Hornet

Personality: As a result of her incredibly long life spent fulfilling duties put upon her by others, Hornet tends to be a rather cold and unfriendly person to people she's unfamiliar with. Stern and focused on her duties, she can appear rather stand-offish and punishing, constantly fighting others to test their power. Hornet shows respect towards those who prove their strength, commending their might and giving helpful tips on how to progress. She also acknowledges the need of sacrifices in her duty of keeping Hallownest standing, knowing it isn't always possible to save or please everyone.

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Appearance: Hornet is an anthropomorphic spider, or at least a spider-adjacent creature, who has a black body with a white head that has two eye holes and two long horns. She only wears a red cloak that covers her body from the neck to her legs. Her body underneath her cloak is completely black and very skinny, with pointy arms and legs. Despite being incredibly old, having been born shortly before the Hollow Knight's sealing, Hornet apparently appears young enough to be mistaken for a child, presumably due to her divine heritage giving her longevity. When aroused, her body will become more plump and voluptuous to attract the attention of whoever she's interested in.

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Powers and Abilities: As the child of a Higher Being and Weaver, Hornet is effectively a demigod, possessing physical capabilities far surpassing most mortal bugs. Her training under Hive Queen Vespa also grants her an incredible mastery of the needle, making her a truly formidable warrior few could dream of defeating.

Incredible physical attributes – As a demigod, Hornet's physical attributes far surpass those of most other bugs, making her an exceptionally powerful fighter even without her training. As the physics of the Hollow Knight universe are inconsistent on whether they operate on a macroscopic or microscopic scale, this wiki will treat Hornet and her fellow bugs as being human-sized, making her feats superhuman. One of the best examples of her physical prowess is a Choral Commandment implying that while the Citadel Caste successfully captured her, she was able to fight off nearly an entire squadron of them, leaving only enough survivors to carry her cage back.

Incredible strength – Hornet possesses physical strength far beyond the bounds of most other bugs. She's strong enough to throw her needle with such force as to use it as a grappling hook, allowing her to traverse different locations with ease. Additionally, her Kickstarter description describes her as being capable of throwing her needle a mile away, making her exceedingly strong if this is confirmed to be canon. Even without her nail Hornet proves to be a very strong bug, capable of snapping the neck of a Wardenfly in one swift move, an impressive feat considering that Hollow Knights bugs appear to have both bone and exoskeleton.

Incredible durability – Hornet's shell seems to be quite tough, allowing her to take countless hits from the Knight's nail when most foes would fall to just a few and survive two duels against the vessel. Even in her own game, Hornet is capable of walking away from getting caught in bear traps and stepping on saws without becoming worse for wear, whilst being able to tank hits from several powerful foes.

Incredible agility – Hornet is incredibly agile, capable of performing acrobatics that few other bugs are capable of. She can perform graceful dives and pirouettes mid-air, scuttle side-to-side with incredible speed, and can expertly chain diving attacks to defeat foes, making her an exceptionally swift fighter.

Incredible speed – Already naturally speedy thanks to her long legs and many locomotive abilities, Hornet can enhance her speed even more via the Silk Step skill, allowing her to dash and sprint about at breakneck speeds, far beyond the bounds of normal bugs. In battle she's fast enough to keep up with and react to the attacks of equally fast bugs like the Widow and First Sinner, both of which are incredibly swift Weavers.

Resistance to supernatural influences – As the child of a Wyrm, Hornet possesses a resistance to various afflictions and substances present in the world of Hollow Knight; her iron will makes her impervious to the Radiance's Infection, while her half-Wyrm nature gives her a greater resistance to the dangerous traits of Lifeblood, such as its propensity to mutate or brainwash its consumers. Her resistance to the latter does have limits, however, seeing as overuse of the Plasmium Phial causes all of her masks to transform into Lifeblood Masks and Hornet to remark a foreign force appears to be trying to claim her mind.

Sustenance independence – As a demigod Hornet can spend incredibly long amounts of time without food or water, meaning that she rarely has to partake in meals. She does, however, seem to enjoy eating socially, being capable of purchasing a glass of nectar at the Halfway Home and enjoying some Flea Brew to celebrate with the Fleas.

Immortality – Hornet is an incredibly long-lived bug, having been around to witness the Hollow Knight's sealing into the Black Egg. She's also outlived many of her former mates and in spite of that, still appears very youthful. When defeated Hornet appears to simply respawn on a bench and can retrieve her belongings from a cocoon left behind, suggesting that she can't be killed by conventional means. Despite this, Hornet's Weaver heritage means she can't have children easily, with childbirth being an incredibly painful and nigh-impossible task.

Genius-level intelligence – Hornet is a very attentive and inquisitive bug who is capable of making accurate hypotheses about the world around her, correctly deducing the motive for her kidnapping and giving suggestions for others on how they can improve on themselves. She also has quite a lot of natural and historical knowledge gathered throughout her incredibly long lifetime, giving her a great understanding of forces such as Soul, Lifeblood and the Void. Hornet is also intelligent enough to make her own weapons, creating the Cogflies based off some spare parts and repairing the Silkshot with some basic schematics, displaying quite a bit of mechanical ingenuity, especially since she is capable of regularly repairing her tools.

Needle – Hornet's signature weapon, made of rare Hivesteel and given to her as a gift by the bees of the Hive. While weak and damaged at first, Hornet can take her needle to Pinmaster Plinney in Bellhart and upgrade her needle using Pale Oil. The needle can be upgraded up to four times. Hornet starts with the Needle, then it can be upgraded to the Sharpened Needle, Shining Needle, Hivesteel Needle, and lastly Pale Steel Needle.

Needle mastery – Wielding a needle, Hornet was trained under Hive Queen Vespa in its art, making her an exceptionally dangerous foe. She is able to effectively use it in manners akin to both a sword and spear, allowing her to effortlessly slash through foes or skewer them with ease. Hornet can also utilise her needle as a locomotive tool in a similar manner to the way the Knight uses their nail, using it to bounce off of environmental hazards or as a grappling hook to facilitate easier travel.

Needle Strike – Taught by the Pinstress. Releasing the nail while pointing forward will make Hornet perform a large slash that changes depending on her Crest.

Silk manipulation – Hornet's signature ability. Capable of channeling her own Soul into the form of silk, Hornet can utilize this substance for a variety of uses, such as to launch her needle further, create a devastating storm of threads to lash foes, or simply to hang up traps that hinder opponents.

Bind – Allows Hornet to bind her own wounds, replenish her health and grant her additional bonuses depending on the crest equipped. This ability is also used to absorb the skills of other silk-related beings, such as the Weavers or even Grand Mother Silk herself.

Silk Skills – Skills taken from other silk-related beings, specially Weavers.

Silkspear – Hornet attaches silk to her needle and throws it like a harpoon, skewering enemies in front of her. Was claimed from a Weaver in Mosshome.

Thread Storm – Hornet flails her needle around herself using multiple threads, lashing foes multiple times. Was claimed from a Weaver in Greymoor.

Cross Stitch – Hornet parries an attack and returns with a powerful counterstrike. Was claimed after defeating Phantom in the Exhaust Organ.

Sharpdart – Hornet dashes forward and pierces enemies, rendering herself temporarily invulnerable. Was claimed from a Weaver in the Wormways.

Rune Rage – Hornet charges up and casts explosive runes randomly around her, dealing huge damage. Was claimed after defeating the First Sinner in the Slab.

Pale Nails – Hornet conjures up 3 pale nails that home in on targets. Was claimed from Grand Mother Silk's severed arm in the Cradle.

Crest malleability – Thanks to her half-wyrm nature, Hornet's crest, the very essence of who she is as a bug, is incredibly fluid and capable of change. As such, not only can Hornet evolve her crest through the help of Eva, she is also capable of binding and absorbing the crests of other beings, from common bugs to snail shamans and even automatons. These crests influence the way Hornet's playstyle works, as well as the tools she can equip.

Musical mastery – Hornet has the Needolin skill, allowing her to play various songs by threading silk over her nail like a fret board. Using this, Hornet can utilise various tunes for numerous purposes, such as opening doors or even transporting herself into the memories of others with a special song. She can even utilise the Needolin to halt regular foes in their tracks, forcing them to sing along to her tunes and giving her some space to retreat or attack.