Suffering with Silksong's hard-as-nails High Halls gauntlet? Fret not, there's a way to get some help

There's no other way to put it: Silksong's Forum fight is absolute pain. After exploring the High Halls in search of the Conductor's Melody, you'll wander into a large chamber and start an enemy gauntlet. At first, you'll think "Hmm, this is the same as all the other citadel gauntlets I've fought", but as wave after wave of enemies keep rolling in, you'll realise how mistaken you were. The High Halls gauntlet consists of:

• Wave 1: 1x Reed, 1x Chorister, 1x Envoy
• Wave 2: 2x Chorister
• Wave 3: 1x Reed, 1x Choir Bellbearer, 1x Clawmaiden
• Wave 4: 2x Minister, 1x Clawmaiden
• Wave 5: 2x Maestro
• Wave 6: 1x Choir Clapper (this guy is a small boss essentially)

Oh, that's not where it ends?

• Wave 7: 2x Reed, 1x Choir Bellbearer
• Wave 8: 2x Choir Bellbearer, 1x Chorister, 1x Clawmaiden
• Wave 9: 2x Minister, 1x Choir Bellbearer
• Wave 10: 1x Maestro, 1x Reed
• Wave 11: 2x Choir Clapper (NOW THERE ARE TWO OF THEM??)

As stated: pain. It's the worst gauntlet in the game and is a real test of endurance just to get to that final wave where you have to fight two minibosses at once in a small arena. While the first Choir Clapper does have predictable attacks, there's just so little space to deal with these enemies chucking out massive AoEs.

The good news is, though, that you don't have to do this fight alone. You can bring an NPC to help you. For me, this was Garmond and Zaza, but you can also apparently bring Shakra under certain conditions as well—completing her quest, I assume, which appears on the Bellhart board after you find her in every region and purchase all maps.

The potential allies for this fight seem to be the ones that you can find randomly fighting enemies in the Choral Chambers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Second Sentinel is also a potential partner.

Either way, all I can confirm for certain is that Garmond and Zaza joined me in the battle and explain how I got that.

1. I met Garmond and Zaza in Greymoor in a right upper chamber in the building with the Chapel of the Reaper at the top.
2. I encountered Garmond and Zaza twice in random locations around the Choral Chambers fighting enemies. These locations are the places where the enemies patrol, such as the bottom level, or in the top left near the entrance to the High Halls.
3. I challenged Garmond and Zaza to a duel in the outside area to the right of the First Shrine. You can get here via a hidden passage on the right side of the Whispering Vaults—the map above shows how to find this hidden area, but I'll include two clips below.

One of me unlocking the outside bit where you can duel Garmond once in that hidden area:

And another of me returning to find him (after the shortcut to the outside area is unlocked) and fighting the duel:

After all this, when I returned to the Forum, they were waiting outside for me and I asked them to help, so the good news is that it doesn't matter if you've started the Forum fight already—you can still back out and fulfil the prerequisites to get some aid. And don't worry if he doesn't show up straight away; Garmond joins in from the second wave of the fight.

While this does help make things more manageable, the final phase is still horrible. I recommend saving all your most powerful tools and just trying insta-nuke one of the Choir Clappers as fast as possible. I did this with Sting Shards and Cogwork Wheels (which I bought from the Twelfth Architect in the Underworks). I also used the Reaper crest since the extra silk and consistent pogo attacks really help in such a long battle.

My tool setup also helped a lot. I had the Injector Band (which you find in Whiteward) that speeds up binding as well as the Multibinder you can buy from Bellhart, which gives you a double bind. Altogether it means you can heal four faces per bind at super speed.

Either way, I've included my clip in case it's of any help. Hopefully now you have a summon, things will be a little more manageable.