It's been over a year since
Hollow Knight: Silksong
consumed my waking hours, and even now, certain memories still sting. I've traversed every corner of Pharloom, mastered its intricate needleplay, and stood triumphant over godlike beings that make the Pa... moreIt's been over a year since
Hollow Knight: Silksong
consumed my waking hours, and even now, certain memories still sting. I've traversed every corner of Pharloom, mastered its intricate needleplay, and stood triumphant over godlike beings that make the Pale King look like a tutorial. The team at Team Cherry crafted an absolute masterpiece, a sequel so grand it somehow exceeded expectations that had fermented for half a decade. But there's a shadow lurking behind the shining fang-and-nail ballet, a truth I've come to accept after achieving full completion: not every boss fight is a work of art. Some are downright miserable.
After replaying the game recently to celebrate its second anniversary, I found myself dreading specific encounters just as much as I remembered. These aren't the fights that defeat you through clever design or punishing but fair attack patterns. No, these are the ones that irritate through repetition, waste potential, or feel actively malicious in their structure. For every Trobbio or Phantom, there's a disgraced chef waiting to spit poison in your face. So, I've ranked the ten worst boss battles in
Silksong
, counting down from mildly disappointing to soul-crushingly terrible.
Spoilers ahead, naturally.
10. Crust King Khann – Brilliant Concept, Toothless Execution
My first encounter with Crust King Khann was a visual spectacle. Summoning gleaming coral stalactites that crashed down from the ceiling, he felt like a true monarch of the reef. Then the actual fight began, and the illusion shattered. By the time you reach Act 3, your crest abilities and mobility tools have made Hornet a whirlwind of silk and steel. Khann simply
cannot
keep up. His attacks are so telegraphed that dodging becomes muscle memory after ten seconds, and he possesses no second phase, no desperate escalation to match his regal bearing.
What frustrates me most is the wasted potential. The minion waves leading to his chamber are honestly more threatening. It feels as though Team Cherry originally designed a massive multi-phase ambush, then chopped it into pieces and forgot to inject any danger back into the king himself. Every replay, I sprint through the Coral Retreat thinking, "Maybe he'll surprise me this time." He never does. I genuinely hope future DLC grants him a true rematch, because the basic idea is phenomenal, and seeing a crustacean monarch reduced to an afterthought stings more than his spears ever could.
9. Palestag – Dreamlike in the Wrong Way
Those who played the original
Hollow Knight
remember the Dream Warriors: ethereal foes with simple, repeating patterns that never evolved into real complexity. Palestag, hidden deep within Verdania, is the spiritual successor to that formula, and it feels woefully out of place amidst the zone's otherwise frenzied flora and fauna. The entire fight consists of chasing the boss across an arena while dodging slow horizontal projectiles. There's no interplay, no need to use my tools creatively, just a tedious circle-strafe.
Verdania is a masterpiece of level design, packed with agile predators that leap and slash with terrifying precision. Discovering a hidden key and unlocking Sinner's Road only to find
this
waiting at the end felt like opening a treasure chest and finding lint. As an optional encounter, I appreciate its existence, but in 2026, after repeated playthroughs, I barely register it. It's a relic of a simpler era that
Silksong
otherwise left behind, and every time I return, I wish the room simply contained a challenging platforming gauntlet instead.
8. Disgraced Chef Lugoli – Maggot Mayhem
I stumbled into Lugoli's swampy kitchen far later than intended, overleveled and brimming with confidence. It didn't matter. The fight was still insufferable. She smashes her massive body around the arena like a knockoff Smough, but the real crime is her maggot mechanic. Poison spheres drift across the screen, and if they touch you, your ability to heal is disabled for a painful duration. It's a status effect that feels designed not to challenge, but to annoy.
The worst part? The entire encounter exists solely to drop a key piece for Pale Oil, an upgrade so crucial you'll endure this slop anyway. Her moveset is basic, her minions are a nuisance, and her arena's environmental hazards double down on the misery. In subsequent runs, I've learned to burst her down in thirty seconds with a fully upgraded needle, but the memory of that first, prolonged bout of maggot cleansing remains one of my most unpleasant video game experiences. Ludonarrative coherence be damned, she's consistent with her disgusting area, and I despise her for it.
7. Broodmother – A Party of Filth, Quickly Forgotten
Some bosses are so forgettable that their presence on a list feels almost generous. Broodmother is the archetypal trash mob that accidentally got a health bar. She hurls slow, predictable globs of less
