Easy Speed Completion

100% game completion in under 20 hours. Give it a try, gamers, it's easier than you think.

Introduction

I am fairly new to the speedrunning scene and I know it can seem hard or even impossible without months of practice at times, so I thought I should devise a casual, beginner-friendly route to help other newbies such as myself get the SPEED COMPLETION achievement easily. Our goal here is to achieve 100% game completion in under 20 hours, sounds difficult, but trust me, it's not. In fact, 20 hours is way more time than you need.

It must be noted that the maximum completion percentage for Hollow Knight is at 112%, 100% game completion does not mean you have to do everything there is to do in the game, you'll actually have the freedom to choose which objectives you are going for, and which ones to ignore. As long as the total completion percentage adds up to 100, the achievement is unlocked. Thanks to this lovely guide, we have the completion percentage list to plan our route.

Completion Percentage List

• 4 masks = 4%
  
• 3 Soul Vessels = 3%
  
• 4 Nail Upgrades = 4%
  
• 3 Nail Arts = 3%
  
• 40 charms = 40%
  
• 3 Dreamers = 3%
  
• 7 Warrior's Graves = 7%
  
  
  
• Vengeful Spirit + Shade Soul = 2%
  
• Desolate Dive + Descending Dark = 2%
  
• Howling Wraiths + Abyss Shriek = 2%
  
• Dream Nail = 1%
  
• Awoken Dream Nail = 1%
  
• Mothwing Cloak = 2%
  
• Mantis Claw = 2%
  
• Crystal Heart = 2%
  
• Isma's Tear = 2%
  
• Monarch Wings = 2%
  
• King's Brand = 2%
  
• Shade Cloak = 2%
  
• Godtuner = 1%
  
  
  
• Seer Ascension at 2400 essence = 1%
  
• 3 Colosseum Trials = 3%
  
• 4 Pantheons = 4%
  
  
  Bosses
• Gruz Mother = 1%
  
• False Knight = 1%
  
• Hornet (2 encounters = 2%)
  
• Brooding Mawlek = 1%
  
• Mantis Lords = 1%
  
• Soul Master = 1%
  
• Dung Defender = 1%
  
• Nosk = 1%
  
• Broken Vessel = 1%
  
• Watcher Knight = 1%
  
• Uumuu = 1%
  
• Hive Knight = 1%
  
• The Collector = 1%
  
• Traitor Lord = 1%
  
• Grimm = 1%
  
• Nightmare King or Troupe Banishment = 1%
  
  

Notes

1. You do not have to fight Nightmare King (NKG), banishing the troupe will award you with 1%. completion as well. (Talk to the NPC outside Distant Village Stag Station then talk to him again at the edge of Howling Cliffs where you summoned the Troupe in the first place.)
   
   
2. Saving Zote does not contribute to game completion percentage, the same goes for Vengefly King. However, Vengefly King does reward 65 Geo and is fairly easy to kill, the reward Geo would be quite crucial in the early game.
   
3. Dream Bosses (Lost Kin, Soul Tyrant and Failed Champion, etc.) do not contribute to game completion percentage, but are essential for Seer Ascension (1%).
   
4. Both Hollow Knight and Radiance do not contribute to game completion percentage, but you'll have to actually get to the end credits scene to receive the achievement. If you wish to avoid fighting Radiance, simply go for the Sealed Siblings Ending, in which you refuse to dream nail Hollow Knight after Hornet's "git gud" intervention at the end of the fight and continue hitting the final boss with your normal attack.
   
5. Broken fragile charms will still be counted in the game completion percentage, you do not have to fix them. Tested and confirmed by yours truly.

Grub Rewards (4%)

Grubs	Rewards
5	One mask shard. (piece required to complete one mask 1%)
10	Grubsong charm. (1%)
31	Pale Ore (needed for nail upgrade 1%)
46	Grubberfly's Elegy charm (1%)

Dream Essence Rewards(6%)

Essence	Rewards
300	Pale Ore (needed for nail upgrade 1%)
500	Dream Wielder charm (1%)
700	Vessel Fragment (0.333%)
900	Dream Gate
1500	Mask Shard (0.25%)
1800	Awoken Dream Nail (1%)
2400	Ascension (1%)

Expenses

Now that we have the checklist laid down, we can proceed to the planning stage. Starting off with expenses.

Shopping List

Saving all 46 grubs just to complete 4% of the game might sound like a pain in the a♥♥, but keep in mind the geo rewards (total 8000 geo including one Hallownest seal and one King's Idol) are just as important too.

In Sly's shop, you'd need:

• 1800 Geo for the Lumafly lantern to access certain areas of the map safely.
  
• 800 Geo for the Elegant Key which unlocks Shade Soul for 1%.
  
• 2950 Geo for 4 mask shards which adds to one mask (1%).
  
• 1450 Geo for 2 vessel fragments (3 pieces required to complete one soul vessel for 1%).
  
• 1250 Geo to buy all 4 charms for sale (Gathering Swarm, Stalwart Shell, Heavy Blow, Sprintmaster for 4%)
  

In Salubra's Shop,

• 1690 Geo to buy all 5 charms for sale (Lifeblood Heart, Longnail, Steady Body, Shaman Stone, Quick Focus for 5%)
  
• 2920 Geo to buy all 4 charm notches.
  *** Charm notches do not contribute to game completion percentage, but it is advised that you get them anyway to make your life easier.
  

In Leg Eater's Shop, you'd need

• 960 Geo with Defender's Crest equipped for all 3 fragile charms (3%)
  *** 1200 Geo without Defender's Crest
  

For Nail Upgrades,

• 250 Geo to get Sharpened Nail (1%)
  
• 800 Geo to get Channeled Nail (1%)
  
• 2000 Geo to get Coiled Nail (1%)
  
• 4000 Geo to get Pure Nail (1%)
  

• 3000 Geo at the Ancient Basin Fountain to receive one vessel fragment (0.333%)
  
• 1560 Geo to unlock all Stag Stations, unlocks one vessel fragment (0.333%)
  
• 800 Geo to learn Dash Slash from Nailmaster Oro (1%)
  
• Approx. 900 Geo for all toll fees, include gates, benches and lifts.
  
  

Income

Sources of Income

The main idea behind speedrunning is that you'd be dashing through every mob that you meet along your way, stopping to kill each and every crawlid you encounter is a huge waste of time, I'd advise against farming mobs for geos.

One of your two main sources of income, as mentioned in the previous section, would be by rescuing grubs. By the time you've saved all 46 grubs, you will have accumulated a total sum of 8000 geos, that's nearly 30% of the total expenses.

The second one via Relicseeker Lemm in City of Tears. Exluding the ones rewarded by Grubfather because we've already covered that, there are a total of

• 7 King's Idol - Selling at 800 Geo each (Total = 5600 Geo)
  
• 4 Arcane Eggs - Selling at 1200 Geo each (Total = 4800 Geo)
  
• 16 Hallownest Seals - Selling at 450 Geo (Total = 7200 Geo)
  

That's only 1,500 shy to cover the total expenses! Now all you need to do is hit a few Geo caches here and there, and pick up any Wanderer's Journal (200 Geos each) you come across and you're good to go.

Choose Your Own Path

Financial problem is now solved, next we have to choose our objectives. It is important to know that objectives are often linked to each other, for example, skipping Brooding Mawlek does not mean you are simply giving up 1% of game completion, but you're also giving up one mask shard, which leads to one missing mask -- a total of 2% loss. A thorough planning is required, so here's some tips that might help.

Pantheons

Generally you'd want to avoid the Pantheons (total 5%), unless you're a masochist heh heh. Pantheons provide no rewards and is the most difficult section of the game. It's only 1% for each pantheon you complete so my advise is that it's really not worth your time. However if you do insist on trying the pantheon out no one can stop you, getting the Godtuner already counts as 1% completion by itself and all you need is a Simple Key, the first two pantheons (Master and Artist) are relatively easy anyway and most players can complete it within one or two tries, plus you can always load up an old save file to practice.

Colosseum of Fools

Three trials = 3%, plus one charm notch and one Pale Ore and loads and loads of Geo. First two trials are easy but takes up to 10 minutes to complete. The hardest trial -- Trial of the Fool does not provide any other reward other than money.

If you don't like the Colosseum Trials, and wish to forfeit collecting the last pale ore for Pure Nail upgrade, my suggestion for the other 2 pale ore to ignore would be:

• The one that requires a detour at Ancient Basin, right under where you rescue Cloth.
  
• The one found in Hallownest Crown, the upper most part of the map that's accessed through Crystal Peak.
  
  
  

Grey Mourner

With the exception of Pantheons and the Colosseum Trials, the delicate flower quest is the most time-consuming task in the entire game. The reward? Only one mask shard. Unless you are absolutely confident that you can complete the quest in one try, it would be a rational decision to skip it. By giving up one mask, you're also allowed to choose 3 other mask shards to give up as well. You can compensate this 1% by going to the Colosseum of Fools or defeating Grimm anyway.

If you wish to forfeit one mask, my suggestion for the other 3 shards to ignore would be:

• The one guarded by Enraged Crystal Guardian. **Both encounters with crystal Guardian do not contribute to the game completion percentage.
  
• The last shard from Sly's shop so you can save 1,500 geo.
  
• The one in The Hive, because you'd have to lure a Hive Guardian to break the wall for you, which is troublesome, but that's just my opinion.
  
  
  

Grimm Troupe

Grimm rewards include one charm notch and one charm plus subsequent upgrades. Fighting Grimm and then banishing the troupe (or if you're up to a challenge, go for NKG) would reward 2% game completion. Circling around Hallownest to kill all Grimmkins is time wasting, you can obtain the Grimmchild charm by simply summoning the Troupe anyway; plus it's not that big of a detour, because the summoning location is directly under the entrance to get the Joni's Blessing charm at Howling Cliffs. There's really no reason to NOT get this free charm, but if you insist on skipping it, the total percentage loss would be:

The Hive

The Hive is an optional location you can go to in the game. It features one boss (Hive Knight, 1%) which unlocks one charm (Hiveblood, 1%), one mask shard, and three grubs. If you are struggling to decide whether you should skip the location entirely or not, here are some pros and cons.

• Pro #1: You don't have to run all the way into Deepnest to get the Tram Pass!
  
• Pro #2: You don't have to fight Hive Knight!
  
• Pro #3: You save about 10 - 15 minutes! (Assuming you get in and get out as quick as possible, no deaths)

=====

• Con #1: Your total grub rescue count is 43, no Gubberfly's Elegy! (1%)
  
• Con #2: One missing mask! (But if you're going to forfeit the delicate flower's quest anyway, why not?)
  
• Con #3: No Tram Pass = no shortcut from Ancient Basin to Deepnest!
  
• Con #4: No Hiveblood Charm!
  
  

Seer Ascension

Boss	Location	Essence
Elder Hu	Fungal Wastes	100
Gorb	Howling Cliffs	100
Xero	Resting Grounds	100
Marmu	Queen's Garden	150
No Eyes	Greenpath (Stone Sanctuary)	200
Galien	Deepnest	200
Markoth	Kingdom's Edge	250
Failed Champion	Forgotten Crossroads	300
Grey Prince Zote	Dirtmouth (Bretta's House)	250
Soul Tyrant	City of Tears (Soul Sanctum)	300
White Defender	Royal Waterways	300
Lost Kin	Ancient Basin	400

Total Dream Essence that can be collected through dream bosses= 2650.

Dream Essence Required for Seer Ascension = 2400.

*Usually Grey Prince Zote is avoided when going for Ascension, or maybe that's just me.

Notes

1. You should only bother with dream nailing Whispering Roots to collect enough essence to compensate for using Dream Gate (one essence per use). One root should be enough to cover for the entire run.
   
2. White Defender can only be accessed only after all three Dreamers (Monomon, Lurien and Herrah) are killed.
   
3. Going for Grey Prince Zote (why would you?) requires the player to save Zote at Forgotten Crossroads, then at Deepnest, and lastly defeat him in the Colosseum of Fools.
   
4. Without the Awoken Dream Nail (1800 Essence, 1%), you will not be able to access White Palace, thus locking you out of getting the Kingsoul/Void Heart charm (1%).
   
   Total forfeited percentage depends on how much you're planning to skip for this objective.

Boss Strategy Breakdown

Nail Damage

Nail	Damage
Old Nail	5
Sharpened Nail (250 Geo)	9
Channelled Nail (800 Geo + 1 Pale Ore)	13
Coiled Nail (2000 Geo + 2 Pale Ores)	17
Pure Nail (4000 Geo + 3 Pale Ores)	21

Spell Damage

Spell	Damage	Damage (with Shaman Stone)
Vengeful Spirit	15	20
Shade Soul	30	40
Desolate Dive	35 (total)	53 (total)
Descending Dark	60 (total)	88 (total)
Howling Wraiths	30 (total)	45 (total)
Abyss Shriek	80 (total)	120 (total)

For comparison:
Broken Vessel has 525 health
Lost Kin has 1200 health

The lesson here is:


That's right! With the Shaman Stone, you can achieve anything. More damage output means less time you have to dwell in the boss room means less likely you will die means more time you will save. With bosses like Flukemarm (350 health) all you have to do is enter, perform at least 3 abyss shrieks , and exit.

Throughout the run, you will not have much chance to upgrade your nail. One, because you won't have enough Geo. Two, you have a make a large detour to the nailsmith's hut. The good news is, you don't really need to! The only time you will be hitting something is to charge up your soul meter, and the only time you will stop to hit a mob is so you can enter a boss fight will full soul meter. Nail damage is irrelevant, your main damage output should always be your spells.


So use. your. spells. Abyss Shriek helps you shred through floating bosses like Galien and Xero. Desolate Dive gives you one second of immunity after use, so you can spam it on bosses like Broken Vessel, and Traitor Lord. P.S. if you don't already know this, Dung Defender is especially weak against Desolate Dive, use it when he's hiding under the ground; but keep in mind this doesn't work on White Defender.

Route Strategy Breakdown

It is mostly intuitive for anyone who had played the game but it's worth mentioning anyway. Since every time you reload a save file the game spawns you at the last bench you sat on, you can use this mechanic as a pseudo fast travel method, this is especially useful during early stages of the game.

1. Identify all your objectives before you begin the run. While you're running from objective to objective, you should be picking up any grubs that you see along the way. Make sure all your objectives add up to 100% (I'd personally recommend going for 101% since I had a bug before where only 99% completion was registered in-game even though I was sure I did 100%).

2. Sequence your objectives in such a way that you minimize the number of times you have to run through the same path, try to avoid areas that require large detours until after you have obtained the dream gate ability. For example, you can use dream gate to escape the abyss or Joni's cave where Joni's Blessing is located with a chunk of time saved.

3. Start running.


For reference, here is my (glitchless) run. I finished it just a little above four hours (my PB! hooray!) because I got a little bit too excited at the end and died to the hollow knight, aha. I also forgot to claim the Grimmchild charm because I'm dumb.

Run completion percentage:

1. 3 mask shards = 3%
   
2. 3 Soul vessels = 3%
   
3. 4 Nail Upgrades = 4%
   
4. 3 Nail Arts = 3%
   
5. 7 Warrior's Grave = 7%
   
6. 3 Dreamers = 3%
   
7. All charms except Grimmchild: 39%
   
8. 3 Abilities with upgrades = 6%
   
9. Dream Nail and Awoken = 2%
   
10. Mothwing Cloak = 2%
    
11. Mantis Claw = 2%
    
12. Crystal Heart = 2%
    
13. Isma's Tear = 2%
    
14. Monarch Wings = 2%
    
15. King's Brand = 2%
    
16. Shade Cloak = 2%
    
17. 2 Colosseum Trials = 2%
    
18. All Bosses except Grimm = 15%

The run can be separated into 6 parts.

Part 1

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. False Knight --/ Vengeful Spirit --/ Greenpath --/ Hornet --/ Mothwing Cloak
   
   
2. Fungal Wastes --/ Mantis Claw --/ City of Tears --/ Soul Master --/ Desolate Dive
   
   
3. Forgotten Crossroads --/ Gruz Mother --/ Shaman Stone
   
   
4. Crystal Peak --/ Crystal Heart and Shopkeeper's Key --/ Dirtmouth --/ Elegant Key
   
   
5. Forgotten Crossroads --/ Resting Grounds --/ Dream Nail

Notes
1. The moss knight requires one nail hit and three spirits to kill while the elder baldur requires four spirits. By charging up your soul meter before each fight, you can make it significantly shorter and easier.
2. Reloading back to the bench in Ancestral Mound will make the trip to Fungal Wastes from Greenpath much shorter, so unless you're not confident that you can defeat Hornet in one attempt, there is no need to sit on any bench in Greenpath.
3. The reason why I keep changing the controls is because I use mouse5 to cast spells and for some reason the game resets it every time I quit.

Part 2

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. City of Tears --/ Shade Soul
   
   
2. Royal Waterways --/ Dung Defender --> Isma's Grove --/ Isma's Tear
   
   
3. Ancient Basin --/ Broken Vessel --/ Monarch's Wings

Part 3

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. Dirtmouth --/ Lumafly Lantern --/ Crystal Peak --/ Resting Grounds --/ Xero
   
   
2. City of Tears --/ Royal Waterways --/ Fungal Wastes --/ Mantis Lords
   
   
3. Deepnest --/ Nosk --/ Tram Pass --/ Herrah

1. You can choose to skip the tram pass because you won't be needing it until much later in the game. You can always come back for it via the shortcut in Queen's Gardens.
2. Dream nail a Glimback or a Shardmite to easily charge up your soul meter.
3. Now that you have shade soul and all the movement abilities, the run becomes fairly easier after this point.

Part 4

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. Greenpath --/ No Eyes --/ Fog Canyon --/ Queen's Station
   
   
2. Fungal Wastes --/ Leg Eater --/ Fragile Charms --/ Elder Hu
   
   
3. Fog Canyon --/ Uumuu --/ Monomon
   
   
4. City of Tears --/ Soul Tyrant
   
   
5. Forgotten Crossroads --/ Failed Champion
   
   
6. Resting Grounds --/ Dream Gate

1. I forgot to equip Fragile Strength before the Soul Tyrant boss fight.
2. Failed Champion is easy when you realize you can dream nail it once its down, but if you take too long he can stand back up.

Part 5

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. Dirtmouth --/ Howling Cliffs --/ Gorb
   
   
2. Kingdom's Edge --/ Hornet --/ King's Brand
   
   
3. Ancient Basin --/ The Abyss --/ Abyss Shriek --/ Shade Cloak
   
   
4. Ancient Basin --/ Lost Kin
   
   
5. Queen's Gardens --/ Marmu --/ Traitor Lord

1. Make sure you set down dream gate before entering Joni's Cave or The Abyss, this will save a ton of time.
2. It is at this point where I forgot to claim the Grimmchild charm.

Part 6

The sequence can be summarized as follows:

1. Kingdom's Edge --/ The Collector --/ Colosseum of Fools --/ Markoth
   
   
2. Resting Grounds --/ Awoken Dream Nail
   
   
3. Ancient Basin --/ White Palace --/ Kingsoul
   
   
4. Buy every essential item in Dirtmouth, collect reward from Grubfather
   
   
5. Endgame

And there you have it, folks. You should be able to get the achievement in your first try, even if you die and have to backtrack a ton of times. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer all of them. Good luck, and I hope this doesn't sound too cheesy, but don't forget to have fun!

[FURXDOUBLEXNEGATIVE]

I hate failed champion,is the strategy spell spamming?

[Cinnabon Toasty]

nice but im not commited enough

[Niftyturnip]

just got the <5h one, gonna try use the same file to quickly run through and get all the bits i missed

[Megasoni58]

I have a 102% and when I got the siblings ending i did not got it Idk why :(

[Lollipop]

I did everything except Hiveblood, Lifeblood Core, Grubberfly's Elegy, and Kingsoul, (though White Palace is really easy) all four Pantheons, 1 Mask, Hive Knight, (that way I can completely ignore the Hive) Descending Dark, (though that's really easy too) or Trial of the Fool

[soup]

This guide is amazing. I was so dreading this achievement and the other speed run achievements, and then I used this guide to do the 100% achievement, Speed run 1 achievement, and both steel soul achievements. It is super beginner friendly, and allows for lots of leeway. (I died a bunch in my first run and still got sub 10 hours.) Thanks for the guide!

[taishouyatteru]

congrats super!

[SUPER]

Very nice guide. I did the same technique you described of planning ahead and deciding what to forfeit. I can't recall all of what I forfeited but I know there was 1 vessel and 1 mask, Colosseum 3, I think all or 3 of the pantheons, or at least P3 and 4 (around when I did the run I wasn't as comfy as I am now with the bosses), and also skipped white palace, probably traitor lord and I reckon I would have avoided NKG and Banisment as I would not have wanted to die to the nightmare grimmkins (I was doing speed completion on my only steel soul run. Finished it in 10.5hrs first try)

[Egg Foo Young]

Thanks for making this guide, the route really helped me stay focused. Got 8 hrs for 100% steel soul mode

[taishouyatteru]

glad it helped you!