Hollow Knight: Ancient Aspid (nail only, no charms)

Pretty good boss all in all. Weird and at times unintuitive, and perhaps it's just a bit too hard for its own good, but the more I play this boss the more I like it.
Some notes: in phase 1, you can just run up to where phase 2 starts at any time to 'skip' it, but any damage you didn't deal will have to be dealt there (phase 3 doesn't start until half HP no matter what). Healspots a pretty sparse here, but you can slip some in if you dodge laser early. If striking from below, aim for the tip of its butt, as it can and will swipe you with the legs if you're any closer up than that.
Phase 2 has an attack where shotgun blasts of 5 lasers pelt you up to 5 times. Of all the attacks the boss has, this one feels possibly the most luckbased, it didn't happen in this fight but sometimes it feels like it'll get you no matter what you do. There's 2 variants of bullet hell, sweeping and a 'wild' one. The sweeping bullet hell has a big blindspot at the side to heal in (don't go too far, leaving the cone entirely ends the attack early and has it blow a quick laser at you) and the wild one seems to aim most of its bullets roughly at you, so it seems best to keep moving during it rather than hunkering down and dodging in one spot.
Phase 3 introduces 2 main new moves, the first is the rapid and then sweeping spread laser. This one took the longest to figure out, but doing what I do works most of the time. You can heal or get a punish after it. The other is 3 variations of going grounded. The explosive one is the other move I feel is most BS, sometimes you're just going to get blown up. While grounded, it likes to jump 5 times, sometimes less if its positioning is awkward. It feels like jump 1, 3, and 5 are aimed at you but I'm not 100% sure. Again, can heal as it lifts back off into the air.

[@THERATSANDTHERATS]

I love the idea of this boss because it implies that aspids in the past were just giant near unkillable beasts that had giant lasers and wind blades and everyone just had to deal with that

[@MetaFanWing]

Imagine you’re minding your own business and a fly is bothering you, except it’s not a fly but an eldritch laser-puking monstrosity.

[@N_Tertainment7]

The Hunter did say that the Bugs had gotten weaker, perhaps Ancient Bugs were all this strong. Imagine fighting an Ancient Mantis.

[@jahrellmonk6324]

@@N_Tertainment7YO THATS HYPE

[@skullmastergamer]

Who says they aren’t already

[@vladimircaelum7465]

​@@MetaFanWingYeah, imagine swatting a fly, and it suddenly starts firing lasers and wind blades at you while a boss theme is playing.

[@N_Tertainment7]

If the HK fandom is left like this, they will make a Hollow Knight 2 before Silksong comes out

[@lilflamel5237]

underrated

[@YT_K_A]

pale court already a hk 1.5

[@mariajosequinteros1796]

😂

[@vortigon2519]

Not really, but it is a fully fleshed out dlc​@@YT_K_A

[@skinnyboy2704]

Well, we got hollow knight in minecraft...

[@PhoenixCounter]

If there are anything scarier than the boss itself they are the enormous things who are floating behind

[@DL.T.]

If they make a "continuation" of this mod, delving deeper into prehistoric hallownest, I bet those ammonites would make for a good mini area ( like The Hive)

[@whisperywind314]

@@DL.T. WE NEED THIS!

[@derpychicken2131]

They’re ammonites! One of the most successful groups of animals ever, unfortunately none survived the KT-mass extinction, the same one they killed off the dinosaurs. The rapid change in climate was particular harsh on the ocean and killed tons of super diverse groups. Ammonites ranged from as small as your fist to as large as a car, and they had shells from normal snail ones, to massive wizard hats, to literal paper clip shaped shells, they were so cool. The closest living things to them are nautiloids and they aren’t even ammonites.

[@woodchippingfetusssince1879]

geo, its geo

[@acousticllama4135]

Now beat it three more times to unlock the second level in the hunter's journal

[@BentleyMoney]

The WHAT

[@nobody7204]

I love how you have to pursue the damn thing throughout the boss fight, it's very unique

[@samandom8772]

With primal aspids, its the other way around.

[@LordRedSir]

Its fuckin' hilarious when the video ends with your ally just shooting you in the back of the head! Betrayel.... SHAW!!!!

[@GrindyVine]

ADINO

[@nikolaykrasnikov1860]

The most funniest thing that your own aspid can damage you after all this shit that you needed to go through to get it XD

[@AlvaroQuijada-zk5xz]

i guess if you can get that aspid i think you already can dodge the triple shot xD

[@isaacpianos5208]

​@@AlvaroQuijada-zk5xz yeah but good luck being consistent with that during an absrad fight lol

[@Sokobansolver]

Player: "I can't find enough of a window of time to heal" Boss creator: "I missed the part where that's MY problem"

[@Hero-esp]

Bro really said its a skill issue

[@MrTouhourocks]

thing is, there's heal windows all over the fight if you know where to look for them. Mostly after the bigger laser attacks, but there's a few others like right as it rises from being grounded in phase 3, or in a blindspot of one of its bullet hell moves.

[@siamsiamguite2909]

​@@MrTouhourocks we don't even know it's gender

[@DerangedPacman]

@@siamsiamguite2909 correct, which i why the pronoun *"it"* is used

[@siamsiamguite2909]

@@DerangedPacman yeah

[@TheFructowallGuy]

You gotta have some balls of iron to do this. ON STEEL SOUL.

[@trishschamont8961]

Technically a dream fight, you don't perma die in those

[@The_og_moonwalker]

Balls of steel

[@canaldequalquercoisa7012]

Steel balls, precisely.

[@agustinoseguera1063]

@@canaldequalquercoisa7012 what about a run? steel ball run

[@Falinkslord12]

​@@trishschamont8961 As long it isn't in the White Palace. I learned that the hard way.

[@AzaloonyToons]

I headcanon that this was one of the weapons of the radiance

[@SleepyWasabiYT]

Radiance never fought anyone (prior to the events of the story), they just infected people.

[@Clugster]

This is the result of Hollow Knight devs not releasing Silksong for 4 years straight. (Nearly 5)

[@utubeiskaren7796]

Massive Moss Charger is the hardest boss in Hollow Knight. The boss has two attacks - A leap and a charge. The boss also moves insanely fast and there is little telegraphing to which attack it will use, thus you must react extremely fast to whatever the boss throws at you, and even if you react correctly, messing up your input is likely and you will still take damage. You also aren't given too many opportunities to attack the boss, with your only options being to attack from the side or a pogo. The former is not actually an option because of the fast speed of the boss meaning that you will take damage no matter what. This leaves the pogo attack as the boss charges as your only option, but the boss only uses this attack half the time, so the length of the fight depends on RNG, or if you are good enough it is possible to hit the boss during the leap attack. However if you get too carried away with this it is possible to mess up and get hit. Additionally, the fast-paced nature of the fight means you have no opportunity to heal, and couple this with how early you find it in the game and you'll see another issue. You have very low health at this point in the game, and your nail is quite weak so your few attacks won't be doing much damage. This leads to a long fight where a few mistakes can kill you. Now compare this to Absolute Radiance. All of Absolute Radiance's attacks are simple and can be easily avoided by a skilled player, which you definitely are if you can make it here because Pantheon 5 has Massive Moss Charger in it. Let's take the attack where a bunch of things fall from the sky for example. Just stand between them and you'll avoid the attack. They move slowly so you have enough time to react and position yourself. None of Absolute Radiance's attacks are difficult if you play carefully and know how to avoid each one. Massive Moss Charger, on the other hand, is an extreme test of reaction time that keeps even the most skilled players (The people who regularly avoid taking any damage in areas of the game where Primal Aspids spawn) on their toes. With all this in mind, I think it is safe to say that Massive Moss Charger is the hardest boss in Hollow Knight, especially for newer players making it there the first time. I remember my first playthrough. Hornet was one of my favorite bosses to fight, as it was very challenging but it was doable once I managed to learn her attack patterns. It was a tough but fun fight that was just the right amount of challenging and I never felt it unfair when I died to the boss. Massive Moss Charger, on the other hand, appeared out of nowhere and defeated me very quickly. I attempted the fight several times but due to my slow reaction time I was unable to find any success. It became very clear to me that if I could beat a boss as fast-paced and challenging as Hornet, but even the simplest of Massive Moss Charger's attacks were too much to handle, that Massive Moss Charger is meant as a test of reaction time for players. Of course as speedrunners and other pro players do they only consider the difficulty of a boss with usage of advanced techniques and strategies employed by the more experienced player and do not consider the newbie's experience with no prior experience in the fight, lack of any advanced techniques, and no knowledge of what charms are actually good or where they can find the good items. This means that a new player will likely be unprepared for Massive Moss Charger and find great difficulty in it. Absolute Radiance and even regular Radiance are difficult to access, and by the time the player gets to them they will have much better gear, more experience, and a lot more health, further cementing Massive Moss Charger as the more difficult boss. The same thing can be said when comparing Massive Moss Charger to other endgame bosses such as Nightmare King Grimm or Pure Vessel. So now that we've compared Massive Moss Charger to bosses from all points in the game, we have found that it is the embodiment of a difficult experience for a new player. Tight timings, little time to react, and an inexperienced player with little equipment controlling the knight. In conclusion, Massive Moss Charger is without a doubt the most difficult boss ever seen in Hollow Knight.

[@RED-xr3nc]

...yup

[@Mooonwithanextrao]

I see...

[@Sunshoop]

I still suck at it even with experience and controller use q-q

[@SleepyWasabiYT]

At first I thought this was copy and pasted but you really wrote an entire essay on why massive moss charger is the hardest boss in the game.

[@FrancisWigham]

I REALLY hope this is a joke

[@AbyzzRickPhanlyon]

Is this what My personal hell look like

[@Spanish_or_vanish_boi]

POV: the short friend finds a horse fly in his house.

[@neoselket562]

I think this is the first mod I've seen with a new sprite and music, very cool! Also, AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@knuxenglish]

Then you should check out the pale court mod. It is commonly referred to as a fan made dlc due to its quality and amount of content

[@Ace26170]

Some notes, during phase 2 you can go to either side and avoid the aspid, when you get to the platform above, you can effectively skip phase 2. Also, if you pogo on the aspid during phase 2 it will fly away, initiating the second climb without needing to deal any damage at all.

[@SirLancelot412]

Who ever made it should be working on silksong.

[@NoNames-vw3bq]

The mod community should really collaborate together and create their own collective version of what they'd imagine Silksong to be. I think the modding community could create something really phenomenal & have it done in less time than it's taking Team Cherry to even give us any kind of update. The pale court mod was really good, and the mod on Broken Vessel/Lost Kin where there were waves of infection was really good too; not sure if the same creator or not though.

[@whisperywind314]

@@NoNames-vw3bq From the time it's taking, we can only pray that there's no external problem in the development, cause normally that would be the case.

[@Dat_Scrub]

It’s been like 5 fuckin years since we have had any communication from TC so at this point fuck it. lets just make hollow knight 2 ourselves lmao

[@vineboom523]

The Music Is FUCKING PHENOMENAL. I want to try this out

[@ArcienPlaysGames]

I love that the HK fandom has literally begun to "fine I'll do it myself" Hollow Knight 2

[@LuckyBoi11]

I want this to be a feature kinda like the broken vessel where when you beat the boss something changes forever. (Example : broken vessel = infected crossroads Ancient aspid = no more aspids of any kind)

[@Abyssal2878]

nah.. PRIMAL ASPIDS EVERYWHERE RAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@HandyDandyHandium]

That only happens when you get wings/ kill a dreamer, Broken vessel itself doesn’t change anything

[@AutomatonUnit22725]

...I GET A PRIMAL ASPID AS A PET!? I'M UNSTOPPABLE!!!

[@elisangelamonteiro7281]

He still an kill you

[@AutomatonUnit22725]

...eh still worth it...

[@rayoflight1920]

@@elisangelamonteiro7281 just treat it like your cat, don't get in its way and it wont hurt u

[@WhiteBasilisk22]

Mr NES Contra Spread gun over here. Hah! I was initially worried when the first attack I saw was ONLY a single giant death laser. He’s perfect

[@fantasyshadows3207]

I just realized that you did this without spells. Holy heck

[@theonewhoasked513]

This is just the brooding mawlek 2.0

[@rondrateague1411]

Imagine if colosseum of fools last boss in the fools trial was this

[@Monkscug]

YOU ALSO HAVE PALE COURT MOD

[@Notfrout]

Oh my god this charm might be worse than heavy blow

[@zebefreod871]

I remember this from years ago, when it was more similar to a PowerPoint presentation than anything.

[@Mabrosk1]

I love how it's shown how this boss is so strong that you don't even get to kill it

[@yarnhk]

Great work!

[@HuntHussle]

yarn

[@yarnhk]

hunt

[@albertosantista]

It Would be hell easier if the knight had been allowed to equip wayward compass.

[@bwend1025]

Hollow knight is really the only game where the bosses really try to kill you

[@Nebulius_the_uuhhhh]

I like how the attacks are still slower than primal aspic shots

[@JeremyMainIII]

So this is what a true nightmare looks like😨

[@ManthonyHiggs]

No damage when

[@jmcr5061]

Te person who doesn t zote the mighty:

[@rynocerusrex5050]

I was gonna ask too

[@rayoflight1920]

Don't give hard core players ideas, once a super ultra mega mod is no-damage defeated, even much crazier mod will be brought to this world

[@Sunshoop]

@@rayoflight1920it is inevitable my friend. Just accept how this community is

[@CheemsKingdom]

Knight: Nah I’d win

[@TV_MURDER2]

Kni/ght 😢😔😔😔

[@neoselket562]

Aspidlute Radiance😊

[@orkhanabdullayev-sr5xe]

1 question : Is it infected? . Cause of its naming "*Anicent* Aspid" This implies that either : Radiance corrupted it berfore pale king came or 2 : Its just grovvn for 1000 years or smth .

[@Falinkslord12]

I think the Hunter's Journal says that aspids spit acid at their prey. So maybe the orange stuff is acid.

[@gentlemouse102]

maybe it's because I'm fairly new to Hollow Knight, but I don't recognize the music? May I ask where it's from, or whoever composed it, please?

[@RandomHandle837]

This is a mod

[@gentlemouse102]

@@RandomHandle837 that's why I'd like to ask, unless this track is from the official game, I'd like to comemorate all the aspects of the mod, which includes the music.

[@q_eth]

thing that killed the ancient civilization

[@Watcherdog9330]

What do you think is harder to beat? This (full charms and spells ) or absolute radiance on ascended

[@apenasumgamer]

it is on the game or is some kind of mod, i'm new on hollow knight so idk

[@FrancisWigham]

This feels like it should be in the base game.

[@cuboembaralhado8294]

Nuh uh

[@chinkram]

assets are kinda mid imo.

[@nickcarson9129]

Is this in base game? Or mod? If so what mod?

[@MrTouhourocks]

Mod, it's just called Ancient Aspid!

[@Greenteeth21]

what would be cool is if the charm allowed you to shoot aspid bullets. or maybe it could be like flukenest but the bullets are fixed in trajectory.

[@CharaTheFallenChild]

And here I thought the primal aspid was terrible

[@PokyDaBesto]

Idk but this gave me real ori boss battle vibes

[@Dimiotis]

couldnt even beat this boss, the AI wont let me ascend XD

[@paulorobertoporteladasilva4550]

Nice, now, try to make a no damage chalenge.

[@thetophatguyandroid5959]

I really don't understand the hollow knight community like how do you make something as hard as the final stages of the game and how do you have people play it and play test it as well

[@duuuuude1526]

This is awesome

[@enerhel7639]

Wait what. Was it a friendly fire at the end of the video?

[@MrTouhourocks]

just part of the charm, it friendly fires you but aims at your enemies. It's actually not bad, it has a synergy with glowing womb that shreds most things in the game to ribbons.

[@Doubleaxe-sz6bc]

australia final boss

[@shu9587]

I don't understood , ancient aspid is a real dlc or a mod

[@MrTouhourocks]

It's a mod, seemingly following in Pale Court's footsteps as a very high quality piece of fanwork that may as well be an honorary part of the game. I think the boss is too hard to succeed in that goal, but it's nevertheless really cool and very well done. Casual players can (probably) beat Pale Court if they can beat P5. Ancient Aspid is much, much harder than all of that.

[@shu9587]

@@MrTouhourocks i think it is a very good mod. Congrats to people who created it

[@VictoriaBal-x4x]

WHAT IS THIS MOD, I WANNA PLAY IT!

[@Gladeing]

Scariest attack is triple acid shot rea

[@ElpapuHollowv]

In my opinion, it lacks more difficulty, even a primal asp in the Colosseum of Fools cost me more

[@norairtarasov6523]

bro took the most annoying enemy and made a boss out of it

[@ralsei_64]

Zote god

[@magikarpxd5844]

This is a mod right?

[@pouleto168]

Modders are getting out of hand

[@Silly_Dizzy_kitty]

Damn, why it look like that

[@marmaje6953]

nice boss

[@KindAmogusඞ]

Radisiarity💀

[@OverOmni]

how do you get that menu?

[@Noobthedood]

Mod a em?

[@teddy_0932]

why does he hurt me if he’s my ally

[@manomoa119]

Because it is a aspid

[@loonaless]

This is still easier than primal aspid 💀

[@nokolo9038]

Man why tf are there Nautilus 😭

[@ETTheFirst-hf8se]

Makes more sense than flying snails

[@A3do_xz]

Mod?

[@Idkwhattoput5229]

8:57💀💀💀

[@IzharNiko]

Still easier than aspids

[@Ormeli]

Is this a mod?

[@clashzoobaytpvz6710]

Buen video

[@erenmoonkars5347]

ıts lıke were are not as much dıfferent ım you

[@erenmoonkars5347]

jjk mentıon

[@Mevi_Coll]

still weaker than primal aspid

[@AbyssaloftheVoid]

Those giant ammonite in the background of the final phase make me incredibly uncomfortable

[@bigzero7720]

At least they give lore to all the big ass shells lying around.

[@whisperywind314]

@@bigzero7720 And to how da fuck something could survive with this aspid roaming around.

[@santi27o]

Never seen this boss before! Shoutout to the creator! Looks cool af

[@PaulHowell-k8i]

Bc its pretty much brand spankin new:>

[@youraverageteaenjoyer]

This mod must have taken sooo long to make considering that it has a) a boss, b) a new area with special art, c)a new charm, and d) title art. If i had one problem with it, it was probably the rather low fps of the animation.

[@knuxenglish]

I just realized that this is meant to be very long ago, because of the "ancient" part of ancient aspid, but how is it infected then? It's almost like this detail is completely unnecessary because the point was to make primal aspid but worse

[@thewitchidolsachika6682]

radiance transcended past time and space just to infect this large bug.

[@TheFructowallGuy]

i mean it wouldn’t be a very boss FIGHT if you just took him out to chipotle

[@heatherramirez6141]

Considering how much of the Aspids bodies are literally just the acid/acid sac and how the babies are literally globs of Orange with heads poking out, I imagine the aspids are kind of like the Lightseeds. Largely if not entirely made from the Radiance’s power, and the aspids as a species are connected to the radiance like the Seers. To be fair, if the Radiance had command over an army of THESE... yeah I can see why it would be worshiped. And if the aspids evolved to be weaker and weaker, it would make sense the Pale King would be more comfortable trying to supersede.

[@bobbyy-gc2vt]

The radiance was in hallownest before the pale king so maybe she infected bugs before the pale king arrived.

[@knuxenglish]

@@bobbyy-gc2vt wasn't the infection brought on by Rads because she was forgotten and she got angry?

[@YT_K_A]

now i can tell for sure that there is something scarier than radience

[@thatgamerguy7942]

This boss deserves to be in silksong

[@Idkwhattoput5229]

How did bro differentiate the difference between effect spits and attack spits without wayward compass bro needs grass

[@HopelessKnight]

Finally i get aimbot in hollow knight.

[@slimeinajar]

I like the fact that this boss uses all the most annoying attacks that are ALREADY in the original game (well, except that the “laser” is a little different)

[@rynocerusrex5050]

Me: "I like strong girls" "You mean gymrat girls?" Me: "Nuh uh" "You mean willful girls?" Me: "Nuh uh" "So what *do* you mean?" Me:

[@divad7137]

HK players are masochists ong. Imagine the primal aspid being arguably one of the most if not the most fucking annoying NPC in this game and people think, you know what would be so fun? Making it a boss. Like bruh 😭😭

[@Roma-bi7nw]

New player vs aspid (I don't know i am not holllow knoght player) Also music goes hard🔥

[@Алекс-ч7м]

Мне нравится этот босс и его динамика. Он не через чур переосложнен, а вполне себе сбалансирован. Иногда видя чью-то игру, могу сказать что мне не победит этого босса. Но здесь я вижу что мог бы, если достаточно сильно захотел и задротил бы. Ну а вообще видно местам что босс вообще не дает игроку к нему приблизится. Но черт возьми, играть без амулетов?

[@guildmasterwigglytuffX3]

It doesnt even die, it just flees. Tf would this thing do if it was backed into a corner??

[@kelvinlucas6476]

New players fighting a aspids be like

[@Spotted-Claws-707]

I’d didn’t think aspids could get worse after I first saw the primal aspid…

[@abigriffin9496]

ok cool now do it with base nail (joke)

[@KingDugan]

It would be funny if the aspid charm gave you a really strong buff(attack, bealth, etc), but it continuously summons primal aspids to attack you.

[@wat-o-melon]

After watching this, ice finally found my favorite modded boss

[@joannarot8693]

Normal aspid is still harder

[@ASHB0RN...]

If this hellspawn is only ancient i am scared to think what Primordial aspid would be

[@2__D]

That charm was definitely not worth it

[@MrTouhourocks]

To be fair, at this point, you don't really NEED a practical reward. The challenge run implications of the charm are pretty funny, and apparently it's actually really good if you pair it with Glowing Womb, as they synergize.

[@TheFructowallGuy]

Baby build just got 5 times better.

[@lordzero9910]

What mod is this