If you wanna see how I personally rank these charms, . They are in NO PARTICULAR ORDER in their respective rankings, just where I thought they belonged.

You might notice there are two lists, the way I chose to do this was by separating the charms into two categories:
Offensive/Defensive; used in battle or boss fights
Exploration charms; simply helping while you explore and traverse the world.

I will not be covering charm notch cost to not complicate things

All images come from The Hollow Knight Wiki

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I'll do exploration charms first, since there are noticably less of them.



Wayward Compass is most likely one of the first charms you will buy in the game. If you have the map of the area you are in, it will show the player's location on that map, helping you gauge your surroundings and build up your ability to memorize it.



Gathering Swarm makes it so that while exploring rooms, if you're in a hurry, or Geo (the games currency, used for buying various things) is in a precarious spot (like behind enemies, in spike pits and such), the Geo will be carried to you safely.


Dash Master is found by exploring the fungal wastes. It makes it so if you have the Dash ability, when equipped, reduces the cooldown drastically, allowing you to get to where you want faster. The charm also allows you to dash downward.



Fragile / Unbreakable Greed is one of 3 fragile, upgradable charms*. it allows the player to gain extra geo when killing enemies.



Fragile / Unbreakable Heart is the second of 3 fragile, upgradable charms*. It simply gives you two extra Masks, which is this games health system. (Ex. If you equip the charm with 5 masks prior, you can now take 7 hits of damage before dying.)


Sprintmaster increases the speed at which the knight walks while on the ground. Can help more if you do not yet have the dash ability, but otherwise doesn't have much use.


*It's Fragile counterpart will be broken and unusable if the player is killed while equipped, until fixed by the same NPC that it was bought from. It can be upgraded later to it's Unbreakable counterpart, which will behave like a regular charm upon death.

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Now on to the combat charms, which there are 34 of.


Dream Wielder gives you more soul when you use the dream nail ability on enemies while they are stunned or not attacking, allowing you to use spells more often.


Fury Of The Fallen gives you a massive damage boost when you are at one mask. If you are good at dodging, or really need to get out of a sticky situation the damage boost can help you kill the boss or enemies incredibly quickly.


Quick Slash greatly increases the rate at which you can swing your sword, helping a ton with killing bosses.


Shaman Stone increases the size and damage of your spells significantly, making them even more useful than they normally are.



Fragile / Unbreakable Strength is the final of 3 fragile, upgradable charms*. it increases the damage of your sword by 50%, and scales with the upgrades you can add to it.


Carefree Melody has a pretty lengthy process to obtain it, involving replacing another charm I'll get to later. With this charm equipped, you have a chance to completely negate damage taken from enemies, which pairs well with the previously mentioned Fury Of The Fallen


Grubberflys Elegy is obtained by finding all 46 Grubs scattered throughout the map. When at full health you shoot projectiles that deal half your damage. Disables when taking damage, and Reactivates when healing back to full health, and at one mask with Fury Of The Fallen equipped


Longnail has a pretty self-explanatory name, and increases the range your sword


Mark Of Pride is basically just Longnail, but better. Although, it can be equipped at the same time as Longnail to increase your range even further.


Nailmaster's Glory cuts the charge time in half for all of the Nailsage abilities.


Soul Eater gives a you a ton more soul whenever you attack enemies allowing you to use spells more often. Works well with Shaman Stone, allowing you to shoot powerful spells every few sword swings.


Spell Twister decreases how much soul is needed to cast spells. (Ex. With full soul you can normally cast 3 spells before needing to refill, but with the charm equipped you can cast 4) Works well with Soul Eater and Shaman Stone


Baldur's Shell gives you a shield while healing, allowing you to take a single hit, and possibly save your life during battle.


Flukenest replaces the Vengeful Spirit spell with a bunch of tiny leeches, which can help with burst damage. Increases size and damage of the leeches with Shaman Stone equipped.



The Grimmchild charm summons a Grimmkin familiar that follows you around and shoots at nearby enemies. Can upgrade fire rate and damage with a quest line, or be sacrificed to create the Carefree Melody charm.


Hiveblood replaces your regular masks with self healing honey mask. When taking damage, if you don't take damage again for around 10-15 seconds, the most recent mask lost will regenerate. Will only heal the most recent instance of damage, so if you get hit before it regenerates, you'll go down a mask anyway, and the timer will restart.


Lifeblood Core simply gives you 4 Lifeblood masks (temporary health containers that disappear when taking damage.)


Quick Focus greatly increases the speed at which you use soul to heal


Soul Catcher slightly increases the amount of soul you get when attacking enemies, allowing you to cast spells more often. Pairs incredibly well with Soul Eater, giving you a ton of soul every hit, allowing you to cast spells every other sword swing.


Weaversong spawns 3, small, low damage spiders that attack enemies from a distance. Damage the spiders deal still gives soul, as if you hit them with your sword. The spiders also give more soul with charms like Soul Catcher and Soul Eater equipped.


Glowing Womb drains your soul every 4 seconds, spawning flies that home-in on enemies and attack them. You can have up to 4 on screen at a time, new ones replacing ones that die.


Sharp Shadow increases the distance your Shade Dash ability* brings you when you use it, and damages enemies you pass through.

*Shade Dash is an upgrade to the regular Dash ability, making you invulnerable to enemies and bullets when you use it, but turning back to the regular Dash for a few seconds afterward.


Deep Focus increases the time it takes to heal, but heals you for two masks at a time instead of one. Works well with the Quick Focus charm, negating the extra heal time, and still healing you for two masks


Defender's Crest gives you a cloud of gas that shortly follows behind you damaging enemies who walk in it or try to chase you.


Grubsong gives you soul when you take damage, which can give you that last bit you might need to heal back up, and evade death.


Joni's Blessing increases your health by 40%, but turns all your masks into Lifeblood masks. (temporary health, wich cannot be healed after taking damage.)


Lifeblood heart simply gives you two Lifeblood masks when equipped


Shape Of Unn makes it possible to move while healing. Works with Quick Focus allowing you to move incredibly quick while healing.


Spore Shroom emits a large cloud of mushroom spores around you that damages enemies when you heal. Turns into a cloud of gas instead if paired with Defender's Crest equipped, dealing more damage.


Kingsoul slowly (and I mean SLOWLY) refills your soul over time without needing to attack enemies. Balances out soul drain, and soul gain with Glowing Womb by giving soul to spawn more flies without needing to get up close.


Thorns Of Agony deals a short range burst attack when taking damage, which can be a good counter to melee enemies if you have the health to spare.


Dreamshield gives you an orbiting shield that can block bullets, and can directly damage enemies by touching them, removing a the shield for a second or two.


Heavy Blow increases the knockback of your sword, which can help with keeping enemies far away. Pairs decently with Longnail or Mark Of Pride, allowing you to keep enemies even further. Very rarely has any use cases.


Steady Body makes you take no knockback when hitting things with your sword, letting you hit enemies without having to re-adjust yourself.

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And there we go, all of Hollow Knight's charms, fully explained, in one blog. Hope you enjoyed, cause this took me a while.

Sayonara for now

(re-uploaded so it could be featured)