You’ll duel Lace in the Deep Docks region.
Guarding passage in over the lava in the middle of the Deep Docks region you’ll find Lace, an arrogant would-be rival with a flair for the dramatic and the sword skills to back her antics up. You must get the Swift Step upgrade from the northern part of the Deep Docks in order to dash over to a ledge where you’ll find a lever that opens a gate leading to the platform on which you’ll encounter Lace. This page will provide strategies for defeating Lace in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Lace’s Attacks¶
Lace is your classic duel boss - you need to watch her stances and respond accordingly to avoid damage and punish her, and in almost every case her sword is the key. Pay attention to her sword’s position and her stances and you’ll know exactly what she’s going to do ahead of time - execution is another matter!
When Lace holds her sword diagonally down in front of her,
she’ll follow up with a two-stroke combo.
- Double Swing: The closest thing Lace has to a “normal attack”, when she holds her sword diagonally down in front of her - almost a relaxed stance - she’ll follow up with a two swing combo during which she’ll advance a fair distance. Her swings also have a fair amount of vertical reach, but you can jump and swift step over her so long as you make sure to get enough height.
When Lace holds her sword level,
she’s about to perform a thrusting charge attack, covering about half the arena in the process.
- Thrust: When Lace holds her sword horizontal at eye level, she’s preparing a charging thrust. This will carry her around halfway across the arena, and if you learn to gauge her range you can just stand outside her range, let her fruitlessly charge the empty space between you, and smack her for her impudence when she stops. If you don’t have the space to do this, just jump over her and attack her when you land.
When Lace holds her sword behind her,
be wary of her two-stage leap and dive followup attack.
Leap and Dive: The tell for this attack is when Lace draws her sword arm behind her, covering her face and holding the blade diagonal and up. After this pose she’ll perform a leaping slash high into the air, pause briefly, then performing a down diagonal thrust, ultimately moving in an inverted V pattern in the sky. Again, her range is limited, this attack is really just there to punish you for swift stepping over her other attacks… which to be fair is a pretty solid strategy.
When Lace holds her sword defensively in front of her face, refrain from attacking her,
as she’ll counter with a flurry of stabs!
Parry and Flurry: Lace will rear back, holding her sword defensively over her head, and if you attack while she’s blocking she’ll counterattack with a flurry of stabs. She likes to enter her parry stance when you jump over her, but she’s also keen on entering parry stance after she whiffs an attack, so you’ve got to be quick to take advantage of her misses.
When wounded, Lace will start marking an area with a whitish sphere, performing a flurry of slashes in the area after charging up.
Greet her when she lands after the attack with a Silkspear.
Sphere of Blades: Used without ceremony when Lace is wounded, you’ll see a whitish aura appear in the air, and if your gamer instincts are telling you to avoid that circle - they’re correct. After a moment following the appearance of the whitish circle Lace will launch a flurry of blows encompassing that area. As long as you’re outside of the area before her attack launches you’re fine. Lace will always drop to the ground under the center of the sphere and while it may be risky to run up and hit her, this is a prime opportunity to poke her with a Silkspear attack, if you have the silk to do so.
(1 of 3) Be patient, wait for Lace to miss, and give her a good smack for her impudence.
Lace Strategy¶
Lace will stick to her first four stance-based attacks during the first half of the fight, and there’s really just no substitute for properly learning her tells and responding appropriately. Fortunately there are two solutions to most of her attacks: first, keep your distance, especially when she enters a stance as she’s pretty much committed at that point and most of her attacks cover at most half the arena. Once you learn the range of her attacks you can just wait for her to enter a stance, stand outside of it, and punish her when she comes up short. Second, you can swift step over most of her attacks save for the Leap and Dive. This doesn’t always put you in a good position to counterattack and you should generally refrain from doing dive attacks, as she’s prone to entering her parry stance when you start leaping at her threateningly.
This fight rewards patience and practice. You don’t need to land an attack every time Lace misses. She’s not that dynamic of a fighter - position yourself for the next attack and take what she gives you. If you have to run at her to try and get a swing in, you’re probably better off just backing away to see if you can bait her into a safe Leap and Dive or Thrust attack. If you can repeatedly strike Lace she’ll become stunned and wobbly, allowing you to score a few cheap hits (don’t feel bad - she’d do the same to you!) and if you can bait her to a ledge you can Silkspear her off into the lava, doing a bit of extra damage.
When wounded, Lace will add her Sphere of Blades attack to her repertoire, which, while painful, is easy to dodge and provides a great opportunity to spend excess silk by landing a safe Silkspear after she drops out of the attack.
Dance, duel and defeat Lace and she’ll leap away, certain to be a nuisance in the future. That’s a problem for another day, however - the road to the Far Fields should now be open!
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