Charms are powerful items in Hollow Knight that give you all sorts of different special bonuses and enhancements. Some Charms make certain spells and abilities more potent, some spawn companions to aid the Knight, and some simply give you offensive or defensive buffs. Due to Hollow Knight’s difficult nature (by design), the importance of Charms goes without saying.
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Equipping Charms take up Notches, with some requiring as many as three to four slots. If you want to equip as many Charms as possible, you’ll need to collect every Charm Notch in this fantastical game.
Updated September 6th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Charms are a big part of the different ‘builds’ you can experiment with in Hollow Knight. The Knight itself is a pretty basic character, fighting with a few different ‘spells’ and one handy nail, but the Charms are where a lot of your build diversity comes from. With the right combination of Charms, you can completely change the way you approach combat or even exploration. However, to set up the strongest Charm builds, you’ll want the highest number of Charm Slots possible (which is 11) and that involves locating the 8 additional Charm Notches you can find throughout the game. So, without further ado, here’s a breakdown of all their locations.
Notch Charms 1 Through 4
Sold by Charm Lover Salubra in Forgotten Crossroads
Right off the bat, you can simply buy half of the total Charm Notches you can obtain in Hollow Knight from Charm Lover Salubra, who has a shop located at the far end of the Forgotten Crossroads. However, it’s worth clarifying that this shop is also only available once the Knight beats Gruz Mother and unlocks either Mothwing Cloak or Mantis Claw. Additionally, you will need to collect or purchase a certain number of Charms before each Charm Notch appears in her shop:
|
Charm # |
Cost |
Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
|
Charm 1 |
120 Geo |
Collect a total of 5 Charms. |
|
Charm 2 |
500 Geo |
Collect a total of 10 Charms. |
|
Charm 3 |
900 Geo |
Collect a total of 18 Charms. |
|
Charm 4 |
1400 Geo |
Collect a total of 25 Charms. |
Charm 5
Fog Canyon
Now for the first Charm Notch, you’ll need to actually go and grab it in the open world, the first one can be picked up in Fog Canyon. It is located in the room just underneath the Stone Sanctuary. You’ll need Isma’s Tear to get to this location since The Knight needs to swim through a pool of acid just to get to the small opening leading to this room.
You’ll be dealing with those annoying Oomas along the way whose core homes in on you and explodes once they’re hit. In any case, the Charm Notch is located at the end of a maze-like area filled with these Oomas, sitting right above another small pool of acidic liquid.
Charm 6
Fungal Waste
The next Charm Notch, found in the Fungal Wastes, is thankfully very easy to find. However, it is also safeguarded by two Shrumal Ogres, which can be a pain to deal with. Location-wise, the Notch is found in the room at the bottom of the Fungal Wastes chasm left of the topmost Bench, in the room on the left-hand side.
When you find and enter this room, all you’ll need to do is beat the two Shrumal Ogres found in here and they’ll drop the Charm Notch after they’re killed.
Charm 7
Defeating Grimm
The 7th Charm is obtained as a part of Grimm’s questline in the Grimm Troupe DLC for Hollow Knight. First, you’ll need to actually unlock the Grimm Troupe’s tent and talk to Grimm to start his questline or ‘ritual’ where he gives you the Grimmchild Charm and has you collect a whole bunch of Nightmare Flames to grow said Grimmchild.
After turning in the second set of Nightmare Flames and growing the Grimmchild a second time, you’ll end up fighting Grimm in a test of strength. Beat Grimm in this fight, and you’ll obtain a Charm Notch right after.
Charm 8
Complete The Trial Of The Warrior
The last obtainable Charm Notch in Hollow Knight is found during the Trial of the Warrior at the Colosseum of Fools. You can find the Colosseum at the top of the Kingdom’s Edge region, and by simply paying 100 Geo, you can enter the first trial and face off again up to 12 waves of different enemies, which even includes Zote the Mighty at a certain point.
After clearing the Trial, the crowd will shower you with Geo, with a Charm Notch being thrown into the arena for you to grab as well.
