In Hollow Knight, charms are special items that provide buffs, and can be found all over the world. To equip charms you'll be using notches. You start with three notches and can gain up to seven more throughout the game. Each charm requires a set number of notches to be equipped, allowing you to mix and match a variety of charms to help fight your way through the world.
The notches that determine how many charms you can equip are not a hard cap. A risky concept, the ability to be 'overcharmed' allows you to equip more charms than you should be able to. If you attempt to equip a charm that uses more notches than you have, the game will refuse a few times before finally relenting and equipping the charm. When overcharmed, play carefully -- as you will take double damage until you are no longer overcharmed.
Of course, there is much more to explore in Hollow Knight, so your journey does not necessarily end after finding all of the Pale Ore. Be sure to read some of the other Hollow Knight guides from Gameskinny! Here are a few to get you started: Hollow Knight Charms Guide; How to Find and Beat Nosk in Hollow Knight. If you’re one of those people, then it might be in your best interest to unequip the extra charm. For more helpful content about Hollow Knight, check out our guide on how to get Pale Ore, what you have to do to beat the Mantis Lords, and how to achieve all the endings. Hollow Knight Locations. Locations in Hollow Knight features exquisite areas, enemies, bosses and unique items that the players can discover. Listed below is a map of Hallownest showing all the areas within the kingdom. Map of Hallownest.
This charm is perfect for a first time playthrough. While equipped, it will show the player's location on the map -- making it primarily useful in learning the complex map of Hollow Knight. The winding passageways of the world can quickly confuse you, so it's a safe charm to have if you're not intending to get involved in any serious battles.
This is a really helpful charm early on when you don't have quite enough Geo. The swarm will pick up any Geo that you can't reach -- like the coins that fall into spikes. Mostly useful for grinding Geo to get the expensive early items like the Lumafly Lantern, this charm loses its usefulness late in the game after most items have already been bought.
This charm increases the length of the invulnerability period that occurs after taking damage. Mostly useful in boss fights or against large groups of enemies that are hard to dodge, the charm gives some extra time to escape a situation or start swinging wildly.
This charm can be more effectively used with the Quick Slash and Fragile Strength charms to output a ton more damage, or the Quick Focus charm to get a quick heal during the invulnerability.
The description on this charm is pretty self-explanatory. You get more SOUL for hitting enemies, which is useful for casting spells and healing. It's not an incredibly powerful effect, but it is still useful well into the later stages of the game.
Soul Catcher's effect can be combined with a ton of other charms to get some impressive power spikes. You can stack this charm with Soul Eater and further increase the amount of SOUL gained, or equip Spell Twister and be able to more frequently cast spells.
A spell focused charm, the Shaman Stone increases the damage of spells by 33%. The damage increase is substantial, but unless you can guarantee that you will have enough SOUL for both spells and healing, it isn't as useful on its own.
Bringing charms to help get more SOUL makes the Shaman Stone far more useful. Soul and Eater, Soul Catcher, and Grubsong are both good combinations to increase the amount of SOUL generated during combat. The Spell Twister charm is also a good option as it reduces the cost of spells.
An upgraded for of the Soul Catcher, this charm grants even more SOUL when hitting at enemy. The four notch requirement makes it a little harder to manage early on, and generally Soul Catcher is a better option.
Combining this charm with other spell-based charms can lead to an effective spell build though, with Spell Twister and Shaman Stone both being good combination options.
A good option for the early game, the Dashmaster charm loses its usefulness into the late game. Dashing is faster than walking, so this charm can help to move across large distances, but there are so many other charms that are more useful that it is hard to justify using Dashmaster for long.
That being said, using the Dashmaster alongside the Sharp Shadow increases the damage to 150% Nail damage, rather than the standard 100% Nail damage.
Thorns of Agony is a useful charm if fighting multiple enemies. The damage is double your base Nail damage, giving it a fair amount of damage. Unfortunately, the damage dealt doesn't gather any SOUL, which can make it difficult to gather SOUL for healing or spells.
When combined with the Baldur Shell charm, Thorns of Agony will activate when the Baldur Shell breaks, even if no damage is taken.
A pretty risky option for new players, the Fury of the Fallen charm activates when you reach one health. As long as you remain on one health, your Nail damage is increased by 75%. Fury of the Fallen only affects Nail damage, so it shouldn't be used on spell-focused builds.
This charm stacks with Fragile Strength, granting roughly 162% increased damage as long as you are at one health. Interestingly, it also interacts with Grubberfly's Elegy to give the player red projectiles at one health.
The Fragile Heart charm is a powerful option, giving the player two additional points of health. The only real downside is that the charm can break, but even that is a fairly small problem since Leg Eater will repair it for Geo.
When combined with Joni's Blessing, the Fragile Heart charm will grant Lifeblood Masks in keeping with the Joni's Blessing charm effect.
This charm simply grants more Geo from enemies when they die. Its biggest use comes from exploring the world, and it doesn't have any combat use. Like the other Fragile charms, it breaks upon death and Leg Eater will repair it for Geo.
Combining Fragile Greed with the Gathering Swarm can maximize the Geo earned, by allowing the swarm to pick up the Geo that falls into unreachable places.
Fragile Strength increases Nail damage by 50%. This option is technically weaker than other charms, but generally more effective because it is a constant upgrade, rather than having the 1 health requirement of the Fury of the Fallen charm. Like other Fragile charms, it breaks upon death and Leg Eater will repair it for Geo.
The charm can be combined with other charms to increase damage output. Charms like Quick Slash allows you to output your damage faster, while the damage of Fury of the Fallen and Fragile Strength stacks multiplicatively.
A useful charm for spell-focused builds, the Spell Twister reduces spell costs by 33%. Combining this charm with other spell-based charms can greatly improve spellcasting. Soul Catcher and Soul Eater both grant more SOUL per hit giving more opportunities to cast spells, and Shaman Stone increases the damage of your spells reducing how many spells you need to cast to defeat your enemies.
A fairly simple effect, the Steady Body charm removes the recoil from attacking. This charm is most effective in areas with heavy platforming, where sliding backwards could send you tumbling to your death. Luckily, the charm does not affect the bounce that happens when attacking enemies from above.
Steady Body can be combined with a number of charms (Mark of Pride, Longnail, and Quick Slash are a few examples) usually as a way to stay in range of the enemy.
Heavy Blow is another simple, yet powerful charm. Granting the player a more effective knockback effect when attacking enemies gives more opportunity to avoid the enemies attacks and can create openings to heal.
A fairly plain effect that combos exceptionally well with other charms, Quick Slash increases your attack speed -- and when used alongside other charms, can ramp up your damage.
Common combinations include basic damage buffing charms like Fragile Strength, or Grubberfly's Elegy to increase the number of projectiles.
Used primarily to keep distance, the Longnail increases the range of your melee attacks. It is slightly shorter range than the Mark of Pride, but oftentimes that difference isn't a huge factor, especially considering Longnail has a lower notch cost and is easier to acquire.
You can equip both Longnail and Mark of Pride for a further extended range, but it's generally advised to pick one or the other and use the extra slots for something else.
An upgraded version of the Longnail. The upgraded range can be used to more safely Nail bounce.
The Baldur Shell is a protective charm that can be incredibly useful early on, but is generally considered less useful than other charms. The charm provides a protective barrier when focusing SOUL -- but if the barrier is hit the focus will be interrupted and the SOUL will be wasted. Charms like Quick Focus and Shape of Unn tend to be better. By the far the biggest downside is that the shell breaks after four hits and won't regenerate until the next time you rest.
Flukenest is a replacement of the Vengeful Spirit spell. It does more total damage and has a wider spread, while sacrificing consistency.
While Flukenest is best used against large bosses to ensure maximum damage, when combined with the Defender's Crest it will send out a toxic fluke that explodes releasing a toxic cloud, making it much more reliable for damage.
The Defender's Crest is fairly situational, as it emits toxic clouds around the player. The clouds are small and very strong, but they linger and can be used to damage enemies as you run away from them. Mostly, this charm shines when combined with other charms. Flukenest and Glowing Womb both create toxic creatures that will explode and release toxic clouds.
Glowing Womb uses the player's SOUL to create up to four followers that will charge at nearby enemies. Useful for players who prefer Nail combat since SOUL is only used for healing. Combined with the Defender's Crest the followers will explode into poison clouds.
Most useful in high pressure situations, the Quick Focus charm allows you to cast Focus faster. The increased speed of Focus can let you heal in the middle of a boss fight or an arena. Ck2 console commands province religion.
When combined with the Stalwart Shell, the time it takes to heal is just shorter than the invulnerability time. Additionally, charms like Soul Catcher and Soul Eater allow more SOUL per hit, giving more opportunities to heal.
The opposite of the Quick Focus, the Deep Focus charm grants two points of health, though a bit slower. The extended time makes it difficult to use in boss battles so it's recommended for platforming challenges or other places where there is a lot of time to rest.
The biggest combination for Deep Focus is with the Quick Focus charm. With both charms active you can use Focus to get 2 health back, at the regular speed.
The Lifeblood Heart grants 2 Lifeblood Masks. These additional health points regenerate after resting and are commonly used for spell casting builds as a way to reserve SOUL for casting rather than healing.
Lifeblood Heart can be combined with other Lifeblood based charms like Joni's Blessing and Lifeblood Core for additional Lifeblood masks.
An upgraded version of the Lifeblood Heart, the Lifeblood Core grants 4 masks rather than 2. It stacks with Joni's Blessing and Lifeblood Heart and costs one only one notch more than the Lifeblood Heart while providing double the effect.
The biggest downside to what is arguably the best Lifeblood charm, is that it is immensely difficult to obtain. It is recommended that you get at least 7 health, then use Joni's Blessing and Lifeblood Heart to reach 15 Lifeblood masks to open the door to the Lifeblood Core.
Joni's Blessing has one of the most noticeable effect of any charm. It increases your health by 4, and changes all masks into Lifeblood masks. The Focus ability becomes useless as you can't regenerate Lifeblood masks, which makes this a powerful choice for spell builds as it reserves all SOUL for casting.
When combined with Hiveblood, the masks granted by Joni's Blessing will regenerate, unlike the masks granted by other Lifeblood charms. Shaman Stone is another strong option for spell builds utilizing Joni's Blessing.
With such a low cost, the Grubsong charm is a top notch choice. The charm grants SOUL every time you take damage, and while the amount of SOUL gained isn't enough for a heal or spell on its own, when combined with striking enemies it becomes far easier to gather SOUL.
Grubsong can be combined with a ton other charms for useful interactions. When combined with the regenerative effect of Hiveblood, you can have infinite SOUL by jumping into a hazard then letting Hiveblood heal you before repeating. When combined with Grubberfly's Elegy, it actually increases the amount of SOUL received from damage.
While Grubberfly's Elegy projectiles are a cool effect, it is fairly difficult to obtain with pretty low damage -- making it kind of a letdown. Having said that, it works well in combinations that increase damage or attack speed. When combined with Fragile Strength and Fury of the Fallen, reaching one health brings the projectiles back and gives them a massive increase in damage.
Hiveblood returns the last point of health over a period of 10 seconds. This regeneration can keep you fairly healthy as long as you're not diving headfirst into enemies. Hiveblood can also regenerate the health from Joni's Blessing, though not Lifeblood Heart or Lifeblood Core. An interesting passive to this charm is that the Hive enemies will cease to be hostile unless attacked.
Useful against slow enemies or in tight spaces, the Spore Shroom releases a toxic cloud after healing. Unfortunately, it loses some of its use as you shift into the late game. Additionally, there is a passive ability that allows you to understand the both language of the Riddle Tablet in Kingdom's Edge and Mister Mushroom.
Spore Shroom achieves various aesthetic effects when combined with the Baldur Shell and the Shape of Unn, changing your character into a snail while using Focus. Alternately, when combined with the Defender's Crest the poison damage does more damage and ticks faster, dealing more damage over the duration.
The Sharp Shadow increases the dash length as well as dealing damage to enemies. The damage scales off the current Nail damage, but is unaffected by damage buffs from other charms. The only exception being in the case of Dashmaster, which improves Sharp Shadow's damage slightly.
The Shape of Unn charm grants you the ability to move while healing. The movement is slow and you can't jump, but movement is still safer than standing still. It can be combined with Spore Shroom and Baldur Shell for aesthetic changes, and combining with Quick Focus allows for faster movement.
Nailmaster's Glory charges Nail arts twice as fast, making it an incredibly useful one notch choice. When combined with the Fury of the Fallen, your Nail arts damage is increased by 75% -- making them a solid retaliation option.
The Dream Wielder reduces the time to charge the Dream Nail while simultaneously increasing the amount of SOUL gained from those strikes. Unfortunately, you have to stand still to use it and it does no damage.
This charm's high notch cost makes it difficult to combine with other charms, but the constant SOUL regeneration is still useful, as you can guarantee both healing and spells. Additionally, the charm is still used to unlock the secret area of the Abyss.
The most drastic effect of this charm is that it grants access to two different endings for the game. It also uses no notches, replaces the Kingsoul charm, and makes your Shade and Siblings non-hostile.
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There you have it! That's all the charms in Hollow Knight, along with where to find them and how to best utilize them. If you want even more tips for this Metroidvania game, check out the rest of our Hollow Knight guides here on GameSkinny:
This is a list of the creatures you need to defeat to complete the journal.