Hornet Sentinel

"Skilled protector of Hallownest's ruins. Wields a needle and thread. I have seen this nimble little creature. I thought her prey and pounced at her, but with a flash she stabbed me with her flying stinger and darted away. Could she be... a Hunter?"

Hornet Sentinel is the second form of Hornet as a boss in Hollow Knight. She challenges the Knight at the entrance to the Cast-Off Shell in Kingdom's Edge to test their resolve and strength in saving Hallownest. She deploys this time her full strength and tools. Unlocking her journal entry requires defeating her both once in Protector and Sentinel forms or defeating her twice in Godhome.

Behaviour and Tactics
Hornet Sentinel uses tactics similar to her Protector form, but her attacks come at a much more rapid pace. The range of the area of effect on her Gossamer Storm attack is also larger. Her base attacks remain:
 * Lunge: Lunges forward with her needle in front of her.
 * Aerial Lunge: Jumps in the air before aiming at the Knight and rushing downwards.
 * Gossamer Storm: Unleashes an area-of-effect attack centred on herself, using her thread to slice into anything around her. This attack can be done in the air.
 * Throw: Throws her needle forward, then pulls it back. The range of this attack is slightly smaller than the width of the battlefield. The needle can damage the Knight on the way back.
 * Leap: Hornet will jump to move within the arena.
 * Run: Hornet will run to move within the arena.

In addition, she gains two new ones:
 * Parry: Holds her needle in a defensive stance, blocking any incoming attack. If struck while she is defending, she will giggle before unleashing a wide-range counter slash.
 * Spike: Uses her thread to suspend spiked balls in midair. The spikes deal contact damage and will remain until they are destroyed by either Nail attacks or spells. There can only be a maximum of 6 snares set up at once. Hornet will only use this attack after reaching 480hp.

Dashing over her as she lunges is a typically safe move and using Desolate Dive/Descending Dark will prevent the Knight from taking damage while it is being cast.

Having Quick Focus and/or Soul Catcher/Soul Eater is useful as it will allow for more opportunities to heal or charge SOUL, respectively.

Using Nail Arts Great Slash is effective due to the fact that Hornet rarely stays in one place long enough to get more than one or two standard Nail strikes in.

Location
Hornet Sentinel can be fought in the Kingdom's Edge.

Trivia

 * After defeating Hornet Sentinel, if the player uses the Dream Nail on her before talking to her, they will gain SOUL as if she were still an enemy.
 * The names of her boss forms "Hornet Protector" and "Hornet Sentinel" were coined in Godmaster, prior to which she was commonly referred to as simply "Hornet 1&2".

Hornet Sentinella