Hollow Knight Best Charms Ranked (2024)

As someone who never understood the appeal of Metroidvania games until recently, I have Hollow Knight to thank for this change of attitude. Thanks to this little knight guiding me through the creepy, beautiful, punishing world of Hallownest I see what everyone else saw, and because of this, I've dedicated more time than I care to admit, absorbing all that Hollow Knight has to offer.

Which, as you might expect, makes me pretty knowledgeable about which charms work well, and which are about as much use in a fight as Zote backing you up. So, using this experience, let's rank the best Hollow Knight charms!

1 Steady Body

See Also

Isma's Grove & The Watcher's Spire - Hollow Knight Guide - IGN

Let's kick things off with a real Marmite charm. Steady Body essentially takes all recoil away from player attacks, meaning you won't need to readjust to avoid falling off tiny platforms, and you won't need to constantly reposition after each successful hit. So it's a good comfort charm for beginner players, but I place it at the foot of this list because it kind of opens up every fight for a cheese that ruins the whole experience.

If you are running a combo of this one, Quick Slash, and Stalwart Shell, you can essentially tank hits, and swing wildly to take out a lot of tough bosses, ignoring the nuances of their attacks completely. In the spirit of fairness, I include this charm because it can help those stuck in bosses to overcome adversity. But I won't put it any higher because the game is meant to be hard, folks. As Hornet says, 'Git Gud'.

2 Wayward Compass

I have tried to avoid adding utility charms to this list as much as possible, but no matter which way I weigh it up, I just can't leave Wayward Compass off the list, because it's near essential for new players to get their bearings. Hollow Knight has a rather genius map system, where you'll need to find the Cartographer Cornifer in each area, and then you'll need to fill out the rest of his map yourself by exploring.

Without Wayward Compass, however, you wouldn't have a helpful 'You are here' marker, and believe me, you would not believe how often you get lost without it. This charm becomes less useful as you learn the nooks and crannies of Hallownest like the back of your hand, but because of its importance in the player's first playthrough, we felt it was only right to grant it a spot.

3 Sharp Shadow

Next up, we have Sharp Shadow, a charm that comes into its own when you gain access to the Shade Cloak. This charm allows you to deal damage to enemies by avoiding them with a dash. Without the Shade Cloak, dashing into enemies would lead to you losing a mask, but with this Cloak and Sharp Shadow combo, you can make your evasiveness deadly.

You see, when you dash through an event with this equipped, you deal damage. This means that even when you are on the back foot, you can still be chipping away at foes. For fights like the Traitor Lord and Lost Kin, this charm turns the tide in your favor, and while it may not be all that good when outside of boss encounters, it is still more than worthy of this top ten.

4 Spell Twister

Here's one for all you little Knights that favor using spells. Spell Twister is a charm that basically gives the player an additional spell to use, as each spell uses less SOUL. This doesn't help too much in the early game, as spells are weak. But as soon as you double this up with the Shaman Stone Charm, and get the Shade Soul ability, you'll thank the heavens you have another spell to hurl at your enemies.

It has a relatively low charm notch cost, and when paired with something like Soul Catcher or Grubsong, you'll find that you almost always have at least one spell in the chamber ready to go. So, if you like spell builds, this is one that you'll want to try and find the charm notches to fit into your setup.

5 Mark of Pride

You'll find that as you wander Hallownest, a lot of NPCs are all too happy to make fun of your little nail. If you manage to beat the Mantis Lords, however, you'll gain access to Mark of Pride, a charm that vastly increases your range when swinging your nail. Being able to land hits and keep your distance is a real boon in a number of intense fights within this game, and if you combine this with Longnail, you can accentuate this charm's ability.

The argument against this charm would be that it does become less useful as you become skilled enough to avoid attacks without the buffer that this charm provides, and with that, you'd want to reallocate your notches. But this is a charm available early in the game, makes a lot of fights much easier, and may be the charm that finally gets you through that section in the Trial of Fools. You know the one.

6 Quick Slash

How do you make enemies die fast in Hollow Knight? Well, it's simple. You hit them loads, and eventually, they fall to your little nail. So, by that logic, what could be better than upping the DPS of your blade by making it swing faster? In short, not much. Quick Slash is a charm that allows you to make the most out of the little windows that enemies and bosses give you to attack, and it has the potential to make every fight short and sweet.

The only drawback here is that, because of the recoil on each strike, you'll need to constantly reposition, and this will somewhat negate the positive effect of this charm, but with Steady Body also equipped, you can stand before any enemy and spam the attack button with carefree abandon. Then, if you have Stalwart Shell equipped for extra I-frames, all the better. It's not a foolproof plan by any means, but you may be surprised just how far Quick Slash can take you.

7 Shaman Stone

Spell Twister is great and all, but by far, the best Spell-related charm in Hollow Knight is the Shaman Stone, a charm that ups the overall damage output of your spells. This means your Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul, Abyss Shriek and Howling Wraiths attacks are all given a healthy boost, making each cast much more deadly. It's a charm that can be acquired early in the game, making it the most viable early-game damage booster, and it has great synergies to play around with.

Soul Eater, Soul Catcher and Spell Twister are obvious combos, but my personal favorite is Flukenest, as this damage boost, combined with the already powerful effect of Flukenest, can take down even the most powerful bosses and enemy variants in seconds flat. Not to mention, it makes the area of effect bigger with larger projectiles. All in all, for spell users, the Shaman Stone is pretty much a non-negotiable, so be sure to add it to your setup next time you feel like a spell-based run.

8 Quick Focus

In case you're some freak of nature who sauntered through Hallownest and didn't notice, Hollow Knight is a hard game, and staying alive is a task that becomes more and more difficult as the game progresses. Whether it be the creepy region of Deepnest, the dreaded Path of Pain or the Pantheons of Hallownest, Hollow Knight is hellbent on beating you to a pulp. This is why Quick Focus is an excellent ace to have up your sleeve.

Quick Focus allows the player to focus fast to heal in a fraction of the time it would normally take, which in the early game isn't all that necessary. But as the bosses get harder, and the windows for healing become tighter, this charm grants you more viable windows to heal up without getting punished for standing static during an intense battle. This can be combined with the Shape of Unn for quick healing on the move or with Deep Focus for double healing without the penalty that Deep Focus provides.

9 Nailmaster's Glory

I feel like I might get a bit of heat for this one, but in truth, it all depends on your play-style and how much you value the various Nail Arts within Hollow Knight, and in case you hadn't guessed, I think those attacks slap. Great Slash and Cyclone Slash are attacks I just can't live without, but unless you have Nailmaster's Glory equipped, the charge-up to use these attacks just isn't worth the hassle. Nailmaster's Glory cuts down on this waiting time, allowing you to frequently use these attacks with ease.

This is a charm that really shines during the Trial of Fools and the Colosseum of Fools in general, for that matter, providing a means of crowd control and the ability to spawn-kill deadly little pests like Primal Aspids. But you will need to do the legwork to learn these Nail Arts from the three Nail Masters of the realm. If you are willing to study these arts, however, you'll walk away from each lesson a stronger and more dangerous knight.

10 Fragile/Unbreakable Strength

Then lastly, in our top spot for most useful Charm in Hollow Knight, we have Unbreakable Strength. This is initially sold to the player as Fragile Strength, which is a breakable charm sold by Leg Eater, and when it's gone, you won't be able to equip it until it is repaired. But the good news is, that you can upgrade this charm to an unbreakable variant, and when you do, you gain access to a permanent charm that offers a very helpful damage boost of 50%. So, if you have a fully upgraded nail, this allows for a whopping 31.5 damage.

It will cost you 15,000 Geo to upgrade this charm courtesy of Divine, who becomes a resident of Dirtmouth after you begin the Grimm Toupe DLC content, but considering that in the late-game, Geo loses all meaning as there are very few ways to actually spend it, this is a good way to put it to use. Unless you are willing to constantly fork out to fix the Fragile version, this is a charm you may only use in the late-game, but if you want to stand a chance of clearing all Godhome has to offer, this is practically essential, and that's why this one takes our top spot!