Hollow Knight is known for being both beautiful and brutally punishing. Metroidvanias often require precise movements and a high skill level to complete, and Hollow Knight definitely calls for excellence in both of those fields.
While simply completing Hollow Knight is a challenge for most, for others, it's not enough. Hollow Knight offers several more achievements for elite gamers who may or may not have slightly more masochistic tendencies than most. If that sounds like you, and you’re looking for more ways to test your skills, these are the hardest achievements to unlock in Hollow Knight.
Updated August 11, 2023, by Kendall Cunningham: Games like Hollow Knight are infinitely fun to revist and replay, especially in the wait for its sequel, Hollow Knight Silksong. Hunting for the game's toughest achievements is a great way to keep the fun going even after completing the game, so we've updated this list with a few more of the game's most difficult challenges.
13 Rivalry
Many of Hollow Knight's trickiest achievements require multiple steps to complete, forcing you to travel through many areas and progress different storylines in order to accomplish your task. Rivalry follows in this pattern, but it's especially tricky since you can technically lock yourself out of accomplishing it.
To get the Rivalry achievement, you'll essentially need to keep the grumpy old warrior Zote the Mighty alive throughout your playthrough. You'll have to save him in both Greenpath and Dirtmouth so that he can find his way to the Colosseum of Fools - located below the Resting Grounds - where you can (easily) defeat him at the end of the colosseum's Trial of the Warrior. If you miss Zote, he can perish as early as the Greenpath section, removing your ability to beat him and unlock this achievement.
12 Fool
The Colosseum of Fools is more than just the location where Zote challenges you to your ill-fated duel. The colosseum's trials are absolutely no joke, and although the Trial of the Warrior is a fairly straightforward gauntlet of enemies, things only ramp up from there.
After overcoming the first challenge, you'll need to complete the Trial of the Conqueror, which adds the element of spiked floors and increases the number of flying enemies to defeat. The Trial of the Fool is even harder, with a non-stop barrage of creatures to contend with before finally earning the Fool achievement.
11 Ascension
The Ascension achievement is one that you'll slowly progress toward throughout your playthrough of Hollow Knight. To accomplish this feat, you'll need to head to the Resting Grounds, located just below the Crystal Peak area of the map. Explore this area and interact with its Dreamer Statues, and you'll eventually unlock the Dream Nail, which allows you to collect a mysterious Essence from certain enemies and objects.
You'll also be introduced to the Seer, who will reward you as you acquire more Essence. The Ascension achievement is unlocked once you've gotten your hands on 2,400 total Essence, which means you'll need to hunt down Whispering Roots, defeat Dream Warriors, and even challenge the game's Dream Bosses. If you're able to gather enough Essence, you can return to the Seer to nab this elusive achievement.
10 Embrace The Void
Embrace the Void is quite possibly the hardest achievement to unlock in the game, full stop. It requires you to complete the Pantheon of Hallownest, which involves defeating all of the game's bosses without dying even a single time.
The last five bosses you will face are the hardest ones. So in order to be in with any sort of chance, there is a lot of training to do beforehand. You will need to have full confidence that you can achieve a near 100 percent success kill rate for all of the bosses in the game. A box of tissues probably wouldn’t go astray either, just in case.
9 Focus
If you aren’t quite feeling game enough to try for Embrace the Void, you can warm up to it by completing some of the previous achievements. You need to conquer four Pantheons before unlocking Embrace the Void, and they are all extremely challenging.
The Pantheon of the Sage is the third Pantheon. Completing it will earn you the Focus achievement. Logic will tell you that the fourth Pantheon, the Pantheon of the Knight, would be harder than the third. Perhaps it is for this exact reason that people find it so challenging because they think it will be easier than it is and get complacent. But most gamers have actually found that Pantheon of the Sage is the most challenging of the Pantheons, except for the Pantheon of the Hallownest, of course.
8 Speedrun 2
Speedrunning is an impressive feat, no matter what game it is. But when it's a game as challenging as Hollow Knight, it's almost impressive enough to put on your resume. There are a couple of Speedrun achievements to unlock in Hollow Knight, but the hardest one to unlock is Speedrun 2. Speedrun 2 requires you to complete the game in under five hours.
This is extremely short, considering the average completion time of Hollow Knight is anywhere between 30 and 40 hours for your average gamer. Speedrun 2 calls for an expert understanding of the game in its entirety and the ability to smite some pretty difficult enemies like the Watcher Knight with minimal gear. One of the keys to unlocking the Speedrun 2 achievement is also knowing which enemies to fight and which ones to avoid.
7 Steel Soul
It is quite common for a lot of games to offer a hard mode of sorts upon completion of the main story quest. And Hollow Knight’s hard mode definitely delivers on the hard part. Once you have completed Hollow Knight, you will unlock Steel Soul mode.
Steel Soul mode gives you only one life. And just to make it even more difficult, you don’t respawn either. To unlock the Steel Soul achievement, you must complete the entire game without dying. One slip-up and you’re back to the start, and you have to begin all over again. To unlock the Steel Soul achievement, you are going to need a lot of skill and even more patience.
6 Steel Heart
Steel Soul is quite the challenge. Making it to the end of Hollow Knight with only one life is no easy feat and is more than enough challenge for most. But if you are a God Tier gamer who can complete Hollow Knight with only one life in their sleep, you might want to dabble in trying to unlock the Steel Heart achievement.
To unlock the Steel Heart achievement, you need to not only complete the game in Steel Soul mode. You have to complete the game in Steel Soul mode with 100% completion. Hopefully, there are still some tissues left over from when you were unlocking the Embrace the Void achievement because you’re definitely going to need them now.
5 Pure Completion
The ultimate achievement in Hollow Knight is Pure Completion. Pure Completion calls for a 112% completion rate for the game. That means you have to get every charm, every upgrade, every pickup, defeat every boss, locate all the Warrior’s Graves, defeat all the Dreamers, and complete both the Colosseum of Fools and the Godhome of Pantheons.
The Colosseum of Fools and the Godhome of Pantheons are extremely difficult to complete in their own right. They are both combat challenges that feature several tiers of enemies that you have to rip through to complete and unlock their corresponding achievements.
4 Solace
The Solace achievement in Hollow Knight required you to complete the Delicate Flower side quest. This is a unique side quest that is extremely difficult no matter which way you go about it. So you must deliver a flower from one side of the map to another. But this flower is quite delicate. Any damage you sustain will destroy it, and you have to start over.
The Delicate Flower side quest requires you to bring the flower from one side of the map to another without fast traveling or taking any damage whatsoever. The easiest way to complete this quest is by clearing the way first to kill all the enemies. Then head back to complete the quest.
3 Ritual
The Ritual achievement is the final step of the Grimm Troupe quest, should you choose to accept it. It is brutally hard, and there is an easy way out. You can speak to an NPC and banish the Troupe if you don’t feel like clashing weapons with them.
If you do choose to test your limits by unlocking the Ritual achievement, you will have to seek out three bosses which appear as flaming icons on your map. Once you have done that, there will be another wave of three bosses you must smite before finally taking on Troupe Master Grimm himself.
2 Void
To get the Void achievement, you must first complete a series of quests. The first of which is collecting the two pieces of the Kingsoul charm. You then have to reach the end of the Abyss. To get both pieces of the charm, you will need the Awoken Dream Nail. This involves collecting 1,800 essence to get the nail from the Seer and is needed to enter the White Palace.
The White Palace is a challenge in and of itself, but your quest doesn't end there. You can only unlock the Void achievement after completing the Abyss. This achievement requires completing so many other difficult challenges that it really becomes quite the task.
1 Dream No More
**SPOILER ALERT**The Dream No More achievement is unlocked only after defeating the game's true boss. There are three possible endings in Hollow Knight, the third of which leads you to a one-on-one battle with Hollow Knight's true final boss, Radiance.
If you unlocked the Void achievement, you'll already have the Voidheart charm. Complete all the other necessary steps to get to the final boss. Once you do, Hornet will fracture the Hollow Knight's shell. When this happens, quickly hit the Hollow Knight with your Awoken Dream Nail to be whisked away to Radiance. Defeat Radiance to unlock the game's true ending and the Dream No More achievement.