The 10 Best Boss Fights in Hollow Knight: Silksong, Ranked
Hollow Knight: Silksong boss ranking highlights unforgettable encounters and masterful design, making Hornet's journey through Pharloom iconic.
Now in 2026, months after finishing Hollow Knight: Silksong, I still find myself replaying its bosses in my head. After fifty of the most glorious hours I have ever given to a video game, Team Cherry's adventure left me desperate to write about it until my fingers hurt. The bosses felt like the ideal starting point because they are not merely difficult obstacles; they are one of the highest quality collections of encounters I have ever experienced in this genre.
Below is my personal ranking of the ten best boss fights in Hollow Knight: Silksong, ordered from tenth to first. This is not a how-to guide, but rather a love letter to the encounters that made Hornet's journey through Pharloom unforgettable.
10. Forebrothers Signis and Gron
I met the Forebrothers quite late, which made the fight feel a little easier than it probably should have been. Even so, the encounter clicked because of how the two siblings work together. The game gives you time to learn one of them before throwing both at you, and from that moment it becomes a beautiful adaptation of the Mantis Lords from the original Hollow Knight, but with molten rain falling from above. Signis threatens the horizontal space while Gron covers vertical and diagonal lines, so my eyes had to stay sharp in every direction. It turned into a reflex challenge that felt genuinely fantastic.
9. Phantom
By the time I reached The Mist, I was stunned by the sheer size of the game and its ability to keep reinventing itself. Phantom is not an especially complex fight, but the buildup with the organ and the boss's entrance make the moments before the battle just as memorable as the clash itself. This encounter embodies what I love most about this type of duel: elegant movement, quick animations, attacks that feel ripped out of an anime, and plenty of parries. Phantom may be the least varied boss on this list, but its simplicity and superb presentation made me treasure it deeply.
8. Widow
Silksong begins with a noticeable difficulty spike compared to the original Hollow Knight, and the Widow goes beyond just being tougher. It was my personal introduction to the idea that beating the original game is not enough preparation for Pharloom. This boss throws multiple attacks from different directions at once, at speeds that made Soul Tyrant feel almost slow. The superb animations, wonderful introduction, and the lore tied to Bellhart's story all combined to convince me that even the best Hollow Knight bosses would fall below the average of this new creation. The Widow's design and arena are outstanding, so placing it this low only proves how absurd the overall quality is.
7. First Sinner
First Sinner feels like a boss that would have been locked away as a Pantheon 5 exclusive in the original game. From the aesthetics of its movements to the orientation and style of its attacks, this fight demands godlike precision while being extremely showy. I beat it on my second try, yet I still remember every pattern in minute detail, which is my biggest argument for its inclusion here. It summons runes like Pure Vessel, teleports like Grimm, and calls needles like Radiance. It works beautifully as an ode to its predecessor.
6. Shakra
I am a huge fan of humanoid fights that demand agile reaction times, and Shakra might be the fastest boss in the entire game. Wielding her iconic rings, she moves at the speed of light, throws them with pinpoint accuracy, and teleports in every direction like something straight out of Dragon Ball Z. Team Cherry seems to anticipate common player tactics and punishes you if you try to rely on them here. What gets me is that the fight is essentially a friendly sparring match between warriors b
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