Reaper Crest

Praise their toil... Honour to the reapers... Sow and reap... Pharloom flourished... Gather... for the many...

The Reaper Crest is a Crest in Hollow Knight: Silksong. While equipped, Hornet's attacks become larger but slower. After Binding, striking enemies will temporarily produce Silk fragments that restore a small amount of Silk when collected.

Attacks

Compared to Hunter Crest, Reaper Crest has roughly -23% attack speed and deals over +48% more knockback.

Neutral Slashes: Hornet strikes with alternating overhead and underarm slashes. When attacking upwards, Hornet always does an overhead slash that starts slightly behind her.
Down-slash: Hornet briefly stalls in the air before slashing downwards in a wide half-circle, moving diagonally downwards a short distance in the facing direction.
Run-slash: Hornet leaps into the air as she performs a sweeping uppercut, while also stopping her run into a jumping backflip. Down-slashes as a followup attack.
Needle Strike: Hornet stops to perform a powerful overhead cut. Inflicts Heavy Damage.

Mechanics

After a successful Bind (not including a bind that merely clears Muckmaggots), Hornet enters a state where hitting enemies spawns floating Silk fragments. This state ends after 10 seconds or when Hornet takes damage, gets infested by Muckmaggots or rests on a bench.

Fragments can be collected by touching them or hitting them with the Needle. They disappear 10 seconds after being created. 3 fragments combine to form 1 strand of Silk. Partial strands disappear after 10 seconds without collecting any fragments. Partial strands from this Crest do not combine with partial strands from other sources like Druid's Eye or Silk Hearts.

Fragments spawn moving in the direction of the Needle hit that created them, with some random deviation, then slow to a stop after moving a short distance. They can collide with and bounce off walls, ceilings and floors. The number of fragments spawned depends on the enemy: most enemies will create between 1-3 Silk fragments per hit, with a 50% chance for 2 fragments, 35% for 1, and 15% for all 3. Smaller enemies (like Mites) will always only create 1 per hit.

Reaper can be identified by the light lavender colour of Hornet's slash attacks.

Usefulness

The neutral-slash hits slightly above Hornet, making it good for hitting flying enemies.
The down-slash's wide swing allows for easier bouncing off targets. However, chaining bounces is slow.
- It is generally easier to use compared to the Hunter Crest's diagonal down-slash and the Wanderer Crest's short range.
Up-slash's hitbox is deceptively large, with more vertical reach than Hunter Crest's up-slash.
The Silk generated by Bind allows Hornet to reach her next Bind or Silk Skill use sooner. The increased Silk generation can make Reaper better for prolonged boss fights.
Reaper Crest is effective against groups of smaller flying enemies thanks to its increased reach and knockback.
Weaknesses:
- Needle Strike attack starts with a wind up, slowing its execution compared to other Crest Needle Strikes.
- The slow attack speed lowers Hornet's damage output. However, it can be circumvented:
  - It favours carefully reading and responding to attacks over rushing in blindly.
  - It becomes irrelevant in cases where Hornet cannot land many hits in a row regardless.
  - It performs well with hit-and-run tactics. In particular, the run-slash can be chained into a down-slash to get over an enemy, which can extend into more down-slash bounces or a dash.
  - It is offset by Flea Brew. Using it before Binding allows Hornet to generate a large amount of Silk.

Synergies

Its already large range is greatly increased by Longclaw, allowing for massive reach.
Snitch Pick can help mitigate its slow attack speed by enhancing Clawline's damage for gapclosing and setting up for a down-slash.
Pin Badge allows for more usage of its powerful Needle Strike.
Spool Extender lets Hornet make use of the additional Silk generation.
Flea Brew mitigates the slow attack speed more than other Crests at 35%.
When Sting Shard is triggered by contact, enemies are drawn in and held in place for a moment, making it easier to force aerial enemies into range.
Volt Filament can enhance the Silk Skills that the extra Silk from Bind allow, supplementing the Needle damage.
Because the Bind is an important part of the Crest's mechanics; the Claw Mirror providing additional damage is always reliable.

How to Acquire

The Reaper Crest can be found in the Chapel of the Reaper, a sub-area of Greymoor found on the western side directly above the Moorwing arena.

The Reaper Crest is obtained by interacting with a corpse on the top of the Chapel, past a platforming section and a battle against multiple enemies. After leaving the Chapel, the location becomes locked permanently.

Location
Hornet binding the Reaper Crest

Gallery

Deep Dive

Trivia

In the animation library Crest Get Cln the corpse Hornet binds to obtain the Reaper Crest is called grey_chapel_alderbug. "Alderbug" is not an actual word, but is likely referencing an alderman, a term used to denote a high-ranking member of a borough or county council.

Names in Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning/Explanation

Brazilian Portuguese	Ceifador	Reaper
French	Faucheur	Reaper
German	Schnitter	Reaper While the word does literally mean Reaper, it more commonly refers to the Grim Reaper.
Italian	Agreste	Rural
Japanese	収奪者 Shūdatsusha	Plunderer
Korean	사신 Sasin	Grim Reaper 사신 sasin is a Sino-Korean word literally meaning "death god" and has nothing to do with the act of reaping.
Russian	Жнец Žnec	Reaper
Simplified Chinese	收割者 Shōugēzhě^?	Reaper
Traditional Chinese	收割者 Shōugēzhě^?	Reaper
Spanish	Parca	Reaper
Internal name	`CREST_REAPER`