Hollow Knight Charms Guide

Charms in Hollow Knight are special items that give you buffs that help you in all aspects of the game, each having a specific purpose. Gathering charms will make your adventure playing Hollow Knight a lot easier, more comfortable, and satisfying. This Hollow Knight Charms guide will explain all the components related to charms.

What will be covered in this guide are the charms themselves, where to find them, how to incorporate them, and when to use them.

Finding all charms in the game might be challenging, but in Hollow Knight, you are prompted to explore, and you get a tug to be more powerful. Finding all the charms, or most of them, will help you get to know Hollow Knight better and overcome its barriers.

Charms can get you anywhere as there is a vast assortment of their benefits. They can help you in combat, giving you the ability to build a spell damage-oriented build or a Nail damage-oriented build, even a defensive or passive build, depending on the situation you’ve found yourself in. Charms can also help you travel, get more Geo and help you with getting to know the map.

Charm Notches

You are required to have charm Notches to equip the charms. You start with only three, but those can build to eleven slots open to fit additional charms giving you the capacity to make a variety of different builds ideal for practically every situation.

Charm Notches can be bought from Salubra in the Forgotten Crossroads after finding a certain amount of charms (a charm Notch appears in Salubra’s shop after collecting 5, 10, 18, and 25 charms), and four of them can be found while exploring. Picking up a charm Notch during exploration will fully restore your health.

When you try to equip more charms than what your Notch slots allow you to do, you get the Overcharmed status. If you keep continuing to equip a charm five times, it will push itself in with the already equipped charms, and your health bar will get a purple aura around it.

By doing so you will take twice the damage than you normally would. You can remove the Overcharmed effect by unequipping the charm that caused the notch limit to be exceeded.

Here is a list of all of the charms in Hollow Knight enumerated in a tier list fashion and their Notch costs so that you can choose your layout easily as you collect charms and charm Notches:

1. Shaman Stone (Notch cost: 3)
2. Flukenest (Notch cost: 3)
3. Quick Slash (Notch cost: 3)
4. Spell Twister (Notch cost: 2)
5. Longnail (Notch cost: 2)
6. Unbreakable Strength (Notch cost: 3)
7. Nailmaster’s Glory (Notch cost: 1)
8. Mark of Pride (Notch cost: 3)
9. Soul Eater (Notch cost: 4)
10. Soul Catcher (Notch cost: 2)
11. Grubsong (Notch cost: 1)
12. Quick Focus (Notch cost: 3)
13. Sharp Shadow (Notch cost: 2)
14. Dashmaster (Notch cost: 2)
15. Deep Focus (Notch cost: 4)
16. Stalwart Shell (Notch cost: 2)
17. Hiveblood (Notch cost: 4)
18. Steady Body (Notch cost: 1)
19. Defender’s Crest (Notch cost: 1)
20. Thorns of Agony (Notch cost: 1)
21. Sprintmaster (Notch cost: 1)
22. Shape of Unn (Notch cost: 2)
23. Joni’s Blessing (Notch cost: 4)
24. Spore Shroom (Notch cost: 1)
25. Fragile Heart (Notch cost: 2)
26. Unbreakable Heart (Notch cost: 2)
27. Void Heart (Notch cost: none)
28. Dreamshield (Notch cost: 3)
29. Fragile Strength (Notch cost: 3)
30. Fury of the Fallen (Notch cost: 2)
31. Lifeblood Core (Notch cost: 3)
32. Lifeblood Heart (Notch cost: 2)
33. Baldur Shell (Notch cost: 2)
34. Dream Wielder (Notch cost: 1)
35. Grimmchild (Notch cost: 2)
36. Wayward Compass (Notch cost: 1)
37. Gathering Swarm (Notch cost: 1)
38. Weaversong (Notch cost: 2)
39. Grubberfly’s Elegy (Notch cost: 3)
40. Heavy Blow (Notch cost: 2)
41. Unbreakable Greed (Notch cost: 2)
42. Fragile Greed (Notch cost: 2)
43. Kingsoul (Notch cost: 5)
44. Glowing Womb (Notch cost: 2)
45. Carefree Melody (Notch cost: 3)

This guide will go through charms in such a way that you might come across them in this order as you’re playing, aside from the Fragile/Unbreakable charms, Grimmchild, Carefree Melody, Kingsoul, and Void Heart, as they are upgradable and exceed one another.

If you’ve spoken with the Nail Shaman and passed a short platforming part after, you already have the Vengeful Spirit spell and the first charm on the list, Soul Catcher.

After speaking to Cornifer, just attempting to fight the False Knight, or obtaining the Vengeful Spirit, Iselda opens her store. You might already have enough Geo to buy the Wayward Compass, which is an excellent charm for anyone who’s on their first trip through Hallownest.

Soul Catcher

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

One of the first charms you will see in the game is the Soul Catcher. You will find it going left after defeating the False Knight at the end of the Ancestral Mound.

With the Soul Catcher equipped, you will gain 3 additional Soul with each hit with the Nail for your main Soul Vessel making that 14 Soul with every hit, and 2 extra Soul for your Reserve Vessels that you will get later on in the game.

This charm stacks with the Soul Eater charm that gives you more than twice the Soul per hit for twice the price. Using these two charms together with the Spell Twister charm will provide you with enough Soul for one spell with just one hit.
One more charm that goes great together with all of the mentioned is the Shaman Stone charm that increases the damage of all of your spells.

Wayward Compass

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Dirthmouth

The Wayward Compass costs 220 Geo in Iselda’s shop in Dirtmouth, and it is the most accessible charm to acquire and a handy one for new players.
It shows you where you are on the map, even in the areas where you didn’t purchase one from Cornifer.

As it requires one Notch slot, you can equip it alongside Soul Catcher until you acquire more powerful charms to equip instead.

Gathering Swarm

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Dirthmouth

Gathering Swarm can be bought in Dirtmouth from Sly after you first find him at the bottom of the Forgotten Crossroads.

It collects any Geo you’ve left behind and is especially useful if that Geo fell onto spikes or thorns.
It costs 300 Geo and will surely help you get the other three charms that Sly offers.

Stalwart Shell

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Dirthmouth

Stalwart Shell increases your invisibility duration after being him from 1.3s to 1.75s and hit recoil from 0.2 to 0.08. This charm is very useful in tight spots, during boss battles, and especially in the Colosseum of Fools.

You can buy it from Sly in Dirtmouth for 200 Geo, and it goes well with the Thorns of Agony charm that deals damage back to enemies when they attack you.
Both of these charms are good in areas where there are multiple enemies, and together they do marvels when you need security and higher damage output.

Heavy Blow

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Dirthmouth

Heavy Blow is the third charm you can get from Sly’s shop, but you’ll need the Shopkeeper’s Key to unlock the Heavy Blow charm and other items in Sly’s shop.
You’ll find the Shopkeeper’s Key in Crystal Peak.

Heavy Blow increases Nail knockback by 75% and Great Slash knockback by 33%. In the Godmaster content pack, it reduces the number of hits needed to stagger a boss by one.

It is proper for enemies that like to charge at you, and with Quick Slash, you can knock enemies back faster, keeping you at a safe distance. I wouldn’t recommend using it against ranged enemies or Elder Baldur that doesn’t move at all.
Heavy Blow costs 350 Geo to buy.

Sprintmaster

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Dirthmouth

Sprintmaster is the last charm you can get from Sly, and you also need the Shopkeeper’s Key to buy it.
Sprintmaster costs 400 Geo, and it increases your movement speed from 8.3 to 10.

With the Dashmaster charm that goes up to 11.4, and if you happen to have Weaversong equipped, it’ll make the Weaverlings jump further and move 50% faster.

Thorns of Agony

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Greenpath

Thorns of Agony is useful when fighting multiple enemies at the same time as it deals damage to the nearby enemies for the base Nail damage when hit. It can hit two enemies simultaneously if in range, but you don’t gain Soul dealing this damage.

You can find it in Greenpath after defeating Hornet and acquiring dash. You must pass through a thorn-covered platforming part to reach it.

Thorns of Agony combos well with Stalwart Shell mentioned above.
Baldur Shell and Carefree Melody that block damage are good with Thorns of Agony because the enemies take damage even if you don’t.

Dashmaster

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Fungal Wastes

The Dashmaster charm reduces the cooldown of your dash from 0.6 to 0.4 and allows you to dash downwards.

You can find it in the Fungal Wastes below the Mantis Village.

It works well with Sharp Shadow and the already mentioned Sprintmaster.

Mark of Pride

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Mantis Village

Mark of Pride is in a chestroom northeast of the Mantis Lords arena and can only be accessed after defeating the Mantis Lords. It increases your Nail range by 25%.

It stacks with Longnail increasing the range to 40%. Longnail and Quick Slash both work great with the Mark of Pride charm. The range of Nail Arts and Grubberfly’s Elegy aren’t affected by Mark of Pride.

It is best against enemies that you need to use the Nail against but need to keep your distance. It makes striking enemies from above much safer and is very good for most boss fights.

Shaman Stone

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

After getting the dash or Mantis Claw in the Mantis Village, you can reach Salubra in the Forgotten Crossroads. You can buy Shaman Stone from her for 220 Geo.

Shaman Stone increases the damage of Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul by 33%, Desolate Dive damage by 51% or Descending Dark damage by 47%, and Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek damage by 50%. It also increases the hitbox of all of the mentioned spells, which is why so many agree that this is one of the strongest charms in the Hollow Knight.

Getting it early in the game makes it so much easier if you’re going for a spell damage build – combos excellently with Soul Eater, Soul Catcher, and Spell Twister.

Longnail

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

Longnail shares the number one spot with Shaman Stone at Salubra’s store. You don’t have that many spells at this point in the game, and if you’re low on Geo, Longnail might be the better option. It can also be bought at Salubra’s shop for 300 Geo and increases your Nail range by 15%.

It stacks with the already mentioned Mark of Pride that increases your Nail range by 25%, making it 40% total. It also doesn’t affect the range of Nail Arts and Grubberfly’s Elegy. Longnail has a shorter range than Mark of Pride, but it also requires one charm Notch slot less to equip, making it a better early game charm.

Quick slash is also good if you’re preparing for a fight where you’ll find yourself using your Nail a lot more than spells as it fastens your attacks, making you deal more Nail damage.

Steady Body

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

Salubra offers three more charms. One of them is the Steady Body charm, which works well with many charms and is exceptionally useful in the Colosseum of Fools. Longnail, Mark of Pride, and Quick Slash, as you saw, go well together.

Steady Body can be bought from Salubra for 120 Geo and goes well with all of them. When you get the timing and momentum right, Heavy blow is especially good with Steady Body when you want to keep the persistent enemies away.

Furthermore, it prevents you from being knocked back by the purple mushrooms when not using the Nail. It does let you bounce and get knocked back when using the Nail on the environment, though.

Quick Focus

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

The next charm Salubra offers is Quick Focus that allows you to focus 33% faster.

It costs 800 Geo, and with Soul Catcher and Soul Eater, you get to heal safely more frequently. The aforementioned Stalwart Shell charm will give you extra protection if you need it.

There is one unique combo here, though; Shape of Unn lets you move while focusing, and the movement speed of that effect is doubled when having the Quick Focus charm equipped with it.

Lifeblood Heart

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

The last charm Salubra has for you is Lifeblood Heart. It can be bought for 250 Geo and gives you two Lifeblood masks when resting on a bench.

It stacks with both Joni’s Blessing and Lifeblood Core.

Grubsong

Type: Reward charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

The Grubfather gives you the Grubsong charm after collecting only ten Grubs. It gives you Soul when taking damage, and it is a very valuable charm as it only requires one Notch. It can be used in areas with challenging platforming and no enemies nearby to collect Soul. You gain 15 Soul each time you take damage.

You can use it with Deep Focus, especially in the White Palace. With Hiveblood, you can infinitely regenerate your Soul by jumping into hazards and waiting for the mask to come back.

You can use it with Soul Eater and Soul Catcher for a spell-focused build in fights. When used with the Grubberfly’s Elegy, the amount of Soul gained is increased by 10. When combined with Weaversong, the Weaverlings collect 3 Soul when attacking an enemy.

Dream Wielder

Type: Reward charm
Location: Resting Grounds

After collecting 500, Essence Seer will give you the Dream Wielder charm. It doubles the likelihood of enemies dropping Essence and reduces the charge-up time for the Dream Nail attack from 2.4s to 0.9s. Further, when hitting enemies with the Dream Nail, you don’t do damage, but you knock them back and gain 33 additional Soul by doing so.

That makes it the most efficient Soul gathering charm. When used in combination with the Dreamshield, it makes the shield 15% larger and reduces the time it takes for it to regenerate.

Deep Focus

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Crystal Peak

Deep Focus is in Crystal Peak and requires you to have already obtained Crystal Heart to reach it. It allows you to heal two masks simultaneously but reduces the focus speed by 65%.

I recommend using it while going through difficult platforming sections like at the White Palace while combining it with Grubsong or Hiveblood instead of for combat.

If you would like to use it in combat, Quick Focus cancels the focus speed decrease allowing you to heal two masks at a time at almost the regular speed. It is handy against enemies that deal two masks of damage, but the combined cost of these two is seven Notch spaces, so choose wisely.

Soul Eater

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Resting Grounds

Soul Eater is the upgraded version of Soul Catcher. As mentioned, it costs twice as many Notch slots, but it gives you 8 additional Soul with every hit for your main Soul Vessel and 6 for your Reserve Vessels.

You can find it in the Resting Grounds under the Stag Station, and you need Desolate Dive/Descending Dark to get it.

It stacks with Soul Catcher and fits into every other spell charm build. Soul Eater with Spell Twister, Shaman Stone, and Grubsong can be a great test or permanent build.

Spell Twister

Type: Exploration charm
Location: City of Tears

Spell Twister is in a secret room at the top of the Soul Sanctum, just before the Soul Master boss fight, and reduces the cost of spells from 33 to 24.

You can use it alongside Shaman Stone and Soul Catcher or Soul Eater for maximum spell damage.

Spore Shroom

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Fungal Wastes

Spore Shroom allows you to spread a cloud of spores dealing twenty-seven ticks of damage over 4.1s when focusing.

It has a cooldown of only 4.25s, and using it with Deep Focus increases the spore cloud by 35%.

Using it with the Defender’s Crest charm decreases the tick frequency but increases the damage by double, resulting in 40 damage over 4.1s.

It is excellent against the Broken Vessel and the Lost Kin as the spore cloud instantly destroys the orange blobs they cast. Using it this way won’t give you any Soul, though. You can find it in Fungal Wastes close to the entrances to Deepnest and Queen’s Gardens.

Fury of the Fallen

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Dirtmouth

Fury of the Fallen is in King’s Pass behind a spike-filled cave and increases your Nail damage by 75% but only when you’re on one mask of health. This also goes for Nail Arts.

Using it with the Glowing Womb will make the spawned hatchlings deal 5 damage more, also only when you’re on one mask of health.

Glowing Womb

Type: Exploration Charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

Glowing Womb is on a giant Aspid Mother in the Forgotten Crossroads. The entrance is hidden in a ceiling right of the False Knight arena, and you need Crystal Heart to pass through the spike tunnel to get it.

It uses 8 Soul to spawn a hatchling that deals 9 damage on contact with the enemy with a total of four hatchlings.

As mentioned, Fury of the Fallen increases the damage of the hatchlings by 5. Using it with the Defender’s Crest lowers their damage by 5, so it’s a bad idea, but they look cute.

Baldur Shell

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Howling Cliffs

Baldur Shell can save you from taking damage four times while focusing, and it can be reset by sitting on a bench.

It is found in a chest in Howling Cliffs that drops only one Geo. You have to jump into it and fight two Elder Baldurs. The one on the left is the way out, and the one on the right is where you will find the Baldur Shell charm.

It goes best with Thorns of Agony as it damages enemies even if you don’t take damage and Hiveblood as it prevents damage from interrupting the regeneration of Hiveblood masks.

Joni’s Blessing

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Howling Cliffs

Joni’s Blessing makes all of your mask Lifeblood masks and increases your mask number by 40%, rounding it up to the nearest whole number (if you have 6 masks, it’ll round up to 9, and if you have 7, it’ll round up to 10).

You can find it on Blue Child Joni’s corpse in Joni’s Repose in Howling Cliffs.

Stacks with both Lifeblood Heart and Lifeblood Core. Hiveblood regenerates Lifeblood masks as well, but it takes twice as long.

If you’re using Grubberfly’s Elegy, it won’t shoot a projectile if it looks like you’re at full health because these Lifeblood masks are treated like actual masks. Shaman stone is an amazing charm all around, and if you plan on using your Soul for casting spells instead of healing, it’s a really good one to go with Joni’s Blessing.

Dreamshield

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Resting Grounds

Dreamshield spawns a shield that circles around you. It blocks projectiles and damages enemies for the same amount of damage that your Nail does at the time with a slight delay of respawning.

When used with the Dream Wielder charm, it makes the shield 15% larger and makes it spawn back quicker.

You can find it in Resting Grounds below Seer’s room.

Quick Slash

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Kingdom’s Edge

Quick Slash is in Kingdom’s Edge on an anvil in a hidden room in front of a corpse known as the “Ancient Nailsmith”. It decreases your attack duration from 0.35s to 0.28s and reduces your attack cooldown from 0.41s to 0.25s. Using Quick Slash will make it easier to get the hits in and make you do 50% more Nail damage with constant attacks.

You can use Quick Slash anywhere and within every build. In spell damage builds, you can use it to collect Soul faster with Soul Eater or Soul Catcher, and in Nail combat, you can use it with Longnail, Mark of Pride, Grubberfly’s Elegy, and so on. You can use it with Fragile/Unbreakable Strength too. It can go into literally any build depending on your playstyle and the situation you’re in because, as you’ve probably found by now, one build isn’t suitable for every situation.

Nailmaster’s Glory

Type: Reward charm
Location: Dirtmouth

Sly gives you the Nailmaster’s Glory charm after learning all three Nail Arts from the Nailmasters. It reduces the charge time of Nail Arts from 1.35s to 0.75s. It is instrumental in the Colosseum of Fools in the second and third trials, where there are waves without ground, and you have to make do with wall jumping and no healing.

Defender’s Crest

Type: Reward charm
Location: Royal Waterways

After defeating the Dung Defender in the Royal Waterways, he drops the Defender’s Crest. It spawns toxic clouds that deal 1 damage per tick, with a new cloud spawning on your location every 0.2s.

You can use the Defender’s Crest with Spore Shroom, Flukenest, and Glowing Womb. With Spore Shroom, you deal 13 damage more while focusing. With Flukenest, it replaces the horde of flukes with one large fluke that deals 3 impact damage and explodes into a cloud dealing 1 damage per tick for 23 ticks (29 with Shaman Stone). Glowing Womb makes the hatchlings cute but, as mentioned, reduces their impact damage.

Flukenest

Type: Reward charm
Location: Royal Waterways

Flukenest is a powerful charm that you get after defeating the optional boss Flukemarm in the Royal Waterways. It replaces Vengeful Spirit with 9 flukes and Shade Soul with 16 flukes. Each fluke does 4 damage resulting in 36 with Vengeful Spirit and 64 with Shade Soul.

Shaman Stone and Defender’s Crest are amazing with Flukenest. The Defender’s Crest replaces the flukes with one massive volatile fluke that does 3 impact damage and explodes into a dung cloud dealing 1 damage 23 times. Shaman Stone adding to that, increases the fluke damage to 5, resulting in 45 damage with Vengeful Spirit and 80 damage with Shade Soul; with that, it increases the duration of Defender’s Crest cloud to 29 ticks.

Shape of Unn

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Greenpath, under the Lake of Unn

Shape of Unn is freely given to you by Unn under the Lake of Unn, which you need Isma’s Tear to get to. It allows you to move while focusing.

Using Quick Focus with Shape of Unn doubles your movement speed. Using Shape of Unn also lowers your hitbox. With Spore Shroom and Baldur Shell, you get extra protection while healing.

Hiveblood

Type: Reward charm
Location: The Hive

Hiveblood is beneath the room where you fight the optional boss Hive Knight, and you need to defeat him to access the room. It passively restores the mask you most recently lost to a full mask if you don’t take further damage for 12 seconds.

Hiveblood regenerates Lifeblood health gained from Joni’s Blessing, and that requires you to not take further damage for 24 seconds. If you do take damage, that mask is gone, and you have to use Soul to get it back.

Deep focus helps with complex platforming parts, as does Grubsong. Using Grubberfly’s Elegy, taking damage and regenerating it restores Grubberfly’s Elegy’s effect, but it doesn’t work with Joni’s Blessing. Baldur Shell is great as it keeps you safe while regenerating your Hiveblood masks. Fragile/Unbreakable Heart works with both Hiveblood and Joni’s Blessing, making it a fantastic combo and great for bosses.

Grubberfly’s Elegy

Type: Reward charm
Location: Forgotten Crossroads

Grubberfly’s Elegy makes your Nail a long-ranged weapon when you’re at full masks. The projectile sent out deals half the damage of the Nail.

Grubberfly’s Elegy is terrific for filling out the Hunter’s Journal or completing the Delicate Flower quest.

When used with the Fury of the Fallen, you fire out red projectiles dealing 75% of the Nail’s damage when you’re on 1HP. If you have Lifeblood equipped, it negates the Grubberfly’s Elegy’s effect in this case but doesn’t affect the Fury of the Fallen effect. Mark of Pride increases the Size of the projectiles fired. Fragile/Unbreakable Strength increases the damage of the projectile by 25%.

Weaversong

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Deepnest

Weaversong can be found in the Deepnest in the Weavers’ Den. It summons three Weaverlings that attack enemies for 3 damage per hit.

If used with Grubsong, they also collect 3 Soul per hit. Sprintmaster makes them move 50% faster and jump further. Weaversong can be used to deal damage to enemies that are out of your range.

Sharp Shadow

Type: Exploration Charm
Location: Deepnest

Sharp Shadow is in Deepnest, southeast of the bench behind a Shade Gate, and you need Shade Cloak to reach it. It damages enemies for the amount of damage your Nail does at that time when you dash through them.The dash is lengthened by 39% when using Shade Cloak, but not with the regular Mothwing Cloak “cooldown” dashes. When you use it with Dashmaster, it does 50% more damage.

Lifeblood Core

Type: Exploration charm
Location: Abyss

Lifeblood Core like the Lifeblood Heart is good if you’re focusing on spell-oriented builds. This one is one of the hardest to acquire as it requires you to go to the Abyss and find the door on the left wall halfway up with at least fourteen Lifeblood masks or fifteen or more if you have Joni’s Blessing equipped. Lifeblood Core is at the end of the cave, and once you pick it up, you’re instantly teleported outside to the entrance, and it’s permanently closed.

It gives you four Lifeblood masks while resting. It stacks with both Joni’s Blessing and Lifeblood Heart, but if you’re using Grubberfly’s Elegy, Grubberfly’s Elegy won’t have any effect unless you’re using only Lifeblood Core and Grubberfly’s Elegy.

Grimmchild

Type: Reward charm
Location: Dirtmouth

You get the Grimmchild charm from Troupe Master Grimm in Dirtmouth. You first need to unlock the Grimm Troupe by going into the Howling Cliffs and finding a breakable wall halfway up.

Drop down and break the second breakable wall; behind it, you will find a bug dressed in red, and you have to Dream Nail it. A torch will spawn in the room that you just came in from, and you have to light it by hitting the bottom of the torch.

Grimmchild is a flying companion that deals 11 damage at level 4. When you first get the Grimmchild charm, he’ll do no damage until you collect three flames that are shown on the map.

He will then do 5 damage per hit. At level 3, he will do 8 damage, and as mentioned, fully upgraded, he deals 11 damage after you’ve collected nine flames. You have to defeat the Dream Boss Nightmare King Grimm for your Grimmchild to be upgraded to level 4, though.

Carefree Melody

Type: Reward charm
Location: Dirtmouth

You get Carefree Melody after banishing the Grimm Troupe from Hallownest and talking to Nymm in Dirtmouth. It has an average chance of 22.4% to block damage. After you take one hit, the chance is 10%; after five hits, it’s 70%; after seven hits, it’s over 90%. The odds of Carefree Melody activating resets after you take damage.

Carefree Melody replaces the Grimmchild charm after you banish the Grimm Troupe. I don’t recommend using it at all, but then again, I never really used Grimmchild either.

Fragile/Unbreakable Greed

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Fungal Wastes

Fragile Greed makes the enemies drop 20-100% more Geo. You can buy it from Leg Eater in the Fungal Wastes for 250 Geo. Having the Defender’s Crest charm makes him lower the cost to 200 Geo. It will break upon death, but if you give it to Divine, she will make it unbreakable for 9000 Geo. You can use it with Gathering Swarm to farm enough Geo to pay for the other two breakable charms.

Fragile/Unbreakable Heart

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Fungal Wastes

Fragile Heart gives you two masks of health. You can buy it from Leg Eater in the Fungal Wastes for 350 Geo. Having the Defender’s Crest Charm makes him lower the cost to 280 Geo. It will break upon death, but if you give it to Divine, she will make it unbreakable for 12000 Geo. Using it with Hiveblood and Joni’s Blessing is very common, and if you’re going for spell damage, this is the way to go.

Fragile/Unbreakable Strenght

Type: Buyable charm
Location: Fungal Wastes

Fragile Strength increases your Nail damage by 50%. It is extremely useful in the Pantheon and the Colosseum of Fools. You can buy it from Leg Eater in the Fungal Wastes for 600 Geo. Having the Defender’s Crest charm makes him lower the cost to 480 Geo. It will break upon death, but if you give it to Divine, she will make it unbreakable for 15000 Geo.

It is almost always used with Quick Slash, Mark of Pride, and Long Nail. Using it with Fury of the Fallen will result in a 162.5% damage increase when on one mask, and with Grubberfly’s Elegy, the projectile damage is increased to 75%.

Kingsoul

Type: Quest charm
Location: Queen’s Gardens & White Palace

Kingsoul regenerates 4 Soul every two seconds and takes up five charm Notch slots, making it useless in the game in every way except one. At the bottom of the Abyss is the Birthplace, and you need Kingsoul to open it. It’s a secret area, but it unlocks multiple endings in Hollow Knight.

The first half of the Kingsoul charm is given to you by the White Lady in Queen’s Gardens, and the other half you can find by the Pale King’s body after completing the White Palace. After getting the second half, the charm will combine.

Void Heart

Type: Quest charm
Location: The Birthplace

Void Heart replaces Kingsoul, cannot be unequipped, and permanently opens up the five charm Notch slots that Kingsoul was occupying as it becomes a part of you, and it’s the only charm in the game that doesn’t take up any charm Notches.

It makes the Siblings, Void Tendrils, and Shade passive, almost like how equipping Hiveblood in the Hive makes all the bees in the Hive passive. You can get it by going all the way to the end of the Birthplace and Dream Nailing an egg with your reflection on it.

You have to have the Awoken Dream Nail that you get from Seer after collecting 1800 Essence. Acquiring the Void Heart unlocks four different endings and gives you access to the Pantheon of Hallownest. You can’t fight the Radiance without it.

FAQs

Question: How do you get the last charm in Hollow Knight?

Answer: This guide will go through charms in such a way that you might come across them in this order as you’re playing, aside from the Fragile/Unbreakable charms, Grimmchild, Carefree Melody, Kingsoul, and Void Heart, as they are upgradable and exceed one another.

Question: How many charm slots are in Hollow Knight?

Answer: You start with three, but you can end up with eleven by buying them from Salubra and finding them throughout Hallownest.

Question: How do you get more charm Notches in Hollow Knight?

Answer: Charm Notches can be bought from Salubra in the Forgotten Crossroads after finding a certain amount of charms (a charm Notch appears in Salubra’s shop after collecting 5, 10, 18, and 25 charms), and four of them can be found while exploring. Picking up a charm Notch during exploration will fully restore your health.

Question: Can you repair fragile charms?

Answer: Yes, you can go back to Leg Eater and repair them for Geo. He will repair Fragile Strength for 350 Geo (280 Geo if you have the Defender’s Crest Equipped), Fragile Heart for 200 Geo (160 Geo if you have the Defender’s Crest Equipped), and Fragile Greed for 150 Geo (120 Geo if you have the Defender’s Crest Equipped).

Question: How do you upgrade unbreakable charms?

Answer: You visit Divine after you’ve unlocked the Grimm Troupe in your game. You do that by going into the Howling Cliffs and finding a breakable wall halfway up. Drop down and break the second breakable wall; behind it, you will find a bug dressed in red, and you have to Dream Nail it. A torch will spawn in the room that you just came in from, and you have to light it by hitting the bottom of the torch.

Question: How do you get a lot of Geo in Hollow Knight?

Answer: You can use Fragile/Unbreakable Greed and Gathering Swarm. The Colosseum of fools gives you Geo as a reward each time with the Trial of the Fool giving you around 3000 Geo.

Question: Who sells charms in Hollow Knight?

Answer: Sly in Dirtmouth, Salubra in the Forgotten Crossroads, and Leg Eater in the Fungal Wastes, near the entrance to the Forgotten Crossroads.

Question: Where can I buy Fragile Greed?

Answer: From Leg Eater in the Fungal Wastes for 250 Geo (200 Geo if you have the Defender’s Crest equipped).

Question: What does the Grimmchild charm do?

Answer: Grimmchild is a flying companion that deals 11 damage at level 4. When you first get the Grimmchild charm, he’ll do no damage until you collect three flames that are shown on the map.

Question: Do you lose Grimmchild if you banish the troupe?

Answer: It turns into Carefree Melody after you talk to Nymm in Dirtmouth.

Question: Can you fight Nightmare King Grimm if you banish the troupe?

Answer: After you banish the Grimm Troupe, he can only be fought in the Hall of Gods.

Conclusion

When you first start Hollow Knight, it will teach you the fundamentals before you even technically begin. It gives you a look into what you will be getting into before you reach Dirtmouth with the Lifeblood Cocoons placed in an almost open place and showing you that accumulating Soul is very important.

The first twenty charms on the list are some of the most powerful charms in the game, with some of them coming very late in the game and others being there from the very beginning.

Using the charms that you got in your first hours of playing Hollow Knight might be the ones you will fit into those eleven charm Notch spaces during the final boss fights. There is absolutely no linear charm power progression, so you don’t need to get all of them in one playthrough.