Hollow Knight Lifeblood & The Grimm Troupe Update Guide

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This guide is for the two latest Hollow Knight updates: Lifeblood and The Grimm Troupe. It includes the boss added in Lifeblood, the Grimm Troupe questline, boss fights, the Path of Pain walkthrough, the latest charms, and new NPC interactions.

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Contents

Lifeblood

The Lifeblood update makes several tweaks to the menu, graphics, audio, charms, old bosses, and NPC interactions. A new boss was also included in this update. Watch the video below if you want to see the new boss’ location and fight.

The new boss, Hive Knight, now defends the Hiveblood charm. As you can imagine, he is located in the Hive. The boss isn’t particularly difficult, especially if you’re fully upgraded… I could practically spam attack and tank him.

Spoiler Free Guide (Grimm Troupe)

I recommend you make a copy of your save file when you start the Grimm Troupe quest line so you can perform the ritual and banish it (both cannot be done in the same save file).

The save files are located in C:Users[yourname]AppDataLocalLowTeam CherryHollow Knight. There your save files will be called user1.dat or user2.dat (the number represents which save file it is). So if you want to copy it, copy user1.dat and change the file name to user2.dat or user3.dat.

Go to this location in the Howling Cliffs and break the wall. After you are done lighting the fire, go back to Dirtmouth. Don’t watch the videos if you want to go through the quest by yourself.

Hollow Knight - Lifeblood & The Grimm Troupe Update Guide

Grimm Troupe Full Video Guide

If you choose to follow this video and NOT banish the Grimm Troupe (skip 09:49 to 11:24), you will have the opportunity to fight the Nightmare King Grimm. It is a difficult fight, but very fun (see Nightmare King Grimm video). Doing this will allow you to keep the Grimmchild charm and the opportunity to unlock the Ritual achievement.

Divine and Charms

Divine will transform your fragile charms into unbreakable charms, for a price (1:47).

  • Heart: 12000 Geo
  • Greed: 9000 Geo
  • Strength: 15000 Geo

Brumm and Banishment

Brumm can be found in the Beast’s Den after you beat the Troupe Master Grimm (follow the flame on the map) (watch the video below). He will hand over one flame and give you the opportunity to end the ritual. Brumm will then go back to the location where you started the quest and wait for you there. Choosing to extinguish the flame will cause the Grimm Troupe AND Divine to go away permanently.

If you choose to end the ritual two things will happen:

1. Nymm will stay behind and give you the Carefree Melody charm (if you talk to him):
“Token commemorating the start of a friendship.
Contains a song of protection that may defend the bearer from damage.”

2. You will unlock the banishment achievement. Make sure you talk to Nymm after banishing the Troupe and sit on a bench. If the achievement still doesn’t unlock, try exiting and entering the game.

Fighting Troupe Master Grimm

Troupe Master Grimm is fairly difficult. His attacks do 1 damage and are fairly straight forward. Don’t panic like I did in the video. At the end of each phase (the boss will transform into bats) you will have enough time to heal 3 times, maybe even 4 times if you’re quick.

Beating this boss fight will earn you the Grand Performance achievement.

These are the charms I chose:

  • Nailmaster’s Glory –
    Basically reduces the charge time for Nail Art. Honestly, this wasn’t very useful in the fight. I would recommend using a different charm.
  • Void Heart –
    Can’t be unequipped. 
  • Mark of Pride –
    Increases the range of the nail. I like having a longer nail just because it makes attacks easier to land. An added bonus is that you don’t have to get as close to the boss to hit him.
  • Long Nail –
    Also increases the range of the nail. Same reasoning.
  • Stalwart Shell –
    Increases invulnerable time after taking damage. Pretty self explanatory. 
  • Grimmchild –
    Grimmchild is required for the Troupe Master Grimm fight, but NOT for Nightmare King Grimm.

Fighting Nightmare King Grimm

Yep, this is a tough one. Be prepared to die. A lot. Each attack does 2 damage. The flames lingering behind his body will damage you as well. Similar to the first boss, you will have enough time to heal 3 times between each phase. I wouldn’t recommend trying to heal a 4th time – it is not worth it if you get hit and lose 2 health. Be patient, learn his moves, and don’t give up.

Beating this boss will earn you the Ritual Achievement.

I equipped the same charms as I did for the Troupe Master Grimm fight. See above.

However, Grimmchild is not needed to fight Nightmare King Grimm!
Since that is the case, I would recommend unequipping Grimmchild and Nailmaster’s Glory, and equiping Quick Slash instead.

Path of Pain

There is a new (secret) platforming challenge in the White Palace called the Path of Pain. It can be found behind a breakable wall. The video below shows how to find the Path of Pain.

The full Path of Pain obstacle course:

This was pretty hard. The video is quite short but this took me about 1.5 hours. Some of the jumps are extremely precise and will require a lot of practice/patience. Here are some of my tips:

  • This is not for everyone. The “reward” might disappoint some of you, considering how difficult it is to get to the end. You will not get an item or achievement. Don’t go crazy trying to finish it.
  • Knowing what is coming ahead (from watching this video) is already a big advantage. 
  • If you are determined to finish, don’t give up. You will get better at it. Take a deep breath and don’t rush. Also if you back track (return to a previous screen) or close the game, you will have to start over; keep that in mind. 
  • The soul statues (the ones you hit to regain soul) will provide infinite souls (at least from my experience). You SHOULD take advantage of it to fully heal and refil your soul canister. 
  • I really recommend using the D-pad instead of the analogue stick (if you’re not using a controller, I would recommend you do so too). I find that nail bouncing/pogoing is much easier and my movements are more precise when I use the D-pad. 
  • There are 2 enemies at the very end who do 2 damage per hit. Don’t be surprised – dying here means you will have to start from the beginning. 
  • The charms you equip can make the Path of Pain less painful.

These are the charms I chose:

  • Hiveblood –
    This will allow your health to regenerate over time (only 1). You will take a lot of damage in the Path of Pain and you want to avoid death at all costs. Why? If you die, you start from the beginning. With this charm you will regenerate 1 health every 30 seconds (more or less). So as long as you get injured at a slower rate than you heal, you will be fine.
  • Deepfocus –
    Allows you to heal for 2 health per soul focus. Same idea as Hiveblood; try to avoid death at all cost.
  • Mark of Pride –
    Increases the range of the nail. This is just a personal preference. In this parcours you are required to down slash A LOT. The extra range on the nail makes this a little easier (at least in my opinion). If you don’t have this charm, you could use the Long Nail charm instead.

The New Charms

Attention:As far as I know, you cannot have both the Grimmchild and Carefree Melody charms in the same save file. Make a choice and be prepared to sacrifice one for the other. Or copy your save file and make both choices.

New NPC Interactions

This video includes all the new NPC interactions I could find after the update, including the Dream Nail thoughts of bosses and enemies.

  • Bretta (talking to Zote) has new dream dialogue. (00:00)
  • If you activate the Grimm Troupe flame, and equip the Grimm(child) charm, go talk to the White Lady. (05:31)
  • After you convert all your fragile charms to unbreakable charms with Divine, go visit Leg Eater. (07:13)

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