Category:Combat (Hollow Knight)

The massive world of Hallownest boasts a vast array of bizarre creatures, most either infected or determined to kill any intruders. The Hunter's Journal is a compendium for all these creatures, and defeating a specified amount of a certain enemy reveals additional information about them.

Bosses are unique enemies in Hollow Knight that typically have higher health and, sometimes, even deal more damage than the standard enemies in the same area. A Boss may have to be defeated to access a new area, acquire an item, complete a quest, or simply further the main story of the game.

When a Boss is encountered, the Boss' name will appear on-screen, and the music will change into a battle theme.

Some bosses have alternate versions that can be accessed by Dream-nailing their corpse and are usually more challenging than the original fight. Defeating these dream bosses awards a large sum of Essence.

In Godhome bosses that were already defeated can be re-battled in the  Hall of Gods with some twists including more difficult modes. As well Pantheons are also available to take part in, and each pantheon acts like a Boss Rush with a set selection of bosses. The Eternal Ordeal, which is an infinite waved enemy gauntlet, also exists hidden inside the Hall of Gods.

The Colosseum of Fools is an area in Kingdom's Edge where three trials may be participated in. In these trials, waves of enemies can be battled in an arena observed by a crowd of bugs and the corpse of Lord Fool.

SOUL is the term used for the white energy extracted from striking enemies and Soul Totems. It is represented in the HUD by a circular meter that fills up with white liquid, revealing two eye holes and giving the meter the appearance of a face. SOUL is used during combat to perform spells, or heal.

Nail Arts are abilities within the game gained from Nailmasters. These powerful attacks have to be charged up but can deliver a powerful blow to finish off or heavily wound an enemy that would've normally taken more hits to kill.

Parrying
While some bosses have a parry move, it is also possible for the Knight to parry certain attacks of enemies and bosses.

Any attack that has a white line trailing it can be parried. These attacks can only be parried with regular Nail strikes, and not with Nail Arts, Spells or any other form of damage. The exception to this is Oro whose Dash Slash attack, due to a coding mistake, can be parried by any source of damage that has a hit direction, including Spells, Crystal Heart, and Sharp Shadow.

Parrying an attack deals full Nail damage, and grants 0.25 seconds of invulnerability.

Boss Staggers
Staggering is the event of stunning a boss and causing them to be incapacitated for a couple seconds, giving time to either heal or use a stronger attack such as a Spell or a Nail Art.
 * Damage is not calculated for staggering a boss, but rather the number of hits- this can be done through:
 * Nail
 * Spells
 * Nail Arts
 * Thorns of Agony
 * Glowing Womb
 * Sharp Shadow
 * Grubberfly's Elegy
 * Weaversong
 * Dreamshield
 * Grimmchild
 * Falling barrels
 * Not all bosses will stagger.
 * Hitting most bosses while they are staggered will automatically end the stagger.
 * Some bosses will stagger in a special manner and have special events.
 * Stagger limits will cap the number of times a Boss can be stunned. Some bosses have this, other bosses will have a stagger limit that is so high that it is nearly impossible to reach.
 * Combos will decrease the number of hits needed to stagger a Boss but have a requirement of doing a certain number of consecutive hits, with each hit being done within a set amount of time in between each other or the hit combo counter resets.
 * Heavy Blow will decrease the number of hits needed for staggers by 1 including combos.