Hollow Knight: How to Defeat the Radiance Tips

The Radiance is the main antagonist and the secret final boss in Hollow Knight. She is a powerful opponent that players have been analyzing in various forums, as her attack moves seem endless. When you first encounter Radiance, she might be difficult to beat. But don’t fret, I’ll give you tips on making your fight with Hollow Knight’s last boss easier.

How to Defeat the Radiance in Hollow Knight

The Radiance is a cruel and powerful creature responsible for controlling the Moth tribe before the creation of Hallownest. She was also the one who inflicted the Infection as a punishment for the bugs breaking her laws.

The Radiance plans to use the Infection as a weapon of mass destruction to wipe out all of Hallownest’s wisdom until there is no one left to challenge her reign.

Defeating Radiance can be difficult, but this guide will teach you Radiance’s movesets, which charms to equip, and what spell is the best to use.

Defeating Radiance

Radiance has three phases, but the first one can be broken down into three, making it a total of five phases. For simplicity, we will stick to the original three phases.

Her attack moves are pretty consistent on the first two and will only change once she tries to murder you with a death star. The biggest giveaway of Radiance’s attacks is her audio cues.

She has a total of 8 attacks and will teleport after every single blow. Below are her movesets:

Beam Burst: Radiance fires eight beams that will spread evenly around her three separate sets. The first and second sets are in different directions, but the last one is usually where the first set was.

Sword Burst: shoots a total of 12 swords out of her face; these will spawn in random spots

Sword Rain: coming from the name itself, several swords will rain down on you; patiently wait for an opening

Wall of Light: a giant laser beam of death will appear at one side of the arena, heading towards the other side

Sword Wall: swords will fly from either side of the arena at a constant speed; these will come in sets of four in the first phase, groups of two in the second phase

Orb: usually comes in groups of three; these orbs will show an animation before attacking you

Spike Floor: in the middle of the first phase, Radiance will cover half of the floor with spikes

Beam: on the last phase of Radiance’s fight, you will need to go to the top of the arena; beams will keep attacking you in random spots

The best way to defeat Radiance is to prioritize dodging her attacks and wait for the perfect opportunity to spam Abyss Shriek and deal continuous massive damage.

Stay in the middle as much as possible to see everything coming. For charms, Quickslash, Strength, and Shaman Stone are highly recommended.

ALSO READ: Hollow Knight: All Secret Abilities Locations on the Map