Can't defeat the final boss.

[Valkurm Emperor]

I just can't kill The Radiance.
For most bosses i use spores,thorns, quick focus and stalwart shell. But none of this works on radiance. He's always out of range for the spores and i can't go to town on him using stalwart shell as he's never near the ground. Doing 2 masks worth of damage just makes it worse and there is rarely an open spot to heal.

I have read about the strategy using the lifeblood charms and joni's charm but using this set up i can't defeat the hollow knight to even get to radiance.

[Askeladd]

The "easy/best" way is lifeblood&co (as you get your lives back when facing radiance) and spell charms (more soul and more damage). This way you don't waste time to heal and you do great damage.

[profL0g1c]

Or, if your good, use Shape of Unn + Quick Focus to heal between attacks. (My Radiance build is that + Deep Focus + Unbreakable Heart)

[5thbrother]

Unbreakable Strenght, Unbreakable Heart, Quick Slash, Mark of Pride, Grubsong

With that setup You can outdps Hollow Knight so You dont even have to worry about healing, just focus to have full souls bcose you get all mask back before Radiance fight.
And in Radiance fight focus on not getin hit, just play safe, Quick Slash and Unb Strenght let You deal a lot of damage at once when You find good/safe time to attack.
Safe time is when she make lasers from her body three times, or when she make blades from her body 3 times.

2nd phase is easy and after that You can heal to full

3rd phase just rush her and outdps, or again like i phase one focus on not gettin hit, i always rush her bcose i hate to dodge attack without freakin flor :D

Its easier fight than You think, with right charms setup, good luck.

[Valkurm Emperor]

No matter what i try im not getting anywhere. i may just give up.

[Blur]

Abyss Shriek with Shaman Stone ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wrecks her, or at least quickly drains her health in her first two phases

I'd say you should try to be more passive and get accostumed to her pattern of attack, the better you can consistenly dodge her attacks the better your chances

[Anienonimowa]

Personally, I got soul catcher, soul eater, spell twister and shaman stone. Spammed the mo❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ to death.

[Shreesh Fuup]

My first build where I beat the Radiance utilized
Joni’s Blessing,
Unbreakable Heart,
Lifeblood Heart,
and Shaman Stone.
It’s a spank and tank strategy, really. Just beat the crap out of the Hollow Knight while using the occasional spell for that fight (it isn’t that hard), then with the Radiance fight pull off as many Abyss Shrieks as possible in rapid succession. It’s honestly kind of surprising how fast the upgraded up spell takes her down.
Now, I would likely go with
Unbreakable Strength,
Unbreakable Heart,
Mark of Pride,
and Quick Focus.


Remember to make sure you have all 9 masks and all 3 extra soul vessels before fighting, as well as the pure nail and the shadow versions of the down and up spells.

Tips on how to dodge attacks:
The easiest to dodge, the wheel of laser beams; The Radiance will never fire a laser in the previous spot she fired them at, so sitting where one of the last shots disappeared is viable.

The second easiest, the sword wheel; This attack is very easy to dodge if it doesn’t spawn on you. To counter it, never attack the Radiance when she has just teleported somewhere and is about to attack. If you stay away until you know which attack she is using, then you can pretty much avoid being hit every time. A warning though; the swords turn slightly in midair.

The harder attacks, the sword walls; With enough precision, you can dash through the gaps in the walls, but it is easier to shade cloak through the whole wall or use descending dark at the right time to avoid the whole wall altogether.

The descending sword ceilings are not as hard to dodge, only requiring you to walk to a good gap in the swords to dodge - but if you try to dash past the descending swords you will dash into them and get hit,

The spike floors are easy, just desolate dive onto them or pogo off of them, but try to avoid them entirely, as they are a pain.

The homing magic orbs can be quite annoying; to avoid them, like in the soul master fight it is best to not jump and lure them into the ground, However, in the platform phase, it is a bit more tricky to dodge them, as you must wait until they die out naturally or trick them into slapping a platform themselves. They have an annoying invincibility period when initially spawned, meaning that they won’t be destroyed on platforms for about 1/2 a second after coming into existence.

The death wall of light is another attack that can be a pain, as it activates independently from the other attacks. It is the reason you usually want to stay in the middle of the stage, and only use shadow cloak when necessary. It is the most downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t attack of them all, though, and can catch you off guard or on cool down.

When using spells like the descending dark and abyss shriek, be sure that you don’t just spam them, as abyss shriek basically makes you a sitting duck waiting to get murdered and the descending dark it timed improperly can either run out of invincibility frames in the middle of a laser or just send you down into the abyss if there is no ground below you.


Finally, the Radiance fight comes in phases:

Phase 1:
The Radiance will teleport around and use the laser ring, sword ring, sword wall, sword ceiling and magic orbs attacks.

Phase 2:
The Radiance will do the same as phase 1, but will start to cover the left or right half of the arena in spikes.

Phase 3: The Radiance will cover the left and right thirds of the arena in spikes, hover right above the middle of the arena, and repeatedly use the sword ceiling attack until the next phase.

Phase 4: The Radiance will fly up and summon many platforms, then creating an arena out of platforms as the void rises up. In this phase, the Radiance will use all attacks except the spike floors.

Phase 5: The Radiance will fly up higher and summon many more platforms in an upwards tower, and the player must then climb up the tower of platforms while the Radiance fires lasers from above and the void rises from the below.

Defeating phase 5 of the Radiance gets you that victory.

[River Victor]

Another easy build people overlook like Quick Focus, Unbreakable Strength, Deep Focus and Grubsong. You will heal two points at a time so there's more room for mistakes.

You can also wait for her to spawn in the middle and just up-slash or pogo down slash. That's where you can deal most damage.

[KreeD17]

I have a personal build that helped me a lot, the only thing i am not able to beat with it is the absolute radiance.
Ubreakable Strenght
Mark of Pride
Quick Slash
Spell Twister
The goal of this setup is simple, learn how to damage the enemy with your nail, then attack him with a ton of soul attacks when possible.
*Note that this setup is good if you're skilled enought with the nail, otherwise you should look for a spell based setup or something like a eldergrub setup.
Hope that helped ya