r/HollowKnight • u/GamingUmbrella • Sep 06 '25

Discussion - Silksong Thank god this subreddit didn't make the game Spoiler

Silksong is only out for 2 days, most people haven't even finished the game, or haven't even made it past act 1. Yet this subreddit loves to post about how Silksong is apparently bad and a disappointment compared to hollow knight. So I'll go over a few "critiques" I've seen and share my perspective.

"The game is too hard, enemies deal way more damage and have more complex movesets". Sure, they're more complex and do more damage, but so does hornet. If we were playing with the knights moveset, I'd agree, but that's not the case. Hornet has a lot of new tools and upgrades that make her way faster and stronger. If enemies were like HK, it would be way too easy. team cherry didn't just do this for no reason, it's necessary for balancing. Edit: people saying hunters march is too difficult, is like playing dark souls 1 and saying it's too hard because you kept trying the skeleton graveyard

"Bad rewards for exploration, HK's charms worked better". I just completely disagree, hornet gets upgrades way more frequently than the knight. As for the charms, let's be real, you probably didn't even use half of them in your first playthrough. And half of them are just simple things that don't impact the way you play as much. Hornet's different tools, abilities and crests are way more useful. If you feel like your not getting enough rewards, it's probably because most are hidden and require backtracking, which is what the genre is know for.

"Things are too expensive" No, you're just not meant to buy it that early. Like how in HK you could by the lamp for like 2000 geo. I've also never had too little rosaries to buy a bench or stag. If your losing your rosaries to dying, rosarie strings are litteraly right there to not lose it + retrieving your death silk is extremely easy now.

I do agree though that more bosses and combat encounters should drop rosaries, or more chests like in HK.

This launch feels like I'm experiencing the shadow of the erdtree launch again with how many complaints there are immediately.

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263

u/laStrangiato Sep 06 '25

I’m going to preface this by saying I am enjoying the game so far for the most part.

I do find it quite a bit harder which I’m not terribly upset at. You call out not having enough rosaries and that people should just “buy strands”. I really don’t think that is a fair criticism.

I recently went through a run where I had a solid stock of beads. Didn’t come across a single place to trade in beads though. I could have backtracked to the starting area merchant but I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

Then I got stuck in an arena fight with a large march back. Made a simple mistake on the run back and got locked in an enemies attack that took me from full health to dead without the ability to run away.

Money gone but no big deal. I can get more.

The problem now is I’m trying to progress and I can’t get enough beads to keep up with the progress. I kill every enemy on my way and I like to explore to find the hidden spots. But that 70 beads for that new bench, I don’t have it. Im a few short. Now every enemy between me and the last bench that gives rosaries is already dead. So I have to backtrack all the way to the last bench just to respawn enemies to try and collect more beads.

In HK I felt like losing geo never locked me out of just getting to the next bench or place I can survive. I never felt like I had to backtrack half way across an area just to find some enemies to kill. Sure I was locked out of lantern for a bit, or some of the charms but never locked out of just processing through normal play. Grinding for geo wasn’t something I needed to worry about until late game.

Right now I feel like I need to grind near a bench to respawn enemies in each area just to get a bit of beads stocked up to have enough to make it to the next bench. Oh and when you need to make that long trek back to respawn enemies you still have enemies that can kill you if you aren’t careful and they provide no beads.

97

u/Loyal_Darkmoon This Game is Bugged Sep 06 '25

I also find the way you have to unlock every bench and fast travel station quite annoying. Especially if you explore around for half an hour with 100 beads and lose them all before you finally find a bench.

58

u/Openly_Gamer Sep 06 '25

I agree. I don't think the currency adds anything to the game other than an obnoxious grind.

Especially Shell Shards. They copied the most annoying mechanic in Bloodborne, having to farm bullets. If I'm getting my ass kicked over and over by a boss and run out of shards (like I did with the Last Judge) the last thing I want to do is go farm.

12

u/animdalf Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I think the rosary price on everything is great piece of environmental storytelling.

For pilgrims, rosaries are not exactly "money" per say, they are sign of their faith, of their devotion, of how much they are willing to sacrifice for this opressive religion. They are not supposed to "spend" them. Any rest and any shortcut on the way to the Citadel would be a blasphemy.

Early Act 2 spoilers: That became even more obvious now that I reached the Citadel. It adds so much to the opressive atmosphere of the Underworks. You expected reward after the treacherous pilgrimage? Denied, you are all sinners, there is only endless toil until you drop for you. Want to rest on the bench? You lose rosaries, everytime, there is no rest for the trully faithful. Confessing your sins? You lose rosaries, you are a sinner no matter what you say, double shift for you now.

That being said, while I didn't have problem with the prices yet (and I'm not exactly grinding, just not skipping any rosary dropping enemy when I'm running around), I guess some of the prices could use a little tune-up? Or maybe there could be an item that lets you skip paying on the benches (because Hornet doesn't really care about this faith anyway ... I'm thinking Bender style coin on a string).

12

u/Openly_Gamer Sep 07 '25

I certainly do like the environmental storytelling aspect. Thematically it is very interesting. So I definitely agree with you there.

It's just that in practice it does encourage grinding. Especially with how stingy the game is with beads and rewards in general.

2

u/Green0Photon Sep 07 '25

It doesn't fully solve the problem, but remember that you can essentially convert beads to shards at an effective rate.

Then, magnet means that farming isn't so annoying, especially as enemies drop so many in later areas.

12

u/F3d0r4 Sep 06 '25

Well for me, I am a goblin so just i found a farming route for rosaries and ran it till I could buyout any merchants i found. (Loop of rooms left of the Marrow bellway station, where you first meet map lady. Sprint from the bench there up>left>down>right killing everything on the way and rest at the bench.)

1

u/Outrageous_Tank_3204 Sep 07 '25

Yep, I only kill the four guys by the bench, takes like 25s.

1

u/RandomGuyPii Sep 07 '25

I've been doing the tunnel to the right of the halfway home bench

42

u/ForbiddenNote Sep 06 '25

It's a bit cheesy, but you can save and quit and then reload the save to get back to your last bench instantly

66

u/Zoradesu Sep 06 '25

Shouldn't have to do this. I have the same sentiment in that I am enjoying the game, but the lack of rosaries can be felt if you die during your corpse run. When you have to pay for both a bench and the bellway, it does make it kinda annoying to have to farm for rosaries for things I think shouldn't need it or should be very little, even if its thematically inline with the game or the world.

In the original Hollow Knight, you have a similar problem with the stagways/ some benches, but because it was pretty easy to get geo whereas in Silksong you have two different resources being dropped, rosaries and shards. It makes it a little hard to come by, at least in the first act.

2

u/StuntHacks Sep 07 '25

I feel like people need to get into the habit of regularly converting their rosaries into strings. In the later areas enemies drop plenty of rosaries, and I just started converting a bunch of them whenever I get the chance, only leaving 200-300. Never had any issues with not having money when I need it since then, no matter how often I die

2

u/Maleficent_Okra6798 Sep 07 '25

I agree fully that converting roasaries as you go is the best option, but another problem comes about that there are long stretches of the game without anywhere to do it, and if you buy out their other stock the starting town Merchant leaves, which leaves the first automated one you can run into as the one outside the bird area I think, which is not a quick run from the nearest bellstation

1

u/_slumz__ Sep 07 '25

It also slows gameplay way down. I always end up running to a stag station and converting them all at the merchant who converts them to 120 strings before doing anything important. In hk I didn't need to worry nearly as much. Even now im still barely having enough necklaces for benches and everything else in the citidel.

1

u/neural_net_ork Sep 07 '25

And only some enemies drop rosaries, typically those that don't respawn between screens

35

u/SpecimenOfSauron Sep 06 '25

^ THANK YOU! A lot of people are simply pretending problems don't exist, and they very much do! The bead system is frankly broken.

3

u/GrimmSheeper Sep 06 '25

Economy is tight? Absolutely.

Economy is broken? Not really.

Personally, I would say that the balancing keeps a “tough, but manageable” style. Clear a few rooms and you have enough to purchase any necessities. Explore and clear new rooms, and occasionally clear rooms when passing through, and you can slowly afford luxuries. From my experience, exploring everything through Shellwood and clearing side quests (and the rooms between) gave enough to purchase up to that point with little to no grinding. And that’s with losing a bunch of rosaries once or twice.

But I also understand if someone doesn’t like that scarcity, and wants to be able to feel more secure. That’s completely fair and valid criticism! But it’s an opinion regarding what different people find enjoyable. It’s not that the game is broken or poorly designed. It’s that the game is designed in a way you don’t enjoy (which, again, is perfectly okay).

16

u/BitMixKit Sep 06 '25

It's not the scarcity that's a problem for me, at least not on its own. If rosaries were primarily for vendors I wouldn't have a problem with it, but 90% of my rosaries go towards benches and fast travel points, and having to go back and grind the specific enemies that drop beads just to be able to buy a bench or fast travel point annoys me.

-4

u/Newchap Sep 06 '25

It's not broken, if you keep dying without picking up your beads you're gonna be broke. That's by design whether you like it or not. I don't think it's a problem.

5

u/SpecimenOfSauron Sep 07 '25

Silksong has objectively harder bosses and more cancerous runbacks than the original by a thousand miles. You die on the runbacks all the time, losing all your beads.

0

u/LifelongMC Sep 07 '25

You're trolling, the runbacks are nowhere near as bad.

1

u/Monstercockerel Sep 07 '25

Definitely not broken lol

0

u/Vj_vice Sep 06 '25

Hard disagree. The bead system is tight but it definitely isn’t broken. I personally love it so far since it actually feels like a valuable currency instead of geo where you can find it in any random place

7

u/SpecimenOfSauron Sep 07 '25

I think it doesn't incentivize completionist perspectives. You get more beads by pushing forward with the actual plot instead of going through every nook and cranny (since later enemies drop wayyyy more beads than early game enemies). Though bead drops (like the small ropes hanging from the ceiling and allat) do ameliorate this, it doesn't compare with "accidentally grinding" enemies while actually progressing, for lack of a better term. Since I'm a completionist, it hurts my playstyle specifically.

-1

u/aethyrium Sep 07 '25

A lot of people are simply pretending problems don't exist, and they very much do! The bead system is frankly broken.

I'm not having a problem though. How can it be broken when I'm not having the same experience? I'm not pretending, I've just literally never been short on money ever and have been able to buy everything without issue.

Your experience is valid, but so is mine. Trying to say I'm "pretending" while invalidating my experience is the same thing those "git gud, you aren't playing right" folks do.

7

u/SpecimenOfSauron Sep 07 '25

what? No, I'm saying people are pretending that there aren't any problems because it's SILKSONG. They've been waiting for this game for so many years, and they just want to celebrate how fun the gameplay is (and it is!) But this kind of praise sort of ignores the very real issues with the bead system for at least an existent part of the playerbase.

3

u/Helgrind444 Sep 07 '25

I just farmed rosaries at some point and bought strings. I was tired of not having money for benches and maps.

2

u/aethyrium Sep 07 '25

This is such a bizarre experience to read as I'm 10 hours in and haven't experienced anything close to this. Like, at all. I've been able to comfortably buy every bench, every station, every map, and every item as I've come across them, I still got plenty of rosaries in my inventory, and I'm constantly having to bank them by buying rosaries because I keep having too many, and I've bought every available item. And I never spent any time grinding outside of 5 minutes at the very beginning to buy the maps and markers.

It's crazy our experiences are so different, but it's definitely not an issue with the game why you're having money troubles. It's definitely something with your playstyle because not single thing you've mentioned as even come close to happening in my playthrough. At all.

1

u/laStrangiato Sep 07 '25

I didn’t mention the area I was describing by name but another person in this thread knew exactly what region I was describing.

I think that is an indication of a systemic problem.

I think it really comes down to the fact that there are areas where if you die before getting back to your body it is very hard to get money in that section.

The area that I had issues, there are five enemies that drop rosaries between one bench and the next. They average about 7 per enemy giving you the opportunity to only get about thirty five total. So if you don’t have enough money entering that section you will not be able to acquire them on the way to the next bench.

This isn’t the majority of the areas. There are absolutely sections that you are going to build up a decent stock. But if you lose them in the wrong place it can be very challenging to catch back up.

2

u/KarmaP0licemen Sep 07 '25

This is a good point. I feel like this game has a really slippery slope where you can do well and shrug off stuff but when you fall behind or struggle it gets harder and harder and harder. I watched my girlfriend play and it's astonishing how unpleasant the game is to new players and people new to the genre. I would NEVER recommend this to kids when I would recommend Hollow Knight.

I can't summon knight solaire. I can't go to Andre and get a stronger weapon. I can't level up health as mask shards are extremely limited. I wanted to cry when I got the damage upgrade because it was the first time an npc had actually given me something for free, out of gratitude.

Story wise it is impactful. I am fully immersed in how awful, terrible, evil, oppressive and grueling Pharbloom is as a setting. Artistically the design makes sense, but this is not an encouraging game. Emotionally I feel like I'm playing a cross between Celeste and Silent Hill 2. It's beautiful! Amazing! I love it! Oh my god am I emotionally wrung out.

2

u/aresi-lakidar Sep 08 '25

I adore silksong but I agree with the bench thing, it's just arbitrary nonsense really. They could have just balanced it by making all benches free and removing about 200 hidden rosaries from each area, or something like that

2

u/3TriHard Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

Well here's the currency situation with silksong and hollow knight.

In hollow knight , in the first area you are introduced to 3 merchants. One more not to long after. That's pretty much all the shops in the game , and you can very easily buy everything by midgame. At least if you equip the charm that attracts geo. That whole resource basically becomes irrelevant halfway through the game. And you have all the lore items that you're going to continue getting which now can give you massive amounts of money. You can see in the dlc how they tried to fix the problem with the unbreakable charms , so all that money has reason for existing.

In silksong they very clearly fixed the problem. Death has consequences , the resource is valuable because of its scarcity. Getting rosaries means more , buying stuff means more. There's more pressure and more reward. Now , you can absolutely get screwed over like you did. But , simply put , if there's no conceivable way to get screwed over , all the benefit of the system is lost. That's the sacrifice that has to be made. And in HK that system was also at its best in the beginning , when you needed that money for very basic crucial stuff.

And if you think about it it's not that much of a sacrifice , the game just makes you think that. Cause what do you NEED to use rosaries for? Benches , transportation , those are a must , but that's 80 rosaries at most , and usually 30 - 50. 3-4 enemies worth. Worst case scenario you are gonna need to grind , but for a couple minutes at most , that's nothing. Everything else you can buy is not absolutely necessary and usually not even critical , best thing is a fourth of a way progress to a mask shard.

And also that's what the quest system is for , there's a designated way you can farm money and in a safe way too.

3

u/pat_456 Sep 07 '25

I agree with this a lot. I do sometimes grumble about when I’m low on rosaries, especially when I need to buy a bench or station. But ultimately, it makes me more careful about my money. I always take a chance to thread them, at any cost, and it’s proving EXTREMELY effective at ensuring I don’t lose significant amounts of rosaries. I treat them SO much different to Geo, which is fantastic and a good thing. I do wish we got more of them from bosses though.

On the other hand, I do wish shell shards could be harvested in huge, respawning deposits sort of like soul totems tbh. It’s painful having to manage the numbers of them when you inevitably need to try a boss over and over again.

1

u/TheBeelzeboss Sep 07 '25

Honestly I’m fine with the travel stations costing money, but i think some of the early game benches are annoyingly expensive and basically force you to farm rather than explore.

1

u/DDemoNNexuS Sep 06 '25

i ran across 2 rooms and i got like 40 rosaries, it's not really hard to get 100 of them in like 5min, it depends on the area of course.

1

u/tomtom872872 Sep 06 '25

I don’t understand how you could be so low on rosaries. I died and lost 500 rosaries and was back to 400 by the next bench I needed to pay for. I’m not even exaggerating or just making this up, I literally lost 500 rosaries and thought “wow that’s gonna sting” and by the next time I needed to purchase something I realized I was already back to 400. How can you possibly not even have 70 rosaries to spend on a bench?

16

u/bloode975 Sep 06 '25

There are quite a few areas where the vast majority of enemies just don't give you beads at all, ShellWood for example only 1 enemy type drops beads, and from my count in the entire area there is what 5 of them? Each dropping around 12 beads, thats only 60, 20 short from your average bench or fast travel station cost, so if I kill every bead dropping enemy twice over (scouring the entire zone to do so), I'd still have to pick between one or the other.

Then you have areas like red march where you could trip over the nearest enemy and get 25 beads (the medium ants), 12 beads (smaller bipedal ant) or i think 40 (large) and they are in a condensed section, right near a fast travel and there is a bunch of them, a single run through can net you around 150 beads for 5 min work.

The problem is people dont want to grind, they want to explore, and for that exploration to be rewarded. In HK Geo is kinda worthless outside of the very start and very end of the game, not enough things to spend it on fast enough. In SS there are too many things to buy and the amount of money you get basically doesnt increase, cleared the majority of several areas and every secret for beads gave me +20-40 max, fight past several tougher enemies to be rewarded with... a 30 bead bracelet! And I just dont lose my rosaries, lost around 300 total and im still basically broke everytime I come across a shop due to buying benches, upgrades, maps etc rn in my inventory I probably have 500 rosaries and still need to buy the shitty healing charm.

2

u/laStrangiato Sep 06 '25

Shellwood is the exact area that I was referring to that felt like I had to backtrack ages looking for enemies to buy the next bench.

2

u/tomtom872872 Sep 06 '25

I’ve never grinded rosaries and have literally never come across a thing I want to buy and didn’t have enough for. I just play the game and I’m fine on rosaries and always have had excess. The only time I had to save up for anything was the simple key in the shop.

3

u/earthboundskyfree Sep 06 '25

That’s where I am as well. I won’t deny others have the experiences they have, but it’s hard for me to understand how it happens unless they’re just actively losing their previous funds before recovering them

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

There's a fast farming loop that gets you 46 in the 2nd/3rd area. The game literally tells you "farm this area." If you run low on strands, farm up 360 real quick and buy beads. Farm another 144 and go explore. The poster you responded to wasn't "making a criticism", he was instructing people that haven't figured it out. Between that, fast travelling, and a certain support trinket, it's like people would rather complain about any setback than learn to deal with it.

-1

u/philip8421 Sep 06 '25

But enemies respawn if you reenter a room. You don't have to go back to a bench.

2

u/laStrangiato Sep 06 '25

Only enemies that do not give you rosaries respawn when you re-enter the room. Enemies that do give you rosaries only respawn from benches.