Traitor Lord |
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| Location | Queen's Gardens |
| Health | 800 |
| Reward/s | Gain access to The White Lady |
Traitor Lord is a Boss in Hollow Knight. Bosses are special Enemies that feature their own arena, a large amount of health, and a variety of unique moves and abilities. You will need to perform multiple attacks such as using The Nail and Nail Arts along with the Spells and Abilities in order to defeat them. Some bosses are capable of entering into a state of stagger after landing a number of attacks on them.
As soon as you encounter a boss, its name will appear on the screen, the music will change into a boss battle theme, and usually, paths connecting the arena will close or will be blocked leaving you no choice but to face these devastating and unique foes.
Deposed Lord of the Mantis tribe. Embraced the infection and turned against his sisters.
I have felt that desire. The desire to take the infection into myself. To become stronger, more powerful... these thoughts haunt my dreams during the darkest times. A false hope, but it can burn so brilliantly in one's mind.
Traitor Lord Location
Traitor Lord Rewards
- Gain access to The White Lady
Traitor Lord Strategies
Strategy Writeup
Traitor Lord is quite a fast boss, so having the right Charms, Spells and Abilities is needed in order to win this battle. First, Mothwing Cloak or Shade Cloak - this ability will be your savior, almost 3 out of 4 attacks can be easily dodged with the use of the said ability. Now, let's talk about the right Charms to bring into this fight. Since you will be frequently using your dash ability, having the Sharp Shadow charm is a must, if chances are you get close enough or get caught up in a sticky situation, and if you dash and phase through Traitor Lord's attacks and himself, you can instantly deal damage while dashing through him and evading at the same time. Quick Slash, it is quite easy to close in the gap between yourself and Traitor Lord, so landing quick attacks can be beneficial here since Traitor Lord's attacks mostly have a window of opportunity to strike.
You can also be a trickster and have Shape of Unn equipped, this will allow you to easily evade the dancing scythe attack because of the size of The Knight's transformation will be too small for the scythes to reach The Knight - pairing Quick Focus with this charm will allow you to gain an increase movement speed while in the snail-like form making it difficult for Traitor Lord to land most of its attacks.
Another strategy for cases where you need to recover health, be sure to have Quick Focus to cast FOCUS as fast as you can and take your time and wait for the opportunity to be available to heal. The best time to recover your health is when Traitor Lord uses his projectile attacks since whenever he telegraphs these attacks and you are able to dodge them quickly, you can use that brief moment to heal before Traitor Lord shifts to another attack.
Attacks & Counters
| Attack | Counter |
| Phase 1 | |
| Dash Attack | Traitor Lord will dash towards The Knight and swing its claws forward, this attack is about mid-range and can easily be dodged if you jump over him or if you run/dash away - you can also use your Mothwing Cloak or Shade Cloak ability to phase through his attacks and follow up with striking the Traitor Lord with The Nail. |
| Dive Attack | This attack will have the Traitor Lord jump up into the air and dive down towards The Knight in a 45 degrees angle. This attack could cover most of the arena when he dives down and he can also perform it twice, if you try to perform a downward slash attack and pogo on top of him, this will trigger him to perform a dive attack. Other than that he can also shift into this attack as he pleases Simply use your dash ability to be able to evade the attack. Do not jump once he dives since you can get caught up in his attack. |
| Dancing Scythes | Traitor Lord will throw out two orange-colored scythes that move in a wave-like motion towards The Knight. To avoid this attack, once Traitor Lord throws out the Scythes, try to keep your distance and wait for it to separate from each other where you can use the gap in between to dash in and avoid it. If you do this, you can dash in the middle of the gap of the scythes then dash towards Traitor Lord to follow up with a few strikes. |
| Pounding Shockwaves | For this attack, Traitor Lord will pound the ground in place causing it to emit shockwaves that will run in both left and right. The Shockwaves are high enough that it covers the arena while it moves, so the best way to counter this is to use your Mothwing Cloak or Shade Cloak ability and phase through the waves and close in the gap to follow-up with landing a few attacks. Use this as an opportunity to attack Traitor Lord since he will stay in place for a brief moment. |
Traitor Lord Lore
The Traitor Lord was one of the leaders of the Mantis Tribe alongside his three siblings. Once The Infection spread out, he and his followers chose to embrace it in order to gain more power, which led his siblings to cast him and his followers out of the Mantis Village.
He and his followers decided to take refuge at the Queen's Gardens and tried to drive The White Lady away, but were temporarily held back by her protector Dryya, one of The Pale King's five knights. However, Dryya was eventually killed. Now, his many followers along with himself remain within the gardens overrun by the Infection, and will destroy anyone or anything who enters their domain.
While exploring the Queen's Gardens, players can learn that at some point Traitor Lord had a child, as we can find her grave there, mentioned also by Grey Mourner. Very little is known of her except that she was the Mourner's lover and that they couldn't be together due to the Lord's rebellion. It is unknown how she died or who buried her there (since the epitaph reads "here lies the Traitor's child", it would seem someone from Hallownest authorized the burial, as it is unlikely that the mantises in Queen's Gardens would call their patriarch a traitor).
Traitor Lord Notes & Trivia
- Defeating the Traitor Lord unlocks the "Execution" Trophy/Achievement
- Originally Traitor Lord only had two attacks, but after the Lifeblood update, he grew in size and two more attacks were added.
AnonymousI think that this boss was pretty easy I just spammed flukenest with shaman stone on him, he died in 30 seconds. Whoever is reading this should try that strategy!
- Anonymous
He’s only mantis in this game that actually looks like a REAL mantis, with big eyes, an accurate body and head shape, and wicked-sharp raptorial forelegs. Not to mention he’s the only mantis who fights ferociously like a real mantis. The other three “mantis lords” (haha...) have such teeny eyes, little heads, and shrimpy legs, and they look absolutely ridiculous, including their brethren from the Mantis Village. They’re too slim and reedy with freakishly small heads and tiny eyes. No way they’ll last. The way they move looks strange, too... Mantises are my favourite kind of insect, and the way those particular mantises look and move is just off. TL looks legit, though.
I honestly really like TL, and his story is tragic in my opinion. Again, we need more details and an option to help him, like we should also have for False Knight, and a lot of other characters. Nihilistic Team Cherry didn’t even bother with a decent story for TL. It’s literally just: “He got infected, so his siblings cast him out. He made his own tribe in Queen’s Gardens. He’s mad with power. His son died. You have to defeat him (to get to the useless senile ‘white root queen thing’ who shamelessly abdicated her duties to Hallownest and hid like a coward while rudely taking over the Gardens from the Mosskin like she’s entitled to the place). Yup. That’s it.” Again, nonexistent writing ability on their part (like freaking everything else in the game).
I disagree that TL is a “traitor”. Now Brumm/Nymm - he’s a true traitor. But a lot of good and innocent characters were allured and consumed by the false light of the Radiance. I’d love it if you could collect a “Lifeseed essence” or something like that to heal the Infection of certain characters, like TL and many others. This game could be incredible and delightful to play for a larger crowd if only there were more options to befriend and team up with other characters, and an actual story.
(Also a pity Team Cherry was too lazy to even have a boss battle theme written for this mighty mantis - one of the most intense bosses in the game! Sheesh...)
He’s only mantis in this game that actually looks like a REAL mantis, with big eyes, an accurate body and head shape, and wicked-sharp raptorial forelegs. Not to mention he’s the only mantis who fights ferociously like a real mantis. The other three “mantis lords” (haha...) have such teeny eyes, little heads, and shrimpy legs, and they look absolutely ridiculous, including their brethren from the Mantis Village. They’re too slim and reedy with freakishly small heads and tiny eyes. No way they’ll last. The way they move looks strange, too... Mantises are my favourite kind of insect, and the way those particular mantises look and move is just off. TL looks legit, though.
I honestly really like TL, and his story is tragic in my opinion. Again, we need more details and an option to help him, like we should also have for False Knight, and a lot of other characters. Nihilistic Team Cherry didn’t even bother with a decent story for TL. It’s literally just: “He got infected, so his siblings cast him out. He made his own tribe in Queen’s Gardens. He’s mad with power. His son died. You have to defeat him (to get to the useless senile ‘white root queen thing’ who shamelessly abdicated her duties to Hallownest and hid like a coward while rudely taking over the Gardens from the Mosskin like she’s entitled to the place). Yup. That’s it.” Again, nonexistent writing ability on their part (like freaking everything else in the game).
I disagree that TL is a “traitor”. Now Brumm/Nymm - he’s a true traitor. But a lot of good and innocent characters were allured and consumed by the false light of the Radiance. I’d love it if you could collect a “Lifeseed essence” or something like that to heal the Infection of certain characters, like TL and many others. This game could be incredible and delightful to play for a larger crowd if only there were more options to befriend and team up with other characters, and an actual story.
(Also a pity Team Cherry was too lazy to even have a boss battle theme written for this mighty mantis - one of the most intense bosses in the game! Sheesh...)
Tractor Lord
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