Hollow Knight Guide

6. Fungal Wastes/Mantis Village

Now that we have Dash, we have a bit more mobility and the ability to access areas we normally couldn’t. This is all well and good, but you are probably wondering where to go next. We are going to head to Queen’s Station which requires a brief foray through Fog Canyon. To access Fog Canyon, see the map above. Grab the bench on the way down for safety sake.

Now Fog Canyon is pretty much closed off to us currently, so we won’t be getting a map. All we are worried about is going down. You’ll know you are on the right track if you pass a bank (place to ‘put’ Geo incase you die). Directly across from the map is Queen’s Station which has a Stagway Station as well as a bench.

Get the Map

With the Stagway open and the bench activated, let’s head into Fungal Wastes. Like other areas, the first thing we are going to grab is the map. Lucky for us, Cornifer is pretty close to us. Head to the top right exit from Queen’s station and continue right until you come across a hole in the ground. Drop into the hole and look for a hall/alcove on the lower left of this room. Here you will find Cornifer.

Leg Eater/Bench

 

Now that you have the map, let’s journey deeper into Fungal Wastes. Return to the room above Cornifer and head to the right. In the next room you will have to platform up until you reach what appears to be a closed gate. This gate can be opened by going into the room on the right and working your way through it. After the gate has been opened (for easy access later) continue going up.

In the next room you will face off against two big Mushrooms. These mushrooms will shoot projectiles into the air, or smash their heads into the ground. Defeat them to unlock the doors and receive the Charm Notch (allows you to equip more Charms). Continue right into the next room and head up. About halfway up, there will be a room you can enter to the right. This is where Leg Eater can be found as well as a bench.

Merchant: Leg Eater

Leg Eater is a merchant who sells breakable Charms. What this means is that the Charm breaks should you die and will need to be repaired if you want to use it again.

Getting to Mantis Village

If interested, buy a Charm from Leg Eater, otherwise, return to the room right of the Mushroom room and continue heading right. Follow the map above and grab the shortcut by opening the gate. You can return to the Queen’s Station bench if you want or head back and continue going down. Before heading into Mantis Village, be sure to grab the lower bench. This will save a lot of time as the village has a lot of enemies. You can also grab the Dashmaster Charm which is to the left of the lower bench. Head back up and into Mantis Village (entrance is notable as it appears wooden and there is a Mantis guarding it).

Getting the Mantis Claw

So the whole reason we are in Fungal Wastes is to get the Mantis Claw. This ability will allow us to wall jump. Unlike previous abilities, this one is not locked behind a boss, but rather is found simply lying around. When inside Mantis Village, stick to the lower level and head all the way left (be careful of enemies). Here there is a switch on the ceiling, hit it. This opens up a door on the upper level. Return to the entrance of the village and head up to the next level. Head all the way left and you should see a pile of hooks which is shining. Make your way to the pile of hooks and collect the Mantis Claw. After collecting the claw, you can leave the village OR fight the optional boss.

Optional Boss: Mantis Lords

To get to the Mantis Lords, you will need to open the huge doors on the floor of Mantis Village. This can be done by using the handy dandy Mantis Claw we just got. The way to do this is pretty straightforward, but basically look for the switch pictured above. Flip the switch and make your way into the huge hole.

Inside the lower room, you will need to hit a bunch of switches located on the left and right sides of the room. Hit all these switches and the bottom right gate will open which leads to the Mantis Lords arena.

This is a pretty hard fight, so leaving it until you are stronger is not a bad decision. If you do decide to take the boss head on, now that it will probably take a few tries to beat. Basically this boss fight has two phases. The first phase you face off against a single Mantis Lord. The Mantis Lords are quick and teleport quickly around the arena.

Strategy wise, use your Dash to dodge and try to get damage in when possible. After dealing enough damage to the single Lord, you get to faceoff against two at once. This is where things get way more difficult. Note that the bosses moveset does not change; your simply facing two at once.

When you beat both, the fight is complete. Beating the Mantis Lords, de-aggros the Mantis in Mantis Village, meaning you can explore without risk of dying. You also get access to the Mantis treasure room.

Head to City of Tears

Once you have the Mantis Claw you will be able to access the main city in this bug world, City of Tears. In order to get there from Fungal Wastes, we are going to head to the area where you bumped into Hornet, but she ran off. Here we will need to traverse the higher portion of the room using dash & wall jump. Note that there are controls for the bridge both halfway and at the near the statue, so I highly recommend activating those. Once through the platforming part, we will need to insert the City Crest (on False Knight body) into the statue beside the locked gate. Do this and the gate will raise and we will enter the City of Tears.