Hollow Knight Any% 1432+ NMG

Hollow Knight Any% 1.4.3.2+ NMG Route Notes
*will detail Spore Shroom route below QGA route

Vengeful Spirit
-left after well
-aspid arena (+10)
-skip False Knight (+10 if all husk geo)
-pick up VS

Greenpath/Mothwing Cloak
-Ancestral Mound, kill first baldur (+50)
-climb gruzzer room (right side slightly faster, but more reliant on gruzzer rng)
-kill second baldur since no instakill :(
-fireball/squit skip to upper Greenpath
-Moss Knight (+40)
-Vengefly King (+65); want 220 by here but can pick up incidental geo in a couple spots
-defeat Hornet, pick up dash, save quit to Mound

Mantis Claw
-head to Fungal Wastes from Crossroads
-head right after Fungal drop, then around past Cloth and City entrance
-perform some kind of epogo (or go around)
-pick up claw, save quit to Mound

Gruz Mother/Dream Nail
-head down and right through Crossroads
-buy Crossroads stag (-50), don’t need to call
-kill Gruz Mother (ideally ending with 2 casts of soul for cleanup) (+50)
-bench at Salubra, buy Shaman Stone (-220)
-rescue Sly, taking 2 hits going there, and take 3 hits to die for shade skip (making sure to be far enough right for shade spawn)
-shade skip to Blue Lake
-head across Blue Lake, open lever and go up to Dreamers monument
-try not to fall in dream plats, pick up Dream Nail

Chandelier/Watcher Knights
-Seer skip (worth even if you fail)
-head back left and down, take elevator to City
-collect journal above King’s Station
-head to King’s Station, pick up seal (optional bench)
-head left, kill Gorgeous Husk + followers (+460 or so)
-head left, open lever in fountain room
-object pogo up to Watcher’s Spire
-kill Great Husk Sentry (optional bench before), head right and up (+50)
-have 3 hits of soul before Watcher Knights, head up to arena
-fireball to break ceiling, drop the chandelier
-try not to die

Lumafly Lantern
-head up to Lurien without getting rewards
-kill Lurien
-head back down, pick up geo chest and seal, head down and left to bridge
-head down, talk to Lemm outside fountain, then sell to him (+1100)
-head back right to King’s Station (you want about 2320 geo by now, which you can reach by killing the enemies below Spire or by the fountain lever; shouldn’t be much below that number, the rest of your geo comes from devouts)
-open King’s Station, lookdown/firebell to get stag earlier, stag to Dirtmouth
-open Dirtmouth stag lever, bench, head to Sly and buy Lantern

Crystal Heart
-head back to stag, stag to Crossroads
-head to dark room entrance through Furious Vengeflies
-open toll, lookdown to open faster, head into Peak
-go directly up through Peak, ignoring all pickups (optional pogaxe)
-go right, then fall through big room
-enter and complete cdash gauntlet, pick up cdash, save quit to Dirtmouth

Uumuu
-head down well, through gruzzer room, and left from Cornifer room
-acid skip to Fog Canyon
-Trinomi drop or flail around like me, head into Teacher’s Archives (optional bench here)
-head down to Uumuu, kill the jellyfish (ideally 2 cycle, aim for consistent 3 cycle)

Queen’s Gardens/Trap Bench
-cdash past acid to reach and absorb Monomon
-exit Archives, head left from Archives door
-enter acid thorns room (2nd left from the top)
-acid skip into Gardens
-Petra arena (petras have 45 health, which is two spells and a nail hit; missing spells hurts a lot, try and get a setup to hit both on spawn)
-head down and left to Deepnest entrance (just right of toll bench)
-head down into Deepnest and left to Distant Village, collecting full soul
-sit and rest :)

Herrah
-one-room split here; you need to kill two Stalking Devouts, which have 100 hp. The best method to do this is with 4 spells and 4 nail hits, so you need full soul for both.
-You can get two hits in when they open up while still being safe, but optimal kill is by walking into the Devout as you get your second nail hit - invincibility frames will allow you to get the other two swings in and cast the last spell. This also lets you take one damage instead of two.
-The rest of the split is getting past all the spitty spiders without getting hit too much (also some stuff about whether you save the grub, I will pass no judgment).
-Each Devout drops 43 geo on these patches, and you need 250 for Distant Village stag. Keep that in mind.
-Fireborn’s video (while for 1221) is very good for this.

THK Scream
-head left from Herrah (optional geo rocks if you’re still below 250)
-head to top right for stag station
-buy stag, firebell/cdashbell/lookdown for faster stag, stag to Dirtmouth
-head down well, right to Black Egg Temple
-no need to bench, Black Egg is a hardsave
-break the chains, let them scream

The Hollow Knight
-THK is much faster on this patch than on 1221, so Fireborn’s video is only so helpful. My experience says to usually only go for two nail swings after an attack to not get caught in a swing when they start another attack, but it can depend.
-When THK is stabbing themself they only take 1 damage from any source. Don’t use your spells then: save up soul for after, take time to heal if you need.
-If you can get over THK as they scream so you fall into them, you get to gain control early and ‘skip’ the scream. This is only really useful for the fourth and final scream (counting first from the one that begins the fight).
-focus after they die, absorb the infection, GG

**
Alternate Route: Deepnest Spa/Spore Shroom

On patch 1.4.3.2, Spore Shroom is bugged such that it deals much more damage per use to The Hollow Knight. This was patched in 1.5 patches (there’s like a 20% chance that it just doesn’t deal damage to THK now, idk), but the route through Deepnest that would get it on 1.4 is still applicable for those not wanting to do QGA or a very tricky Queen’s Gardens with a lot of timeloss potential. Without Spore Shroom, the route is said to lose approximately 40-45 seconds, which Spore Shroom THK drops to about 20 seconds, but I’m unsure how heavily timed that is with current optimizations.

The only changes to the route are from after Uumuu to entering Beast’s Den, and geo routing is the same. We’re just taking a different route to Beast’s Den to avoid Queen’s Gardens.

Fungal movement
-after Archives, go left
-head down, go right past Queen’s Station into Fungal Wastes
-drop into first downward transition, head left in room after
-go left to Spore Shroom room (pick up if 1.4.3.2 and use hazard to respawn up top, else just ignore)
-fall into Deepnest from breakable floor (have to go all the way past and then back over to break floor)

Deepnest movement
-after fall (cancel hardfall with dash), head right, then to bottom
-head down garpede room, then down larger room to Deepnest hot springs (optional bench here)
-head left from hot springs, then up and left (above Nosk entrance)
-head all the way to the top-left transitions in the next two rooms
-last room is the same as QG route, head left to Distant Village

THK Scream
-before leaving Beast’s Den, bench and remove Shaman Stone for Spore Shroom (don’t overcharm, your soul is just going to healing)

The Hollow Knight
-The strategy here is much different with Spore Shroom. The charm has a cooldown on when it produces a spore cloud, but that gets reset if you take damage. So optimally, you can heal, get hit, and start another heal to do a ton more damage.
-The other major tactic is using inventory to cancel knockback - if you open your inventory while on the ground before you get hit, you get control immediately instead of having a knockback animation. This means you can start healing quicker after taking a hit.
-To my knowledge, Spore Shroom bypasses THK’s 1-damage self-stab rule, but it’s still one of the best times to stock up on soul.