Guide to All Hollow Knight Endings: Requirements and How to Get Them

Exploring the depths of Hallownest is an incredible challenge, but your adventure does not end in just one way. There are several Hollow Knight endings that change the destiny of the kingdom and your protagonist.

Depending on the items you collect and the decisions you make in the final battles, you can unlock up to five different outcomes, plus a secret scene. Here we explain how to get each of them without getting lost.

Hollow Knight endings in the base game

To access the different conclusions of the original story, your main objective will be the Temple of the Black Egg. Your determining factor will be a specific charm: the Void Heart.

1. The Hollow Knight (Basic ending)

This is the most common ending for players on their first playthrough. To get it, you must defeat the three Dreamers and enter the Temple of the Black Egg.

• Key requirement: You must NOT have the Void Heart charm in your inventory.
• How to get it: Simply face the Hollow Knight and defeat him in combat. You will absorb the infection and take his place as the new sealed vessel.

2. Sealed Siblings

This outcome is considered one of the most tragic in the game. It requires that you have explored the Abyss and completed the most important charm in the story.

• Key requirement: You must have the Void Heart charm equipped.
• How to get it: During the battle against the Hollow Knight, Hornet will enter to pin him down. Instead of using your Dream Nail, you must continue hitting the boss with your regular nail until you kill him. Hornet will be trapped with you inside the seal.

3. Dream No More

Considered the "true ending" of the base game, this conclusion pits you against the true source of Hallownest's infection.

• Key requirement: Have the Void Heart charm and the Awoken Dream Nail.
• How to get it: When Hornet pins down the Hollow Knight during the fight, you must quickly hit him with your Dream Nail. This will transport you to the dream world to fight the final battle against The Radiance.

Hollow Knight endings: Godmaster DLC

The free Godmaster expansion added the most extreme challenge in the game and two new Hollow Knight endings. Both occur at the peak of the Pantheon of Hallownest.

4. Embrace the Void

This ending requires extraordinary skill, as you will have to overcome a boss rush against all the bosses in the game without dying.

• Key requirement: Complete the first four Pantheons to unlock the fifth.
• How to get it: Beat the Pantheon of Hallownest (the fifth pantheon) and defeat the definitive version of the final boss: Absolute Radiance.

5. Embrace the Void with Delicate Flower

It is a subtle but narratively very important variant of the previous ending, which changes the expansion's closing cinematic.

• Key requirement: Before completing the Pantheon of Hallownest, you must bring a Delicate Flower to the Godseeker in the Junk Pit.
• How to get it: Once the flower is delivered, beat the fifth pantheon and defeat Absolute Radiance exactly the same as in the previous ending.

Secret post-credits scene (Mister Mushroom)

There is an extra sequence you can watch regardless of which of the Hollow Knight endings you have achieved. To unlock it, you must complete Mister Mushroom's side quest.

Find this peculiar character in his seven different locations around Hallownest. After speaking with him for the last time in King's Pass, beat the game and enjoy this bizarre additional scene when the credits end.

You now have all the knowledge to unlock the Hollow Knight endings! Sharpen your nail, face your destiny, and decide the future of Hallownest.