Learn how to obtain the Baldur Shell Charm in Hollow Knight!
Team Cherry’s Metroidvania action-adventure game, Hollow Knight, follows the journey of a nameless warrior called the Knight as he travels through Hallownest, now a kingdom ruined by a supernatural disease. As the Knight journeys through Hallownest, he can unlock new abilities, spells, and charms that will help him traverse through different areas of Hallownest and defeat enemies.
In the game, special items give the Knight different abilities and bonuses called Charms. To equip or unequip these Charms, the Knight must sit on a Bench, and the Knight must have enough unused Notches to equip them. In this guide, you will learn about the Baldur Shell charm.
One of the 45 Charms in the game is the Baldur Shell Charm, which requires and takes up only two Charm Notches. When equipped, the Baldur Shell charm summons a shell around the Knight that protects the Knight by blocking up to four hits from enemies while using Focus or healing.
Not only that, but the Knight also gains invincibility frames, like when the Knight by enemy attacks without the protection of the Baldur Shell charm. It is worth noting, however, that the Knight can not use Focus and, therefore, not activate the Baldur Shell charm’s effect if the Knight does not have enough Soul.
As previously mentioned, the Baldur Shell charm can only absorb a maximum of four hits from enemies, and the protective shell will break with one more hit after that. The player can track the protective shell’s status through the blue shell under the Soul meter. The blue shell will crack as the protective shell takes hits and will eventually break. Once that happens, the Knight can only repair the protective shell by sitting on a Bench.
This charm is useful when enemies or bosses have difficulty avoiding attacks. With the Baldur Shell charm, the Knight can now protect itself while healing for a limited time!
Location
The Baldur Shell charm can be found in a hidden room guarded by two Elder Baldurs in the southern part of Howling Cliffs, northwest of Hallownest.
On the way to acquiring the Baldur Shell charm in the Howling Cliffs, the Knight will encounter a few enemies, specifically a Moss Charger, Moss Knights, Vengeflies, Crawlids, Tiktiks, and Elder Baldurs.
Before the Knight can find the Baldur Shell charm, it is recommended that the Knight must first have the Mantis Claw ability, which allows the Knight to cling to walls and jump off of them, and the Mothwing Cloak ability, enabling the Knight to perform a horizontal dash forward, or the Monarch Wings ability, which allows the Knight to perform a secondary jump in mid-air. With these abilities, reaching the Howling Cliffs area and finding the Baldur Shell charm will be no challenge.
To go to Howling Cliffs to find the Baldur Shell charm, this is what the Knight must do:
- Starting from the Bench in the Greenpath Stagway Station, head to the right to exit the room, head up by jumping up the small platforms, and take the exit at the top.
- Next, head to the left, up the small platform, towards the next platform on the right, and continue to the right, where the Knight will encounter a Moss Charger.
- Then, jump up the small platforms and head to the left, where the Knight will encounter a Moss Knight (it is worth noting that there are three Geo Deposits just ahead of the Moss Knight on the left, but another Moss Knight guards it), jump up the platforms above the Moss Knight, head to the left, and take the exit at the top left.
- After that, head to the right, where the Knight will encounter three Vengflies separately, a Crawlid, another Vengefly, and a Tiktik, then take the exit on the top right.
- Upon entering the next room, the Knight arrived in the bottommost room of Howling Cliffs! Head to the right by jumping on the platforms (watch out for the spikes below!), where the Knight will encounter a Crawlid and two Tiktiks, and, at the end of the path, jump up the platform above on the left where the Knight will encounter a Crawlid. It is worth noting that there is a Geo Deposit at the end of the platform.
- Next, head on the path that leads upwards, head to the right, jump or dash across the gap, and there the Knight will find a Geo Chest.
- Strike the Geo Chest, and it will throw out a single Geo. Jump inside the Geo Chest, and the Knight will fall down a path and be in a room with an Elder Baldur on the left and right side of the room. The Knight must first defeat the Elder Baldurs to continue.
- It is essential to mention that the Knight will not be able to attack the Elder Baldurs using the Nail as they will curl up and protect themselves when they try to get close to them. The Knight must use the Vengeful Spirit spell or the Shade Soul Spell to defeat the Elder Baldurs.
- Once the Knight runs out of Soul, wait for the Elder Baldurs to throw out regular Baldurs for the Knight to attack and gain Soul from. After that, cast the Vengeful Spirit spell or Shade Soul spell again.
- After defeating the Elder Baldurs, head to the narrow path on the right. Then, at the end of the path, you will see a glowing thing on the ground. Inspect the glowing thing; the Knight has now obtained the Baldur Shell charm!
To exit this area, the Knight can do either of the two: the Knight can head slightly to the left of where the Baldur Shell charm was found, then jump and head up the Shaft using the Mantis Claw ability and continue exploring the Howling Cliffs area, or the Knight can head to the narrow path on the left.
At the end of the path, the Knight will find wooden barriers holding up a wall, then strike the wooden barrier a couple of times to destroy it and open the pathway back to where the Knight entered the Howling Cliffs area.
There are other Charms that go well with the Baldur Shell charm, specifically the Hiveblood charm, which allows the Knight to heal the last Mask by using any Focus after 10 seconds of not taking any damage and, if paired with the Baldur Shell charm, allows the Knight to protect itself from damage so that the regeneration of the Hiveblood Mask is not interrupted.
The Stalwart Shell charm allows the Knight to increase the Knight’s invincibility duration. It reduces the hit recoil after being hit, and, if paired with the Baldur Shell charm, the Stalwart Shell charm’s effects will still be activated even if the Knight did not take damage because of the Baldur Shell charm, the Thorns of Agony charm, which allows the Knight to sprout thorny vines when the Knight takes damage to deal damage to nearby enemies.
If paired with the Baldur Shell charm, the effects of the Thorns of Agony charm will still activate even if the Knight did not take damage because of the Baldur Shell charm and the Carefree Melody charm, which gives the Knight a chance to block incoming attacks from enemies and, if paired with the Baldur Shell charm, the Carefree Melody charm’s counter will increase from hits to the protective shell of the Baldur Shell charm.
Now that the Knight has the Baldur Shell charm, the Knight can equip it while sitting down on a Bench, and the Knight can now protect itself while using Focus or healing!
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