Hollow Knight Godmaster Guide

The Godmaster DLC in Hollow Knight gives you the five Pantheons and the Hall of Gods – basically the new and improved Colosseum. This Hollow Knight Godmaster guide will go from unlocking it by starting at the Colosseum of Fools to completing all five Pantheons and becoming the God of Gods at the Pantheon of Hallownest.

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Unlocking the Godmaster DLC

Unlocking the Godmaster DLC is the easiest part here; you might already know that. Behind the Colosseum of fools in the room past the arena is a breakable wall. There isn’t much there, but you will have to hunt down and defeat an annoying enemy to continue.

The entrance into the Godhome is at the Junkyard behind the Royal Waterways, where the Godseeker is chained in a coffin. The chained coffin requires a Simple Key to open, and from then, you’re set to go.

Short time and difficulty synopsis: Obviously, uncomparable to the actual Pantheons themselves, but tracking down the Pale Lurker that keeps running away with the Simple Key in a room that isn’t small is just a bit bland, and it’ll seem like forever.

This former champion of the Colosseum has only one attack, and that is sitting in one place until you find her, then raging and running away while accidentally dropping spike balls – these are your only threat. Her health does scale up with your Nail level.

On level 0, she has 200HP, and with maximum upgrades, she has 400HP. Even with full Nail upgrades knowing that you have to hit her half as many times, going into this for the first time might take up more time than you would assume.

• There are four Simple Keys in the game and four Simple Locks, so if you’ve missed one, have none, and don’t know where it is, good luck finding it (the bug you kill behind the Colosseum will give you one, so remember not to use it on anything else).

This is what you will see when you unlock the coffin:

This is something that will be in your inventory screen seen as an upgrade. It makes you feel powerful, doesn’t it?

You will see some pillars and inhabitants of the Godhome with the first three Pantheons right at the beginning when you first come in. There is a hot spring, the Hall of Gods, and a mysterious door on the floor below.

The hot spring is something you are already familiar with, but the second thing you’ll see is an entrance into the Hall of Gods. When you enter there will be a list of all the bosses you’ve unlocked so far. The mysterious door is something we will get into later.

The Hall of Gods, Where You Treat Bosses Like Practice Dummies, for Dummies, Explained by a Dummy:

The Hall of Gods is a practice room, and you have access to all the bosses you’ve fought so far in the game, but it won’t be all bosses until you complete all five Pantheons. You can pick three modes on each boss:

• Attuned
• Ascended
• Radiant

These are all pretty straightforward; if you go onto any boss, you will see two difficulties, and you will figure everything out yourself. If you didn’t attempt to fight any and you don’t know yet, the statues have pins on them telling you who you’ve defeated and at which level.

• The Attuned difficulty is fighting the boss the way you fought him in the game with a slightly different arena.
• In the Ascended mode, bosses always deal more damage, and it gives you a look into how the Pantheons will look.
• The Radiant difficulty has the same arena as the Ascended difficulty, but you get hit once, and then you die instead of taking two masks of damage. The Radiant difficulty is unlocked after defeating the boss on the Ascended Difficulty. It does help a lot passing even the easiest bosses on the Radiant difficulty before going into the Pantheons and especially into the fifth Pantheon. If you’re a completionist with OCD, you will finish them all on Radiant difficulty, and you wouldn’t have to look at empty statues anymore.

You can also fight the Dream version of the Bosses that have a Dream counterpart on all three difficulties by Dream Nailing their statue in the Hall of Gods.

Pantheon of the Master

Difficulty score: 1/5 Pantheons
Average Completion Time: 5-20 minutes

1. Vengefly King
2. Gruz Mother
3. False Knight
4. Massive Moss Charger
5. Hornet (Protector)
6. Gorb
7. Dung Defender
8. Soul Warrior
9. Brooding Mawlek
10. Nailmaster brothers Oro & Mato

Here is a list of all of the bosses you’ll see in the first Pantheon, and the only ones that you had no chance to fight against before the Godhome DLC are Nailmaster brothers Oro and Mato. You can practice each boss in the Hall of Gods on the bottom floor under the first three Pantheons after you reach them in that Pantheon.

In the Pantheon of the Master, you only have to get to Oro to unlock Oro and Mato to practice in the Hall of Gods. After you get the fight down, you will easily finish the Pantheon of the Master.

The fight has two phases, and you first fight Oro; after you down him, Mato will jump in, and you will fight both at the same time. You don’t have to make it to the second phase to unlock both in the Hall of Gods.

They will use Nailarts that you learned from them against you and, in a way, prepare you for the Sly fight in the Pantheon of the Sage. Since this is the only problematic fight in the first Pantheon, I will give a few tips for fighting Oro and Mato.

When you’re up against only Oro finishing that phase fast is easy. After you finish it fast, stack up Soul, and heal if you can after you down him, Mato will join.

After Mato joins, dodging their attacks gets a bit trickier, but you will still have a lot of spaces to deal damage even though it might seem a little overwhelming because there’s suddenly another huge Nailmaster in the arena. Staying in the corners is a bad idea but standing in the middle of the arena is an even worse idea.

Constant movement, Nail damage, and Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul is a great combination. They will sometimes sync and get right next to each other, which gives you an opening to deal damage with Desolate Dive/Descending Dark as well; you will deal a lot of damage and get invisibility frames. Desolate Dive/Descending Dark can also be used to evade their Nailart attacks.

When they’re both in the arena, you really don’t have many chances to heal, which is why this is the only problematic fight in the first Pantheon, so use your Soul differently, and it’ll pay off.

Pantheon of the Artist

Difficulty score: 1/5 Pantheons
Average Completion Time: 5-20 minutes

1. Xero
2. Crystal Guardian
3. Soul Master
4. Two Oblobble
5. Mantis Lords
6. Marmu
7. Nosk
8. Flukemarm
9. Broken Vessel
10. Paintmaster Sheo

For me, the Pantheon of the Artist was easier than the Pantheon of the Master. Paintmaster Sheo is much more forgiving than Oro and Mato, but the other bosses are more demanding than in the first Pantheon. You can pass this one first try, even if it took you hours of practice to finish the first one.

Lost Kin, the Dream version of the Broken Vessel, is arguably the easiest Dream Boss, and he is the ninth boss in the second Pantheon. The combination of the Dream Warriors, the Mantis Lords, and bosses that have Dream counterparts are literally not comparable to Nosk and the Oblobbles.

I would say that the Oblobbles are harder than Nosk. By the time you get to the Pantheons, Nosk is the least of your worries, and the Oblobbles broke my spirit in the Colosseum.

The only strategy to defeat them and take the least damage is by dealing the same amount of damage to both Oblobbles throughout the fight to make the enraged one left alive more manageable to defeat.

Nosk is weak against Nail bounces and literally any spell. He also has only 680HP, and you can defeat him in literally half a minute without taking damage.

• For tips on the Dream Warriors and bosses with Dream, counterparts take a look at this guide here. Really though, the second Pantheon is probably the easiest of the first three.

Pantheon of the Sage

Difficulty score: 2.5/5 Pantheons
Average Completion Time: 10-20 minutes

1. Hive Knight
2. Elder Hu
3. The Collector
4. God Tamer
5. Troupe Master Grimm
6. Galien
7. Invincible, Fearless, Sensual, Mysterious, Enchanting, Vigorous, Diligent, Overwhelming, Gorgeous, Passionate, Terrifying, Beautiful, Powerful, Grey Prince Zote (Level 3)
8. Uumuu
9. Hornet (Sentinel)
10. Great Nailsage Sly

The third Pantheon really gives you a look at what’s waiting for you in a bit; after you finish the Pantheon of the Sage, you get this.

The third Pantheon can’t be compared to the previous two as it has Grey Prince Zote and Uumuu that you will now have to fight without Quirrel.

• Let us start off by saying that if you don’t rescue Zote, the Godhome will ignore his existence completely, which is hilarious. Zote is also the most difficult boss in the third Pantheon if you don’t count in Sly yet.

Zote is, for many, the hardest boss in the third Pantheon, and he definitely needs practicing before going into the fight; what’s worse, he doesn’t even come after the bench and the Hot Spring. Galien comes first but defeating him is easy as you have Soul and can end on full masks for Zote. You can use Howling Wraights/Abyss Shriek to take him down fast. Taking Zote down leads you into the fight against Uumuu.

You know you can’t deal damage to Uumuu unless Quirrel comes to stagger him and make him vulnerable to your Nail attacks and spells. Here you have the flying exploding jellyfish that you’ll have to knock into him to stagger him. You only need to do this once or twice, though, depending on your charm build, Nail level, and Uumuu’s location in the arena; you just might get unlucky sometimes.

After Uumuu, the second fight against Hornet comes, and it might seem like this is here literally only to refill your Soul and masks. Don’t get too confident because this is Hornet; she can leave you with fewer masks if you look at this fight as a Soul refill. You just need to defeat Hornet to unlock Sly.

Sly also uses Nailarts throughout the whole fight, and I don’t think I’d go against Sly or the Pantheon of the Sage at all without Mark of Pride. Every time he jumps into an attack, let him swing once, and you can already hit him. If he starts his two swings while on the ground he will jump into a ball of that thing in the gif below.

All of his Nailarts are easily dodgeable or counterable; just make sure you don’t get stuck under him while he’s Cyclone Slashing; bounce off him, jump away, do Desolate Dive/Descending Dark, or anything else. Getting stuck under Cyclone Slash is probably the easiest way to take damage during this fight.

• You may say it’s easy to avoid Sly’s, Mato’s, Oro’s, and Sheo’s attacks because you have them, but they have a much larger range, and it takes them a lot less time to charge the attack up. They also hit you twice, and you’re down a quarter of your health; you hit them, they don’t notice.

Sly like Oro and Mato also has two phases, and the second one is kind of crazy. You can hit him once every time he finishes his Cyclone move, tank the damage and get three hits in, or use Sharp Shadow and do this shameless thing out of desperation, BUT NEVER FORGET TO BOW AT THE END. Bow to the Nailmaster like they bow to you.

– An example of how you should respect the Nailmasters –

In the Pantheon of Hallownest, you have Hornet after Sly and then a bench, so there’s no shame in tanking the damage and abusing poorly used invincibility frames to end the fight as soon as possible.

Let us end by saying that The Collector, Troupe Master Grimm, and the God Tamer are the least of your worries, even though they might seem like they’ll cause issues. While fighting, the Collector just clear out the jars that fall first and then deal damage to him; expect three jars every time you stagger him, and the fight will be over before you know it.

Troupe Master Grimm is a piece of cake if you’ve defeated him for the eleventh charm Notch slot (go do it, you need the charm Notch). The God Tamer is there just as an inconvenience; focus on the beast; after you defeat the beast that just rolls like the Watcher Knights tracking your movement and spitting at you, the fight will be over.

Pantheon of the Knight

Difficulty score: 6/5 Pantheons – 1 Pantheon added for the time you waste on No Eyes
Average Completion Time: 15-30 minutes

1. Enraged Guardian
2. Lost Kin
3. No Eyes
4. Traitor Lord
5. White Defender
6. Failed Champion
7. Markoth
8. Six Watcher Knights
9. Soul Tyrant
10. Pure Vessel

This is where the true action starts. Here are some facts:

• No Eyes shouldn’t be here, the Traitor Lord should have been in the third Pantheon, and Lost Kin is somehow easier than Broken Vessel.
• The Enraged Guardian is pretty straightforward, and there isn’t much to say here.
• If you countered the Dung Defender with Desolate Dive/Descending Dark only, take into consideration using the Abyss Shriek now.
• The Failed Champion is as much of a joke as No Eyes. If you heal or use Dream Nail on him to get Soul, then hit his armor and repeat, you can do it infinitely and get full health and Soul – sometimes I mess this up somehow. You just have to hit him in between each action, meaning you can’t Dream Nail then heal without hitting him because he’ll jump up. He’s a Soul refiller.
• The Soul Tyrant needs practice.
• Markoth is the hardest Dream Warrior, and he’ll ruin your run more often than the Watcher Knights – I found that Watcher Knights are relatively easy.

Okay, so now you’ve unlocked Pure Vessel. Here’s a detailed guide to help you, good luck!

After you defeat the Pure Vessel in the Pantheon of the Knight, you will get a cutscene of the baby Hollow Knight, you, and the other Vessels with the light shining like the Abyss opened for you all to leave and be free.

You will get the Soul & Shade achievement, and that’s kind of deep, it’s like there’s no use for Void anymore, BUT you have to become the Lord of Shades and seep out of the Godseeker’s eyes after you defeat the Absolute Radiance.

It might take you more time to pass the Pantheon of the Knight than the previous ones, but, aside from No Eyes, it is much more fun and rewarding. After you finish it, you know that you can finally do the Pantheon of Hallownest.

The Pantheon of Hallownest

Difficulty score: 10/5 Pantheons
Average Completion Time: 40+ minutes

The Pantheon of Hallownest is the ultimate test of skill and patience. It is all of the bosses you’ve fought so far with the addition of the flying spider of your nightmares, Flying Nosk (this time with Hornet’s face – an upgraded flying spider, thank you for the nightmare material), that is surprisingly easy still, the Sisters of Battle and the Absolute Radiance, with some arena changes that add to the difficulty of the fifth Pantheon.

And let’s not forget that Nightmare King Grimm, The Pure Vessel, and the Absolute Radiance are the three hardest bosses for most in Hollow Knight by far.

Practicing them enough to take them down might take an hour or so, but it’s not the same as taking down the Pure Vessel (the Dream counterpart of the Hollow Knight). It takes much more endurance and concentration than the previous Pantheons and might take you days to just get to the Absolute Radiance.

You need to defeat the forty bosses just to get to the Pure Vessel (you do still get all of your masks back before fighting the Absolute Radiance), with the fortieth being Nightmare King Grimm (you do have a bench and the Hot Spring here, but my last two remaining brain cells were fighting for the first place at this point) and the last boss being the Absolute Radiance.

You can unlock the Absolute Radiance in the Hall of Gods just by surviving the climb. Absolute Radiance practice may also take you a couple of hours, but then you go back to the Pantheon of Hallownest and die to Zote.

Speaking of arenas, they’re mostly different now. Unexpected things will kill you just because you got used to the old ones and never thought about changes – unless you’ve been in the Hall of Gods. Finishing this Pantheon will require practicing at least half of the bosses to get through it. Eventually, you will unlock Radiance. Once you pass it once the stress goes away and then, looking back, you feel like it was easy and feel grand.

Here’s a detailed guide for Radiance.

Defeating the Absolute Radiance will get you achievements, and you can get two endings. If you didn’t give the Godseeker the Delicate Flower, you will get the Embrace the Void ending, and if you did give him the Delicate Flower, you would get the Delicate Flower ending. The Godseeker will accept the delicate Flower after you’ve completed the second Pantheon. Here’s our complete guide on Hollow Knight endings.

• You get two different cutscenes for these two endings, and you can get both in one playthrough if you do them in this order.

Bindings

Bindings in Godhome are restrictions that you can choose to activate during that run. Each of the Pantheons has the same four bindings:

1. Nail binding
2. Shell binding
3. Charms binding
4. Soul binding

When you start the Pantheons with the Nail binding activated, remember that Cyclone Slash is your friend. Spells are also your friend, so equipping Soul Cather, Soul Eater, Spell Twister, and so on instead of charms that enhance your health – pairing those with Quick Slash and Long Nail or Mark of Pride.

Nailarts deal full damage, and Cyclone Slash can hit an enemy seven times if you position yourself right. You prolong the Cyclone Slash by tapping the attack button.

Nail binding Time & Difficulty score average of all Pantheons:

5/5 Pantheons

Shell binding restricts you to four masks of health, and I would say that this is a harder binding to complete than the Nail binding. Quick Focus with Deep Focus can be a way to go about this, but investing in spell damage and Nail damage also works if you finished the Nail binding first.

By the time you finish Nail binding, you will already have some senses activated in your brain that weren’t there before. It does not affect Lifeblood and Unbreakable Heart masks.

Shell binding Time & Difficulty score average of all Pantheons:

8/5 Pantheons – 0.5 Pantheons easier if you’ve already completed the Nail binding

Soul binding would probably be the best to do now because charm binding is impressively impossible. There’s not much to say about Soul binding, you’re restricted to one heal or one spell worth of Soul, and by now, you know which charms work best for you, but I was split on which to use. Both Nail and spell damage here make a lot of sense.

Healing is also an issue, but as you go further through the Pantheons, you’ll probably more likely use the Soul for spells. I think that using Quick Focus and Deep focus together here is a waste and that going with the same “deal damage to get Soul, use the Soul, get more Soul then deal more damage and repeat” like with the Nail binding is a better way to go about this.

Soul binding Time & Difficulty score average of all Pantheons:

10/5 Pantheons

As mentioned, charm binding is next to impossible to complete, even though to me it seemed easier than Nail binding. I always used Nail damage more than spell damage and used spells only when I wanted to end a fight as soon as possible or needed it to survive (and of course, for the invincibility frames and if they’re more fitting).

You may not have such a hard time with charm binding, but to me, it didn’t click that I won’t have Quick Slash until I didn’t have it when the first fight began.

Fighting without Quick Slash is like you’re playing the game at half the speed it even feels like you’re walking slower. You don’t even get Void Heart; it’s not like you need it anyways.

Unlike the other bindings, where it just takes more time, patience, and concentration, charm binding just strips you of everything that has kept you comfortable until now. Passing all the other bindings first will make passing charm binding easier.

There really isn’t anything here to say. Deal damage and heal. If you have a love/hate relationship with pain like I do, HAVE FUN!

Charms binding Time & Difficulty score average of all Pantheons:

Good Luck/5 Pantheons

More than one or all bindings in one run Time & Difficulty score average of all Pantheons: ∞/5 Pantheons

• The good thing is getting used to less range/damage/health/Soul etc., isn’t that hard; it just literally drove me insane going over and over fighting the same bosses with the added boringness.
• The other good thing that you get out of this is that you feel very pro when you get everything back. Finishing some bindings, not even in all Pantheons, will help you complete the Pantheon of Hallownest easier.

Why Bindings AREN’T There Only as an Extra Challenge

These are connected to the door on the left of the Hall of Gods on the bottom floor. Completing a Pantheon with one or more bindings will be what unlocks that door. You can choose to do one at a time, but doing all four in one run will act as four keys to the door.

Completing one of these takes about three times more than the actual Pantheon itself, and doing more than one binding at the same time is very difficult. After you successfully complete eight of these bindings in any of the Pantheons in any order, you will get access to the room behind this door.

You will find a dream catcher, and Dream Nailing will disperse Lifeblood seeds throughout the Godhome, and you will get three Lifeblood masks at every bench.

After completing twelve bindings, you will get four Lifeblood masks, and after completing sixteen, you will get five Lifeblood masks at each bench. The Lifeblood masks can come in very handy as you don’t need to worry about healing for up to five hits, and especially useful in the Pantheon of Hallownest, where you have a lot fewer breaks.

The Thing Is:

Completing all five Pantheons is just trial and error. Practicing each boss in the Hall of Gods will make this a lot easier and save you a lot of time. Some bosses are there because they’re in the game (No Eyes).

The Dream Warriors are the ones that I needed the most practice for, but everyone has problems with different bosses, and that can depend on the style of playing that you’re used to.

The other thing that can throw you off and make this look a lot harder is just how fast (even though the screen taking you to the next arena is so long) you need to change what you’re doing depending on which boss comes next.

There are benches so that you can switch out your charms but just switching even from the Crystal Guardian to the Soul Master is already a big change. Switching between the Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm is literally easier.

Even fighting Gorb with less floor to walk on is already something that needs adjusting to. The Godmaster DLC is really fun and rewarding, especially after the first three Pantheons, so even if you feel pushed away by passing 20 bosses then dying, don’t give up. The Hall of Gods is there literally for you to practice; it was put there to help you go through the Pantheons easier. So use it, it’ll pay off.

Reward: Bragging Rights
Final Ruling: If you complete all Pantheons with all bindings, you are legally skilled.

Discover the Enigmatic World of Hollow Knight | GOG

Immerse yourself in the hauntingly beautiful world of "Hollow Knight," where every step unveils secrets and challenges waiting to be conquered. With its captivating art style and intricate gameplay, embark on an epic journey filled with mystery, danger, and discovery unlike any other.

Check Price

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

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Tamara Hrnjacki

Tamara, a writer at Indie Game Culture and art enthusiast, is captivated by the emotional depth in video games. This is shown by her passion for games like "Super Meat Boy," "The Stanley Parable," and "Don't Starve" and her beloved "Hollow Knight".

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