How to beat the Silksong Widow boss fight

The Silksong Widow boss can be utterly brutal with bells and blades flying all over the place, and worst of all, beating them is mandatory. Clearing Widow out of Bellhart is essential to progressing deeper into Hollow Knight Silksong as you'll unlock an important ability and several new NPCs who can help you (or be helped) on your journey.

If you're struggling against the onslaught of attacks, you might not even be aware of Widow's horrifyingly hectic second Phase (there is a way to cheese it!). But defeating them is possible, and I've explained how to beat Widow in Silksong, including how their attacks work, some tips for overcoming them, and how to cheese the second phase.

Silksong Widow attacks

Widow has a variety of attacks and moves that can cut you to ribbons and shower the arena in falling bells. Your eyes will be darting all over the place trying to keep track of what's going to hit Hornet next, but, as is typical for Silksong bosses, being patient and learning attack patterns will help significantly.

At first, these attacks are only ever used one at a time, which makes Widow's first phase quite manageable once you've learned the attacks, but the second phase is a brutal mix that can be very difficult to deal with.

Here are the attacks you need to watch out for:

• Widow pulls silk strands to summon a bell: This is Widow's most used attack, where they stand still and pull down a bell, either vertically from the ceiling or diagonally downward out of one of the upper corners. Convenient spotlights and threads show you where you the bells are coming from, giving you time to dodge. Getting hit by a bell deals only one mask of damage but be aware that bells also bounce once before falling through the floor, and where a bell goes next is up to physics.
• Widow summons bell shards from the ground: When Widow scuttles across the ground pulling silk strands, four piles of razor-sharp bell shards will shoot up from the ground, before quickly sinking back down. Touching one of these piles deals two masks of damage, so you really need to avoid this attack.
• Widow dives to the ground and charges: After Widow dives to the ground, they charge across the ground either to the left or right based on where Hornet is after they land. Their arm blades slice in front of them, dealing two masks of damage to you.
• Widow shouts and summons several bells at once: Widow starts using this attack once you've dealt a significant chunk of damage to them (about one third to one half of their Phase 1 health). After shouting, several bells will fall from the ceiling simultaneously, either to the left side, right side, or the middle of the arena. They can also be split across the left and right sides, leaving a narrower safe area in the middle.
• Phase 2: After it looks like you've beaten Widow, they'll return for Phase 2, which is a chaotic mess because they use almost all their previous attacks at the same time. Multiple bells will rain from the ceiling or corners at once, leaving you with barely any safe areas, and Widow will be trying to slice you at the same time. The important differences are that they no longer summon bell shards to pierce the ground, and they don't dive before charging, so you have less time to react to that attack. I've explained how to cheese Widow's Phase 2 further down!

Tips for beating Widow in Silksong

Now that you know how her attacks work, the main things to know are when to attack and use your tools and abilities. Having finally defeated Widow, here are my tips that should help with your approach to this boss fight:

• Make the most of times where Widow isn't doing much: When Widow is pulling silk threads, they are completely open to attack. This is your main opportunity to get damage in, so go up to them and start slashing until they teleport away.
• It's risky, but you can hit Widow when they're crawling on the ground: Two of Widow's attacks involve them running on the ground (just before they summon bell shards and during charge) and they can be hit with a Silksong pogo jump attack during both. The speed at which they scuttle means it's not always easy to hit them, and for the charge attack, you need to aim for the top of their head or their back as you'll either parry or get hit if attacking their front side.
• Use Swift Step to dodge bells and close the gap to Widow: Dashing to avoid attacks and bells at the last second is great way of maximizing damage while also not getting hit. It's also crucial for getting close to Widow quickly when they're open to attack, but with bouncing bells all over the place, make sure you're not panicking and swift stepping needlessly.
• Use walls to your advantage: Since you've just unlocked the Silksong wall jump ability, it's a good idea to use it in this fight! It's not essential but can get you well clear of certain attacks, such as the bell shards that come out the ground or Widow's dive and charge.
• The Silk Spear is excellent for this fight: If you've got full health and plenty of Silk, lobbing a Silk Spear is a great way of dealing a chunk of damage to Widow. You'll knock them to the ground several times during the boss fight and should absolutely throw a spear at them before they recover.
• Equip the Druid's Eye amulet: Bells flying all over the place means you can get hit a lot. If you have the Druid's Eye equipped, this will help you generate Silk for healing and spears surprisingly quickly. Make sure you've gathered Silksong Mossberries for the Druid before taking on Widow.
• Save your tools for Phase 2: Phase 1 becomes quite simple once you understand Widow's attacks, but you'll want every advantage you can get for Phase 2. I don't recommend the Flea Brew from rescuing Silksong Fleas as the chances to repeatedly hit Widow are non-existent in Phase 2, but I found the Sting Shard traps to be quite useful, even if bells did destroy them often.

How to cheese Widow Phase 2 in Silksong

Speaking of Phase 2, I found this part of the Widow boss fight in Silksong to be ridiculously hard due to how much stuff is going on at once. Thankfully, there is a cheese strategy for those who just want to get Widow out of their way as quickly as possible, so here's what you need to do:

1. As soon as you beat Widow's first Phase and she teleports away, run to the bottom-right corner of the arena. This is also a good time to heal, and I recommend throwing out a Sting Shard trap or two.
2. Stand in this spot for the remainder of the phase. Bells cannot hit you here and Widow's blade charge attack is the only thing that can.
3. When Widow charges at you, jump high enough to avoid the blades then pogo jump to hit Widow.  Get back in the corner when Widow resets.
4. Use any Silk you generate to heal or throw spears for extra damage.
5. Repeat until Widow is dead for good.

Silksong Widow rewards

As soon as Widow is defeated, Hornet will attempt to bind their power, which will unlock the Needolin Ancestral Art, your main reward for defeating them. Playing the Needolin (hold Triangle on PlayStation, Y on Xbox, and X on Switch) spends Silk but can affect various things, most notably special doors that can only be unlocked with the Needolin's song (maybe also try playing it in front of the Bell Beast). It's essentially a key that will help you access new areas of various regions and delve deeper into Pharloom.

With Widow also being the one behind the haunting of Bellhart and the Silk-possessed inhabitants, defeating her considerably reviatalizes the small settlement. Once you've unlocked the Needolin, use the Silk Speak to untangle the bell from all the silk strands, then ring it using the lever.

After that, you can run to the right and take a lift down to Bellhart proper which is no longer haunted (phew!). Here you'll find new Wishes to complete, and a few new NPCs and vendors – Pavo, Frey, Relic Seeker Scrounge, Pinmaster Plinney, and Shakra. I highly recommend talking to all of these NPCs, handing over any relics you've found to Scrounge in exchange for Silksong Rosaries, and getting Plinney to empower Hornet's needle. Since Shakra is there, it's also a good idea to check if she has any Silksong maps.

Don't worry, there are plenty of even harder regions and bosses later. Watch out for the perils of the Silksong Blasted Steps, where you'll find the Silksong Last Judge boss.

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