Hornet Protector

Hornet Protector is the first form of Hornet as a boss in Hollow Knight. She confronts the Knight in Greenpath to impede on their quest, but underestimates her opponents and does not deploy her full strength. Unlocking her journal entry requires defeating her both once in Protector and Sentinel forms.

Behaviour and Tactics
Hornet has 4 base attacks:
 * 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.

Wait until she moves in with a Lunge attack and get a few hits in to charge SOUL. Then, when she moves out of range, hit her with Vengeful Spirit. At this point in the game, Vengeful Spirit does 3 times as much damage as the Nail.

After taking about a fifth of her health, she will stagger and kneel on the ground to recover. This happens four times throughout the fight. Use this time to either heal if needed or hit her with Vengeful Spirit, as the next attack on her will cause her to immediately recover.

The best moments to heal during battle are during her Throw Attack and her Gossamer Storm Attack since both have limited range and take time to complete.

The player can perform a downward slash if they mistimed their jump over the Needle during the Throw Attack, allowing them to bounce off of Hornet's needle without taking damage.



Trivia

 * 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".