Patterns Hollow Knight exemplifies

Pattern	How Hollow Knight uses it
loadout-as-budget	~45 charms × 1–5 notch costs × 11-notch budget. Pure numeric, the minimalist version of the pattern.
bonus-with-drawback	Joni's Blessing (no healing for +40% HP), Defender's Crest (smell-AoE + NPC reactions), Fragile family (shatter on death), overcharming (cram extra charms for 2× damage taken).
opportunity-cost-loadout	Every charm slotted is a charm not slotted. Builds commit; you don't carry one of everything.
enemy-intent-telegraph	Bosses use wind-up + recovery cycles to telegraph attacks; recovery windows are the design's Focus opportunity — players read pattern timing because the system requires it.
nested-progression-graph	Charms + Mask Shards (HP) + Vessel Fragments (Soul cap) + Pale Ore (Nail) + Spells + Dream Nail. Each is a separate progression axis on different timescales.
late-introduced-mechanics	Dream Nail unlocks ~hour 8–10 and adds an entire NPC-mind-reading layer. White Palace, Path of Pain, Pantheon DLC content all drip across the long tail. Iselda's pin tools drip across the early game.
map-by-discovery	Cornifer-find + bench-draw + Iselda-buy chain. Earned cartography. (Singleton — Hollow Knight is the canonical case here, no 2nd game in the knowledge base does this.)
shade-on-death	Soulslike currency-loss recovery — drop Geo on death, fight a Shade-of-yourself to reclaim. Active recovery vs. Dark Souls's passive bloodstain.
soul-as-heal-resource	Heal mid-combat by spending the same resource that fuels offense. Forces real healing decisions every encounter.
atmospheric-storytelling	Minimal direct exposition; story lives in NPC dialogue, lore tablets, boss arenas, Hunter's Journal entries. Players piece it together post-credits.