Ori vs The Knight (Ori vs Hollow Knight)

 

(Toxin)

(Necrostar)

(thedarkloremaster)

(DumbAsk, _That1Gamer for renders)

(163B-ZGooey163)

(SatoK)

(Fenic)

(Gonk)

“There’s nothing more powerful than a humble person with a warrior spirit who is driven by a bigger purpose.” - Jeff Osterman

🚨🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨🚨

Before we begin this blog, from here on out, major spoilers will be brought up from both Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps, including major plot points and character moments surrounding The Knight and Ori. That being said, if you are not familiar with either series and don’t want to be spoiled, I strongly advise that you stop reading from this point.

Still here? Awesome…

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Ori, the spirit of light and protector of Nibel.

The Knight, the hollow vessel hailing from the kingdom of Hallownest.

Light and Dark. Yin and Yang. Though these two pint-sized indie warriors may come from opposite starts, they achieved the same end, saving their entire kingdoms from the plagues that had threatened them. They also just so happen to be the protagonists of some of the best indie metroidvania games the world have ever seen. After many years of debate for this matchup, it’s about time that someone figures out who TRULY comes out on top. Will Ori purify the darkness that makes up The Knight? Or will The Knight consume the light that Ori needs to live on? Only one way to find out!

Before we begin...

The setup for this matchup shouldn’t be too different from any other. We’ll be assuming that they’re both at their peak so they’ll have every ability unlocked, every upgrade bought, and the best set of trinkets that’ll put them at their absolute best. They’ll be fighting on a neutral battlefield where elements from both games (Void from Hollow Knight and Spirit Energy from Ori) coexist in a singular world, and they’ll both get access to their forms regardless of the events that need to play out beforehand.

Out of the two orbs of light that follow Ori on their journey, we’ll be giving Ori Seir and not Sein for the verdict since the implication with Seir is that they’re a superior version of Sein in every way. Giving Ori both Sein and Seir would not make sense within the context of the story as Sein would need to stay behind and empower the Spirit Tree of Ori’s homeland. That being said, we’ll still cover Sein and all their unique abilities and feats since it’ll be important for the verdict and it gives us more to cover for the blog. Otherwise, both Ori and Knight won’t get any other ally unless it’s a summon of theirs. It’s also worth noting that despite one of the main connections of the matchup is that they are “tiny warriors”, there are arguments that they both could actually be taller than you think. As such, every feat shown here will be treated as if they were 3 feet tall (see Before the Verdict).

Also I’m aware that DBE is also making a blog on this but just so it’s clear I literally did not know until they revealed it lmao.

“I shall take it from here. To those gazing upon this excerpt, I will tell the tale of the struggle between the forces of light and dark itself. Let us commence.”

Media List

The media list for this blog shouldn’t be too complex to figure out as all their media is contained within their games, which in of themselves haven’t been out for too long, and the extra content they both have is considerably small in quantity. It should be noted that all the endings of Hollow Knight will be used here since they’re all considered canon as confirmed in a Reddit Q&A despite some of them having drastically different paths for its characters.

For Ori, we will be using…

• Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• The Art of Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• The Flora and Fauna of Ori: A Field Guide
• Moon Studios Statements

For The Knight, we will be using…

• Hollow Knight
• Hollow Knight Game Manual
• Hollow Knight Silksong (guys I promise it will come out this year trust)
• Hollow Knight - Quirrel: First Chapter
• Wanderer’s Journal: A Journey Through the Heart of Hallownest
• Team Cherry Statements

Background

“As the sun falls and the moon rises, let’s reflect on the troubles that our brave heroes have faced.”

Ori

“When my child’s strength faltered, and the last breath was drawn, my light revived Ori, a new age had dawned.”

Nature, it’s a truly wondrous thing. The birds are chirping, the bugs are scattered about, and even the wind blows, creating a beautiful song that everything in the forest matches to. In this magical world of Nibel however, the proverbial conductor of this song would take the form of the Spirit Tree, a magical tree that provides life and purity to the forest that it inhabits. Easily identifiable by its height, it flows a radiant white light from its core and its glowing leaves; these aren’t just any normal leaves however as these are actually offspring, and when a leaf breaks off from the branches, it will flow away in the wind and form into a creature of light upon landing. This is where our story begins as one of these leaves would break off on one very stormy night, fluttering far away into the home cave of a creature of darkness named Naru. She would see the leaf turn into a Spirit Creature that she would take in as her child, deciding to give them the name of Ori, which fun fact is Hebrew for “my light”.

While growing up, Ori was given the best possible childhood by Naru, going through the usual story beats such as learning how to walk, how to scavenge for food, how to be resourceful, and the most important of them all, how to feel empathy. This would mold into Ori’s most defining characteristic, and the two would live together peacefully for a long time. But then one day, something strange happened. The light that once lit up the forest, vanished. The life that would thrive within the forest, decayed. The mother that Ori had grown up with, on death’s door. Ori would try to bring her food but she would seemingly pass away, leaving Ori an orphan yet again. Ori could do nothing but wander into the forest with a sense of devastation, attempting to find a new home now that their only parent had died; Ori themself would be on death door’s with a lack of food and the light of the Spirit Tree but they would mysteriously be revived by what was left of the Spirit Tree’s energy.

Coming across a spirit named Sein soon after, it would now be up to Ori to travel through the forest and return Sein to their Spirit Tree, saving the forest as a result. You see, Sein was the one powering the Spirit Tree but it would be taken away from the Spirit Tree by Kuro, an owl of darkness and mother of owlets that had died to the Spirit Tree’s light. Being lost in grief, she’d lash out at the tree by deriving it of its power and throwing the entire natural balance off. Ori would now need to traverse lakes, the underground, swamps, and even an… active volcano? (How has this forest not burned down yet?) to make it to the Spirit Tree. Kuro would not have any of this as she would attack Ori and do whatever it took to stop them from putting Sein back into the Spirit Tree. It seemed like Ori was about to die but when Naru managed to intervene, Kuro would feel guilty of trying to kill a wonderful family just because she lost her own, so she would do the right thing and deliver Sein back to the Spirit Tree herself. She would die in the process but Ori would pay respect to her by taking the last remaining egg of Kuro and raise the owlet as a new addition to the family alongside a healed Naru and all the other inhabitants of the revitalized forest.

Time would pass once again and the egg of Kuro would hatch into an owlet named Ku. Ori and Ku would form a close bond as siblings, and as Ku grew, Ori would even help Ku learn how to fly. Even though flying would prove to be tough for Ku, both Ori and Ku would try to fly one last time on what was supposed to be a clear night. They managed to successfully fly high into the sky but they would unwittingly fly directly into a storm that sent them careening into the brand new forest of Niwen with brand new problems. Another owl by the Name of Shriek was dealing with great emotional pain and would end up lashing out at the forest, throwing it out of balance by tearing out part of the Spirit Tree! (deja-vu anyone?) but now it was up to Ori to save yet another forest. After a long journey with Niwen’s spirit of Seir and a near death experience with Ku, Ori would eventually scare off Shriek and realize that they would need to replace Niwen’s Spirit Tree since the original tree had been destroyed by Shriek’s attack. Fusing with Seir would let Ori transform into a Spirit Tree sapling, which not only gets rid of Niwen’s Decay but brings life to those lands yet again. Everyone who had been close with Ori would gather around, and over the course of many years, they would stay by Ori’s side as they grew into a full blown Spirit Tree, now ready to create life of their very own.

The Knight

“Dance with me my friend. The crowd awaits. Show them you are worthy of a starring role.”

Have you ever felt what it was like to be discarded? It may be a heavy topic to start with but while us humans would have negative thoughts associated with that kind of idea, there are a group of mysterious beings born in the lowest areas of Hallownest that could never feel any emotion, let alone resent, towards such a concept. These beings would be made of a substance of pure darkness called Void, and they were created through the mating of the Pale King and the White Lady with the sole purpose of sealing away a force that would soon threaten the kingdom of Hallownest. Known as “vessels”, only one of thousands of these beings would be chosen as the one to be able to leave the Abyss, and one of the more promising vessels would be one that is only referred to as The Knight, aka the protagonist of Hollow Knight. Unfortunately for it, it would not be in the spotlight just yet as it would be beaten by the vessel known as The Hollow Knight; The Knight would be forced to fall back down into the Abyss as the Pale King guided The Hollow Knight out of the Abyss and closed the exit behind him.

Sometime in the future, The Knight would somehow be able to escape The Abyss alongside Hornet, The Knight’s biological sister, and a bunch of other unnamed vessels. Now having reached the surface, The Knight would aimlessly wander outside the boundaries of Hallownest, losing its memory while also gaining more resilience through unknown reasons, but it would soon be called back to Hallownest when the kingdom was being hit hardest by an infection caused by The Radiance, the goddess of light that was the forthcoming cause to Hallownest’s ruin. After falling back into the familiar lands of Hallownest, The Knight would embark on a grand quest to traverse the diverse biomes of the kingdom, uncover secrets of its ancient past, and find a way to get rid of the Infection once and for all.

The Knight would get ahold of all kinds of unique powers including the magical blade that is the Dream Nail and the charm that would let them control the entirety of the Void, but the overall goal that The Knight would work to accomplish was to get rid of the three Dreamers in order to break the seal of The Temple of the Black Egg, otherwise known as the place where The Hollow Knight was being held captive. As mentioned before, a worthy vessel was meant to seal away The Radiance for all of eternity, and although The Hollow Knight did a good job of keeping her sealed away in the past, The Hollow Knight would eventually succumb to its impurities and cause The Radiance to infect Hallownest once again up to the present day. Once The Knight enters the Black Egg and faces off against The Hollow Knight, this is where the story splits into multiple endings that can all be considered canon in their own way. One has The Knight replace The Hollow Knight and be sealed away with The Radiance for all of eternity, one has Hornet get roped in as the one who seals The Knight away, and two separate endings has The Knight directly faces off against The Radiance and ultimately consume it with the help of its ultimate Void form. No matter what ending is ultimately chosen, The Knight’s mission of defeating The Radiance is completed and it is finally able to fulfill its purpose.

Experience

“What would a warrior be without the experience that carves their path?”

Ori

Ori had never fought a single time prior to the present day events of the Blind Forest; in fact, Naru had raised Ori in one of the most peaceful lifestyles a protagonist could have ever wished for. Once Ori has become an orphan once again however, they were on their own when it came to traversing the world and battling off any foes in their way, both of which Ori succeeded very well at. In fact Ori was able to instantly know how to use every ability given to them in both Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps and overcome the toughest of bosses that stood between them and the Spirit Trees. Creatures that dwarf Ori in size such as Shriek, Kwolok, and Kuro proved to not be safe from this little critter’s might.

The Knight

Prior to the events of Hollow Knight, The Knight’s been wandering outside of Hallownest’s borders for an unspecified amount of time, and despite not having any prior training, The Knight has shown some crazy movement and combat skills while traversing the land that is Hallownest. It can essentially master any new technique or spell with very little practice and has been able to hold its own against numerous bosses it comes across. Whether it’d be skilled warriors like Hornet, leaders like Soul Master, or even “all-knowing” creatures like Gorb the Great Mind, it’s eventually able to defeat them all after enough deaths.

 

Although The Knight doesn’t already come with experience on hand (as far as we know), the player ultimately represents what The Knight could reach at its peak potential. After all, the Knight is technically pulling the same tactics as you are: learning from your past mistakes against bosses, memorizing their movement patterns, and striking their weak points when appropriate. Every challenge that YOU face throughout the game is one that the Knight is also facing, therefore everything the player does shows how smart The Knight truly is.

Arsenal

“No warrior ever comes to a battle empty-handed.”

Ori

Sein and Seir

In order to be successful in their journeys, Ori would need to be assisted by a few luminescent friends that would guide Ori to the site of the Spirit Trees.

Starting with The Blind Forest, Ori would meet the floating orb of light known as Sein after Sein had been stolen by Kuro and dropped into the Sunken Glades. Sein would tag alongside Ori and guide them back to the Spirit Tree so that Sein could be returned, acting as not only a navigator but as an ally in combat as well. Prior to the meetup, Ori had no way of fighting back but with Sein, Ori could not use their abilities as their main form of combat against dangerous foes.

Once Sein had returned to its Spirit Tree and the events of Will of the Wisps began, Ori would end up in the land of Niwen where they would soon meet Seir. Unlike Sein, Seir was split up into 5 wisps due to the passing of its associated Spirit Tree, leaving Ori to go and find every wisp so that Seir could be reformed. After finding all five pieces (Voice of The Forest, Memory of The Forest, Eyes of The Forest, Strength of The Forest, and Heart of The Forest), Seir would be whole once again and would now be able to do their thing by the end of the game which I’ll elaborate on later. Seir doesn’t have many combat-applicable abilities as Sein does but they do have a few unique powers of their own.

Energy Cell

These blue orbs hold the spiritual energy that Ori needs in order to use their abilities. Collecting an Energy Cell increases the energy that Ori has on hand, and depending on the ability that’s used, it’ll use up a corresponding amount of that energy. Simply put, Energy Cells act as a sort of mana in Ori’s world.

Life Cell

Instead of giving Ori energy, these green cells give Ori health when picked up. They are scattered all along the lands that Ori travels upon and they often need to use their abilities in order to reach the Life Cells.

Spirit Light Container

These containers store Spirit Light which is essentially the currency of Will of the Wisps that allows you to buy all your maps, abilities, and so forth.

Kuro's Feather

By giving Kuro a bonk to the head, Ori gets a big feather that lets them glide to the ground with style.

Maps

After Blind Forest, a cartographer named Lupo would render map stones (from the previous game) useless as he would be the one to start selling paper maps. Ori can buy a map for any specific area they want to explore among the lands of Niwen, a region much grander than that of Nibel, and these maps are able to be upgraded over time with the location of Energy Cells, Life Cells, and Spirit Shards.

Ability Tree

This collection of improvements from Blind Forest comes with numerous passive upgrades to three major aspects of Ori’s gameplay: general utility, combat ability, and overall efficiency with your map and pickups. All of these abilities can be bought by Ori in exchange for hidden Ability Cells that need to be found all across the world.

There are a total of 29 abilities unlocked via the Ability Tree, and these include…

Utility:

• Air Dash: Lets Ori dash while in the air.
• Charge Dash: Gives Ori the ability to charge dash which damages enemies in their path.
• Charge Flame Efficiency: Charge Flame’s Energy Cell cost is halved.
• Regroup: The creation of a Soul Link gives Ori one Life Cell.
• Rekindle: Soul Links can now be reused and their cooldown timer is shortened.
• Soul Link Efficiency: Soul Link’s Energy Cell cost is halved.
• Triple Jump: Gives Ori a third jump while in the air.
• Ultra Defense: The damage taken by enemies is reduced.
• Ultra Soul Link: The creation of a Soul Link gives Ori two Life Cells.

Combat:

• Charge Flame Blast: Charge Flame’s radius and attack power is even more increased.
• Charge Flame Burn: Charge Flame’s radius and attack power is increased.
• Cinder Flame: Spirit Flame’s attack power is even more increased.
• Quick Flame: Three flames can be shot before needing to recharge.
• Rapid Flame: Spirit Flame can be fired at a faster rate.
• Spark Flame: Spirit Flame’s attack power is increased.
• Split Flame: Spirit Flame can damage two targets at once.
• Ultra Bash: Bash’s attack power is increased and can now be used on enemies.
• It’s worth noting that this ability was removed in the definitive version of Ori and The Blind Forest.
• Ultra Light Burst: Light Burst’s radius and attack power is increased.
• Ultra Split Flame: The max of Spirit Flame’s damage while also being able to hit 4 targets at once.
• Ultra Stomp: Stomp’s radius and attack power is increased.

Efficiency:

• Ability Markers: Ability Cells will now show up on the map.
• Energy Efficiency: Energy Cells give 50% more energy.
• Energy Markers: Energy Cells now show up on Ori’s map.
• Life Efficiency: Life Cells give twice as much life.
• Life Markers: Life Cells now show up on Ori’s map.
• Map Markers: Pickups will now show up on Ori’s map.
• Sense: Ori can now see through walls to find hidden places.
• Spirit Efficiency: Doubles the amount of Spirit Light (XP).
• Spirit Magnet: Pickups will start to float towards Ori.Ultra Spirit Magnet: Pickups will start to float towards Ori AND be absorbed by them.

Spirit Shards

Used by Ori during the events of Will of the Wisps, Spirit Shards give Ori numerous equippable upgrades that greatly enhance their attacks, stats, enemy drops, and so on. A few of these spirit shards can even give Ori some new abilities. You can only use a total of 3 spirit shards at a time at the beginning of the game but if you collect every available shard slot upgrade, Ori can have a total of 8 equippable spirit shards by the end of the game.

There are a total of 31 spirit shards for Ori to collect, which includes…

• Vitality: Gives Ori more Life Cells
• Energy: Gives Ori more Energy Cells
• Energy Harvest: Enemies will drop more Energy Orbs.
• Life Harvest: Enemies will drop more Life Orbs.
• Light Harvest: Enemies will drop more Spirit Light. The Spirit Shard starts out by giving Ori 2 Spirit Light Orbs but it can be further upgraded to give up to 4 Spirit Light Orbs.
• Lifeforce: When Ori gets to half health, a 10% buff is applied to their attacks. This buff can be upgraded to deal even more damage.
• Last Stand: When Ori gets below 15% of their life, they get a passive damage boost by 20%
• Reckless: Gives Ori more attack power while also lowering their defense. The damage both given and taken is 15% and it can be upgraded two more times to 25% and 35%
• Life Pact: When out of energy, Ori can use their Life Cells to cast spells
• Overcharge: Energy cost is reduced by 50% while the damage taken increases to 100%
• Swap: The maximum of both the Energy Cells and Life Cells are swapped.
• Splinter: Ori’s “Spirit Arc” arrows split into shorter-ranged arrows that deal 50% damage each
• Quickshot: Ori’s “Spirit Arc” move will fire arrows 25% faster
• Arcing: Shots from Ori’s “Spirit Arc” can hit nearby enemies even if the shot misses them
• Magnet: Orbs start to float towards Ori
• Overflow: When Ori collects too many Energy Cells, those cells turn into Life Cells for Ori to raise their health with. The same is true the other way around (Life Cells to Energy Cells)
• Finesse: Gives Ori a 10% chance to deal 50% extra damage with an attack
• Spirit Surge: Grants bonus damage depending on how much Spirit Light Ori is carrying
• Thorn: Enemies will be damaged when they damage Ori.
• Resilience: Ori takes 10% less damage with this Spirit Shard. Even more damage can be tanked when it’s fully upgraded.
• Deflector: Every melee attack is now able to deflect projectiles
• Turmoil: Enemies will respawn faster (why would you want this)
• Bounty: Enemies gain double the health and attack power BUT Ori gets double the Spirit Light amount when they kill them
• Catalyst: Melee damage turns into energy
• Fracture: Ori’s “Light Burst” move will now split the singular ball of light into three smaller balls that deal less damage
• Ultra Bash: Bash itself will now deal damage
• Wingclip: Bonus damage is done to airborne enemies
• Ultra Grapple: Grapple will now grab onto a single enemy, resetting once Ori touches the ground
• Triple Jump: Gives Ori two jumps in the air rather than one, only being reset once Ori hits the ground
• Sticky: Lets Ori stick onto and climb walls
• Secret: Any hidden walls will become semi-transparent so that Ori can walk through them

Shard Slot Upgrade

A collectible that gives Ori the ability to equip more Spirit Shards at once.

Misc

• Gorlek Ore: A special kind of ore that Ori can gather in order to repair structures such as the houses of the Moki and broken Spirit Wells.
• Keystone: Collectibles that are needed to open Spirit Gates that block any further progress from being made. Two to four of these keystones are needed to open the gates and they’re usually located in hard to reach places.
• Kwolok Amulet: An amulet meant for others to reminisce about Kwolok after his death, which Ori had to deliver to Kwolok’s altar.
• Map Stone Fragment: Fragments that need to be gathered in order to fill out Ori’s map. These would be abandoned after Blind Forest but they do exist alright.
• Map Stone: Once being fully completed, these map stones are scattered across Nibel and have fallen apart. Missing the pieces needed to properly chart Nibel, they were rendered useless until Ori found the fragments needed to fix them up. Fixing them up fills out an area on Ori’s own map where the stone is located.
• Mysterious Seeds: These dimly lit seeds are needed to complete a side quest to regrow the Wellspring Glades.
• Wisps: In One-Life Mode, it lets the player know where their last deaths were located with an icon of Ori with X’s over their eyes.
• Other Quest Items: Since there are so many items that are only used to complete quests, I’ll just list them all off here: Canteen, Comfy Hat, Curious Tablet, Eerie Gum, Eyestone, Iron Needle, Lantern, Lifeless Branch, Mouldwood Silk, Petrified Doll, Spicy Soup, and a Spyglass.

The Knight

Nail

This blade may not seem all that threatening given its small size and its name further hammering that in but it’s gotten plenty of use as The Knight’s main weapon. Made of a rare material known as Pale Ore, this weapon can practically slice anything The Knight strikes it towards. Although it was worn down and rusted at the beginning of the game, it has been upgraded four times into its purest version, becoming one of the strongest weapons in the Hollow Knight universe.

One of the fun aspects of this weapon is that it allows The Knight to bounce off anything it strikes downward while in the air. Whether it’d be enemies, spikes, or any other objects that The Knight finds on its path, it proves to be just as useful as a platforming tool by letting it reach areas it couldn’t previously.

The nail pictured above is the ultimate version of The Knight’s nail, known as the Pure Nail, but there are also a bunch of nails that The Knight has used prior to getting this final upgrade:

• Old Nail: “A traditional weapon of Hallownest. Its blade is blunt with age and wear.”
• Sharpened Nail: “A traditional weapon of Hallownest, restored to lethal form.”
• Channeled Nail: “A cleft weapon of Hallownest. The blade is exquisitely balanced.”
• Coiled Dream Nail: “A powerful weapon of Hallownest, refined beyond all others.”

Dream Nail

Unlike every other nail seen in the depths of Hallownest, this exquisite Dream Nail acts unlike any other weapon. This nail is gifted to The Knight from a Moth in the Dream Realm, a world which can be accessed through the Dreamer’s Memorial. It comes with the ability to “cut through the veil between dreams and waking”, essentially meaning that it can cut through the physical plane itself. Along with giving the Knight a stronger weapon that lets it gather more soul with every strike, it comes with a few other unique abilities.

Once awoken by gathering enough Essence, or the light that makes up dreams, the nail lets The Knight read the thoughts of anyone it strikes the blade with and it can create getaways between the real world and the Dream Realm of those same beings, allowing The Knight to teleport between the two worlds any time it wants. Even the most powerful of seals protecting one’s mind are able to be bypassed with a single slash of this blade.

Lumafly Lantern

This portable lantern brightens the surrounding area and allows The Knight to see through even the darkest of places.

Map and Quill

The Knight always carries a map that charts every single area of Hallownest in its entirety. It can be pulled up at any time by opening the inventory and in order to fill out new areas, The Knight needs to buy those areas from a fellow cartographer named Cornifer. Benches also update areas of a map once The Knight sits on them.

Geo

The main currency of Hollow Knight. These fossilized shells can be used to pay off tolls for certain benches and can more importantly be used to buy goods and services from merchants, ranging from new charms to new abilities.

Mothwing Cloak

This original cloak allowed The Knight to dash a short distance in whichever direction it was facing. It’s not only useful for faster travel but it also makes it easier for The Knight to dodge incoming enemy attacks.

Shade Cloak

Being formed from the Abyss and acting as a direct upgrade to the Mothwing Cloak, the Shade Cloak fulfills the same purpose but it has the added benefit of giving The Knight the ability to briefly phase through enemies and their attacks, letting it safely avoid that potential damage that could’ve been taken. Unlike the original cloak, this one comes with a cooldown of 1.5 seconds so spamming it is off the table.

Mantis Claw

A claw that lets the Knight cling onto any wall and jump up after clinging to that wall.

Crystal Heart

By concentrating force while on the ground or on a wall, The Knight can launch itself horizontally at great speeds. The only way that The Knight can stop itself is to crash into the environment or to an unassuming enemy. I mean The Knight can also stop itself manually but where’s the fun in that?

Isma's Tear

Not a particularly useful item in combat but it lets The Knight be fully immune to the acid from The Fungal Wastes.

Monarch Wings

This item lets The Knight summon graceful wings that allow it to double jump in the air. The double jump can’t be activated again until The Knight hits the ground, clings onto a wall with the Mantis Claw, or bounces off an enemy with the nail.

Salubra's Blessing

An item that activates whenever Knight decides to sit on a bench. While The Knight rests, an illusion of Salubra, who is a shopkeeper where you can buy a lot of charms from, appears above Knight and dances as 50 Soul is gained every second.

Charms

Charms are a special type of trinket in Hollow Knight that were made of the dying wishes of fellow bugs. Amassing a grand collection of these charms, the Knight can use them to give itself various unique bonuses and special abilities. Only 11 of these charms can realistically be worn at a time due to the limited amount of notches in its inventory, but if the Knight wished to, it could wear even more charms with the tradeoff of becoming twice as weak to enemy attacks.

With there being a whopping total of 45 charms (with only 40 of them becoming usable by the end of the game), these charms fall into multiple categories including…

Passive Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Dream Wielder: Dramatically increases The Knight’s attack speed with the Dream Nail while also increasing the amount of soul collected.
• Gathering Swarm: A small fly swarm will collect any geo, aka currency, and take it to The Knight.
• Wayward Compass: A charm that whispers the location of the Knight, letting it pinpoint its own location on a map.
• (2 Notches)
• Unbreakable Greed: Enemies defeated by The Knight will drop more geo.
• (5 Notches)
• Kingsoul: Lets The Knight gather 4 Soul every 2 seconds.
• This charm is lost when it ultimately has to be replaced with Voidheart

Movement Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Sprintmaster: Increases The Knight’s speed on the ground and in the air.
• (2 Notches)
• Dashmaster: Lets The Knight dash more often as well as dash downwards.

Nail Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Long Nail: Gives The Knight more range with a longer nail.
• Nailmaster’s Glory: Lets The Knight focus its energy for a Nail Art much quicker.
• Steady Body: Keeping The Knight steady, it nullifies all knockback from enemy attacks.
• (2 Notches)
• Heavy Blow: Makes The Knight’s strikes stronger, knocking enemies back even further.
• (3 Notches)
• Mark of Pride: Gives The Knight more range with an even longer nail.
• Quickslash: Greatly increases the swinging speed of the Knight’s nail.
• Unbreakable Strength: Greatly increases the nail strength of the Knight.

Soul Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Grubsong: Soul will be collected whenever the Knight gets hurt.
• (2 Notches)
• Soul Catcher: More soul will be gathered from defeated enemies.
• Spell Twister: The Knight’s spells require less soul to cast.
• (3 Notches)
• Quick Focus: This charm speeds up The Knight’s ability to focus its energy.
• Shaman Stone: The Knight’s spells become much more powerful
• (4 Notches)
• Deep Focus: Focusing will heal The Knight twice as much but the process will take longer.
• Soul Eater: Even more soul will be gathered from defeated enemies.

Defensive Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Thorns of Agony: Whenever The Knight is damaged, thorny plant tendrils will shoot out to attack nearby enemies.
• (2 Notches)
• Baldur’s Shell: A shield is created around the Knight when it focuses and said shield breaks with enough damage.
• Shape of Unn: While focusing, The Knight can transform its shape which lets it move freely.
• Stalwart Shell: This charm gives The Knight increased invincibility frames and decreased hit recoil.
• Unbreakable Heart: The Knight’s health increases.
• (3 Notches)
• Carefree Melody: The Knight gets a 2/10 chance to be immune to an attack.
• Dreamshield: This shield will always orbit the Knight, being able to block attacks while also hurting enemies.
• (4 Notches)
• Hiveblood: Can immediately heal the Knight’s most recent wound without any input; after healing once, it won’t heal until The Knight is wounded again.

Lifeblood:

Lifeblood essentially acts like armor for the Knight, protecting it from several attacks but also being unreplenishable once it’s lost through damage.

• (2 Notches)
• Lifeblood Heart: A small amount of Lifeblood is given to the Knight.
• (3 Notches)
• Lifeblood Core: The Knight gets even more Lifeblood.
• (4 Notches)
• Joni’s Blessing: The ultimate charm relating to Lifeblood, The Knight gains a grand amount of Lifeblood while also having all of its health become Lifeblood, meaning it won’t be able to heal any damage via focusing.

Offensive Charms:

• (1 Notch)
• Defender’s Crest: A small cloud of odorous gas is created around the Knight which damages enemies (it’s called aura bruh).
• Spore Shroom: A large cloud of spores is created while focusing, dealing damage to enemies.
• (2 Notches)
• Fury of the Fallen: When its health is really low, the Knight gets a boost in power.
• Glowing Womb: The Knight’s soul is used to birth hatchlings that charge forward and explode anything in its path.
• Grimmchild: This winged companion blasts dark will automatically fire at enemies.
• Sharp Shadow: Dashing through enemies will deal damage to them as if they were hit by a nail.
• Weaversong: Three weaverlings are birthed and they will follow The Knight and attack enemies independently.
• (3 Notches)
• Flukenest: Replacing the Shade Soul spell, The Knight instead fires out a horde of baby flukes.
• Grubberfly’s Elegy: The Knight’s nail can fire off white-hot energy when no damage has been done to the Knight.

Combinations:

Instead of the usual solo effect, some charms have interesting effects when they’re used together.

• Dashmaster + Sprintmaster: The Knight becomes much faster.
• Defender's Crest + Glowing Womb: The hatchlings explode into clouds of poison that stay out for a little bit.
• Dreamshield + Dream Wielder: The Dreamshield becomes larger.
• Flukenest + Defender's Crest: The horde of baby flukes is replaced with one giant fluke that explodes into a poisonous cloud.
• Flukenest + Shaman Stone: The baby flukes become much larger and stronger.
• Fury of the Fallen + Glowing Womb: The hatchlings will explode when close to death.
• Fury of the Fallen + Grubberfly's Elegy: The Knight can now fire strong red beams when its about to die.
• Fury of the Fallen + Nailmaster's Glory: The Knight’s Nail Arts grow in power when its about to die.
• Grubsong + Grubberfly's Elegy: Even more soul is collected when the Knight gets hit.
• Grubsong + Weaversong: When the weaverlings attack enemies, they’re able to collect soul for The Knight.
• Joni's Blessing + Hiveblood: The Knight’s last wound is healed but its health is immediately replaced with Lifeblood.
• Quick Focus + Shape of Unn: While transformed, The Knight can travel great distances much faster.
• Shape of Unn + Baldur's Shell: The aforementioned shell now follows The Knight while it’s moving.
• Sharp Shadow + Dashmaster: The Knight’s dash attacks with greater force.
• Spore Shroom + Deep Focus: The radius of the spore cloud is much bigger.
• Spore Shroom + Defender's Crest: A thicker and stronger cloud of gas is made.
• Spore Shroom + Defender's Crest + Deep Focus: Adds onto the previous combo by increasing its radius.
• Sprintmaster + Weaversong: The speed of The Knight’s weaverling is increased.

Voidheart:

This charm is special compared to every other charm mentioned above as instead of being a trinket that can be equipped, Voidheart essentially became a part of The Knight. Unifying both The Void with the will of The Knight, it transforms into a being known as The Lord of Shades. More about this form will be elaborated on in the Forms section but just know that Voidheart is unlike any charm in this section.

Ancient Mask Shard/Ancient Mask

In order to further increase its health capacity, The Knight needs to collect 4 Mask Shards to fully recreate an Ancient Mask. With this special mask, it increases The Knight’s health by 1. This mask count halts at a total of 4 and overall gives The Knight 9 total masks. That aside, the mask has no real use in combat.

Vessel Fragment/Soul Vessel

Similar to the Ancient Mask, The Knight has to collect Vessel Fragments to further increase its Soul Vessel capacity, or otherwise known as the place where The Knight stores its Soul energy for actions such as healing and spells. By collecting 3 Vessel Fragments, The Knight gains a Soul Vessel which increases the maximum amount of Soul that can be held by 33. When all 3 Soul Vessel’s are gathered, the Knight can have a total max amount of 99 Soul at once.

Delicate Flower

Originating from a place referred to as “lands serene”, this flower with fragile petals and a pure aura comes with a rare and mysterious power that can purify any darkness it comes in contact with. More specifically, Delicate Flower is able to purify the purest of Void, which is most prominently shown when it purified the entirety of the Void that was slowly engulfing Godhome and leaked out into the real world. Its effects seem to only work on Void when it’s at its most complete since The Knight is able to carry it around with little issue (see Before the Verdicts). The flower is also, as the name suggests, very delicate as it can instantly be destroyed when The Knight takes damage while carrying it.

Misc

• Godtuner: A device that “resonates with beings of great power”. Upon taking down the toughest of bosses, it lights up to show you what bosses you’ve already defeated so that you can later access Godhome and fight them again.
• Grubs: These silly critters got themselves stuck in glass jars and they can only be broken out once The Knight breaks their jar. As a reward for saving them, The Knight gains Geo depending on the number of Grubs it saves.
• Hunter’s Journal: A compendium of every enemy that The Knight has encountered. New enemies can only be put in the journal if The Knight has taken it down, meaning that The Knight needs to take down all 164 unique enemies in order to complete it.
• Hunter’s Mark: The reward for completing a majority of the Hunter’s Journal. It ain’t shiny but it represents The Knight’s status as a true hunter.
• King’s Brand: This item has no use in combat but it lets The Knight access the ancient places of Hallownest such as the door that leads to The Abyss; accessing The Abyss is required in order to get Hollow Knight’s four endings.
• Other Keys: Beside King’s Brand, there are a wide variety of keys that The Knight has used to open doors: City Crest, Elegant Key, Love Key, Shopkeeper’s Key, and Simple Key.
• Rancid Eggs: Left behind after the death of Bluggsacs, these inedible eggs can be given to Confessor Jiji to summon The Knight’s Shade when it’s elsewhere in the world
• Relics: There are plenty of historical artifacts that The Knight can find/buy and take with them, which includes the following: Arcane Egg, Hallownest Seal, King’s Idol, and multiple Wanderer’s Journals
• Tram Pass: This lifetime pass gives The Knight access to Hallownest’s transportation system of vehicles known as Trams. Compared to other methods of transportation such as giant stagways, these trams go where those bugs can’t. Currency will be needed to board these trams however; transportation is never free in these parts!

Abilities

“The beings of light and dark are all too familiar with the powers coursing through their bodies.”

Ori

Spirit Physiology

It may seem difficult to figure out what exactly Ori is supposed to be species-wise but all you need is a little context from the game itself. Born from the light that falls out of their biological parent known as a Spirit Tree, these glowing white creatures are essentially the closest thing the universe has to gods. These spirits can come in shapes and sizes of all kinds but they generally have an appearance similar to that of Ori’s and every one of them come with unique talents that define their character. They can even gain new talents and abilities by absorbing the light of any fallen spirits. Not all spirits are able to defend for themselves since a good bunch of them don’t have combat-based abilities but Ori was one of the lucky few to come with those skills at birth.

Due to their very strong connection with the light of their world, they have a small chance to enter a new stage of life and turn into Ancestral Trees that allows their talents to be passed onto other spirits as previously mentioned. The chances of becoming an Ancestral Tree are extremely rare however. That being said, it’s nowhere close to as rare as becoming a Spirit Tree which is regarded as the biggest honor among spirits. Ori was the chosen one in this regard as they would turn into a Spirit Tree by the end of Ori and The Will of the Wisps but more info on that will be given in Forms.

Respawns/Soul Link

Soul Links, which are player-made checkpoints from The Blind Forest, allow Ori to revive at the location of their most recent Soul Link. Not only do they act as save points, but they also allow Ori to upgrade themselves through the Ability Tree. As long as that Soul Link is maintained, Ori can die as many times as they want and they can always come back at their peak power. Soul Links do have a cost however as Ori needs to use up 1 Energy Cell in order to place one down. They also have a cooldown of 18 seconds between placements and cannot be placed in the air, underwater, or on unstable ground.

Double Jump

Usually a common ability among every Metroidvania, Ori can unlock a double jump after finding Gumo’s Hideout. There’s nothing too special about this skill other than the fact that it makes it so much easier to traverse Ori’s world.

Wall Jump

A skill passed onto Ori from the light of Fil, Ori is able to jump off of walls and reach areas that were previously inaccessible even with the highest normal jump. They can either jump up a single vertical surface or between two vertical surfaces.

Charge Jump

The ultimate vertical jump skill that is unlocked later into the game. Ori charges it up on the ground before flying up into the air to get some serious height. They can also use Charge Jump on walls which lets Ori get some pretty good horizontal distance as well. As for in a combat scenario, Ori becomes a sort of sling projectile that damages enemies in their path.

Climb

Further adding onto Ori’s mobility, they can now fully scale up walls once they learn this 8th skill. Any vertical surface can be climbed on and leapt off of to grab onto another surface. Ori’s double jump will also be recharged once they grab a surface.

Dash

Originally being a bonus ability from the Definitive Edition of Ori and the Blind Forest, this skill comes back in Will of the Wisps and is better than ever! It allows Ori to quickly dash to the left or right and Ori can spam this as many times as they need to on the ground and one time in the air.

Spirit Flame

Being Ori’s first ever skill that they learn, Spirit Flame gives Ori the ability to shoot out a barrage of Sein’s light towards enemies. This skill is Ori’s bread and butter attack during the events of Blind Forest and it generally has decent aim and range. This move isn’t too crazy when starting out but it gets a lot stronger and faster once it’s fully upgraded on the Ability Tree (will be elaborated on later).

Charge Flame

By charging up the energy within Sein, Ori can unleash a strong burst of light energy that hits enemies in a wide radius. It’s shown to be useful with redirecting projectiles and uncovering new areas but it does come with the downside of costing an Energy Cell or less.

Bash

Being taught this skill by the light of Reem, Ori can activate Bash when they’re either close to a bashable object or enemy. The objects in question are very specific to Ori’s world but by bashing into an enemy, Ori can parry their projectiles which lets them bounce off of it for extra height at the same time. If Ori were to bash the enemy directly, they would send themself flying the opposite direction while also pushing the enemy back.

Stomp

While in the air, Ori slams downwards into the ground where they then deal damage to an enemy, object, or even the environment itself. It can even repel incoming projectiles!

Light Burst

This skill originates from Blind Forest and it lets Ori throw a ball of light towards any enemy they aim at, often rolling and bouncing around until it stops to explode. While it didn’t do much outside of damaging enemies from a safe distance as well as light torches, Will of the Wisps would soon upgrade the ability by giving it more fire-like properties. Now being a proper fireball, it can blow enemies up, light objects on fire, and melt frozen objects with the cost being 1 Energy Cell per throw. The fireball can also be used as a projectile for Ori to use Bash on, letting them gain extra height in the air.

Spirit Edge

Becoming the new starting ability for Ori in Will of the Wisps, it lets them manifest a sword made of light that can be swung forward, directly downwards (which lets Ori bounce off of an enemy if it lands), and upward. Its range can be extended further if Ori chooses to and swinging the sword in the air briefly slows them down in the air which can be done up to 5 times.

Spirit Arc

Spirit Edge isn’t the only weapon that Ori can wield as Spirit Arc lets them wield a bow and arrow made out of light. Every arrow that’s shot uses up 1/4 of an Energy Cell and its DPS can be greatly increased with Spirit Shards like Splinter and Quickshot.

Spike

Ori pulls out a spear made of light and throws it in front of them, being able to spam these spears with the downside of having their Energy Cells drain.

Upgrade: Exploding Spike

With this upgrade for the “Spike” ability, the thrown spear explodes into multiple projectiles upon getting in contact with the ground or an enemy.

Spirit Smash

If Ori really hated swords for some reason, Ori can equip Spirit Smash which replaces the fast but weaker sword with the slower but stronger hammer which is also made of energy. It not only deals greater damage to enemies but it sends them flying with its hit-stun and greater knockback. It also completely obliterates projectiles with its swings rather than having them be redirected. There’s numerous directions it can be swung in like forward, downwards on the ground which will create an AOE effect in front of Ori, downwards in the air which creates an effect similar to Stomp, and upward.

Upgrade: Shock Smash

This upgraded version of Spirit Smash lets the hammer release a big shockwave upon landing the downward version of the attack. The shockwave goes both ways and travels across the ground to deal extra damage to any grounded enemies in its range.

Spirit Star

This mini star can be thrown as a projectile to damage enemies but will then come back to Ori as if it were a boomerang. Each usage uses up half an Energy Cell but it can be upgraded to not only shoot out more stars at once but also have its flight be paused so that it can spin in place.

Sentry

This ability summons a butterfly-shaped Spirit Orb that hovers around Ori when activated. 3 of these can be out at a time, costing 1 Energy Cell for each, and they attack enemies that Ori gets close to in proximity.

Upgrade: Sentry Speed

The speed of these Sentries can be further upgraded with the appropriately named “Sentry Speed” upgrade.

Blaze

Blaze lets Ori rapidly unleash a small explosion around themselves that not only deals damage to nearby enemies but also sets them on fire. This fire does damage to enemies over time and it uses up 1 Energy Cell per use.

Upgrade: Charge Blaze

Rather than unleashing the explosion instantly, Ori can now charge up Blaze to unleash an even LARGER burst of flames that covers the whole screen. It does a lot more damage compared to the regular version of Blaze but it uses up 2 Energy Cells rather than 1.

Flap

Unlocked after Ku’s (supposed) death, Ori gains the ability to blow away objects and enemies with a gust of wind.

Grapple

Grapple lets Ori send out a strand of light that can hook onto anything that is considered to be Blue Moon flowers or blue moss. Luckily it’s not the only two things the grapple can latch onto as it can also grab onto enemies and pull Ori towards them.

Flash

Flash creates a circle of light that surrounds Ori, enabling them to freely move in dark areas and also outputs an AOE attack that damages any nearby enemies. This is a skill that will automatically drain energy while it is used as it drains 1 energy cell for every 8 seconds that it’s active.

Launch

Acting similar to the previously mentioned Charge Jump skill, it actually acts a lot more like Ori’s Bash skill. Launch essentially turns Ori themself into a projectile rather than needing an enemy to propel themselves; they can go flying in any direction that they choose and deal damage to any enemy they come in contact with. Ori can only use this move once in the air and needs to reset it once they touch the ground/use other moves like Bash and Grapple but it also resets all other jump moves that were previously used.

Regenerate

Unlocked when absorbed from an Ancestral Tree, the Regenerate skill lets Ori trade in 1 Energy Cell for 3 Life Cells, letting them heal any damage they could’ve taken previously.

Water Breath

Ori do be breathing in the water.

Swim Dash

Pretty self explanatory all things considered; this skill lets Ori dash while underwater and into the air if they happen to be near the surface.

Burrow

After traversing the lands of Windswept Wastes, Ori gains the skill known as Burrow. Ori is now able to freely dig through sand at breakneck speeds and even dash it if they’re already in the sand.

Fast Travel

While not necessarily a combat-based ability, this is still worth noting as it lets Ori teleport to any previous Spirit Well that they already discovered and marked on their map. This ability is inaccessible in most cases however since Spirit Wells need to be present to make it happen and there aren’t any Spirit Wells outside of Nibel/Niwen.

Ancestral Light

Having two different ways to obtain that also lets their effects stack on top of each other, each Ancestral Light skill gives Ori a passive effect. The passive effect in question is that of a permanent 25% increase in attack power for ALL of Ori’s moves. When both skills are obtained, it can reach a total attack power increase of 50%.

Absorbtion

When Ori stands near an Ancestral Tree, they’re able to absorb the light that is contained within that tree. This absorption is how Ori is able to learn new skills since that light contains what remains of fallen spirits and their associated talents.

Earth Manipulation

Ori used the power of Sein to prevent Mount Horu from erupting, compressing the mountain’s Element of Warmth which was about to burst into lava.

Plant Manipulation

Seir, while only being at 1/5 of itself, was able to sprout a bunch of white flowers around a dying Ku, with all the flowers acting as temporary life support.

Purification

Seir, or more specifically the wisp “Eyes of the Forest” that makes up 1/5 of Seir, created a burst of light that was able to remove the corruption that had invaded the mind of Mora. It also removes the darkness that had previously consumed the area; both of these effects had been caused by Decay and the wisp’s awakening had completely removed any control that Decay had over the area.

Fusionism

As part of the plan to save Niwen from the grasp of Decay, Ori needed to embrace Seir’s light so that they could fuse together. Once they fused, Ori would be forced to leave behind their old life in order to be reborn into a Spirit Tree, effectively replacing the previous Spirit Tree of Niwen known as the Spirit Willow. The actual Spirit Tree will be elaborated on in Forms but Ori is able to fuse with Seir simply because of their innate ability to absorb light.

Resistances

• Extreme Temperatures: Ori could be near magma without being affected and Ori survives being in a snowstorm.
• Poison: The gasses that come from magma can potentially poison you and Ori was just fine despite being near it.
• Petrification/Transmutation: Decay has no effect on Ori which is significant since Decay is able to turn living creatures into stone upon contact.
• Corruption: Ori generally is not affected by the Decay’s infectious nature once they have Sein by their side; Decay was able to infect multiple locations such as The Ginso Tree of Nibel and The Silent Woods of Niwen.
• Mind/Madness Manipulation: Ori would be just fine after having been grabbed by one of the Foul Prescense’s tentacles; the Foul Presence was able to mind control Kwolok through physical contact later on in the story, puppetering Kwolok’s body in order to attack Ori.

The Knight

Void Physiology

Hailing from the oldest and deepest chasms underneath the kingdom of Hallownest, The Knight is unlike any other bug that lives in the world above. Instead of being born into the world like any other living being, The Knight was born from the abyss itself as a Vessel, hatching out of one of many colorless eggs spread out among the chasm. Similar to its many biological siblings of the same parent, The Knight was born as an emotionless creature of the Void, a black liquid-like substance of darkness that represents the nature of nothingness. Despite this, Void beings come with a slew of strange but useful abilities to take down anything that threatens their safety.

Void beings are subject to a limited form of immortality, having been stated to be a substance with an eternity's worth of potential and one that can “deny time” itself. Along with being unable to age, they are considered to be inorganic beings that can either exist as a sea of Void that lashes out at anything that gets close to it or as physical beings that can interact with the world. Some of these physical beings, such as Vessels, take control of armor to gain a physical form but there are also Void beings that don’t need armor to do so such as the Collector and Shades. Beings like The Knight are a very special case as not only can The Knight choose to go either form but once it obtains Voidheart, it can unify the entirety of the Void under its will, giving them full control of it and its creatures (see Forms).

Respawns

Oh boy the Dark Souls reference. Ok buckle up folks, this one is a doozy. In a myriad of games we often take respawning as a simple game mechanic, used to get the player back to where they last saved or the last safe area. Simple right? Well Hollow Knight is not one of these games, but this will be explained more later. In simple terms, every time a vessel, in this case The Knight, “dies”, they will spawn back at the latest bench they sat on (see Before the Verdict) while leaving behind their Shade. Shades are portions of their being, hence why they’re soul meter isn’t complete until they regain their Shade. Despite the Shade being a part of their being, they can seemingly lose an indefinite amount, always coming back at the nearest bench. It should be noted that these benches can be just about any sortable surface, so they aren’t exactly limited in options. Beforehand they would be required to fight their Shade to repair their soul vessel (and Geo), however after obtaining the Void Heart, the Shade is simply passive towards them and takes a few hits before being absorbed back.

Soul Draining

In Hollow Knight, Soul is a source of power that many have used and mastered, with Vessels being a part of this group. Whenever The Knight hits an opponent with their nail, less they are made of Void like them, he will replenish their soul every few hits, being capable of using said soul to cast a few spells they’ve learned on their journey. It should be noted however that if the foe is wearing a thick layer of armor, they are incapable of absorbing any soul. It shouldn’t be impossible however as they have been able to absorb Soul from armored foes before.

Focus

The very first spell they learned on their journey, and perhaps even beforehand. Focus is a technique that allows The Knight to heal. Specifically it allows them to repair their shell, therefore being able to take more hits, taking up 1/3rd of a Soul Vessel with no soul reducing charms being able to affect it.

Vengeful Spirit

When this spell is used, it unleashes a spirit that flies forward and burns any enemies in its path. It only needs a small amount of Soul to be activated and it shoots out relatively fast.

Shade Soul

A direct upgrade to Vengeful Spirit. This move not only shoots out a bigger fireball but its power is much greater.

Desolate Dice

A downward maneuver that allows the Knight to strike into the ground with tremendous force. This move concentrates a bunch of SOUL into the strike and it’s able to not only defeat weaker enemies with ease but break through delicate materials and structures.

Descending Dark

A direct upgrade to Desolate Dice. Upon using it, The Knight gets brief invincibility along with a greater power output than its regular version.

Howling Wraiths

Being one of the most powerful spells in its arsenal, The Knight can use a small amount of Soul to unleash a large scream of souls around and above itself. This scream does a great amount of damage and is especially useful when The Knight needs to take out aerial threats.

Abyssal Shriek

A direct upgrade to Abyssal Shriek. When used, this move lingers a little more than Howling Wraiths and it creates a much bigger and stronger hitbox above The Knight.

Cyclone Slash

The first of three Nail Arts that the Knight can learn from the great Nailmasters. In this case, he learned Cyclone Slash from Nailmaster Mato, a Nail Art that lets the Knight spin around as if it were a cyclone, rapidly hitting every enemy on all sides. This move proves to be especially useful against large groups of enemies as The Knight can tear through them all no problem.

Dash Slash

The second Nail Art that the Knight can learn. Taught by Nailmaster Oro, this Nail Art lets The Knight concentrate energy into the nail, unleashing a long-ranged slash once they dash forward.

Great Slash

The final Nail Art that the Knight can learn. Taught by Nailmaster Sheo, The Knight once again concentrates energy into its nail, performing a powerful slash once they release the charge. It deals about 2.5 times the damage that a normal slash does and it’s especially useful against enemies that don’t have many windows of vulnerability.

Dreamgate

Found in the resting grounds of the City of Tears, this ability taps into the Dream Realm’s power and lets The Knight place down a single Dreamgate anywhere that it likes, to which The Knight can teleport to it no matter how far from it they are. No more than one can be placed as placing a new gate will replace the old one and The Knight needs to have 1 Essence on hand in order to place it down. It also appears on The Knight’s map so that it can keep track of where it put the Dreamgate previously.

Worldsense

Acting as a completionist’s ultimate ability, The Knight can obtain Worldsense which lets the Knight “know the state of the world”, but more importantly, it lets the player see the completion rate from within The Knight’s inventory and in the save file. In a sense (heh), Worldsense acts as a sort of cosmic awareness.

Concept Manipulation

Yeah, we’re going that far. The thing about Essence is that it is the light that makes up the very structure of the Dream Realm, reality and everything. The Radiance is a being that is given life through idea alone since only mere whispers of its existence lets it thrive. Since The Radiance itself is made up of Essence alongside the Dream Realm, it proves that Essence is able to form literal ideas, or in other words, concepts. This is especially important since The Knight has been able to defeat numerous beings that are entirely constructed out of Essence, including powerful beings such as The Radiance and the Dream Warriors.

Sealing

Sealing is something The Knight is very accustomed to since it was born with that very purpose. It was able to seal away the three Dreamers within itself to open the Temple of The Black Egg, but on a more impressive note, The Knight was able to seal the Radiance, the goddess of light and the origin of Hallownest’s infestation. With this specific anatomy, The Knight could take the place of the titular Hollow Knight after it had died, becoming the new vessel so that the Radiance could be sealed away once again.

Resistances

• Acid: As mentioned before, Isma’s Tear makes The Knight immune to the Fungal Wastes’ acid.
• Soul Manipulation: Was stated by Jinn to have no soul.
• Mind/Madness Manipulation: Was also stated by Jinn to have been created with a lack of mind, will, and even emotions.
• Diseases: The Knight has no organic body when it’s in its Shade form, meaning that natural virus-like forces could not affect them.
• Telepathy: With Voidheart, The Knight becomes empty enough to the point that its emotions can’t be sensed as seen when White Lady attempts to do so.
• Life Force Absorption: Comparable to the Soul Master who is unaffected by The Knight’s own life-force-draining nail attacks.

Forms

“To unlock their true potential, they must exit their former shell to embrace a manifestation of true power.”

Ori

Spirit Tree

As mentioned previously, Ori had to merge with Seir in order to become a Spirit Tree that would replace the original dying one. Becoming a Spirit Tree is considered the greatest achievement among spirits as it’s meant to be the next stage of life and it can only be achieved by very few spirits. When Ori becomes a Spirit Tree, they should not only have the abilities they used during the transformation but Ori should also get the abilities of the Spirit Tree of Nibel since there’s not any inherent differences between the trees themselves.

Light Manipulation

When Ori initially fused with Seir to become a Spirit Tree, they produced a great amount of light in the process as seen above. Spirit Trees are also able to attack with this same light as seen when it performs the Light Ceremony, an event where the tree shines at its brightest which emits waves of light all across the forest. The intensity of this light was strong enough to push back and hurt Kuro, an owl composed of the element of darkness. Her kind absolutely despises light and it was potent enough to kill her babies when they were ultimately engulfed in that light.

Telekensis

The Spirit Tree showed to have minor telekinesis effects as it would levitate a dying Ku into the air when it first came to be.

Resurrection

In that very same scene from the previous description, Ku would be revived after having been in a near-death state previously.

Earth Manipulation

Ori would once again prevent Mount Horu from erupting but this time it was done passively by the Spirit Tree’s return. Not only were the eruptions halted but all the magma in the volcano was seemingly replaced as the mountain would return to its previous state.

Plant Manipulation

Plants would start to grow upon the return of the Spirit Tree, with flowers rapidly entering their bloom stage and plenty of leaves already grown on the dead trees seconds after.

Weather Manipulation

The Spirit Tree’s return was welcomed with pouring rain that wasn’t present before.

Energy Projection

When Kuro felt sympathy for Ori and decided to sacrifice themselves in order to deliver Sein to the dying Spirit Tree, the Spirit Tree coming back to its prime would release a giant burst of energy that would completely disintegrate Kuro in the process.

Creation

Thanks to the parental role of Spirit Trees, Ori is able to create spirits within its leaves to which those newfound spirits will fly away in the wind and land elsewhere.

Purification

When Ori initially sprouted into a new Spirit Tree sapling, they were able to remove the Decay that was plaguing the lands of Niwen. For context, Decay was a threatening fungal force that would infect creatures in areas where a Spirit Tree wasn’t present to protect those lands. There’s a lot that isn’t known about Decay such as how it spreads and why it affects creatures but one of its main weaknesses is exposure to light. Since Spirit Trees passively shine light onto the surrounding area, it purifies Decay into a state where it’s unable to exist, being completely destroyed in the process. The result of this purification was now only the erasure of Decay but also the erasure of all negative effects across the nation such as injuries.

The Knight

"Lord of Shades"

The Knight’s Shade form was previously mentioned when we were talking about respawns but while the Shade represents a mere portion of The Knight’s being, certain endings of Hollow Knight showcase what happens when the Void that makes up The Knight takes up a full form. Upon The Knight’s shell splitting open, its Shade would fall back into the pool of Void where it came from, now becoming one with the Void once again. Once absorbed, The Knight automatically unites the entire force of The Void under its rule. Now being the one above all Void beings, it is simply referred to as the “Lord of Shades”.

Due to The Knight becoming the literal lord of everything Void, it should have all the abilities associated with Shades and the Void substance. One other thing to note is that all charms and their effects are removed once The Knight leaves their body to fully become one with the Void.

Body/Size Manipulation

There are two main forms that we see when The Knight decides to give into the Void. There’s the “Void Given Form” which keeps The Knight’s small stature and general shape while also combining aspects from the separate Shade form such as the color scheme and its general physiology. There is also the “Void Given Focus” which turns The Knight into a Void being with a spiked head, four arms, and eight glowing white eyes that towers over anyone in its way.

No matter which form The Knight chooses to take, it still maintains the same powers so this is purely something The Knight does for looks. It also uses this body manipulation to create tendrils which will be elaborated on in a bit.

Regeneration

Beings made of Void are able to recreate their bodies from the very particles that make up their existence with little issue. The Knight would not only match this level of regeneration but should be superior to it considering that it became the ultimate Void being.

Flight

Void beings have been shown to be able to fly freely into the air, with one prominent example being that of The Knight’s Shade. Not only can it fly around but once The Knight becomes “Void Given Form”, it also levitates in the air.

Tendrils

When The Knight went in for the kill on The Radiance, multiple sharp tendrils sprouted from the back of The Knight’s body. The Knight then proceeded to use these tendrils to slash away at The Radiance until it was truly defeated. Its command pools of Void also allows The Knight to create large tendrils from a distance that can grab onto and restrain opponents like it did with the Radiance prior to slashing away.

Dimensional Travel

Dimensional boundaries cannot keep Void beings out as Shades are able to enter and exit the Dream Realm without needing to use a Dream Nail. This is best shown when the Hollow Knight’s Shade had entered the Dream Realm despite previously being in the real world, assisting The Knight in defeating The Radiance. The Void substance is also able to bypass seals by exiting the dimension it’s held in.

Absorption

In the “Embrace The Void” ending, Lord of Shades absorbed a ton of Essence that had burst out of The Radiance after her defeat. This absorption is what managed to put The Radiance down for good, which in of itself is interesting given how, as mentioned before, The Radiance could live on as long as its core memory and idea remained intact. Even whispers in relation to The Radiance were enough to keep it alive long after it had been trapped in the Dream Realm and forgotten, giving Knight a level of absorption that allows it to even erase concepts.

Mind Manipulation

Void has been able to influence the minds of weaker bugs such as Royal Retainers, previous servants of the Pale King. When you look into the minds of one of these Royal Retainers with the Dream Nail, the Void, which is referred to as the sea, called out to the bug and influenced the bug to disobey the orders of the Pale King.

Corruption

The most infamous ability associated with Void. Upon contact, the Void was able to override the Radiance’s light, consuming it in its entirety while also consuming the entirety of its dream world. In a different version of the fight with The Absolute Radiance, the corruption was potent enough to cover a large chunk of Godhome but it managed to leak out of the dimension through the physical body of the Godseeker who was also caught up in the corruption (see Before the Verdict).

 
Void in general is able to corrupt living beings to the point of death and even inanimate structures that contain Soul like Soul Totems can be corrupted. Such cases include the implication of the Collector’s lover being worn down and corrupted through extended contact with him, to which her corpse would be found with Void seeping through her eyes, implying that Void had a drastic effect on her.

Feats

“Any brave warrior is prepared to take the toll of anything the world throws at them.”

Ori

Overall

• Restored the light to the forest known as Nibel
• Explored the entirety of Nibel and Niwen
• Brought balance to the new lands of Niwen
• Fused with Seir to turn into a new Spirit Tree
• Defeated Howl, Hornbug, Kwolok, Mora, Willow Stone, Shriek

Strength

• Knocks enemies into the air with Spirit Smash
• Pushes around giant boulders
• Creates a small explosion with Light Burst
• Ground pounds through stone
• Destroys stone with Charge Flame
• Creates a big explosion with Charge Blaze (0.23 - 0.33 Tons of TNT)

As their Spirit Tree form…

• Should scale to Sein’s and Seir’s power once they become a Spirit Tree
• Upon sprouting, created enough light to cover the entire country of Niwen
• This also removed all the Decay that was presumably covering the entire nation
• Pushed away a bunch of clouds upon sprouting (8.82 Tons of TNT)

Speed

• Evades numerous bosses in chase scenes
• Keeps up with Kuro and Shriek
• Outruns an avalanche
• Accelerates its perception with Bash
• Moves in tandem with a laser from the Willow Stone (0.01 - 0.15c)

Durability

• Doesn’t get hurt by large falls
• Fine after falling this great distance onto solid rock
• Gets back up from being knocked down by an explosion, albeit they struggled to get up initially
• Takes an attack from Shriek
• Would be knocked out soon after however

The Knight

Overall

• Escaped the abyss as a discarded vessel
• Completely explored and conquered the entirety of Hallownest
• Fought through the many Pantheons of Godhome
• Stopped the Infection and saved Hallownest
• Defeated many bosses, Hornet, Dream Warriors, Grimm Troupe, Hollow Knight, The Radiance and its Absolute form

Strength

• Propels itself upwards when it hits something below with its nail
• Busts down a giant gate with the Broken Nail
• Flicks falling rocks back into the air by striking them with its nail
• Can break through platforms with Desolate Dice
• Trades blows with the False Knight
• Can damage The Radiance with its attacks

As its Shade form…

• Restrained The Radiance with giant tendrils that came from the pool of Void following The Knight earlier
• As Void Given Form, sprouted long tendrils and slashed away at The Radiance to finish it off
• As the Lord of Shades, it was able to use its bare hands to open up The Radiance
• As the Lord of Shades, unleashed large claw slashes at The Radiance to finish it off (again)
• Once The Absolute Radiance was defeated, The Knight would proceed to flood Godhome with Void (0.004 Tons of TNT)(see Before the Verdict)

Speed

• Fought both Oro and Mato at the same time
• Weaves through the many fast traps of the White Palace
• Slashes at speeds faster than Lumaflies can shoot out electricity
• Can react to lasers from Crystal Guardians (0.05c)
• Moves in tandem with The Radiance’s beams of light (0.02c)

Durability

• Tanks a 70 foot drop and gets back up no problem
• In fact it has tanked quite a few big drops from great heights
• Fine after being hit by bombs
• Takes hits from enemies much stronger than it
• Survived the collapse of Grimm’s entire dream world (see Before the Verdict)

Scaling

“Not only are our heroes mighty but the enemies and allies they’ve come across hold a strong resolve themselves.”

Ori

Kuro

This massive owl that’s covered from head to toe in pitch black darkness is the main antagonist (in fact the only real antagonist) of Ori and The Blind Forest. Kuro’s managed to overpower Ori on numerous occasions with both her sheer might and speed so it may initially seem like base Ori shouldn’t scale to Kuro. However, Ori would still get the scaling regardless thanks to Sein fully wiping Kuro out in one attack once Kuro had returned Sein to the Spirit Tree.

• Pulled Sein out of its spot on the tree
• Causes a cave-in by landing nearby
• Does this again
• Grabs Ori while they were in the air

Shriek

Yet another owl like Kuro, Shriek’s hatred of light would manifest through her rejection from the rest of her kind due to the risk carried by the Decay that had entered her body. Unlike what happened with Kuro, Ori has been able to take attacks from Shriek as well as damage Shriek with their own. Seir makes this all the more evident when they’re able to knock around Shriek with ease, meaning that they both scale to and above her.

• Destroys a thick tree branch with a stomp
• Was able to knockout Seir with her claw
• Knocked away a bunch of trees upon landing
• Instantly destroys stone by flying through it
• During their boss fight, she gradually destroys a mountaintop
• This includes the complete collapse of the stone foundation that the original Spirit Willow was resting on
• Destroys a huge chunk of rock upon crashing into it, being able to get back up later

Sein and Seir

(Sein and Seir drawings were made by r/petalpotions)

These two balls of light energy may be small in size, like Ori, but they are also some of the most powerful beings we’ve ever seen in both Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps. Sein and Seir are essential in powering their respective Spirit Trees which bring protection to the lands they live on, albeit they become weaker when separated. Ori not only has access to their weaker versions in their arsenal but they match their power once they transform into a Spirit Tree themselves.

• When Sein was initially taken away from its tree, it “creates an imbalance among the elements of the forest”, which in turn let Decay take over the land
• Sein puts out all the fire which was burning the forest
• Sein created a storm
• Sein stopped Mount Horu from erupting (97.04 Gigatons)
• Sein, now fully a part of their Spirit Tree, would later completely transform the volcano with molten lava to a regular mountain
• Seir knocked Shriek into the air with a shockwave
• Upon being damaged by Shriek, creates a storm that covered all of Niwen
• Seir generally upscales Sein due to doing more physically without needing to resort to its Spirit Tree form

Howl and Hornbug

Two early game bosses from Ori and Will of The Wisps. They may only be a part of the wildlife of Nibel but they’ve certainly put Ori’s life in danger upon coming into conflict with them. Luckily Ori’s managed to hold their own in these fights and soon after defeated them, scaring off Howl and fully defeating Hornbug.

• Howl breaks stone upon landing
• Howl tears through numerous wooden structures
• Hornbug charges through a stone wall in its entrance
• Hornbug’s shell is hard enough that Ori is unable to break through it

Kwolok and Mora

Unlike the previously mentioned wildlife of Niwen, both Kwolok and Mora are a great deal stronger than the aforementioned bosses. Ori would go on to defeat them both which is impressive considering their even bigger stature and dangerous abilities. With Kwolok specifically, he may have been mind controlled by Foul Presence but there’s nothing to imply that the Foul Presence had given Kwolok a power boost.

• Kwolok makes a big hole in the ground
• Kwolok breaks through stone by simply walking through it
• Kwolok spits out beams that explode upon contact
• While weakened, obliterated a weakened Foul Presence by stomping on it
• Mora shook the cave it was living in simply by walking around
• Mora broke through stone by striking with its tentacles
• Mora broke another stone platform

Foul Presence

Also being referred to as the Stink Spirit, this creature is unlike anything that resides within the forest. It is identified as a being of darkness that is the main cause of Niwen’s water pollution. Ori would almost be a victim of the Foul Presence but thanks to the intervention of weapon master Opher, they would manage to get away. Ori would later have to face it when it took over Kwolok but they were able to overcome them both in a fight, meaning that Ori does in fact scale to this… abomination.

• Throws a bunch of stone structures in Ori’s direction
• One of its tendrils destroys a stone wall
• Destroys more stone with its tendrils
• Lifts Kwolok off the ground and carries them around while chasing Ori
• Drags a giant piece of rock down with two of its tendrils
• Drills through stone with its tendrils

The Knight

Hornet

Being the biological sister of The Knight, she ends up fighting The Knight on two separate occasions. The first time was when she opposed The Knight trekking any further into Hallownest and the second time was when she wanted to test The Knight’s resolve one last time before entrusting them with the future of Hallownest, with both times having her lose. Along with general Void upscaling with Lord of Shades, The Knight absolutely scales to her.

• Tanks an explosion (1.72 Tons of TNT)
• Jumps out of the way of a laser
• Is fine after being pushed back by a shockwave from Quirrel’s mask
• Stabs the Hollow Knight and holds it in place long enough to create an opening for The Knight

Fellow Adventurers

It takes the bravest of adventures to explore the depths of Hallownest and luckily the area has plenty of wacky characters wandering around the area. Whether they all do a good job of exploring or not is a topic for another day but nonetheless these wanderers have been able to accomplish quite a bit before and during the events of Hollow Knight. Since The Knight is one of the better adventurers of Hallownest, it should naturally upscale everything other adventures have done.

• Quirrel struck Uumuu with his nail hard enough to pierce its main defense
• Quirrel slices a bunch of smaller bugs in half with one swing
• Quirrel tanks an attack from Hornet with his mask and at the same time knocks her back with the mask’s powers
• Zote is supposedly the strongest warrior in the land
• Lol
• Zote’s dream variant creates tall shockwaves
• He can also summon spirits that explode after a few seconds
• Cloth defeats the Traitor Lord in one swing when she herself was on death’s door
• Tiso drops bombs from the sky that cover a decent amount of area

Miscellaneous Bosses

The many bosses that The Knight faces on its journey to save Hallownest. They’re not too notable by themselves at first but they manage to become quite difficult once The Knight faces their most powerful selves in Godhome. Even with the added challenge, The Knight is still able to defeat them all without too much trouble so it should upscale everything that these bosses have done.

• False Knight destroys an entire bridge (0.49 Tons of TNT)
• False Knight creates tall shockwaves with a slam of its weapon
• Soul Master lunges through a glass floor
• Dung Defender digs through the ground quickly
• Dung Defender creates shockwaves strong enough to launch 10 balls of dung from the ground into the air all at once
• The Journal states that these balls are made of compact dung which should be comparable to compact dirt
• Mantis Lords move fast enough to appear as if they teleport
• Soul Master can zip from place to place, disappearing in a flash and leaving behind a trail of light
• White Defender creates giant stone spikes that are taller than it
• This random Silksong boss summons a bunch of spikes from the ground
• ANOTHER random Silksong boss creates a hole in the ground with a strike

Higher Beings

These creatures have achieved the ultimate status of god, existing on a level of power well above every resident of Hallownest. They may be held in high regard by other bugs but The Knight has no problem defeating beings of such level. As for higher beings that The Knight doesn’t fight, Lord of Shades should easily be on the level of these beings as it completely overpowered The Radiance which would be the strongest of them all (more on The Radiance in a bit).

• Grimm is tied to the The Nightmare Heart which was responsible for powering the entirety of Nightmare Realm (see Before the Verdict)
• Unn was responsible for creating all the life in Greenpath, an entire cavern filled to the brim with lush greenery, doing so through her dreams alone
• Pale King burrowed through multiple mountains to reach Hallownest
• Pale King expanded the minds of many bugs in Hallownest, giving them wisdom
• Pale King transported his entire kingdom of The White Palace into the Dream Realm

The Hollow Knight/Pure Vessel

The being that had to be locked away for all of eternity in order to keep The Radiance sealed within. It unfortunately failed at its mission and succumbed to its impurities of bonding with the Pale King, with The Knight now needing to take its place. The Knight can not only keep up with and deal damage to Hollow Knight but it can also defeat it and its Pure Vessel form which is considered to be a version that was raised and trained to be at its prime.

• As a vessel, had the Radiance sealed away inside of it
• Creates a large combustion around itself along with creating smaller combustions nearby
• In its Pure Vessel form, shattered its cape made of carpace
• The Hollow Knight’s Void form, while under the influence of The Knight, was able to rip open The Radiance’s weak point while it was already weakened and restrained

The Radiance

The true final boss of Hollow Knight. A being of light that was responsible for the infection that’s been spreading across the lands of Hallownest. The Radiance was so powerful that not only could no one take her down but she had to be sealed in order for The Radiance’s influence to be lessened. The Knight has not only been able to hurt and defeat The Radiance in its base form but it also utterly overpowered it in its Lord of Shades form; this is even more impressive when The Knight can damage The Radiance in its Absolute form, aka, its perfect form.

• Is responsible for creating the Infection which can invade and influence the dreams of Hallownest’s bugs
• Shoots out beams made of pure light
• Represents the sun itself and is as strong as one (VERY debatable)(see Before the Verdict)
• In her Absolute Form, she should be superior to every god present in Godhome, which includes beings such as the Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm

Weaknesses

“As with everything else in this world, flaws manifest even within the strongest.”

Ori

Essentially being the chosen one among spirits isn’t all as easy as Ori makes it seem. They can easily be overwhelmed by numerous enemies or by enemies that are much bigger than them and they rely on Energy Cells in order to use their best attacks. Since a lot of their abilities and moves require the usage of Energy Cells, they can easily run out of them if they’re not careful. The most important weakness worth noting is that without any Spirit Light, Ori will proceed to die off like every other Spirit that had come before. Sein and Seir may be there to provide energy for Ori but if they’re taken out of the equation, then there’s nothing stopping Ori’s power/life force from being drained.

Once Ori becomes a Spirit Tree (given that they have the opportunity to do so), they’re practically immobile and need a lot of time to grow into a full blown tree. The power of a Spirit Tree can also be taken away if the source of the tree’s light is removed, although that source of light is able to sustain itself and fight back regardless.

The Knight

The smallest of warriors may have shown its greatest strengths but it also comes with plenty of its own weaknesses. The Knight can only carry a certain amount of Soul which is needed for both spells and healing, and the only way to refill its soul meter is to land enemy attacks. When it heals, it’s unable to defend itself and if it’s hit during the process, it loses all the Soul it tried to use to heal. It’s also limited in the amount of charms it can use at a time

There’s also the fact that if it were to die, it’d have an incomplete soul meter until it can get its Shade back. At the very least the Shade won’t attack The Knight when it has Voidheart but it can be a hassle nonetheless. As for Lord of Shades, The Knight needs every bit of Void to make the form appear or otherwise the form won’t be fully developed. The Void may empower The Knight to a significant extent but if it can be wiped out in its entirety, then The Knight would have nothing to come back with, resulting in its final death.

Before the Verdict

The Thing About Size

(very real size comparison trust me)

For creatures regarded as small, it’ll definitely seem strange that we’re putting them at 3 feet even with their games implying they are way smaller in their respective worlds. That being said, it’s not that they are small. It’s more so that their worlds are gigantic in comparison. Let me explain.

In Ori’s case, one may think them to be pretty small, considering their size in comparison to owls, wolves, spiders, and more of the wildlife in Niwen and Nibel. In addition, some things like mushrooms have been shown to be truly massive, but when you take a deeper look, you can see that there are some comparisons that swing the size back into the other direction. Ori’s a bit taller than a squirrel in their world, and in general, interacting with the apple trees in the start of the game, we can see that Ori is nowhere near as short as initially thought. The massive creatures like Kwolok, Howl, and Shriek are likely magical creatures in some regard, and thus their size can’t be used as a particularly effective benchmark. The last nail in this coffin is the watermill in Will of the Wisps. A man-made structure, and the scale doesn’t lean towards Ori being absurdly small compared to the water wheels and such.

In The Knight’s case, the most common conclusion is that the Knight is… well, a bug. Or rather that the other denizens of Hallownest are. An easy comparison, surely. Unfortunately, the sizes of the various insects aren’t correct in scale, otherwise a dung beetle like the Dung Defender would tower over other beings such as the Watcher Knights, which are pill bugs. Size seems to be equalized. What about entities that set size in one way or another? Well, one would certainly think that something described as a Single Celled Organism would have to be extremely small, such as the Lightseeds, described by the Hunter as such. You’d actually be shocked just how large single celled organisms can get however, like the valonia ventricosa, which can be the size of an apple (do not bite). So we have a lack of anything to go on for accurate size, but is there anything to at least set a minimum? Surprisingly, yes, and it’s the City of Tears. We know the City of Tears is directly underneath Blue lake, and the runoff from it is what causes the rain. But that informs us that the people of Hallownest are much larger than first thought. Surface tension of water can really only get to a certain size on its lowest ends, and water droplets from accumulated water above would be larger than the characters if they were all insect sized. If it were mist or other methods of water getting smaller than those droplets would allow, the water wouldn’t be falling nearly as consistently, and would float down as opposed to falling as if rain. Simply put, the only evidence we can really count on in this case seems to lean to these characters being measured in feet.

Now that we’ve talked about smaller sizes being disproved, we have to ask ourselves the question of “if we can’t find Ori’s and Knight’s sizes through size comparisons with real life creatures, plants, and such, then how do we find their sizes?” Well in regards to Ori, their height can be found by comparing them to smaller flowers that they walk by, with one specific case being that of the Spirit Flowers. These flowers appear to look the closest to a type of flower known as Amaryllis Hippeastrum, a flower that originates from the tropical regions of South America. These flowers can usually get around a height of 1 foot - 3 feet, and since Ori is around the height of these flowers, Ori could be anywhere from 1-3 ft in height. As for The Knight, its height also comes from a flower it can compare to in height, which would be the Delicate Flowers. Delicate flowers are based off of the very real White Chrysanthemums, a flower that originates from Asia and Northeastern Europe. Chrysanthemums can grow to a height of 2 feet - 4 feet, and while Delicate Flowers are shown to grow on vines that are way above The Knight’s head, The Knight generally matches the flowers in size so it should be fair here.

For the sake of size equalization, we’ll be putting both Ori and The Knight at 3 feet, although any contention against their size here would certainly be understandable. Size in general is a weird case for both Ori games and Hollow Knight but we know for certain that they’re a lot bigger than people may think.

Some Laser Talk

Who doesn’t love a good talk about lasers?

Before we even get to either of their cases, there’s one important thing I should mention. Neither of the laser feats from Ori or Hollow Knight happen within one frame. Ori’s laser feat happens with a laser that comes out within 3 frames and Knight’s respective laser feats happen with lasers that also move within 3 frames. If any of these feats were to have happened with frame one lasers, then it would’ve been incalculable as it wouldn’t be possible to use reactions or in tandem movement to find a good speed value. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s talk about the actual feats.

Ori

Although there’s only one FTL feat that has to be talked about, Ori’s side should get some minor clarifications just to make sure we’re on the same page. Ori moving in tandem with the laser is the best way to calc the feat since it’s practically impossible for Ori to dodge it in game due to its big and fast hitbox. Despite being made of energy that could prove similar to the other force-applying lasers of Willow’s End, the Willow Stone does in fact fire proper lasers since they’ve not only been shown to move in a straight line but they also burn the arena walls upon contact.

While we’re talking about lasers, there’s also the many cases where Ori has been able to bash what seem to resemble lasers throughout both Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps. This is even present during the same Willow Stone boss fight as it presumably shoots out lasers that Ori can use Bash on to reflect them. Considering that Bash speeds up perception to the point where things appear to be freezing in place, which also includes the lasers, this would allow Ori to surpass The Knight’s speed if it was viable. The thing is that they don’t act like lasers at all since they don’t shoot out as a straight line and they cause force upon hitting a surface. Add the general vagueness on top of these “lasers” and one will see that they’re actually just energy blasts; since energy blasts are of course not light/lasers, those kinds of blasts are unusable to get a higher speed value.

The Knight

There are two feats present that solidly put The Knight within that sweet sweet FTL range, both of which involve moving in tandem with lasers. It’s practically an open and shut case but certain arguments should be addressed regardless because there may be some who don’t believe in either.


For our first case, The Knight moves in tandem with lasers shot out from Crystal Guardians. There isn’t too much issue with this first one as it’s confirmed in the Hunter’s Journal that the Crystal Guardian can “discharge blazing beams of light from its crystalized limbs”, using its crystals as lenses to focus these beams. Not only do these lasers shoot through the glass-like material of the crystals but they burn the ground upon contact. If either of those aren’t enough to convince you, the Hunter Journal also mentions that other crystal enemies such as Crystal Crawlers and Crystallized Husks can shoot out these same lasers from their crystals, lining up with the Crystal Guardian’s own description. Since it’s consistent among these crystal beings, there’s more than enough reason to believe that these are in fact lasers.


Now for our second case, The Knight is able to move in tandem with Radiance’s lasers. These lasers would have to be made of real light since the Radiance is quite literally described as a being of light and in the context of her story, her very light is what’s infecting Hallownest to begin with. This is further proven when all of The Radiance’s Essence flies out once The Knight finishes her off, and Essence is meant to be the very light that makes up dreams. She can even transform into Essence in order to escape restraints and fly around, making her status as a being of light much more apparent.

What Counts As A Bench?

With all the mechanics that hail from Hollow Knight, I’ve yet to mention one major mechanic that’s become a staple throughout the game: benches. By sitting on a nearby bench, The Knight is able to set a respawn point it can come back to whenever it dies. Not only can these benches be used as checkpoints, but they’re also used to replenish health, equip charms, and fill out The Knight’s map. They may not seem applicable for The Knight if the fight took place in a middleground but what exactly counts as a bench is pretty lenient all things considered.

You have your standard metal benches that you’d come to expect from more populated areas but there’s not only benches of many designs but they don’t even have to be made of metal. There are many stone benches in areas such as near the Stone Sanctuary and Lake of Unn but there’s even a bug corpse that The Knight can sit on and use as if it were a bench. A literal corpse. We know it’s a corpse as well since the Dream Nail can be used on it which lets The Knight see its singular thought of “why”. Due to the variation of benches outside of the normal kind, it’d be fair to assume that anything The Knight sits on could count as a bench, thus The Knight will have access to benches.

A Brief Talk About Essence and Concepts

It was mentioned earlier how The Knight could hurt and defeat beings made of Essence which in of itself would mean The Knight could destroy literal concepts. This is only with base Knight, mind you. Despite being able to affect literal concepts however, it wouldn’t… actually matter that much in the debate for base vs base. Ori themself is obviously not made of Essence so The Knight’s attacks would not hurt Ori on a conceptual level in the real world. If The Knight were to enter Ori’s dream world however, an argument could be made that Ori would be made up of essence there since it’s the dream avatar version of Ori, letting The Knight destroy Ori down to the concept if Knight killed it there. There’s a whole other argument to be made if The Knight could actually land a finishing blow on Ori in either base or its final form but TL;DR, Knight’s conceptual manipulation would only apply if The Knight entered Ori’s dream world and killed them there.

Nightmare Shenanigans

(Grimm drawing made by Dark___56)

The Nightmare Realm, a realm that is meant to mirror the Dream Realm in every way possible. Both the Dream and Nightmare Realm used to be joined together but for unknown reasons, the Nightmare Realm would be forced to split off from the rest of the Dream Realm. Whether it’d be their opposite natures or simply caused by the wrongdoings of another being, this realm is powered by the Nightmare Heart, a giant heart responsible for the greater power within the Nightmare Realm. It also controls the Grimm Troupe, a group of traveling circus performers that also turn out to be the heart’s spawn, which includes the dramatic Troupe Master Grimm. Having all this info in mind, there are some major questions that should be answered about how The Knight would compare to everything in this DLC.

Wouldn’t The Knight surviving the collapse of Grimm’s realm be much more impressive?

In a sense this feat would be very impressive as it would be grander than anything base Knight has ever performed; in fact it’d be even greater than the False Knight’s feat of destroying that stone bridge. What essentially happens during this scene is that once The Knight defeats Nightmare King Grimm, it causes the Nightmare Heart to start bursting, leading into the complete obliteration of Grimm’s nightmare world. Once the nightmare world is completely obliterated, The Knight returns to the real world and wakes up after having been knocked to the ground, showing no signs of damage. This is impressive in of itself and considering that The Knight did this in base form, it’d be the equivalent of base Knight being Uni+.

However, this idea falls flat on its face once you consider that the Nightmare Realm is similar to that of the Dream Realm for the most part. Although the Dream Realm could possibly reach a universal-like size (more on that in a bit), it doesn’t mean that every Dream could be just as infinite in size. Think about it; every dream is contained within the Dream Realm, and due to the Dream Realm already being endless, there’d be no reason for every dream to also be infinite in size. There’s nothing to support a bigger size than what is seen in the game, which is supported by the fact that dreams vary in looks depending on who they’re dreamed up by and that they take the shape of either spirits or memories.

For example, let’s look at Grimm’s own nightmare world. Once you defeat Grimm, the heart that empowers the entire nightmare world starts bursting and would end up exploding the entire thing into a white void, with Grimm being completely erased alongside it. It would be assumed that there was a world outside of the circus tent but we never see anything besides the interior of the tent. In fact it’s implied that the tent in the nightmare world occupies the same amount of space as it does in the real world, meaning that it’s not the destruction of an entire universe but rather the destruction of a circus-tent sized area.

Surviving the destruction of an entire circus tent is certainly a lot better than a majority of base Knight's feats and scaling but it’s nowhere close to universal level so this feat is a dud in that regard.

Could The Knight scale to the Nightmare Heart/the creation of The Nightmare Realm?

The Nightmare Realm’s creation would seem too disconnected from recent events for The Knight to be able to scale but thanks to the Troupe Master Grimm and Nightmare King Grimm boss fights, The Knight can directly scale to his full power. This is especially important since Grimm would turn out to be a vessel that was needed to keep the Nightmare Heart alive, meaning that since their power is interconnected with one another, then Nightmare King Grimm should fully scale to the Nightmare Heart’s power. In the case of skepticism, recall that the Nightmare Heart and the entire Nightmare Realm collapsed upon Nightmare King Grimm’s defeat, further justifying that in order to defeat Nightmare King Grimm, one must also be ready to take on the Nightmare Realm itself.

So how strong is The Nightmare Heart? Well for starters, the Nightmare Heart is considered strong enough to be a higher being as the White Lady is able to recognize the heart as another higher being just like herself, along with the fact that it’s meant to be the representation of all nightmares in the Hollow Knight verse. Since the heart is needed to keep the Nightmare Realm in one piece, the size of the realm should give us a good estimate of how much power the heart would need to maintain it. With The Nightmare Realm presumably mirroring the Dream Realm, it would have to mean that the two are the same size, right? Well not exactly.

Dreams and nightmares mirroring each other in every way possible makes sense as they represent completely different beliefs with the same system set in place, as if they were akin to the heaven and hell of the Hollow Knight universe. The Nightmare Realm is also made of its own version of Essence known as Nightmare Essence and it's even entered in the same way via the Dream Nail, so there’s clearly some similarities shared between the two. Although they share many familiar aspects, size shouldn’t be one of them since the Nightmare Realm is considered to be a sub-world of the Dream Realm and not its own thing. Besides the systems being shared, the Nightmare Realm has had no connections to the idea that it’s as powerful as the Dream Realm itself which would line up with the fact that no higher being is able to scale to the Dream Realm itself.

If one were to really think about it, Grimm/the Nightmare Heart scaling above the literal final boss of the game and the ultimate being would make no sense. As a disclaimer, the limit of Radiance’s power does not reach universal (will be touched upon in a bit), and even if you want to really highball The Nightmare Heart’s true power, then the best that could be done is equalize both it and The Radiance in terms of power, which will only further concrete the claims made about Radiance’s power later.

On a somewhat different argument, one can’t argue that what little we saw of the Nightmare Realm’s size is directly comparable to the Dream Realm as we’ve only seen a singular dream world and the Nightmare Realm was simply just a piece of the Dream Realm that was cut off at some point, meaning that it must have a limited size in comparison. The overall point being made here is that The Knight CAN scale to the creation of the Nightmare Realm but said creation wouldn’t yield any higher of a result.

The Lord of Shades did WHAT??

(also a very real image trust me)

As touched upon in The Knight’s stats, it managed to use its control over the entire Void substance to completely consume the Radiance. It not only purged the Infection at its source but it caused a flooding of Void that would seemingly engulf the entirety of the Radiance’s dream world, eventually resulting in a burst of Void in the real world that destroys the restraint meant to keep The Radiance trapped. This happens once again when The Knight goes to fight The Absolute Radiance, which leads to the same exact order of events with a few major differences. This second defeat takes place in a separate dream world called Godhome, hosted by a god seeker called… Godseeker, and once The Absolute Radiance is defeated, the dream world version of Godseeker would be consumed alongside the rest of Godhome, resulting in the leakage of Void from the real world version of Godseeker.

With these events in mind, it seems simple to figure out right? Well… it’s complicated to say the least. In order to fully cover this topic, there are some questions we must ask about both the size of the realm and the validity of these floods in general.

“The Dream Realm was stated to be a plane beyond the physical world.”

In the official Hollow Knight Game Manual, it’s stated that the Dream Realm is a plane that exists beyond the physical world, making it especially difficult to enter or leave the place. The quote is shown below but here’s the full page for reference.

The thing about this dimension-like area is that while it’s confirmed to be separate from the main world, it would not immediately mean that they exist above the real world as a higher dimension. More specifically, dialogue from The Seer tells us that there is a veil that exists between the real world and the dream world, making it impossible to travel from one to another by any normal standards. There may be many specific ways to cut through this "veil" as seen in game, whether it’d be skilled creatures such as The Seer and the Dreamers or the ancient weapon that is the Dream Nail, but these are done through hax rather than pure power. The statement I mentioned above even follows up the “beyond the physical world statement” with how it’s difficult to enter and exit rather than how it’s placed any higher than the real world.

Generally speaking, the Dream Realm’s difficulty of entry is often highlighted throughout the story, so if the “beyond the physical world” statement were to be interpreted in both the “hard to access by normal beings” way or the “higher dimension” way, the former would have a lot more evidence behind it.

“There’s a statement that the dream realm is endless in size, meaning that it has to be universal.”

Ah yes, the infamous quote from The Seer that reads as the following: “A dream is endless, but a kingdom is not.” It could be easy to confuse the quote as referring to the Dream Realm’s size due to comparing it to a kingdom, which in turn leads to the idea that compared to a kingdom’s size, the Dream Realm’s size has no boundaries. When you take a deeper look into the quote however, the context would not line up with this claim.

The full quote reads as “Though you may fall, your will shall carry your forward. A dream is endless, but a kingdom is not. The power to wake this world from its slumber… you only need to reach out and take it.” The wording may sound vague but the context behind this quote is that it’s referring to the state of Hallownest itself. The quote talks about how a person’s will can live on after they die, which follows it up by comparing this to how a dream will go one even when a kingdom falls. This is further supported by The Seer’s other quotes that refer to Hallownest as old, acknowledging its disheveled state rather than being juxtaposed with the Dream Realm. All in all, the quote refers to dreams as endless because of their longevity, not their literal size, making it clear that this can’t be used as evidence for an infinite-sized Dream Realm.

“Could dreams technically be infinite in size due to its connection with the mind?”

Refer to the Nightmare King Grimm section above.

“The Radiance created the Dream Realm.”

There is not one single being that created the entirety of the Dream Realm but rather multiple powerful forces molding the very spaces they occupy. Whether it’d be the Pale King dragging his entire kingdom into his dream world or Unn creating vegetation from her dream, these higher beings have great control over their respective sections of the Dream Realm. They all even produce essence with their own unique color, something that can only be done if the dream world can be reshaped by the respective characters with control of that dream world.

If the idea of shaping dreams needs more evidence to be considered, then look to the ancient tribe of bugs known as the Moth Tribe, who were able to shape dreams on their own through unknown means. In fact, it seems like any being that has a strong enough dream/desire are able to create a smaller version of a dream world for themselves, which is what creates dream bosses. This similar trend in shaping dreams rather than creating them leads to the conclusion that while they can mold these limited-size worlds, none of them hold any part in actually creating the Dream Realm.

“DIdn’t The Knight destroy the entire Dream Realm?”

This idea is actually a common misconception about the first time that The Knight defeats The Radiance. It may seem like the flooding of Void destroyed the entire Dream Realm but we’ve already established that The Radiance only holds a section of the Dream Realm with its own dream world. The size of The Radiance’s dream world is limited as a result which makes the feat a lot less impressive if we took it at face value. The other issue that arises is that it would not line up story-wise if we assumed The Knight destroyed the ENTIRE Dream Realm.

Within the context of the story, the Dream No More ending (the ending where the feat takes place in) doesn’t imply that the Dream Realm is completely gone once the Void took over; it instead implies how the Void’s main purpose was to get rid of the dream that was plaguing the minds of Hallownest’s residents. Every bug’s mind is directly connected to the Dream Realm, meaning that if The Knight really did destroy the Dream Realm, then every bug would’ve gone mindless as a result. All in all, a very flimsy claim to make.

“The Knight consumed the entirety of Godhome.”

Given the context clues during the cutscene, it’s often believed that after Absolute Radiance’s defeat, The Knight went on to lead its sea of Void towards the consumption of the entire dream world of Godhome. Although this is what the game implies, there’s not enough concrete evidence to actually confirm these specific events occured. We do see that all the light in the area where The Radiance had been defeated was blotted out, implying that the entire dream world of Godhome was consumed. Once we cut to the next scene however, it’s shown that the sea of Void is gradually consuming Godhome over a set period of time instead of all at once. This wouldn’t be a problem to pin down a value for if it weren’t for the fact that we never see the end result of the Void’s flooding of the dream, meaning that any possible time frame wouldn’t be available as the scene cuts away soon after. We don’t even know if the Void did eventually consume the entire world so for all we know the Void could’ve only consumed the Radiance and the Godseeker.

Speaking of, one might argue that there was enough Void in the realm for the dream’s host, Godseeker, in the real world to have Void leak out of their body, implying that the Knight would’ve had to flood the entire thing; however, the reason Void leaks out of Godseeker to begin with is that the Void separately consumed the Godseeker’s avatar in the dream world, causing the actual Godseeker to be under attack of the Void’s effects. The way that the cutscene is formatted implies that the real body of the Godseeker was immediately encased in Void right after the dream world body had also been encased; there’s also proof that the real world body and the dream world body are interconnected since the real world body can be affected by events in the dream world. The best way that this is shown is when The Knight dies in the dream The Radiance resides in, to which its real body is woken up so that they can make their way back to The Radiance. There are other cases such as Dreamers existing in the real world prior to The Knight entering their dreams and those same bodies disappearing once The Knight defeats them in the dream world, but the general point being made here is that the Godseeker’s body is acting as a gateway for the Void to leak out rather than leaking into the real world through sheer power.

“What does this mean for the ending of the original Radiance boss fight?”

Despite the claim of The Knight flooding Godhome being questionable, there is still a degree of legitimacy with the original Void flooding of The Radiance’s dream world. The events that take place are a lot more vague but the flooding of the dream world is directly accomplished by The Knight and its sea of Void. Once The Knight does defeat The Radiance, it fills the dream world with enough Void for it to leak out and cause the Black Egg Temple to explode in the real world, meaning that the Void substance had to have been forced out of The Hollow Knight hard enough to cause that much damage.

On the topic of The Hollow Knight, Void would not be able to leak out the same way that it did in Godhome since there is not a dream version of The Hollow Knight present in The Radiance’s dream world. In fact, since The Hollow Knight became one with the rest of the Void once The Knight took control, and is shown to assist The Knight in taking down The Radiance, there was not only no gateway in the dream world for the Void to force its way through but the body in the real world simply joined back with the Void, giving no opportunities for the Void to leak into the real world without doing it through sheer power.

“So how do we find the size of The Radiance’s dream world?”

Assuming that the whole concept of infinite-sized dreams is out of the picture, we’d have to find the size of The Radiance’s dream world another way. The general scope of her dream world is rather grand as we can see with the numerous clouds filling up the sky and the apparent sun in the background. Upon interacting with this “sun” however, it then suddenly sprouts a giant pair of wings, to which the Radiance immediately appears in front of The Knight in a flash of light (drop title card).

Once The Radiance has appeared, the sun is no longer in the background, implying that The Radiance took the place of the sun, or at the very least the representation of the sun in her dream world. The Radiance even showcases traits of being similar to the sun such as shining brightly as if she were a star and such. Would this mean that The Radiance is the sun itself, therefore meaning that her dream world is the size of a solar system? Well not necessarily.

There’s a lot going for this idea but there’s also a lot going against the very logic of The Radiance = the sun. More will be elaborated on in the next section but for the time being let’s just say that The Radiance being the sun is invalid. There’s not many other ways to find the size of The Radiance’s dream world but we could make the assumption that the dream world is the size of Hallownest as a highball; the reasoning behind this thought process is that The Radiance is able to access the mind of every Hallownest resident and her dream world could possibly be layered on top of Hallownest as a result.

The size of Hallownest is unclear but at worst it would be the size of a city and at best it would be the size of a mountain, possibly higher, meaning that the Radiance’s dream world could also be that size. This wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things however since The Radiance would not physically scale to her own dream world and The Knight flooding the entire thing doesn’t equate to AP.

Is base Knight even on par with The Radiance?

It may seem like a silly question with an obvious answer but to play devil’s advocate here, Void and light are generally considered to be each other’s weakness since light can be used to push away the darkness (another name used to refer to the Void), such as when Lumaflies were used in a lighthouse to suppress the Void, and darkness is considered the opposing force of beings of light, which is told to us by one of the lore tablets in the White Palace, presumably written by the Pale King, who is also another being of light, or one of his servants.

Despite the natural weakness however, vessels are still considered to be higher beings to a certain extent thanks to the lore tablets made for them specifically. For example, the first lore tablet that a player comes across within the first few minutes of playing the game is directed towards vessels since it directly mentions their ability to focus their soul to boost themselves. Vessels are unique in the fact that they are the only kind of beings that have the ability to focus, meaning that when the tablet mentions higher beings, it’s calling any and all vessels a potential higher being. Along with the fact that these vessels were birthed from the two other higher beings of The Pale King and The White Lady, it’d be reasonable to assume that this applies to every vessel, with only a select few being able to reach that higher being status, which in this case would be The Knight. With The Knight being considered a higher being even before entering its other forms, it being able to damage The Radiance would have all the support needed for it to be valid.

Star Level Radiance??

As mentioned previously, there are some intriguing but shaky arguments you could make for The Radiance having power equal to that of a sun, which in turn would make The Knight star-level.

There’s of course the intro scene where The Radiance embodies the sun but there’s more proof beyond this scene. Every dream world of the Dreamers’ are all actually part of the same dream world that The Radiance resides in; this is most apparent with the similar ground material and the same stag-like structures towering over the area, and this is very important to point out since every time a Dreamer is defeated, light starts to fill the sky. It’s not just any light but light akin to that of a sunrise, and with it being in The Radiance’s dream world, this means that The Radiance (or the sun in this case) slowly rises until The Knight finally gets the chance to face The Radiance for real.

Aside from that, the Moth Tribe’s lore can also be looked at for further proof as they were directly created by The Radiance herself and have a great bit of history with her. First off, it’s worth noting that both the Moth Tribe and The Radiance did exist in the real world as there does exist a Radiance statue in the very real location of Hallownest’s Crown along with a bunch of mysterious glyphs that give off a radiant light. Considering that Seer, one of the last members of the Moth Tribe, claims that the Moth Tribe bathed in The Radiance’s light while worshipping her, there was not only a strong case that the Moth Tribe were essentially bathing in the sun’s light but that The Radiance used to shine upon the world of Hollow Knight as its sun. Once the Radiance was sealed away by the Moth Tribe via forgetting her however, that sunlight would disappear from the world and be contained within the Dream Realm, plunging Hallownest into an eternal night.

With this kind of interpretation however, there comes a bunch of holes that can be poked into it. Believing in The Radiance being the sun or even having the sun’s power would create a huge gap in power between the building level bugs and her star level power, making the scaling seem like a total outlier in comparison. At the very least The Radiance is considered an ultimate being in the Hollow Knight verse, even compared to other higher beings (the exception being the Void), but there’s more issues beyond that.

Small details such as the sun moving too much within a short time frame gives us visual proof that the sun isn’t as far as it may seem and using symbolism as the only reasoning for such a powerful upgrade would make the whole argument very flimsy. There are no explicit statements to work with and trying to take a scientific approach as to why The Radiance would be a star would be practically impossible given that Dream Realms function differently from the real world. Symbolism is a very big part of Hollow Knight, especially among higher beings that embody concepts such as the Nightmare Heart with nightmares, but this kind of thinking creates an unfathomable amount of hoops that need to be jumped through to make it work. All that we have to work with is that cutscene and a bunch of random bits of lore here and there that could vaguely work with each other.

At the end of the day, The Radiance being the literal sun can be considered way too vague and hypothetical to be usable in a versus sense, even if there are some pretty decent points that can be made in its favor.

The Thing About Purification/Void

Beyond stats and equipment, there is one factor that is extremely important to this verdict, that being the interaction between the Void and Ori's purification. This will most prevalently come into play with their strongest forms: The Lord of Shades and Spirit Tree Ori. The basis of this interaction is the existence of the Delicate Flowers within Hollow Knight's world, along with the Delicate Flower ending of the game. After granting the Godseeker one of these flowers and defeating The Radiance, The Knight unites their Shade with The Void, thus becoming The Lord of Shades and vanquishing The Radiance for good. It then begins to seep out into the real world in a fairly significant quantity through the Godseeker's Body, before it completely vanishes and takes the dying Godseeker along with it as a consequence of having made contact with the flower. The part that really matters here is the very end, as, again, we see it cover a decent area before it's completely wiped out, breaking down into particles of light that slowly flicker away.

For a side note before getting into the somewhat more verdict related points though, The Knight's base form does not share the same properties as The Lord of Shades. This is most important when discussing their interactions with the delicate flower, namely them being able to hold it without being affected by it's purifying abilities. Another point adding to this is the fact that they are not affected by light sources, a story-relevant weakness of standard Void. All in all this weakness appears to be tied to the difference in properties between regular and unified void, though in game it is only concretely seen applying to The Lord of Shades and not the lesser Void Entity. While both require The Knight to unify the void under their will through The Void Heart, it is only the former that actually becomes one with the whole of the void itself.

On Ori's end they have access to purification in their base form as mentioned above, only on a much smaller scale. Upon fusing with Seir and becoming the Spirit Tree of Niwen they are capable of passively suppressing the decay across its entire radius, and from the moment of their rebirth as a sapling, they almost instantly dispel all of the Decay's effects while also keeping it from reforming, as it would should the two halves of a Spirit Tree become separate. Beyond their passive ability, though the pulses of light they are capable of releasing can be argued as more potent overall given they are capable of affecting beings not corrupted by The Decay, as seen with Naru and the owls.

Overall there's little in the way of assuming that Ori wouldn't be able to exploit this weakness, more or less replicating the effect that The Delicate Flower had on The Lord of Shades, which was, again, shown to erase it's presence fully in at least one dimension in a matter of seconds. It's worth mentioning that Decay and The Infection being similar is irrelevant to the main point since Void just has the same weaknesses as Decay. You could try arguing that the Void had been sealed rather than wiped out completely but the combination of visuals, which includes the release of a small shockwave and the light fading away once it had engulfed the void (even though the latter has a brief mention), and the narrative implications of the Delicate Flower line up with the idea that the Void was completely purified rather than sealed away in the Dream Realm. To add a final nail in that coffin, even if the Void had been sealed away in the Dream Realm, there's nothing stopping them from escaping it through other methods unless it was somehow along or it and the The Godseeker/Godhome were completely destroyed.

With that aside, the Void's most important abilities here are its corruption and mind manipulation. Upon the Void's unity the former is visually demonstrated to take place at an accelerated pace off of what we see of its spread within Godhome, being vaguely implied to be more gradual usually by sources such as the Dream Nail dialogue of the Husk next to the Love Key. The Mind Manipulation does not have any true time frame to work with here, but the dream nail dialogue of The Royal Retainers in the Abyss' Lighthouse implies it took place over a longer period of time, and that there was at least some degree of struggle before it fully bent their will. Ultimately though, even if either were able to come into play here, Ori would still be able to resist both given their resistance to the influence brought on by The Decay and The Foul Presence. Both were individually capable of tampering with minds of beings they come into contact with, and Ori is perfectly functional in Decay infested areas that passively corrupt other creatures.

Bugs.

Verdict

“Ori, my child, save your forest from the darkness that looms.”

“Bug warrior, save what’s left of the world before the light takes hold.”

“Fighting for the reform of their worlds, they shall now come face to face and prove whether the light of the spirits or the darkness of the void shall consume the other.”

Stats

Both Ori and The Knight are considered to be some of the fiercest fighters of their respective series, managing to hold their own against enemies that are not only much bigger than them but also much stronger than them. They should not only scale to a majority of characters in base (with one exception I’ll get to later), but completely dwarf them in stats by transforming into their godlike states.

Ori

Starting with Ori themselves, they do quite a bit in-game with them casually knocking around enemies with their weapons and pushing around giant boulders in their way. Destroying stone is something Ori does easily with moves like Stomp and Charge Blaze, and other moves such as Light Burst and, more notably, Charge Blaze are able to output 0.22 - 0.33 Tons of TNT. Ori can of course get way higher by scaling to the bosses they fight, whether it’d be Hornbug charging through stone walls bigger than it or the Foul Presence being able to drill through stone with its tentacles. The biggest arguments for AP that could be made however are with Shriek and Sein/Seir; Shriek dive bombed into a mountain hard enough to start its collapse, albeit it only started and ended collapsing at the mountain top. Funny enough however, that wouldn’t yield a result quite as high as the one from the literal being that follows Ori everywhere. Sein’s able to fully compress a volcanic eruption in Mount Horu, using a total of 97.04 Gigatons worth of energy to stop it. This amount of power is the same power that Ori always had access to during Blind Forest, and since Seir is a more powerful version of Sein, that power would have risen even higher. It should be clarified that this only applies to Sein’s/Seir’s attack power and not Ori’s own physical attack power or durability, and that power really had to be honed in but considering that the two spirits always follow Ori around and attack with Ori’s command, it may as well be the equivalent to Ori’s AP.

Durability may be another story however, since there have been numerous occasions where Ori’s been knocked around by bigger foes or greater forces and has been unable to get back up immediately. There’s the instance of Ori struggling to get up after being blasted away by an explosion on Mount Horu, and the instance soon after has Ori not only be grabbed midair by Kuro but tossed back to the ground as well, not being able to get back up until Naru was involved. Even in Will of the Wisps, a point in time where Ori’s gotten a lot stronger, Ori would be knocked away by Shriek before they could save Ku from a grim fate, struggling to get up immediately after. Ori’s best durability feats would be them tanking their own 0.22 - 0.33 Ton explosion, although you could make the argument that Ori’s durability could scale to everything mentioned before if you want to argue that the anti-feats don’t line up with how Ori can usually match those bosses in physical combat.

As for speed, Ori is very nimble as they’ve outran numerous bosses and even an avalanche which can get to speeds of 60 - 80 mph, and with their dash, they can get all the way up to Mach 1.4. The best of Ori’s speed scaling however would come from when they were able to move in tandem with a laser from the Willow Stone which gets to 0.01 - 0.15 x FTL. With Bash, Ori’s perception speed can get to 0.24 x FTL, a significant jump in speed but one that makes sense given the function of Bash.

There are also numerous Spirit Shards that give Ori a damage buff with certain attacks, more Life Orbs so that they can take more attacks, and speed buffs to certain attacks (although there’s none for Ori’s physical speed).

Finally, in their Spirit Tree form, they were able to push away a large bunch of clouds upon turning into a sapling which gets a yield of 8.82 Tons of TNT. Ori’s Spirit Tree can get much higher however by scaling to Sein since spirits like Sein power their own respective Spirit Tree, putting it at the same result of 97.04 Gigatons.

Knight

Now moving on to the Knight, it can break through giant stone gates with its nail and use that same nail to propel itself into the air. The best showcase of strength that we see however is The Knight being able to fight on par with numerous bosses while in base. This includes bosses like The False Knight, who could destroy a bridge with an amount of energy equivalent to 0.49 Tons of TNT, as well as Hornet, who withstood an explosion of void that had the power of 1.72 Tons of TNT. There are many other cases of bosses being able to create stone pillars and such but the best of The Knight’s strength would come from scaling to The Radiance, who while it’s hard to pin down a value for, generally upscales everything that we’ve seen any Hollow Knight character do.

The Sun-Shaped Elephant in The Room

We of course can’t ignore the existence of a star-level Knight argument thanks to The Radiance possibly being the sun itself. There are two takeaways we could make from this argument:

1. The Radiance being the literal sun is a flawed argument for a number of reasons, thus making it too flimsy to be of actual use.
2. The Radiance being the actual sun has more going for it than it does going against it, thus making it viable for The Knight to scale to.

To make this section short since every supporting argument had already been mentioned previously, symbolism is the biggest thing that can push the argument for it forward. It would be pretty strange for The Radiance to try and look like the sun without any other motive behind it (that we know of), and a lot of the clues used do line up with the general theming of Hollow Knight’s history and themes. The issues truly arise when you try to apply logic to this interpretation, especially since it wouldn’t make any sense for The Radiance to be the sun simply based on loose interpretations and not a single explicit statement. The matchup in general hinges on a lot of assumptions but this one sticks out like a sore thumb, especially when comparing the power levels of The Radiance to every other being in Hallownest, both of higher status and not. Since it doesn’t have much else to go off of, The Radiance being the sun and embodying its power will not be considered for the verdict.

Back to the rest of our verdict…

Durability-wise, The Knight’s durability should be comparable to that of its AP since it can take hits from the same bosses that it scales to in physical power. Its best durability feat would be tanking the entire destruction of Grimm’s circus and waking up in the real world soon after but that would only get within the Large Building levels of durability.

Now talking about the much simpler topic of speed, The Knight’s slashes outpace the electricity that Lumaflies release and it can generally react to and move in tandem with lasers. To be more specific, The Knight can move in tandem with The Radiance’s beams of light, which gets to 0.02 x FTL and, surprisingly, The Knight reacts to lasers from Crystal Guardians and gets to 0.05 x FTL.

This is not even mentioning all the charms that boost both the Knight’s power, such as Fury of the Fallen, durability, such as Unbreakable Heart, and speed, such as the combo of Dashmaster and Speedmaster. Generally speaking, a lot of charms gives The Knight an upgrade in stats if they have the right charms equipped.

Onto the last part, in its Void Given Focus/Form transformation, it doesn’t have too many showcases of power outside of flooding Godhome and dominating The Radiance in its first encounter. The flooding of Godhome doesn’t yield a high result as it only gets to 0.004 Tons of TNT but the form is generally more hax-based rather than power-based (more on that in the next section).

Comparison

Looking at the numbers side by side, there does seem to be a clear cut result as to how Ori and The Knight match each other. Comparing base Ori and base Knight, without accounting for Sein/Seir, Knight takes AP and Durability since The Knight gets higher scaling than anything Ori can compare to physically. However, we’re of course accounting for Seir in this debate so Ori would end up taking the AP section by a wide margin. There is the possibility that The Knight’s potential star-level scaling is valid which would get higher than anything Ori’s done but it doesn’t have enough support to be credible for this blog. Nonetheless, durability would still go to Knight and speed could be considered equalized; Ori is naturally faster at 0.15 x FTL but The Knight isn’t too far behind, especially if it equips all the charms needed to close that speed gap.

TL;DR, Ori takes AP, Knight takes durability, and speed is generally equal for both but Ori is a little faster.

Arsenal

Now that we’ve gotten stats out of the way, the real debate of this matchup lies within the grand arsenal and abilities that these two have on hand. These two are filled to the brim with many ways of dealing damage from afar and up close along with the many optional upgrades they carry along with them on their journeys. Since there’s a lot to go over, we’ll go one section at a time and cover every base that is important to the debate.

Starting off with something simple to work off, it’s important to note the inventory space that these two have is limited when it comes to Spirit Shards/Charms, meaning that there’s only so much they can add to their combos before the space is full. This is especially vital on The Knight’s side since many different charms take up different amounts of space depending on what it does. Before we get to those Spirit Shards and Charms however, let’s tackle everything else first.

Items

In terms of items, Ori doesn’t carry a lot of notable items besides Kuro’s feathers and the Energy and Life Cells they need to live and use attacks with. Meanwhile, The Knight carries a lot of items that lets it traverse the lands as well as its own supporting items, but unlike Ori, it has three notable items in the form of the Shade Cloak, The Nail and the Dream Nail. The Shade Cloak’s innate ability to let Knight briefly pass through any attack unharmed would be something that Ori has no way of dealing with outside of attacking Knight during its brief cooldown period of 1.5 seconds. Considering that the speed gap goes in Ori’s favor, it’s more likely than not that Ori can tag The Knight before they try to use the cloak again.

The Nail itself is explainable since it’s Knight’s main form of attack but the thing about the Nail is that it’s able to take bits of Soul every time it lands on an enemy, meaning that with enough successful hits, The Knight could eventually absorb the entirety of Ori’s soul. Ori would not be able to respawn with their Soul Link either since as the name implies, it uses a part of Ori’s soul as a respawn point. Ori has never shown any resistance to having their soul messed with either so chipping away at Ori’s soul would count as a wincon.

As for the other notable nail in The Knight’s arsenal, the Dream Nail, there comes a question of whether it would actually work on Ori since Ori does have a resistance to mind manipulation. The thing about Ori’s mind manipulation resistance is that they could only resist the mind controlling effects of the Foul Presence, and although the Dream Nail does directly work on the mind, it only lets the user peer into the mind of others and even enter their dream world. It doesn’t actively harm the mind itself, meaning that it would bypass the mind manipulation resistance that Ori does have and let The Knight enter their dream world with little issue.

Abilities

Concerning the other moves that make up the majority of their kits, both Ori and Knight have learnt a great number of techniques that have been very useful for when they’ve had to fend for themselves. Ori’s able to manifest swords and hammers made of light to clash with Knight’s own Nail, allowing them to deal melee damage when they get close enough. In the case where Ori isn’t close enough, they can lob exploding spears, shoot arrows, and throw mini boomerang-like stars to keep putting pressure onto Knight, and Knight can achieve the same results with spells such as Vengeful Spirit and its more-powerful version of Shade Soul. They both have abilities that let them ground pound while in mid air, methods of respawning that let them stay in the battle, and numerous ways to close distance with their many movement-based abilities.

Out of the entire list of abilities they have, there are a few that stand out in a debate like this. Ori’s Bash ability would redirect any projectile that came their way while also letting them keep their distance from Knight, and it can even be used on Knight to deal additional damage. Light Burst, Charge Flame and Blaze lets Ori create explosions that would deal a ton of damage to Knight thanks to the AP gap, and turning on Flash would prevent Knight from ever getting in close and dealing melee damage to Ori since it’ll continuously tick away at Knight’s health until they die. Ori could possibly even absorb every Vengeful Spirit that Knight sends their way since its spirit-like nature could be similar to that of Ancestral Trees which Ori has absorbed the energy from. Above everything else, Seir being able to purify a small area when it was only at 1/5 of its power could mean that Seir wiping Knight out with its own mini version of purification is a seemingly viable wincon.

The Knight doesn’t go down without a fight however, and it does have some interesting moves that would give Ori some trouble. Getting up close would be Knight’s best bet since it can deal crazy amounts of damage with nail techniques such as Cyclone Slash and Great Slash, and with that on top of the previously-mentioned soul draining, Knight could absolutely chip away at Ori until they were too weak to continue fighting. Ori trying to attack from above would be a no go since Howling Wraiths/Abyssal Shriek would not only cover the distance above Knight but absolutely damage Ori hard, and Knight’s respawn mechanic is harder to deal with since Ori would not know that Knight respawned from benches right off the bat. Purification would also not be a tactic that works against base Knight since, as mentioned in the last BTV section, The Knight is able to carry Delicate Flowers that could easily purify the Void when it was at its pure form. Sealing Ori could also be a possible wincon but that one would be very questionable since the sealing in question was included with vessels for the purpose of keeping The Radiance trapped in the Dream Realm and there’s no evidence that The Knight could seal physical beings such as Ori. The only other time that The Knight has used sealing is to retain soul within themselves, which while it’d be the place where bits of Ori’s soul would go, Ori themself stays in the physical world.

The only thing that’s yet to have been mentioned is the fact that Ori and Knight are able to heal themselves as long as they have enough energy/soul to use their Regenerate/Focus moves and restore any lost health. Energy and soul are extremely vital to Ori and Knight since a majority of their spirit abilities/spells rely on there being enough of either to perform the move, so examining the ways that they get their energy sources is one of the most important topics in the verdict (at least in base vs base). A striking similarity from both is that they get their energy from defeating enemies, but although The Knight has an easier time getting Soul via striking with its Nail, it’s more plausible for Ori to continually kill The Knight with its way higher AP, which in turn would refill Ori’s energy more reliably than if The Knight tried to land a physical blow. There does exist the item that is Salubra’s Blessing but it’s a very situational way of getting Soul since it assumes that The Knight would have enough time to sit on a bench and gather Soul while Ori does nothing, which in a fight to the death is somewhat unrealistic. Fundamentally, The Knight would have the advantage near the beginning but over a longer period of time, Ori’s constant killing of The Knight would give them all the energy they need to eventually finish the fight. There are many other ways for them both to gain energy and soul however, which will be further explained in…

Spirit Shards and Charms

One of the more surprising factors of this fight are the many, many, MANY combos of Spirit Shards and charms that both Ori and The Knight can equip themselves with. Now granted, Ori can change their Spirit Shards on the fly while The Knight has to sit on a bench to change their charms but we’ll be assuming that both Ori and The Knight have the perfect set of Spirit Shards and charms already equipped just to make things fair.

On Ori’s side, some of the more notable Spirit Shards include ones such as:

• Catalyst, which turns melee damage into energy
• Deflector, which turns melee attacks into reflectors
• Thorn, which returns any damage done to Ori back onto the enemy
• Life Pact, which lets Ori use life cells for spirit abilities if they have no more energy
• Life Force/Last Stand, which gives Ori a damage boost when their health is low
• Reckless, which trades in defense for more attack power

The rest that haven’t been mentioned here include the many Spirit Shards that give Ori more energy and life and other Spirit Shards that aren’t too notable in a debate.

On Knight’s side, some of the more notable Charms include ones such as:

• Grubsong, which gives Knight Soul when it gets hurt
• Quick Focus, which lets them focus, aka heal, faster
• Thorns of Agony, which shoots out thorny plant tendrils when The Knight is hurt
• Shape of Unn, which lets Knight move while focusing
• Hiveblood, which automatically heals The Knight’s last wound
• Lifeblood, which gives The Knight armored health that doesn’t replenish
• Baldur’s Shell/Dream Shield, which creates a big shield that protects Knight
• Defender’s Crest, which releases smelly poisonous gas
• Sporeshroom, which creates a shroom cloud that deals damage while the Knight is focusing
• Fury of the Fallen, which gives a huge boost in power when The Knight has really low health
• Kingsoul, which automatically creates Soul

The rest that aren’t mentioned here include charms that reduce the Soul required for certain moves, charms that increase the strength of both the Nail and The Knight’s spells, health increases, and other charms that aren’t too noteworthy for the debate.

Comparing their lists of optional upgrades, there are some key advantages that both sides have against each other’s choice of Spirit Shard and charm. Ori would be resistant to the effects of Defender’s Crest and Sporeshroom, Grubsoul might not be effective if Ori can one shot Knight before it can gain soul from an attack, Baldur’s Shell/Dream Shield can be instantly shattered with the AP gap. Knight’s Thorns of Agony would be able to hurt Ori since their durability isn’t as high as their AP, their many healing options outside of Focus would make it difficult for Ori to kill Knight if they don’t one-shot, and if Knight has access to Kingsoul, then they technically have an infinite amount of Soul at their disposal which would remove the problem of running out. However, the problem with giving Knight that specific charm is that it can’t have both Kingsoul and Voidheart at the same time; the only way that The Knight can get access to Voidheart is by sacrificing Kingsoul, and giving The Knight both would contradict the very story, meaning that Knight can only have one or the other. We could always give Knight Kingsoul rather than Voidheart but it would not be putting The Knight at its peak power, so Kingsoul will not be used for the general debate.

There’s only one other kind of Hollow Knight charm that I’ve yet to talk about, and it’s the kind of charm that summons a small critter to assist The Knight in dealing with enemies. While they aren’t too essential to the debate outside of distracting and overwhelming Ori, they’re worth mentioning as they’re able to match Ori’s own summon of Sentries. Realistically speaking though, Ori could kill Knight’s summons themselves which would give them even more access to energy and vice versa would be the same for Knight with Ori’s summons.

Transformations

Moving on to the final part of their arsenal, these two critters have upgraded to a form that is well beyond any other showcase of power that’s ever been seen in the series (I know we saw the Spirit Tree in action during Blind Forest but shh). We have Ori’s Spirit Tree form vs The Knight’s Void Given Form/Focus, a true battle between the light of the forest and the darkness of the void. Just to clarify, Void Given Form and Void Given Focus may be two separate beings technically speaking but they should both be at the same level of power given that they both defeated The Radiance with relative ease. I’ll just be referring to it as Lord of Shades because it’s cooler.

To start us off, let’s look at what either side needs to do in order to fully remove the opposing force from the equation. Ori would need to purify the entirety of the Lord of Shades into nothingness. The Knight would need to order the sea of Void to consume the entirety of the Spirit Tree and envelop it in darkness. Both seem like rather simple wincons but who would come out on top first?

Referring back to what’s been previously said in BTV, Ori would indeed have the capability to purify the Void through their Spirit Tree form since their method of purification is similar to that of The Delicate Flower; the flower had been able to completely purify the entirety of the Lord of Shades upon contact. The effect was done near-instantaneously as well, which would actually make it a lot faster than the Void’s own gradual consumption of the two dream worlds it invaded. Generally speaking, the effects of Spirit Tree purification travel a greater distance over a short period of time since its purification banished the Decay that had been plaguing the entire country. At best, we could estimate that the Radiance’s dream world is the size of a city or mountain but it ultimately fails to compare to the speed of that purification. Couple that and the sheer power that a Spirit Tree would have when it releases a huge burst of energy and the Lord of Shades is gonna look like Kuro’s death scene all over again.

These two do have other powers besides their bread and butter so we’ll just bring those up briefly. Some of The Void’s most vial abilities are that of corruption and mind manipulation, with the former being shown in the consumption of Godhome and the latter being implied by The Royal Retainers. Ori’s resistance to the effects of Decay and The Foul Presence would shut both of these options down however, especially since Ori can run around in areas with Decay while other creatures are subject to its corruption. Void beings being able to regenerate is also interesting since there could be some possible resistance to an immediate death against purification, and that’s not even mentioning that Void, when together once again, is able to absorb all of The Radiance’s essence when she died, which in of itself was an essence that shined brighter than the essence that made up the Dream Realm. However, even enhanced essence light is not comparable to the power of the Delicate Flower since only the flower releases a pure light energy that’s not seen anywhere else, meaning that it ultimately wouldn’t change the result. Every other power mentioned here is cool but does not sway the debate any further.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are a lot of abilities to look over and a ton of possible ways that this fight could play out but ultimately, Ori would come out on top due to having the superior number of abilities and generally better hax and resistances. The Knight itself doesn’t fall too far behind with its many nail attacks, spells, and charms among other abilities but Ori can counter everything The Knight throws at them.

Nail attacks that drain your soul? Nah, Ori’s got enough ranged options to keep Knight far away from them. A fast drainage of energy? Nah, Ori has plenty of ways to gain energy and an easier time killing the Knight to farm for even more. Knight’s many ways of healing itself instantly as well as defense in the forms of shields? Nah, Ori’s strength gap would be able to deal enough damage before The Knight can heal and the shields would be instantly broken, leaving The Knight vulnerable. Knight’s respawns and resistance to purification would mean that Ori could never truly kill Knight in base vs base but Ori is able to kill Knight a lot more often than The Knight can kill Ori, and once Knight enters Ori’s dream world, things will go even more downhill for it. Purification being able to one-shot Lord of Shades is much more likely, if not guaranteed, than the Lord of Shades getting close enough to consume Ori’s Spirit Tree, ultimately meaning that Ori would land the killing blow.

Tertiary Factors

Finally getting to other factors in this battle, these two creatures are surprisingly smart and skilled despite having no prior experience shown to us on screen or implied off screen. They’ve managed to hold their own against every enemy, puzzle, and boss in their way but there is in fact an identifiable winner in this regard. Despite Ori being able to ward off and defeat the many bosses of both Nibel and Niwen, Hollow Knight’s bosses are generally made up of Royal Guards/Soldiers that have plenty of former fighting experience and more complex attack patterns compared to the wildlife that Ori fights.

Besides enemies, both Ori and Knight are fast learners and can immediately get ahold of the abilities they gain, but The Knight is the only one of the two to be trained as seen when the Nail Masters teach it new moves. The Knight is adept at fighting humanoid beings as well, which Ori lacks any real experience in since they tend to fight creatures bigger than themselves, adding a sense of familiarity for The Knight. Even the games themselves add onto this since Ori and The Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps is generally more focused on platforming while Hollow Knight is more focused on combat, all of which is to say that The Knight is more experienced and skilled.

Speaking of platforming, movement options are an essential part of this fight with how these two have gained many ways to traverse their home worlds. The Knight does have some solid movement options with things such as Mothwing Cloak, Mantis Claw, Crystal Heart, and Monarch Wings, all of which give Knight the ability to dash, climb walls, rocket forward with tremendous speed, and double jump respectively; movement charms even give The Knight a boost in movement speed on the ground and in the air. Movement will go to Ori however, as Ori is equipped with the right techniques to make their movement opponents much more plentiful and superior to The Knight. Ori can double jump, triple jump with the ability unlocked, wall jump, easily launch itself into the air with both Charge Jump and Launch, glide with Kuro’s feather, grapple onto airborne enemies with Grapple, bash enemies to give themself distance, etc. Ori’s dash covers a lot more distance than The Knight’s and while it isn’t a factor in the debate itself, Ori is more equipped for different environments with moves such as Swim Dash and Burrow. Speaking on a broader scale, Ori takes movement options by a landslide, even if Knight’s movement options are better suited for combat.

Playstyles are an important aspect of both games as well so we’ll go over those quickly. Ori’s strategy generally consists of learning from mistakes on the spot, taking damage as they try to quickly make their next move. More often than not, they can die in their first few encounters, respawning back at their last save point and trying over and over again until they defeat a boss. The Knight pulls the exact same strategy with the exception of its Shade being left behind, forcing The Knight to go kill it so that it can get its full Soul meter back. Its shade isn’t usually a factor if The Knight dies to a boss but considering that Ori and Knight would not be meeting in a boss arena, then The Knight will have to deal with its own shade once it respawns before it can deal with Ori. Voidheart makes it a lot easier for The Knight since it stops the Shade from attacking back but regardless, it makes it easier for Ori to attack The Knight while it’s distracted. With that in mind, Ori would have the better playstyle to work with.

Potential

(made by Toxin)

(made by CarbonatedJam)

(made by @AoiBanan, account is dead unfortunately)

(made by Soul151Killer)

(made by Gonk)

(made by Gonk)

I usually make this section of my blog to promote matchups that are less likely to occur but as we all know, this episode is bound to happen in the future regardless. There are already plenty of Ori vs Knight fans that have been longing for this matchup to happen already. That being said, I’ll still go through the typical format just for those who aren’t too familiar with the matchup already.

Connection-wise, these two are the stars of acclaimed indie metroidvania games of the past decade. Birthed from god-like parents, they are both well known for their small stature, their spiritual nature, and their main motivations of traveling their worlds in order to get rid of a force that is decaying everything around them. These genderless beings tend to use magic in their fights and this matchup ultimately comes down to a battle between the forces of light and dark. Ori is a being of light that needs to fulfill its destiny of defeating a being of darkness while The Knight is a being of darkness that needs to defeat a being of light. Two opposing sides of the same coin. So similar and yet so different. On top of everything else, they’ve had a long-standing rivalry that’s not only spanned within the Death Battle community but also between their games as a whole.

The fight potential is nothing to scoff at either given that these are literally two protagonists equipped to the bone with tons of fun abilities and moves! The main thing I would want to see in the fight is the two traversing the battlefield as they try to land a blow while also avoiding fatal blows themselves, which they can of course do with the many movement options at their disposal. They both have ways of covering distance horizontally and gaining height which would make the fight all the more engaging to watch. Their kits match each other pretty well as both Knight and Ori can attack with melee weapons, those of which being Ori’s blade and hammer as well as The Knight’s own blade, and deal damage from afar, with Ori’s bow and other light attacks as well as The Knight’s many ranged spells.Their many Spirit Shards/Charms would allow Ori and The Knight to give themselves boosts in their stats, their summons would cause quite a bit of chaos, and even if banter is basically non-existent, a well-told story can be told by simply having a narrator present + a general buildup to events like how they’re done in the games. In fact their respective games show us just how cutscenes can be done remotely well despite a lack of voices present most of the time.

I’ve yet to even bring up how the climax of the fight would work and what the best way to escalate the fight would be, especially with how their most powerful forms are involved. Since Hollow Knight bosses in the dream world tend to be the most powerful versions of those beings, there’s a creative way to incorporate Ori’s form without sacrificing the time needed for it to activate. The scene would go as followed: The Knight would manage to knock out Ori with a strong attack, leaving them wide open to being dream nailed. The Knight is then teleported to Ori’s dream world where it would face off against Ori’s peak which would be the Spirit Tree, with The Knight starting to be surrounded by every bit of Void that had followed it into the dream world. The Knight would either go into its “Void Given Form” or “Void Given Focus”, dashing straight for the tree right after transforming. There would be a clash of Void vs Purification as the two would try to erase the other for good. Fight potential is just an amazing part of this matchup and I hope ideas like this get tapped into with an actual episode.

As for the debate side of Ori vs Knight… yeah I don’t need to elaborate further. What you just witnessed above is basically scratching the surface of what the debate is truly like on both sides. These two not only have so much to work with but there are many reasonable interpretations you can make for certain parts of their arsenals and feats (looking at you Knight). All in all, a very healthy debate is going on here.

The music that would come with this fight would be absolutely stellar. I’d hope for it to be as majestic as the games make it feel like with there being a good blend of Hollow Knight’s classical songs and Ori’s orchestral songs. In fact, someone commissioned Therewolf Media a song for this exact matchup a while back and I think it’s a really good example of what I’d want from an official track.

The way that the soundtracks of Ori and Hollow Knight were blended together is something that’s especially done right here and I hope the official track goes as crazy as this one.

Summary

“The fight may have been one more ferocious than anything they’ve ever had to overcome but one will always fall, and one will always rise.”

Ori

Advantages:

• Much stronger
• Slightly faster
• Has a wider variety of abilities
• Ranged options can keep Knight at bay
• Better ways to traverse the battlefield
• Projectiles sent towards Ori can either be absorbed or reflected with Bash
• Spirit Tree’s purification would completely overpower Lord of Shades
• The effects of Ori’s Spirit Tree are much faster than that of Lord of Shades’
• Resists the mind manipulation and corruption of Void
• The power of parental love

Equal (if needed):

• Shares many moves with similar functions
• Their summons would cancel out
• Speed being equalized with The Knight’s charms is acceptable
• Both have Spirit Shards/Charms that enhance their attack power and attack speed
• Their games are PEAK FICTION

Disadvantages:

• Less durable
• Has no resistance to having their soul taken
• Respawn mechanic has an easier counter to it
• No counter to Shade Cloak
• Not as skilled and experienced
• Has no counter to the Dream Nail’s effects
• Made by Blue Moon Studios (they SUCK)

The Knight

Advantages:

• Could possibly be stronger with Radiance sun scaling…
• Can eventually steal all of Ori’s soul…
• More durable
• Has more experience and skill in combat
• Shade Cloak lets Knight briefly phase through any attack
• Can potentially gain soul by getting hurt…
• Generally harder to kill in base due to its respawn mechanic
• Dream Nail would work on Ori
• Made by Team Cherry

Equal (if needed):

• Shares many moves with similar functions
• Their summons would cancel out
• Speed being equalized with The Knight’s charms is acceptable
• Both have Spirit Shards/Charms that enhance their attack power and attack speed
• Their game is PEAK FICTION

Disadvantages:

• …but the scaling is rather shaky
• …but Knight needs to get close enough to use its Nail
• Weaker even with damage boost charms
• Slower even with speed increase charms
• …but the AP gap would mean that Knight not only doesn’t get the Soul but potentially lose all the Soul afterwards
• Knight would have to deal with its Shade self after it dies
• Lord of Shades’ abilities aren’t potent enough to compete with Spirit Tree’s purification
• The effects of Lord of Shades aren’t as fast as The Spirit Tree
• The mind manipulation and corruption effects of Void have no effect on Ori

Final Tally

Ori (5) - thedarkloremaster, Toxin, Tsubori, Gonk, Fenic

The Knight (2) - Kars, Necrostar

Tie (1) - Sato

“The one that shall determine the fate of this world is Ori”

Next Time

And that wraps up Wave 1 of my blogs! I hope you enjoyed what I’ve been cooking up for the past 2 months (dang has it really been that long?). I’ve had a ton of fun diving into two franchises that I wasn’t too familiar with at first, but despite that, I’ve grown quite fond of these critters and their respective games!

Shout out to Normal for providing calcs, Gonk and Tsubori for carrying a lot of the blog, and everyone else involved (Fenic, Necrostar, darkloremaster, Sato, and Kars) for assisting however they can!

Oh yeah, and Necrostar would like to say a few things before I get to the next time.

Necrostar

Funny bug game, favorite video game…

What was I doing again? Oh right shit the note, the note for the blog, the note specifically made for the blog, the blog’s note, that note.

Hello everyone, I’m Necrostar, Death Battle fan, Indie Game connoisseur and the biggest fan of Ori vs The Knight you will ever meet. I quickly just wanna go over some of my thoughts, I wanna thank Tox for letting me not only

participate in this fantastic blog, but also letting me suggest it as his 1st wave’s finale, it was an honor man, tysm.

As for the matchup itself, I don’t think I gotta go too in depth for it, Hollow Knight is one of my favorite Indie Games ever (I still hold strong for whenever Silksong releases) and Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps are extremely fun as well, and for the longest time it was my second most wanted matchup, only behind Bowser vs Eggman. And considering that’s been announced as the next time, yeah this is my most wanted now.

And finally, the blog itself, getting to cover their abilities, stories, arsenals and even every bit in between was extremely fun! Do I agree with the result? No, but I can admit that this matchup can be looked at in a variety of ways that I can understand why this conclusion was reached (sorta).

Aaaaaand, that’s it, thanks for listening (or reading) to me rant about this, thanks again Tox.

Back to Toxin…

The unfortunate part of this blog is that my video game backlog now grows once again but while I struggle to maintain some form of order, have a sneak peak at what I’m planning for Wave 2…

Sources

• Respect The Knight (Hollow Knight) thread
• The entire Hollow Knight wiki
• The entire Ori wiki
• The Knight Hollows out on Death Battle!
• Every lets play video linked here