Prepare yourself, brave adventurer, for an encounter with Lace – the elegant yet deadly duelist of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Much like Hornet herself, Lace will cross your path at pivotal moments, each time pushing your combat prowess to its limits. Unlike some optional foes, defeating Lace is essential for progressing through this highly anticipated metroidvania. You’ll face her three times throughout your journey, with her final form presenting what could be the ultimate challenge. If you’re finding these battles tough, this guide offers strategies to overcome each iteration of Lace. Be warned: significant endgame spoilers lie ahead, so read only as far as you need to!
Deep Docks: Locating Lace
Your first duel with Lace awaits in the atmospheric Deep Docks. Before you can confront her, ensure you’ve unlocked the Dash ability, as it’s crucial for accessing her arena. Journey right from the Deep Docks entrance, sticking to the lowest path. As you continue, you’ll begin to hear Lace’s distinctive singing. Follow the sound further right until you reach a locked gate. This gate can only be opened from above. Utilize your Swift Step skill to reach the higher platform, activate the mechanism, and finally face Lace.
Deep Docks: Battle Strategy
Conquering Lace, like many bosses in Silksong, hinges on understanding her attack patterns. Maintain a cautious distance, letting her initiate engagements before you strike. Lace primarily employs three core moves: a swift horizontal dash, an arcing diagonal dash, and a rapid double swing. Watch out for her dazzling flurry, a more potent attack that inflicts higher damage. She also possesses a parry, which if triggered, leads to a powerful riposte. Each attack has a distinct tell.
- When Lace jumps into the air, dash underneath her.
- If she extends her blade forward, indicating a horizontal dash, retreat. If you’re cornered, a well-timed jump will carry you over her.
- Her double swing is brief and easily dodged.
After any of these attacks, a brief opening allows for at least one counter-hit. Once you inflict sufficient damage, Lace will be temporarily stunned, signaling the start of the next phase. She’ll introduce a new teleportation move, telegraphed by a glowing sphere. Simply dash away from this sphere’s vicinity to avoid her arrival.
If Lace guards, refrain from attacking unless you’re prepared to swiftly dash away from her retaliatory flurry of jabs. Your best approach is a jump-dash maneuver over her, followed by an attack during her recovery. Master these visual cues, and her attacks become much easier to anticipate and evade. Remember to utilize healing when you’re safely away from Lace, preferably at the platform’s edge, and be extremely careful not to fall into the hazardous lava below.
The Cradle: Re-encountering Lace
After your initial encounter, Lace will make sporadic appearances, but your next true duel won’t occur until the dramatic conclusion of Act 2. She serves as the final test before facing Silksong’s ultimate antagonist. You’ll find her immediately after ascending via the ornate lift from the Cogwork Heart.
A video guide demonstrating the Lace fight in The Cradle is available here.
The Cradle: Advanced Tactics
This second confrontation with Lace builds upon the first, featuring an identical core moveset but with subtle, yet significant, modifications. Expect a far more aggressive Lace than in the Deep Docks. The fundamental strategy remains: dodge her attacks, utilize pogo jumps for airborne offense, and make strategic use of your Silksong tools like the Cogfly, Tacks, and Pollip Pouch.
Phase One Adjustments:
- Her standard slash attack now incorporates a third, unexpected slash.
- After parrying, she can execute a mid-air riposte with a downward diagonal motion. Respond as you would to her ground riposte: a quick dash out of the way is essential.
Phase Two Enhancements:
- Lace now leaves behind damaging circlets during her upward diagonal attack. You can either position yourself for a quick strike near her anticipated landing spot or dash underneath her arc to avoid the projectiles.
Phase Three Escalation:
- Her powerful dazzling combo attack is now unleashed twice in rapid succession. While there’s a slight delay between each burst, maintain vigilance to avoid being caught by the second wave.
The Abyss: Confronting Lost Lace (True Final Boss)
Congratulations, you’ve reached Act 3! Here, you’ll face your ultimate challenge: Lost Lace, revealed as the true final boss of Silksong. After concluding “The Old Hearts” quest and securing the final necessary item, Hornet descends once more into the heart of the void. While expectations might point to Grand Mother Silk, it is Lost Lace who stands as your formidable opponent.
Recommended Loadout for Lost Lace:
Before stepping into this climactic battle, we highly recommend acquiring the Architect Crest – it’s arguably the most effective crest for this fight. Given the intense, frenetic pace of this encounter, opportunities for direct needle attacks will be scarce, making a tool-heavy build ideal.
For our suggested loadout, we retained the reliable Cogflies and Tacks that proved invaluable in the previous fight. We also included Throwing Rings due to their abundance and solid damage output. While a Multibinder/Injector Band combo for extra healing might seem appealing, generating enough silk through hits on Lost Lace will be challenging. Instead, consider the Fractured Mask for a crucial saving hit and Reserve Bind to ensure you could replenish your vital tools between phases.
Another essential tool is the Magnetite Dice, offering a chance to nullify incoming damage. Your remaining “yellow” tools can be chosen based on preference, but we found Weighted Belt and Ascendant’s Grip particularly useful. These help mitigate stagger and prevent slipping during Lost Lace’s devastating wave attack, which we’ll discuss shortly.
A video guide showcasing the Lost Lace fight is available here.
Lost Lace: Ultimate Battle Guide
Lost Lace embodies the culmination of all her previous forms, adding a complete void-based arsenal drawn from Act 3. This is an extremely intense and frenetic fight, demanding patience and dedicated practice to master its rhythm. For your initial attempts, focus solely on dodging and identifying small windows for needle strikes, holding back on your tools until you’ve built crucial muscle memory.
What makes Lost Lace truly challenging is her unpredictability. She doesn’t strictly adhere to singular moves but can fluidly transition between complex combo patterns.
Key Attack Modifications & New Abilities:
- Triple Horizontal Lunge: This attack now leaves a trail of void tendrils. Crucially, she may abruptly stop before the third lunge, transitioning into an upward swing followed by a diagonal dive. Always anticipate this sudden shift, as it’s not clearly telegraphed.
- Void Tendril Arm: Lost Lace can summon an arm of void tendrils, either from the ground or diagonally mid-air (similar to her mid-air riposte). Jump over these or dash away.
- Homing Void Bolts: Mid-phase one, Lace will pause and laugh, signaling new void abilities. She’ll summon three sequential homing void bolts, telegraphed by her raising her pin and grunting ‘HU.’
- Ground Void Tendrils: She can also summon tendrils from the ground. This is telegraphed by her raising her pin, except this time she gives a quick ‘YAH.’ While a double jump can sometimes clear these, it’s inconsistent. The safest approach is to position yourself carefully between the emerging void pools.
- Spinning Void Blobs: When Lost Lace leaps vertically with a yell of ‘MIERO,’ it means she’s about to unleash six void blobs. These expand into whirling blades. Stand precisely in the center gap between them, then jump-dash away to maintain momentum.
The Void Tidal Wave:
At the end of phase one, Hornet momentarily vanishes. A loud crashing sound signals an impending void tidal wave. As soon as Lost Lace disappears, use your Architect Crest’s alternate bind to renew your tools. Immediately scale the far-right wall, then jump and dash over the incoming wave. Sprint to the left wall and repeat the process for a second wave. This wave conveniently clears any traps you’ve laid, so consider refreshing your Tacks after the majority have been triggered to optimize tool economy.
Phase two introduces an even more aggressive void wave, sweeping from right-to-left, then left-to-right. Your Clawline ability will be indispensable for quickly navigating these.
Final Phase Escalation:
Halfway through the final phase, Lost Lace unleashes her dazzling combo, but now she telegraphs multiple instances simultaneously. Navigate the safe pockets of space or track the order of the appearing spheres to stay one step ahead. Immediately after the combo, she slams down, spawning void tendrils around her – ensure you steer clear.
Ultimately, defeating Lost Lace demands immense patience and a keen awareness of both visual and audio cues. If you can clear phase one without healing, with your Reserve Bind intact, and a healthy amount of masks, you’re on track for a successful attempt. Since the Architect Crest build is resource-intensive, consider pausing and restarting (Alt+F4) if an attempt seems doomed, preserving your precious currency for better runs. And if all else fails, perhaps a few Silksong mods could give you the edge you need!
Conquering Lace across all her forms in Silksong is a challenging yet deeply rewarding experience, akin to a precise, deadly dance. Once you’ve emerged victorious, you’ll be free to explore more of the vast Silksong map. You might also want to prioritize farming Rosaries to stock up on Shard Bundles for future tool-heavy boss attempts, especially for Lost Lace.