Hollowseph (Pure) is Anime Vanguards’ take on Hollow Knight. With the 0.1% Monarch trait and a fully stacked support team, it can flatten most of the game’s endgame content on its own damage. In a run against four of the hardest stages, it cleared three without much trouble. The fourth, Limit Test 1, ended in a loss after the boss outlasted a dramatic wave rewind.
Quick answer: Monarch Hollowseph (Pure) won Lunar Bridge Floor 11, Ruined City Act 2 Nightmare, and Returned Dungeon Act 1 Nightmare. It failed Limit Test 1 Normal at wave 30 against Diablo.
Monarch Hollowseph (Pure) stage results
Every stage was played with the same six-unit team. The numbers below come straight from each end-of-match results screen.
| Stage | Result | Play time | Total damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar Bridge (Dungeon Stage 8, Floor 11 Normal) | Victory, 15 waves | 7:51 | 4.10B |
| Ruined City (Raid Stage 3, Act 2 Nightmare) | Victory, 34 waves | 9:20 | 81.21B |
| Returned Dungeon (Raid Stage 6, Act 1 Nightmare) | Victory, 20 waves | 6:48 | 1.77T |
| Limit Test 1 (Dungeon Stage 6, Normal) | Failed, 30 waves | 18:15 | 1.16T |
The bosses scale fast across those four. Ruined City ends with Lord of Shadows, Returned Dungeon brings Destruction Shadow alongside an Axe Statue, and Limit Test 1 caps out with Diablo carrying 30B HP. Lunar Bridge paid out Corruptor Token x10 and Cake Slices ’24 x40 on the win.
What Hollowseph (Pure) does in a match
Hollowseph is an Exclusive unit built around Soul stacks. Its base passive, Void Given Focus, generates three Soul stacks on every attack. If no enemy is in range and no spell has been cast for 10 seconds, the next attack hits for +100% damage. It also summons Lost Shades that help hold lanes, and its upgrade path moves through Great Slash, Dash Slash, and Cyclone Slash before reaching full AoE at max level.
Those Soul stacks feed Void Spells, an active menu with no cooldown of its own. Each spell costs a set amount of the meter.
| Void Spell | Effect | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Embrace the Void | Hits highest-HP enemy for 400% damage | x100 |
| Shade Strike | Hits enemy closest to base, any distance | x33 |
| Ascending Dark | 15-second void zone, 20% of unit damage per second | x33 |
| Dream Nail | Next attack empowered by 50% | x33 |
Embrace the Void is the boss tool, and it is how Lord of Shadows went down in Ruined City. Ascending Dark is the lane-control option for crowded waves.
The Monarch build and support team behind the clears
Monarch is a 0.1% trait that adds +300% damage and cuts SPA by 10%, along with range and limit bonuses. On this account, the Level 60 Hollowseph (Pure) sat at 350.23K damage, 3.9s SPA, 17.8 range, and 87.79K DPS before any buffs, with 100% Potential and one placement. That last number matters, because a single copy carries the whole team’s damage.
The gear stack is substantial. Hollowseph used its exclusive Pale Mask Familiar, granting +8000% DMG. The Memoria setup paired the Peak of Shinobi base passive with Turles Memoria, which refunds 15% of the meter on Void Spells, and Unlikely Doctor for one additional upgrade level. In matches, Barbs of Spite dealt 1% damage per second and slowed enemies in range, while Honed Nail provided +40% direct damage.
The other five slots exist almost entirely to multiply Hollowseph’s numbers or pay for them.
- Lizard (Fission), Monarch: up to 10 Atomic stacks, each adding +10% DMG and +10% Crit DMG.
- Dot (Nemesis), Monarch: an 80% Vanguard buff plus unit repositioning.
- Apathetic Savior (Door), Monarch: 50% DMG, +60% Crit, and active nukes.
- Traitless (Vigilante), Solar: extra Crit and 40% cheaper upgrades.
- Sprintwagon, Fortune: 300 income for early cash farming.
Fully buffed, Hollowseph reached 50.25M damage per hit at 8s SPA, 56.8 range, 3x Crit DMG, and a 55% Crit chance. Critical hits land in the 150M+ range.
Lunar Bridge, Ruined City and Returned Dungeon: three clean wins
Lunar Bridge, Floor 11 of the Persona Dungeon, follows a simple pattern. Sprintwagon goes down first for money, then Hollowseph and the supports. The stage also throws a skull warning to “Awaken the Statues before Wave 15!”, but it never became a problem.
Ruined City Act 2 Nightmare is a longer raid at 34 waves. Once Sprintwagon had farmed enough cash, Hollowseph was maxed and carried the fight into Lord of Shadows, who fell well before the base was threatened.
Returned Dungeon Act 1 Nightmare was the fastest clear of the set and the most violent one. Stacking Lizard’s Atomic buffs pushed Hollowseph past 50M per hit, and Destruction Shadow melted under 1.77T of total team damage.
Limit Test 1 and the “Time rewinds to wave 25!” banner
Limit Test 1 Normal is where the build ran out of road. After farming cash and maxing Hollowseph and every support, the team pushed to wave 30 and spent the final stretch hitting Diablo. It earned 784.14K money and dealt 1.16T damage, the most of any run besides Returned Dungeon. It still wasn’t enough to empty Diablo’s health bar.
At wave 30, facing defeat, a red banner reading “Time rewinds to wave 25!” appeared. The match reset the field and the wave counter by five waves, giving the team a second pass at the stage. This rewind is tied to Hollowseph and only showed up at the point of losing.
The extra time didn’t change the outcome. Diablo survived the second attempt, and the stage logged as Failed after 18 minutes and 15 seconds. The rewind is a safety net, not a guaranteed win.
Getting Hollowseph and evolving it to Hollowseph (Pure)
Hollowseph launched on November 1st, 2025, as a free login unit during Anime Vanguards’ 1st Anniversary event, picked by the game’s balancer, Pyseph. It is now listed as unobtainable, so only accounts that claimed it then can build this setup. The base form attacks twice in a 180° cone, starting at 1,200 damage, 15 range and 5 SPA for 4,000 Yen.
Evolving into Hollowseph (Pure) takes 5,000 takedowns on the unit plus the following materials.
| Requirement | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dream Nail | 1 |
| Rainbow Essence | 1 |
| Red Essence | 10 |
| Purple Essence | 25 |
| Blue Essence | 25 |
| Green Essence | 25 |
| Gold | 15,000 |
Dream Nail comes from The Hollow Knight event missions. A Monarch trait rolled on base Hollowseph carries through evolution, and players have reported landing it anywhere from a few hundred rerolls to the pity threshold.
Put together, Monarch Hollowseph (Pure) ranks among the strongest units in Anime Vanguards, close to Jinwoo in how far it scales once buffed. Three hard stages fell quickly. Limit Test 1’s Diablo shows where a single-carry team still hits a ceiling, even with a rewind in its back pocket.
