How to Obtain the Love Key in Hollow Knight

Learn how to obtain the Love Key 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, a kingdom ruined by a supernatural disease. As the Knight journeys through Hallownest, he can obtain new items, abilities, spells, and charms that will help him traverse through different areas of Hallownest and defeat enemies.

One of the items in the game is the Love Key. This item is a key that unlocks the door inside the Tower of Love, which is in the easternmost part of the City of Tears, where the Collector can be found and fought. In this guide, you will learn how to obtain the Love Key in Hollow Knight!

Hollow Knight’s Love Key

A screenshot showing the location of the Love Key in Hollow Knight

A corpse holds the Love Key at the end of the room near the southeasternmost part of the Queen’s Gardens.

In the Queen’s Gardens, the Knight encounters these enemies on the way to the Love Key: Oomas, Uomas, Spiny Husks, Fool Eaters, Mossflies, Mantis Petras, and Mantis Traitors.

Before the Knight can head to the Queen’s Gardens and find Love Key, it is required that the Knight has the Isma’s Tear ability, which allows the Knight to swim in pools of acid, the Mantis Claw ability, which allows the Knight to cling to walls and jump off of them, and the Mothwing Cloak ability, which allows the Knight to perform a horizontal dash forward.

Although not required, it would also help if the Knight had the Monarch Wings ability, which allows the Knight to perform a secondary jump in mid-air. With these abilities, reaching the Queen’s Gardens area and finding the Love Key will be no challenge.

To find the Love Key in the Queen’s Gardens, this is what the Knight must do:

Starting from the Queen’s Station Stagway Bench, take the exit on the right, jump up the platforms, head to the top, then take the exit on the left.
The Knight has now arrived in Fog Canyon. Head upwards by jumping on the platforms, sticking to the left side of the room while heading up, and taking the next exit on the left, which is in the middle of the room. In this room, the Knight will encounter a lot of Uomas and Oomas. Be careful when attacking Oomas, as it will result in its shell popping, and its orange core will home in on the Knight and explode.
Next, head to the left, where there is a pool of acid and a wall of thorns. Drop down on the pool of acid, swim to the left (thanks to Isma’s Tear ability) below the wall of thorns, and jump towards the next platform where there is a gate, and the room will be filled with vegetation. Continue reading to the left, jump up the platforms, and take the exit on the left.
Then, upon entering the room, the Knight has arrived in the Queen’s Gardens! Head to the left, where the Knight will encounter a Spiny Husk, drop down a few platforms where the Knight will encounter a Mossfly, and continue heading to the left, where the Knight will encounter two Mossflies, a Spiny Husk, and another separate Spiny Husk.
As the Knight continues heading to the left, you will see that part of the floor is vines filled with thorns. Jump over the thorns with the help of the Monarch Wings ability or the Mothwing Cloak ability, head to the left, then take the exit on the left.
After that, continue heading to the left, where the Knight will encounter a Mantis Petra, drop down on the gap on the left, then head downwards using the small dropping platforms (be careful not to fall to the bottom of the room where there are vines filled with thorns) where the Knight will encounter another Mantis Petra and another two Mossflies, then head for the exit on the bottom right of the room next to the vines with thorns.
Next, head to the right, where there are several stable and dropping platforms with vines filled with thorns on the bottom. Upon getting to the middle of this part of the room, the path back and to continue will be closed, and the Knight must defeat the enemies in the room to open them. Here, the Knight will encounter three Mantis Petras.
After defeating all the Mantis Petras, head to the right where the path is now opened, drop down the gap, head to the right, drop down another gap with a closed exit on the right, drop down the gap on the left towards a dropping platform, jump towards the next dropping platform on the left but be careful not to hit the thorns on the ceiling and below on the floor, and dash towards the safe ground on the left where the Knight will encounter a Fool Eater.
Then, dash towards the next dropping platform on the left, jump and dash towards the safe platform on the left where the Knight will encounter another Fool Eater, and jump towards the shaft on the left where the Knight will encounter another Fool Eater at the bottom.
Next, jump and dash towards the dropping platform on the right, jump and dash towards the safe ground on the right where the Knight will encounter a Mantis Petra, jump and dash towards the dropping platform on the right, jump and dash towards the platform on the right with a lever, and strike the lever to open the path to the exit above.
After that, jump and dash towards the platform on the right, jump up the wall on the right, and head up the shaft with the help of the Mantis Claw ability where at the top on the left, the wall is being held up by wooden barriers, strike the wooden barrier several times to break it and reveal a path, jump up towards the platform above, and take the exit on the right.
Then, jump across the gap towards the platform above on the right, head to the right, dash across the gap with the help of the Mothwing Cloak ability, continue heading to the right, drop down the gap, head down using the dropping platforms where the Knight will encounter two Mossflies, then take the next exit on the right.
Next, head to the right where the Knight will encounter a Mossfly, drop down the small platform below on the right where the Knight will encounter another Mossfly, drop down another small platform below on the left where the Knight will encounter another Mossfly, drop down the small platform below on the right, and jump towards the platform on the right where there will be a Geo Deposit.
After that, jump up the elevated platform on the right, head to the right, drop and swim on the pool of acid to the right through the very low ceiling, jump up the platform, and head to the right where the Knight will encounter two Mantis Traitors.
Finally, head to the right, and at the end of the room, the Knight will find a corpse holding something glowing. Inspect the glowing thing, and the Knight will obtain the Love Key!

Now that the Knight has the Love Key, the Knight can open the door to the Tower of Love in the City of Tears, then find and fight the Collector in Hollow Knight!