Hollow Knight Silksong: How To Beat Father of the Flame (Boss Guide)

If you’re exploring the Wisp Thicket area, you might have run into the Father of the Flame in Hollow Knight Silksong. It is an optional, secret boss within this side area that you can fight. While you can give the boss a wide berth during your playthrough, we recommend you go through this battle.

At the end, you’ll be able to claim the Wisp Lantern tool from the defeated enemy. In the following guide, we’ll explore how you can find the Father of the Flame secret boss and how to take him down.

Where To Find Father of the Flame in Hollow Knight Silksong

First, you’ll need to find the entrance to the Wisp Thicket area, which you can get to from Greymoor. After entering this side area, proceed right to find a bench. Rest there and then start heading west. Soon, you’ll reach a dead end. This is where the Father of the Flame boss fight will take place.

Keep in mind that you’ll require the Faydown Cloak (Double Jump) ability to get to the Wisp Thicket. This tool or ability unlock is at the very top of Mount Fay. Also, since you’ll come across Greymoor in Act 2, that’s when you can expect to enter the Wisp Thicket and fight the boss.

Father of the Flame Boss Overview

The Father of the Flame boss is a unique encounter in two aspects. Firstly, the boss cannot move and remains stationary throughout the battle. Secondly, you can’t just randomly attack the boss with Hornet’s Needle, since they only take damage to specific parts of the body. If you strike at the other parts, your attacks will have no effect. Now, let’s jump into the boss’s attack patterns in its two phases.

Phase 1

• Father of the Flame boss doesn’t move, but you’ll notice several branches or arms, all of them with burning lanterns on them. At the center of the boss’s body is a burning heart.

• During this phase, the heart portion of the enemy will shoot out fireballs toward Hornet. These fireballs will seek out Hornet, making them difficult to avoid.

• Your main goal in the first phase is to attack the glowing lanterns on the arms of the Father of the Flame. To do this, you’ll need to pogo off the sandbags floating all around the arena since many of the arms are high up and out of range for Hornet’s standard attacks.

Phase 2

• Phase 2 begins when you’ve destroyed the lanterns on each of the boss’s arms or branches.

• In this phase, the boss’s heart will open up, and he’ll start to shoot out a barrage of fireballs. However, unlike the last phase, these fireballs don’t seek out Hornet. So, evading them is somewhat simpler.

• You will need to focus your attacks on the burning heart portion of the enemy in this phase of the battle.

How To Defeat Father of the Flame in Hollow Knight Silksong: Tips and Tricks

You can use the following tricks to make this fight against the Father of the Flame easier.

• Arm yourself with the Magma Bell tool. It significantly reduces damage from fire and can be highly helpful during this particular fight. The boss has no other attack types besides unleashing fireballs.

• You’ll need to hit the branch lanterns several times to destroy them during the first phase. This involves pogoing off the red sandbags and dodging incoming fireballs at the same time. We suggest opting for the Reaper Crest here, simply because it aids in the pogo movements. Also, keep in mind that you can chain your pogo moves and attacks to unleash several attacks on the branches after jumping once.

• Equip Flintslate and Pollip Pouch tools to your build. The former increases base damage from Needle attacks, while the latter allows Needle attacks to deal Poison damage. Both of these together can help destroy branches much quicker.

• During the second phase, you can easily destroy the heart by using the Voltvessels tools. Simply place the Voltvessel charge directly below the boss. Since Father of the Flame can’t move, the charge will explode and directly deal damage to its heart.

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