Ever since the first game in the series, the developers of Hollow Knight: Silksong have shown their likeness to the idea of repeating bosses. You face these bosses multiple times on the main path, and each time, they're more powerful with both higher HP and new attacks.

Lace is the repeating boss of this game, and while she might look tiny, she packs quite a punch. After beating her in Deep Docks, you'll meet her again in The Cradle area, which is the final part of the main story.

Where To Find Lace In The Cradle

If you've just beaten Lace in Deep Docks and are wondering if the boss will appear again, the answer is yes. However, you'll have to progress quite far in the game for it. Firstly, you have to reach the Citadel and go through Choral Chambers to beat the Cogwork Dancers boss at the top, which will open up three new objectives.

These objectives require you to get three melodies from different corners of the Citadel. Once you do that, you can play these melodies at the location of the Cogwork Dancers' fight to activate the statues. This will, in turn, activate the giant elevator. Once you take this elevator to the top, you'll be faced with the fight against Lace instantly.

How To Beat Lace In The Cradle

Most of the boss fights in Hollow Knight: Silksong require patience as you have to wait for the boss's attacks to have a window so that you can deal damage. However, the fight against Lace is the exact opposite, since you'll die very quickly if you try to wait for her attacks to end. This boss fight is very fast-paced, and she hardly has more than a second gap between her attacks.

Apart from that, she has a special mechanic for the times when she's not attacking discussed below. Hence, the first thing you have to learn is what you can expect from each of her attacks:

Attack

Wind-Up Tells And Attack Description

Suggested Counters

Slash Attack

Before this attack happens, Lace will charge her needle and you'll barely be able to see it in her hand. This is the only attack where that happens.

Lace usually performs this attack when she's close to you, and after a second of charging, she swings her needle thrice while constantly moving forward.

An easy way to dodge this attack is by simply moving backwards if you have enough space. However, the most efficient method is to jump up and get a downward strike on Lace while she does this.

Jump Attack

For this attack, you'll see Lace bend down a little and have her needle near the ground, as if getting ready to jump.

Once this attack is charged, she'll first jump diagonally upward and then dash towards the ground at your current position.

To counter this attack, you can simply wait for her to get to the air and then just walk towards her. However, if you're too far from her position, you can also dash to her.

This will make her come to the ground near you, giving some easy hits. If Lace is close to the boundary when she's in the air, she'll dash backwards instead.

Dash Attack

You can easily tell when this attack is about to happen as Lace holds her needle horizontally straight before it.

This is a simple attack where she simply dashes through the battlefield, dealing double damage if you get hit.

You can easily dodge this attack by jumping up, and if you time it right, you can also get a downward strike hit on the boss.

Parry Counter

When the boss isn't doing any attacks, it has a chance of parrying your attacks, which triggers this.

After successfully parrying your attack, the boss does an AoE attack from either on the ground or after jumping in the air.

The best way to counter this is by not attacking the boss when she's idle, but that's not always possible. If you accidentally trigger a parry, you can instantly jump up to avoid damage from both types of AoE attacks.

AoE Attack

This attack only happens in the last phase, and she makes the same stance in it as the Jump Attack while making a laughing sound.

A moment after the stance, Lace will form a giant circle at your location and deal damage in it after a second. Past that, she'll slam the ground and stay there for a bit.

The best thing to do against this attack is to get out of the circle and wait for it to end. Since it usually happens twice in a row, it's recommended to get far from the first circle so the second one doesn't spawn right beside it.

Lace barely has any time between her attacks, and this gets even shorter during her second phase and beyond.

This boss fight has a total of three faces, and you can identify each phase easily as it starts when the boss does a roar. However, sometimes you might stun the boss at the same time as the roar, and that'll make you miss the cue for the next phase. The best thing to do here is expect the new phase attacks whenever the boss gets stunned.

Here's roughly how much HP the boss will have when each phase starts:

Phase

Approximate Health Left

Changes From Last Phase

1

100%

Starts with the first four attacks mentioned above.

2

60%

The Jump Attack and Dash Attack get a buff while the gap between attacks gets reduced.

3

20%

Unlocks the AoE Attack.

Here's how her Jump and Dash attacks get buffed past phase two:

  • During the Jump Attack, she now spawns three rings while she's jumping, which then explode at the same time as her dash down, restricting your movement heavily.
  • For the Dash Attack, she has a chance of dashing back and forth up to three times instead of just one.

Lace will have a surprisingly low amount of HP compared to the other bosses you've faced before her, but this will still be the toughest battle due to the agility required. Not only does she attack often, but the field also has gaps on each side, which means that you can't cling to a wall or have free movement.

Everything you do in this fight, including your attacks and healing, has to happen in the middle of her attacks. Thus, the most important thing you have to learn is how you can deal damage during each attack except the AoE one in the last phase. The Jump Attack is one of the best chances for you to get a couple of hits in.

Since you'll be using a downward strike against both Dash and Slash Attacks, it's recommended to have a separate crest other than the default.

If you've taken too many hits during this fight and want to heal, the best way to do it is to wait until the Dash Attack, jump as soon as she readies up for it, and then instantly bind for healing. This will give you ample time to finish the heal before she starts her next attack. You can also bait her parry to get a few hits sometimes.

Lace has a high chance of going in the parry stance when you're close to her as she gets done with an attack. In this moment, you can wait for her stance to end and then get a couple hits in before she starts her next attack.