Balance level future?

[No_CLU]

Seasoned and skilled player but boss battles damage vs. HP are WAY out of balance.
I understand learning boss moves and looking for opening. But sometimes feel that I am fighting with a rubber Nail. As no idea how much damage I am doing so planning style of attacks harder. Specially given many guided boss attacks that change direction mid attack.

Is this problem fixed in other games of the same series? As not sure I would continue to support if no effect made to fix balance or option to reduce boss HP and enjoy the world move. So game does not become about battles.

Apart from that enjoying exploring the game even with all the back tracking.

P.S. Mr Programmer it's sadistic to put your monsters starting position in a room ALWAYS over the platform you need to jump to

[Witt]

Bosses become more powerful and have more HPs as the game progresses. As your gear should. If some bosses seem to have too much HPs, check if you can upgrade your Nail at the Nailsmith in City of Tears, or change your Charms.

[No_CLU]

Current game as level 3 Nail & most of the special moves. With 26+ Charms.
With no display on how much Boss heath hard to see what damage attacks are doing to work out best way do prepare. Apart from WAY more trial & error than is needed.
Current Tomb Raider balance allowed you to lower combat play in favour of exploring. Something think would work well in Hollow Knight.

[ramonpontes]

I think the bosses are very balanced in HP vs your damage. In very specific occasions I had to retreat and come back later with a more upgraded nail.

I think that what causes this impression is that you cannot see the boss HP. It is difficulty to know if you're making some progress or not.

I don't want to spoil you, but spells and nail arts can boost up the damage you cause on the enemies. You can find the damage values on the Hollow Knight Wiki.

Is there any specific boss that you think is too unbalanced?

[Tin_Lizzy]

one solution if you're struggling with a boss is to rework your charm setup. if you're really struggling that much with dps, i'd recommend unbreakable strength and quick slash.

[Doctor Fetus]

This game is unlikely to hit any further patches since devs are currently working on their New game.

Hollow Knight has very well made and balanced bosses imo. With very few exceptions all of them can be learned and mastered to the point you can beat them while taking no damage or next to no damage at all.

Also if your upgrades are maxed out (and you seem to be very close to that state) most bosses in a game can be killed by just mindlessly tanking them and spamming attack. So basically you can dedicate your self to exploribg while skipping most difficulty bosses, and later steam roll over them.

[Syndiciate]

Here are a couple of solutions for your problem:

1. Do not upgrade your nail. Only upgrade spells.

Bosses HP increases along with your nail damage, though not to the same extent that your damage increases meaning nail upgrades should always make bosses easier and not harder if you're ONLY utilizing your nail to take them down. Boss HP does not go up if you upgrade your spells however meaning you can simply get all of the spell upgrades, put on the charm that increases spell damage and melt bosses as a result.

2. Alter your charm set up.

If you simply put on charms like Strength or Quick Slash your damage increases dramatically. If you pair the two together then you shouldn't be having trouble with any of the bosses that can be found in the base game with 1 or 2 exceptions.

If you do not have access to these charms, you can also simply run an endurance build. I.E. a charm setup that allows you to continue fighting ad infinitum as long as you don't screw up too badly. A charm setup like; Quick Focus, Heart and Grubsong should suffice.

3. Git gud.

Self explanatory.

[ramonpontes]

Originally posted by Syndiciate:

1. Do not upgrade your nail. Only upgrade spells.

Bosses HP increases along with your nail damage, though not to the same extent that your damage increases meaning nail upgrades should always make bosses easier and not harder if you're ONLY utilizing your nail to take them down. Boss HP does not go up if you upgrade your spells however meaning you can simply get all of the spell upgrades, put on the charm that increases spell damage and melt bosses as a result.

Hey, I didn't knew about that. Is this really true? Where did you get this info?

I'm currently doing a run without upgrading my nail, and it is not as easy as if I had my upgraded nail. But It could be only my impression.

[Witt]

Originally posted by ramonpontes:

Originally posted by Syndiciate:

1. Do not upgrade your nail. Only upgrade spells.

Bosses HP increases along with your nail damage, though not to the same extent that your damage increases meaning nail upgrades should always make bosses easier and not harder if you're ONLY utilizing your nail to take them down. Boss HP does not go up if you upgrade your spells however meaning you can simply get all of the spell upgrades, put on the charm that increases spell damage and melt bosses as a result.

Hey, I didn't knew about that. Is this really true? Where did you get this info?

I'm currently doing a run without upgrading my nail, and it is not as easy as if I had my upgraded nail. But It could be only my impression.

It says so on the wiki. I never truly paid attention to it though.

[rolandoftheeld]

Originally posted by ramonpontes:

Originally posted by Syndiciate:

1. Do not upgrade your nail. Only upgrade spells.

Bosses HP increases along with your nail damage, though not to the same extent that your damage increases meaning nail upgrades should always make bosses easier and not harder if you're ONLY utilizing your nail to take them down. Boss HP does not go up if you upgrade your spells however meaning you can simply get all of the spell upgrades, put on the charm that increases spell damage and melt bosses as a result.

Hey, I didn't knew about that. Is this really true? Where did you get this info?

I'm currently doing a run without upgrading my nail, and it is not as easy as if I had my upgraded nail. But It could be only my impression.

It's only true for Warrior Dream fights and Grimmkin. All other enemies don't scale.

[Syndiciate]

Originally posted by rolandoftheeld:

Originally posted by ramonpontes:

Hey, I didn't knew about that. Is this really true? Where did you get this info?

I'm currently doing a run without upgrading my nail, and it is not as easy as if I had my upgraded nail. But It could be only my impression.

It's only true for Warrior Dream fights and Grimmkin. All other enemies don't scale.

Oh crap, you're right. My bad. Thought it was all bosses for some reason.