The Master Herald. Seven hidden locations, a Spore Shroom translation requirement, and a secret ending cutscene.
Mister Mushroom faces away from the camera. Per the wiki, the Knight has to hit him with the Nail to make him turn around. Spells, charms, and environmental damage do not count; only a direct Nail strike. After he turns, the Knight can interact.
The dialogue is gibberish without preparation. According to the wiki, the Spore Shroom charm must be equipped for Mister Mushroom's speech to translate into readable text. Without Spore Shroom, the dialogue prompt fires but the words are mushroom-speech and he does not move on to his next location. The wiki specifies that Dream Nail dialogue is the one exception; the Dream Nail line reads in plain text without Spore Shroom.
He calls himself the Master Herald. Per the wiki, his role is to signal the end of an Age, and his Riddle Tablet in Kingdom's Edge gives the seven hidden locations as a poem in eight lines. Visiting all seven and completing the game unlocks the Passing of the Age achievement and a secret cutscene.
This guide covers the Riddle Tablet hints translated to plain locations, the order most efficient for a single run, the Spore Shroom and Nail-hit requirements, the Dream Nail line, and the Passing of the Age achievement that rewards the complete cycle.
Mister Mushroom, the Master Herald who signals an Age's end. Seven hidden locations across Hallownest.
Spore Shroom. Without it, his speech is gibberish and he does not move to the next location.
hit him with the Nail first. He faces away by default; the Nail strike turns him around to enable dialogue.
Passing of the Age achievement plus a secret cutscene after the credits roll. Requires beating the game.Mister Mushroom is a fungus NPC who calls himself the Master Herald. Per the wiki, his role in Hallownest's lore is to mark the end of an Age. The wiki specifies that his appearance is tied to the Knight's progression specifically; he only manifests after the Knight has reached certain story beats.
The visual design is part of the joke. Per the wiki, Mister Mushroom's default pose is facing away from the camera, with his cap and back visible. The Knight has to hit him to turn him around. His turned-around face is small, simple, and reads as comically polite given his title.
The wiki notes that Mister Mushroom is one of only a handful of NPCs whose existence is gated behind an optional charm. Without the Spore Shroom charm in the active slot, the Knight cannot understand him, and he refuses to relocate. This makes the entire arc opt-in for players who specifically went to Deepnest for the Spore Shroom pickup.
Two requirements gate every Mr Mushroom encounter. Per the wiki, the first is a Nail hit to turn him around; the second is the Spore Shroom charm equipped to translate his speech.
According to the wiki, the Spore Shroom charm is found in the Fungal Wastes itself, in a small chamber near the Mantis Lords route. The charm costs 2 notches. Mister Mushroom is the only NPC in the game where Spore Shroom is a strict gating requirement; other Spore Shroom effects (Whispering Roots translation, breakable wall hints) are optional layers on existing content.
The Nail-hit requirement is the second filter. Per the wiki, hitting Mister Mushroom with any other damage source (Vengeful Spirit, Desolate Dive, charm reflect) does not turn him around. The Nail itself, swung directly into his back, is the only trigger. Across multiple runs, players who try ranged spells to save Nail durability waste cycles; the wiki recommends a single Nail strike on approach.
Equip Spore Shroom before the Nail hit. Per the wiki, hitting him without Spore Shroom equipped still turns him around, but the dialogue plays as gibberish. Players who skip the equip step and only see the gibberish line tend to walk away and miss the fact that re-equipping the charm and re-engaging would unlock the readable text. The wiki notes the charm must be in the active slot at the moment of conversation, not just owned.
The Riddle Tablet is the in-game hint sheet. Per the wiki, the tablet is a glowing glyph in a secret room at the bottom right corner of Kingdom's Edge. The hidden opening sits on the right side of one of the vertical shafts above the giant Geo deposit in the special room with that deposit.
Reading the tablet without Spore Shroom shows generic mushroom glyphs. Per the wiki, equipping Spore Shroom translates the tablet into a poem. The poem has eight lines, with the first seven hinting at one location each, and the eighth closing the cycle:
The wiki specifies that the Riddle Tablet is the canonical hint system. Visiting Kingdom's Edge with Spore Shroom and reading the tablet gives the player every Mister Mushroom location in their preferred poem form, without needing a wiki check on the order.
The seven locations are scattered across most of Hallownest. Per the wiki, he appears in each location only after the previous visit is complete. The order is fixed by his appearance flag, not by player choice.
| # | Riddle line | Location | Specifics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spawn of self, their minds unite | Fungal Wastes | Near the Fungal Core / Mushroom Tribe area |
| 2 | Aside the source of acid blight | Kingdom's Edge | Near the Failed Tramway and Isma's Grove approach |
| 3 | Aglow in darkest, winding depths | Deepnest | Near the Galien Dream Warrior arena |
| 4 | Winds all howl above fossilstone steps | Howling Cliffs | Inside Nailmaster Mato's hut |
| 5 | Monarchflys in air set still | Ancient Basin | Near the Monarch Wings pickup location |
| 6 | To Root's domain and snail once shrill | Fog Canyon | Near the Overgrown Mound |
| 7 | Path of Wyrm, at new lands entered | King's Pass | The starting area at the top of Hallownest |
Per the wiki, location 7 (King's Pass) is the symbolic kicker. The Knight starts the game in King's Pass, drops down into Hallownest, and only returns there for the final Mister Mushroom visit. The poem's closing line ("There journeys end") frames the return trip as the canonical conclusion to the Hallownest journey.
The wiki specifies that Mister Mushroom's appearance at each location is sequential. Visiting them out of riddle order does not fail the quest, but the next appearance only fires after the current one is complete. In practice, the riddle order is also the progression-efficient order.
According to the wiki, the recommended Spore Shroom run takes about 90 minutes if the Knight already has all six traversal abilities. Crystal Heart unlocks the Howling Cliffs approach to Mato's hut. Monarch Wings opens Ancient Basin's upper sections. Both are required for clean access; players without them have to backtrack on each location.
The wiki notes that the Fog Canyon visit (location 6) sits between two harder traversal sections (Crystal Peak detour and Queen's Gardens), and many runs skip Fog Canyon's Overgrown Mound on the main route. Players doing the Mister Mushroom chain need to detour there specifically.
The reward for the full cycle is the Passing of the Age achievement. Per the wiki, the achievement fires after the Knight visits all seven Mister Mushroom locations AND completes the game (any ending). Both conditions are required; visiting all seven without finishing the game does not unlock the achievement.
According to the wiki, the achievement comes with a secret cutscene. The cutscene plays after the credits roll on whatever ending the Knight completed, and shows Mister Mushroom commenting on the end of the Age. The wiki describes the cutscene as one of the more meditative endings the game offers, a quiet meditation rather than a dramatic boss reveal.
The wiki specifies that Passing of the Age counts toward the 112 percent file completion. It is part of the standard completionist checklist alongside the Steel Soul mode, all Warrior Dreams, and the Grimm Troupe path. Players going for 112 percent need this achievement on the save file.
Mister Mushroom's arc connects to the Spore Shroom charm, the Kingdom's Edge tablet, and the post-credits content. These spokes pick up the threads.
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.