Radiance and failing to Dream Nail the HK...

[:)]

It feels like if you don't specifically forfeit a notch for Dream Wielder, the DM is so slow, and window to DM the HK so low, that you've basically got ONE (if that) shot.

If you miss that shot, and especially if you're running any minions, he will always die before you do. So you can't even reset the fight by dying. You must kill him. Meaning forced cutscene. Forced unskippable credits. Which, in essence, means forced alt + F4 to restart the game.

In a nutshell: 'If you don't run Dream Wielder, or do run minions, straight up go ♥♥♥♥ yourself'. That's what it feels like. I've gotta be missing something. What am I missing?

[Boksha]

I'm not sure what you're missing. Some thoughts though:
First, Hornet always comes flying in right after a control-stealing roaring animation, so always pay attention after the boss does one of those (it's always the third one, not counting the one that starts the fight). From the moment Hornet throws her needle to the moment the HK becomes vulnerable to the Dream Nail it's a full 5 seconds of downtime during which you can move freely. You can use that time to get in position: nothing will be attacking you. Next, even if you somehow manage to face the wrong direction for your first Dream Nail attack, you still have enough time to face the other way and do another. If you do end up missing your opportunity, you can always enter the menu and exit to the title screen to try again, without having to watch the credits or restart the entire game.

[roymaster45]

Seconding what Boksha's comment said. While it's reasonable to assume that you're locked out of controlling your character during Hornet's entire entrance, given that you can't move during that roar animation (and indeed given that the same thing happens for a number of other bosses)... you do have several seconds to get into position before Dream Nailing the boss is even an option.

However, just for sh*ts and giggles, I used the stopwatch on my phone to record the times involved (with a margin of error of maybe one-tenth or two-tenths of a second, due to the input lag between what's happening in the game and me hitting the start/stop button):

(1) Dream Nail without Dream Wielder - 1.5 seconds
(2) Time between regaining control and the HK shrugging off Hornet's attack - approximately 11.5 seconds (7.65 seconds during which you can actually Dream Nail the boss, and about 4 seconds of mobility before that while Hornet comes in with the assist... I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the stopwatch timing for that first part, so I just looked at a video on YouTube)
(3) Time it takes to dash from the far edge of the arena (either side) to the center - approximately 3 seconds

So, even if you somehow ended up as far away as possible from the HK when it roars at you, you have enough time to close the distance and do up to four or five Dream Nail hits before the window closes.

As for the minions, that one was a little harder to figure out, since I'm not 100% sure if the fight transitioning to "whoops, guess you wasted the help from Hornet" was due to me doing enough damage with the Nail or because it timed out. Ultimately, though, I had to do at least 5 hits' worth of damage for the fight to transition, which (with a fully upgraded Nail and Unbreakable Strength) is about 158 damage. Ignoring Flukenest and Glowing Womb, since those will only do damage with you hitting or holding the spell/soul button, the remaining minions - Weaversong and a fully upgraded Grimmchild - do a total of 20 damage per hit. So even assuming those hits all occur once per second or faster, which seems unlikely, it would be tricky for them to do enough damage before the window of opportunity just times out anyway.

...Christ, I wonder if this is how Brian David Gilbert felt after every episode of Unraveled.

(Also, regarding the idea that you can't reset the fight... sure you can. Just pause, select "quit to menu", and reload the save file. Oldest trick in the book.)

[Nibbie]

What they said. The thing that you are missing is that you are straight up wrong about several of your facts.

[babuk.fracal]

Don't want to sound mean but, you have to be very bad at using the dream nail to think that

[baao]

You can always dream nail him once he finishes the 3rd phase, just pay attention to that and gap close and get ready for dream nail? Pretty sure you can just wait for him to kneel down fully then dream nail with quite a bit of time left

[JustALonelyDude]

i've never had this problem, there's plenty of time i'm pretty sure.