Accessing the DLC – Hollow Knight

A spoiler-free guide to accessing Hollow Knight’s content expansions.

Introduction

This is a guide meant for people who have fully finished Hollow Knight’s base game and are struggling with finding new content. I will be assuming people reading have finished and 100%’d the game.

If you haven’t fully finished Hollow Knight, you should go back and do that. These expansions are meant for experienced players who want extra content (except Hidden Dreams and Lifeblood, which are interwoven into the base game).

In this guide:

There will be no spoilers for the content in the expansions. I will simply be pointing you to where you can locate said content, since it’s often hidden away in obscure places without any hint of where to find it.

There will be minor spoilers for the base game.

It is very strongly recommended you do Godmaster last, since it acts as a sort of farewell to Hollow Knight and includes massive spoilers for all of the content released before Godmaster (including the content packs).

Expansion One: Hidden Dreams

Contents: Two new bosses, a new power up, and a new stag station.

HOW TO ACCESS:

First boss: Use Descending Dark or Desolate Dive below the switch in Dung Defender’s hideout.

Second boss: After saving both Bretta and Zote in their respective quests, pay a visit to Bretta’s house in Dirtmouth. Completing the Trial of the Warrior (after saving Zote) and acquiring the Monarch Wings is required.

New power-up: Talk to Seer after gaining at least 900 essence. The power-up is an addition to your dream nail which allows you to fast travel using “Dreamgates”.

New stag station: You’ll find it in the Ancient Basin.

Expansion Two: The Grimm Troupe

Contents: A new major quest, four new charms, three new charm upgrades, and a new platforming challenge in the White Palace.

HOW TO ACCESS:

The major quest: Behind a breakable wall in the Howling Cliffs.

The charms: One is part of the quest, one is bought in Sly’s shop, one is found behind a new breakable wall in the Resting Grounds, and one is found in the Weaver’s Den.

Weaver’s Den is located behind a breakable wall here.

Charm upgrades: Part of the quest. Involves the character Divine and the Fragile charms. This feature will stay even if you finish the quest, so you don’t need to worry about that.

New platforming challenge: Ride the elevator up in the White Palace. Break the hidden wall as shown below.

Expansion Three: Lifeblood

Contents: A new boss, map markers, tons of small tweaks and enhancements.

HOW TO ACCESS:

The new boss: It’s in The Hive. You’ll know where if you’ve been there.

Map markers: Bought in Cornifer and Iselda’s shop.

Enhancements: Too many to count here. If you want, you can visit the wiki page when you’re done with the boss for a comprehensive list of changes big and small.

Expansion Four: Godmaster

Contents: New major quest, expanded romantic options.

HOW TO ACCESS:

The major quest: There’s a new breakable wall in the Colosseum of Fools which leads to a new area. When you’re done exploring and acquiring an item, you need to go to the Royal Waterways and find a new breakable wall. It’s located near the bench, below and to the left.

Expanded romantic options: If you’ve finished the delicate flower quest already, you can pay a visit to the Traitor Child’s Grave to find a surprise.

You can now deliver a delicate flower to Nailmaster Oro, Eternal Emilitia, the White Lady, or a certain NPC found in the new area in the Royal Waterways (this NPC is only accessible after you have started the new major quest).

Giving the flower to the new NPC will have a fairly significant impact on the new major quest, and I personally advise you do it. Giving the flower to the rest will have a minor impact (mostly just new dialogue), similar to giving it to Elderbug (which was possible in the base game, in case you were not aware).

Another note: Summed up here, this might seem like a small expansion, but it is in fact the largest one yet. The new major quest is huge and brimming with content.

Afterword

And that’s it for now.

I hope this guide was helpful to anyone struggling with accessing extra content.

Hornet’s paid DLC is still in the works as of writing this guide, and it’s expected to be significantly larger than any of these free expansions. I’m guessing it will be needing it’s own guide. When the time comes, I might just do that.

Original Link – Continuation of discussion