The first time I dropped into Hunter’s March in Hollow Knight: Silksong, I thought I was just taking a quick detour. I had already poked around The Marrow and Deep Docks, and this optional area felt like a side room with attitude. Then the Savage Beastfly introduced itself, and I learned that a short fight can still feel like a full-blown siege. When I came back to the game in 2026 for another run, I promised myself I would actually learn the fight instead of panic-jumping through it. This is how that went.

First Things First: Hit the Switch

Before you even think about the boss, look near the exit of the arena. There is a switch there, and you should strike it immediately. Let me tell you, that switch saved me more times than I care to admit. It unlocks a quick way back in, so you do not have to retrace the whole path every time the Beastfly flattens you. That alone makes the fight less frustrating.

The Beastfly does not have a huge move list, but the randomness is the real enemy. Its dash and slam attacks can chain in ugly ways, and the summons in phase two turn a clean duel into a messy brawl. I had to stop treating it like a straight fight and start treating it like a positioning puzzle.

Reading the Dash Attack

The dash is the move I had to respect first. The Beastfly launches from one side of the room to the other, and the obvious answer is to jump over it. The catch is that if you are already in the air when the attack is queued, it will adjust toward your position. That little detail punished me constantly. So when I saw the wind-up, I forced myself to land, plant my feet, and then jump.

After the boss smashes into the wall, you get a gift. I could squeeze in one or two downward aerial attacks before it recovered. That damage adds up, and it also puts me in a better spot for whatever comes next. Later in the fight, I even used that bounce to bait a higher dash while I dealt with the smaller bugs. ⚔️

The Slam Attack Is a Trap and a Tool

The slam looks simple: the Beastfly floats above me, follows my movement, and points its head down. I had a brief moment to step left or right. If I stayed close, it could slam up to three times, and the counterattack window was tiny. But if I positioned well, I could land one hit as it rose for another slam. Enough damage stuns the boss, which buys room to hit it more or heal.

Healing is the scary part. The window is tight, and it gets tighter as the fight goes on. I learned not to heal just because I was nervous. If I picked the wrong moment, I would eat a slam and lose all the progress I had just made. That pause before the screech? It still makes my shoulders tense.

Phase Two and the Summoning Problem

The second phase is where the fight really begins. The Beastfly screeches and calls in help, and from that point on, the arena gets crowded fast. Trust me, the RNG here can hand you a clean run or a nightmare. At first, only one bug joins, but as you damage and stun the boss, it starts summoning two, then three.

The Vicious Caranid is the one that made me sweat. It is the biggest and most aggressive summon, and it can lock down space quickly. The Kilik is less dangerous alone, but its spines can trap you while the boss is charging. The small Beastfly is annoying because it forces you into awkward air positions, so I tried to delete it with Silk Spear whenever I could.

The Strategy That Worked for Me

Here’s the kicker: the boss can damage its own summons with the slam. That changed everything for me. Instead of trying to kill every bug immediately, I stayed near the corners, baited the boss, and kited the mobs into the slam. If I moved too far away during the slam, the boss would reset the attack, so I had to stay relatively close while still dodging. It took a few attempts, and I definitely got hit by bugs I forgot were behind me.

My loop looked like this:

1. Stay near the arena corners when possible.

2. Jump the dash and punish with one or two downward aerial hits.

3. Dodge the slam, then land quick normal attacks when it hits the ground.

4. When a summon appears, adjust based on the bug type.

5. Use the boss’s slam to clear Kiliks and Caranids whenever I could.

6. Keep composure when two or three bugs show up. Panic is what gets you hit.

It is not a fast fight. It is a patience fight. The Beastfly wants you to rush, overextend, and heal at the wrong time. Once I slowed down, the fight became readable.

The Reward Is Worth It

After the fight, the reward sits in a room to the left of the boss arena. The Crest of the Beast changes Hornet’s moveset in a big way. It alters the downward aerial attack, healing, and attack patterns. The range is shorter, but you can spend silk to heal by striking enemies, which pushes a much more aggressive playstyle.

I walked away from Hunter’s March with sore thumbs and a new favorite toy. The Savage Beastfly is optional, but if you want a crest that rewires how you play, it is absolutely worth the trouble. Just hit that switch first, keep your feet on the ground, and let the boss do some of the dirty work for you. 🏆

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