Radiance

"The light, forgotten. The plague, the infection, the madness that haunts the corpses of Hallownest... the light that screams out from the eyes of this dead Kingdom. What is the source? I suppose mere mortals like myself will never understand."

The Radiance is the secret final boss of Hollow Knight. Absolute Radiance is her perfect form.

Lore The Radiance is a higher being of light similar to Essence, and as such opposed to the Void, her ancient enemy. The Moth Tribe is born from her light and in return revered her.

In-game events From her prison, the Radiance senses the return of the Knight and uses the Infection against them. She makes violent puppets out of infected husks, uses Lightseeds and infected Lumaflies to reanimate Broken Vessel and the Watcher Knights, all controlled to kill the Knight. As the Knight draws near to unseal the Black Egg, she increases the spread of the Infection throughout the Forgotten Crossroads to strengthen the creatures infesting it and make them even more violent.

Her fate is linked to the end of the Knight's journey. By defeating the Hollow Knight, the Knight is able to seal the Radiance within, taking the place of their sibling within the Black Egg.

Attacks
Phase Breakdown {{CollapseTable|More...|The Radiance fight happens in 5 Phases. Except in Phases 3 and 5, the Radiance always hovers at various heights above the floor and teleports around the arena every few seconds. She deals no contact damage but players cannot damage her wings or legs.

Phase 1
The arena is wide open and the Radiance uses every attack but the Spike Floor and Big Beam. This Phase ends after the Radiance has taken 350 damage.

Phase 2
The Radiance adds the Spike Floor, reducing floor space, generally, by half and continues to use every other attack. This Phase ends after the Radiance has taken 400 damage.

Phase 3
The Radiance moves to the center of the arena and remains there. The Spike Floor splits to both sides of the floor. The Radiance uses only Sword Rain endlessly until she has taken 250 damage.

Phase 4
Players find themselves in an arena of small platforms with only the Void (which does only 1 mask of damage) to catch them. This arena is larger overall than the one in previous Phases. The Radiance uses all attacks except Sword Rain, Spike Floor, and Big Beam attacks in this Phase. This Phase ends after the Radiance has taken 700 damage.

Phase 5
This Phase is an ascension, jumping from platform to platform, higher and higher, dodging Big Beams (the only attack in this Phase) the whole way. The Void continues to ascend with a slight delay behind the Knight. Once players reach the Radiance, she must be struck with the Nail just once to end the fight and trigger the final sequence.

In the final sequence, the Radiance is bound by Void Tendrils and the shade of the Hollow Knight appears, tearing open a weak point on her face. The Knight bursts out of their body and becomes their Shade. Attacking causes the Shade to repeatedly whip the Radiance's weak point with long tendrils until she is defeated and dragged into the Void below.}} Charm Sets The Radiance is the true final boss of Hollow Knight. To access her, the Knight must have acquired Void Heart and have used the Dream Nail on the Hollow Knight when Hornet holds them down. The Radiance does not count as a dream battle, so the Hollow Knight will need to be fought from the beginning on every death.

In the first phase of the fight, she levitates slightly above the floor. Only her body is vulnerable to attack, which requires jumping or ranged attacks. She often teleports around, making it even harder to get a good string of hits while avoiding her own ruthless attacks.

The Radiance does not deal contact damage; however, all of her attacks except summoning spikes deal two masks damage upon hit. Falling off the platform only deals one mask of damage.

The Radiance has a wide variety of attacks, each with a variety of mitigations.
 * Beam Burst: Players can run away from the beams. Shadow Dashing is only necessary if caught by surprise. A beam never strikes in the same place consecutively (so burst 1 and 3 may be almost exact). The Radiance does not move during this attack so big damage like Abyss Shriek is strong here. Descending Dark is another viable way to avoid danger. Shade Soul is okay. Nail strikes are quick, light damage and allows players to continue moving while attacking. The Nail Art Great Slash is also viable with its large hitbox. Dash Slash is okay. Trying to damage her becomes trickier in Phase 4 due to the arena's layout. Healing without Charms can be done throughout this attack (especially if players are lucky with the burst patterns) but healing is safest to start once the third burst pattern is known.
 * Sword Burst: Everything said about the Beam Burst applies to the Sword Burst except in this case, there is only the one burst to worry about. This means, players can begin healing just about as soon as the attack starts.
 * Sword Rain: The Radiance teleports during this attack so damaging her while dodging the swords can be tricky. It is best to stay lower to the ground since swords spawn at the top of the arena. Dashing is to be used only to try to get into a large gap, otherwise the Knight risks dashing into a sword. Nail strikes are strong here because it allows quick damage and consistent movement. Abyss Shriek is viable too, especially during the last Rain. Descending Dark is a great way to avoid damage. Great Slash is viable throughout with Dash Slash viable in niche situations and Cyclone Slash strong at the end of the attack. Healing without charms is possible once the last set of swords is seen or even throughout the attack if arrangement of swords allows for it.
 * Sword Wall: The Radiance teleports during this attack, so damaging her while dodging the swords can be tricky. It is possible to jump through at least one gap in every wall (or just stay on the ground if the arrangement of the swords allows for it). Descending Dark can be used to dodge a wall. Same with shadow dashing. Nail strikes are strong here because it allows quick damage and consistent movement. Abyss Shriek and Great Slash are also viable. Healing without charms is only viable if the wall patterns are forgiving or players start healing on the opposite side of the arena of the wall's spawn. This is more forgiving in Phase 4 because the walls move slower.
 * Wall of Light: This attack must be dodged either with a shadow dash or Descending Dark. The Radiance teleports during this attack so quick damage is most viable. Healing without charms is safest if players get through the wall quickly or start healing when a wall spawns on the opposite side of the arena. This is more forgiving in Phase 4 because the wall moves slower.
 * Orb: The Orb attack requires quick movements. It is best to try to bait Orbs into the floor or platforms to destroy them early, leaving more time to attack the Radiance. Nail strikes, Great Slash, Dash Slash, Descending Dark, Shade Soul are all solid options during the onslaught. Abyss Shriek is solid at the end of the attack. There is no time to heal without charms unless players get lucky with the platforms in Phase 4.
 * Spike Floor: The Spike Floor deals only 1 Mask of damage so if damage must be taken, best take it from the Spike Floor. The spikes disappear for up to 5 seconds if struck by the Knight's body or hit with Descending Dark. The spikes almost immediately return in Phase 3.
 * Big Beam: This attack becomes more accurate the higher the Knight gets during Phase 5. It can be baited to fire where the Knight does not want to be.

Location The Radiance's fight can be accessed by using the Dream Nail on the Hollow Knight in the Temple of the Black Egg.

Trivia

 * There is a statue of the Radiance at the top of the map in Hallownest's Crown where a Pale Ore can be found. Dream Nailing this statue yields the lines:
 * "...Remember... Light..."
 * Through HUD manipulation, the Radiance is shown to actually have 3000 health, though the "fight" portion of the battle ends when she reaches 1300 health, effectively requiring the Knight to only have to deal 1700 damage to win the fight.
 * Along with Nightmare King Grimm, the Radiance is one of the only bosses that has a full-screen title card.
 * The Radiance is one of the two bosses, excluding statues in the Hall of Gods, that must be challenged to a battle, the other being the Mantis Lords. While the Mantis Lords have to be challenged every time, the Radiance's intro is abridged after the first time fighting it, causing her to attack directly upon entering her arena.
 * The Radiance fight is one of four fights in the game where an NPC aids the Knight; the other three are Traitor Lord with Cloth, the Hollow Knight with Hornet and Uumuu with the aid of Quirrel.

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