50 Fun Facts About Hollow Knight

Which character's planned playable expansion for Hollow Knight grew so large it became the sequel Silksong?

Hornet was promised as a playable extra when a crowdfunding stretch goal was met, but the idea became too large and too unique to stay an add-on.

What is the name of the plague-ruined underground insect kingdom that the Knight explores in Hollow Knight?

Hallownest was described by Team Cherry as in some ways the inverse of the world tree that forms the setting of Faxanadu, one of the game's inspirations.

Hollow Knight's backtracking and ability-gated areas place it in which genre alongside Ori and the Blind Forest?

Metroidvania worlds open up as new abilities are found, and Team Cherry modelled the game's disorienting sprawl on Metroid itself so that players could enjoy getting lost.

In Hollow Knight, the Knight's hit points appear as a row of which objects, extended by collecting four shards?

Masks start at five, and the 16 shards hidden around the kingdom can raise the row to a maximum of nine.

Which crowdfunding site hosted the Team Cherry campaign whose 2,158 backers helped fund Hollow Knight's development?

Kickstarter backers took the campaign well past its goal, which paid for a technical director and a composer to join the team.

Ringing a station bell in Hollow Knight summons which giant insect to carry the Knight through the old tunnels?

A stag beetle called the Last Stag answers every bell, and reopening all the stations helps him remember the way to his kind's lost nest.

Team Cherry, which set Hollow Knight's crowdfunding goal at 35,000 of its own dollars, is a studio from which country?

Australia is home to Team Cherry, based in Adelaide, and the studio brought in a fellow local developer, Shark Jump Studios, to speed up the console port.

Which currency in Hollow Knight pays merchants and station tolls, and is lost whenever the Knight dies?

Geo can even be thrown away on purpose: dropping 3,000 into a fountain in the Ancient Basin is rewarded with a Vessel Fragment.

In Hollow Knight, which hostile spirit appears where the Knight last died, guarding all the money lost there?

A Shade announces itself with an off-key music box melody, and striking it with the Dream Nail defeats it at once.

Which creatures does the Knight free from glass jars across Hollow Knight to earn rewards from their father?

Grubs number 46 in all, and once the last is rescued their father is found bloated with them inside, apparently a stage in their life cycle.

Which near-deserted town, the Knight's first stop in Hollow Knight, sits in a valley above the buried kingdom?

Dirtmouth has a single resident left when the Knight arrives, and two of its missing townsfolk come home only if the Knight rescues them.

Which humming cartographer in Hollow Knight leaves a trail of scattered papers leading to where he sells his maps?

Cornifer falls silent in just one region, a spider-infested one where he is too afraid of giving away his position to hum.

Which forgotten deity, once worshipped by a tribe of moths, is the secret final boss of Hollow Knight?

The Radiance is fought in only some of the endings, because the Knight needs the Void Heart charm to reach her inside the Dream Realm.

Which ruler of Hollow Knight's fallen kingdom was once a giant Wyrm that shed its shell to take a smaller form?

The Pale King gave the bugs of his realm minds of their own in exchange for their devotion, promising them that the kingdom would last forever.

In Hollow Knight, resting on which piece of furniture restores health, saves progress and lets charms be swapped?

A bench is the game's checkpoint, though a fake one in the Distant Village is a trap laid to carry the Knight off to the Beast's Den.

Which boastful Hollow Knight character carries a shellwood nail named Life Ender and recites fifty-seven precepts?

Zote can be left to die in a giant fly's jaws early on; players who rescue him twice later meet him as an arena boss who deals no damage.

In Hollow Knight, bugs overtaken by the mind-controlling Infection bleed fluid and have glowing eyes of which colour?

Orange is the Infection's signature: struck victims spray it, their eyes glow with it, and late-stage sufferers swell with growths that seep gas of the same hue.

Which trio of sisters in Hollow Knight's Fungal Wastes bow to the Knight after losing a duel in their throne room?

The Mantis Lords fight one at a time and then two together, and their tribe resisted the Infection even after their brother embraced it and was exiled.

In Hollow Knight, the endless rain over the City of Tears is water leaking from which body above the cavern?

The Blue Lake sits over the capital's cavern, and the leak gave the city the only name anyone remembers: its original one was lost to history.

Which composer, who sent Team Cherry a demo during the crowdfunding campaign, wrote Hollow Knight's soundtrack?

Christopher Larkin built the largely orchestral score around recurring leitmotifs tied to places and characters, and came back to score the sequel.

Which supporting character in Hollow Knight stars in a 14-page prequel comic that follows his journey to the kingdom?

Quirrel arrives with much of his memory gone, called back by the Dreamer he once served as an apprentice.

Which bargain-driving shopkeeper in Hollow Knight is secretly the Great Nailsage who trained the three Nailmasters?

Sly gave up teaching after deciding that piling up wealth was a surer strength than swordplay, yet he keeps his great nail in the shop basement.

Which lone remaining resident greets the Knight at the start of Hollow Knight and hints at where to explore next?

Elderbug can be handed a Delicate Flower, a fragile gift that makes his faded world look a little brighter to him.

Which cheerful singing miner in Hollow Knight slowly succumbs to the Infection as the Knight's journey goes on?

Myla ends up a hostile husk, but reading her mind with the Dream Nail shows that the song she always sang remains in her thoughts.

Which of Hollow Knight's three Dreamers was the kingdom's chief researcher, sleeping in an archive in Fog Canyon?

Monomon also wrote the elegy for the fallen kingdom whose first four lines appear on screen as the game opens.

Which troupe master sets up circus tents in Hollow Knight once the Knight lights the Nightmare Lantern?

Grimm entrusts the Knight with a childlike companion to feed with collected flames, and the ritual can end in a duel with his far stronger dream form.

Which former queen in Hollow Knight, mother of the Vessels, bound herself inside a cocoon in the Queen's Gardens?

The White Lady bound herself out of shame for her part in creating the Vessels, and she hands the Knight one half of the Kingsoul charm.

Which Hollow Knight boss, once the loyal knight Ogrim, guards a sewer pump and passes time sculpting statues?

Dung Defender attacks only because he mistakes the Knight for a mindless husk, and afterwards he apologises and praises their honour in battle.

In Hollow Knight, which City of Tears character asks to be struck down once his finest work is complete?

The Nailsmith lives if the Knight simply walks away, and he is later found happily modelling for a retired swordsman turned painter.

Which hidden shape-shifting boss in Hollow Knight looks just like the Knight until it transforms inside its lair?

Nosk copies faces it finds in its victims' memories, and once it is beaten only its counterfeit shell is left behind to be knocked around.

Which pitch-dark region of Hollow Knight never got its tramway because the local beasts kept attacking the workers?

Deepnest refused the ruler's authority outright, and its spider tribe and Weavers answered instead to their own queen, Herrah the Beast.

Which region of Hollow Knight, directly west of the Forgotten Crossroads, is defended by bugs camouflaged in moss?

Greenpath is strewn with pillars and egg-shaped stones carved with swirling patterns, some of them enormous, among which its mossy guardians hide.

Which area of Hollow Knight, tunnelled by miners and crossed by conveyor belts, has a lift down to the first town?

Crystal Peak has a statue of the kingdom's forgotten deity standing on its summit, and old mining golems fill its eastern tunnels.

In Hollow Knight, the fruit-like ability Isma's Tear lets the Knight swim unharmed through pools of what?

Acid becomes safe to swim in once the Knight eats the hardened teardrop, a fruit that is useful but never required to finish the game.

Which lowest region of Hollow Knight, beneath the Ancient Basin, is littered with the shells of discarded Vessels?

The Abyss is the Knight's own birthplace: the kingdom's ruler turned his children into Vessels there, picked one, and then sealed the place shut.

In Hollow Knight, each equipped charm fills one or more of which slots, of which the Knight starts with three?

Notches can be overfilled by forcing in one charm too many, leaving the Knight overcharmed and taking double damage from nearly every hit.

What does the Knight harvest with the Dream Nail in Hollow Knight and take to the Seer in exchange for rewards?

Essence is described as the fragments of light that dreams are made of, and once 2,400 have been gathered the Seer dissolves into it herself.

Which Hollow Knight mode, unlocked by beating the final boss, wipes the save slot the moment the Knight dies?

Steel Soul makes breakable charms far more attractive, since their usual penalty of shattering on death no longer matters.

Which ability, found in the Ancient Basin after the Broken Vessel fight, gives Hollow Knight's hero a double jump?

Monarch Wings also darken the world: picking them up is one of two triggers that turn the Forgotten Crossroads into the Infected Crossroads.

In Hollow Knight, the hulking False Knight turns out to be which weak creature wearing a hero's stolen armour?

A maggot took the armour of the sleeping Great Knight Hegemol, hoping its strength would help him protect his siblings.

Which Hollow Knight location, built inside a giant ancient bug's shell, hosts three Trials at the top of Kingdom's Edge?

Colosseum of Fools organisers capture some fighters and even breed creatures for battle, and the bodies of the fallen are cast into the chasm below.

Which hidden gauntlet of buzz-saws and spikes in Hollow Knight's royal palace locks itself for good once completed?

Path of Pain rewards the few who finish it with a brief scene of the kingdom's ruler beside a younger version of the title character.

Which final free Hollow Knight expansion added sets of bosses fought in a row without dying?

Godmaster was first announced as Gods and Glory and renamed over trademark concerns; like the three add-ons before it, it cost players nothing.

Hollow Knight's hero first appeared in Hungry Knight, a small bug-killing prototype built for which game jam?

Ludum Dare entry Hungry Knight had the hero kill bugs to stave off starvation, and it once held a rating of one star out of five on Newgrounds.

During development, Team Cherry moved Hollow Knight from the Stencyl toolkit to which game engine?

Unity replaced Stencyl partway through the project, and the team went on adding stretch-goal content to the game after the switch.

Team Cherry based the Knight's acceleration-free, dash-cancelled movement in Hollow Knight on which Capcom platformer?

Mega Man X inspired the instant horizontal speed and generous air control, so that any hit feels as if it could have been dodged at the last second.

Team Cherry began building Hollow Knight in 2016 for which console, dropping it when the system was discontinued?

Wii U work moved over to the Nintendo Switch, where the game finally went on sale the same day its release date was announced at E3 2018.

Which Hollow Knight banker runs off with the Knight's savings, leaving only a flat cutout at her Fog Canyon stand?

Millibelle can be tracked down afterwards soaking in a hot spring in the capital, where striking her shakes the stolen money loose.

Which of Hollow Knight's three Nailmasters hung up his weapon to paint, and teaches the Great Slash with a brush?

Sheo was the most skilled of the three brothers, yet he gives his lesson using only a paintbrush, saying it is the same as a blade to him.

Which Team Cherry co-founder's hand-drawn sketches were scanned straight into the engine to create Hollow Knight's art?

Ari Gibson and his fellow developers chose to keep the art simple so that the game would not take an extremely long time to make.