Broken Vessel

"Shattered corpse, reanimated by infected parasites. The shape of this creature... I have seen something like it before. More than once, perhaps. It looks a little like the bugs of Hallownest, but not quite the same. Where did these empty little wanderers come from?"

The Broken Vessel is one of the main bosses in Hollow Knight. It blocks the way to the Monarch Wings. The Lost Kin is its dream variant.

Lore Broken Vessel is one of the many Vessels who escaped the Abyss like the Knight, but unlike the Knight, was met with a tragic death while still in Hallownest. Their corpse was forgotten in a windy cave deep within the Ancient Basin before the Monarch Wings where the Infection has spread.

In-game events Broken Vessel is found in a room of the Ancient Basin that is overgrown with Infection bulbs. When approached, Lightseeds rush to fill its broken shell, forming a large protruding bulb. The Infection reanimates the husk and causes it to attack the Knight. Like other Vessels, it has no voice, but the Infection within screams like the Radiance. Upon defeat, Broken Vessel's husk is cleared from the Infection, and it reaches out to the Knight before finally collapsing.

Using the Dream Nail on the husk afterwards brings the Knight to a dream. There, the Lost Kin, a stronger form of Broken Vessel still taken over by Lightseeds, can be fought. After its defeat, the spirit of Broken Vessel floats above its husk. Appearing unmarred, it offers the Knight a silent bow before shattering into Essence that is absorbed by the Dream Nail.

Behaviour and Tactics
In addition to having a similar appearance to the Knight, Broken Vessel also shares similar moves:


 * Slash: Broken Vessel dashes forward, slashing with its nail. It travel about 75% of the arena during the dash. Broken Vessel slashes with their nail in the middle of the dash.
 * Aerial Slash: Broken Vessel levitates a short distance above the ground and then dashes forward, slashing with its nail. It travels about 75% of the entire arena during the dash. Broken Vessel slashes with its nail in the middle of the dash.
 * Backstep: Broken Vessel does a quick backwards dash to reposition for another attack.
 * Leap: Broken Vessel leaps either to land on the Knight's location or to move around the arena.
 * Flail: Broken Vessel swings its nail rapidly in an overhead arc left and right four times.
 * Slam: Broken Vessel leaps into the air and positions at the peak of the jump to slam directly down on the Knight. The impact of the slam creates four blobs of infection that rise up and away in parabolic arcs at set distances from Broken Vessel.
 * Cascade: Broken Vessel leaps to position itself around the centre of the arena. It then shakes its head back and forth and spawns a multitude of blobs of infection. This attack covers most of the arena. The blobs emanate downwards from Broken Vessel but rise up from beneath the ground in waves of 3 blobs. Every wave has a chance to be: all 3 blobs at once, 2 blobs with 1 quickly following behind, or 1 blob with 2 quickly following. The whole attack lasts for about four seconds with waves of blobs appearing about every half second. Infected Balloons stop spawning and those already in the room disappear. Broken Vessel only uses this attack 3 times at 370HP, 220HP, and 110HP.
 * Balloon: Broken Vessel spawns an Infected Balloon enemy with its health reduced to 1HP (reg. 15). This attack happens at set intervals (4-5 seconds). Furthermore, this attack happens independently of Broken Vessel's other actions. The Infected Balloon enemy typically spawns somewhere in the air and it floats straight towards the Knight to deal contact damage. If Broken Vessel jumps into a Balloon as it is spawning, it cancels it. There is a maximum of 3 balloons that can be alive at once and this attack occurs after Broken Vessel has reached 420HP.

Broken Vessel has a large variety of attacks to deal with. Quick Focus is highly recommended for this battle. Charms like Mark of Pride and Longnail can help extend the Knight's Nail to better match Broken Vessel's. Spore Shroom is useful to get rid of the Infected Balloons while healing as well as dealing extra damage to Broken Vessel. Defender's Crest gets rid of the Infected Balloons without the need to heal.

Broken Vessel is one of the few bosses that takes knock-back, because of this, Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul can be useful, as they have a decent chance of hitting twice. Increasing the spirit's size with Shaman Stone increases the chance of a double hit.

Using the Desolate Dive/Descending Dark Spell during the Cascade Attack can deal a lot of damage to Broken Vessel and prevent the Knight from taking damage at the same time. Using the Desolate Dive/Descending Dark Spell during staggers is optimal as it allows the Knight to kill any Infected Balloons near them and deal great damage to Broken Vessel.

Nail arts can be useful in this fight, especially Cyclone Slash as it can be used to corner Broken Vessel and stagger it quite easily if used after an attack, especially at the start of the Cascade attack.

Location
Broken Vessel can be found near the far west corner of the Ancient Basin, guarding the Monarch Wings Ability.

Trivia

 * Team Cherry first revealed Broken Vessel in a Twitter post as the "Infected Wanderer". This was accompanied by a gif showcasing the boss fight.
 * Broken Vessel was the seventh and the last boss to be revealed through the Kickstarter campaign under the name "Infected Knight".
 * In the Hollow Knight Press Kit, Broken Vessel is called "Broken Wanderer".
 * Broken Vessel and its boss fight used to be located in the room in Greenpath where the Mothwing Cloak can be acquired. This can be seen in early maps and in an early trailer. Broken Vessel was later moved to Ancient Basin, with Hornet replacing Broken Vessel as the boss that needs to be defeated before obtaining the Dash ability.
 * Broken Vessel appears to be taller than the Knight and other regular Vessels, but not as grown as the Hollow Knight.
 * Upon defeat, Broken Vessel reaches out to the Knight before completely dying.
 * Due to a possible bug, Broken Vessel and Lost Kin might move towards the Knight when they are staggered.
 * Due to another bug, they are also not able to be struck by the Dream Nail when staggered.

References

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