How to beat the Silksong Lace boss in Deep Docks

The Silksong Lace boss first shows up to teach you a lesson. Not in the sense that she’ll kick your butt, I mean she’s a crash course on mastering the new Silksong abilities Hornet can use that weren’t available in Hollow Knight. If you’ve been having trouble using Hornet’s downward strike, now is the best time to learn.

Unlike the Silksong Bell Beast fight, Lace is a small, nimble attacker that dashes all around the arena. This might feel overwhelming at first, as you’ll need to be quick with your button presses to counter her. However, with a few tricks up your sleeve, you can take down Lace with relative ease. Here’s everything you need to know.

1. How to prepare for Lace in Silksong

Before you head into the arena with Lace, take time to explore all of the Deep Docks that you can. You likely grabbed the Swift Step upgrade that enables Hornet to dash, but in the event that you didn’t, make sure you nab that. Also, follow the sign with a bench painted on it before the arena. After fighting a few common foes, you’ll stumble onto a cozy new save point. This will make it easy to reach Lace again if you lose.

While you’re down here, you can also find the Forge Daughter’s shop. If you’re really stuck against Lace, you can consider getting the Sting Shard tool and equipping it. That said, I’d generally recommend you purchase the other goods she offers first.

2. Lace's attacks in Silksong explained

Before we go over the best battle strategy for Lace in Silksong, let’s cover the five attacks she’ll use against you throughout the fight. We’ll organize each of them by the stance she takes before attacking, as that will always telegraph which move she’ll use. You don’t necessarily need to memorize each of these, for reasons we’ll get into below:

Lace leans forward, with her needle pointing to the ground: Lace will quickly slash two times while approaching you. She’ll travel roughly the equivalent distance of a third of the arena. Stay away from her, or jump over her to dodge.

Lace crouches down while covering her face with her arm: Lace will jump into the air and pause for a second before striking downward at a 45 degree angle. Dash under her, or rush to the other side of the arena to ensure you don’t take damage.

Lace lifts her needle to her face: This signifies she’s about to lunge towards you. Compared to the first attack, she’ll cover about half the arena with her needle stretched out in front of her. Jump over her or keep your distance to dodge.

Lace crouches down while covering her face with her sword: This is Lace’s parry stance. If you hit her, she’ll retaliate with a flurry of attacks that can damage you multiple times. The easiest way to handle this is to simply wait for her to drop her stance. That said, if you attack her from above, you’ll bounce high enough in the air that you can air dash away from her to avoid the counter attack.

Lace crouches down while sparks fly and a white circle appears in front of her: Consider this an MMORPG-style Area-Of-Effect marker, as Lace will attack all around the space shown in the white circle. Just dash out of the circle to avoid this, and wait for her to slam her needle into the ground.

3. Silksong Lace tips

1. The reason you don’t need to memorize all of Lace’s attacks is because there’s a consistent counterplay to every move. Simply keep a healthy distance from Lace, dodge whichever attack she uses, and then immediately dash towards her, jump into the air and perform a downward strike to damage Lace. Then dash away to create distance between you and her. Repeat this until you win!
2. By keeping distance, you should be able to react to Lace’s movements intuitively. She’s always vulnerable for a second after her attacks, and she has no real counter to Hornet’s downward strike. As mentioned above, even triggering her parry can easily be avoided since you’ll already be in midair. Lace’s one aerial attack can potentially catch you, but as long as you always wait for her to attack first before striking, you should be consistently in the clear if you’re fast enough.
3. Getting a handle on Hornet’s downward strike is admittedly tricky, especially for this early in the game. However, you’ll need to use this move a lot just to explore, so any time you spend learning here won’t be wasted. You’ll also need to master how Hornet’s dash works for best results throughout this fight too. See, I told you this encounter would teach you a lesson!
4. If you need to heal, simply dash to the opposite side of the arena from Lace and jump up to heal in midair. This should keep you safe consistently. If you’re full on Silk, press the right bumper to use the Silkspear attack, which will let you score extra hits on Lace from a safe distance. If your timing lines up just so, you can potentially knock Lace off the arena and into the lava. This isn’t worth going out of your way to try and line up, but it’s a neat bonus if you pull it off in the heat of the moment.

4. Silksong Lace rewards

There are no prizes for this fight, other than that sweet, sweet progression. March forward to ring the large bell and open the gate: you’ll find yourself in the Far Fields next. You haven’t seen the last of Lace, so good luck on your travels!

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