Some tips for the Steel Heart achievement (Steel Soul 100%)

Hi, I'm just some normal guy. I kinda suck at the game actually, I can't even beat pantheon 4. I recently 100%ed silksong then died in deep docks on my steel soul attempt, and decided I wanted to try my hand at hollow knight's steel soul. I was expecting it to be extremely difficult because it was both of the rarest two achievements, but it ended up being pretty easy, at least for me. I had a few close calls, but I only had to quit out 2 times, one was from trying to do that one room in crystal peaks in the dark before realizing it was completely infeasible, the other was from running into a boss fight before setting up my charms. I did quit out a lot to warp back to my last bench, but that was just for the teleport, not to save myself.

I wanted to make this guide with some of the strategies I used, so that if you're scared of steel soul like I was, you can still get the two rarest achievements in the game.

The biggest thing that makes steel soul 100% easier than you'd expect, in my opinion, is that there's 12% you don't need to do. You only need to get 100%, and there's 112% available. In my run, I chose to skip:

• Flower Quest
  
• Nightmare King Grimm
  
• The entire kingsoul/voidheart charm (both halves together are only 1%),
  
• Trial of the fool
  
• All of godhome (1% for entering, 4% for the first 4 pantheons)

This only makes 9%, leaving you with another 3% you can skip for free, or 4% if you enter godhome but don't do any pantheons. If you skip flower quest, you can also skip up to 3 other mask shards you just don't feel like doing.
Some recommendations for other things you might choose to skip:

• Grubberfly's elegy (if you skip this, you only need 31 grubs for the pale ore)
  
• Markoth
  
• Pure nail (if you skip this and elegy, you only need 10 grubs for grubsong)
  
• Seer's final words (if you skip this, you only need 1800 essence)
  
• Awoken Dream Nail (if you skip this, you only need 700 essence)
  
• Trial of the Conquerer/Warrior
  
• Grubsong (if you skip this and one mask upgrade, you can entirely skip all grubs. Do you have a grudge or something?)

In the earlygame, I recommend picking up as much Geo as you can, so you can buy Fragile Strength (and Heart) from Leg Eater, and charm notches from Salubra. With those two charms, you'll be dealing 1.5x the damage and have 1.4x the health, making you a walking force of nature that's way above the intended power curve. Don't forget that your fragile charms never break, don't be afraid to use them.

In addition, there are other advantages of steel soul. You'll never lose all your Geo, and you can sell rancid eggs to Steel Soul Jinn, meaning you'll generally be pretty rich. Bosses will die much faster than you're used to, especially the first few. Soul master has 3x as much health in Godhome as he does in the base game, and even with only 1 nail upgrade you'll still kill him in far fewer hits than godhome with maxed nail.

If you're struggling even slightly, go back and buy some upgrades, look for mask shards, and most of all get charm notches and pale ore. Once you have the Mantis Claw, you can access almost anywhere in the game without fighting another boss. You can get to Crystal Peaks with the lantern to get Crystal Dash, go to Resting Grounds through Blue Lake and get the Dream Nail, go to Deepnest through the top entrance to get the tram pass, go to Kingdom's Edge and enter City from the right, or from the Resting Grounds elevator, or from Ancient Basin. The game is incredibly open, every single roadblock you encounter can be worked around or bypassed, and the only limit is your knowledge of routes. I personally recommend trying to pick up as many charms as you can in order to buy notches from Salubra, and trying to get 3 pale ore as soon as possible for that sweet sweet 17 (26) damage.

Here's the general route I took, feel free to use it or modify it. This is a broad overview because I forget a lot of it and a lot of it was just jumping around doing whatever seemed easiest.

• Kill False Knight, kill Hornet (I used squit pogo)
  
• Stag to Crossroads, bottom left, Fungal Pass, buy Strength from Leg Eater. I wore this until the end of the game.
  
• Go down and left, get the charm notch
  
• Double back, go right, get Claw
  
• At some point here I made enough Geo to get Heart and buy a notch from Salubra
  
• Enter City, get nail upgrade 1, go through Soul Sanctum, kill Soul Master. Don't forget to pick up every charm you pass, like Spell Twister here.
  
• Crystal Peaks, Crystal Dash, Deep Focus, Shopkeeper's key, Unlock the dirtmouth elevator
  
• If you have the lantern now, get Descending Dark, then enter Resting Grounds from peak. If not, CDash into Blue Lake
  
• Dream Nail, Xero, elevator into right side of City, Ancient Basin, Pale Ore, nail upgrade 2
  
• Left side of Royal Waterways, there's a mask shard in here, and the left exit leads to Bretta and Dashmaster
  
• Right side of Waterways, Dung Defender (use dive to make him pop out of the ground), Isma's Tear
  
• Cleanup pass 1, go back and do everything you missed in Greenpath, Fog Canyon, and Crossroads. Stock up at Sly and Salubra, gather some grubs and grub rewards, you might even have enough for a mask or two here. Look for any easy mask shards, charm notches (like the one in fog canyon), vessel fragments, or pale ore.
  
• Broken Vessel, Wings (this will infect crossroads)
  
• Cleanup pass 2, look at the list of charm notches and pale ore and get anything that seems easy. Don't do anything too difficult until after you've beaten the game, because it would suck to lose all this work if you don't have the Steel Soul achievement yet
  
• By now I had nail 3 and everything died pretty much instantly especially with strength, so I did deepnest, teacher's archives, and spire, and beat the game. I wanted to "bank" the win so I didn't accidentally die in the harder areas
  
• Kingdom's edge, queen's gardens, and cleanup pass 3. Prioritize things that make you stronger, but at this point you already have basically everything you need. Use a save file analyzer if you can't figure out what you're missing.

I managed to get the 100% speed completion achievement with this run too. If you want to go for that one, my main piece of advice is that if you're getting every upgrade anyway, you might as well get them as soon as possible so you have them for as long as possible. That's why my route prioritizes nail upgrades and charm notches, they make you way more powerful and make the game way easier, and you're going to get them anyway, so get them early.

It's really not as hard as you might think. Fragile Strength and Heart put you way above the intended power curve, and the game is already fairly easy if you spend a lot of time getting upgrades between bosses. If you're ever worried about an area or fight, you can always practice in godhome on your main save, or just wing it. Good luck, steel thyself, and may your shade find victory.