In the action-adventure game Hollow Knight, the only way to win the game is to effectively destroy all your enemies without taking too much damage. In a game with combat performance being the deciding factor for the player’s progress, you want to take advantage of every little upgrade you can get your hands on. A great way to exponentially increase your chances against your enemies is by upgrading your main nail weapon to The Knight’s Nail. Your main nail weapon can be upgraded up to 4 times, and each time, your weapon becomes deadlier, offering far greater damage with each strike. All you need to do is take your weapon to the Nailsmith, located in the City of Tears, and pay him using Geo and Pale Ores.
Pale Ore is one of the most valuable and coveted items in Hollow Knight. Scattered throughout Hallownest, this item is given to you by various NPCs, and acquiring it allows you to get several enticing rewards including the ability to upgrade your nail weapon to The Knight’s Nail.
A total of six pieces of Pale Ore can be found spread throughout the Hallownest. Since Pale Ore allows you to increase the killing potential of your weapon, you need to complete certain tasks to find them.
As mentioned earlier, the nail weapon can be upgraded four times. The first upgrade only requires 250 Geo and no Pale Ore. The second upgrade requires one, 3rd requires two and 4th Upgrade requires three pieces of Pale Ore. These upgrades along with their Geo and Pale Ore requirements are mentioned below.
Starting Nail is Free, Primarily an old nail with a DMG of 5
1st upgrade: No Pale Ore Required, 250 Geo. You get a Sharpened Nail with a DMG of 9
2nd Upgrade: 1 Pale Ore Required + 800 Geo. You get a Channelled Nail with a DMG of 13
3rd Upgrade: 2 Pale Ore Required + 2000 Geo. You get a Coiled Nail with a DMG of 17
4th Upgrade: 3 pale Ore Required + 4000 Geo. You get the Pure Nail with a DMG of 21.
Finding these six pieces of Pale Ore can exhaust your nerves fairly quickly if you don’t know exactly where to look. Here is the complete guide to where will you find these pieces of Pale Ore.
Hallownest’s Crown:
You are going to save yourself a lot of time and effort if you grab Monarch Wings or Mantis Claw before you approach this area to find Pale Ore. Mantis Claw can be found by visiting the Mantis Village in the Fungal Wastes. Monarch Wings can be found by visiting Monarch Wings and defeating The Broken Vessel in the Ancient Basin.
Hallownest’s Crown houses a crystal peak, a deserted peak covered with shining glyphs. Reach the top of this peak using Mantis claw/monarch Wings and walk all the way to the left. Here, you will find the Statue of Resonance. Once there, look around and you will see a slate at the base with a glowing Pale Ore. Inspecting the glow will acquire you a Pale Ore.
Please note that the whole way is full of enemies and you will have to successfully get through all of them to acquire Pale Ore.
Deepnest:
To find Pale Ore in this place, you need to have Deepnest unlocked. Deepnest can be unlocked via defeating the Mantis Lords in Mantis Village in the Fungal Wastes. This Pale Ore is found in the deepest room located in Deepnest.
In order to access Pale Ore, you have to defeat the secret boss Nosk. In the Host Spring area, you will find a breakable wall on the left. Using double Jump+dash, Break the wall to enter a set of dark tunnels. As you go down, you will come across the lair of Nosk. Defeating Nosk will grant you this Pale Ore.
Grubfather:
Grubs are tiny small creatures scattered throughout Hallownest. You can locate all of them by using a Collector’s Map. You can obtain the map by defeating The Collector found in the Tower of Love in the City of Tears. Once you have the map, locate all the grubs. After rescuing all 31 of them, go to the GrubHome located in the Forgotten Crossroads’ North West Corner and obtain your Pale Ore from the Grubfather as a reward for freeing the grubs.
The Seer:
When you go to the Resting Grounds, you will find Seer. Seer is the last remaining member of the moth tribe that gives you the Dream Nail. With the dream nail, you can navigate the dreams of other NPCs and collect Essence from Ghosts, Dream bosses, Whispering Roots, or Dream Warriors.
Once you have collected 300 Essence with the dream nail, Seer will reward you with a Pale Ore.
Colosseum of Fools:
The Colosseum of Fools is the area on the kingdom’s edge located on the East side of the City of Tears that lets you fight in a series of trials of escalating difficulty. You have to fight against waves of enemies in front of a massive crowd of bugs. The three trials are as follows:
- The trial of the Warrior
- The trial of the conqueror
- The trial of the Fool
Completing the Trial of the Conqueror earns you a Pale Ore and a generous 1800 Geo reward.
Mawlek Guards:
You need to unlock the Ancient Basin Area in order to obtain this Pale Ore. Ancient basin is situated under the Royal Waterways. You can unlock it via the Tram Pass. When you get to Ancient Basin, Find the cloth by going to the left of the Tram Station. Underneath the cloth is an area containing a lot of mawleks. You have to defeat two lesser Mawleks in order to obtain Pale Ore.
Dream Bug:
When you visit the Dream Bug, give him 400 Essence and he will reward you with a Pale Ore.
Resting Grounds:
You can gather souls and exchange them for a Pale Ore.