Shade

Behaviour and Tactics
When The Knight dies, a Shade appears in or before the room they died, holding all Geo the player has lost. Until they are killed, the player's SOUL meter is broken, limiting it to 66% charge (this does not affect the storage of SOUL in Soul Vessels).

If the player kills the Shade, their SOUL meter is returned to normal and they will regain all Geo that was lost upon death. If the Knight dies before killing the Shade, a new Shade will appear on the spot of the new death's location and the old one will disappear. Killing the new Shade will still fix the SOUL meter, but all the Geo carried by the previous Shade will be lost. For example, the player has, then dies. The player collects along the way and then dies before defeating the Shade that carries. The new Shade will only carry.

When approaching its location, an off-key tune is heard, signaling its presence. Upon engagement, it homes in on the Knight and attacks by swinging its Nail and using any Spells the player has learned. If the Knight moves too far from the Shade's spawn point while it is pursuing them, it will turn into smoke and return back to its spawn point.

The Shade will become stronger as the player progresses through the game; as the Knight gains more health and new Spells, the Shade will be tougher to kill and will be able to use the same Spells.

Hitting the Shade with the DREAM NAIL will defeat it instantly, regardless of its remaining health.

If the Knight died to a Boss, the Shade will usually spawn in a safe location so as to be recoverable without triggering the boss battle. However, this is not always true for mini-bosses. If the Shade is in a mini-boss room, try hitting it from a distance with Vengeful Spirit or Shade Soul to draw its attention without triggering the battle. In addition, the Shade can appear in the room where the Crystal Guardian is fought for a second time if the Knight dies to it.

The Shade can also spawn in the middle of difficult platforming sections if the Knight died there, and make those sections even more difficult. In those cases, going back to Dirtmouth and speaking with Confessor Jiji can be a desirable solution.

Location
Found at the location where the Knight has most recently died. Alternatively, Confessor Jiji in Dirtmouth offers a service to summon the Shade to her room in return for a Rancid Egg. This is useful if the Shade is very far away from their last checkpoint or in the middle of a hard platforming section.

Trivia

 * Cannot be read by the Dream Nail.
 * Once the player has acquired the Void Heart, the Shade becomes passive and will die in one hit.
 * The Shade will die in one hit to environmental hazards.
 * If the Shade uses Descending Dark and lands in water, the explosion will not occur and it will become stuck in place, open to attacks.
 * Due to a bug, if the player dies due to an environmental hazard (spikes, etc), and their body moves to another room during the death animation, the player's Shade will not appear, and all Geo will be lost unless the Shade is summoned by Confessor Jiji. In addition, the player will still retain 100% SOUL meter even though it appears broken.
 * If Joni's Blessing was equipped when the player died, the Shade will die in one hit due to the player technically having only one mask of health.
 * Since the Shade does not spawn in Steel Soul Mode, its Hunter's Journal entry will be automatically filled.
 * If you move too fast for the particles after the Death animation to catch you, they will time out and act as though you had caught them.

Тень Sombra