There are ways in which Hollow Knight: Silksong can be a bit more difficult than its predecessor. For players new to the Metroidvania Soulslike series, it can feel a bit like taking a plunge in a cold lake: bracing but unpleasant. The game’s first boss fight is against the Bell Beast. If you’re feeling a bit daunted at first, the good news is that the giant arthropod is easy to defeat once you’ve got the pattern down.
Where do I find Silksong‘s first boss?
The Bell Beast is located early in the game in The Marrow. You can’t get to him until you unlock the Silk Spear ability next door in Mosshome. After getting it, there’s a silk obstacle in The Marrow you can cut through to unlock the way to the Bell Beast’s layer.
How do I beat the Bell Beast?
Glad you asked? While many Silksong players probably won’t have much trouble with this guy, this is a judgement-free zone with the sole goal of trying to help as many Hollow Knight players break through that first barrier and be able to continue their journey to the Citadel.
The Bell Beast has two phases and four attacks. In the first phase he’ll just appear from underground and run across the screen or jump over your head. If he’s running across, you can jump over him and hit him 2-3 times from the back before he burrows back under. If he’s about to jump over you, just stand in the middle of the screen underneath the peak of the arc and hit him in the back again.
The second phase is where things get slightly trickier. First, he’ll come up from the ground and spawn two bells that roll across opposite sides of the screen. These are easy to enough to jump over and get a few hits in. Later, he’ll start shaking the whole cavern and have bells drop from the ceiling that bounce while he’s rotating through his other three attacks. Sometimes these bells bounce toward you. Sometimes they bounce away.
If you stand close to where they drop, they’ll miss you completely no matter which direction they’re going. Plus they disappear before the second bounce. But watch out because during this phase he’ll also spawn bells each time he comes out of the ground.
He keeps killing me in three hits!
Brutal, right? Even though he’s Silksong‘s first boss, Bell Beast, like everything else in the game, hits pretty hard. That leaves little time to memorize his attack pattern and not much room for error once you do. The biggest general tip for the boss fight, like lots of encounters in Silksong, is just to stay calm. Don’t move around more than you have to and don’t overreact to flashy attacks.
Imagine instead of a giant, harrowing roly-poly bug constantly trying to squash you, he’s just a rectangle-shaped hit box moving around the screen in very predictable ways. Save at a bench nearby, hit enough enemies to have a full roll of silk to bind with/heal yourself at the start of the fight, and then stick to dodging each of the four attacks as they come. You’ll get to the end of the fight thinking, “How is he still alive?” but then after a few more hits he’ll be liberated and become your new best friend.
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