Find Pale Ore in Hollow Night: All Locations

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Find all the Pale Ore in Hallownest to upgrade your Nail

Written by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: July 8, 2025 Fact Checked

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Pale Ore Locations

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Upgrading Costs

Finding Pale Ore in Hollow Knight can be tricky, as it's one of the rarest and most valuable items. But if you want to upgrade your weapon a second time or more, you'll need Pale Ore. There are only six pieces of Pale Ore in Hallownest, and you'll need all six to upgrade to the Pure Nail. This wikiHow guide will teach you how to easily find all of the Pale Ore locations in Hollow Knight. We'll also cover exactly what you'll need to do to get the Pale Ore at each location, as well as how much the Nailsmith will charge you for each upgrade.

Things You Should Know

You'll find 6 Pale Ore in Hallownest, and you'll need all 6 to upgrade your Nail completely.
The easiest Pale Ore to get is in Ancient Basin, where you'll need to defeat two guards.
Follow the game's story and progression to get to the Resting Grounds, where you can collect 300 Essences to get more Pale Ore.

Section 1 of 2:

Pale Ore Locations

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You'll find this location west of the tram station and the main Ancient Basin entrance. To get the Pale Ore, defeat two Lesser Mawleks.^{[1]
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Resting Grounds. Inspect the Dreamers Memorial in the Resting Grounds, and you'll enter a dream where a Moth will give you a Dream Nail. Use the Dream Nail throughout the game to collect 300 Essence and return to the Seer to get one Pale Ore.^{[2]
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- Get more Essence for more rewards.
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This requires you to have Mantis Claw. It's also recommended that you have Monarch Wings and Crystal Heart. Find one Pale Ore at the very top of the peak of Crystal Peak embedded in the statue, The Radiance.^{[3]
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You'll find Nosk's Lair by breaking a wall in the room west of the hot spring in Deepnest. To get Pale Ore, you'll need to defeat Nosk.^{[4]
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Forgotten Crossroads/Grubhome. Rescue 31 grubs to receive one Pale Ore. Since there are 46 grubs, finding 31 is not difficult. You'll find them scattered around Hallownest. While the Grubfather usually only gives you Geo for rescuing grubs, he'll give you Pale Ore if you rescue 31.^{[5]
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- Some maps will have multiple grubs, while others have only 1.
- If you don't remember which Grubs you've already found and rescued, you can beat the boss, the Collector, to earn a map that marks all the locations of the still-trapped Grubs.
Find the Colosseum at the top of Kingdom's Edge inside a bug. To get Pale Ore, complete the Trial of the Conqueror. This is the second trial out of three that tasks you with defeating 17 waves of enemies, dealing with hazardous terrain, shifting walls, and more.^{[6]
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Research source} You must complete the first trial to get to the second trial.

Section 2 of 2:

Upgrading Costs

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Nail upgrades in Hollow Knight aren't free. In the City of Tears, you'll find the one and only Nailsmith who will upgrade your weapon. The first time you upgrade your Nail, the Nailsmith will charge 250 Geo. After that, you'll need to pay for upgrades using both Geo and Pale Ore.
- Sharpened Nail (t1): 9 Base Damage, 250 Geo, 0 Pale Ore
- Channeled Nail (t2): 13 Base Damage, 800 Geo, 1 Pale Ore
- Coiled Nail (t3): 17 Base Damage, 2,000 Geo, 2 Pale Ore
- Pure Nail (t4): 21 Base Damage, 4,000 Geo, 3 Pale Ore
  - In total, Nail upgrades require 7,050 Geo and 6 Pale Ore