Boss Rush & Pantheon Guide

Boss Rush Overview

Hollow Knight: Silksong features 43 bosses across its main story, optional encounters, and secret fights. While the base game doesn't include a built-in Godhome-style boss rush mode like Hollow Knight's DLC, the game offers several ways to challenge yourself against multiple bosses in sequence:

• Colosseum Trials — Three tiers of arena combat with boss waves
• Nightmare Gauntlet — A late-game story sequence with back-to-back boss encounters
• Pantheon of Pharloom Mod — A community-created mod that adds full boss rush functionality (PC only)
• Achievement challenges — "No Healing" boss rush and "Champion of Pharloom" (defeat all 43 bosses)

All Bosses in Order

Here's every boss encounter in Silksong, organized by the order most players encounter them:

Early Game Bosses

Mid Game Bosses

Late Game Bosses

Secret & Optional Bosses

*Required for the True Ending and Nightmare achievement.

The remaining bosses are mini-bosses, variant encounters, and DLC bosses that round out the total of 43.

Colosseum Trials

The Colosseum is the closest thing to a boss rush in the base game. It features three trial tiers with waves of enemies culminating in boss encounters.

Trial 1: The Warrior's Trial

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ Waves: 8 enemy waves + 1 boss wave Boss: Colosseum Beast Reward: 500 Rosaries + Warrior's Seal

Strategy:

• Use the Reaper Crest for maximum Silk generation across waves
• Conserve throwables for the boss wave
• Prioritize aerial enemies first — ground enemies are easier to dodge
• The Colosseum Beast is vulnerable during its charge recovery

Trial 2: The Champion's Trial

Difficulty: ★★★★☆ Waves: 12 enemy waves + 2 boss waves Bosses: Armored Duo (wave 8) + Colosseum Master (wave 12) Reward: 650 Rosaries + Champion's Seal

Strategy:

• The Armored Duo mid-boss fight is the hardest part — focus one target at a time
• Between waves, stand on high ground to avoid early attacks
• The Colosseum Master has a three-hit combo: jump, dash, jump to dodge the full sequence
• Bring Healing Cocoon for passive recovery between waves

Trial 3: The Legend's Trial

Difficulty: ★★★★★ Waves: 16 enemy waves + 3 boss waves Bosses: Fury Beast (wave 6) + Gilded Champion (wave 11) + Colosseum Legend (wave 16) Reward: 800 Rosaries + Legend's Seal + "Colosseum Champion" achievement

Strategy:

• This is an endurance fight. Health management is critical.
• Beast Crest lifesteal is excellent for sustaining through 16 waves
• Save your best throwables for boss waves
• The Colosseum Legend's final phase has a devastating AoE — jump + dash immediately when you see the wind-up
• Memorize which waves have ranged enemies vs melee — positioning matters

Nightmare Gauntlet

The Nightmare quest chain is accessed in the late game and features back-to-back boss encounters without resting between them.

Accessing the Nightmare

1. Find the Nightmare Lantern in the Citadel Depths
2. Light the lantern using a specific Silk Skill
3. Enter the Nightmare Realm

Nightmare Boss Sequence

Fight 1: Nightmare Shades — Wave-based shadow enemies (★★★☆☆)

• Shadows mimic your attack patterns with a delay
• Stay aggressive — passive play gives them time to overwhelm you

Fight 2: Nightmare Herald — The realm's guardian (★★★★☆)

• Fast teleporting enemy with projectile attacks
• Wait for it to materialize fully before attacking
• 3-hit windows after each teleport sequence

Fight 3: Nightmare Core — The source of the Nightmare (★★★★★)

• Multi-phase fight with environmental hazards
• Phase 1: Dodge expanding nightmare rings while attacking the core
• Phase 2: Core spawns shadow duplicates. Focus the real core (it pulses brighter)
• Phase 3: The arena shrinks. Maximum aggression required before the arena disappears entirely

Reward: Nightmare Seal + unlocks True Ending path + "Nightmare Slayer" achievement

Best Boss Rush Builds

Sustained Endurance Build

Crest: Beast Tools: Healing Cocoon (Blue) + Throwing Daggers (Red) + Silk Trap (Yellow) Strategy: Lifesteal Bind keeps you alive through extended encounters. Daggers for safe chip damage. Silk Traps for breathing room.

Maximum Damage Build

Crest: Reaper Tools: Weighted Belt (White) + Blast Shells (Red) + Clock Beetle (Yellow) Strategy: Heavy attacks deal massive damage. Blast Shells for burst damage on bosses. Clock Beetle slows time for easy dodge windows. High risk — no defensive tools.

Balanced All-Rounder Build

Crest: Hunter Tools: Gossamer Cloak (White) + Binding Bolts (Red) + Silk Barrier (Blue) + Bellway Beacon (Yellow) Strategy: Extended dash for safety, stun bolts for attack windows, barrier for emergency protection. Solid for players learning boss patterns.

Speed Kill Build

Crest: Wanderer Tools: Weighted Belt (White) + Poison Needles (Red) + Clock Beetle (Yellow) Strategy: Fast attacks + poison DOT + time slow. Maximizes damage-per-second for experienced players who can dodge consistently.

Boss Rush Tips

1. Learn one boss at a time — Don't attempt the Colosseum until you're comfortable with every regular enemy type. Don't attempt the Nightmare until you've beaten the main story.

2. Health management is everything — In multi-fight sequences, the hardest part isn't any single boss — it's starting the next fight at low health. Prioritize healing over damage.

3. Memorize phase transitions — Most bosses are predictable until they transition between phases. Phase transitions often include an AoE attack — create distance when you see the transition animation.

4. Use invincibility frames — Dash i-frames, Gossamer Cloak extended i-frames, and the brief invincibility during Bind activation can all save your life.

5. Save throwables for emergencies — In a boss rush, your throwable charges are limited. Don't waste them on regular enemy waves.

6. The No Healing achievement — Complete a boss rush (any Colosseum trial) without using Bind healing. Beast Crest lifesteal does NOT count as Bind healing, making it technically easier than it sounds.

7. Practice makes permanent — Use the Pantheon of Pharloom mod (PC) to practice specific boss fights repeatedly. There's no faster way to learn patterns.

Champion of Pharloom Achievement

Defeating all 43 bosses across the game earns the "Champion of Pharloom" achievement. This requires:

• All 10 required story bosses
• All optional area bosses
• All Colosseum bosses
• All Nightmare bosses
• All secret bosses (including the hidden Lace 3rd encounter and Ancient Weaver)

Tip: Use the Hunter's Journal to track which bosses you've defeated. Missing bosses will show as silhouettes with a "?" in the journal.