Mantis Traitor

"Once a member of the Mantis tribe, now cast out and driven mad by infection. Belonging to a tribe, or not belonging. I don't really understand what the difference is, or how it works. I have no tribe of my own."

Mantis Traitors are enemies in Hollow Knight. Former members of the Mantis Tribe who follow the Traitor Lord, these Mantises were cast out of their village and driven mad by the Infection.

Behaviour and Tactics Mantis Traitors have three attacks:
 * Slash: It faces the direction of the Knight and performs a lunge and slash with a long range.
 * Lunge: It jumps a short height, then performs a diagonal slash downwards in the direction of the Knight, followed by a forward lunge.
 * Upward Swipe: If the Knight is directly above it, it sometimes performs a quick upward swipe.

They do not chase or target the Knight if they are airborne.

On encounter, bait out its long forward lunge, and attack it from behind before. The Desolate Dive/Descending Dark Spell is very effective against this enemy. Mantis Traitors have a much faster recovery time on their attacks than most enemies, and a short distance should be maintained.

Location They are very commonly found within the Queen's Gardens, usually defeating them is necessary to unlock a door or proceed, like in the Traitor Lord fight. Also found within the Colosseum of Fools, at the 9th and 17th waves of the Trial of the Fool.

Trivia
 * The sprite of the Mantis Traitor used in its Hunter's Journal entry does not have Infected looking eyes nor does it have as much shading as the in-game sprites.
 * Prior to the Lifeblood update, Mantis Traitors dropped  upon death. Due to a glitch, they no longer dropped Geo after this. This was fixed in version 1.5.68.11808. However, they now drop, one Geo more than before.
 * Prior to the release of Godmaster, the Dream Nail could not be used on Mantis Traitors.
 * Before version 1.5.68.11808, Mantis Traitors used to have the same generic Dream Nail dialogue as unintelligent enemies such as Booflies and Garpedes.
 * The Mantis Traitor is one of the few enemies that does not make dreamcatchers appear when Dream Nailed.

References

Богомол-предатель Modliszkowy Zdrajca Mante Traître