Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s “Final Audience” quest is fairly compact in itself, but you’ve got a lot of work to do before it’s available to start. The prep involves reactivating Silksong‘s Second Sentinel using Cogheart Pieces and then encountering them several times throughout the Choral Chambers. While the reward is useful for late-game challenges, don’t sweat trying to start this as soon as you arrive in the Citadel, as you’ll need some new tools first.
Our Silksong “Final Audience” walkthrough breaks down all the Cogheart locations and bell puzzle solutions, explains where to find the Second Sentinel, and offers some tips for how to defeat it. If you need a visual aid to keep from getting lost along the way, keep our Silksong interactive map handy.
All Cogheart locations and bell order solutions in Hollow Knight: Silksong
You need to collect three Cogheart Pieces before you can assemble the final construct, but you’ll need to make some progress elsewhere in the Citadel before you can get all three. Completing the Cogheart and taking on the Second Sentinel’s wish requires the Faydown Cloak from Mt. Fay and the Clawline from the Underworks. Our Silksong walkthrough has more details, but for the Clawline, you need to travel through the Whispering Vaults, defeat Trobbio, and enter the Underworks via an elevator behind Trobbio’s stage to enter the Cauldron part of the Underworks where the Clawline is.
In short, put the Cogheart Pieces on the back burner until you get the stuff listed above. Once you do unlock these upgrades, head to the locations below and hit the bells in the given order to get the respective Cogheart Piece.
Whispering Vaults Cogheart Piece
The route to the Cogheart room will take a bit longer if this is your first visit to the Whispering Vaults, but make sure to hit the levers as you go to open shortcuts for future expeditions.
The bell puzzle room is so dark that you can’t actually see the bells at either end without moving, so we’ve lightened the shadows in our images to make hitting the right ones easier.
Choral Chambers Cogheart piece
This Cogheart puzzle is in the room above the silk dispensing machine (which you shouldn’t use unless you’re almost dead, since you can get silk for free by hitting the enemies outside) and across from a room where a Lost Flea is waiting.
Memorium Cogheart piece
This piece is the one you’ll need the Faydown Cloak for, as the only way to access Memorium is by double-jumping to reach the high platform at the top of the Choral Chambers. The bell puzzle room is to the right, above the hallway where you find the Memorium map and the secret path that leads to the Putrified Ducts region.
How to start Final Audience in Hollow Knight Silksong
The Cogheart Pieces automatically assemble themselves into the full Cogheart once you collect all three. With the Cogheart in hand, you can now interact with the Second Sentinel.
Your first meeting with the Second Sentinel happens in Cogwork Core. Drop down from the bench, and enter the corridor on your left. Use the Faydown Cloak to double-jump and reach the platform just past the entrance and the cogwork beetles, then head inside and activate the Sentinel with your Cogwork Heart. Note that you can reach this area before acquiring all three heart pieces, but you can’t do anything aside from break the container that holds the Second Sentinel.
The Sentinel, now complete with a heart, says it will fulfill its duty and then leaves. From here, you have a chance of encountering the Second Sentinel in any of the Choral Chambers’ long, horizontal corridors.
“Final Audience” will appear as a wish on the Songclave wish wall after this, but there’s some confusion over how to make it happen. The consensus says that you need to encounter the Second Sentinel fighting enemies in the Choral Chambers at least twice and then rest at a bench. In theory, “Final Audience” should appear on the wish wall after that.
It doesn’t always happen, though, and if that’s the case for you, continue seeking the Second Sentinel out in Choral Chambers, resting at a bench, and checking the wall after each time. “Final Audience” only appeared for us after we encountered the Sentinel four times, completed the Forum fight, and acquired the Conductor’s Melody, so you may need to do all of that first.
Second Sentinel locations
These are all the locations around Choral Chambers where we found Second Sentinel:
- The corridors on either side of the chamber where you fought the Cogwork Dancers
- The corridor above Whiteward
- The hallways above and to the right of the Choral Chambers Ventrica terminal (near the spa)
When you finally can accept the quest, make sure you’re ready for a boss fight.
How to defeat Second Sentinel in Hollow Knight: Silksong
You can track the Sentinel starting in the hallway to the left of Songclave, or you can just head straight to the boss arena in High Halls. Rest at the bench, then climb up to the room above it. “Final Audience” may be a side quest, but Second Sentinel is a proper boss that requires careful attention to its attack animations so you know what’s coming and don’t just dodge into it by accident.
- Thrust attack: Second Sentinel pulls one sword back and points the other forward, before launching into a chain of thrust attacks. Jump and hover to avoid these, or use a downward attack to damage the Sentinel while it’s still attacking. It alternates between using two or three of these, so just wait until the Sentinel stops moving before you land and attack.
- Spinning jump: Second Sentinel holds both swords parallel to each other and leaps diagonally into the air, spinning both blades. It sometimes follows this by sending a burst of energy downward, also at a diagonal angle, but this seems to only happen if you’re at the opposite end of the room when the Sentinel goes airborne. The best way to dodge is, like with Last Judge, to dash under the Sentinel when they leap. There’s a brief window when they land that you can use to attack.
- Energy burst (ground): Second Sentinel raises both arms over its head, brings them down, and sends an arc of energy across the floor. Jump or double jump to avoid this. If the Sentinel isn’t near a wall, you can try landing a downward attack on its head to get some extra damage in.
- X-strike: Second Sentinel charges a burst of energy in an X-shape, which explodes after a second and damages you if you’re caught in a beam of light or in the immediate explosion radius. Move away from the Sentinel while it’s charging.
- Counterstrike: Occasionally, Second Sentinel will guard with its blades, which flash and make a metallic sound. If you attack the Sentinel while it’s guarding, it’ll launch a flurry of attacks afterward. If you feel confident, you can bait it into this counter, drop behind it, and attack safely or use the space to retreat and heal.
‘Final Audience’ reward
After defeating Second Sentinel, the robot rewards you with the Reserve Bind tool. It’s a blue tool that holds one bind’s worth of silk in it, which lets you heal once regardless of how much silk is on your spool at the time. Reserve Bind just has one use before you need to recharge it by resting at a bench, so it really is for emergency situations only.
Looking for more Silksong help? Check out our essential beginner tips and top rosary bead farming locations if you’re just getting started, and if you’re running up against a few locked doors, our simple key locations guide is the one for you.
While you’re exploring and completing quests like the “Great Taste of Pharloom,” “Broodfeast,” or the “Silver Bells” request, make sure to spend some time progressing the main story as well, as you’ll get some upgrades that make battles easier. After “The Threadspun Town” quest, for instance, you can upgrade your needle to deal more damage and upgrade it again once you get Pale Oil later in the game.
