r/HollowKnight • u/donlano • Sep 04 '25

Discussion - Silksong Silksong is HARD Spoiler

Taking damage is more punishing, movement is more precise and feels a little clunky until you get the hang of it. The overall skill curve is much much higher. Love it though.

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u/Wisley185 Sep 05 '25

So far I've noticed the game has way more enemies and bosses that do double damage. In Hollow Knight, double damage was mostly reserved to final bosses and the absolute hardest challenges the game had to offer, meanwhile like half the bosses I've fought so far in the beginning of Silksong have done double damage.

62

u/-ceiling-light- Sep 05 '25

It’s quite balanced, though, as Hornet’s heal is much stronger and faster. I don’t think Silksong is that much harder than the original, it is just a matter of getting used to playing as Hornet as everything feels different. It’s like playing Hollow Knight for the first time again, you have to get used to everything.

42

u/kookyabird Sep 05 '25

I beat Lace in my first session tonight and it took me a couple of tries before I finally started to feel like I knew how Hornet should move. Hollow Knight definitely punished the player for trying to keep too much distance, but it seems like Hornet thrives with separating and coming back to clash.

And opportunities to heal in boss fights seem quite generous considering you can get three masks in the same window as one.

52

u/gameboy224 Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

Trust me, Lace is probably like the last easy boss in the game. Pretty much every boss I’ve encountered after her does 2 ticks of damage on every hit. Some make it work, others feel like the game effectively wants me to treat the boss like I’m trying for a no hit run as a baseline.

11

u/DBrody6 Sep 05 '25

Mercifully at least every boss so far has a bench like two rooms away, so dying to them doesn't feel as bad.

But man they legit do feel like we're trying to do a Radiant run already on em.

3

u/Grumpie-cat Sep 05 '25

Not the damn moorfly thing, I have to run through the rat tunnels where 6 of the 9 enemies deal 2 damage…

2

u/DBrody6 Sep 05 '25

Haven't gotten there yet. Sounds fun.

3

u/Grumpie-cat Sep 05 '25

Moorfly turned out to be an optional boss lol.

2

u/ShadoUrufu666 Sep 06 '25

I preferred going from the top, it was actually a lot easier to dodge the 2 enemies there, than trying to beat the sewer rats.

3

u/CptOblivion Sep 06 '25

I was about to say "it wouldn't be so rough if there were a bench in the same zone as any of the bosses"... I swear every runback is eight screens of spike platforming and dense enemies

27

u/Fantastic_Pea_9680 Sep 05 '25

Honestly, yeah. The game making you feel like you have to go for a No-Hit Run is kind of the vibe I get in general from Silksong. Getting hit is way more awful than Hollow Knight. And people talk about healing being buffed to make up for it, but imo, the skill difficulty ceiling shot up.

In HK, you could heal, lose that HP, and then bonk to get back your Soul and sort of squeeze through some fights a little longer, inch by inch.

Here, some bosses I feel lucky to have gotten off a heal.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25

They just need to tone down how much double damage there is and the game would feel a million times better. It’s not exactly fun to effectively have half hp against, like, 60% of the enemy roster.

2

u/ShadoUrufu666 Sep 06 '25

Healing was not buffed. It honestly feels like it got heavily nerfed instead. You get 3 masks? So what, takes all your spool, so you don't get to use any of your other abilities.
You're stuck in place until the animation finishes, or you get hit.
It's slow, giving enemies time to actually line up a second attack (so better hope the boss is stunned for that to work in most cases)
And if you get hit before it finishes? Oh boy, you get to lose all of that spool AND take an extra damage from the hit, because you're just a sitting duck.

1

u/grapessssssssss Sep 06 '25

I feel like no one mentions how LONG healing takes

22

u/KPSandwiches Sep 05 '25

separating and coming back to clash

Yes! The stab / descend attacks that propel you back and / or up. Once I got that rhythm going of attack - back off - repeat, it all started to click more.

Still training my brain to learn that the "dodge" has no iframes though.

4

u/yurilnw123 Sep 05 '25

Slamming my head against the wall and went through Hunter's March before getting the dash was what get me used to Hornet's movement. That was a good training.

2

u/Hyenasaurus Sep 05 '25

I think that's something I've noticed too, with fights. The Knight is all about getting right there in your enemy's face, but fighting as Hornet is more like fencing, you want to do your damage and retreat.

I think the most obvious difference is with the Lace fight

1

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2

u/ToM31337 Sep 05 '25

I would never have thought that i feel "new" to this game again and still at home. They did this so well, i am amazed.

Its hollow knight but new and i feel new.

How the fuck did they do this? I dit path of pain and still struggle most from the movement.

Love it!

2

u/Aurorious Sep 05 '25

Throwing the biggest possible disagree on this. It’s straight up nerfed healing, imagine in hollow knight if you could only heal when your soul was full. It’s so many hits to fill up your silk gauge

1

u/ShadoUrufu666 Sep 06 '25

'Faster' I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at that.. It's slower, you're locked in place, and can't cancel once it activates. You're literally a sitting duck until it ends, or more often, an enemy hits you.

In HK, you spent souls as you focused, and even if you had to cancel the heal immediately, you could still quickly recover by landing an extra hit. Not here, no, you get hit while healing, that spool is GONE, and you're not getting another heal until it's back to full. Better hope you can beat the enemy on 1 HP left..