Winged Nosk

"Mimics the shape of other creatures to lure prey to its lair. In the deepest darkness, there are beasts who wear faces stolen from your memories and pluck at the strings in your heart. Know yourself, and stay strong."

Winged Nosk is a quest boss in Hollow Knight introduced in Godmaster. It is the flying form of Nosk assuming at first Hornet's shape instead of the Knight's. It can be encountered in the Pantheon of Hallownest.

Behaviour and Tactics
Winged Nosk has four attacks, they are similar to both Nosk's and Vengefly King's attacks:
 * Swoop: Winged Nosk will swoop down and quickly skitter across the platform, and then will swoop up on the opposite end.


 * Summoning Screech: Winged Nosk will screech and summon 2 Infected Balloons. There is a maximum of 6 Infected Balloons that can be alive at once.


 * Outbreak: Nosk will spew two blobs of infection at its feet and twelve more blobs in equal amounts to both its right and left, similar to Nosk's Eruption. It will fly in parabolic arcs leaving moderate gaps in between each blob after landing. Each blob will linger for half a second. Generally, only 4 blobs will land onto the arena with the rest flying off the edge. This attack will also always be followed up by a Swoop attack.


 * Downpour: Winged Nosk will fly up, disappear into the ceiling and drop down a wave of ~7 Infection blobs at once each separated by a small gap in a very short amount of time. Each blob will linger for half a second. Generally, only 5 blobs will land onto the arena with the rest falling off the edge. After this attack is over Winged Nosk flies back down to its previous position before the attack. Winged Nosk will only use this attack after reaching half health.

The Monarch Wings are very beneficial in this fight, as they allow one more chance to escape one of Winged Nosk's many swooping attacks if a jump is miscalculated.

Jumping over Winged Nosk's swooping attacks, instead of dashing through them with the Shade Cloak, is the optimal strategy as jumping allows for a few Nail strikes to the top of Winged Nosk as it whizzes by, similar to the strategy for fighting the Vengefly King. Various Nail-Lengthening charms such as Longnail and Mark of Pride can aid with hitting Winged Nosk while it is using its Swoop attack. This both damages Winged Nosk and puts the Knight out of harm's way.

The Infected Balloons should be killed immediately as they appear before they have time to get in the way. This will also give some much-needed SOUL, as Winged Nosk is never open to attack for very long.

Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul and Desolate Dive/Descending Dark are very useful spells to use in this encounter, as both allow for very significant damage to Winged Nosk in a short period of time. Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul should be used just after Winged Nosk is finishing a swooping attack, while Desolate Dive/Descending Dark should be used while Winged Nosk is swooping underneath the Knight.

It should be worth noting that when Winged Nosk releases the infected blobs from the ceiling that the charm Dreamshield, if positioned correctly, can block the infected globules before they can touch the floor or fall on the Knight.

Trivia

 * When it dies, Winged Nosk drops Hornet's shell which can be hit around.
 * Winged Nosk references Nosk's original concept design where it had wings and a longer tail.

Nosk Alato