A comprehensive review of Hive Knight (New Hive Boss)

[BarnZ]

As part of the new lifeblood update (which is currently in open beta), there have been some significant editions to the Hive, which (in my opinion, and the opinions of most players) was the most underdeveloped area in the game. Now we have a fully-fledged Hive which, with significant changes including the Hive Guardians, which now do 2 damage instead of 1, as well as the addition of Hive Knight, a new boss.

Hive Knight is located in the same location as Queen Vespa, before you aquire the Hiveblood charm. This area always seemed like it should have had a boss; there was a boss room and everything, but there never was. Now, when you walk through this room, 2 doors will seal you in and Hivelings will start flying from the ceiling before the Hive Knight boss is initiated. When Hive Knight is defeated, Queen Vespa will appear with (i think) the same dialogue as before.

Attacks

Hive Knight plays out kinda like a cross between hornet (kingdom's edge) and Broken Vessel (Ancient Basin). This actually makes sense in terms of lore, as Hornet was meant to have been trained by Queen Vespa, who also trained Hive Knight, so him being similar was intentional (and not lazyness). Hive Knight has 5 distinct attacks which are used throughout the fight, these include:

• Dash Atack: he will dash from one side of the arena to the other, covering about 70% of the arena. He will put is sword in front of him and lunge towards you; very similar to Hollow Knights dash attack.
  
• Slash Attack: Simular to a dash, but has a much shorter range and is a slash instead of a lunge. Coveres anywere from 10 - 30% of the arena.
  
• Air Slash Attack: Same as a regular slash attack, but in the air instead of on the ground; He will roll into a ball before using this attack.
  
• Spike Ball Attack: He spawns 3 spike balls at random places, with 8 spikes on each ball. These spikes will fly in there respective directions after about a second (then the ball will dissapear).
  
• Hiveling Attack: Spawns a mass of Hivelings from his mouth, wich then fly from the top of the arena, to the bottom, homing towards the player.

Hive Knight has 3 phases and 2 rest points between these phases.

Difficulty

If your like me and you nearly have 50 hours and 100% + in Hollow Knight, you will find this fight VERY easy. I came back to playing the game after about a month break (from hearing about the update) and beat this guy first time, in about 1.20 minutes. I had all nail upgrades and 9 health notches when fighting. My charm build included:

• Unbreakable Strength
  
• Mark of pride
  
• Quickslash
  
• Thorns of Agony
  
• Grubsong
  
• Void Heard (obviously)

All of his attacks do 1 damage and are relatively easy to dodge. If you've beaten Hornet of Kingdoms Edge, then you will have no problem fighting Hive Knight. His Spike Ball Attack and Hiveling Attack leave plenty of room and time to heal, so do it then.

Conclusion

Personally, I would put Hive Knight within my top 10 Hollow Knight bosses, he has an awesome soundtrack, great animations (as always), fun attacks to dodge and requires enough effort, to not think he was a cake walk (He also makes a really cute sound when you nock him down); I do wish he was a little bit more difficult though. He adds to the overall completeness of the Hive, while fitting within Hollow Knights lore and story. What did you guys think?

[Eklipser]

A great rework of the Hive and a fine addition to boss' collection. Now it really looks like bees have their own litte civilization with honey furniture and scripts/writings on the walls(?). Hive Knight is so cheerful and energetic. He's like the Dung Defender of the Hive. All attacks are some alterations of already existing in game moves but feel fresh enough to not be boring. A little bit more lore than one line from Queen Vespa would be appriciated but it's still great. I also adore waves of small bees as introduction to the duel of the Knights.
Buzzzzah!