Zote

Hunter's Journal


''A self proclaimed knight, of no renown. Wields a nail he carved from shellwood, named 'Life Ender'   ''

Some rare creatures are so weak, so helpless, so inept and irritating, that hunting them gives no pleasure at all. Zote the Mighty is an NPC/enemy that you can find around the world. He's mainly a joke character and doesn't serve much of a purpose. He's very similar in appearance to the Hollow Knight. Just like the Knight, he wears a cloak and wields a nail. His head is also very similar to the Knight's, being pale, horned and with black eyes. However, one of his horns is smaller than the other, his face is slightly reddened, he has lines under his eyes, and he has a mouth.

He's mainly grumpy and arrogant, acting like he's superior to everyone else despite being extremely incompetent.

1st. Greenpath
The player will find Zote on the top of the map, on the path leading to the Howling Cliffs. He is held in the mandibles of a Vengefly King, and the player has the choice to either save him or leave him. If saved, he will complain that the Knight got in the way between him and his "prey" (despite clearly having been outmatched by the Vengefly). He will tell his name and his supposed mighty deeds, and generally treat the Knight as an inferior. If the player saves Zote, he will appear in the next locations. If left there, after some time, once the player passes by at least the City of Tears, revisiting the location will reveal Zote's cracked helmet along with his Nail and cloak. Hitting the helmet rewards the player with the 'Neglect' achievement for letting him die.

2nd. Dirtmouth
Once the player saves him, he will be in Dirtmouth where once again he will talk to the player in an arrogant fashion.

3rd. City of Tears
Zote will be found in a corridor leading back to the storerooms of the city. He will forget the player and tell his name and his supposed mighty deeds again, treating the player like someone below him, as usual. He also reveals that he hates getting wet.

4th. Deepnest
He can be found around the middle of the map, stuck in spider webs, presumably having been captured by the beasts of Deepnest. Once again the player has the choice to either save him or leave him to die, if saved he will once again complain about the Knight meddling in his supposed heroics.

5th. Colosseum of Fools
If the player kept him alive during all those events, he will be captured and found in the resting area of the Colosseum, where he will brag about his skills and how his capture was intentional on his part. He becomes the final boss of the first trial. As a boss, he deals no damage due to his nail being made of shellwood (a material normally meant for shields), the player simply as to whack him until the fight is over. Even discounting his worthless nail, he is quite inept in combat and regularly messes up his jumps. Beating him will reward the player with the 'Rivalry' achievement.

6th Dirtmouth (again)
After being beaten, Zote will return to Dirtmouth with the helmet of a Fool warrior as a supposed "trophy" (in all likeliness he just picked it up from an already dead Fool) and claim that he is the new champion, while slandering the Hollow Knight's reputation. This causes Bretta to fall for him instead of the Knight. Since the Hollow Knight is unable to talk, they cannot expose Zote's lies. Interacting with Zote allows the player to listen to him talk about what he calls "The Fifty Seven Precepts Of Zote" which involve quite a lot of nonsense, yet provide insight through implications into Zote's past.

Trivia

 * Hitting Zote with the Dream Nail throughout the game shows that he is trying to fulfill some nebulous "promise". However, hitting him with the Dream Nail when he's talking to Bretta will reveal that all along it was just an arrogant promise of glory to himself.
 * Hitting Zote with the Dream Nail during the fight at the Colosseum, however, reveals his thoughts to be along the lines of "Are you proud of me now father?" and "I'll kill a thousand more... Will that be enough, father?" It is implied that his parents may have treated him poorly when he was young, causing him to run away from home.
 * Several of the Fifty Seven Precepts of Zote corroborate this, such as "Mothers Will Always Betray You" and "Beware the Jealousy of Fathers". It is unclear, however, whether Zote's parents' neglect is what caused his personality to twist, or whether he is simply exaggerating the mistakes of his parents in the same way as he exaggerates his deeds.
 * Two playthroughs are necessary to get all of the achievements linked to Zote (one for the Neglect achievement where he is left to die, the other for the Rivalry achievement where he is kept alive and fought in the Colosseum).
 * Zote named his Nail "Life Ender" because names supposedly have power. Unfortunately, because it is made of shellwood, it is quite worthless against most enemies anyways.
 * Zote is not a Vessel, so his similarity to the Hollow Knight is unexplained.