Mantis Village | Hollow Knight Guide
Mantis Village is a sub-area players have to visit in the Fungal Wastes. This location is home to the Mantis Claw ability and the Mantis Lord bosses. To help you complete this area I’ve put together the guide below. Use it to make Mantis Village a breeze!
How to Get the Mantis Claw
The reason we are in Fungal Wastes is to get the Mantis Claw ability. This ability allow us to wall jump. Unlike previous abilities, this one is not locked behind a boss, but rather, is found simply lying around.
When inside Mantis Village, stick to the lower level and head all the way left (be careful of enemies). Here there is a switch on the ceiling, hit it. This opens up a door on the upper level. Return to the entrance of the village and head up to the next level. Head all the way left and you should see a pile of hooks which is shining. Make your way to the pile of hooks and collect the Mantis Claw. After collecting the claw, you can leave the village OR fight the optional boss.
Optional Boss: Mantis Lords
To get to the Mantis Lords, you will need to open the huge doors on the floor of Mantis Village. This can be done by using the handy dandy Mantis Claw we just got. The way to do this is pretty straightforward, but basically look for the switch pictured above. Flip the switch and make your way into the huge hole.
Inside the lower room, you will need to hit a bunch of switches located on the left and right sides of the room. Hit all these switches and the bottom right gate will open which leads to the Mantis Lords arena.
This is a pretty hard fight, so leaving it until you are stronger is not a bad decision. If you do decide to take the boss head on note that it will probably take a few tries to beat.
Basically this boss fight has two phases. The first phase you face off against a single Mantis Lord, and the second phase where you fight multiple. The Mantis Lords are quick and teleport quickly around the arena, making handling multiple a bit of a challenge.
Strategy wise, use your Dash to dodge and try to get damage in when possible. After dealing enough damage to the single Lord, you get to faceoff against two at once. This is where things get way more difficult. Note that the bosses moveset does not change; your simply facing two at once.
When you beat both, the fight is complete. Beating the Mantis Lords, de-aggros the Mantis in Mantis Village, meaning you can explore without risk of dying. You also get access to the Mantis treasure room that contains a bunch of Geo.
How to Get to the City of Tears
Once you have the Mantis Claw you will be able to access the main city in Hollow Knight called the City of Tears. In order to get there from Fungal Wastes, we are going to head to the area where you bumped into Hornet, but she ran off. Here we will need to traverse the higher portion of the room using dash & wall jump. Note that there are controls for the bridge both halfway and anear the statue, so I highly recommend activating those. Once through the platforming part, we will need to insert the City Crest (found on False Knight’s body) into the statue beside the locked gate. Do this and the gate will raise, enter the city.
This guide is part of our Hollow Knight walkthrough and guide hub. Check it out for more guides about this game. As for where to head next, having Mothwing Cloak really opens up exploration. This means we can make our way to the new named area of City of Tears.
