Animalistic spirits. Highest HP pool. Built for sustained melee aggression.
Hollows are corrupted souls that failed to cross over to the Soul Society. In VV Ultimatum they are the brawler faction: the highest baseline HP, the only faction with native regeneration, and a combat loop built around staying in your enemy's face indefinitely. Hollows trade range and precision for raw durability and the ability to win wars of attrition that would kill any other faction.
A Hollow's fight plan is simple: walk forward, hit the enemy, eat the trade, regenerate, hit them again. You are not fast. You are not subtle. You are a wall of HP with claws, and your job is to be the one still standing when the dust settles. The faction rewards aggressive, committed play and punishes hesitation — Hollows who hang back lose the regen-vs-damage race, while Hollows who stay glued to the enemy refill their HP faster than the enemy can drain it.
This makes Hollow the most forgiving faction for new players. You can mistime a dodge and survive. You can take a hit you should have avoided and not die. The skill ceiling is lower than Quincy or Shinigami because the moment-to-moment execution is less punishing, but the skill floor is also lower — which is exactly why new players should consider it.
Hollow attribute distribution is the most lopsided of any faction, because the faction's identity is built around HP scaling.
The "I literally cannot die" build. Stacks multiple regen sources — passive regen-per-second, on-hit regen, lifesteal, and "below X% HP" regen procs. Damage output is moderate but you outlast everything. This is the build that wins long boss fights through sheer endurance and the build that completely no-sells trash mob encounters. Slow to clear content, but the most forgiving build in the game to play.
The Hollow ranged option, built around Cero (the iconic Hollow energy beam) and Bala (rapid energy bullets). These are your answer to ranged enemies and your highest single-skill damage skills. A Cero build is more "Hollow with ranged answers" than "ranged Hollow" — you're still primarily a melee brawler, but you've covered your worst matchup.
Late-tree transformation skills that turn you into a much larger, much more powerful form for a duration. Transformations boost damage and add new attack patterns at the cost of mobility and (often) the ability to use other skills. The defining choice of transformation builds is when to commit — transforming too early wastes the duration, transforming too late means you've already taken damage you didn't need to.
Hollow Traits are a unique customization layer on top of the normal skill tree. Each Hollow build can equip up to four Traits, which provide passive bonuses ranging from increased regen, to faster Cero charge time, to bonus damage against specific enemy types.
Traits are independent of your skill point investment but they do count against your Build Point budget. A maxed-out Hollow Trait loadout can eat 30–60 Build Points by itself, which is a real trade-off against your skill picks. Don't slot four traits just because you can — pick the ones that genuinely amplify your build's identity.
Essence picks for Hollow are forgiving because the faction's baseline kit is already strong. Common picks:
For Charms, Hollows can lean harder into offensive charms than other factions because their defensive baseline is so high:
For a concrete starter build, see the Hollow Regen Tank Build walkthrough. For the underlying systems, read Build Points Explained and Attributes Explained.
Hollow is the faction that rewards committing to a plan and surviving the consequences. It's the easiest faction to learn, the hardest to push to the top of the skill ceiling, and the most fun to play if you like absorbing damage instead of avoiding it.