Hollow Knight: Trial of the Conqueror Guide (Colosseum of Fools)

Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight features an arena called the Colosseum of Fools where the Knight can battle various enemies and earn items like Geo, Pale Ores, and Charm Notches. The Colosseum of Fools offers three different Trials packed with different enemies to defeat: the Trial of the Warrior, the Trial of the Conqueror, and the Trial of the Fool. 

This guide will teach you about the Colosseum of Fools’ Trial of the Conqueror.

Trial of the Conqueror

As mentioned above, the Trial of the Conqueror is the second of three Trials in the Colosseum of Fools. As expected, this Trial is harder than the Trial of the Warrior. In this Trial, you will experience no ground mechanics, such as wall-jumping and mid-air combat without healing.

Emerging as the victor in the Trial of the Warrior for the first time rewards the Knight with 2000 to 2020 Geo, a Pale Ore, and the Conqueror achievement (subsequent wins in this Trial will only reward 2000 to 2020 Geo).

Little Fool must be paid 450 Geo by the entrance of the Colosseum of Fools for the Knight to participate in the Trial of the Conqueror. After that, inspect the middle trial board to start the Trial and proceed to the arena, accessed through the exit on the right.

The enemies the Knight will face in the Trial of the Warrior come in waves. This is the order of the enemies the Knight will encounter:

• Wave 1

For the first wave, one Heavy Fool will appear. Then, two Winged Fools will appear on both sides of the arena after killing it. After successfully killing them, one Winged Fool and one Heavy Fool will appear in the center of the arena. Defeat the enemies to continue on the second wave.

• Wave 2

After the first wave, three platforms will rise on different heights, and an Armored Squit will appear on both sides of the arena. Defeat all Armoured Squits to proceed to the next wave.

• Wave 3

After that last wave, spikes will emerge, covering the whole floor of the arena. Then, again, two Armoured Squits will appear inside the arena. Kill them to continue to the next wave.

• Wave 4

Two platforms will go away for this wave, leaving the platform in the middle, and one Winged Fool will appear. Then, after killing the Winged Fool, an Armoured Squit will appear. Defeat it to continue.

• Wave 5

After that, six more platforms will rise and will all be in differing heights (a total of seven platforms all in all). Then, a Primal Aspid and an Armoured Squit will appear in the arena. After killing one of them, another Primal Aspid and Armoured Squit will appear. Then, after killing two of the remaining enemies, three Volatile Guzzers will spawn in the arena. Then, again, after defeating two of the remaining enemies, two more Volatile Guzzers will appear in the arena. Kill all the enemies to proceed to the next wave.

• Wave 6

Next, a triple platform (three connected platforms) will appear in the center of the arena, and all the other platforms will go away. It is important to note that there are still spikes below. Then, a Heavy Fool will appear, which can easily be killed by attacking it to push it back and let it fall on the spikes. Then, after killing the Heavy Fool, three Belflies will appear one at a time (as they will immediately dive-bomb and die once spawning). Evade the Belflies to continue.

• Wave 7

After that, the triple platform’s left and right platforms will go away and leave one platform in the center of the arena, and a Belfy will appear just above it. Evade the dive-bombing Belfly to proceed to the next wave.

• Wave 8

The platforms and spikes will go away on this next wave, and the arena will return to its original state. After that, four Hoppers will appear one after the other even though you have not killed any of them yet. Then, after defeating at least two Hoppers, four more Hoppers will appear in the same way. Next, after killing all the Hoppers, a Great Hopper will appear in the arena. Defeat the Great Hopper to continue on the Trial.

• Wave 9

After that last wave, the arena’s walls will close towards the center to about 25% of the original floor space of the arena, leaving it with a small space to move in. Then, another Great Hopper will appear in the arena. Kill the Great Hopper to continue onto the next wave.

• Wave 10

On this next wave, the arena’s walls will go back to their original state, but the ceiling will drop, leaving only about 50% of the arena. Then, a Grub Mimic will appear in the arena. The Grub Mimic will not attack the Knight until he “frees” the “Grub.” This downtime can be a great ti8me to heal up. Kill the Grub Mimic to continue on the Trial.

• Wave 11

After that, the ceiling will rise back to its original state, and a single platform will rise in the middle of the arena. Then two Shielded Fools and a Winged Fool will appear in the arena. After killing two of them, the platform will go away, and another Winged Fool will appear in the arena. After killing that last Winged Fool, a Heavy Fool and an Armoured Squit will appear. After defeating one of them, another Armoured Squit will appear. Kill all the remaining enemies to proceed to the final wave.

• Wave 12

For this next wave, the arena walls will close into about 50% of the original floor area. Then, a Heavy Fool will appear, and after killing it, a Winged Fool will appear in the arena. Defeat them to proceed.

• Wave 13

This next wave might be the hardest of all the waves as spikes will appear to cover the whole floor, and the Knight will be forced to jump and stick on the walls while trying to defeat the enemies that will appear. The first of these enemies is an Armoured Squit. Then, after defeating it, a Winged Fool will appear. After killing it, two Armoured Squits will appear. Defeat them to continue to the next wave.

• Wave 14

After that hell of the last wave, the walls will go back to their original state, and the spikes will go away. However, this is only for a short time, as the spikes will go back after three platforms have appeared in the arena. Then, two Winged Fools will appear on both sides of the arena. After defeating them, another Winged Fool and two Armoured Squits will appear in the arena.

• Wave 15

For this next wave, the arena will return to its original state by getting rid of the spikes and platforms. Then, four platforms will appear, with the first and third in the same height and higher than the second and fourth platform, which is also on the same height. After that, four Battle Obbles will appear in the arena. After killing two of them, two more Battle Obbles will appear. Then, spikes will cover the floor again after killing two of them, and three more Battle Obbles will appear. Defeat all remaining enemies to proceed.

• Wave 16

After that, the arena will get rid of the spikes and the platforms then the ceiling will drop down, leaving around 50% of the arena. Then, four more Battle Obbles will appear in the arena. Defeat them to proceed to the final wave. It is worth noting that Battle Obbles can be attacked with the Dream Nail so that the Knight will gain more Soul. Having a full Soul and Health will especially be helpful as you enter the next and final wave.

• Wave 17

For this last wave, the ceiling will rise back up slightly and leave around 75% of the arena. Then, two Oblobbles will appear on both sides of the arena. The Oblobbles are similar to the Battle Obbles, but the Oblobbles fire more projectiles and move faster. These are the Oblobbles attacks:

Acid Cannonade

The Obobbles will spit four large projectiles in six patterns in all directions. Each set of four projectiles is spaced 90 degrees apart, and the following set of projectiles is shot roughly 30 to 45 degrees from the last set of projectiles.

Fly

The Obobbles will move around the arena diagonally and will bounce off walls. Hitting from behind, however, will cause it to turn around and continue in that direction. As with every enemy in the game, the Obobbles also deal contact damage.

Frenzy

After killing one of the Obobbles, the other one will regain some health and go into a rage, making its movement and the speed of its Acid Cannonade faster, both the rate at which it shoots and the projectiles themselves. The Obobble will be in a Frenzy up until the Knight defeats it. During the Frenzy, the Acid Cannonade will now shoot four projectiles in eight patterns instead of six.

The Shape of Unn Charm can be useful to evade the Acid Cannonade projectiles and give openings to heal, especially with Quick Focus also equipped. Nail Arts like the Dash Slash and Great Slash and Spells like Vengeful Spirit and Abyss Shriek are also effective in dealing huge damage to the Obobbles, especially when the remaining Obobble is in a Frenzy and there are very few openings between its Acid Cannonade. It would be better to distribute damage across Obobbles for the last Obobble, the one that will go into a Frenzy once the other is defeated, to have as little health as possible.

Defeat them to claim your 2000 to 2020 Geo, Pale Ore, and the Conqueror achievement (or if this is not the first time you emerged as the victor in the Trial of the Conqueror, only the 2000 to 2020 Geo will be rewarded).

Final Thoughts

Always remember to heal at least one mask in between waves. The Quick Focus Charm would be best for this. Additionally, Nail Arts are useful in the Trials in the Colosseum of Fools. You will want to use Nail Arts on the floorless waves of this Trial to kill enemies easily.

Before starting this Trial, it would be better if the Knight already has the Monarch Wings, which will help the Knight cling on walls, and the Shade Cloak, which will help the Knight dash through enemies and attacks.