The Watcher in the City of Tears.

Hollow Knight: Returning to the City of Tears for The Watcher


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Rhett Roxl is a professional writer who has been gaming for as long as he can remember. He merged both passions together to become a writer in the game industry in 2020.

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Marshall is a seasoned writer and gaming enthusiast based in Tokyo. He's a prolific wordsmith with hundreds of articles featured on top-tier sites like Business Insider, How-To Geek, PCWorld, and Zapier. His writing has reached a massive audience with over 70 million readers!

At this point in Hollow Knight, you’ve already defeated two of the three Dreamers. Now, you must make your way back to the City of Tears to face the third and final one, Lurien the Watcher.

Table Of Contents

    Returning to the City of Tears

    Take a Stag Station and ride it to King’s Station. From here, make your way to the left and onto the next section. Pass through this area, defeating the enemies or just avoiding them, and reach the next room to the left. Once here, you’ll immediately spot an elevator. Ride it to the top.

    The Knight standing on an elevator in the City of Tears.

    Walk to the left and jump on the floor on the top left. You’ll see an opening in the ceiling here. Jump in to proceed. Press onwards from here. You will then see a floating platform ahead. Jump on it and continue ascending. Beware of the two Sentries here.

    Once at the top, head to the left and enter the next room to find a bench. Rest up and head back outside. Jump into the hole in the ground and defeat the enemies that are blocking your way. You’ll eventually land in a small arena where you’ll need to face a Great Husk Sentry and a Lance Sentry. Defeat them and the gate to the right will open.

    There’s a lever here you should hit. Once done, jump back onto the area below and proceed to the right, which should now be open. Begin ascending from here. You’ll find a lever on the left, which opens the gate here. Open this gate, and then head to the right. You’ll find the entrance to the area above here.

    The Knight standing atop a floating platform on the way to the Watcher's Spire.

    Keep walking to the left while dealing with the enemies here. Beyond the left entrance is a lever that connects this building to the one on the left. Open it up as you wish. Once done, return to the room on the right and continue heading upwards.

    You should find an elevator on this floor. Ride it to the upper section. If you head to the right and climb up from there, you’ll reach a room with a Great Husk Sentry and a Lance Sentry. Defeating them will open up a section that contains a Grub.

    When you’re done with that, head back down, proceed to the left, and take the entrance to the upper section. Ride another elevator here to the top. This next room is the boss arena for the Watcher Knight.

    The Watcher Knight

    The Knight facing the Watcher Knight in the Watcher's Spire.

    In this boss battle, you’ll actually be facing a total of six Watcher Knights. However, you can reduce this to just five by eliminating one of the Knights before the fight even begins. You can do this by destroying the breakable ceiling on the top left in the area just before entering the boss room. You can then climb up from here and you’ll find a rope that holds a chandelier on the ceiling. Destroy this rope and the chandelier will drop on one of the Knights.

    The Knight climbing into a secret room above the Watcher Knight's boss room.

    Now, onto the actual boss fight.

    The Watcher Knights only have three attacks.

    • Slash Attack – The Watcher Knight will swing its sword twice. Horizontal first, and vertical second. Jump over them when they do this attack and hit them from behind.
    • Rolling Ball – The Watcher Knight will curl up into a ball and roll across the arena. Dashing overhead is a good way of avoiding this.
    • Bouncing Ball – Instead of rolling after curling into a ball, the Watcher Knight will bounce around the arena instead. Watch for its trajectory and wait for them to stop. Attack them then.

    At the beginning of the fight, only one Knight will stand up. If you manage to defeat this Knight within 20 seconds, two more Knights will stand up at once. If you don’t, only one of them will rise up. There will never be more than two of them at once, so at least you won’t have to worry about facing more than that at the same time.

    The Watcher Knights are very aggressive. I recommend that you charge up a Nail Art when one is about to stand so you can land a powerful hit before they start attacking you.

    Use your spells liberally during the fight, especially Shade Soul and Descending Dark. If you can manage to hit two Knights with one spell, all the better. You might have trouble defeating them in your first try or two, but you’ll eventually get the hang of their pattern.

    Ascending the Watcher’s Spire

    After defeating the Watcher Knight, head to the right and make your way up. At the top, walk to the left and you’ll find a Geo chest and a Hallownest Seal. Once you’ve picked those up, return to the right and ascend once more.

    In this next area, take the elevator on the left and ride it all the way up. Once you reach the top, walk to the right and you’ll find Lurien. Do the same thing you did with the other Dreamers to absorb Lurien. That is, attack him and absorb his Essence.

    The Knight standing beside Lurien the Watcher.

    After doing this, you’re finally done. You’ve defeated the three Dreamers and opened the Temple of the Black Egg. Head back down and make your way to a Stag Station. It’s time to visit the Hollow Knight himself.