Hollow Knight is already extremely difficult, but it's made even harder by the fact that, when you die, you'll have to fight your own Shade to recover your money and full max health. There are times, though, that your Shade is somewhere that you really can't be bothered to try and return to, what with the intense platforming challenges and/or enemies between you and that place.

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Luckily, you don't have to abandon your Shade and your Geo. With the handy Rancid Eggs that can be found around Hallownest, you can summon the Shade to you. Here's how, as well as where you can find these great special items.

What Are Rancid Eggs?

the hollow knight inventory screen with the cursor set on a rancid egg

These strange, slightly gross-looking items are one of the collectible items that can be found around Hallownest. Some of them are just found on the ground and some can be purchased. But, they are actually created by Bluggsacs. When slain, these strange enemies will drop a Rancid Egg, but they won't respawn when you sit at a Bench, unlike other enemies.

This means you cannot just defeat a Bluggsac, collect the Rancid Egg, and then repeat the process when it respawns — because it won't.

Recovering Your Shade

confessor jiji rancid egg hollow knight summon shade

At this point, you're probably wondering what these Eggs are for. Well, they serve an important function: recovering your Shade.

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On the far east side of Dirtmouth, there's an entrance to a cave that you must unlock with a Simple Key. Inside, you'll find Confessor Jiji. This strange bug will summon your Shade if you give her a Rancid Egg. 

This can be especially helpful if you last died somewhere that's hard to get back to, like an area with a difficult platforming section, a lot of enemies, or in many cases, both. By summoning your Shade to Confessor Jiji's cave, you can save yourself time and effort.

You'll still have to fight it to recover it, though.

Rancid Egg Locations

With how handy these nasty items are, you might want to find a ton of them. Luckily, there's a good number of them to be found, and even one repeatable method.

Bluggsacs (Alive or Dead)

rancid egg locations in hollow knight map

By finding a Bluggsac, either living or dead, you can get yourself a Rancid Egg. If they're dead, you can just grab it, and if they're alive, you have to slay them. Luckily, they're non-aggressive and don't fight back. There are 18 Eggs to be found this way.

The numbers in this list correspond with their location on the above map. Here's where a breakdown:

  1. City of Tears: In the elevator shaft leading up to the Pleasure House. Watch for a Gluttonous Husk corpse on the left-hand side, around the fourth "floor." Across from it, on the right, there's a hidden alcove where you'll find this Egg.
  2. City of Tears: In the room above where you'll find Lemm, next to one of the many elevator shafts.
  3. Crystal Peak: In the area that joins Crystal Peak and Forgotten Crossroads, just above where Myla is found. You'll need to perform a tricky wall jump while hugging the right-hand wall and moving upward to find this one.
  4. Crystal Peak: In the southern portion of the area, in the same room as the Bench found there. The switch platforms that turn over to reveal crystal spikes will be all over this room, so be careful.
  5. Crystal Peak: Northeast of the room where you find the Crystal Guardian, there's a large room filled with scaffolding and conveyor belts. There's a Bluggsac to be found on one of the many platforms here.
  6. Deepnest: At the very top of the far-west area inside the Beast's Den. You'll know you're in the right general place when you see the strange strung-up beast.
  7. Deepnest: In the middle area of Deepnest, just nearby the Whispering Root.
  8. Deepnest: Inside the Weaver's Den.
  9. Fungal Wastes: In the Fungal Core, which can be found west of the Whispering Root. There's a large room that connects to Deepnest, and the room just above that one contains the Egg.
  10. Greenpath: After making your way through the long, difficult platforming section to get to Nailmaster Sheo's place. Below his hut, you'll find a Rancid Egg in the same area.
  11. Queen's Gardens: In the room that's south of the Overgrown Mound and north of Cornifer and the Bench.
  12. Resting Grounds: In the area with the Blue Lake, up at the top of the chamber.
  13. Royal Waterways: In the room just east of where you find Cornifer. You'll find the Rancid Egg in the top-left portion of the chamber.
  14. Royal Waterways: Just west of Isma's Grove, just east of the vertical chamber that goes up to the City of Tears.
  15. Royal Waterways: Once you find the Bench that's sitting a little crooked in the center of the Royal Waterways area, head just east and you'll find a Rancid Egg.
  16. Royal Waterways: Just east of where you find Egg #13, in the next area over. This map can be found by looking due north from the chamber where Flukemarm is found.
  17. Kingdom's Edge: There is a tall, very large vertical area that makes up the bulk of Kingdom's Edge. It's not the thinner one where you find Bardoon, but the one to the left of that that leads up to the Colosseum of Fools. Toward the very top of this area, a Rancid Egg can be found inside a platform that creates a sort of box. Be careful, because there's a Belfly in here that will dive-bomb you once you jump up inside.
  18. Kingdom's Edge: In the southeast portion of the entire area, slide down the wall on the west wall as seen in the map above to find a hidden cavern partway down, which contains a Rancid Egg.

Grubhome

There are a ton of fantastic rewards that you'll earn for rescuing the various Grubs trapped in jars around Hallownest. One of them is a Rancid Egg, which you'll receive after rescuing 16 Grubs.

Sly's Shop

sly's shop in hollow knight

After rescuing Sly in the Forgotten Crossroads, he'll return to Dirtmouth and set up shop.

There, he'll sell a single Rancid Egg for 60 Geo.

Tuk

In the farthest northeast corner of the Royal Waterways, there's a breakable wall that leads to a hidden chamber. This breakable wall can be found right under the giant statue in the City of Tears visible on the in-game map.

Inside this chamber, you'll find Tuk. She'll always be here rooting through debris. She sells you Rancid Eggs for Geo, charging between 80 and 100 Geo each. Once you have 80 Eggs, though, she'll stop selling them to you.

If you equip the Defender's Crest charm, though, Tuk will give you a single Rancid Egg for free. Apparently, the Dung Defender helped her some time in the past, and the smell reminds her of him.

Total

In normal mode, there are 101 Rancid Eggs to find: 18 from Bluggsacs, 80 purchased from Tuk, one free one from Tuk, one from Sly, and one from the Grubfather.

Rancid Eggs in Steel Soul Mode

steel soul jinn in hollow knight's steel soul difficulty mode

In Steel Soul Mode, when you die, it's permanent. Your game instantly ends for good and your save file becomes inaccessible. Because of this, you don't have much use for a Shade — that is, you don't even get one, since your game ends upon death.

In this mode, Confessor Jiji and Rancid Eggs don't really serve much purpose. So, she's replaced with Steel Soul Jinn, who can be found in the same place.

Steel Soul Jinn will instead trade you some Geo for the Rancid Eggs you bring her — around 290 to 449 per Egg. Unlike Confessor Jiji, though, Jinn doesn't seem to eat the gross Eggs.

Also in Steel Soul Mode is another Rancid Egg to find that isn't available in normal mode. Where you'd typically find Tuk, you'll find her corpse instead, and there'll be another Rancid Egg by it.

However, you won't be able to purchase the 80 buyable Eggs from Tuk or get the free one for wearing the Defender's Crest. But, their only purpose is to be sold anyway, so this makes sense. This means there are 21 Rancid Eggs in Steel Soul Mode: 18 from Bluggsacs, one from Tuk's body, one from Sly, and one from the Grubfather.

For some reason, yes, Sly still sells one, which you can turn around for an easy profit.

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