How to Beat Pure Vessel

How to beat the third-hardest boss in Hollow Knight by a player who can do it on Radiant with no charms.

Walkthrough

I got my ass kicked by this boss for the longest time. Fortunately for me, Pure Vessel has excellent telegraphs and its attacks do mostly the same things every time, so this boss can be solved by any player.

Here's me beating Pure Vessel with no charms on Radiant for reference. (Note that if you're on Attuned difficulty with my suggested charm loadout this will take much less time.)

If you want a more realistic video for reference in P4/P5, here's me beating Pure Vessel on Radiant with the charm loadout I recommended. (Same thing applies to this, it will be way faster on Attuned difficulty.)

- I recommend using these charms: Mark of Pride, Unbreakable Strength, Shaman Stone, and Soul Catcher Spell Twister. (Since creating this guide, I have learned the advantages that Spell Twister has over Soul Catcher and now personally prefer it. Essentially, if you are only using spells, Spell Twister is the better charm. However, if you are healing as well, Soul Catcher may be a viable option. For beating Pure Vessel on Radiant where you die in one hit and have no chance to heal anyway, I recommend using Spell Twister. The video above uses Soul Catcher.)

- I do not recommend using nail arts during this fight. They are risky due to their long ending lag which doesn't mesh well with Pure Vessel's extremely fast attacks and lack of downtime between them. You can do this fight just fine with regular nail slashes and spells.

- Learn all of Pure Vessel's attacks and make sure that you can recognize its telegraphs in an instant the moment you see them. If you want to do this organically, it will probably require dying a lot especially because two new moves are introduced as its health is lowered. A simpler way to do this is to just watch videos of the attacks being performed.

- Triple Slash: Jump as soon as you read the telegraph and down slash. If you do this right, you will pogo off of Pure Vessel or parry its nail, avoiding the attack and dealing damage. On the way down, get in as many side slashes as possible before it teleports.

- Lunge Stab: Jump as soon as you read the telegraph and try to wait until Pure Vessel is under you, then down slash and pogo off of it to avoid the attack and deal damage. On the way down, spam side slash on it before it can teleport away for more damage.

- Descending Stab: This attack can be the most lucrative in terms of damage output but that reward comes with risk. The best way to deal with this attack is to use Descending Dark as soon as you see its telegraph. This will completely avoid the attack as your i-frames last long enough. If you want to do a lot of damage, however, then you should stay close to Pure Vessel as it is performing the attack and only move out of the way a little bit, then use Descending Dark as normal. Try to save enough soul for at least two Descending Darks at all times, since Pure Vessel can chain two stabs back to back. If you don't have soul, then do your best to get between the spikes and try not to move as soon as they activate. You can also get a hit or two in after it does this attack, but be careful as it can immediately activate its counter and you might not notice due to the visual/auditory clutter.

- Daggers: This one has very specific timing and is in my opinion Pure Vessel's most unfavorable attack because of its potential to deal damage to you and its lack of potential for you to do damage to Pure Vessel. I normally wait around half a second and then do a small jump into Shade Cloak towards Pure Vessel to avoid this attack, but the timing is very difficult. With this method, you can consistently get off a hit on Pure Vessel immediately after the Shade Cloak ends. If you can't get the timing on Shade Cloak down, you can also try to weave in between the daggers with Monarch Wings, but I don't personally recommend this as it's not consistent and quite risky.

- Counter: If you can recognize the counter telegraph in time then great, just don't attack it. However, that's easier said than done and can cause you to miss out on damage output. If possible, try to have Shade Cloak up each time you're going to attack Pure Vessel. The screen will freeze and a loud sound will play if you attack its counter. As soon as this happens, Shade Cloak into Pure Vessel and you will avoid taking damage. In general, if it gets staggered and you want to attack it, wait until Shade Cloak is off cooldown to take your first swing, you have more than enough time to do so.

- Focus: This attack unlocks in Phase 2 so keep an eye on how much damage you're dealing to know when to expect it. If you're confident and close to Pure Vessel when it's doing this, get in a slash or two on it as it's charging up the attack. Then/otherwise, put distance between you and it with Shade Cloak as the area surrounding Pure Vessel is about to become a damage zone. While you're using Shade Cloak, look for the extra damaging zones that appear and move out of them. This attack is hard at first but becomes quite easy after you've done it a couple times. If and only if you have more than two casts of soul to spare, throw a Shade Soul or two at it as well to ameliorate your damage output.

- Void Tendrils: This attack unlocks in Phase 3, so if you see it then that means you're almost done. Have patience with this attack. It takes around a second to activate and Pure Vessel makes a noise when it's doing it so the telegraph is quite obvious. Wait half a second and then simultaneously move towards Pure Vessel while doing a jump, then use Monarch Wings and finally Shade Cloak if you have to in order to stay off the ground. Once you are above Pure Vessel, just pogo off of it for the remainder of the attack. If you have soul to spare, use Descending Dark to get extra damage in or for evasion purposes.

- If you need to heal, Pure Vessel gets staggered a lot. Only go for one mask at a time, you'll need the soul for Descending Darks anyway and it's very difficult to get off more than that.

- If you see Pure Vessel use Void Tendrils, consider spamming Shade Souls at it in place of regular nail slashes because its health is probably low and you have a chance to kill it quickly. The less time you spend fighting Pure Vessel, the lesser the chance it will have to deal damage to you.

- Pure Vessel teleports a lot, so regard its position at any given moment to be ephemeral and ready yourself for its change in location. This will come naturally after you've fought it a lot.

- Don't jump or move that much unless you are obligated to.

- This might be obvious but practice against this boss before taking it on in P4/P5. Try to beat it three times in a row before taking on P4, and do it damageless three times in a row before taking on P5. Note that if you don't take damage on this boss during P5 it can greatly assist you against the final boss because of the lifeblood masks you'll have.

Please let me know if this helped you at all! Good luck!

[DynamightDavy]

@jnub Understandable, I will no longer be commentin

[jnub]

@DynamightDavy Look you can have the opinion that Sly is the harder boss on radiant and that's fine, but I just vehemently disagree with you saying that Pure Vessel is easy, especially if we're talking in a relative sense. There are like three (or four according to you) bosses in the game that have harder attacks to avoid overall. This is a really difficult and demanding enemy that any player struggles with the first time around. Don't forget the many times you died to this boss before reaching your apotheosis and give it some respect.

[DynamightDavy]

sly is definitely harder on radiant. I see your point, and I know how to beat sly on radiant. Pure vessel is easy to avoid because you can double jump, dash, and desolate dive. These moves help you avoid his attacks with ease. Plus, if you pogo him more than dash through, you can do more and take less damage. Sly is harder because overall his attacks are.. harder to dodge in a way. I see how this argument could go both ways, but for me, sly is still a tiny bit harder than pure vessel. His final phase is hard to avoid on radiant too, but I respect your opinion.

[jnub]

@ibug27 Sly is a hard boss because of his small hurtbox, speed, and final phase. Pure Vessel, however, is difficult because its attacks have colossal hitboxes, very subtle and fast (but fair) telegraphs. Pure Vessel also teleports around a lot, uses counters, and deals double damage. You could argue that Sly is the harder boss to beat on Radiant if you struggle with his final phase, but in terms of sheer lethality and difficulty to master, Pure Vessel wins out.

[NNNNNUMB3R(1)RAT3DS4LESM4N!]

i uhhhhhhhhhhh... is it stupid to say that sly was harder then pure vessel for me? because it kinda was ._.

[jnub]

@at_raph I do consider NKG to be the second hardest boss. The reason for this is that the fight as a whole takes much longer and his pufferfish attack is RNG-based and inconsistent, meaning you can't respond to it the same way every time.

[at_raph]

This would've been helpful if I hadn't finished P4 yet. Very good advice! Would you consider Nightmare King Grimm to be the second hardest boss?

[NewPCWhoDis]

Thanks for this, I'll be sure to use this in P4 haha! glhf