How Did Hollow Knight Characters Avoid Infection? - Hollow Knight Lore

Your statement about the mantises was correct but I found an important detail inside the The Queen's garden there are stronger mantises taken over by the infection maybe since they were outcast their minds were driven into madness weakened enough so that the infection could take over

i think husk sentries were distracted with protecting the city that they did not know the infection was in there mind

The real question is how Cornifer is not dead

Myla... :(((

So basically light hollowing in dark souls

The radiance is like cancer Will take over your body

The bugs in the coliseum are still infected, however they are only focused on watching/ battling in the coliseum. It would also be rude to fight outside the trial

Tuk isn't actually immune he gets killed in steel soul mode by the infection this mught just be the devs needing a reason to get rid of tuk but its still interesting

Ogrim didn’t avoid the infection

Another reason Zote is uninfected is because he doesn't dream, and the infection spreads through dreams.

So the infection comes from dreams of the radiance as we know, but where does that orange goo come from? Mind control can't just grow that stuff.

Milabelle scammed the infection.

I assume specifically the people trained to resist the infection, and hornet would never have fallen to it, and probably the permanent residents of dirtmouth if they never head down, which is how elderbug survived. Hornet likely either had training, or was created in a way to prevent infection, as special care was taken making her specifically

I think when you start dreaming of the Radiance, you get three options

1. STRUGGLE.

This obviously what most bugs would have done when face to face with the supposed “enemy of Hallownest.” However, like the Hunter said, the more you struggle, the more it consumes you, which is probably how most of Hallownest got infected.

2. ACCEPT.

If you accept the infection willingly, you will gain great strength through the infection. However, you do need to have a strong enough mind if you want to actually survive the process.

Look at Traitor Lord and Moss Prophet. They both accepted the infection willingly but only Traitor Lord survived as he had a strong mantis mind. Moss Prophet’s mind was too weak so the infection ended up breaking his mind and body.

And finally, 3. IGNORE.

We are told throughout the game that bugs have had dreams of the Radiance and lived to tell the tale, such as Bardoon and the Hunter.
By clouding their mind and refusing to acknowledge the Radiance. This comes easier to those either dedicated to their work or have a more intellectual mind.

No elder bug said the air down there is sickly so elder bug doesn't get infected because he is not close to the infection

For a short and sweet answer. Only those with wants and desires can be infected, while those who already have what they want are immune.
The mantis tribe wants to defend their land
Zote and Emeletia are self absorbed/narcissistic
Cornifer has his love for mapping and his wife
Cloth wants a good battle
etc

I think for some characters they're just oblivious to a degree where the infection can't get them

that means all hollow knight fans cannot be infected because we are all still waiting for sliksong

Well in Elderbug and Jijis case, they simply stay in dirtmouth so the infection cant reach them and the audience in the coliseum are infected, but there entire deal was being agressive and watching violence so they stayed entirely the same.

You forgot the whole hive 🤡

I think it has something to do with the dreams, my theory it that the infection spread when sleeping insects see the radiance light in their dreams, so those who cant sleep or dream can't get infected, and it may be the same for those who even in their dreams keep focusing on the real world.

When we beat the true final boss aka the heart of the infection the radiance we beat it or try to

I think the most interesting facet of this topic involves Sly, Bretta, and Myla. As far as I know, every other character in the game is either infected from the beginning or never gets infected at all (you see progression of the infection in some bugs after getting Infected Crossroads, but they were already past the point of no return even before that). These three, however, are encountered midway through the process. So the million dollar question is: Why is the Knight able to save Bretta and Sly but not Myla?

I don't think it's just a matter of intervening early enough in the process because you actually encounter Myla completely uninfected before the process starts, while Sly and Bretta are already beginning to be affected when you find them, so theoretically, you should be able to get to Myla even sooner. Granted, time in Hallownest is decidedly ambiguous, so I guess you could argue that it takes longer to get from Soul Sanctum to Crystal Peaks than it takes to reach Bretta down in Fungal Wastes, but since Elderbug mentions Bretta returning to Dirtmouth, she'd been down there since before the Knight arrives, meaning she's almost certainly been infected longer than Myla. At any rate, Myla's middle stage of the infection process where she is starting to get infected but will not attack yet (after getting desolate dive but before getting crystal heart) should be roughly equivalent to the state of the other two when you find them, and yet, even though you can interact with her at that point, you can't save her.

I don't think strength of mind explains the difference either because of Bretta. You'd have no trouble convincing me that Sly was more resistant to the infection from honing his mind through meditation and the art of the nail. Bretta, however, fell for Zote, so you'd be hard pressed to argue that she is significantly more intelligent than Myla, even knowing very little of Myla's mental capacity.

My best guess, then, would be that the difference lies in the specific ways the infection is getting to each of them in the first place. Sly mentions a bug called Esmy (probably a lost loved one, though we have no concrete information on that) while he is infected and also thinks about his time training the brother nailmasters (Oro you oaf...). Bretta is lonely and forgotten. It's possible that their emotional states make them more vulnerable to the Radiance infecting their dreams because they mirror her own feelings of loss and loneliness over being forgotten. In this case, the Knight's intervention is able to pull Sly's mind back to the present where he is able to regain control. Likewise, the Knight rescuing Bretta leaves here neither lonely nor forgotten, and by clinging to the Knight (and later Zote) as her savior/lover, she keeps those dangerous ideas away. When you first encounter Myla, she is singing about burying her entire family, so she might also be in a mental space of grief (although, she's oddly cheerful about it, so who knows). More importantly, though, her dream nail dialogue reveals that she is listening to the crystals themselves singing. This is something external to her own thoughts and dreams, which may be the key difference between her and the others. Crystal Peaks includes Hallownests Crown, where the Radiance's forgotten statue is found, and is also directly adjacent to the Resting Grounds, another area closely associated with her, so it's entirely possible that the crystals are exerting or amplifying her power somehow though her connection to the area. This means two things: that the infection is potentially attacking Myla from two different angles (the usual dream way and whatever power is in the crystals), and that Myla, by listening to the crystals, is unknowingly seeking it out directly. Rather than the infection finding her, she is grasping for it. The Knight, therefore, is unable to intervene in her case because, not realizing the danger, she has no desire to turn aside from the path she is on.

Anyway, I don't think that's a perfect explanation. I'd be interested to hear if you have any other theories on this most intriguing matter :)

I think a lot of these bugs that survived the infection in part because they are simply unique, strong-minded

Fan theory: The Radiance is able to infect others by offering a sort of deal. They submit and become a soulless vessel and they will live in hallucinations of their greatest dreams.

Uhhhh, some bugs are just much stronger. like the mantis. But There are still many lesser bugs who don't get infected

Interesting that Sly with all his power infected when his aprentice not

I spent like 50 hours on this game and yet you mentioned npc I never met. Tha't crazy.

Quirrel might be uninfected cause he always wanders around or enjoys a view lol

The infection comes from Trina down behind the 7/11

Source on that map please!

bardoon and snail shaman can prevent you from seeing what they’re thinking with the dream nail by thinking that they want you to not see their mind, maybe that’s how

I always thought that Quirrel survived the infection because of Monomon’s mask. We see in the short comic that Team Cherry released, rat it helps protects him in the fight against Hornet. I always imagined that since Monomon was one of the dreamers, that their mask could help protect anybody from the infection, and when Quirrel finally removes/destroys the mask, the infection hasn’t had enough time to infect him.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

About elderbug I think he resisted not thanks to a strong will but the opposite
The infection attacks the dreams of its victims
Elderbug seems to lacks will and dreams so the radiance has nothing to attack. So we can say elderbug is "hollow".
Or perhaps dirtmouth's air hasn't been contaminated wich explains other NPC's state too

You said Hornet is part Wyrm, but there's the theory that she's part Weaver, which can also help her resist the infection by a lot.

I belive since bug like conifer have other bugs with them they cam be snapped out of and whence they are they can't be infected again therefore all the bugs who have no explanation they've already been snapped out of it so therefore they can't be infected again but it's just my theory

everyone in hollownest should take their time and learn the 57 percepts of zote the main one being dont dream so the radiance cant infect them

If im not wrong mushrooms are resistent to the infection and thats why the matis didnt get infected and thats why the mantis lords knew that the traitor lord had betrayed them and wilingly infected itself and we see that despite being infected the mushroom enemies still hold their intelect and protect their young

The Nailsmith does have at least one customer besides the Knight. The dialogue when you first meet him has always made me think he's referring to one of the nailmasters (probably Sheo since he can end up there).

Who also watched at 1.25 Speed

I believe that the Seer, Elderbug, the Nailmasters, and any other characters in a isolated areas were simply not reached by the infection, rather then them outright avoiding it

Good video! Interesting theme

they took zote's advice and didnt breathe the whole time, or didnt dream at all

Why do you talk so slowly? I feel like I'm watching the video at 0.5 speed.

Zore also doesn’t breath or dream so there is nothing to infect. As we know. You need dreams to get infected

yo how did you get that backround for hk?

And there is a Grimm, the guy who can singlehandedly smash that light-liking-mf back to dark ages but just too interested to see how discarded vessel is going to do this offering him some assistance and getting show for his slaves

Im pretty certain that the Dirtmouth is a safe spot free of the infection as we see that Sly and Bretta were getting infected because they decided to go into the depths of Hallownest.

Hornet being Half Wyrm is prob not the reason she's safe as some of the King's other children are Infected; I'd say it's her Weaver ancestry (or a combination).