable strength that would always help. Apart from that nail extention like long nail or mark of pride can help as he's in the air sometimes. Quick Heal would be good as you get a lot of healing windows. Overall it's a good fight. Big enough arena to allow you time between moves. He has 3-4 moves similar to soul warrior so it's mainly just learning them.

Edit just putting some counters in case you are stuck but a lot more fun learning them yourself

When he throws the orb just don't jump or anything. Just walk towards him casually without any dash or stuff as soon as he's let the orb go and you'll never get hit and get your best striking window. Get 2-3 hits then.

When he's slamming down just focus on evading the Shockwave and wait for the next attack. No point getting greedy.

When he's doing the 4 orb attack jump over the bottom most orb and get when up strike hit. That's it. This also your heal window.

When he dash towards you just jump over. You can get a down strike hit.

Just no reason to get greedy. This fight can go on for long and he's gonna keep doing the same stuff.
 
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It's funny how after playing it for ages you can find yourself doing some really dumb stuff. I was playing Failed Champion earlier and dying a lot so I thought this guy must be tough. Even though I had counters for all his moves. The one fight I downed him like 8-9 times and he just kept getting back up, only for me to realise I've been dream nailing him for some braindead reason and not even hitting him with my nail. :lol: Got him the very next fight.

Lost Kin, Failed Champion, Soul Tyrant, White Defender, Nightmare Grimm. I am guessing these are all the dream variants.
 
It's funny how after playing it for ages you can find yourself doing some really dumb stuff. I was playing Failed Champion earlier and dying a lot so I thought this guy must be tough. Even though I had counters for all his moves. The one fight I downed him like 8-9 times and he just kept getting back up, only for me to realise I've been dream nailing him for some braindead reason and not even hitting him with my nail. :lol: Got him the very next fight.

Lost Kin, Failed Champion, Soul Tyrant, White Defender, Nightmare Grimm. I am guessing these are all the dream variants.
Enraged Guardian too. He's the easiest one of the lot.
 
Technically Grey Prince Zote is a dream variant too. I believe you get essence the first time you beat him.
 
I totally get what you mean and it keeps happening throughout the game. Couple of tips for that. If you ever find yourself in a tricky spot while moving around with money just quit the game when low on health. You respawn at the same bench and don't lose any money plus you don't have to travel all the way back to get your shade. Second don't sell your item to Lymm in City of Tears right until you are totally ready to buy something. That's like your own safe bank.

For Soul Master you can go without that much worry. If you have unbreakable strength that would always help. Apart from that nail extention like long nail or mark of pride can help as he's in the air sometimes. Quick Heal would be good as you get a lot of healing windows. Overall it's a good fight. Big enough arena to allow you time between moves. He has 3-4 moves similar to soul warrior so it's mainly just learning them.

Edit just putting some counters in case you are stuck but a lot more fun learning them yourself

When he throws the orb just don't jump or anything. Just walk towards him casually without any dash or stuff as soon as he's let the orb go and you'll never get hit and get your best striking window. Get 2-3 hits then.

When he's slamming down just focus on evading the Shockwave and wait for the next attack. No point getting greedy.

When he's doing the 4 orb attack jump over the bottom most orb and get when up strike hit. That's it. This also your heal window.

When he dash towards you just jump over. You can get a down strike hit.

Just no reason to get greedy. This fight can go on for long and he's gonna keep doing the same stuff.
Hopefully I'll remember that tip the next time it happens, this time I just jumped around in a panic trying to get away from the exploding projectiles, unsuccessfully, hearing my shade nearby as I died again.

The biggest problem is gonna be patience, I usually want to get in as many hits as I can to kill them asap, less time for me to die but that doesn't work with a lot of bosses in HK instead you just die in less time.

Don't have unbreakable strength atm, think you need to do the grimm troupe for that. Did get long nail, also found spell twister but since I can't seem to land any hits with those soul twisters so I don't think it's gonna be useful for soul master.

Thanks for the tips, might give it a try tomorrow since I don't have any geo to lose. Need to get on with it so I can start exploring crystal peak and all the other places that are left to explore, I'm taking my sweet *ss time with this game :')