A bestiary that logs every enemy you fight. Completing it earns the Hunter's Mark and counts toward full completion.
The Hunter's Journal is the bestiary in Hollow Knight. Per the wiki, it is "dropped on the ground by the 
Hunter in Greenpath after listening to him for the first time," and from then on it records every creature the Knight encounters.
According to the wiki, each enemy gets a journal entry once the Knight has killed it enough times, and the entry includes the Hunter's own notes on how to fight it. Some entries need a single kill, while tougher foes need many before the page fills in.
Filling every entry is one of the longest goals in the game. Per the wiki, completing the journal returns the 
Hunter's Mark to the Hunter and counts toward the 112% completion total, which is why hunters chase it across all of Hallownest.
This guide covers what the journal is, how to get it from the Hunter in 
Greenpath, how entries fill in, the trickiest entries to complete, and the Hunter's Mark reward for finishing it.
The in-game bestiary that logs every enemy. Listen to the Hunter in Greenpath; he drops the journal.
Kill enemies until each entry unlocks; some need many kills. The Hunter's Mark and credit toward 112% completion.The journal is a living record of every creature in Hallownest. Per the wiki, once obtained it tracks each enemy the 
Knight fights, building a page for each one that the player can read at any bench.
According to the wiki, entries are written in the voice of the Hunter himself, mixing combat advice with lore about the creature. The 
early enemies fill in fast, while rare and dangerous foes can take a long time to complete.
In practice, the journal doubles as a checklist for full completion. Because it counts toward the 112% total, many players treat finishing it as the final stretch of a completionist run.
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Bestiary item |
| Source | The Hunter in Greenpath |
| Fills via | Killing enemies (and a few interactions) |
| Reward | The Hunter's Mark |
| Completion | Counts toward 112% |
The journal comes from the Hunter, an NPC tucked away in Greenpath. Per the wiki, the Knight finds him in a hidden room and must listen to his dialogue for the first time; he then leaves the journal on the ground to be picked up.
According to the wiki, the moment the journal is inspected, it begins logging enemies, and a few common creatures unlock their entries immediately. The Hunter remains in his room for the rest of the run, ready to react as more pages fill in.
In actual play, grabbing the journal early is worth a small detour, since every kill afterward counts toward an entry. Picking it up late means re-fighting enemies that would have logged themselves along the way.
Visit the Hunter as soon as you reach Greenpath. In practice, the earlier the journal is in hand, the fewer enemies you have to farm again later just to fill their pages.
Most entries are filled by killing. Per the wiki, each enemy has a kill requirement, and the page completes once that count is met. The numbers vary widely from creature to creature.
According to the wiki, reading an incomplete entry shows how many more kills are needed, so the journal tells you exactly what is left. In 
Deepnest and other dense regions, those counts climb quickly as you clear rooms.
Completing every entry triggers the journal's payoff. Per the wiki, the Hunter rewards a finished journal with the Hunter's Mark, a token of his respect that returns to him once the bestiary is whole.
According to the wiki, finishing the journal also unlocks the 
related completion achievements and adds to the 112% total. It is one of the clearest "you have seen everything" markers the game offers.
In actual play, the Mark is more prestige than power, but the journey to it pushes players into every corner of the map and against every 
Colosseum and boss challenge in the game.
A handful of entries are what make the journal a true completion test. Per the wiki, these are the pages that trip up most hunters.
In actual play, these few entries take longer than the rest of the journal combined, which is why true completion is a badge of skill rather than just patience.
The Hunter's Journal sits at the heart of a completion run, beside the charms, bosses, and lore items it sends you after. These spokes cover the rest.
Game data and screenshots adapted from hollowknight.fandom.com, used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Original content remains the property of the wiki contributors and Team Cherry.