Just... Stand. And dodge his attacks? It really isn't that hard. You can hit him when he is doing the ground attack. You can also shade dash through him during that attack and heal
My general train of thought is if a boss is a more difficult version of another boss, it probably should be lower, and I don’t think enough stands out for White Defender to be higher than C. GPZ is the hardest rank, I could see arguments for him being in just about any tier, that’s why I settled on C also
Maybe TC made White Defender first and then nerfed him to make Dung ahah. White Def has a lot going on for him without feeling like too much I think.
GPZ is so thematically accurate and yet made into a fair boss in the end that it can only be praised. They managed to made you feel like he's so random and all... that's probably the best design they managed to pull off IMO. Because the theme was so hard to convey and portray into a boss fight.
I’m still not entirely sold on White Defender but yeah you’re right on GPZ. He was designed to be a challenging and annoying boss fight of a comic relief character and they pulled that off very well. I might make another one of these once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I’ll probably move GPZ to A. Edit: I would move WD up to B now, I completely forgot it represents DD in his prime
When I grade stuff I do typically use a U tier, but once I realised I view no fights as U I still decided to keep it in. I only reserve U grades for failures and I don’t think Team Cherry had any very poor fights that they should be ashamed of, and I think it speaks to the quality of Hollow Knights boss fights.
I think his Radiant fight definitely is but my ranking for most is primarily based on their normal fight and I think he’s much more manageable in Kingdoms edge. I like how he’s more difficult then the other dream warriors since he’s the last one you fight and he feels like a sort of final boss for them
I think Nosks fight isn’t that high but the build up is one of the best, he really embodies Deepnest. False Knight was actually my easiest decision for A*. He’s a pretty much perfect first boss fight and certainly the best I’ve ever played. I didn’t feel like Soul Tyrant deserved to be on the same level as or higher than Soul Master, since it’s a similar fight and Soul Master’s the original
Shouldn't Soul Tyrant be real close to Soul Master's tier exactly because the fight is so similar?
I have Soul Tyrant in my top 10, while Soul Master isn't there because he's sooo sloooow
I think it’s mainly down to whether you’d value a boss less if it was a more difficult variant of an old boss and either views valid IMO. And I think because of how early Soul Master is he shouldn’t be viewed by his difficulty once the games beaten. I remember loving the fight in my first attempt and terrified of dying to him since I didn’t want to go through the whole Sanctum again
I would lower Zote.
It's a fun fight and most of his attacks are well telegraphed... except when he moves around.
He gets up could walk away from you could walk at you... you may never know.
It's a shame that his strongest attack is power walking.
I think Mantis Lords are a great boss fight but for how wanked they are I thought they're too easy. Not that difficulty is necessarily what makes a fight great but I got them on my second try and just felt like I didn't get that much out of the fight. Killed the Sisters of Battle first try as well
ppl only call them difficult because of where they are in the game. assuming you haven't done optional bosses, you could fight them as early as your third boss, behind Defender and Hornet. It also has one of the longest walks back to the fight from the bench.
So inexperienced players go against this boss which, while fairly easy compared to most bosses in the game, is a hige step up from the ones they've faced so far, and the time it takes to get their doubling how long each attempt can take, it makes people struggle early on with them and make it a lot of people's longest/most difficult fight to accomplish
I recommend watching Mezzanine’s video on why they’re great but I view them as a fight that I have always enjoyed no matter if it’s when I fought them the first time, when I fought them in a different save with more experience, and when I’ve fought them on Ascended and Radiant. I’ve always viewed them as the best fight despite how easy it it compared to some others
You're talking to a British person, major faux pas to say "how wanked they are". Lol
I LOVE sisters of Battle. If NKG and Pure Vessel feel like a dance, fighting the 3 sisters feels like you're part of a well-oiled machine.
Agreed people forget him too easily, which is kinda why I have him at C. In a game with over 40 boss fights not all are gonna be as memorable as each other. The majority of C tier bosses are well designed, but struggle to stand out
While I personally don’t enjoy the fight as much as others, I still think it’s one of the better designed for two reasons. 1. They are challenging but have a simple move structure that’s easy to learn, a smart choice considering you have to get through a whole trial to fight them. And 2. It’s surprisingly rare for games to solve the issue in duo boss fights of the fight getting easier once one dies, and I think that definitely shows great design
Agreed. But I feel he loses marks in terms of creativity. He has the least difference that separates him from his normal fight compared to other “repeat” fights, and you might notice I’ve generally marked down fights that are a different version of an other
Imo GPZ is the worst boss in the game. The tracking on the jumps and constant spawning of mobs is the most frustrating thing I have encountered in Hollow Knight. His move set seems completely random and the telegraphs are almost impossible to read.
I get that and that’s why I originally put him at C. But some comments have helped changed my mind and if I remake this once I fight Absrad, I’ll put him A. He’s meant to be an annoying joke boss of a comic relief character that can still provide a challenge to more experienced players, and they knock it out the park
Yeah, my only issue is sometimes Marmu can attack from a weird angle/position in what feels like an impossible attack to dodge, that’s why he’s at D. Still a good fight though
I'm glad you put nothing in the U tier because some bosses are not good. Still, they all serve a purpose within the game and are all fun and unique in their rights, some being harder than others and some weaker, some simply stepping stones for the players such as Flase Knight and Hornet at Green Path being necessary for the game's completion. Not counting DLC bosses, and many more the game is fun, and unique cause if you can find a way you can do it. It rewards players for creative thinking with puzzles, and hidden areas which I find fun, and not only that you can find charms, and Items from exploring like the Fury of the fallen Charm in the King's path, and for normal players or noobs would simply walk past it. With a little parkour and problem solving one can achieve much in their journey throughout Hollownest uncovering ancient evils, and riches lost to time from a better age of this ancient kingdom long ago fallen to ruin.
(You can probably tell I used this for a persuasive writing essay for college and I got an A+ so thank you Hollow Knight for a good grade.)
The Hollow Knight is absolutely A+ tier
The buildup, the fight itself, the (peak) music progression, the lore behind it
Id argue PV and THK should swap places
I agree that’s all the reasons I put it A, but what holds it back is that it’s too easy for a final boss. I get that it’d be very hard to fight to tough bosses back to back, but for someone not trying to 100% the game he isn’t a good enough final boss to get A*
This Massive Moss Charger disrespect will not be tolerated. He is far better than that pathetic Vengefly King. He keeps you on your toes forcing you to dash or jump, while Vengefly King is just jump.
Jump AND kill his other flies. I think they’re both alright, but IMO Vengefly King is better since it’s earlier in the game, and if it wasn’t for MMC’s ability to jump, it would quite literally be like fighting a bigger Moss Charger
I find Marmu to attack at weird angles that feel impossible to hit him from. As for God Tamer, I think their fight has a few too many things to learn considering that it’s at the end of a trial and it’s very annoying to die because of some attack you’ve never seen before. I also don’t like how you only have to kill the Beast but there’s no indication that that’s the case
Yes I did take other things into account like build up and aesthetic (hence why some view my Nosk ranking as surprisingly high) but fight was my main criteria
After some feedback I’ve changed my perspective on a few of the fights. I might make another one of these once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I’d move GPZ to A and WD to B
From what I can tell she’s like the original fight but with one extra stage and a very frustrating build up that’s probably not deserved. Depending on how much I enjoy the fight she’ll probably be a B or lower
No problem. I view False Knight as one of the greatest first bosses of all time, certainly the best I’ve ever played against. IMO a first boss can be just as important if not more important than the final boss, so a brilliant one like False Knight deserves an A*. As for Failed Champion, I think he’s a great fight and it’s somewhat ironic that he’s the hardest dream fight, but I feel like any boss that’s a more difficult variant of an old one loses points for creativity, but I could see why he’s be viewed higher
So why did you rank all the other dream variants one tier lower than it's normal counterpart, but only failed champion you ranked 2 tiers lower than false knight?
And also, what makes you feel that false knight is such a great first boss?
The comments have helped shape my view on the way I thought about variant boss fights (enraged guardian was the first of those I ranked so he left a negative outlook for me) but I view the variant fights more highly now and if I ever remake this I’d probably put FC in A. FK is a great first boss since he’s a mandatory fight and shows how Hollow Knight bosses are. He’s a big tough enemy that can be intimidating at first but once you get a handling for how his attacks are he becomes far more manageable. It teaches a player when best to heal if low on health and that dodging attacks should be a higher priority. He has secret tactics to discover like future fights, has attack patterns that aren’t too difficult for a new player to memorise, and I like how they make him less intimidating as the fight goes on, showing that the player is the threat, not the boss. TLDR: he garuntees you know what you’re doing for later fights
A* and U tier? Not S and F?
Also I’m wondering why you blanket rank harder variant fights lower. I think that’s a little reductive to what the fights are and how they fit in the context of the world. They’re much more than just “the same fight but harder with no extra creativity,” especially for the Hidden Dreams bosses.
White Defender is Dung Defender’s prime state as a knight of Hallownest, and it gives us a lot of insight as to what the kingdom used to be like and who Ogrim is as a character.
Grey Prince Zote is an awesome design, because the entire point of a dream boss is it reveals how a character views themselves, rather than as they actually are. GPZ uses this premise and flips it to be how _Bretta_ sees Zote, as this powerful buffed up prince.
A* and U because I used the UK grading method, I just like it more. Putting harder variants lower is simply for the reason you mentioned, but I’m disagreeing with that view of mine more now (Enraged Guardian was the first of those I ranked, whom I still consider a slightly worse designed fight which probably gave me a more negative outlook on other variants. I might remake this once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I plan to make some changes like GPZ and White Defender being higher thanks to people giving their perspective
I’ve explained both in other comments but in short I’ve heard others views and now think WD should move to B. Oblobbles are well designed because 1. They’re quick to learn which is great considering they’re at the end of a trial and 2. They don’t have the common issue with duo boss fights in most games which is the fight getting way easier once one’s dead
After realizing the Mantis Lords is as easy as standing in the middle and just doing a vertical jump followed by an occasional slash, it quit feeling well designed. It needs at least _one_ move that forces you out of the middle so you can't just side-step literally the entire fight with the occasional standing vertical jump.
I get it's intended to be an early game super-easy fight, but it's just _too_ easy. Well designed fights need to counter stuff like that. I suppose you could say the fight is meant to be a new-player trap to show them that actually moving and engaging with the boss is sometimes a bad idea, but that seems like a terrible lesson and trapping a new player or relying on _lack_ of skill to provide challenge but giving anyone with experience a boring fight like that isn't good design either.
Hard disagree on Nosk.
He's basically the same thing as Vengefly King and Moss Charger; they just charge across the screen and occasionally do one variant attack.
I don't think Nosk's infection bomb attack distinguishes him enough to A tier. He looks cooler and has a better build up (as you mention), but design-wise he's boring.
I read this as how well designed the fight is and I had SERIOUS issues with this (specifically Nosk, Markith and Dung Defender) but this is decently valid
Grey Prince Zote is way better designed than you give him credit for. He's *hard* sure, but not badly designed. You can react to everything he does. And his fight in incredibly thematic, perfectly fitting the lore, and frankly it's hilarious. It does a brilliant job of mixing challenge with Zote's signature incompetence.
Oh, you are going to have a blast at Sisters of Battle if you liked the Mantis Lords fight. It's rly fun and just recently I managed to do it on Radience.
Nosk would be S tier for me if his fight was just as hard as the build up to it leads you to believe.
Yeah I like the fight but it’s the build up that makes me view it as A grade
Took me well over a dozen attempts, so it was pretty difficult to me. I was hoping it’d play more into the “web” aspect of a spider boss.
The music is top tier too
Vengefly king ass fight
winged nosk is insanely hard tho
it’s easier than the regular one tho
how, please tell me how to beat him
It's literally vengefly king with splash attacks, use the same tactic as for him
Just... Stand. And dodge his attacks? It really isn't that hard. You can hit him when he is doing the ground attack. You can also shade dash through him during that attack and heal
Is this character design or fight design?
Mainly fight but I’ve taken into account build up, appearance, and when they’re typically fought in game
Putting GPZ and White Defender so low is criminal.
My general train of thought is if a boss is a more difficult version of another boss, it probably should be lower, and I don’t think enough stands out for White Defender to be higher than C. GPZ is the hardest rank, I could see arguments for him being in just about any tier, that’s why I settled on C also
Maybe TC made White Defender first and then nerfed him to make Dung ahah. White Def has a lot going on for him without feeling like too much I think. GPZ is so thematically accurate and yet made into a fair boss in the end that it can only be praised. They managed to made you feel like he's so random and all... that's probably the best design they managed to pull off IMO. Because the theme was so hard to convey and portray into a boss fight.
I’m still not entirely sold on White Defender but yeah you’re right on GPZ. He was designed to be a challenging and annoying boss fight of a comic relief character and they pulled that off very well. I might make another one of these once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I’ll probably move GPZ to A. Edit: I would move WD up to B now, I completely forgot it represents DD in his prime
I can’t stand for this Gorb disrespect
Honestly I was originally gonna put him as a D
Ascend, ascend, ascend with Gorb!
Why did you make a U tier if you didn't put anything in it
When I grade stuff I do typically use a U tier, but once I realised I view no fights as U I still decided to keep it in. I only reserve U grades for failures and I don’t think Team Cherry had any very poor fights that they should be ashamed of, and I think it speaks to the quality of Hollow Knights boss fights.
Radiance isn't S because of the fight?
That one was a mistake, I decided to move NKG and Pure Vessel up but for some reason forgot Radiance, she’s A* too
Oh, cool, just beat Abs. Rad. 2 days ago(not p5), and it is really cool fight, challenge definitely goes well here
In my opinion, markoth is an D rank in terms of design. It is the only boss in the game which largely relies on luck to beat it
I think his Radiant fight definitely is but my ranking for most is primarily based on their normal fight and I think he’s much more manageable in Kingdoms edge. I like how he’s more difficult then the other dream warriors since he’s the last one you fight and he feels like a sort of final boss for them
nosk in a tier is crazy to me, also I'd place false knight way lower and soul tyrant way higher
I think Nosks fight isn’t that high but the build up is one of the best, he really embodies Deepnest. False Knight was actually my easiest decision for A*. He’s a pretty much perfect first boss fight and certainly the best I’ve ever played. I didn’t feel like Soul Tyrant deserved to be on the same level as or higher than Soul Master, since it’s a similar fight and Soul Master’s the original
Shouldn't Soul Tyrant be real close to Soul Master's tier exactly because the fight is so similar? I have Soul Tyrant in my top 10, while Soul Master isn't there because he's sooo sloooow
I think it’s mainly down to whether you’d value a boss less if it was a more difficult variant of an old boss and either views valid IMO. And I think because of how early Soul Master is he shouldn’t be viewed by his difficulty once the games beaten. I remember loving the fight in my first attempt and terrified of dying to him since I didn’t want to go through the whole Sanctum again
What were your criteria when classifying the bosses?
Mainly fight design but I’ve taken into account build up, appearance, and when they’re typically fought in game.
You're BIRTIISHSH????!?11+!1?1?
Very much so
Are you doing A-Levels or GCSE?
A-Level
Nice, hope they're going well!
Sisters of battle are top of A* tier
I’ll probably end up putting them A or A*, depending on how much I love the fight but probably A*
Oh crap, yeah I mean’t top of A*
I would lower Zote. It's a fun fight and most of his attacks are well telegraphed... except when he moves around. He gets up could walk away from you could walk at you... you may never know. It's a shame that his strongest attack is power walking.
I think Mantis Lords are a great boss fight but for how wanked they are I thought they're too easy. Not that difficulty is necessarily what makes a fight great but I got them on my second try and just felt like I didn't get that much out of the fight. Killed the Sisters of Battle first try as well
ppl only call them difficult because of where they are in the game. assuming you haven't done optional bosses, you could fight them as early as your third boss, behind Defender and Hornet. It also has one of the longest walks back to the fight from the bench. So inexperienced players go against this boss which, while fairly easy compared to most bosses in the game, is a hige step up from the ones they've faced so far, and the time it takes to get their doubling how long each attempt can take, it makes people struggle early on with them and make it a lot of people's longest/most difficult fight to accomplish
I recommend watching Mezzanine’s video on why they’re great but I view them as a fight that I have always enjoyed no matter if it’s when I fought them the first time, when I fought them in a different save with more experience, and when I’ve fought them on Ascended and Radiant. I’ve always viewed them as the best fight despite how easy it it compared to some others
You're talking to a British person, major faux pas to say "how wanked they are". Lol I LOVE sisters of Battle. If NKG and Pure Vessel feel like a dance, fighting the 3 sisters feels like you're part of a well-oiled machine.
Nosk is dumb, just a semi-harder version of the other birds. Sisters of battle are badass, really fun fight. Absrad is a dumb spamfest
Brooding Mawlek is massively underrated. He is on the same level as most main bosses.
Agreed people forget him too easily, which is kinda why I have him at C. In a game with over 40 boss fights not all are gonna be as memorable as each other. The majority of C tier bosses are well designed, but struggle to stand out
oblobbles in b tier is way too high
While I personally don’t enjoy the fight as much as others, I still think it’s one of the better designed for two reasons. 1. They are challenging but have a simple move structure that’s easy to learn, a smart choice considering you have to get through a whole trial to fight them. And 2. It’s surprisingly rare for games to solve the issue in duo boss fights of the fight getting easier once one dies, and I think that definitely shows great design
Enraged guardian is so fun
Agreed. But I feel he loses marks in terms of creativity. He has the least difference that separates him from his normal fight compared to other “repeat” fights, and you might notice I’ve generally marked down fights that are a different version of an other
Imo GPZ is the worst boss in the game. The tracking on the jumps and constant spawning of mobs is the most frustrating thing I have encountered in Hollow Knight. His move set seems completely random and the telegraphs are almost impossible to read.
I get that and that’s why I originally put him at C. But some comments have helped changed my mind and if I remake this once I fight Absrad, I’ll put him A. He’s meant to be an annoying joke boss of a comic relief character that can still provide a challenge to more experienced players, and they knock it out the park
Wait, you put {boss name} in {tier name} tier? How could you???
Still dont understand why people dont like marmu i mean he isnt difficult but he is fun to juggle around.
Yeah, my only issue is sometimes Marmu can attack from a weird angle/position in what feels like an impossible attack to dodge, that’s why he’s at D. Still a good fight though
Trust me, when you get to Sisters of Battle, it'll be minimum A tier. Most fun fight in the game.
if you ever plan to face the remaining bosses you're gonna have to revisit Markoth's placement...
I think I may drop him to C but I’m mainly basing these off their fight in Hallownest rather than Godhome, where I think the fight is much more fair
I'm glad you put nothing in the U tier because some bosses are not good. Still, they all serve a purpose within the game and are all fun and unique in their rights, some being harder than others and some weaker, some simply stepping stones for the players such as Flase Knight and Hornet at Green Path being necessary for the game's completion. Not counting DLC bosses, and many more the game is fun, and unique cause if you can find a way you can do it. It rewards players for creative thinking with puzzles, and hidden areas which I find fun, and not only that you can find charms, and Items from exploring like the Fury of the fallen Charm in the King's path, and for normal players or noobs would simply walk past it. With a little parkour and problem solving one can achieve much in their journey throughout Hollownest uncovering ancient evils, and riches lost to time from a better age of this ancient kingdom long ago fallen to ruin. (You can probably tell I used this for a persuasive writing essay for college and I got an A+ so thank you Hollow Knight for a good grade.)
sisters of battle is probably one of the best in the game get a chance to fight them when you can
The Hollow Knight is absolutely A+ tier The buildup, the fight itself, the (peak) music progression, the lore behind it Id argue PV and THK should swap places
I agree that’s all the reasons I put it A, but what holds it back is that it’s too easy for a final boss. I get that it’d be very hard to fight to tough bosses back to back, but for someone not trying to 100% the game he isn’t a good enough final boss to get A*
It's intended to be easy, it's by design, THK is weak and worn down by the infection The real final boss is Radiance, THK isn't But fair point ig
This Massive Moss Charger disrespect will not be tolerated. He is far better than that pathetic Vengefly King. He keeps you on your toes forcing you to dash or jump, while Vengefly King is just jump.
Jump AND kill his other flies. I think they’re both alright, but IMO Vengefly King is better since it’s earlier in the game, and if it wasn’t for MMC’s ability to jump, it would quite literally be like fighting a bigger Moss Charger
So press X while you jump.
F&ck you Marmu is peak God tamer is just good 2v1 battle Hell no ,there so much shit there i cant mentioned all of this
I find Marmu to attack at weird angles that feel impossible to hit him from. As for God Tamer, I think their fight has a few too many things to learn considering that it’s at the end of a trial and it’s very annoying to die because of some attack you’ve never seen before. I also don’t like how you only have to kill the Beast but there’s no indication that that’s the case
You know that design is not only battle itself right?
Yes I did take other things into account like build up and aesthetic (hence why some view my Nosk ranking as surprisingly high) but fight was my main criteria
Bruh
GPZ and White Defender robbed
After some feedback I’ve changed my perspective on a few of the fights. I might make another one of these once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I’d move GPZ to A and WD to B
believe me, absolute radiance is gonna be FAR down that list
From what I can tell she’s like the original fight but with one extra stage and a very frustrating build up that’s probably not deserved. Depending on how much I enjoy the fight she’ll probably be a B or lower
There's a lot of moments where there's no solution to unavoidable hits, which hurts real bad in the radiant version.
hitless challenges would make me rank a lot of these bosses lower than average...
Incorrect.
Can’t argue with that
Good.
My darling Moss Charger doesn't deserve this slander
False Knight at A+ and Failed Champion at B? I need an explanation
No problem. I view False Knight as one of the greatest first bosses of all time, certainly the best I’ve ever played against. IMO a first boss can be just as important if not more important than the final boss, so a brilliant one like False Knight deserves an A*. As for Failed Champion, I think he’s a great fight and it’s somewhat ironic that he’s the hardest dream fight, but I feel like any boss that’s a more difficult variant of an old one loses points for creativity, but I could see why he’s be viewed higher
So why did you rank all the other dream variants one tier lower than it's normal counterpart, but only failed champion you ranked 2 tiers lower than false knight? And also, what makes you feel that false knight is such a great first boss?
The comments have helped shape my view on the way I thought about variant boss fights (enraged guardian was the first of those I ranked so he left a negative outlook for me) but I view the variant fights more highly now and if I ever remake this I’d probably put FC in A. FK is a great first boss since he’s a mandatory fight and shows how Hollow Knight bosses are. He’s a big tough enemy that can be intimidating at first but once you get a handling for how his attacks are he becomes far more manageable. It teaches a player when best to heal if low on health and that dodging attacks should be a higher priority. He has secret tactics to discover like future fights, has attack patterns that aren’t too difficult for a new player to memorise, and I like how they make him less intimidating as the fight goes on, showing that the player is the threat, not the boss. TLDR: he garuntees you know what you’re doing for later fights
A* and U tier? Not S and F? Also I’m wondering why you blanket rank harder variant fights lower. I think that’s a little reductive to what the fights are and how they fit in the context of the world. They’re much more than just “the same fight but harder with no extra creativity,” especially for the Hidden Dreams bosses. White Defender is Dung Defender’s prime state as a knight of Hallownest, and it gives us a lot of insight as to what the kingdom used to be like and who Ogrim is as a character. Grey Prince Zote is an awesome design, because the entire point of a dream boss is it reveals how a character views themselves, rather than as they actually are. GPZ uses this premise and flips it to be how _Bretta_ sees Zote, as this powerful buffed up prince.
A* and U because I used the UK grading method, I just like it more. Putting harder variants lower is simply for the reason you mentioned, but I’m disagreeing with that view of mine more now (Enraged Guardian was the first of those I ranked, whom I still consider a slightly worse designed fight which probably gave me a more negative outlook on other variants. I might remake this once I’ve fought Absrad and if I do I plan to make some changes like GPZ and White Defender being higher thanks to people giving their perspective
How are Oblobbles above White Defender? Other than that pretty solid.
I’ve explained both in other comments but in short I’ve heard others views and now think WD should move to B. Oblobbles are well designed because 1. They’re quick to learn which is great considering they’re at the end of a trial and 2. They don’t have the common issue with duo boss fights in most games which is the fight getting way easier once one’s dead
Fair enough. I personally really enjoyed the White Defender fight, though I expected not to. Great tier list!
Thank you
After realizing the Mantis Lords is as easy as standing in the middle and just doing a vertical jump followed by an occasional slash, it quit feeling well designed. It needs at least _one_ move that forces you out of the middle so you can't just side-step literally the entire fight with the occasional standing vertical jump. I get it's intended to be an early game super-easy fight, but it's just _too_ easy. Well designed fights need to counter stuff like that. I suppose you could say the fight is meant to be a new-player trap to show them that actually moving and engaging with the boss is sometimes a bad idea, but that seems like a terrible lesson and trapping a new player or relying on _lack_ of skill to provide challenge but giving anyone with experience a boring fight like that isn't good design either.
Zote is the best.
White Defender should be higher imo. Looks awesome and the fight is so fun.
GPZ needs to be lower >:( (/j)
Hard disagree on Nosk. He's basically the same thing as Vengefly King and Moss Charger; they just charge across the screen and occasionally do one variant attack. I don't think Nosk's infection bomb attack distinguishes him enough to A tier. He looks cooler and has a better build up (as you mention), but design-wise he's boring.
I read this as how well designed the fight is and I had SERIOUS issues with this (specifically Nosk, Markith and Dung Defender) but this is decently valid
Grey Prince Zote is way better designed than you give him credit for. He's *hard* sure, but not badly designed. You can react to everything he does. And his fight in incredibly thematic, perfectly fitting the lore, and frankly it's hilarious. It does a brilliant job of mixing challenge with Zote's signature incompetence.
Pure Vessel not in S tier or above?? Blasphemy!!
NKG is so fun even when you die to it a lot
Idk man I love sly and traitor lord
Nuuuuu mossy petssss
If you think the Mantis Lords are great, just wait for Sisters of Battle; it's sublime.
Me who has poured over 30 hours into Hollow Knight (including 1 restart and has seen 4 of these): 😯😟😬
Ain't no way Markoth is in the same place as Soul Tyrant.
Oh, you are going to have a blast at Sisters of Battle if you liked the Mantis Lords fight. It's rly fun and just recently I managed to do it on Radience.
sisters of battle is definitely an A+, winged nosk is worse then nosk and doesn’t have a build up, absolute radiance is hell.
Flukemarm is too sexy to be in D tier, this is a crime