Xero

"Lingering dream of a fallen warrior. Executed for crimes against the King. A life defined by tragedy and triumph. A death marred by sorrow and regret. A spirit burdened by sins and memories. Better to wander the world than be cursed with glory."

- Xero

Xero is a Warrior Dream boss in Hollow Knight.

Lore Xero was a warrior of Hallownest who believed that strength would always allow him a bright future. When his mind was infected, he hoped to fight against the plague with violence. Fueled by the same hope, he turned against the Pale King, for which he was executed. Xero was buried in the Resting Grounds, his tomb a reminder to any who would betray the King. When his ghost awoke, he still could not see the wrongness of his actions and believed instead his demise to be the result of a doomed fate.

In-game events Xero's ghost appears to the Knight once they have acquired the Dream Nail. He accepts their challenge to mock his own fate. Once defeated, Xero finally acknowledges that his actions against the King were irrational. The ghost confides to the Knight its faith in their bravery, before shattering in 100 Essence to be collected by the Dream Nail.

Behaviour and Tactics
Xero only uses one attack:
 * Nail Cast: Xero spawns in 2 glowing Nails. While floating around, he constantly shoots out one of his nails in the Knight's direction and draws it back. He shoots a Nail every 1-2 seconds. Coming into contact with the nail while it is being drawn back still deals damage. At 50% HP, Xero spawns 2 more Nails, and his attack pace increases to 0.75 seconds between each Nail Cast.

Dashing, especially Shadow Dashing, is a very helpful tactic for dodging Xero's nails. To damage Xero, the Nail Arts, especially Great Slash and Dash Slash, are useful. The Spell Abyss Shriek can do a lot of damage, but Xero bounces around and may not take all hits. The Spell Shade Soul is very useful against Xero because it has near infinite range and it can double hit or more in a single cast.

Healing without Charms is safest when the Knight dodges a Nail to put themselves on the opposite side of Xero's course of travel which should cause the returning Nail to miss. In the second phase, The Knight must begin healing before the Nail reaches the end of its range to have enough time to heal. The Charms Quick Focus and/or Shape of Unn give the Knight more and safer opportunities to heal.

The Knight can heal safely by running off the platform and to the far left of the area, where Xero's attacks do not reach, or by running under the platform. Note that this kind of healing is not possible when fought in Godhome.

Location
Xero can be found in the west part of the Resting Grounds.

Trivia

 * His grave message used to read "Here lies a Traitor", which was changed to the current message after the public release version 1.0.2.8.
 * This has, however, not been changed in some translations of the game.

References

Ксеро Xero Xero