Sweet dreams are made of this
I made huge progress in Hollow Knight today.
It all began when I accidentally discovered a completely new area called Crystal Peak, and then got stuck for a good while trying to defeat the boss in that room above. He was a tough nut. I lost some 600 geo.
Side note: I need to stop trying to predict when I will have discovered all areas. After almost 20 hours, I'm still discovering new ones, and I'm sure that there's at least one more for which I haven't been able to get the map yet (I have a hunch where it might be, but there's an obstacle in the way). I am more and more amazed at how unassuming the game was in the beginning, versus how inconceivably vast it is.
Those five or so retries were worth it though, because I obtained this new ability afterwards:
Oh yeah, baby! I'm Super Hollow Knight now.
I then decided to go back to this place, which I hadn't visited in such a long time, that I basically got infinite geo. I even went to the character in the City of Tears who buys collectibles to earn even more geo (I had almost 20 of them). At Crystal Peak, I also found the shopkeeper's key, which unlocked more items at the shop in Dirtmouth. I basically cleared the shop, the map store, and everything that the other character who sells notches had to offer. In the process of buying up everything, I also upgraded these two:
I love it when I'm so immersed in a game where you can collect items and earn currencies, that when I finally go to trade them in, I take a huge leap in its progress. It feels good.
I progressed a significant bit in the story as well, but I have to be honest with you: it's written in such a poetic manner, that I have no clue what it is about, other than that it has something to do with the fallen kingdom that we explore in the game.
Thankfully, a friend shared a deep dive into the lore with me. I'll watch it once I beat the game.
What follows is just a collection of screenshots of characters that I've met, places that I've visited, and bosses that I've defeated:
Finally, here's the progress with my map, upgrades, and badges:
