Hallownest is brutal. If you’ve spent more than five minutes in Forgotten Crossroads, you already know that this game doesn't care about your feelings. You’re small, your nail is basically a toothpick at the start, and everything from a giant fly to a sentient pile of moss wants you dead. This is where your hollow knight charms guide comes into play, but honestly, most people approach charms all wrong. They look for a "best" list. They want a one-size-fits-all solution for a game that is fundamentally about adaptation.
It’s not just about picking the shiny ones.
You have limited notches. That’s the bottleneck. You start with three, and even when you track down every single one—shoutout to Salubra for charging a fortune for them—you still only get eleven. Choosing a loadout is an exercise in sacrifice. Do you want to hit harder, or do you want to survive the mistake you’re inevitably going to make in the next five seconds?
The Psychology of the Charm Notch
Most players treat notches like currency they need to spend immediately. They find Wayward Compass and Swarm, and suddenly two slots are gone. I get it. Getting lost sucks, and chasing down geo is tedious. But the moment you enter a boss arena, those charms are dead weight. They do zero DPS. They provide zero utility.
You need to think in "builds," but flexible ones.
Take Fragile Strength. Or, if you’ve spent the 15,000 Geo to Divine, Unbreakable Strength. It’s a 50% boost to your nail damage. That is massive. In a game where boss fights are endurance tests, cutting the duration of that fight by a third is the best defensive move you can make. Less time in the arena means fewer opportunities to get hit. It’s simple math, really. But players often skip it because three notches feel "expensive."
Compare that to something like Thorns of Agony. Beginners love Thorns. You get hit, you deal damage back. Sounds great, right? Wrong. Thorns locks you in an animation that prevents you from repositioning or gaining distance. It takes away your agency. In Hollow Knight, agency is everything.
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Breaking Down the Top Tier Utility
If we're being real, Quick Slash is the actual king of the game. It’s located in a hidden room in Kingdom's Edge, behind a breakable floor, and it fundamentally changes how the Knight feels. It doesn't just let you swing faster; it allows you to build Soul faster. More Soul means more spells. More spells mean more invincibility frames (if you’re using Descending Dark) or more healing.
Then there’s Shaman Stone.
If you aren't using spells, you're playing half the game. Shaman Stone increases the size and damage of your spells significantly. Vengeful Spirit becomes a massive wave of destruction. Abyss Shriek becomes a literal boss-melter. For three notches, it’s arguably the highest value-per-slot charm in the entire game, especially for speedrunners and Pantheon grinders.
The Range Debate: Mark of Pride vs. Longnail
This is a classic argument in the community. Longnail costs two notches and gives a decent boost. Mark of Pride costs three and gives a significant boost.
Is that extra notch worth it?
Usually, yes. Mark of Pride allows you to "pogo" on enemies from a much safer distance. If you’re fighting the Mantis Lords (who, by the way, give you the charm if you beat them), that extra reach is the difference between a clean kill and a frustrating trip back from the bench. Longnail is fine for the early game, but it’s a placeholder. Once you get the Mantis's respect, you swap. No questions asked.
Situational Charms Most People Ignore
We need to talk about Steady Body.
I used to think it was trash. I think most people do when they first pick it up. "I can just hold the joystick forward to counter the knockback," they say. But they’re wrong. Removing the knockback from your attacks allows for a much higher "uptime" on bosses. You can stand under a boss and just wail on them without sliding into their hitbox. It’s one notch. One. It’s the hidden MVP of the Colosseum of Fools and the Godhome DLC.
And then there's Dream Wielder.
For a single notch, it doubles the Soul you get from the Dream Nail and makes the animation much faster. In boss fights like Failed Champion or Uumuu, this is basically an infinite mana cheat code. You can hit a staggered boss with the Dream Nail, fill your Soul meter, heal to full, and still have enough left over for a few Shade Souls.
The Glass Cannon vs. The Tank
Some people swear by Joni’s Blessing. They want that massive HP bar of Lifeblood. But remember: you can't heal Lifeblood. Once it’s gone, it’s gone until you hit a bench. This is a trap for new players. Unless you are doing a very specific challenge or you’re struggling with a boss that has zero healing windows (like Nightmare King Grimm), you’re usually better off with Quick Focus.
Quick Focus lets you sneak in heals during animations that would normally kill you. It turns a one-second window into a safe recovery. Combine it with Shape of Unn (the one that lets you move while slug-healing), and you become surprisingly hard to pin down. It’s a hilarious sight—a little yellow slug zipping under boss projectiles—but it works.
Navigating the Hollow Knight Charms Guide for Late Game
Once you hit the Pantheons in Godhome, the meta shifts. You aren't just exploring anymore; you're performing.
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The "Golden Trio" for most high-level players is:
- Unbreakable Strength
- Quick Slash
- Shaman Stone
That’s nine notches. You have two left. What do you do?
- Steady Body + Nailmaster’s Glory? Great for the Colosseum.
- Longnail? A bit of extra reach.
- Spell Twister? Lowering the cost of spells so you can fire four instead of three from a full tank.
Honestly, Spell Twister is the smart play here. Being able to spam Descending Dark for those sweet, sweet i-frames is what separates the people who beat Pantheon 5 from the people who get stuck on Pure Vessel for three weeks.
The Weird Stuff: Gimmicks That Actually Work
Have you ever tried a "Minion Build"? Grimmchild, Weaversong, and Glowing Womb. It sounds like a meme. In many ways, it is. Your little spiders and flies steal your Soul and do mediocre damage. But if you add Grubsong, the spiders actually generate Soul when they hit enemies.
It’s a passive way to play. If you’re absolutely terrified of a boss and just want to dodge while your children do the work, it’s a viable (if slow) strategy. It’s the "lazy" hollow knight charms guide entry, but hey, if it gets you the achievement, who cares?
Why "Overcharming" is a Trap (Usually)
You can force a charm onto your last notch even if you don't have enough space. You just have to click it about five or six times until it sticks. The catch? You take double damage.
In the regular game, this is suicide. In Radiant difficulty boss fights in Godhome—where you die in one hit anyway—it’s free real estate. If you’re going for a Radiant clear, you should always be overcharmed. Pack in every high-cost charm you can find. Grubberfly’s Elegy is actually useful here because you'll always be at full health (or dead).
Don't Forget the Basics
I see people getting deep into the late game still wearing Heavy Blow. Please, stop. It increases enemy knockback. In 90% of cases, this is a disadvantage. You want the enemy near you so you can hit them again. Pushing them away just means you have to chase them down. It’s one of the few charms that can actually make your build worse.
On the flip side, Nailmaster’s Glory is a single notch that reduces the charge time for Nail Arts. If you’re a fan of the Great Slash or Cyclone Slash, this is non-negotiable. It makes the combat feel much more fluid and less like you’re waiting for a meter to fill.
Putting It All Together
To truly master your loadout, you have to be honest about your skill level. If you can’t dodge to save your life, don’t run a spell build. You’ll never have the Soul for it because you’ll be spending it all on healing. Run a tank build with Quick Focus and Grubsong.
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If you’re a mechanical god who parries for fun, go all-in on damage.
The beauty of this system is that it’s a silent difficulty slider. The game doesn't ask you if you want "Easy, Medium, or Hard." It just gives you a handful of charms and asks, "How do you want to handle this?"
Actionable Next Steps for Hallownest Explorers:
- Audit your notches: Go back to Salubra in Forgotten Crossroads. If you haven't bought every notch she has, that is your number one priority. You need the "Charm Lover" and "Charm Collector" milestones.
- The Trial of the Fool Prep: If you’re stuck here, swap your build to include Nailmaster’s Glory and Dream Wielder. Being able to one-shot Primal Aspids with a Great Slash will save your sanity.
- Fix your healing: If you find yourself getting hit while trying to heal, don't just "try harder." Equip Shape of Unn. It changes the hitboxes of the Knight so dramatically that many boss attacks will simply sail over your head while you're in slug-form.
- Practice with Steady Body: Spend 30 minutes with it equipped. It will feel weird at first. You will feel like you're missing something. But once you realize you can stay glued to a boss, you'll never go back.
- Upgrade your Fragiles: Don't let Leg Eater's charms stay fragile. Find the Grimm Troupe, talk to Divine, and cough up the Geo. It’s a grind, but having Unbreakable Strength permanently equipped is the single biggest upgrade you can get.
Hallownest is a big place, and your build should change as often as the scenery does. There is no "perfect" set—only the one that gets you to the next bench.