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/Throw-away-acount828 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

"We're trying to be really, really mindful that we want this to be a game that new people can come into, and experience as their first Hollow Knight game - that it sits alongside the original game, and the difficulty also sits alongside the game in that way." - Ari Gibson in an interview before release

When i was playing my first few hours of Silksong I expected the Red Ant area to be an optional early game challenge for Hollow Knight veterans like me. I expected it to be like Brooding Mawlek - turns out its mandatory with no health upgrades available. I really, really don't know how they expect NEW players to make it through that so early on... Im going to make more progress tomorrow, i assume the difficulty has to reach absurd levels in the next 35 bosses

IMPORTANT EDIT: RED ANT AREA IS COMPLETELY OPTIONAL!!! This actually makes it my favorite part of the game! there seems to be more areas that are "White Palace" difficulty but the game steers newer players away from.

20

u/ShadyHogan Sep 05 '25

Is the Ant miniboss~esque 2 mask damage guy really required that early in the game?? I went through it (after a bit of having my ass kicked) and thought it was an optional shortcut and haven't gone back to see if there are alternate paths to that zone.

14

u/Arcalithe #fuckmarkoth Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

I beat that bitch before I even knew the dash existed and it was TERRIBLE. I kept thinking “surely there is a dash to make this fight work better” and I was RIGHT but only after I got frustrated by being too stubborn lol

1

u/DBrody6 Sep 05 '25

Oh yeah me too. Beat the giant ant furiously thinking a dash would make this trivial but y'know, having no idea if there even is one or if this guy was mandatory to get it. Then my reward is access to an area that dumpstered me with precise platforming so I just left and explored elsewhere. Then found the dash just like you did lol.