Throughout the journey towards the citadel in Hollow Knight: Silksong, you’ll encounter various bosses, and The Widow is one of them. Found in the latter section of the map, this boss can be a formidable opponent, much like most bosses in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
The Widow Boss Guide in Hollow Knight: Silksong
The Widow is a mandatory boss fight that players have to encounter in the game, just like the Fourth Chorus and Moss Mother. You’ll find this boss inside a room, twirling silk using their slender hands in the Bellhart area of the map. So, when you reach this point, you’ll eventually come across The Widow.
What makes the Widow boss fight difficult, especially the 2nd half, is that all the attacks happen in a flurry, making it difficult to dodge them. Each attack individually is pretty easy to avoid, but unleashing them so quickly one after the other means that you are never away from getting a couple of masks wiped out. Here are the things to look out for when fighting The Widow in Hollow Knight Silksong:
- Bell drops: Look out for the yarns woven by The Widow. A single strand of yarn appearing vertically means a bell will fall from the roof. Similarly, a single strand of yarn appears diagonally from the corner of the screen, indicating a bell will fall from the corners and jump around the area (generally only once).
- Bell drops (later half of fight): The number of strands woven will increase, but will mostly be vertical, and in a limited area. Quickly dodge out of the way as soon as you see the first strand being woven, and you should be good.
- Mid-air lunge attack: The boss can diagonally lunge at Hornet at random intervals to attack. Keep an eye out when she jumps in the air, and you can either dodge or jump and land a quick couple of hits on the boss.
- Ground bells: Widow will summon four vertical strands across the boss room, which pulls out large rows of bells from the ground after a short delay. These will not get pulled out together, but one after the other, in the exact sequence that the vertical strands were summoned. The best strategy here is to jump and glide for the duration that the bells explode from the ground.
- Flurry attacks: The Widow will sometimes use a flurry of attacks and cross the boss room horizontally, damaging Hornet if not taken care of. This is a telegraphed move, and you will spot the boss just pausing for a fraction of a second before unleashing this attack.
- Increased bell drop frequency: The frequency of the bells falling around the stage also increases in the second phase of this boss fight.
Tips to Defeat the Widow
The key to defeating the boss lies in noticing when the yarns appear on the screen. So, here are some tips to defeat the boss:
- When the yarn vertically appears on the screen, move a little farther away from it. Generally, the bell dropping from the ceiling will bounce over Hornet, ignoring her. Similarly, you can move farther away when the diagonal bell drops on the floor, completely ignoring Hornet.
- Momentarily, when the four strands of Yarn appear on the screen, wait for a few seconds. When the first group of bells pops up from the ground, jump and move towards it. Generally, the rest of them pop up a little later, letting you avoid them in the process.
- This boss has two different phases. So, don’t let your guard down once you defeat the boss.
- The second phase flurry attack of this boss is easy to dodge, allowing you to jump above her. This will also provide you with a window to deal damage to this boss.
- Widow will also summon some vertical bells towards the sides of the screen. Just move and dodge away from them, as there are practically no gaps between each dropping ball.
For most of the first phase, you have to follow the above tips, and build that muscle memory when the boss unleashes these moves quickly in the second phase. Here, be patient, and don’t get greedy when it comes to dishing out damage. You could get caught up in the attack animation just to see one of those bells rushing exactly where you stand.
If you follow these rules, the Widow boss fight in Hollow Knight Silksong becomes an easy and less frustrating one. The game, after this tough boss fight, also rewards you appropriately as you enter the Bellhart area. This reward comes in the form of being able to finally upgrade Needle.
Defeating the boss also lands you the Needolin, which lets Hornet, well, play a song. This is actually required to unlock secrets, late-game areas, quests (like the Green Prince questline), and abilities (like the Silk Soar).
