Hollow Knight Hollow Knight - How to Use Hallownest Charms

In this guide I will be talking every single charm you can find in Hallownest. Some good, some ok and some awfully bad. After this guide, you will (hopefully) have a better understanding of charms and which ones to use.

Guide To Every Single Charm

What On Earth Are Charms

Even though you probably already know, let me explain. Charms are items you find all over Hell-o-nest and give various different effects. In your exploration you will find 40 charms each one (supposedly) giving different effects.

You can also find charm nothes. Charm notches indicate how many charms you can handle (you start with 3 and end with 11). If you equip more charms than you can handle, you will be overcharmed when overcharmed enemies and bosses deal double damage. If a boss/enemy deals already 2 masks of damage, then he will deal 4 masks of damage!

You can get notches and charms by exploring and visiting Salubra's store. You can find her in the corner of the Forgotten Crossroads, after Gruz mother. However you will need the dash ability to reach her.

First Row

Wayward Compass: Shows your location on the map. If this is your first playthrough, you should definetely use it. Tier B
Gathering Swarm: If you are annoyed by losing geo, then buy Gathering Swarm. It works like the coin magnet from lego games. Useful charm for early game, but pretty useless after mid-game.Tier B.
Soul Catcher: You gain +3 more soul with each nail hit (you need 33 soul to heal/cast a spell). Great charm for any build. Remains useful for a very long time. Tier A.
Soul Eater: You gain 8 soul for each nail hit. Very useful, but it <> 4 charm notches, which is a lot! However, if you combine it with soul catcher, you will be able to cast a spell almost every hit if you equip soul twister. But this combo costs 8 notches. You can put better charms on than this if you are using a spell build. Tier B
Shaman Stone: Welcome to the god of spells! Shamman stone increases the hitbox and damage of spells. By how much? well look here!

Increases Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul damage by 33%.
Increases Desolate Dive damage by 51% and Descending Dark damage by 47%.
Increases Howling Wraiths/Abyss Shriek damage by 50%.

A spell build without shaman stone is not a spell build. Every spell build has one. You can get this charm very early too so... You can also combine it with soul twister and soul cathcer/eater for frequent spell spamming. Solid S tier.

Dashmaster: You basically dash faster. Useful for travelling and can be obtained really early. Tier B
Sprintmaster: A rip-off of Dashmaster. D tier

Grubsong: Gives you 15 soul when you get hit. Tier C
Grubefly Elegy: Extremely stiuational charm. Useful in certain boss fights and can be paired with quick slash for insane results! Still though Tier C
Stalwart Shell: Tier C

Second Row

Fragile Heart: Gives you 2 more pernament masks. This is a great charm, but you will get a lot of value out of it in your 2nd playthrough and later because, well, it is fragile, it breaks. You can uograde this charm to the Unbreakable Heart by paying Devine 12.000 geo. You can get a lot of value out of this thing in the pantheons and is good for exploration. Tier A.
Fragile Strength: I had to make a lot of space for this charm so it stands ou. It is so good. It basically increases your nail damage by 33% and you can get this charm very early. but if you want to make it ubreakable, it will cost you 15.000 geo. if you combine this with quick slash and longnail/mark of pride, it will give you insane value! A tier tho because it is fragile, if you die it breaks :-(
Fragile Greed: It increases the amount of geo enemies drop by 20%-60%, which might seem like a lot, but considering enemies drop like 6 geo, it isn't that great. Also, it is useless in late game.
Spell Twister: The spell twister increases the amount of spells you can cast without soul vessels from 3 to 4, which is a massive difference. Listen, you probably can make room for this charm, because it costs only 2 notches. Tier S
Steady Body: You basically take no knockback when you attack enemies. Useful for aerial bosses, but sometimes it makes things harder because until now you are used to attack knockback. Tier...C?, D? eh C
Heavy Bow: Don't use this it sucks. Tier F
Quick Slash: Probably the best charm in the game. It offers double the value it already costs. And if you combine it with Mark of Pride and Fagile strength, you will be killing bosses twice as fast! Tier SS (Just kidding, there is no SS tier)
Longnail: If you have room for Mark of Pride, you probably have room for Mark of Pride. I never used longnail too much and when I used it, it really didn't help. Tier C
Mark of Pride: A 25% nail reach increase is insane. You hit enemies easily and keep yourself far away. Tier S? Tier... S
Fury of the Fallen: This charm increases the amount of damage dealt when at 1 hp by 75%. Didn't really use it but it sometimes is a lifesaver. You can also combine it with lifeblood hearrt/core or just lifeblood.

Third Row

Thorns of Agony: Thorns is a mediocre charm that fits in every build. It deals ok damage and has a small cost. useful for early game, but it is outclassed by other better charms later on. It is useful though for certain boss fights and enemies, and other times it takes bosses out of their stagger and you want to end your life. Tier C
Baldur Shell: Baldur Shell is a charm that takes way too much space for its value. I mean yeah you get a shield when you heal, but, unless you are panick healing, ou won'rt get much value from it. Most of the time I get hit while healing is 0.1 seconds after i healed that mask, so a charm that would give you invicibility after you healed would be better. And quick focus is so much better soting 1 more notch. get out of my face Baldur Shell, Tier D
Flukenest: You turn your vengiful spirit ability to a shotgun, that's it. Tier A

Defender's Crest is an interesting one. It leaves a <> smoke around you that damages enemies. very situational, but sometimes its value against some bosses is crazy (Hornet, Lost Kin).

But it is quite situational, so B tier.

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Glowing Womb: Do you really want me to spent time writing a paragraph about how much this charm sucks? No thanks Tier F, you can do better things with your soul than summoning flies that deal less damage than spitting on someone's leg.
Quick Focus: You heal faster. And it's broken. Tier S. if you are doing a hard boss and you don't have this charm in your build, I don't want to know you.
Deep Focus: Healing 2 masks with the process taking almost twice as long is useles. just to make it usable you must put quick focus. Congrats, now you used over 7 notches and you have no room for sth that will actually help you. Tier D
Lifeblood Heart and Core: Almost completely useless, unless you are doing on ascended bosses that deal double damage and later levels of Grey Prince Zote. Tier D
Joni's Blessing: More health but no healing. Worth it for quite some bosses. Tier B

Fourth Row

Hiveblood: You can now regenerate health if you wait for 3 years. Umm no thanks Tier C. Oh also 4 notches!
Spore Shroom: You leave a toxic cloud after you heal that deals no damage at all. I mean it does damage, the scary 27 damage in 4.1 seconds! Tier F
Sharp Shadow: You deal of a nail hit damage when you shadow dash through enemies. But it increases your shadow dash range by 39%, which is often enough to get you hit. Tier B
Shape of Unn: Moving while healing is almost useless if you can't use any of your abilities, spells,or you know, JUMP! Tier D
Nailmaster's Glory: It basically removes the cooldown from your nail arts almost completely. Tier A
Weaversong: Hey let's summon small spider's that deal almost 0 damage instead of using sth like sharp shadow, or spell twister. Or almost every other 2 notch charm in the game! I know you can pair this charm with Grubsong so when enemies get hit by your spiders you get some soul. so the fact that they don't waste you soul is enough to push it from F to D tier.
Dream Wielder: A vey underrated charm. It decreases the cooldown of the dream nail and increases the amount of soul you get by a lot. Useless for boss battles, but it is a great carm to use for weak ground enemies and the Trial of the fool. Tier A
Dreamshield: Summons a shield that moves slowly around you and almost never hits enemies or blocks attacks. I don't hate it, but there are better 3 notch charms. Tier C
Grimmchild: Even maxed Grimmchild deals small damage and misses half of its attacks. But you can get some value out of it in some situations, so B tier.

Missing Charms

King's Soul: For lore only, used to get Void Heart.
Void Heart: No purpose really, but it cna't be uneqiped and it costs 0 notches.

Seperate Fragile/Unbreakable Versions

Source: https://gameplay.tips/guides/7808-hollow-knight.html

Hollow Knight - How to Use Hallownest Charms