How to Obtain the Defender’s Crest Charm in Hollow Knight

Learn how to obtain the Defender’s Crest 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 this guide, you will learn about the Defender’s Crest charm. 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.

One of the 45 Charms in the game is the Defender’s Crest Charm, which requires and takes up only a single Charm Notch. When equipped, the Defender’s Crest charm constantly releases toxic clouds around the Knight that can deal up to three damage to enemies. Toxic clouds are released on the Knight’s location almost every second (0.75 seconds) and last for more than a second (1.1 seconds). The damaging clouds have a minimal range, but they linger on where it was released.

This charm can be useful for situations where enemies or bosses have attacks that release extra enemies for the Knight to defeat. With the Defender’s Crest charm, the Knight can now deal damage passively, thanks to the toxic clouds!

Location

The Defender’s Crest Charm can be obtained after defeating the Dung Defender in the eastern part of the Royal Waterways.

On the way to acquiring the Defender’s Crest charm in the Royal Waterways, the Knight will encounter a few enemies, specifically Pilflip, a Flukemon, a Belfly, and the Dung Defender, the main boss in the game.

Before the Knight can find the Dung Defender and the Defender’s Crest 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, which enables 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. The Knight must also purchase the Lumafly Lantern from Sly in Dirtmouth to light up dark rooms. With this item and these abilities, finding the Dung Defender and acquiring the Defender’s Crest charm will be no challenge.

To find the Dung Defender, this is what the Knight must do:

1. From the Memorial to the Hollow Knight in the southern part of the City of Tears, head to the left and take the exit; continue to the left until you find a path that leads downwards, then take that exit.
   
2. The Knight is now in the Royal Waterways. Upon entering, head to the left, where the Knight will encounter two Pilflips; at the end of the path, head down the path that leads downwards, where the Knight will encounter another Pilflip, then take the exit on the left.
   
3. Next, head slightly to the left, drop down the gap, head slightly to the right, drop down the gap, head to the bottom of the shaft, take the exit below, and the Knight will drop down to a crooked Bench. Sit down on the Bench to save your progress.
   
4. After that, head to the path on the right, jump to the platform above where the Knight will encounter a Flukemon, jump across the gap where the Knight will encounter another Pilflip, jump up the platform, then drop down on the gap, continue to the right, drop down on the next gap, and continue to the right where the Knight will encounter a Belfly.
   
5. Then, jump up the next platform where the room is filled with dung, head to the right, head up the shaft at the end of the path using the Mantis Claw ability to cling to walls and jump off of them, head to the left, and take the exit above.
   
6. Next, head up the platforms using the Mantis Claw or Monarch Wings ability; at the top, head to the right, drop down on the gap, continue to the right, and the Knight will be in a big room. Upon reaching the middle of this room, the Dung Defender will appear!

Dung Defender

As previously mentioned, the Knight must first defeat the Dung Defender to obtain the Defender’s Crest charm, so it is important to be familiar with the Dung Defender’s moves.

Dung Defender’s attacks consist of projectiles and attacks from underground. Here are the Dung Defender’s attacks:

• Evade

The Dung Defender will try to evade the Knight by curling into a ball and rolling away for a short distance. This will inflict damage if he gets in contact with the Knight.

• Dung Toss

The Dung Defender will form one ball of dung and throw it. The ball of dung will then randomly bounce around the arena in large arcs and will last for a few seconds (even if it hits the Knight) unless broken by the Knight by dealing enough damage to it.

• Dive

The Dung Defender will dive underground and out again to travel the arena like swimming. This will inflict damage if he gets in contact with the Knight.

• Burst

The Dung Defender will dive underground, but instead of going out and in again like he is swimming, he will stay underground for a few seconds and then burst out along with four balls of dung (two on both of his sides) that will not bounce and will break once it hits the ground or the Knight.

• Toss Combo

The Dung Defender will form and throw two dung balls quickly and bounce around the arena for about six seconds. After this attack, the Dung Defender may perform either of the two additional attacks:

1. Curl – The Dung Defender will curl up in a ball and bounce around the arena for a few seconds with the two balls of dung he threw.
   
2. Burst – The Dung Defender will perform the Burst attack

• Zeal

After dealing a certain amount of damage to the Dung Defender, he will shout the same way as when the fight began and go into a rage mode where he will perform faster Burst attacks quickly. This will last for about twelve seconds, and when it ends, the Dung Defender will target the Knight, dive, and perform the burst attack close to the Knight’s position. The Dung Defender will only perform this attack once.

After dealing enough damage to the Dung Defender, he will stagger, fall on his back, and flail his arms and legs. He will stagger about three or more times during the whole duration of the battle.

Strategy

The key to defeating Dung Defender is inflicting as much damage as possible without, or at least just minimal, taking damage. You can attack him while he’s forming his dung balls for his Dung Toss attack. Try dodging the balls of dung he throws as best as you can. Just watch out for when he throws. It is important to note that the dung balls cannot easily be destroyed by one hit with the Knight’s Nail, but you can instantly destroy them using Spells.

When he performs his Toss Combo attack, you can stand next to him and attack while he forms the first ball, dash away when he throws it, step back in to attack him and dash away again when he throws the second one.

The Knight cannot use his Nail to attack the Dung Defender while performing the Burst attack. However, you can perform the Desolate Dive or Descending Dark spell during this attack while he is still underground to cancel the attack and stun him for a short while.

This strategy can cancel Dung Defender’s Zeal attack when he performs it, as he will only use it once for the whole fight. You must time it perfectly because of how fast this attack is. Attacking him while he is stunned will cause him to return to his feet, so you can use this time to heal or use a spell against him.

The corners of the arena can be your best friend during your fight with the Dung Defender. You can stand on corners to heal while he throws his dung balls, as they are less likely to hit the corners. The corners can also be a safe place to attack or heal while he is performing his Burst attack, as he will always burst out of the ground close to the Knight’s position (unless, of course, he bursts out right on the actual corner) and the balls of dung will bounce off the wall.

Defender’s Crest

After defeating the Dung Defender, he will leave his Defender’s Crest Charm for the taking before diving underground. Then, after sitting on a Bench and returning to the area, the Dung Defender will pop his head out off the ground and apologize for attacking him. He will also notice if the Knight already has Isma’s Tear in his possession and then explain that his oath and duties prevent him from visiting his fellow knight’s grove.

Other Charms go well with the Defender’s Crest charm, specifically, the Spore Shroom charm, which allows the Knight to release a cloud of spores around the Knight that can deal damage to enemies whenever the Knight uses Focus and, if paired with the Defender’s Crest charm, the damage output of the cloud of spores from the Spore Shroom charm is increased, the Flukenest charm, which replaces the Vengeful Spirit spell and the Shade Soul spell with a horde of Flukes that deal damage to enemies and, if paired with the Defender’s Crest charm, the Flukenest charm’s horde of Flukes will be replaced with just one but huge Fluke that deals damage to enemies and explodes, and the Glowing Womb charm, which uses the Knight’s Soul to summon Hatchlings that deal damage to enemies and, if paired with the Defender’s Crest charm, the damage dealt by the Hatchlings will be reduced. Still, it is added back as a dung cloud that deals damage.

Now that the Knight has the Defender’s charm, the Knight can equip it while sitting down on a Bench, and the Knight will release toxic clouds that deal damage!