100% Completion - Ignoring the hardest parts

This short guide is for people who want to get the 100% completion achievements and explains what you can skip on your playthrough to make it easier for yourself. Applies to both Steel Soul mode and normal mode.

Introduction

When I first found out about Steel Soul mode I thought it would be incredibly difficult, especially getting the Steel Heart achievement. Doing everything in the game without dying sounds terribly hard. But I soon learned that the game isn't as evil as it first seems. You don't actually have to do everything despite having to reach 100% completion. The trick is that since the Grimm Troupe update, the Lifeblood update and the Godmaster update the maximum completion in the game is 112% and this means that we can get away with just ignoring 12%!

Of course this guide is also applicable in normal mode but the main purpose of it is to explain the easiest way of getting the Steel Heart achievement. I don't want to encourage people to just flat out ignore game content, especially on your first playthrough! This game is great and you should experience all of it!

What to skip

Obviously, since we want to make this task as easy for ourselves as possible, we choose to ignore the argueably most difficult parts of the game:

• White Palace
  
• The Trial of the Fool
  
• The dream bosses (dying to these wouldn't end your playthrough in Steel Soul mode btw)
  
• The Flower quest
  
• Crystal Guardian (both fights)
  
• Grimm
  
• The entirety of the Godhome

What exactly are we skipping here that would normally be required for completion?:

• The Kingsoul Charm (1%)
  
• Trial of the Fool (1%)
  
• Mask shard from flower quest
  
• Mask shard from Crystal guardian
  
• Mask shard from the Seer
  
• One other mask shard of your choice
  
• The Awoken Dreamnail (1%)
  
• The Seer's Ascension (1%)
  
• Defeating Grimm (1%)
  
• Banishing the Grimm Troupe / Defeating Nightmare King Grimm (1%)
  
• The Godtuner (1%)
  
• The 4 Pantheons in the Godhome (4%)

The game counts one full mask (4 mask shards) as 1% so all in all we are skipping the maximum of 12% with this plan.
Some of you might not find the Crystal Guardian to be difficult (especially since he's been nerfed a bit in the Hiveblood update) but since we're already skipping one full mask there is no reason to fight him unless you want to skip a different mask shard instead.
It's also worth noting that as long as you don't mind the overall difficulty, you can do the White Palace and the dream bosses without danger of dying.

What to do

These are the things you'll have to do for 100% completion:

• Collect all other mask shards
  
• Collect all vessel fragments
  
• Collect all other charms
  
• Acquire all three spells and their upgrades
  
• Beat all the warrior dreams
  
• Acquire all abilities and nail arts
  
• Upgrade your nail 4 times
  
• Defeat the following bosses: Gruz Mother, False Knight, Hornet, Brooding Mawlek, Mantis Lords, Soul Master, Dung Defender, Nosk, Broken Vessel, Watcher Knight, Uumuu, Hornet (second fight), The Collector, Traitor Lord and Hive Knight
  
• Absorb the three Dreamers
  
• Obviously also defeat the Hollow Knight in order to finish the game

For some more precise details of what exactly gives how much completion, check out this amazing guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=936948247
This also includes a detailed route through the game. You can follow this route while ignoring the parts I mentioned earlier and still get the 100% completion achievement.

Want to rather skip something entirely different?

If you disagree with my judgement of what to skip you can make your own plan! Use the guide linked above for reference and choose whatever you want to skip yourself. In a sense, this guide is just to let you know you can skip the most difficult parts while still acquiring 100%. The parts to skip here are just based on my opinion after all.
I hope this still helped you learn something and good luck with your future playthroughs!

[CrazyJ]

White palace isn't difficult with the right charms and a shitload of patience. But it'll take so long and frustrate you enough you'll probably make a fatal mistake, avoiding it is wise on a permadeath run.

[Krog]

Not dying in white palace is very easy if you use hiveblood and the grubfly charm (and deep focus if you want).

[phantomcorgi]

i finished most of the game without even taking damage but thanks for the help on what to skip :)

[Someguyidk]

Use hiveblood for white palace (u didn't skip it)
Dying in godhome doesn't end steel soul
I see this being made for steel soul but you still need to beat watcher knights which is harder than any dream bosses (maybe except failed champion and GPZ)
Do u really need to skip crystal guardian? (he's easy)

And if a bossfight is hard there is always the magic of ✨saving and qutting✨

[Radagast the Brown]

Mistake in 2nd chapter about skips:

-----> "It's also worth noting that as long as you don't mind the overall difficulty, you can do the White Palace and the dream bosses without danger of dying."

This is completely wrong, if you die in the white palace on steel soul, the run is ended. For this reason white palace is never recommended and is always a skip.

[Mr_Bruhman]

Did this in steel soul. The trick is to take time and do lots of exploring to become overpowered, with lots of good charms and lots of charm notches and then you start fighting bosses. That's how i beat the watcher knights without breaking a sweat.

[AstralSaint_]

does dying in path of pain in steal soul delete your game save? i am just wondering

[Doodleblah]

dying in white palace does indeed delete your save file on steel soul. just a word of warning

[P4[A]zz]

I've recently done it and it's much easier to use the dream bosses, because that's sure percentages that can't kill you.

Same with White Palace, where Hiveblood means you WILL complete it, even if it takes a bit and considering the guide goes for Traitor Lord, you're already doing the hard part required for Kingsoul.

Also, one big thing that you didn't mention for some reason, that makes the run a lot more doable: Quitting out. If you go down to one mask, just quit out, walk back to the fight and try again.

[FeiTDK]

you don't need to do the radiance to get the steel soul achievements