Defeating the Dream Warrior Galien and saving Zote again | Hollow Knight Gameplay

Hello, gamers. Welcome back to my blog.

In my previous session, I explored a lot of dark and scary routes of Deepnest, one of the scariest places in the whole of Hallownest kingdom and I ended up finding a priced possession, a "Tram Pass" which will allow me to use the trams that acts as quick travel points and connects various parts of the Hallownest.

I still had a lot of uncharted territory in Deepnest and since I was there, I wanted to explore it more before leaving the place by using my newfound pass.

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I continued my journey through dark caves and platforms, killing some of the creepiest bugs along the way. Soon, I saw some bright light coming from a cave. I had to investigate and see what secrets it holds.

Defeating Galien

The cave opened up into a bright room with a dead bug in the middle and over it was his spirit hovering. He was Galien, a brave warrior who aspired to become a knight under the pale King's rule but looks like he succumbed to this place and died right there. Since we had the dream nail, we could see him in his dream/spirited state.

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He challenged me to a battle and I gracefully accepted. I had no idea what its attacks were going to be like. He uses his scythe which spins and bounces off the ground slowly following our character.

I got beaten up badly in the first few fights but I eventually got him at the end. Here is the final battle.

When I died the first time, I didn't challenge him and went past him to see what lies on the other side of the arena and that was a good find as you will find a 'Lifeblood cocoon' at the top of the arena which will grant your 3 extra life masks.

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Even after getting the extra life masks it still proved to be a tough fight for me. It is easier at the start when there is only one rotating disk but as Galien's starts taking damage it spawns two more glowing balls which move in a totally different way and can make the fight challenging at the end.

I used the 'mark of pride' as one of my charms along with a steady body to get quick strikes on him while standing still or jumping only a little upward. It was crucial to defeat it quickly else the spinners get so hard to predict and you will eventually die.

Galien continues to hover over you so it gets hard to strike it with my spell. However, I managed to do it once but it was not easy. I wish there was some spell that strikes upward, maybe there is and I still have to find it...xD

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He still thinks the Pale King is ruling the kingdom but it is long gone so his spirit might be lingering here so much longer. Luckily, I managed to liberate him and he wasn't mad too, he was happy that the king didn't forget about him and sent someone to challenge him.

He gave me a whopping 200 dream essence... now I have to head back to that old lady at the Resting Grounds and see what reward she will give me for collecting all this essence.

Saving Zote again!

I found Zote again who was trapped in a spider web. The last time I found him was when a large mosquito was about to eat him alive. I saved him that time but he was not pleased with me. LOL

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I started looking for a way to reach him and had to take a long path killing some weird spider-like bugs. They were quick on their feet and attacked me from all sides. It was scary for a moment but I killed them all.

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I got to Zote and saved him but just like the last time, he was so ungrateful and arrogant. I had to question myself why I keep saving this guy. Next time I see him I am letting him die for sure...lol

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It looked like that I explored most of the Deepnest (however, there are always more to find) so I decided to get out of there. The nearest exit I could see was from the north which connects to the Fungal Wastes.

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The descent was not easy as I encountered many challenging bugs but the platforming section was okay. They trolled me once when I got to the top only to see the platform break beneath my feet and I got to the start of the descent again...lol

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On the top you will see a blocked path which can be opened just by this side that's why I couldn't find this entrance from the other side.

The Moss Prophet

I saw another interesting room with a completely different aesthetic and what looked like a big mossy bug preaching something to his disciples. I killed his pupils when they tried to attack me.

He was a "Moss Prophet" who said some of the most cryptic sh*t about me and Hollownest. I was not sure what he was talking about but he was pleased to see me at least. But his eyes were all orange and he should be attacking me. Not sure what's going on here.

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It was a dead end so I traced back and took another path. Now I was officially into the Fungal Wastes and heard a cry for help from a grub and in no time I found him. He was trapped on top of a ledge. If you help them escape then their father pays you for saving them.

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I was here a long time ago and forgot how tough it can be with the thorns, an acid pool and some challenging platforming sections. But by the end of one such section, I found another Charm.

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Now I have a total of 14 charms which is still less than half of all the charms to be collected. This reminds me to check out a shop in Forgotten Crossroads that sells charms and charm slots. I can get another charm slot if I have enough.

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There are a lot of places to go from here. I chose to go towards a stag station which connects to most of the map and I can quickly travel from there. The nearest one was in the Queen's station so I went there.

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Well, I could now choose to go to Dirtmouth and see if something changed there or I can go to Greenpath and see what I missed there or I can go to that Crystal land (can't remember the name) as I fell from a ledge last time and never been back there or I can go to one of those big masks that I see on my map. They look like the main bosses that I have to defeat.

And I can go to the Grub father and see what more rewards he gives me for saving his children. There are so many things to explore now and it kind of feels overwhelming. But I love it. No matter where I choose to go there will be some things that I missed earlier or a new section would be reachable now which I could not before. What an interconnected world this game has... ❤️

Thanks for reading...

Until the next challenge...