How to Find the Flintbeetles in Hollow Knight: Silksong and Completing Secrets

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Optional Wishes in Hollow Knight: Silksong can bring significant rewards, especially when you complete certain quests like the Volatile Flintbeetles. These beetles are a helpful addition to your early to mid-game strength, provided you accept and finish the task. While the area called the Marrow isn’t as frightening as regions you’ve faced before at this stage, the enemies you’ll encounter are quite different.

The flintbeetles are easy to overlook because of where they are located. A single mistake can lead to disaster since their explosive defenses can blow you up if you’re not careful. But a lot of the challenge begins even before you see these beetles. Finding them is tricky, but Hornet’s skills and the Hunter crest you start with give you an advantage in tracking them down.

How to Start the Volatile Flintbeetles Quest

This quest is available on the Bone Bottom Wish Board, but you can’t accept it until you’ve gained Cling Grip in Shellwood. To get Cling Grip, you need to meet these basic requirements:

Have the Silkspear and Swift Step abilities.
Enter Shellwood through either the Wormways or Greymoor.
Defeat the Moorwing boss if you entered via Greymoor.
Beat the Sister Splinter boss.

Once you accept the quest, the flintbeetles will appear in three locations within the Marrow area map.

How to Find the Flintbeetles

You can track each beetle using their Flintstone Residue. The residue is a yellow-orange substance that shows you the trail to follow. While tracking residues can help you locate the beetles, it’s optional. You can skip this step and find the beetles directly if preferred, as grabbing them is straightforward once spotted.

To Collect the Flintstones

You need to defeat each beetle in combat. They attack in various ways:

Spewing lava balls in all directions.
Rolling forward while leaving explosive trails.
Jumping to leave explosives along their path.

Their explosive attacks deal two masks of damage, while basic hits cost only one mask.

Finding the First Flintbeetle

The residues marking the first beetle start in the central chamber of the Marrow. Follow the trail upward from these points:

Bottom-left corner of the central chamber.
On the skeletal bridge to the right.
On a thin ledge at the top of the room.
On a platform on the far left of the uppermost chamber.

All residues eventually lead to the top-center chamber. The flintbeetle appears as a glowing yellow stone embedded in the wall in the top right corner. Strike it to make it fall and land in the platform to its left.

Finding the Second Flintbeetle

Residue for the second beetle is only in one location: beneath the sign for the jail on the east side of the Marrow. Follow the trail upward into the room above, and you’ll find the beetle near the entrance and exit there. Its hiding spot is behind shadows in a wall, to the left of the northeast room, before the path leading to Hunter’s Marsh and the jail. Be careful with the bouncing orange platform in this area—it’s not useful for attacking from above because many of the beetle’s attacks can hit higher than its head.

Finding the Third Flintbeetle

The trail for the third beetle begins near the Flea Caravan sign in the south-central chamber. From there, residues are located:

In the top left corner, between two spike pits.
To the left of the south bench.
On a low-ceiling path above the southwest shortcut gate.

Follow these residues to find the final beetle, which is hidden in the ceiling in the southwest room. It’s positioned left of the exit to the room where you first met Shakra, behind shadows in the wall.

Final Step

Once you’ve defeated all three beetles, return the three flintstones to Bone Bottom. Place them in the donation box on the Wish Board to earn a Memory Locket as your reward.