Gaming Hollow Knight - GOAT Metroidvania

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I liked switching to a longer nail for Sly's final form then switching out at the next bench.

Soul Catcher was never efficient enough for me. Spell Twister or grubsong looks better. With grubsong you could then use defenders crest and make Lost Kin a breeze.
 

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Bindings are easier than Hallownest. The first 2 pantheon s with bindings are easier than the 4th pantheon. It's only the Charmless runs that might be tough, and you could get at least 3 lifebloods fairly easily.
 

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I liked switching to a longer nail for Sly's final form then switching out at the next bench.

Soul Catcher was never efficient enough for me. Spell Twister or grubsong looks better. With grubsong you could then use defenders crest and make Lost Kin a breeze.
Previously I had Longnail instead of Soul Catcher and found my soul generation really lacking. Maybe Grubsong would do enough to compensate for that, I should try it out. Having another notch available does sound appealing. Defender's Crest for Lost Kin, Nailmaster's Glory for a lot of other fights, maybe even Dream Wielder. I'll give it a go later today. I've seen builds with Deep Focus + Quick Focus suggested elsewhere and I could see a use for that but it also means dropping Shaman Stone and Quick Slash. I love Quick Slash against the likes of Watcher Knights, Failed Champion and GPZ, it would be a big miss.
 

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Bindings are easier than Hallownest. The first 2 pantheon s with bindings are easier than the 4th pantheon. It's only the Charmless runs that might be tough, and you could get at least 3 lifebloods fairly easily.
Yeah looking at the list of bosses in those first 2 again, that shouldn't be too hard. That's enough for the first 3 lifebloods right?
 

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I managed to make it past Markoth the very first time I played him in his ascended arena, on my 5th or 6th overall Pantheon of Hallownest attempt. I'm pretty happy with that. I had 4 masks going into the Zote fight but I played my worst fight against him in a long time. Didn't even make it to the first stagger. Oh well. It feels like getting back to Markoth shouldn't be too difficult, it's just time consuming.
 

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I managed to make it past Markoth the very first time I played him in his ascended arena, on my 5th or 6th overall Pantheon of Hallownest attempt. I'm pretty happy with that. I had 4 masks going into the Zote fight but I played my worst fight against him in a long time. Didn't even make it to the first stagger. Oh well. It feels like getting back to Markoth shouldn't be too difficult, it's just time consuming.
That is good going. Markoth is rough to beat but rougher still that when you do get him you often leave with little resources. So you only have Absolute Radiance left to unlock then.

I just remembered that when I did the soul/mask/nail bindings, during that series of bosses I realised how valuable Hiveblood can be and eventually switched to it:
Soul Tyrant - Avoidable attacks gives you large windows to heal. Lot's of safe spots and time wasting charge attacks.
Markoth - He doesn't necessarily chase you and you can get in and out and wait to heal fairly easily.
Zote - As you've fought him a lot you'll know the fairly safe areas. His biggest threat comes from tagging you when you try and chase him down.
Failed Champion - Not ideal here but you just have to soldier it till the first stagger.
Nightmare King Grimm - He's just pattern memorisation with safe spots during every attack. Hiveblood should make any mistake you make half as costly.

You just have to remember to be that bit more defensive and prioritise safely avoiding attacks over damaging the boss. I figure this is the same principle behind the Quick/Deep Focus strategy that many use. Obviously you are then losing damage boosting charms but it's worth at least trying Hiveblood in Hall of Gods. It really helped me with Markoth.
 

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That is good going. Markoth is rough to beat but rougher still that when you do get him you often leave with little resources. So you only have Absolute Radiance left to unlock then.

I just remembered that when I did the soul/mask/nail bindings, during that series of bosses I realised how valuable Hiveblood can be and eventually switched to it:
Soul Tyrant - Avoidable attacks gives you large windows to heal. Lot's of safe spots and time wasting charge attacks.
Markoth - He doesn't necessarily chase you and you can get in and out and wait to heal fairly easily.
Zote - As you've fought him a lot you'll know the fairly safe areas. His biggest threat comes from tagging you when you try and chase him down.
Failed Champion - Not ideal here but you just have to soldier it till the first stagger.
Nightmare King Grimm - He's just pattern memorisation with safe spots during every attack. Hiveblood should make any mistake you make half as costly.

You just have to remember to be that bit more defensive and prioritise safely avoiding attacks over damaging the boss. I figure this is the same principle behind the Quick/Deep Focus strategy that many use. Obviously you are then losing damage boosting charms but it's worth at least trying Hiveblood in Hall of Gods. It really helped me with Markoth.
Interesting, I might try it out but I would certainly miss Quick Slash against Zote and Failed Champion. Possibly the two bosses that charm feels the most effective against.

This sounds pathetic, but the enemy that has ended more runs than any other enemy is... No Eyes! I just lost another round to her. I had a poor fight against Lost Kin and went into it on low health and soul. I think I only needed to hit No Eyes with one more great slash and I was on four masks, then this happened: I fell onto a ghost that I couldn't see below my screen and got knocked into the spikes for two masks. I respawned right on top of two ghosts on the lower platform, took damage and immediately got knocked into the spikes again. Four masks lost in two seconds and run over. The mistake was playing so poorly against Lost Kin but I can't say this felt fair.
 

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Interesting, I might try it out but I would certainly miss Quick Slash against Zote and Failed Champion. Possibly the two bosses that charm feels the most effective against.

This sounds pathetic, but the enemy that has ended more runs than any other enemy is... No Eyes! I just lost another round to her. I had a poor fight against Lost Kin and went into it on low health and soul. I think I only needed to hit No Eyes with one more great slash and I was on four masks, then this happened: I fell onto a ghost that I couldn't see below my screen and got knocked into the spikes for two masks. I respawned right on top of two ghosts on the lower platform, took damage and immediately got knocked into the spikes again. Four masks lost in two seconds and run over. The mistake was playing so poorly against Lost Kin but I can't say this felt fair.
No Eyes is terrible. I gave up chasing her and just concentrated on staying on the bottom two platforms for most of the fight and avoiding the ghosts. Any spare soul would be used to heal, and wouldn't use magic unless I was maxed out with health first. There are a few safe spots where you can heal safely, as long as you judge the trajectory of the ghosts right.

Lost Kin I mastered through repetition. He only does a few attacks but judging his jerky leaps is worse than both Hornet and Zote. Also being able to judge the heal window between when he staggers and when the balloons hits you is something I just had to learn through getting hit a lot.

Running the trickier bosses in Hall of Gods is never wasted time, even if it can feel that way when you're trying to take down a Pantheon. I ironed out a lot of kinks in my play in there, and that was even after I had beaten everything on Radiant difficulty.

Also enjoy it because you're making good progress.
 

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:lol: that's some vintage stuff.

For what it's worth I think you need to spank nail arts on no eyes.
I'm sure it happens to everyone at some point and it would be funny if she wasn't so deep into the pantheon. :lol: And yeah I only use great slashes on No Eyes.

No Eyes is terrible. I gave up chasing her and just concentrated on staying on the bottom two platforms for most of the fight and avoiding the ghosts. Any spare soul would be used to heal, and wouldn't use magic unless I was maxed out with health first. There are a few safe spots where you can heal safely, as long as you judge the trajectory of the ghosts right.

Lost Kin I mastered through repetition. He only does a few attacks but judging his jerky leaps is worse than both Hornet and Zote. Also being able to judge the heal window between when he staggers and when the balloons hits you is something I just had to learn through getting hit a lot.

Running the trickier bosses in Hall of Gods is never wasted time, even if it can feel that way when you're trying to take down a Pantheon. I ironed out a lot of kinks in my play in there, and that was even after I had beaten everything on Radiant difficulty.

Also enjoy it because you're making good progress.
I was pretty unlucky that time because she was on her final hit and she just didn't come close to me in like 4 or 5 teleports before I died. There are some many ghosts at that point it becomes pretty stressful and chaotic to avoid them all. It's possibly my least favourite boss in the game right now. I actually enjoy Oblobbles and Uumuu more, and that's saying a lot. :lol: I haven't lost to Markoth enough to hate him yet.

The thing with Lost Kin is I've always been pretty agressive against him. I haven't died to him in ages (never in the PoH) but I might have to rethink my strategy to leave me in a better place after the fight. Or just put Defender's Crest in for that sequence.

I'm still enjoying it and I think the key for me is to turn off the game and do some other stuff after a failed run. If I'd do it over and over I'd probably get frustrated. It's sort of fun seeing if I can do the first +-30 bosses more efficiently each time.
 

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I had to take a little break from the game due to a kitchen related accident involving my left thumb and a knife (:nervous: :lol:), but I've now finally made it to Absolute Radiance. Once I got past the Markoth - Zote combo of hell (which ended 6 runs), I made it to her easily. Having beaten the Radiance several times and after watching plenty of Absolute Radiance videos, I thought I would at least stand a chance. How wrong I was. This is going to take a ton of practice.

Learning Markoth has been the hardest thing in the entire game for me so far. I mean, really learning him. Not just scraping through but feeling like I'm in control of that fight and leaving me plenty of health for Zote. For the longest time I thought it was just an rng shitshow and I'd never control that fight, even after 50+ failed attempts at his ascended fight. I think I've got it now though. If I can just stay calm and don't go for any risky attacks, I'm good. Absolute Radiance is another story. I wonder how consistent I could possibly get at this fight, but we'll see I guess.

My methodical and careful play style makes this thing a marathon though. Takes me over an hour to reach Absolute Radiance.
 

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Good going on unlocking all the content. The unlock is half the battle of AR, now you only have to learn the strats in the Hall.

The fastest way I found to get comfortable with AR was first equip all lifeblood charms and then try to survive as long as possible in order to learn the patterns. Getting down the patterns of the first two sections is the crux of the fight.

The last two sections (laser and final platforms) are very gimmicky. They take a little mastering but once you get the knack of the timing they become the easiest sections.

She's a slog to get past but having come this far it's definitely within your ability. It's just having the time and patience to keep at it.
 

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There are just enough charm notches to equip all health related charms (all lifeblood plus Unbreakable/Fragile Heart) so that's what I'm doing now. It's a bit overwhelming so far. It feels like a completely different mind set to get into compared to the rest of the bosses. There seems to be very little, if any, pattern recognition. Just learning to dodge everything she throws at me isn't enough, I need to do it in a way that keeps all my options open for any possible overlapping follow up attack she can do. The permutations are, perhaps not endless, but it feels that way. Finding a reliable and repeatable strategy is going to be a serious challenge.

This is going to take me so long, by the time I master her I'll probably die to all the other bosses again. :lol:

Edit: just made it to the final platform phase for the first time. Decent health and I think I was only a couple of hits away. An hour ago this felt totally impossible but I'm starting to feel close now. Still yet to beat her a single time though, let alone find the consistency to attempt her in P5.
 
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Got my first victory against Absolute Radiance! That took around 150 attempts, a personal record. :lol: Second most attempts on a boss fight in any video game was 45 for Orphan of Koss in the Bloodborne DLC. It's not even close.

I definitely still need to clean up the platform phase and then the final phase. Everything before the platform phase feels pretty solid and I think I've sort of got the rhythm of the climb down. Still though, I can't exactly get carried away with one win in 150, even though I think the worst is behind me in terms of training.

At least I've now beaten every single boss in the game, that's something.

Edit: and on the next attempt I immediately beat hear again with a flawless, hitless climb and final phase. Funny how that goes. Two out of 151 but also 100% in my last two attemps. :D
 
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Got my first victory against Absolute Radiance! That took around 150 attempts, a personal record. :lol: Second most attempts on a boss fight in any video game was 45 for Orphan of Koss in the Bloodborne DLC. It's not even close.

I definitely still need to clean up the platform phase and then the final phase. Everything before the platform phase feels pretty solid and I think I've sort of got the rhythm of the climb down. Still though, I can't exactly get carried away with one win in 150, even though I think the worst is behind me in terms of training.

At least I've now beaten every single boss in the game, that's something.
That's cool, the first win is the biggest.

On the platform phase I prioritise safety and try never to chase, even when she refuses to teleport to my platforms for cycle after cycle. The bottom three platforms are the battleground.

Do you pogo the final phase, or dodge the orbs? Pogoing is much simpler to start with but I switched to staying on the platform and dodging the orbs because it is much safer in the long run and you don't have to depend on AR not suddenly teleporting leaving you to death. Dodging means you have to practice baiting the orbs before jumping them at the right arc but once you get the rhythm you can do that phase hitless pretty easily.
 

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That's cool, the first win is the biggest.

On the platform phase I prioritise safety and try never to chase, even when she refuses to teleport to my platforms for cycle after cycle. The bottom three platforms are the battleground.

Do you pogo the final phase, or dodge the orbs? Pogoing is much simpler to start with but I switched to staying on the platform and dodging the orbs because it is much safer in the long run and you don't have to depend on AR not suddenly teleporting leaving you to death. Dodging means you have to practice baiting the orbs before jumping them at the right arc but once you get the rhythm you can do that phase hitless pretty easily.
Same for the platform phase. The last few attempts I had rotten luck with this because she simply refused to teleport near me. I can stretch that phase for several minutes but eventually I run out of health and soul. If I don't get opportunities to inflict sufficient damage in that time, it's over. That's something I need to improve.

I did a combination of pogo and double jumping to bait the orbs off the screen on my two successful runs so far. I don't want to pogo and dash/double jump to her next position because it's a bit of guess work since you're above the screen. Seems so easy to screw up. So I pogo as long as she stays in place and then fall back down to the platform with a double jump and dash in reserve if I need to avoid an orb. While she stays away, I just do the double jump to bait the orbs until she's close enough to pogo again. I'm not sure if that's the best strategy but it's the one I've had the most success with so far.

Edit: yeah I feel pretty comfortable with this strategy, third win.
 
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You got it.

Pogoing for damage is fine, it's the off screen pogoing that is the risky strat. The orbs despawn immediately off screen so you can pogo constantly and never have to worry about dodging the orbs but being based on the platform is the better long term strategy, although initially trickier. Yeah staying on one platform is the safest thing.
 

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You got it.

Pogoing for damage is fine, it's the off screen pogoing that is the risky strat. The orbs despawn immediately off screen so you can pogo constantly and never have to worry about dodging the orbs but being based on the platform is the better long term strategy, although initially trickier. Yeah staying on one platform is the safest thing.
Did you always heal at the bottom when the climb starts? I usually try to do this as the beam is supposed to be inaccurate at that point. But she almost always immediately hits me with it. Her first beam is often right at me.
 

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Did you always heal at the bottom when the climb starts? I usually try to do this as the beam is supposed to be inaccurate at that point. But she almost always immediately hits me with it. Her first beam is often right at me.
Almost never. If low on health I will heal during the platforms and any spare soul after that will be used on DDive or Shriek. However if I do have spare soul when she teleports upscreen then I will usually only heal if I have very low health and can get the extra hit because yes it's risky to stand still even at the bottom and also you can make good headway up the climb before she starts the beams, standing to heal means you have more to climb when she does start the beams. If I have three hits

On the platform section healing after the 2nd of her 3 beam spiral attack is usually safest.
 

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I just cannot believe this. My consistency on AbsRad is still nowhere near where I want it but just for some variety I decided to try the pantheon again anyway. Made it to her without any issues and had a perfect climb. Reached her final phase with full health but for some reason completely choked. How on earth did I mess that up?? I will never in a million years reach her final phase with full health again. I'm fairly disgusted with myself now. How?!
 

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:lol: The moment we were all waiting for!
It's ridiculous right. :lol: I've had the same thing happen with every major challenge in the game, like dying to the Kingsmoulds at the end of the Path of Pain and dying to God Tamer at the end of the Trial of the Fool (hard to believe I used to consider that a tough challenge back then!) several times. I should've known it was too easy when I reached that final phase at full health! I probably should've put the controller down and go for a walk before attempting that final phase. Oh well.

What else is there to do than try again straight away? Up to Soul Tyrant now, I'll probably mess up against Markoth or something this time. Edit: Feck, managed to die to Pure Vessel this time. That was unexpected. I was thinking about the upcoming fight too much I think.
 
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Hell yes, it's done! It came down to very last mask again but I just kept jumping and hitting her and praying it would be enough. Once I saw her move to the middle, I just went for it. If that wasn't the final hit, I'm pretty sure I would've been dead. Of course it had to be like that. :lol:

My hands are still shaking. I'm not normally one to go seeking for ultra hard challenges so this was by far the single hardest thing I've ever attempted in a video game. Worth it though, I actually came to enjoy the entire Pantheon run once I got good enough at all of the bosses. The early part is perhaps a bit tedious with all of the easy bosses, but that's okay. This is enough for me though, I've got no desire whatsoever to try this with any bindings. That's a whole other level of skill.

I remember @dumbo posting that Godhome was its own separate game and he actually preferred it over the base game. I wouldn't put it that strongly but I do think it's fantastic on its own. Some of the unique bosses that were added are among the best in the enitre game. I'd say Sisters of Battle, Sheo, Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm are my personal favourites, so three of those are exclusive to Godhome.

I might try some of the bosses on radiant now, but I'm not going to make it a real target. Perhaps a steel soul run, that could be fun.
 

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Hell yes, it's done! It came down to very last mask again but I just kept jumping and hitting her and praying it would be enough. Once I saw her move to the middle, I just went for it. If that wasn't the final hit, I'm pretty sure I would've been dead. Of course it had to be like that. :lol:

My hands are still shaking. I'm not normally one to go seeking for ultra hard challenges so this was by far the single hardest thing I've ever attempted in a video game. Worth it though, I actually came to enjoy the entire Pantheon run once I got good enough at all of the bosses. The early part is perhaps a bit tedious with all of the easy bosses, but that's okay. This is enough for me though, I've got no desire whatsoever to try this with any bindings. That's a whole other level of skill.

I remember @dumbo posting that Godhome was its own separate game and he actually preferred it over the base game. I wouldn't put it that strongly but I do think it's fantastic on its own. Some of the unique bosses that were added are among the best in the enitre game. I'd say Sisters of Battle, Sheo, Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm are my personal favourites, so three of those are exclusive to Godhome.

I might try some of the bosses on radiant now, but I'm not going to make it a real target. Perhaps a steel soul run, that could be fun.
Well done mate!
 

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Congratulations, a seriously impressive feat. Particularly after getting so close earlier. I know how gutting the close losses feel. It's something like a 2% of players who have beaten Hallownest.

You have now earned the right to play Rain World.

Right who's next?
 

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Thanks guys!

Congratulations, a seriously impressive feat. Particularly after getting so close earlier. I know how gutting the close losses feel. It's something like a 2% of players who have beaten Hallownest.

You have now earned the right to play Rain World.

Right who's next?
:lol: I don't know man, I sort of don't want to leave Hollow Knight behind, even after all this. Says enough about how phenomenal this game is. Btw just had to finish the game again to get the Mister Mushroom ending (wtf?) and did base game Radiance again. That was so stupidly easy, it's incredible what training Absolute Radiance does to your skill level. I did the whole thing except the climb hitless without even trying. The incredibly slow laser caught me off guard during the climb.

Just out of curiosity (again, I'm NOT doing this :lol:), how many attempts did you need to do P5 with the harder bindings? Just reaching AbsRad must be insane with charm binding for example, and then actually fighting her? That's the stuff of nightmares. It's such a punishing fight. The amount of times a simple mistake can lead to 3 masks of damage due to getting knocked off the platforms in the process, it's seriously frustrating.

And I agree, who's next? Come on @Dirty Schwein and @Moby, you know you want it!
 

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Thanks guys!


:lol: I don't know man, I sort of don't want to leave Hollow Knight behind, even after all this. Says enough about how phenomenal this game is. Btw just had to finish the game again to get the Mister Mushroom ending (wtf?) and did base game Radiance again. That was so stupidly easy, it's incredible what training Absolute Radiance does to your skill level. I did the whole thing except the climb hitless without even trying. The incredibly slow laser caught me off guard during the climb.

Just out of curiosity (again, I'm NOT doing this :lol:), how many attempts did you need to do P5 with the harder bindings? Just reaching AbsRad must be insane with charm binding for example, and then actually fighting her? That's the stuff of nightmares. It's such a punishing fight. The amount of times a simple mistake can lead to 3 masks of damage due to getting knocked off the platforms in the process, it's seriously frustrating.

And I agree, who's next? Come on @Dirty Schwein and @Moby, you know you want it!
Haha no way! I love the game but if I try this, I'll keep going until I do it, which means I'll play no other games :lol:

Maybe try Celeste? I've nearly completed everything in that. It's really fun.
 

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Thanks guys!


:lol: I don't know man, I sort of don't want to leave Hollow Knight behind, even after all this. Says enough about how phenomenal this game is. Btw just had to finish the game again to get the Mister Mushroom ending (wtf?) and did base game Radiance again. That was so stupidly easy, it's incredible what training Absolute Radiance does to your skill level. I did the whole thing except the climb hitless without even trying. The incredibly slow laser caught me off guard during the climb.

Just out of curiosity (again, I'm NOT doing this :lol:), how many attempts did you need to do P5 with the harder bindings? Just reaching AbsRad must be insane with charm binding for example, and then actually fighting her? That's the stuff of nightmares. It's such a punishing fight. The amount of times a simple mistake can lead to 3 masks of damage due to getting knocked off the platforms in the process, it's seriously frustrating.

And I agree, who's next? Come on @Dirty Schwein and @Moby, you know you want it!
Nail binding took 3 attempts, Soul took 1, mask binding took 1 if I remember rightly. Much of the challenge with these bindings is simply finding and fine tuning the charm combo. Nail bindings is definitely the easiest, once you get the charm right.

The charm binding took possibly 5 or 6 tries. I died to Failed Champion and No Eyes and even the brothers. I made it twice to AR, dying once on the first section and once on the last phase with good health but my rhythm was off, got hit and then I choke spiraled to death.

My final run was pretty flawless throughout. I had 3 lifebloods going into AR and only took two hits the whole fight, both in the first phase. I think my brain had decided enough was enough and we were winning now.

No charms was a soul crushing grind though and the bosses feel so spongey. I remember whining at the screen for Lost Kin to "just fecking die already". I also had to practice Markoth and Collector heavily beforehand, specifically for that single binding. The only thing more gruelling was AR on Radiant difficulty. I wouldn't recommend either for fun.
 

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And I agree, who's next? Come on @Dirty Schwein and @Moby, you know you want it!
:nervous: I did try one pantheon as the last thing in the game before moving on, and the first one of course wasn't a big deal. But really you can't undermine the sheer amount of practice and patience you guys have put in to get a good hang of each and every boss to the point of getting past all of them in one go! The way I see it, you pretty much have to forego most of the things you do on a daily basis and pretty much go after the game as your primary job! :lol: It's more of a dream as of now, maybe sometime when I have a bit of time off work I can think of attempting it haha. At least for me it would really need a few days of sitting on the game and pretty much doing nothing else!

Edit: Also another thing with a game like this is you need to go as far as you can when the muscle memory is in tact, which is what I had at the time I did the final stuff, since then I've played a few other games and so maybe you can say it is a 'good' thing you can't just go back to it whenever you want, as it definitely keeps calling me back haha!

On a similar note it feels all these speedrunners and youtubers are just always cheating! Having seen you guys put in so much effort and dedication to finish it once or a few times, and I wouldn't classify you as casual gamers as you seem to have loads of experience and are top quality gamers, it's a bit of a joke to see all those guys finish this on every attempt. Even people doing P5 hitless like it's nothing! I get it that some of them pretty much play this game for a living (like fireborn who quit his job and just streams full time now) but still they are still humans.
 

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Haha no way! I love the game but if I try this, I'll keep going until I do it, which means I'll play no other games :lol:

Maybe try Celeste? I've nearly completed everything in that. It's really fun.
I might do that, it's on my list. I'm also playing a bit of Disco Elysium and FFVII remake so I really need to finish those first. Good thing is I've just started 2 weeks off from work. I had planned to dedicate this to the Pantheon of Hallownest but now it's already done. :D

Nail binding took 3 attempts, Soul took 1, mask binding took 1 if I remember rightly. Much of the challenge with these bindings is simply finding and fine tuning the charm combo. Nail bindings is definitely the easiest, once you get the charm right.

The charm binding took possibly 5 or 6 tries. I died to Failed Champion and No Eyes and even the brothers. I made it twice to AR, dying once on the first section and once on the last phase with good health but my rhythm was off, got hit and then I choke spiraled to death.

My final run was pretty flawless throughout. I had 3 lifebloods going into AR and only took two hits the whole fight, both in the first phase. I think my brain had decided enough was enough and we were winning now.

No charms was a soul crushing grind though and the bosses feel so spongey. I remember whining at the screen for Lost Kin to "just fecking die already". I also had to practice Markoth and Collector heavily beforehand, specifically for that single binding. The only thing more gruelling was AR on Radiant difficulty. I wouldn't recommend either for fun.
Fewer attempts than I would've thought, your mastery of the bosses must be insane. I imagine each run with nail or charm binding takes ages though. Oblobbles with their ridiculous health pool. The Collector without being able to one-shot Primal Aspids sounds terrible as well. And then Absolute Radiance... When I went for my pantheon runs yesterday I decided to sacrifice offence and switch to a healing build at the last bench. Deep Focus, Quick Focus and Grubsong for the first 8 notches. It's what carried me through the platform phase despite getting poor rng. You can make a ton of mistakes with that build and still start the climb in good shape. Doing without those seems bad enough, but without any charms, fecking hell.

:nervous: I did try one pantheon as the last thing in the game before moving on, and the first one of course wasn't a big deal. But really you can't undermine the sheer amount of practice and patience you guys have put in to get a good hang of each and every boss to the point of getting past all of them in one go! The way I see it, you pretty much have to forego most of the things you do on a daily basis and pretty much go after the game as your primary job! :lol: It's more of a dream as of now, maybe sometime when I have a bit of time off work I can think of attempting it haha. At least for me it would really need a few days of sitting on the game and pretty much doing nothing else!

Edit: Also another thing with a game like this is you need to go as far as you can when the muscle memory is in tact, which is what I had at the time I did the final stuff, since then I've played a few other games and so maybe you can say it is a 'good' thing you can't just go back to it whenever you want, as it definitely keeps calling me back haha!

On a similar note it feels all these speedrunners and youtubers are just always cheating! Having seen you guys put in so much effort and dedication to finish it once or a few times, and I wouldn't classify you as casual gamers as you seem to have loads of experience and are top quality gamers, it's a bit of a joke to see all those guys finish this on every attempt. Even people doing P5 hitless like it's nothing! I get it that some of them pretty much play this game for a living (like fireborn who quit his job and just streams full time now) but still they are still humans.
It's not that hard to get back into it actually. I came back to it a couple of months after my first playthrough, once you know what to do, the muscle memory returns quickly. And it's not like you have to drop everything else, I think I got by with maybe a couple of hours after work on most days. I got really good at the game but I've said it before in this thread, I'm not a particularly skillful gamer, the only thing I've got is determination. My first playthrough was a huge struggle. Mantis Lords tore me apart for a long time, Soul Sanctum was a nightmare, Crystal Peak was a challenge, etc. If I can go from there to where I am now in a few months time, I think almost anyone who wants it enough can do it.

And that's really it, you have to want it. I didn't want to do it after my first playthrough but game called me back as you said. I really wanted to give it a go this time and actually had fun throughout. There were some frustration along the way of course, but in general it was a really enjoyable journey.
 

dumbo

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Fewer attempts than I would've thought, your mastery of the bosses must be insane. I imagine each run with nail or charm binding takes ages though. Oblobbles with their ridiculous health pool. The Collector without being able to one-shot Primal Aspids sounds terrible as well. And then Absolute Radiance... When I went for my pantheon runs yesterday I decided to sacrifice offence and switch to a healing build at the last bench. Deep Focus, Quick Focus and Grubsong for the first 8 notches. It's what carried me through the platform phase despite getting poor rng. You can make a ton of mistakes with that build and still start the climb in good shape. Doing without those seems bad enough, but without any charms, fecking hell.
The nail binding is the quickest. The binding doesn't affect nail arts so using cyclone slash on the collector and dash slash on Markoth simplifies everything. Quick slash and grubsong to build soul, then every other charm is maximising spell damage. A number of bosses can be blitzed within 20 seconds or so with heavy spells and you can do the whole thing in about 40 minutes. The no charm binding on the other hand took over an hour to reach AR. The only good thing about it is that you can duplicate the restriction in HOG for practice by just leaving off the charms, whereas the other bindings can't be replicated as easily without modding.

The heal charms are great and using honeycomb on the mask binding trivialised a large number of the bosses for me.
 

Ainu

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So as an excuse to keep this thread alive: there is a Nintendo Indie World stream later today.


Most people seem to consider it unlikely Silksong will be included, but you never know. Previous reveals included Among Us and Spelunky 2, so it's not impossible.

Edit: Nah, nothing to see here as expected. The big reveal was Oxenfree 2.
 
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Moby

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So as usual with this game and me, everytime I thought I wouldn't go back, I did. This time mainly thanks to my sister who is now a far bigger junkie than I was, easily has clocked 500-1000 hours on this and kept doing the pantheons which is what was left for me so I thought let's give it a try else I'd have to be on the end of her gloating for the rest of my life.

So yeah, at 109% right now and ended up finishing the first two pantheons. First was obviously pretty basic, second a bit tricky at times but nothing too much. Got down the first half of third pantheon as well and up till and including Grimm there isn't much of an issue. But second half of third pantheon is where I'm blocked. Facing Galien - who I absolutely hate followed by GPZ - who I can beat normally in Hall of Gods but I just don't want to face in this run, followed by Uumuu - the most fecked up boss design ever followed by Hornet 2. Arghh. Basically just a bunch of bosses I've not practiced much all coming together. Probably need to practice mainly Galien and Zote. Uumuu is tricky and Hornet is tough but the aim has to be getting to those with decent health. Or just have another playthrough and let Zote fecking die. Having said that, not really looking forward to the 4th. :lol:
 

dumbo

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4th is possibly easier than 3rd in terms of time and effort. PV takes some getting used to but the Zote/Sly/Hornet scheme might be more finicky to master with the bench layout.
 

KirkDuyt

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I finally got around to starting this. Reading this thread my struggles in the first few hours do not bode well for what lies ahead :nervous:
 

afrocentricity

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I finally got around to starting this. Reading this thread my struggles in the first few hours do not bode well for what lies ahead :nervous:
Nah just keep going you pick up the timings of each enemy as you fight (and fall to) them. Then they become easy even though you struggled at first.