Hollow Knight: Lifeblood

Lifeblood was the third content update for Hollow Knight and is probably the weirdest one, because it doesn't really have a clear theme. It was mainly about paving the way for a Nintendo Switch version of the game, improving various things under the hood.

The title and banner first made me believe that this update either added Joni's Blessing, Lifeblood Core, or both, but these Charms and their respective areas were already part of the base game. In fact, nothing in the update has anything to do with the game's Lifeblood mechanic, which gives you additional blue Masks that can't be healed (like the yellow hearts in Breath of the Wild).

With that in mind, "Hiveblood" probably would have been a more appropriate title, because the Hive has seen the biggest update here. A lot more details got added to the area, but also a new boss, the Hive Knight. It's by far the "simplest" of the DLC bosses, where it's really just a normal boss added to one of the game's areas as if he was always meant to be there.

That he wasn't always meant to be there is quite noticeable, though, because it's one of the longest and most dangerous routes of "bench to boss" in the game, even with multiple shortcuts in place. If you don't have the Dreamgate yet, it's quite annoying to attempt this fight again, because you spent way more time going back there than actually fighting the boss. Otherwise it's actually refreshing that they have simply added a normal boss to make the Hive more wholesome, instead of some other insane endgame challenge.

By the way, the Hiveblood Charm, which is now guarded by said boss, is one of those cases where a Charm isn't worth all its costs and downsides. Not only does it use up four Charm Notches, but its regeneration effect takes ten whole seconds and is limited to a single mask. And if you get hit in the meantime, it's lost anyway. If it kept regenerating you, it would have been something that may be worth considering, but the way it is implemented it should only cost two notches, really. It's still good for any platforming challenges, mainly inside the White Palace, given that you have the patience for it.

Otherwise the update buffed one of the other bosses, the Traitor Lord, and added map markers as a new feature. Like anything useful in the early game, those have to be bought at first, before you can put them on your map. It's a very good addition, though, where it's weird to think that this wasn't in the game right from the start.

But that's really it. As already said, the focus was really on improving the performance, making the game possible to run on the Nintendo Switch.