Hollow Knight is a 2D action-adventure from Team Cherry that sends you beneath a quiet frontier town into Hallownest, an ancient insect kingdom collapsing under a mysterious plague. You play a silent wanderer with a nail-like sword and a limited map, piecing together the fall of a civilization as you explore branching caverns, fight demanding bosses, and slowly unlock movement and combat abilities. The game’s tone is somber, the world hand-drawn and dense with secrets, and its core loop balances deliberate combat with steady discovery on an interconnected map. You can get the basic pitch and feature set on the game’s official website.

What kind of game is it?

Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania: one large, continuous world where new abilities open previously blocked paths. You start lightly equipped and expand your traversal with upgrades like a dash, wall-climb, and double-jump. Optional charms slot into limited notches to tailor your build — extending attack reach, accelerating healing, magnetizing pickups, or altering spellcasting — and encourage swapping loadouts as areas and bosses change. On death you drop your currency (Geo) and leave behind a “Shade” you must defeat to reclaim it, a risk-reward loop that makes navigation and routing matter as much as raw execution.

Combat is readable and tight: short-range melee, a handful of spells, and movement tech that rewards pattern recognition and positioning. The rhythm leans toward patience — find openings, commit to short combos, and choose when to spend Soul (a resource gained on hit) on healing or offense.

How the world is built

Hallownest is arranged as distinct, interlocking biomes — city, fungal swamps, crystal mines, gardens, waterways — each with bespoke enemies and traversal demands. The map is a tool you assemble rather than a given: you find a cartographer tucked in each new region, purchase a rough chart, and fill it in as you sit at benches. A network of Stag Stations becomes your fast travel, but only after you locate and unlock each stop.

Populating the world are shopkeepers, wanderers, and remnants of Hallownest’s power structure. Some sell mapping tools and charms; others hint at routes, bosses, or the cratered history of the place. The tone is melancholic instead of grim — there’s humor and warmth — but you’re moving through ruins, not a thriving empire.

The story in brief (light spoilers)

You arrive in Dirtmouth at the lip of Hallownest and descend through the ruins as an orange “Infection” drives bugs mad and reanimates the dead. The kingdom’s ruler, the Pale King, once elevated his subjects’ minds and tried to contain the source of the plague by sealing it away. That source is the Radiance, an ancient being whose influence survives in dreams. The Pale King forged beings called Vessels from a substance known as the Void and chose one — the Hollow Knight — to imprison the Radiance. The seal is failing.

Your task, if you pursue it, is to break three living seals — the Dreamers — and enter the Temple of the Black Egg where the Hollow Knight is bound. Depending on the choices you make, the story can end in different ways: you can repeat the cycle and become the new seal; you can attempt it with an ally and change who the world remembers; or you can take a harder path, confront the Radiance directly, and end the Infection at its source. The game stops short of over-explaining, but the environmental storytelling and NPC fragments add up to a coherent arc about sacrifice, memory, and forgetting.

What the expansions add

Post-launch, Team Cherry released four free content packs that meaningfully broaden the game:

  • Hidden Dreams: optional late-game boss fights, upgrades, and music
  • The Grimm Troupe: a traveling troupe with a multistep questline that culminates in a choice and an endgame boss
  • Lifeblood: performance improvements, visual refinements, and a new boss variant
  • Godmaster: a challenge hub (Godhome) with multi-fight “Pantheons,” remixed bosses, and additional endings

These updates are bundled on all modern platforms and highlighted on the official website.

How it feels to play

Three pillars drive the appeal. First, movement: jumps, dashes, and wall-tech interlock cleanly, so mastery feels earned and expressive. Second, boss design: attacks are telegraphed but unforgiving, encouraging iteration and small build changes rather than brute force. Third, discovery: hidden rooms, optional fights, and micro-stories are tucked into corners of the map, rewarding attention and revisits as your kit expands. The hand-drawn art and a mournful orchestral score by Christopher Larkin sell the scale and sadness of a lost kingdom without cutscenes or lore dumps.

Difficulty and progression

Hollow Knight is challenging, but it’s not hostile. You can route around walls, overlevel via optional content, or come back later with more mobility. Benches serve as rest points and map update stations; Hot Springs restore resources; and gentle quality-of-life charms can make early hours less punishing. A permadeath variant (“Steel Soul”) unlocks only after finishing the game, signaling that the intended first run leaves room to learn and experiment.

Where to play and what’s included

The game launched on PC in 2017 and later came to consoles, with all content packs included. On Switch, the store listing summarizes the full feature set and notes the bundled expansions, boss count, supported languages, and play modes. Other platforms carry equivalent content.

If you want to go in blind

Skip the story section above and consider a few simple guidelines:

  • Buy basic mapping tools early; seeing your position requires a specific charm.
  • Don’t hoard Geo; spend it on keys, notches, and core traversal whenever available.
  • If a boss hard-stops your run, explore laterally — there’s usually another profitable path.

Why it matters now

Hollow Knight pairs a generous world with systems that respect player curiosity. The combination of tight input feel, dense optional content, and grounded, readable boss design has helped it endure long after release. It has sold well into the millions and become a touchstone for modern Metroidvanias. Team Cherry followed it with a full sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025), centered on a different protagonist and a new kingdom, building on the same core design with a more mobile kit.

In short: Hollow Knight is about a fallen kingdom and the cost of sealing away an old light — told through exploration and combat that make the journey as memorable as the destination.