Brooding Mawlek | Hollow Knight Wiki

Strategy Writeup

The Brooding Mawlek is a difficult boss to deal with. As it remains in the middle of the arena, moving left and right while executing its attacks - it constantly shoots out blobs of infection, has a melee attack using its claws if you get too close and later gets aggressive by mixing up its attacks by leaping and covering the area with more projectiles.

A couple of Charms can help with defeating this boss and increasing your survivability. Charms like Quick Focus will help you recover health quickly, Thorns of Agony will allow you to inflict damage after taking a hit, as well as the Grubsong charm that is also helpful as you regain SOUL from taking damage. It is also important that you try to keep your distance to avoid any damage, so having the Longnail or Mark of Pride charm can make it easier to land your strikes while keeping a safe distance.

For the Spells and Abilities, Desolate Dive is a useful spell as you can both avoid any attacks and deal damage at the same time. Vengeful Spirit and Shade Soul can also be used if you want to maximize the distance and still inflict damage. So be mindful that if you are coming into battle with using your Spells more, be sure to have the Shaman Stone and Spell Twister charms equipped to elevate the effectiveness of your spells.

As for how to approach this tricky boss, make sure to have the Mothwing Cloak or Shade Cloak abilities as you will be frequently dashing and avoiding the blobs it spits out. While it performs its spitting attack, always maintain a safe distance and strike using The Nail or Spells to still be able to get a reach of the boss (we will assume you have the Longnail or Mark of Pride charms equipped). ALWAYS keep your distance since it is useless to stand close to it, as you will definitely take damage from its claws.

Once it starts to become aggressive, it will begin to switch up its attack with a leaping attack and a vomiting attack - this is where the dash abilities will come in handy. For the leaping attack, always remember that the first leap will jump towards The Knight's direction, and the second leap will have it jump back onto the middle platform. So always dash towards the middle during the first leap and dash out towards the left or right side of the arena during its second leap.

The vomit will be the most difficult part to avoid since it will cover most of the part of the arena with blobs of whichever The Knight is standing on. To avoid this, you can simply jump and dash towards the opposite area before this creature vomits the cluster of blobs. You will have a brief window of doing this since the Brooding Mawlek will need to charge up before it releases the blobs.

Also, be sure to have The Nail upgraded by speaking to the Nailsmith in order to gain a permanent increase of damage to The Knight's primary weapon.

Attacks & Counters

Brooding Mawlek Lore

The Brooding Mawlek as per The Hunter is a ferocious yet sociable creature who is able to mingle with its own kind. It is the last of its kind, so it constantly cries out hoping for another of its kind will answer and reunite. However, there are different variations that can be found such as the Lesser Mawlek or the Mawlurk, it still is unknown if they are different stages of growth for its species or are different from one another.

This boss battle will begin where once you step inside the arena, its paths will be locked and the Brooding Mawlek will jump in from the background. Defeating it implies that you have killed the last of its kind and are extinct - you will be rewarded with a Mask Shard after the battle.

Brooding Mawlek Notes & Trivia

• A smaller Brooding Mawlek can be fought in the Colosseum of Fools.
• Tiso may be killed by the Brooding Mawlek in the Colosseum of Fools.