Pale Lurker

"Forgotten champion of the Colosseum, drawn away by strange obsessions. This odd creature is unaffected by and unaware of the disease drifting through the caverns. Its madness is all its own."

The Pale Lurker is an enemy in Hollow Knight. She is an uninfected former champion of the Colosseum of Fools who was drawn away by strange obsessions, eventually becoming insane.

Behaviour and Tactics
Pale Lurker is a mini-boss style enemy that is first encountered sitting idly muttering over her key. Once approached, she screams and proceeds into her arena. Her arena consists of a massive rectangular chamber with two big blocks creating tunnels in an infinity shape. Once entering this arena, the Knight is locked in until she is defeated.

She once again sits idly in a location within her arena until she is found. When drawing near, Pale Lurker leaps away from the Knight, hopping across the ground and even hopping up walls, occasionally dropping indestructible spikes in her path. These spikes disappear after a short while and can be maneuvered around.

If the Knight gets too close, Pale Lurker lashes her arms around herself, dealing contact damage. If the Knight moves far enough away to dodge this attack, she will keep running. If the Knight is still close to the Pale Lurker after she finished this attack, she will burrow into the ground and find a different location in the area to wait until she is found again.


 * Due to her speed and her difficult to dodge attacks, it is recommended to attack Pale Lurker from afar with Vengeful Spirit and the sword beams from Grubberfly's Elegy when in range.
 * Grimmchild can also be used to attack the Pale Lurker, but her speed in some situations counters the accuracy of the Grimmchild's attack.
 * Combining Sharp Shadow and Dash Slash is effective for attacking her swiftly in melee combat.
 * Dash Slash is a great way to stay a distance away from Pale Lurker and also deal large amounts of damage, especially when combined with Nailmaster's Glory.

After defeating her, the initial gate blocking the chasm opens, allowing direct passage back to the Colosseum.

Location
The Pale Lurker is found in a secret area to the right of the Colosseum of Fools, the Pale Lurker's Retreat. A breakable wall leads to the area.

Trivia

 * Upon defeating her and after leaving the area and returning, Pale Lurker's corpse can be found in the room where she was initially encountered.
 * Although technically not a boss, a small challenge room is closed by gates where the Pale Lurker has to be defeated in order for the gates to open.
 * When in combat with Pale Lurker the City of Tears (Action) theme plays.
 * Pale Lurker is one of three enemies added in content packs that are required for the Hunter's Mark, the other two being the Hive Knight and the Flukemunga.

References

Бледный соглядатай 苍白潜伏者 Acechador Pálido Blada Czychaczka