Hollow Knight Pantheon of Hallownest Guide – Boss Order, Charms & Damage Benchmarks

📊 Data sourced from publicly available industry standards. See our methodology page for formulas, sources, and limitations.

The Pantheon of Hallownest is the ultimate endurance challenge in Hollow Knight, requiring you to defeat all 42 bosses in sequence with only one health bar and limited Soul. Unlike video guides that force you to scrub through timestamps, this written guide gives you instant access to the exact boss order, damage thresholds, and charm recommendations.

Boss Order Breakdown: The pantheon is split into 4 tiers (Tiers 1–4) with a final boss rush. Each tier contains 10–12 bosses, and the final tier includes the Absolute Radiance. Here are the key damage benchmarks you need to know:

• Nail Damage: A fully upgraded Coiled Nail deals 21 damage per hit. With Fragile/Unbreakable Strength, that jumps to 28 damage – a 33% increase. For comparison, the Pure Nail (final upgrade) deals 21 base, 28 with Strength.
• Spell Damage: Shade Soul with Shaman Stone deals 72 damage per hit (up from 40 base). This is critical for bosses like Markoth and No Eyes where you need burst damage.
• Boss HP Examples: Failed Champion has 1300 HP; NKG has 1500 HP; Absolute Radiance has 900 HP. With Strength + Quick Slash, you can kill Failed Champion in ~47 hits (1300/28).

Pro tip: Always equip Unbreakable Strength and Quick Slash as your core two charms. They provide the highest raw DPS for most fights.

📊 Data sourced from publicly available industry standards. See our methodology page for formulas, sources, and limitations.

The Pantheon of Hallownest is the ultimate endurance challenge in Hollow Knight, requiring you to defeat all 42 bosses in sequence with only one health bar and limited Soul. Unlike video guides that force you to scrub through timestamps, this written guide gives you instant access to the exact boss order, damage thresholds, and charm recommendations.

Boss Order Breakdown: The pantheon is split into 4 tiers (Tiers 1–4) with a final boss rush. Each tier contains 10–12 bosses, and the final tier includes the Absolute Radiance. Here are the key damage benchmarks you need to know:

• Nail Damage: A fully upgraded Coiled Nail deals 21 damage per hit. With Fragile/Unbreakable Strength, that jumps to 28 damage – a 33% increase. For comparison, the Pure Nail (final upgrade) deals 21 base, 28 with Strength.
• Spell Damage: Shade Soul with Shaman Stone deals 72 damage per hit (up from 40 base). This is critical for bosses like Markoth and No Eyes where you need burst damage.
• Boss HP Examples: Failed Champion has 1300 HP; NKG has 1500 HP; Absolute Radiance has 900 HP. With Strength + Quick Slash, you can kill Failed Champion in ~47 hits (1300/28).

Pro tip: Always equip Unbreakable Strength and Quick Slash as your core two charms. They provide the highest raw DPS for most fights.

🔥 PANTHEON BUILD GUIDE – FLEX OR DIE 🔥
💀 Those video guides show 1 build? WEAK. The Pantheon eats one-tricks for breakfast. Here are the ACTUAL loadouts for each tier, boss-killer tested & ready to slap. Let's go. 👇

⚔️ TIER 1 (Bosses 1–12) – Generalist GOAT
🛠️ Unbreakable Strength + Quick Slash + Mark of Pride + Sharp Shadow (11 notches)
✅ Melts Gruz Mother, Vengefly King, Brooding Mawlek – EZ mode.
💥 Brooding Mawlek PRO TIP: Sharp Shadow = dash through its spit attack = ZERO damage. Laugh as you phase through. 😤

🌀 TIER 2 (Bosses 13–24) – SPELL SPAM SUPREMACY
🛠️ Shaman Stone + Soul Eater + Spell Twister + Unbreakable Strength (11 notches)
🔥 Soul Master & Watcher Knights: Get melted.
⚡ +50% Soul per hit = Shade Soul go BRRR.
💀 Watcher Knights MATH: 1 Shade Soul = 72 dmg. 8 hits = dead knight (72x8=576 HP). Math doesn't lie. 💥

🎭 TIER 3 (Bosses 25–36) – HYBRID HAVOC
🛠️ Unbreakable Strength + Quick Slash + Sharp Shadow + Nailmaster's Glory (11 notches)
👑 For Grimm, Hornet Sentinel, The Collector – this build slaps.
⚡ Nailmaster's Glory: Great Slash charges in 0.4 SECONDS. Hornet's jump attacks? PUNISHED.
🎯 Collector PRO TIP: Sharp Shadow dodge its jar throws → punish while it's summoning. Free damage, free win. 🏆

☠️ TIER 4 (Bosses 37–42) – THE ENDGAME MENACE
🛠️ Unbreakable Strength + Quick Slash +

Here are exact damage numbers and kill strategies for the three hardest bosses in the Pantheon, based on community testing and speedrun data.

Nightmare King Grimm (1500 HP): With Strength + Quick Slash, you deal 28 damage per hit. You need 54 hits to kill him. But his fight has openings: after his fireball attack (dash under him), you get 2 hits. After his dive-dash, you get 1 hit. After his fire pillars, you can get 3 hits if you dash through. Total openings: ~12 per fight. So you need to land 4-5 hits per opening to kill him in 2-3 cycles. Use Sharp Shadow to deal 1.5x nail damage (42 damage) when dashing through him – this counts as a hit.

Pure Vessel (1200 HP): This boss has a 2-second stagger window after his parry attack. With Strength + Quick Slash, you can land 4 hits (112 damage) in that window. His health is 1200, so you need 11 such windows. Focus on baiting his dash attack (he telegraphs with a lunge) – dodge and hit him twice. Use Mark of Pride to hit him from a safe distance during his focus attack.

Absolute Radiance (900 HP): This is a spell fight. Use Shaman Stone + Soul Eater: each Shade Soul deals 72 damage. You need 13 Shade Souls to kill her. During the first phase, she spawns 3 swords – dodge them and fire Shade Soul when she appears. In the climb phase, jump and fire Shade Soul upward – each hit deals 72 damage and knocks her back, buying you time. In the final phase (platforms), use Descending Dark (88 damage with Shaman Stone) to clear swords and hit her simultaneously.

Even experienced players fail the Pantheon due to simple errors. Here are the top three mistakes and fixes:

• Overhealing: Many players try to heal during boss staggers but get hit. Use Quick Focus (speeds up healing by 50%) or Shape of Unn (heal while moving) instead. For example, during Hornet Sentinel's stagger, you have 1.5 seconds – Quick Focus lets you heal 2 masks safely.
• Wrong Charm Loadout for Final Boss: Keeping Strength + Quick Slash for Absolute Radiance is suboptimal. Her small hitbox makes nail hits unreliable. Switch to spell build before the final bench – you can use the Dreamgate to return to the bench if needed.
• Soul Mismanagement: Don't waste Soul on healing when you're at 6+ masks. Instead, use spells for damage. A single Shade Soul can stagger bosses like Watcher Knights, giving you a free heal window. Track your Soul meter – if it's full, use a spell immediately.

Pro tip: On the bench before Tier 4, equip Dream Wielder (1 notch) to collect Soul from dream bosses faster – this gives you +33% Soul per dream nail hit.

One of the biggest frustrations with video guides is that they don't tell you how to practice efficiently. Here's a written method: Use the Hall of Gods (accessed from the Pantheon entrance) to fight any boss you've already beaten. Each boss has three difficulty levels: Attuned, Ascended, and Radiant. Practice on Ascended (double damage) to build muscle memory.

Recommended Practice Order:

• First, practice Nightmare King Grimm on Ascended until you can beat him 3 times in a row without taking damage. This teaches you his timing.
• Then, practice Pure Vessel on Radiant (one hit kills you) – this forces you to learn perfect dodging. Most players need 10-20 attempts.
• Finally, practice Absolute Radiance on Attuned – focus on the climb phase and final platform phase. Use a stopwatch to time your kills: a good time is under 2 minutes.

Track your progress: write down how many hits you take per boss. If you take more than 5 hits on any boss in the Pantheon, practice that boss again. This data-driven approach eliminates guesswork.