Hollow Knight Bench Save and Rest Guide

Mechanic / Hollow Knight (2017)

Benches are the save points of Hallownest. Resting on one heals you, sets your respawn, and lets you swap Charms.

Role: Save pointHeals: All masksSets: Respawn

The Hollow Knight bench is the single most important piece of furniture in the game. Per the wiki, resting on a Bench saves your progress, restores all of your health, and sets the point where the Knight respawns after death.

According to the wiki, benches are scattered across Hallownest, from the very first one in Dirtmouth to hidden seats deep underground. A few are toll benches that charge Geo to use.

The wiki notes that benches are also the only place you can swap Charms. In practice, planning your route around the nearest bench is one of the core survival skills in the game.

This guide covers what a bench does, where to find them, how they interact with Charms, and the mistakes that send players back to a far-off save.

• What Save points that store progress and set where the Knight respawns.
• Heal Full health is restored every time you sit, with no cost on most benches.
• Charms Swap Charms only while resting, never out in the open.
• Watch out Toll benches charge Geo, and resting respawns most enemies in nearby rooms.

What a Bench Is

Per the wiki, a Bench is a seat the Knight can rest on to save the game. Hallownest has no automatic checkpoints, so the last bench you used is the only place you return to after dying or quitting.

According to the wiki, most benches look like a simple stone or wooden seat, but the game reuses the same save function for stranger objects. A bug corpse near Leg Eater and the seats inside the trams all work as benches.

The wiki notes that some Stag Stations contain a broken, non-functional version of the common bench that cannot be used. In practice, a bench only counts if the rest prompt appears when you stand on it.

What Benches Do

Per the wiki, resting on a bench triggers a whole cluster of effects at once. The table below lists what each rest actually does for the Knight.

Effect	What happens
Save	Stores your progress to the file
Respawn	Sets the bench as your death respawn point
Heal	Refills every health mask
SOUL	Slowly refills SOUL with Salubra's Blessing
Map	Updates the map with new rooms if you own a Quill
Enemies	Respawns defeated enemies outside the current room

According to the wiki, resting also refills depleted Soul Totems and restores broken Lifeblood Cocoons in the world. The Salubra's Blessing upgrade is what adds the slow SOUL regen while you sit.

The wiki specifies that enemies in the room you are resting in do not respawn until you leave and return. In actual play, this lets you clear a path to a bench and rest safely before pushing on.

Where to Find Benches

Per the wiki, benches sit in nearly every major region, usually near a shop, a boss arena, or a quiet safe room. Learning the closest one to each fight saves enormous backtracking.

• Dirtmouth. The first bench, in the surface town above the well, next to the stag station.
• Forgotten Crossroads. Several early benches in the Crossroads, including one in the Ancestral Mound.
• Mantis Village. A bench just outside the Mantis Lords arena for quick retries.
• Colosseum of Fools. A Colosseum bench between trial attempts.
• Toll benches. Paid seats, such as the one near the Pleasure House, that charge Geo each use.

According to the wiki, other benches appear at Salubra's store, the Temple of the Black Egg, the Teacher's Archives, both trams, and beside the various Nailmasters' huts. In real runs, a full map is dotted with them once you explore.

Benches and Charms

Per the wiki, the inventory only lets you equip or remove Charms while the Knight is resting on a bench. Out in the world the Charm menu is locked, so you commit to a loadout the moment you leave.

According to the wiki, several Charms are built around the act of resting itself. They top you up the instant you stand from a bench.

Lifeblood Charms

The wiki specifies that Lifeblood Heart grants two bonus masks on rest, while Lifeblood Core grants four. Joni's Blessing converts your whole health bar into blue Lifeblood instead.

Reset-on-rest Charms

Per the wiki, Baldur Shell blocks a few hits while focusing and recharges its shell when you sit on a bench. In actual play, a quick rest is the cheapest way to reset these defensive Charms before a tough room.

Common Mistakes

1. Forgetting to rest before a boss. Per the wiki, the bench is the only save, so a death sends you back to the last one you actually used.
2. Trying to swap Charms mid-room. The menu is locked away from a bench, so plan your loadout before you leave.
3. Ignoring toll benches. Paid benches still save and heal, and skipping them to save Geo can cost a long walk back.
4. Not expecting enemy respawns. Resting brings back foes in nearby rooms, so the path you cleared may be full again.
5. Missing the broken benches. The dead seats in some Stag Stations do nothing, so do not rely on them to save.

Hollow Knight Bench FAQ

More Hollow Knight Guides

Benches tie into the Charms you swap, the masks you heal, and the arenas you retry. These spokes pick up the connected threads.

Charm LocationsWhere to find every Charm to equip at a bench

Best CharmsThe loadouts worth swapping in when you rest

Mask ShardsHow health masks work and where to grow them

Boss ListFights worth a bench right outside the arena

Best Roguelike GamesSister picks to the Hallownest loop