Galien

"Lingering dream of a fallen warrior. Trained in the wilds bordering the kingdom, hoping to become a Knight. A Knight strives not only to protect the land and its people, but the hopes and dreams of the kingdom."

- Galien

Galien is a Warrior Dream boss in Hollow Knight.

Lore Galien was a brave and undefeated warrior who claimed to be the strongest in Hallownest and desired to prove his valour to the Pale King as a Knight. He travelled to Deepnest in order to test his strength, but eventually found death instead. His husk lies in a cave filled with unusually large glowing mushrooms and a Lifeblood Cocoon, below the Failed Tramway.

In-game events The ghost of Galien appears above its husk after the Knight acquired the Dream Nail. It greets them as a fellow warrior and proposes to battle to test their respective strengths. After its defeat, Galien is humbled and believes the Knight to have been sent by the Pale King to test him. He still hopes the Knight will get him in the King's good graces. As it prepares to leave the place, the ghost shatters in 200 Essence to be collected by the dream Nail.

Throughout the encounter, Galien's ghost also fails to realise the corpse to be its own, nor even its death.

Behaviour and Tactics
Galien has two attacks:


 * Scythe Slam: Commands a scythe that spins rapidly and bounces off the floor, slowly tracking The Knight. The scythe will carry a lot of momentum when moving. After nine bounces, he will command it to pause for half a second before sending it off again.
 * Soul Scythes: He will spawn a small glowing scythe that moves slowly across the screen reflecting off the floor or the walls when it collides with them. These scythes will travel and occur entirely independently of the main scythe. Only 2 scythes will be spawned throughout the entire fight: the first spawns when Galien has reached 60% hp, the second at 30% hp.

Having the Shade Cloak is recommended here, as it can be tough to react to the smaller scythes while dodging the main scythe. Otherwise, Galien has no teleport and is slow and large enough that it is easy to stay underneath him and continually attack him.

Abyss Shriek/Howling Wraiths is also effective.

To the left of Galien's corpse is a short path that leads to a Lifeblood Cocoon. This is advantageous to use as it lets the player take a few more hits that could result from losing focus on the smaller scythes.

It is advised to kill Galien quickly, as his scythes can become overwhelming if they are left for a long period of time.

Counting the main scythe's bounces will allow the player to predict safe moments to heal.

Location
Galien's corpse can be found in the west of Deepnest.

Trivia

 * Galien is the only Warrior Dream to control and use a physical weapon.
 * Due to a bug, hatchlings from the Glowing Womb charm do not target Galien.

References

Гальен Galien Galien Galien