I don't know about others, but these things really piss me off. Not only are they fast, but they also will not leave you alone, while exploding on death which is always fun. These things caused me so much trouble when the crossroads first got infected that I went out of my way to avoid the crossroads as much as possible.


They're not that hard to kill, you can usually pogo off them or just keep smacking them into the air and they'll die pretty quickly, especially with a nail upgrade or two.

An annoying enemy for an annoying area you'll visit once for Isma's tear and then have to make annoying trips whenever you wish to do godmaster. Flukemon are just tedious to kill, they're not hard, they just take a long time. You kill it and then have to kill it's upper half again (which can fly, god knows why), and then you have to wait for its lower half to come to life and start making these annoying sounds before dying in one hit. You could just run away from the bottom half, but they'll probably stack up with the other hundred Flukemon in the Waterways. Seriously, who thought exploring a sewer would be fun.


These aren't hard to kill, just stab em a few times, stab the flying one again and then wait for the bottom half and stab that. Very simple stuff.

Dishonorable mention to Volt Twisters, thank god they're only in the colosseum. Soul Twisters are very annoying. They follow you no matter where you go, they have an orb floating around them to makes stabbing them harder, and they shoot annoying balls at you, whilst constantly staying just out of reach of your nail. I already disliked the Soul Sanctum but these guys make it a lot worse.


Your best bet is to shoot them with Howling Wraiths or Vengeful Spirit (or their upgraded versions) as stabbing them is difficult due to flight and teleportation. Running can work too assuming you can make it to a transition quickly.

This guy sucks and his ascended and radiant fights suck too.


I'll be honest idk how you kill him. Uhh, nail arts are cool. Shade soul with a shaman stone works too since he can be hit twice with it. If you're trying radiant Markoth, good luck and I hope you have the patience of someone who will live for 1000 years cause that's how long it's gonna take.

These things suck. They suck not because of their attack, but because of their location, Queen's Gardens. There's so much platforming there and the platforms will give out if you stand on them. Their attack you'd think would act like a boomerang, but no, it shoots out at you and then just does whatever. Sometimes it flies up, other times it hits the ground, I have no idea how it works, all I know is these guys suck.


Howling wraiths is terrible for killing them, Abyss shriek is amazing, the low range of wraith usually just puts them in a better position while dealing minimal damage, shriek just straight up kills them.

Regular Hoppers get in the way, but thankfully they're idiots and don't recognize that you're currently stabbing them. Great Hoppers on the other hand, are fully conscience of you, and will do whatever they can to ruin your day. Not to mention these bastards have a segment in the colosseum where you're stuck in a rectangle while one just stomps on you repeatedly.


Desolate dive and Descending dark are nice as they give you invinciblity for a short while after being used, you can also turn around and quickly stab them once as they come down from a hop. Just avoid them if you can though, not worth your time.

Imagine an Aspid Hunter but they leave a cluster of spike garbage where they attacked, so even if you dodge, you'll still probably get hit. These ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are also in the path to the crystallised mound which makes that already difficult platforming segment even worse. They're also in the mound itself because of course these bastards are.


Abyss shriek does good, wraiths have the same problem with mantis petras so just get shriek as soon as you can. You can also reflect their projectile but they don't take damage from it which is super lame but whatever I guess.

An enemy with such bastard status they are commonly refered to as a bastard instead of their real name, the Primal Aspid has truly accomplished something here. Shooting 3 balls of cancer that I'm almost certain were programmed in such a way to hit you no matter how you dodge, constantly flying just out of reach above massive pits in Kingdom's Edge, and also not leaving you alone, ever.


I mean just look at it, this thing screams bastard.

Fighting tips: Practice dodging their acid shots. It can be dodged, despite popular belief. Only go for one hit at a time unless you can kill them in 2 hits. A shaman stone empowered Shade Soul can usually kill these things in 1 hit, Abyss Shriek also does a good job of killing them, and I believe Howling Wraiths can do some work here as well. Nail arts are also great for one shotting them, namely dash slash and great slash. Grimmchild could also work if you just want to stay far away from them. The best tip I can give however, is to not explore Kingdom's Edge, or at least not the parts with Bastardflies (which are very few and far between). If you wish to fight Hornet or acquire Quick Slash, you'll have to encounter these cretins however.

All images from Hollow Knight fandom wiki: https://hollowknight.fandom.com/wiki/Hollow_Knight_Wiki

Except for Markoth. That one is mine. If you steal it my lawyers will be in touch.