GOD GAMERS – How Hollow Knight Players Defeated The "Unbeatable" Modded Boss

[Music] any radiance is a modded boss for hollow knight which was literally designed to be unbeatable it was made as a joke filling the screen with attacks which appeared to be almost completely undodgeable and the boss only became more and more difficult as the fight continued most would suspect that the boss would remain undefeated but one should never underestimate hollow knight players as they sunk dozens or even hundreds of hours facing off against the boss they turned it into a competition vying to earn the distinction of being one of the few to complete the challenge and the strategies devised along with the skill showcased by these players were unlike anything the hollow knight community had seen before just how did they manage to complete this boss let's find out as we take a dive into the story of how these incredible players defeated any radiance the unbeatable modded boss [Music] but first i'd like to tell you about nordvpn nordvpn is a virtual private network which creates 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goodbye to the watchers but with that let's get back to any radiance so what is any radiance in short it's a mod created by bob fred built from the code of a much easier modded version of absolute radiance called ultimatum radiance by alison fleischer it was one of the first mods bob bread made yet ironically the absurdly unfair difficulty of the boss made it stand out to challenge runners imagine completing a challenge that was never meant to be possible in the first place but what did the boss even change apart from over-the-top increases to the boss's speed and health many attacks were adjusted in unique ways to make them seem borderline impossible to deal with let's break down each of the boss's attacks and phases the first phase contains numerous attacks several of which are used in other phases throughout the fight first is any radiance's beam burst ordinarily each set of beams fades away immediately after they're shot but for any radiance the beams remain on screen until the entire attack finishes the sword burst an attack which had already been difficult to react to had even less of a telegraph appearing practically instantaneously on top of that it fires a third wave of swords totaling 36 as opposed to 24 any radiance fires sword and beam walls but instead of appearing on just one side of the screen they appear on both sides of the screen converging on the player in the center these attacks also take some time to reach the center of the screen so due to how much faster this boss is it often begins a second attack as the player is still dodging the walls any radiance's next attack the orb barrage is one of the deadliest attacks in the boss's arsenal while the original boss spawns just a few orbs slowly any radiance's barrage begins with almost no telegraph at all rapidly spawning 10 to 12 homing orbs all at once next is the sword reign in the original fight absolute radiance spawns each wave of swords individually with breaks in between any radiance instead spawns all four waves consecutively all at once lastly the boss can spawn spikes on the ground covering one half of the entire platform but the spikes temporarily disappear once the player touches them these insanely difficult attacks comprise just the first phase in case it wasn't clear by this point any radiance was not designed to be fair it was designed to be unbeatable but the boss only gets harder as the phases progress in the next phase the spike floor phase spikes spawn along the entire platform leaving the player with no room to land on the ground any radiance however hardly slows her attacks at all using practically the same set of abilities as before just with the added difficulty of the spikes if the player survives the phase they'll make it to the sword rain phase in the normal fight absolute radiance spawns waves of swords but the player has plenty of room to comfortably dodge any radiance however generates swords at an absurd rate for every second any radiant spawns approximately three waves of swords keep in mind the player has to not only dodge these swords but also deal damage to the boss at the same time once this phase is complete the player has a short heel break before beginning the platform phase the platform phase is more difficult than all the previous phases the player only has small platforms to stand on and has to attack the boss as it rapidly teleports around the arena in this phase many attacks are the same but the orb barrage becomes even more difficult to dodge without the large platform to stand on the single change however which pushes the difficulty of this phase over the top is its new beam wall attack it gives the player just a moment's notice to use invincibility frames or take a hit if the player completes this phase any radiance's most infamous phase of all begins the dreaded climb phase this phase is where bob fred decided his fun little experiment should end in the original radiance fights the beam attacks during the climb each have telegraphs before their hitboxes appear giving you a brief moment to dodge out of the way any radiance however does not telegraph its beam attacks instead their hitboxes appear instantly without warning damaging the player and giving them no opportunity to dodge these beams also appear at twice the rate of absolute radiance's beams ignoring all other phases this alone would convince most that this boss is not humanly beatable and just as the player reaches the apex of the arena so too does the pressure reach its peak the final phase is lengthy it's a test of endurance as the boss has significantly more health than before throughout the phase orbs spawn far more rapidly than in the original fight meaning the player must remain vigilant to keep track of and avoid each and every projectile furthermore as the boss takes damage the platform on the right flickers and disappears and shortly after spikes appear on the left platform and remain for the rest of the fight the player eventually has nowhere to land it's the floor is lava but with a constant barrage of orbs to top it all off this phase demands extreme focus but just imagine how nervous a player must be after they finally managed to finish the climb phase and the player's health is almost certainly low because taking damage during the climb is a given so just one or two small mistakes will result in a loss if the player can hold it together and complete the final phase they'll have defeated any radiance but with each phase being so incredibly difficult how could it be possible for players to achieve this little did the hollow knight community know that players would treat the boss as a serious challenge and would devise strategies to creatively surpass each and every one of these obstacles and the first person to do so was a familiar face snow cotton leaf cotton has an interesting history as a hollow knight player if you've watched my other videos you might be aware that cotton is known for using invincibility to cheat a pantheon 5 hitless run and potentially used invincibility in other hitless boss videos as well but make no mistake cotton is still one of the most skilled players of the game and he rose to fame within the chinese and international communities by being the first person ever to defeat any radiance but was the run legitimate numerous top players dissected the run including myself and none have found definitive evidence of cheating in fact the only cheat cotton has ever been caught using was debug mods invincibility and it clearly wasn't used in this video because of this players in the community reached the consensus that cotton's run was most likely legitimate and the video blew the minds of those who watched it it was recorded on november 16th 2019 and in the video cotton's control of his character was incredible cotton expertly maneuvered between the gaps in any radiance's sword walls by refreshing his dash through down slashing the swords he manipulated the orbs to avoid all of them even without abusing invincibility frames he even found opportunities to heal in between any radiance's endless barrage of attacks cotton had figured out how to defeat the boss cotton's charm build was unique he used soul eater carefree melody unbreakable heart and balder shell the build was focused almost purely on survivability but the most interesting charm choice of all was baldershell how did cotton intend to use this charm ordinarily considered to be one of the game's weakest charms against the game's toughest boss cotton's defeat of any radiance began with a solid pattern his main strategy for the early phases was to maneuver above any radius with pogos and to use descending dark to preempt most of its attacks but cotton had to play aggressively to gather enough soul so that this was possible because any radiance attacked so quickly cotton also regularly used abyss shriek as a source of ranged damage cotton reached the spike floor phase with six health but quickly dropped to just four after carefree melody negated a hit from an or barrage cotton reached the sword rain phase this phase is telegraphed by spikes appearing on each outer edge of the platform when the player sees this they have a moment to heal before it begins but cotton began healing too late and a sword immediately descended upon him throughout the phase cotton used a strategy of jumping and performing a single up slash while making slight left and right movements to dodge around each individual sword cotton reached the platform phase he demonstrated one way to dodge the beam wall attack shade cloaking through one wall and then using descending dark onto a platform for the other cotton however had took several hits of damage and if he wanted a chance of completing the climb he needed to be at full health so he played the platform phase patiently attempting to find moments to sneak in heels whenever he could before the phase ended cotton was impressively able to heal to full health cotton rushed the platforms to clear as many as possible before any radiance began its barrage radiance always takes a moment after the platforms appear to actually begin shooting her beams and cotton took full advantage of that cotton rapidly cleared six platforms before taking his first hit of damage cotton had another carefree melody activation and reached the final section of the platforms the toughest section of all to clear in the climb it became evident why cotton had selected the balder shell charm if a beam hits him while under its effect he receives invincibility frames from the charm and is able to safely jump up to the next platform this strategy of using a charm conventionally considered to be mediocre at best was as clever as it was effective aldershell is able to take four hits before breaking removing the charm's effect completely but it also costs soul to use through use of this charm and another lucky activation of carefree melody cotton reached the final phase of the fight completing the climb phase is not an everyday accomplishment but if cotton felt any pressure at this point he didn't show it with three hp it would only require one hit from an orb and falling to the bottom of the screen to end the run cotton's strategy was to exploit the fact that orbs which fly above the screen immediately despawn so he maneuvered above any radiance with pogos to lure all the orbs upward dodging to the left and right of them by doing so cotton completed the lengthy final phase without taking a single hit of damage and that was that any radiance was defeated for the first time cotton's video became a hit on the chinese video sharing site billy billy earning over 400 000 views it was one of the most popular hollow knight videos published on the site cotton proved that defeating any radiance was possible and his feet would eventually inspire other players to do attempts as well but although his clear was incredibly impressive for the time it was far from an elegant one it was in all honesty only possible thanks to excellent luck with carefree melody and as other hollow knight players eyed the possibility of becoming the second in the world to defeat the boss what would their stories look like and what strategies would they devise let's take a look at the other players who have attempted any radiance cotton defeated the boss in november of 2019 and all of 2020 passed without another contender stepping up to the plate some made attempts but most eventually became frustrated and gave up however after players bested all the other modded content and completed all the other challenges what was left for them to accomplish there was only one challenge left the so-called impossible boss that only one player in the world had managed to defeat a player by the name of chrome was the first to begin attempts of the boss vying to become the second in the world to beat it prior to this chrome was a specialist at absolute radiance challenges he speed ran absolute radiance feet absolute radiance while invisible defeated two absolute radiances at once and in a video titled my coffee got cold because of this chrome beat absolute radiance without spells using only a nail which dealt one damage this meant that the boss took two thousand and two hundred hits to defeat it took him 45 minutes chrome began posting videos of any radiance to his youtube channel personal best recording his progress learning the fight hunt hustle was a player who saw how close chrome was to defeating the boss and became inspired by it hunt hardly needs an introduction in the hollow knight scene hunt is known as one of the most impressive hollow knight players of all time holding the speedrun world record for pantheon 2 in just 3 minutes and 5 seconds hunt is also known for his modded challenges the pantheon of nightmares and trial of the gods which are both exactly as difficult as they sound as for his experience with absolute radiance well hunt has the world record for the most hitless clears of the boss in a row he defeated absolute radiance the hardest boss in the game a staggering 12 times in a row without taking a single hit of damage but when it comes to any radiance hunt attempted the boss for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2020 before shelving it finding himself frustrated by the unfairness of the boss and by the way hunt was a player who had the patience to beat pantheon 5 hitless but when hutt saw chrome's increasing success against the boss in early 2021 he reached out for advice just days later hunt posted a recording of an attempt which showcased a highly aggressive playstyle against the boss one thing hunt noticed was that during the spike floor phase any radiance's triple beam burst glitched and did not actually deal any damage this was a huge find as it allowed the player to attack any radiance for free whenever they noticed the beam burst attack in that phase throughout the entire first part of the fight hunt's aggressive playstyle in the recording paid off as he took only three hits of damage hunt healed up and entered the platform phase with full health hunt chased the boss following it across the arena dealing constant damage and he wasn't one to shy away from making sick plays either as the phase continued hunt began playing more conservatively opting to wait for any radiance to teleport into a more convenient spot in the center of the arena it wasn't long before hunt began the infamous climb phase the part of the fight he states he struggled with most unfortunately as the phase began hunt dropped down to dodge a sword wall attack it's ideal to begin the climb phase from the top center platform so that the player can clear as many platforms as possible before the beam attacks begin regardless hunt rapidly darted his way up the climb performing wall jumps on the platforms rather than taking the time to land he also made large horizontal movements tricking the ai into following him with the beams just before sweeping to the other side of them with shade cloak remember how i said earlier that the final platforms of the climb were the toughest of all to clear this is because in that final section manipulating the ai into shooting beams to the wrong spots is not nearly as viable as strategy the combination of the formation of the platforms along with how close one is to the boss means any radiance targets the player with almost perfect accuracy thus because taking hits is practically guaranteed players typically attempt to save their balder shell charges to ascend these final five platforms incredibly hunt only took one hit of damage in the entire climb phase thanks in part to carefree melody activating as he stumbled at the very end hunt reached the final phase of the fight and he completed it hitless despite how hunt and cotton made this phase look it is both incredibly nerve-wracking and extremely easy to make mistakes but impressively throughout the entire fight hunt never came even two hits away from death while it would be a stretch to say that hunt made the boss look easy he displayed a far greater mastery of the fight than anyone else had until this point on february 27 2021 469 days after cotton's clear hunt became the second player in the world to defeat any radiance hunt hustle's second round of attempts against any radiance only took him three or four days so what made the difference between quitting in frustration after weeks in the summer of 2020 and succeeding in just a few days of attempts in 2021 hunt partially attributed his success to the advice he received from chrome chrome may have been known as the absrad guy but his knowledge of radiance actually goes far deeper than one might imagine let me pose a question to you which do you find more impressive the player who's a jack of all trades master of none or the one who completely masters a single skill to an inhuman level chrome was a player who always found the latter the most inspiring chrome notes how interesting it was that by narrowing your focus to something incredibly specific one could achieve so much more so chrome began studying and practicing hollow knight's toughest boss absolute radiance spending hundreds of hours on it it was in this process that chrome discovered intricacies of absolute radiances ai which no one else ever knew it was that absolute radiance and by extension any radiance has unintentional tells about which attack she is going to use next chrome discovered this by studying the relationship between absolute radiance's teleports and its attacks in doing so you learned that you could infer the possible next attacks the boss could use based upon the number of teleports absolute radiance performs following its attacks here's what he found each attack absolute radiance performs prompts a specific number of teleports first attacks prompt one teleport the beam wall prompts no teleports in the sword wall in sword rain prompt two teleports however depending on the attack which radiance is about to perform afterward the final teleport radiance intends to do may or may not get cancelled is canceled teleport occurs based on the following logic each of the attacks can be categorized into tears and if the second attack is in a higher tier than the first the final teleport in the sequence will get cancelled in other words if any radiance performs a sword wall attack and performs two teleports as expected any radiance's final teleport was not cancelled innia's next attack must be in a lower tier than the sword wall attack the possibilities for the next attack are therefore the bursts or the beam wall some interesting strategies emerge from this primarily when any radiance uses its burst attacks these attacks both prompt only one teleport if that teleport gets cancelled any radiance performs no teleports and could perform any non-burst attack afterward but if any radiance does teleport after a burst attack it will always perform another burst attack this can present an excellent opportunity to heal since because any radiance teleports away the burst attacks which often miss at range are far less threatening in some cases the player can even heal twice or three times in a row by exploiting this quirk of the ai chrome's knowledge of radiance goes far deeper than just that but much of it will be revealed by witnessing his tactics against the boss chrome began his attempt with incredibly solid play chrome would often dodge sword wall attacks by simply jumping through the gaps saving his shade cloak in case it was needed to dodge something else much of his play at this point was clearly inspired by snow cotton leaf but it was noticeably more refined and consistent he continued until the sword rain phase taking few hits of damage because of this he was able to heal to full entering the platform phase chrome exercised a greater degree of patience in the platform phase than anyone else preferring to stay on the middle platforms as much as possible it was a waiting game using a strategy of refusing to engage the boss in the disadvantageous positions at the sides of the screen rome took a few unfortunate hits to the beam walls but one peculiarity about the beam wall attack is the amount of cool down time afterward which he exploited to sneak heels in for free but chrome unfortunately only managed to heal up to 6 hp before the climb phase began chrome rushed the face with wall jumps but took a hit almost immediately realizing his dire situation he attempted to heal with aldershell around the midway point but was unsuccessful and tried again to no avail he took yet another hit bringing himself just one hit away from death at this point chrome damage tanked the last platforms with baldershell and made it to the final phase at only 2 hp even a slight misstep would result in a loss earlier in the very same day chrome had already lost a run to the final phase as an orb barely clipped him while he attempted to evade as for the run in question this is what happened chrome experienced a notification on his system and missed his pogo on radiance he paused the game to try and collect himself after the mistake but when he unpaused watch what happened it was a sequence of events one could scarcely call fair a spawn animation of the orb was camouflaged by any radiance's teleport it was only visible for four frames before it ended his run and this was merely a glimpse at how unfair the boss could be contrary to how it appeared in hunt hustles and cotton's victories the final phase was extremely unforgiving but if it were fair we wouldn't call it the unbeatable boss following this day of attempts chrome decided to take a break from any radiance but chrome resumed just five days later and he was thirsty for a win in his next uploaded attempt his fight against any radiance started off like normal when the first orb barrage came chrome demonstrated an optimization he learned from cotton this was to briefly walk in the opposite direction that you plan to dodge in to lure the orbs the wrong way and give yourself slightly more room on the platform to dash chrome eventually made it to the sword rain phase with free hp he completed the phase hitless earning himself full health for the platform phase but as soon as the phase begins chrome immediately takes damage to an orb barrage and then has no time to collect himself before a beam wall lands on him too chrome finishes the platform phase but this time he has only four health chrome immediately takes a hit bringing him one hit away from death he would need a miracle to be able to complete the boss chrome fortunately manages to heal once incredibly he makes it three quarters of the way up before taking another hit bringing him down to just one health with only three charges of baltershell left rome is forced to skip using baldershell on a platform in the final set and incredibly manages to do so without getting hit rome enters the final phase with just one help small mistakes in this phase such as failing to lure the orbs off screen can lead to very difficult scenarios almost immediately after the phase begins chrome fails to lure an orb off-screen so it circles around and attacks him again forcing him to dodge two orbs at once later in the phase it happens again a chrome dashes into one of the orbs with shade cloak destroying it well over a minute into the final phase chrome is forced to follow any radiance to the other side of the screen but as he falls back onto the screen he comes just pixels away from falling into an orb chrome lost to this phase in so many runs leading up to this point but just a few swings later rome became the third player in the world to defeat any radiance on march 11 2021 rome's story with any radiance however was far from over in fact to celebrate successfully defeating the boss chrome returned to the radiant statue and fought the boss again in fact in the next two month period no one else would rise up to defeat the boss themselves but chrome posted more and more finishes defeating the boss again the very same day without carefree melody ten days later and almost two months later even defeated the boss two times in a row but it was around this time that a new challenger appeared zippy was a hollow knight challenge runner on youtube who saw hunt hustle's completion of the boss and felt the urge to attempt it themselves zuzipi had already completed other extremely impressive challenges such as defeating two pure vessels at once hitless defeating all bindings collector hitless and had completed pantheon 5 taking only a single hit of damage but despite their skill and experience at the game they grinded for a month on and off sometimes hours at a time in their attempts mississippi began their grind in early april of 2021 approximately a month after chrome defeated the boss himself in the attempt they posted mississippi struggled the most with any radiances or barrage because as we've seen the orbs can spawn on top of the player they can be extremely difficult or sometimes even impossible to react to similar to how players avoid the orbs in the final phase players avoid the ore barrage earlier on by avoiding the center of the screen as much as possible positioning above the boss gave players more time to react using a tactic originally found by cotton zizipi would close the distance to any radiance by poggling the moving swords to gain additional height this put players above the boss in the perfect position to avoid the orbs should they spawn in sicipi's run he maneuvered around these swords masterfully using spell stalls or pogo dashes to do so but their run began looking dire by the end of the spike floor phase zizipi was at just one hell he managed to heal before the phase began and luckily a hit he took from a sword was negated by carefree melody because of this zippy was able to heal to eight masks before the platform phase began tisippi could have chosen to heal to full but wisely opted to save one spell worth of soul in case descending dark's invincibility frames were needed to dodge the beam walls but upon entering the platform phase sissippi took damage three times in quick succession putting them just one hit away from death it cannot be understated just how difficult the ore barrage in this phase is to dodge in fact by this point chrome had begun to develop specific dodging patterns to the orb barrage attack depending on his position when the attack began mapping out the exact platforms he would move to based on each starting position even deciding where he would use double jump shade cloak and descending dark regardless zizipi's run was in deep trouble and he would need to play nearly perfectly to recover zippy began evading nearly every attack any radiance threw at them while simultaneously finding opportunities to gather soul and heal sicipi even performed an impressive under-platform dodge to avoid a barrage of orbs a nod to hunt hustle miraculously he ended the platform base with full health despite being just a hit away from death earlier zuzipi opted to use a charm build including stalwart shell a charm which reduces knockback and increases invincibility frames this optimization was first used by chrome and it made the climb phase significantly more reliable as it allowed the player to easily ascend a platform whenever they took damage sissippi took a hit of damage early on in the climb but healed to full immediately after this put them however in an awkward situation because while they had full health again they had less soul to abuse baldershell in the final section of the climb sicipi reached the final set of platforms and took a hit on the fourth to last sicipi faltered slightly and it could have spelled the end of the run but he luckily avoided taking any more damage it's worth noting that stalwart shell's additional invincibility frames enable the player to clear both of the final two platforms with just one instance of getting hit so once sizzipi reached the second to last platform and carefree melody activated he was given free passage into the final phase this is because when you jump off the last platform to enter the final phase any beam attacks that are still on screen are instantly erased sissippi takes advantage of this entering the final phase with 5 health he continued for another 30 seconds without a mistake but then failed to lure an orb off screen he attempted to dash past it but took a hit of damage in exchange 20 seconds later zippy did not react fast enough to an orb which spawned close by taking another hit just days prior zippy posted a tragic loss to the orbs in the final phase this was undoubtedly replaying in their head as he fell to just one hell a few nail swings later however and suzipi became the fourth person ever to defeat any radiance on may 4th 2021 [Music] following suzippi's clear of any radiance and throughout may chrome never stopped practicing the boss remember how i said that players were turning their footage of any radiance into a highlight reel well chrome began doing literally exactly that in these videos chrome showed off swag strats such as spell stalls and dashes in between swords precise shade cloak dashes between hit bosses among other extremely impressive creative plays chrome also revealed he was performing attempts of ascended any radiance ascended bosses deal double damage with all attacks but for a boss with so many borderline undodgeable situations would ascended ever truly be possible chrome had impressively enough made it to the climb phase once before dying but this is the exact phase one would expect to be the main roadblock it was theoretically possible with enough luck and optimal use of baldershell but would he be able to pull it off while chrome was making these attempts the next challenger to the boss appeared that player was neo-exilorous neo was new to the hollow knight challenge running scene with only pantheon 5 all bindings in a clear of absolute inferno king grimm on his gaming resume but do not underestimate this man neo knew that only four other players in the world had defeated any radiance at this point and set his sights on becoming the fifth player to do so because neo was a newer player he brought a fresh perspective to the fray and employed significantly different tactics than all the other players thus far he began performing serious attempts in the middle of may grinding an average of three hours every day like on any other day neo began an attempt which he posted to his channel exactly one month after sicipi's clear on june 4th 2021 even in the first few seconds of the fight one could immediately tell that something was different about this run before any radiance had time to begin its first attack neal landed a barrage of nail swings getting the boss an impressive eight times in only two seconds neo was using quick slash instead of carefree melody and although his fast playstyle sometimes led to taking significant amounts of damage he returned that damage onto the boss many times over neo also healed more than anyone else early in the fight after taking some unfortunate damage neo healed three times in a row against a beam burst attack and he often found opportunities to heal after the sword rain attacks too interestingly neo typically opted to dodge the orb barrage with only one dash as it allowed him to immediately circle back to any radiance and dish out more damage this is different from how the others typically handled it by dashing twice away from the boss towards the opposite side of the platform of course if you're on the other side of the platform you're not dealing damage and neo preferred to deal damage whenever he wasn't healing he had an aggressive playstyle even more so than hunt hustle neo would also regularly mix in pogos on the boss in order to gain height these pogos had the same purpose as the pogo's cotton and others used on the swords to stay above any radiance however it had another purpose as being high in the air made it easier to follow any radiance after she teleports watching him weave attacks mid-air so quickly was a spectacle to behold neo reached the spike floor phase with seven health but was trapped on one side of the screen with numerous orbs so he intentionally took the single point of damage from the spikes were invincibility frames to dodge the orbs intentional damage tanking was another common theme in neo's attempts neo however received a terrible pattern an orb barrage a beam wall and another orb barrage back to back neo was thrown off balance and accidentally used descending dark into the void unintentionally falling into spikes shortly after too before the sword rain phase began neo healed to four health because neo equipped quick slash he was able to swing at any radiance two times per jump this effectively meant that the phase took half as long he completed the phase hitless and was able to heal to full entering the platform phase intentional damage tanking continued to be a theme in neo's play throughout the platform phase he used it consistently neo took a lesson from chrome in sticking to the center of the arena but he did so for a slightly different reason as soon as he entered the phase any radiance began an or barrage attack and neo jumped into the void at the bottom of the screen when the player falls into hazards such as spikes or the void they only take one damage and also get a hefty amount of invincibility frames as they respawn this was the real reason why neo camped the bottom center platform because it was the lowest platform in the phase this highlighted an important quality of neo's playstyle that despite playing so aggressively in the early phases he didn't do so for a lack of patience as his playstyle in the platform phase was the most patient of any player we've seen thus far neo predicted any radiance's phase change and moved to the optimal position the top center platform neo had seven hp and thanks to his sense of when the climb phase would begin he was able to ascend the entire first half of the climb before taking even a single hit neo was about to land on the fifth last platform interestingly the fifth to last platform is the ideal platform to begin using baldershell on if all four baldershell charges remain this is because as mentioned earlier invincibility frames with stalwart shell last long enough that you can jump into the final phase from the second to last platform neo's ascent past the final five platforms however was anything but ordinary neo was immediately sniped before he could begin using baldershell for the first time and as he used it on subsequent platforms he was actually lucky enough to complete a heal each time he finished the climb phase with a comfortable 6 hp it wasn't long before neo completed the final phase achieving his goal of being the fifth player in the world to defeat any radiance on june 4th 2021 to recap there had been five different players who had defeated any radiance up until this point neo axillaris who had defeated the boss in four minutes and 25 seconds suzippi who took five minutes and 18 seconds rome whose initial victory was in 5 minutes in 11 seconds hunt hustle who clocked in at 4 minutes in 16 seconds and cotton who bested any radiance in 5 minutes flat now after witnessing what all these players went through in order to defeat the boss would you believe me if i told you that the next player to defeat any radiance did so in a mere 2 minutes and 45 seconds h.j thunderbolt an aptly nicknamed player from the chinese scene embodies the incredible speed and mechanical mastery of the game which top players from their community exemplify his defeat of any radiance could easily be mistaken for an attempt by a well-practiced speedrunner of the boss and it should be no surprise given that hj thunderbolt commonly known as hjt was the 11th player in the world to clear pantheon 5 hitless he also held the speedrun world record for pantheon 1 in only 3 minutes and 3 seconds and he even defeated atomic radiance another difficult modded fight using only one hand hjt achieved this incredibly fast clear of any radiance in a couple ways first he opted to use a build with unbreakable strength quick slash carefree melody and baldershell unlike all the others so far he did not use soul eater for the additional soul instead relying purely on quick slash or soul generation of course this is more dangerous because if the player is not able to attain enough soul by hitting the boss they may find themselves without the soul needed for invincibility frames or heals this charm loadout only works if the player is confident that they can hit the boss consistently enough to always have the required soul second hjt used quick slash to its maximum potential quick slash actually decreases the cooldown of the nail swing to 0.25 seconds meaning that if the player is fast enough they can theoretically swing four times per second but one quirk of this is that the duration of the nail swing animation is actually longer than this 0.25 second cooldown and one cannot perform another nail swing while the animation is still playing by turning around after swinging the nail each time however one can cancel this animation allowing the player to swing 12 percent faster when performed optimally hjt began his attempt against any radiance similar to neo with a barrage of quick slash nail swings something immediately evident in hjt's gameplay is his ability to squeeze in additional attacks where most other players wouldn't hjt also showcased an excellent ability to improvise and sneak his way out of tricky situations for instance when put into an awkward spot by any being burst hjt reacts by jumping in between the beams and spell stalling in the perfect spot with descending dark similarly when a sword rain attack trapped him on top of a spike floor which was about to spawn hjt shay cloaks perfectly into the minuscule gap between two swords despite his fast playstyle he only took one hit throughout the entire first part of the fight and as any radiance teleported to begin its sore rain phase hjt immediately followed the teleport with up slashes downing the boss and skipping the phase completely hjt finished the first phases in only a minute and 10 seconds for reference in a minute and 10 seconds into cotton's clear of the boss he hadn't even reached the spike floor phase hjt began his platform phase by patiently waiting and punishing any radiance the moment she teleported close as the boss teleported to the bottom center platform he followed with the descending dark and dealt a huge amount of damage luckily the boss teleported just one platform over hjt dashed over and abused the aforementioned nail turnaround animation castle strategy which allowed him to swing even faster at the helpless boss hjt swung at the boss so rapidly that the top comment on his video was an accusation that he had cheated but his run was in fact legitimate hjt had an incredible pattern in this phase but it was the fact that he exploited this excellent pattern so well that allowed him to finish the phase hitless in an unbelievable 19 seconds at this point the pressure was on early into the phase hjt found himself pinned against the platform and had no choice but to wall jump into a beam he was able to heal back to full but similar to suzipi's dilemma earlier using lots of soul early into the climb meant not having enough soul to abuse baldershell in the most important part the final five platforms as he reached the fifth to last platform with all of his falter shell charges he opted not to use the charm likely out of concern due to his amount of soul as soon as his heal ended a beam hit him and as he had no soul left over he was hit again hjt played the final phase more aggressively than any other player dashing while still on screen so that he could stay within range of the boss forcing him to dodge two orbs at once each jt took a hit because of this but carefree melody negated the damage just as it was about to happen again hjt evaded the orbs by improvising a creative pogo on the spiked platform and upslashing any radiance with style for the final hit it was a picture-perfect finish to the most impressive clear of the boss yet just three days after neo exilorus is clear on june 7 2021 h.j thunderbolt became the sixth player to defeat any radiance and as of july 2021 he's the last player to have earned this achievement but as we're soon to learn the players were not done yet rather the most incredible part of this story is still yet to be told do you remember when i posed the question of what you would find more impressive jack of all trades or the master of one to this point although these six players had defeated the boss none could say they had mastered it just clearing the boss on its own was an incredible accomplishment most players were content to have achieved but some wanted more some wanted to be able to say they had mastered the boss but improving against any radiance was no simple feat practicing and performing attempts against the boss was unlike any other speed run or challenge run of the game this is why some had the patience to perform challenges like pantheon 5 hitless or beating the full game hitless but threw in the towel against any radiance the boss simply demanded so much energy focus and patience that it was incredibly exhausting for players to attempt after all the boss was never designed to be an enjoyable experience for players for some though a boss that pushed them to their limits was exactly what they wanted and a single clear was not enough chrome in his attempts to master the boss and eventually perform challenge runs of it released a video of himself defeating the boss an astounding 36 times in those clears rome even defeated the boss three times in a row on two different occasions but surprisingly it wasn't chrome who attempted the first true challenge run of the boss it was neo exilorus on june 21 2021 two weeks after hjt's clear neo exilorus revealed he had been performing attempts of any radiance nail only nail only challenges are a common type of challenge run in hollow knight which completely restrict the use of spells and non-nail damage sources in the run but most bosses in hollow knight don't require invincibility frames like any radiance does as we've seen the main tactic players employ throughout the fight is to abuse the spell descending dark to evade many of its attacks was the fight truly doable without using this spell even once if anyone could do it it would be neo he had the perfect playstyle to complete the run neo was also extremely fast and effective at using the nail with quick slash the other charms he chose were balder shell stalwart shell and unbreakable strength a nod to hjt and curiously enough he also used grubsong a charm that was an interesting inclusion based off the frequency with which he took intentional damage much like in his first clear neo began the fight with a flurry of attacks shortly after neo was met by a beam wall attack to dodge it the player must shade cloak through one wall and hug that side of the screen until their shade cloak recovers but a barrage of orbs was waiting for him and he took another hit when the boss gave him an impossible pattern to dodge neo intentionally damaged tanked into the spikes for invincibility frames as yet another set of beam walls approached he patiently waited on top of more spikes to damage tank once again but an barrage spawns on top of him hitting him once and with nowhere to escape to the orbs hit him again being unable to use spells brought any radiance's unfairness to a whole new level shortly after he entered the spike floor phase ordinarily the tactic during the spike floor phase is to descending dark into the spikes as much as possible this is important because touching the spikes makes them temporarily disappear with no good option to consistently remove the spikes however they become significantly more threatening to avoid them neo stuck toward the top of the screen but this left him vulnerable to the sword reign attack bringing him down to just to health fortunately he dealt enough damage to end the phase allowing him to heal three times in a row and as he entered the platform phase he did so with full health he camped the bottom center platform just like in his initial clear because of the amount of damage he was forced to take neo had to heal very aggressively and pray that he could gather enough soul to consistently do so neo exploited every possible opportunity to heal and began the climb with an impressive eight hp but neo stumbled in the first half of the climb taking damage twice trying to land on a single platform on the fifth to last platform he begins using baldershell while being only one hit away from death neo thankfully managed to heal once on his way up and evade the final beams entering the last phase with three hp despite only two masks appearing due to a visual glitch but in his attempts to complete the nail only challenge this wasn't the first time you reached the phase nor the second fifth tenth or even 15th but the 20th time this phase was where the pressure reached its absolute peak and all it would take is one slight misstep into an orb and falling to the bottom of the screen to end the run yet again but due to his inspiring commitment to finish the challenge neo claimed his victory after a flawless final phase neo attained the world first nail-only victory against any radiance on june 21st 2021 at this point chrome was still continuing attempts of ascended any radiance it was a challenge run that would require insane skill patience and luck since the boss normally deals 2 damage per hit it meant that chrome would take 4 points of damage from the boss chrome however was the perfect player to attempt it he had the most sophisticated and consistent play style out of anyone the most experience out of anyone and the most in-depth understanding of the boss out of anyone if chrome could complete this challenge it would symbolize that he reached his goal and had truly mastered the fight but could he actually pull it off rome used the same charm build as in his initial clear alter shell carefree melody stalwart shell and soul eater and it made sense while quick slash and unbreakable strength were excellent charms to use the consistency offered by chrome's setup was more suited to the challenge room's attempt against ascended-neu radiance looked quite similar to his first clear on a surface level but one thing that was immediately evident was just how much more clean and crisp his style became chrome did a far better job following the boss after each teleport positioning himself properly to be able to do so and squeezing in nail swings before using descending dark whenever possible it wasn't until the spike floor phase where chrome took his first hit it was to the sword rain attack as the swords had practically spawned on top of him it wasn't long before he reached the sword rain phase completing it hitless and healing back to full despite being immediately greeted in the platform phase by an orb barrage chrome reacted decisively by using invincibility frames baiting the orbs left and then shaped cloaking into them he continued using his strategy of patiently camping the center platforms in total the boss used the or barrage three times in the phase and chrome evaded it masterfully each time chrome predicted the phase change would happen and got into position to climb on the top center platform chrome was entering the climb phase with full health which is necessary for the ascended challenge chrome rocketed up the climb making it to the halfway point before taking his first hit but the hit didn't slow him down in the slightest chrome was in an excellent position rome had all four charges of baltershell left at this point executing the baldershell strategy optimally chrome left none of the final platforms to lock and entered the last phase with enough health to survive a hit but he didn't need it room completed the final phase hitless on june 28 2021 just a week after neo exilorus's nail only clear chrome became the player to achieve the most impressive clear of any radiance ever done it almost seemed effortless despite how simple chrome made it look when asked what his reaction was to defeating the boss rome responded by saying i started breathing again and told another commenter that his heart rate by the end reached 156 beats per minute ascended any radiance had been defeated and chrome finally proved himself to have become a master of the boss [Music] only time will tell however if this is where the story ends as some of these players do have the ambition to continue to this day only one player neoaxillaris has completed the climb phase hitless but the fact that it was done proved that any radiance could theoretically be completed hitless by a human player chrome was understandably reluctant to say he would attempt it for sure but expressed that he might try for the radiant damageless clear someday some other challenges chrome is considering are defeating the boss using an unoperated nail only basic spells or both at once neo-axillaris has also considered performing more challenge runs of the boss neo states that he's interested in beating the boss on ascended difficulty himself and is even considering ascended nail only a feat that would require inhuman skill in decision making but none can deny that he has the skill to succeed these six players took on a challenge initially believed to be impossible and in the process of achieving their goals inspired each other to push themselves to their absolute limits and no matter your skill level your game of choice or whether you're even gaming in the first place that is what being a god gamer is all about it's about proving to yourself that with enough hard work and determination you have the ability to realize what you desire and with that the story has been told i'll link to the channels of these players in the description below so consider giving them a follow i hope that i've convinced you by now that they deserve it in the future i'll be releasing more videos discussing the incredible achievements players in the hollow knight and other gaming communities have accomplished too if that interests you well you know what to do thank you so much for watching and i hope you enjoyed hearing the stories of these god gamers [Music] [Music] do [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] you

Channel: fireb0rn

Views: 1,600,707

Keywords: hollowknight, hollow knight, hk, team cherry, tc, indie, independent, indie game, independent game, metroidvania, metroid vania, hard, hardcore, difficult, challenging, expert, video game, game, games, pc, computer, steam, gog, speedrunner, god gamer, walkthrough, guide, walk through, faq, help, modded, mods, mod, custom, workshop, impossible, unbeatable, insane, challenge, any radiance, anyrad, any, radiance, absrad, absolute radiance, cotton, chrome, neoexilirus, hunthussle, hjthunderbolt, cysipy, ascended, radiant

Id: 5kkGaF2vs8o

Length: 67min 54sec (4074 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021