Skarrsinger Karmelita is a mandatory boss that can only be found after unlocking Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Act 3. The boss will be located at Verdania, another secret region that resides inside the hidden Act. This is a tough boss, as not only are her attacks swift and filled with Bones, but she also has a massive health pool. This guide will detail all her moves and help you defeat this boss in no time.
How to Defeat Skarrsinger Karmelita In Hollow Knight: Silksong
To defeat Skarrsinger Karmelita in Hollow Knight: Silksong, you must constantly be on the move, dodge and parry her attacks with your Cross Stitch, use your Wings and glide above incoming projectiles and hit her as many times as you can. This boss will take some time to beat, thanks to her large health pool, so let’s take a look at all the moves she performs during the fight. (Check our guide here for all details of how to reach Karmelita; she drops a valuable item as part of the Old Hearts quest).
The Ant Gauntlet
I highly recommend completing the Phantom secret boss before attempting this fight, because you will get your hands on the precious Cross-Stitch skill, which consumes Silk to parry enemy attacks and then quickly counterattack. The boss fight does not begin right away when you reach Skarrsinger Karmelita’s location. Instead, you have to fight off an Ant Gauntlet, featuring waves of ants of all types, before you can actually begin the real boss fight. During this phase, multiple ants will try to eliminate you, mostly flying ones. Since Skarrsinger Karmelita is a singer, she’ll sing in the background and summon ants from the audience to kill you.
Only after defeating the Ant Gauntlet will the real boss fight begin. And yes, you guessed it right: if you die during any part of this boss fight, you have to repeat the entire Ant Gauntlet every time you retry it.
Bone Discs
Once you’ve defeated the Ant Gauntlet, Skarrsinger Karmeita will appear, and the real boss fight will begin. One of the first moves you’ll encounter is the Bone Discs, which she will throw very, very frequently at you. During this move, you need to either use your Cross Stitch to parry it or move out of the Disc’s way. This is also your best move to get in a few attacks of your own. She will either have a small windup and twirl the discs before throwing, or if she is airborne, then twirl her dress and then release the Bone Discs.
Bone Spikes
During the fight, Skarrsinger Karmelita will jump up, twirl her costume like a wheel, then drop down on the ground, releasing Bone Spikes as shown in the image above. Be on the lookout for her dress twirl; that is your visual cue for this attack. As soon as you see that happening, use Wings, or Swift Step, or simply dodge and get some distance between you and the boss. While the twirl is similar to the one that she sometimes uses to perform the Bone Discs, the difference here is that you will see the bone spikes from her dress an instant before she releases them.
Larger Bone Spikes
This move covers the entire boss fight arena and deals massive damage. When Skarrsinger Karmelita’s at one end of the arena, she’ll prepare to run from that end to the other. As she runs, she’ll release huge Bone Spikes across the entire boss arena that can easily reach Hornet, even if she’s above ground. For this move, try to go as high as you can, then use your Glide ability to start gliding as long as the large Bone Spikes are on the ground. It is best if you are able to stay at the end from which she started her charge, that way you will be able to see and react to her next move, which she does immediately after this one.
Bone Swipes
During the entirety of this fight, Skarrsinger Karmelita will move around the arena, swiping at you with her Bone weapons whenever you try to get close. It’ll look as if she’s dancing with her weapons while singing her tunes. During this move, either use your Cross Stitch to parry her swipes or dodge the swipes. Then, get close to her and start swiping away yourself to deal damage. The whole fight feels like a dance, so treat it as such.
Tips to Defeat Skarrsinger Karmelita
Skarrsinger Karmelita’s moves remain the same throughout all her phases, and her phases are divided by the times she starts singing. Throughout the fight, she’ll sing three times without attacking, which refers to her three stages. Watch out for her movements, as when she stops to sing a third time, it means you’re almost at the end. So, here are some tips to deal with her:
- Skarrsinger Karmelita will spam her Bone Discs throughout the entire fight. It’s easy to use Cross Stitch to parry them, but it’s even easier to dodge them with your traversal abilities. Once they’re out of the way, keep hitting her as much as you can.
- For Bone Spikes, use your Wings, Swift Step and Glide abilities to stay as far as you can above the ground. For the smaller Bone Spikes, you can head behind Karmelita and start attacking her. As for the huge Bone Spikes, follow the tip already mentioned above.
- The good thing is she stuns relatively quickly. When she’s stunned, don’t get greedy, since she recovers and dishes out her next move very quickly. This is a great time to heal if needed.
- Skarrsinger Karmelita’s Bone Swipes are easy to dodge, and allow for a window to get more hits in. Throughout the fight, you must keep moving and attack her whenever you get the chance to do so. Eventually, you’ll deplete her massive health pool and beat her.
- Always heal when airborne, that way there is a good chance that you will not be interrupted by most of her attacks.
- This is a game of patience and not getting greedy, and not a fight where you stay on the boss and be aggressive.
Once you’ve defeated Skarrsinger Karmelita, you’ll be able to obtain the Hunter’s Heart. This brings us to the end of the Skarrsinger Karmelita boss fight in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
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