You’ll come across plenty of bosses in Hollow Knight: Silksong, some of which might give you trouble. After you defeat Sister Splinter, you can continue through Shellwood and eventually find the Cling Grip, allowing you to jump off of walls. This will let you get into a separate part of Bellhart, where you will encounter the next boss, Widow. She can be quite the challenging boss, since it’s another one that is two phases and the second phase is definitely very hard.
Wiidow is a boss you’ll face in Bellhart, and is the culprit behind its sinister webs.
Widow’s Attacks¶
As mentioned above, there are two phases to the boss fight with Widow. The same attacks are mostly used in both phases, although she stops using a few of the moves in the second phase.
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Divebomb/Flurry Combo: Widow will appear in the air, then dive down towards you with her weapon. She will always follow this with a running attack at you, swinging her weapon wildly. If you can, dash underneath the divebomb, then you can jump over the running attack.
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Debris Drop: Widow will have some silk line appear, then a piece of debris will drop where that line was showing. These come from various angles, so pay attention to them. Also, the hitbox on the debris stays active the entire time it’s on screen.
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Debris Earthquake: When you see Widow’s size being smaller than usually and running across the screen, that means this attack will happen. Note the silk lines dotting the screen, as a bunch of debris will pop out of the ground at these spots. You dodge this by jump in the air and floating towards the first eruption. If done right, you can avoid any damage.
(1 of 3) Dash away, or underneath, Widow when she does the divebomb part of the combo.
- Debris Downpour: An attack that occurs after Widow takes enough damage in the first phase. Widow will do a small scream, causing a bunch of lines to appear in a group, then debris will fall where they are. It’s easy enough to dodge, since it’s all in one area, usually in the middle or on the edges.
Widow Boss Strategy¶
The important thing to remember with Widow is that you need to learn patience. She will disappear/reappear quite often, so it might be better to not chase after her too much. You’re not going to hit Widow a lot in succession, so don’t try to get greedy. For the first phase, always keep tabs on which the directions the pieces of debris come from, as they will bounce once and disappear upon hitting the floor the second time. This really should be the only attack that hits you during the first phase, as the combo maneuver is pretty easy to dodge.
(1 of 3) When Widow runs across the screen like this, she’s ready to do the earthquake maneuver.
Likewise, when you see Widow get smaller and run across the screen with a bunch of silk, you’ll want to be ready to jump and float. You do not want to get hit by the debris coming out of the ground, as they do two damage and the effect lingers long enough for you to potentially get stunlocked. Always float towards the first debris that pops up during this move. Once you get the hang of it, you should never be hit by this attack at all. Keep attacking her when the opportunity arises, and you should eventually trigger a new attack.
This isn’t anything different than you’ve experienced, as the new attack is just her dropping a bunch of debris at once, but it will be concentrated in one area, so there is a higher chance of you getting hit if you’re not careful. Keep at it and you’ll eventually get Widow down for the count…or so you think. It looks like you defeated her, but she bounces right back for the second round, which is a lot tougher, if you do it normally. This second part will have Widow dropping a lot more debris throughout it, which makes it hard.
Widow will start dropping a lot of debris during the second part of the battle.
She also only uses the running flurry attack, which hurts a lot.
She also loses the Debris Earthquake attack, as well as the divebomb portion of the combo, so she will only do the running sword flurry. Of course, things will seem pretty random and it may be hard to get hits in on Widow here, especially if you try to be aggressive. It’s better to play defensively and calculate your strikes against her. That’s the hard way to try and get past this second part, but there is an alternate, and much easier, way written below.
Easy Widow Fight (Cheese Strategy)¶
For the most part, you’ll need to do the first phase of the fight normally. This shouldn’t be difficult at all, as the two big attacks that hurt the most are easy to dodge. Once you get to the second part of the fight, you can do something that makes it incredibly simple. Go to the wall on the right side and just hug it. None of the debris that falls down can hit you like this, so the only attack you have to worry about is when Widow does the running flurry. Now, hitting Widow while cowering in the corner can be a bit tricky, but that’s where your trusty mid-air down attack comes into play.
During the second part, hugging the right wall makes it so none of the debris can hit you.
When she rushes at you with the flurry, do a mid-air downward strike to damage her.
Whenever Widow charges at you in the corner, there is a very brief window where you can hit her. Depending on the Crest you have equipped, the window might be larger, such as with the Hunter’s Crest and it’s diagonal mid-air maneuver. Keep doing this over and over, until you accumulate enough silk to perform your attack skill (Silkspear, in this case, most likely). Since Widow mainly stays grounded in the second phase, you should be able to almost always hit her with the Silkspear. Repeat this over and over until you finally win.
After defeating Widow, the town of Bellhart will return to normal, allowing to get some new Wishes/Quests, as well as continue with the game.
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