Winged Nosk

"Mimics the shape of other creatures to lure prey to its lair. In the deepest darkness, there are beasts who wear faces stolen from your memories and pluck at the strings in your heart. Know yourself, and stay strong."

Winged Nosk is a quest boss in Hollow Knight introduced in Godmaster. It is a tougher and flying form of Nosk assuming at first Hornet's shape instead of the Knight's.

Behaviour and Tactics
The Monarch Wings are very beneficial in this fight, as they allow the player one more chance to escape one of Winged Nosk's many swooping attacks if a jump is miscalculated.

Jumping over Winged Nosk's swooping attacks, instead of dashing through them with the Shade Cloak, is the optimal strategy as jumping allows for a few Nail strikes to the top of Winged Nosk as it whizzes by, similar to the strategy for fighting the Vengefly King.

The player should kill the Infected Balloons immediately as they appear before they have time to get in the way. This will also give some much needed SOUL, as Winged Nosk is never open to attack for very long.

Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul and Desolate Dive/Descending Dark are very useful spells to use in this encounter, as both allow for very significant damage to Winged Nosk in a short period of time. Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul should be used just after Winged Nosk is finishing a swooping attack, while Desolate Dive/Descending Dark should be used while Winged Nosk is swooping underneath the Knight.

Trivia

 * When it dies, Winged Nosk drops Hornet's shell which can be hit around.
 * Winged Nosk references Nosk's original concept design where it had wings and a longer tail.

Nosk Alato