I want to start speedrunning Hollow Knight but I have no idea which category I should choose.

All skills is a good place to start, not too challenging on bosses, gets a few skips in there. Really up to you though and what you're looking for. There are plenty of resources, keep in mind you don't have to do everything right away and can add in more things later.

Hi there, welcome to HK! We all have been there and many of us ended up deciding Any% nmg in the patch 1.2.2.1 since it's the run with most number of players, but not everyone enjoys it or just find it frustrating, many others runs longer or shorter categories or even switched from patch, there's a lot of categories and that's why it's hard to help you decide one. We all can share with you our knowledge in the Discord server (up there around should be a button with the Discord label). My personal recommendation for you is to visit some runs of different categories, take a look and then maybe decide. There's not such a thing like '' run for starters'', there exists in every category certain routes more ''beginner friendly'' so don't worry if you feel like you're choosing a hard one in the end. And remember, the first thing is to have fun and enjoy speedrunning.

Some personal favourites runs if it may help:

Any% ngm in both patches[1.2.2.1 and 1.4.3.2+]

All Skills ngm (1.2.2.1) <- personally I find it very fun to start even tho there are some tricky skips

White Palace / Path of pain <- If you enjoy platforming over anything else, these cats might be cool for you

Pantheons <- If you enjoy bosses and fighting, that's your place!

I hope this helps you a bit more, but I encourage you to enter the Discord server and ask more about other cats like Glitched cats etc.

Have a nice day!

Thank you for your advice. This will definitely help me choose a category.

If you want you can start with category extensions they can range from super short to really long that can maybe help you get a feel for hollow knight speedrunning. Or you could ditch that and just go speedrun hungry knight the choice is yours :)

Yeah, it can be overwhelming when choosing a category. Lots of awesome tips already here. I would recommend meme cats like Aluba1 and Myla%. You could also come up with your own cat. For eg. I don't get to fight Mantis Lords with the cats I'm running so maybe I just want to run something short like defeating Mantis Lords and that's it. Good luck have fun.