How to beat The Last Judge in Silksong

The Last Judge is the final main boss of Act 1 in Hollow Knight: Silksong and as a result, he is exceptionally tough. Forget about the likes of Widow and Savage Beastfly, because Silksong’s Last Judge makes all prior bosses look like a cakewalk in comparison.

That just goes to show exactly how far you’ve come in Pharloom. To make sure that you can continue progressing into the Citadel and beyond, here’s how to beat The Last Judge in Hollow Knight: Silksong.

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• How to reach The Last Judge
• How to beat The Last Judge

How to reach The Last Judge in Silksong

First things first, let’s talk about how you actually reach The Last Judge in Silksong. You’ll need to have made sure you have completed the Grand Gate main quest which means activating five different Bells across the map so far. You’ll find these in the following areas (thanks, MapGenie):

To activate the Bells, there’ll be a lever for you to hit that then provides you with a Bench to rest at.

Once that’s all done and dusted, you can finally make your way to Blasted Steps via Shellwood, where you want to reach the Bench at the top of the area (shown below).

Up until now, your routes to boss fights haven’t been too perilous in Hollow Knight: Silksong. The Last Judge changes all that however, with you needing to platform your way past multiple Judge and Driznit enemies before you even reach his arena.

From the above Bench, the route you want to take step by step is:

• Go two rooms to your right.
• Sprint across the following two platforms, being careful of the Driznit that spawns.
• Jump onto the gold platform on your right, then use Cling Grip to climb onto the platform on your left, being careful of the Judge here.
• From the platform with the Judge, use Cling Grip to reach the platform up to your right.
• Use Swiftstep, Cling Grip, and the Drifter’s Cloak to reach and climb the wall on your left.
• You now need to carefully glide over to the bell on your right and pogo off of it to reach the platform to the right of that.
• In the next area, keep right onto the next platform. Pogo off the two bells here to climb the wall on your right, being careful of another Driznit. You’ll come to a platform with a frozen Judge that you don’t need to worry about.
• Pogo off the bell to your left and climb the wall. Once near the top, dash off and pogo off the bell that is slightly higher to reach the platform on your right.
• In the next room, speak to the Tall Pilgrim and play your Needolin to activate the fight (you only need to do this once).

With that all done, let’s talk about how to actually beat The Last Judge in Silksong.

How to beat The Last Judge in Silksong

The Last Judge is a tough fight in Silksong. He has two phases, with his attacks becoming much more challenging to avoid during his second phase. A few things to note are that The Last Judge’s second phase utilises fire. Lots of it. So, you might want to spend some time making sure you have the Magma Bell equipped – which reduces damage from fire – for this fight.

On top of that, this is Act 1’s final boss, so if you don’t have six Masks for Hornet by now, you should probably spend some time collecting Mask Shards before taking on this boss. Make sure to upgrade your Needle at least once too; you should now be able to do so if you haven’t already.

During The Last Judge’s first phase, attacks you need to be on the lookout for are:

• Bell Spin: The Last Judge rapidly spins his Bell and chain around him. Keep your distance while he does this.
• Bell Throw: The Last Judge rapidly spins his Bell and chain, then throws it in front of him. Dash either side of where you expect the Bell to land to avoid this attack. It can be tempting to attack him once he throws his Bell, but be sure to stay away so as to not get caught by the Bell as he reels it in.
• Bell Slam: The Last Judge jumps before slamming his Bell to the ground. This is a good opportunity to dash beneath the boss quickly if you find that he is closing in on you. You can also get in an attack following this.

During The Last Judge’s second phase, new and enhanced attacks he adds to his arsenal that you need to be on the lookout for are:

• Fire Bell Spin: The Last Judge uses his Bell Spin attack from the first phase but it is imbued with fire this time, sending out additional circles of fire. You need to carefully stand between these – being careful of the fact they will move towards you slowly – until they are extinguished.
• Fire Bell Slam: The Last Judge uses his Bell Slam attack from the first phase but it will send out waves of fire either side of him this time. Jump and/or drift over these to avoid them. Pogo off him if you can to get an attack in there.
• Fire Bell Throw: The Last Judge will rapidly spin and throw his Bell in front of him, just like his first phase, but this time the Bell conjures a burning fire for a few seconds after landing. Again, be sure to keep your distance here and avoid being between the boss and the Bell.
• Fire Charge: A new attack from The Last Judge, he will charge at you before sending out waves of fire in that direction. You ideally want to jump over the boss as he does this to avoid the fire altogether and attack him from behind (or pogo off him to attack), and you can stand between the waves of fire if need be.

All in all, The Last Judge doesn’t have many attacks to learn but he is very swift at executing them. Without practice and precise dashing, you might be here for a while. Don’t get greedy with your hits and while it might make the fight longer, hitting him once at a time is your best bet for success here. The last thing you want is to hit him two or three times and then immediately get caught in his rapidly spinning Bell or waves of fire.

Attacking him when he launches his Bell Throw or Bell Spin attack is a bit of a no-go; you can’t get close to him while he is spinning his Bell, nor do you want to be between him and the Bell if he throws it. As a result, your best bet for attacking is pogoing off of his head after he performs a slam attack. This is also the best time for you to Bind if you need to.

You can continue to do the above during his second phase too, but you just need to be cautious of the waves of fire his Bell Slam sends out across the arena. Jump and glide over these before going in for a side-slash or downwards attack while jumping. Similarly, his new attack – the Fire Charge – requires you to jump over him to avoid it, so this is your opportunity to try and get another downwards attack while jumping over him before retreating to safety.

You can also use Silkspear or other ranged Tools here to try and deal some chip damage against him between his attacks, but bear in mind that he must be on-screen and relatively close for any of these to hit; that’s something that’s difficult to do during this fight.

One important thing to note when it comes to defeating The Last Judge is that he does explode once he dies, so watch out for him being stunned and kneeling still for a while. This means the fight is about to be over!

Good luck in your fight against The Last Judge!

For more on Hollow Knight: Silksong, take a look at our Silksong walkthrough.