If the player wants to beat Hollow Knight, they must defeat the eponymous boss. Before they can do that, they first need to eliminate the three Dreamers. In order to get to Lurien the Watcher, one of the Dreamers, Hollow Knight players must first get through the Watcher Knights, making the boss fight a mandatory encounter.
While the Watcher Knights are not necessarily among the tougher bosses in the game, they can still give players a difficult time if they don't know what they're doing. Like everything else in the game, defeating the Watcher Knights requires precision and patience, and most importantly, information.
Hollow Knight is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.
How To Defeat The Watcher Knights
To know how to defeat the Watcher Knights, the player must familiarize themselves with the boss' move sets. This is true for every single boss fight in Hollow Knight, or any other game, for that matter. However, with this particular boss fight, there's actually an option in place wherein the player can make the encounter easier for themselves.
How To Reduce The Number Of Watcher Knights
Throughout this particular boss fight, the player will need to defeat a total of six Watcher Knights to finish the encounter. However, there's a way to reduce the Watcher Knights to just five, making the whole ordeal a tad simpler.
To do this, the player must simply break a ceiling just before the entrance to the boss room. The ceiling in question is marked by a bulb with a lumafly inside. Once the ceiling is broken, the player must climb up to find a rope that's holding a chandelier in place. Breaking the rope will result in the chandelier falling onto a Watcher Knight, killing one even before the fight begins.
The Encounter
After the player eliminates one Watcher Knight, it's time to actually proceed with the boss fight. Once the player enters the boss room and triggers the encounter, they'll need to watch out for the orange flies on the ceiling. The Watcher Knight they fly towards is the first enemy the player will fight.
The player should get close to this Knight as soon as they can. If they have Nail Art, which they should get prior to this boss fight, they should charge up the attack to hit the Watcher Knight as soon as possible.
Another Knight will spawn after about 20 to 22 seconds. However, if the player manages to beat one Knight before that, two more will spawn at once instead of just one. During the whole encounter, there will never be more than two Knights at once in the arena.
These are the move sets of the Watcher Knights the player should watch out for and how to easily counter them:
- Double Slash Attack – This attack is fairly simple. The Watcher Knight will swing its sword across its body, followed by an initial horizontal swipe, and another vertical swipe. As soon as the boss brings his sword behind him, the player should maintain a proper distance and only attack him after the move is complete. Otherwise, they can also spam it with Vengeful Spirit or Shade Soul.
- Rolling Attack – Two of the boss' attacks involve them curling up into a spiked ball and advancing towards the player. One of them is a rolling attack. A quick determiner of this attack is when the boss rolls backward for a few instances after curling up. When it does this, prepare to jump. They can also attempt to jump towards the trajectory of the Watcher Knight so they can land a couple of bounce attacks when the boss comes to. They can also perform a powerful Descending Dark spell on the boss for maximum damage.
- Bouncing Attack – Another move that involves the Watcher Knight curling into a ball is its bounce attack. The boss will do a small bounce first before proceeding to do two massive consecutive bounces. The Watcher Knight's trajectory can be unpredictable during this attack, so the best option is to dash as far away as possible, and close in only after the second bounce to perform an attack. Alternatively, if the player has the Shade Cloak spell, they can also dash through the boss to avoid damage.
Recommended Spells & Abilities For The Watcher Knights
To make the encounter easier, these are the spells and abilities the player must already have while fighting the Watcher Knights:
- Mothwing Cloak/Shade Cloak
- Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul
- Monarch Wings
- Desolate Dive/Descending Dark
- Any or all of the Nail Arts
The player can use any charms they see fit. The charm the player should equip during this boss fight, and at any point in the game, depends on their combat play style and preferences.
For example, if they prefer utilizing the spells and abilities as much as possible, they'll want to equip charms such as Shaman Stone, Soul Twister, and Soul Eater. If they prefer fighting melee, they'll need Quick Slash, Fragile Strength or Unbreakable Strength, and Mark of Pride.
The player should balance between attacking the Watcher Knights with both melee and spells while evading strikes efficiently. In no less than two to three minutes, or even less if the player is really skilled, they should be able to defeat this boss with ease and continue on to eliminate Lurien the Watcher.