Hollow Knight Pale Ore Locations: All 6 and Uses
The files hold 6 Pale Ore pickups, and the Nailsmith asks for 6 in total across his four nail upgrades, so you need every one. 3 are pinned on our map (Crystal Peak, Deepnest, Ancient Basin); the other 3 are in the Grub King's room and the silver and gold Colosseum trials.
- Pickups in the files6Shiny pickups of the Pale Ore kind
- Pinned on the map3Crystal Peak, Deepnest, Ancient Basin
- Needed for the Pure Nail61 + 2 + 3 ore over three upgrades
- Nailsmith's top price4,000 Geofor the last upgrade
Pale Ore is the one material in Hollow Knight that does nothing on its own: the game's item text calls it "Rare, pale metal that emanates an icy chill. Prized by those who craft weapons.". Its only use I can read from the files is the Nailsmith's nail upgrades, so this guide is a collection list with that use at the end. The ticks stay in your browser.
On this page
The 6 Pale Ore pickups
Each row is a room that holds a Pale Ore pickup. The three pinned rooms open on the Pale Ore layer; the three off-map ones are described by room and by the room you enter from. "Closest bench" is a straight line, not a walking route.
Crystal Peak: Mines_34On the map
Closest bench on the map in a straight line: Mines_18 (Crystal Peak).Open the pin on the mapDeepnest: Deepnest_32On the map
The ore lies in the same room as the Nosk pin. Closest bench on the map in a straight line: Deepnest_30 (Deepnest).Open the pin on the mapAncient Basin: Abyss_17On the map
Closest bench on the map in a straight line: Abyss_18 (Ancient Basin).Open the pin on the mapForgotten Crossroads: Crossroads_38 (Grub King's room)No map position
The room holds a Grub King, a Fat Grub King and a long row of grub counters, plus this ore and a Mask Shard. Its only doorway in the room data leads to Crossroads_07. How many grubs the King asks for is held in a script I did not read.Grub layerColosseum of Fools: the silver trialNo map position
Entry costs 450 Geo on the price sheet. The achievement list calls the second trial the Trial of the Conqueror. The arena scene holds a Pale Ore pickup. The Colosseum has no pins on the pause map.Areas hubColosseum of Fools: the gold trialNo map position
Entry costs 800 Geo. The achievement list calls the third trial the Trial of the Fool. Its arena scene holds a second Pale Ore pickup.Areas hub
What Pale Ore is for
The Nailsmith is the only user I can find. His conversation has four offers, one per nail upgrade. The first is the plain offer ("If you'd like, I can reforge your nail. It'll make the blade far more deadly."). The other three are ore offers ("I see you have some Pale Ore. A rare, fine metal, that. Give me the ore and some Geo for my efforts, and I'll reforge your nail to make it stronger."), and the ore text comes in three sizes: one, two and three pieces. That is how I read the ore each upgrade takes.
| Upgrade | Nail you get | Geo | Pale Ore |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sharpened Nail | 250 | 0 |
| 2 | Channelled Nail | 800 | 1 |
| 3 | Coiled Nail | 2,000 | 2 |
| 4 | Pure Nail | 4,000 | 3 |
Costs, not damage
The files give the prices and the ore counts above. The damage of each nail sits in a script variable I did not read, so I do not quote it. The full costs and the Nailsmith's house are in the nail upgrades guide.
Common mistakes
- Stopping at the three pins. Half the ore is in rooms the map cannot pin.
- Leaving the Colosseum for last without the Geo. The two trials cost 450 and 800 Geo to enter, and the nail upgrades want 7,050 Geo on top.
- Spending a piece early. Ore is used up by an upgrade, and the totals leave no spare.
About these numbers
These pages read the game files of build 1.5.78.11833 (2021). Steam now has 1.5.12620 (March 2026) with fixes and no new areas; PinDrop has not re-read that build.
The count of 6 pickups is every Shiny pickup of the Pale Ore kind in the 6 rooms listed above; the pickups of other kinds (relics, eggs) are separate layers.
Pages to keep open
Related pages
Sources
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