10 Worst Hollow Knight/Silksong Bosses

10 Worst Hollow Knight and Silksong Bosses

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re counting down our picks for the bosses across this beloved Metroidnia franchise that fell short.

Soul Warrior

Don’t get us wrong, thanks to its teleportation, projectiles and spawn-summing mechanics, we lost many a life to this bug. The issue isn’t in the challenge, though that certainly borders on the aggravating side, but rather that it’s an over-inflated mini-boss, one you’ll fight a handful of times throughout the game, and yet it still has the audacity to be regarded as an official boss fight. Taking on one is gnarly enough, it may even make for a unique encounter, but to keep running into them really starts to gnaw on your last nerve after a while.

Flukemarm

Glossing over the fact this collection of holes is regarded as a goddess of love and fertility to the residents of Hallownest, Flukemarm is a breeze to take down, even if you rank up the difficulty in both New Game Plus and the Godmaster DLC. She’ll remain perched in the middle of the arena, with her only defence being her ability to birth flying minions - all of which can be overcome easily enough, leaving you free to pile on the damage until she explodes. The only thing Flukemarm excels in is grossing us out.

Uumuu

Ah yes, the big stupid jellyfish who can electrify the entire screen. Uumuu might appear to be just a big floating target, but in your attempts to wail on it, you’ll find it's anything but. The only way to leave it vulnerable is to cut down one of its jellyfish minions, which will cause them to turn into bombs capable of deflating its membrane. Of course, Uumuu isn’t just to let you have your way, hence why it will let loose electric surges that will chase you down, requiring you to nail your platforming while also trying to line up the jellyfish explosives so you can finally land a hit. The longer the fight goes on, the more tedious it gets.

Palestag

Beautiful in design, the Palestag was just one of many features that made Lost Verdania such a beguiling location to explore. Just a shame that its accompanying boss fight was more annoying than ethereal. A fiend when it comes to teleporting, trying to chase down the Stag will have you high tailing it around the stage as you try to pierce it with your needle, all the while it will summon crescent projectiles at random intervals and locations. Before you know it, you’re doing loops while getting bogged down in RNG attacks. This could have been a majestic hunt but ends up divulging into an unwarranted Super Mario parody.

Marmu

While unique in their designs and making for somewhat interesting challenges, there were a few of the warrior dreams that pushed us well past our breaking point. This is Marmu – derpy, adorable, and has some of the worst hitboxes and bounce back in the game. If you try to run to avoid his spinning ball of doom, you’re going to get wasted, meaning the best option is to just stand still and try to time your attacks so you can swat Marmu away each time he launches himself at you. But even then, expect a few of those bounces to slip through and take off some health!

Plasmified Zango

This thing is an enigma. You have to go out of your way to find it. It’s not particularly memorable. Doesn’t have a great deal of lore to it. And its difficulty entirely depends on how much damage you can unleash in a short amount of time. Zango will let loose a shower of plasma, while absorbing damage like a sponge as its health slowly regenerates. This means the longer you spend hacking away at it, the more likely you are to lose your lives along the way. In that regard, Zango is downright devious.

Grey Prince Zote

In both life and in dreams, Zote is a monumental pain in the ass. The only thing that makes the latter worse is that you have to live with knowledge that he likely bested you in combat. The creation of a fan girl, the Grey Prince can be fought numerous times, each new incarnation drastically increasing the difficulty. Given that his main attack involves unleashing shockwaves from slamming his Kiester on the floor, you’d think he’d be easy to outmanoeuvre. No such luck. By the twelfth time you’ve fought him, those butt bounces are coming in hard, fast and deadlocked onto your cranium, alongside a collection of brutally placed explosions! It’s the furthest thing from a sweet dream.

Savage Beastfly

Following Silksong’s release, one boss quickly rose up the ranks to become the most despised among the bunch – this giant, bloated bug that meshes pin-point accuracy, a wide area of attack and spamming summons, causing players to pull their hair out. Fought twice across the game, each in locales that bring their own set of challenges, it’s hard to say which version of the Beastfly irritates us more - in an enclosed space or on top of a pool of lava. Changing its direction of attack mid-charge, filling the area with an absurd amount of minions, made all the worse by the most minor of collisions taking away double the amount of health. Long may it suffer.

Groal the Great

You all knew this was going to make the cut. By itself, Groal is a pain. It comes off the back of a particularly nasty gauntlet, there’s infected water everywhere that will destroy your silk supply if you slip in just once, its attacks can be a nuisance to avoid, and to top it off – it will bring out traps and henchmen mid-way through the fight just to be cheap. But that’s still not the worst of it. It’s the runback. Unless you’re lucky enough to find the hidden bench, you’ll be navigating through Bilewater in its entirety, which is no easy feat, just for another crack at Groal. It is a miserable experience, without question.

Markoth

The most infamous of the Warrior Dreams, fighting Markoth can be tricky given that, aside from tossing out spears of light, his main gimmick is the use of the Dream Shield, which not only blocks attacks but can end up crashing into you when you least expect. When you fight him in the main game, he’s doable, but on Radiant difficulty in the Godmaster DLC? He’s the stuff of nightmares. You have a minute handful of platforms to stand on with no floor, all the while Markoth summons a second shield, keeps floating just out of reach, and essentially turns himself into a bug buzzsaw that’s constantly increasing his damage radius!

Which Hollow Knight boss made you curl up in a ball and cry? Let us know in the comments!