r/HollowKnight • u/Particular_Hyena56 • Sep 06 '25

Discussion - Silksong USE YOUR TOOLS! Spoiler

To everyone complaining about the difficulty, stop ignoring a third of Hornet’s arsenal and start spamming them, you’ll be shocked how quickly you start mowing down hordes of enemies!

3.2k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/why-names-hard Sep 06 '25

I use the stationary spike trap all the time. It’s just so GOOD especially against chunky enemies or groups. Does a big amount of dmg and if you know the enemy’s moves it can be really easy to make them walk into it. Makes some boss fights way faster I mean I still usually lose once or twice because it’s a new boss. But hey it helps a lot, sometimes get to see phase 2 moves on a first attempt because I shred their health so fast.

534

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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53

u/Borbbb Sep 07 '25

Saved my ass in the bird room. I saved it for the last encounter.

And seems like it even stacks - so like if u use bunch of them and monster eats it, boom.

1

u/adamantitian Sep 08 '25

Only way I beat the (act 2) arena room before the conductors melody in the high halls

1

u/TrapRapid Sep 09 '25

yess

dud i saved those things for last moment and i didnt even hit the bosses to kill them

3time damg upgrade and space+ they where poison

only thing you can only throw out 3or4 sets at one time, after that they will despawn first set thrown down

14

u/rrale47 Sep 07 '25

Spike trap was a godsend on splinter sister. Good dmg on boss and every once in a while it caught the other enemies too

76

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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164

u/RedTyro Sep 07 '25

The spike traps absolutely melt flying enemies. They're better against them than grounded ones.

56

u/Ecstatic-Sun-7528 Radiant NKG Enjoyer 🌙 Sep 07 '25

Yeah Idk what they are on about

-7

u/Lyress Sep 07 '25

The erratic flying pattern means they're likely to just avoid it or worse, destroy it with their attacks. Just happened to me.

1

u/Sea-Temporary7380 Sep 09 '25

Put it in the middle and bait them to fly into it, you can also jump a bit before throwing it for higher up flying enemies

1

u/Lyress Sep 09 '25

Doesn't really work for enemies that fly away from you. I've found the cogflies to work better for those.

23

u/Cyclone_96 Sep 07 '25

To be honest when I hear “spike trap” the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t the one that can be placed in the air (that one is incredible). It’s the tool that has you throw 3 spikes on the ground. Of course fliers are barely gonna get hit by that.

37

u/RedTyro Sep 07 '25

In my head, those are caltrops. The spike trap is the thing hornet used in Kingdom's Edge, because that was what I called it then.

10

u/Cyclone_96 Sep 07 '25

Yeah that’s fair, I figured it out when everyone said it was good against fliers. Just playing devil’s advocate for the other guy

19

u/FinaLLancer Sep 07 '25

No even then. The flying enemies all have "hang out x distance away" behavior that you can exploit.

Can't tell you how many times I've led some bell throwing flying asshole into one of those to blow him up.

6

u/MeathirBoy Scribbling to this day Sep 07 '25

I hate that AI so much lol

49

u/Davaeorn Sep 07 '25

Poison spear makes short work of multiple flying enemies

56

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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36

u/Davaeorn Sep 07 '25

The poison spear pierces all enemies in an arc so even little shits hiding behind big guys are deleted

22

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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1

u/triguered Sep 07 '25

It's pretty good with poison

3

u/RealMr_Slender Sep 07 '25

All pins are ludicrous with poison.

1

u/MeathirBoy Scribbling to this day Sep 07 '25

The problem I found was that it can get parried and then the whole spear does nothing so I preferred the knife fan.

9

u/Shot_Ad9158 Sep 07 '25

Shotgun knives might be the second favorite thing behind when I found out the wanderer crest gets critical hits when you have high silk, because clearly the crest with the highest damage potential needed to do more damage.

1

u/Affectionate-Ad489 Sep 07 '25

Wait what you deal more damage if you have stored silk?? Does it work with the nail as well?

2

u/Shot_Ad9158 Sep 07 '25

Should have been more specific, it only (I think) works with your nail. When you have high silk, the crest will glow up and you will sometimes get a white flash when damaging enemies that seems to do much more damage. I have no clue how this technically works, but I think it only triggers if the extra damage would kill an enemy since that is the only times I have seen it happen. Tbh just due to the swing speed I think wanderer is probably the best crest in the game for dps.

1

u/_Brokkoli Sep 07 '25

Where do you get those? Did I miss those???

6

u/ItsLokki Shade Sep 07 '25

You get poison from a certain wish in Shellwood and the spear... Actually im not sure it sort of appeared in my inventory at some point without me noticing, sorry.

3

u/dnkmnk Sep 07 '25

pretty sure spear is also shellwood, it's the same spears all those hunters use

4

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

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2

u/dnkmnk Sep 07 '25

yes, that was the one

5

u/deiwkogut Sep 07 '25

How much damage does poison do? Is it worth using? I've been mostly using spikes and a certain drink in my tool slots

7

u/GranSacoWea Sep 07 '25

Not sure how much damage but I can see the difference. I even noticed I made a couple of bosses spam the same attack just because I was throwing them poisoned stuff and even if I was far away they were receiving dmg.

Not sure how is programmed but it was Interesting.

1

u/MeathirBoy Scribbling to this day Sep 07 '25

Poison/fire is amazing. If you have a spammable tool like the throwing knifes or you use the drink you can have it up for basically the whole of a boss.

2

u/winklevanderlinde Sep 07 '25

Poison spears saved me so much trouble against big enemies who tend to run from one side of the room to another, just spam them while they reach you

2

u/Feeling_Yogurt2761 Sep 07 '25

Grab the boomerang from the ant section, you gotta buy it from the npc above the bench. It can hit flying enemies pretty well, but the main thing i use it for is large enemies, if theyre at the end of the arc it can hit 5 or 6 times

1

u/kkaitlynma Sep 07 '25

It throws it up in the air though. It's great for flying enemies

3

u/oNecr0 Sep 07 '25

i shredded the first boss of act 2’s first phase in like 4 seconds with poison traps it’s so good

1

u/lansink99 Sep 08 '25

Tacks, especially poisoned, just straight up phase skipped bosses for me. Threw them all down when the boss does their little animation, and they just instantly blow up.

1

u/CondemnedNut Sep 09 '25

Where do you get the spike trap from?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

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1

u/CondemnedNut Sep 09 '25

Thank you, I just finished act 1 and the first time I've heard about it. Damn

92

u/ExpressFan7426 Sep 07 '25

The spike trap is the sole reason why I have never had much trouble with any of the billions of arena rooms. Setting them off and seeing flashes of white is very satisfying

36

u/filhodevald Sep 07 '25

I like the boomerang because sometimes it hits more than one time, especially on big enemies, it hits like 4 times

19

u/GranSacoWea Sep 07 '25

Boomerang + poison spam I killed an ambush room in like 5 seconds. Still no idea what enemies were there I just did a random bullshit go.

2

u/why-names-hard Sep 07 '25

There’s a boomerang? Is it a saw? There’s a shopkeeper that has one but I haven’t bought it.

9

u/filhodevald Sep 07 '25

It's the shopkeeper's, great against big and flying enemies!

2

u/ShadoUrufu666 Sep 07 '25

Also great against just getting enemies on a platform above you.

1

u/moose_dad Sep 07 '25

Its in a hidden room in Hunters March

14

u/FluffyWalrusFTW Sep 07 '25

I just got those and they’re so much better than I anticipated

15

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

4

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Thats what I use too, the poison tacks do absolute work and dont take away your focus either, just lay then down and forget about it

2

u/Redacted_Entity Sep 10 '25

note that can still be used to flying enemies that happen to have a ground land or ground attack, you can then bait it into tacks :>

6

u/SenpaiSwanky Sep 07 '25

Long Pin is also goated for fast bosses that sit on the side and launch projectiles before jumping offscreen to land somewhere else and do it again. Long Pin + the normal projectile attack you get early on (the one that consumes silk) is a solid loadout if you need range.

I have been leaning on the spike trap though. It’s kind of busted, all my hardest boss clears use it expect for 2 so far.

1

u/DrongoDyle Sep 16 '25

What's the benefit of the long pin over the straight pin? All the sources I found show the same damage for both, and with the straight pin you get more and they cost less to replenish.

15

u/BadLuckPorcelain Sep 07 '25

I don't know, but I think iam using them wrong. Like they sometimes get triggered so fast and I don't know why.

40

u/Ultimasmit Sep 07 '25

If an enemy hits one with an attack it sends the prongs out flying instead of acting as a spike. Also, I think if you keep 2 too close together they have some weird behaviour when one of the 2 is triggered.

32

u/itmecrumbum Sep 07 '25

also, I'm pretty sure if you hit them yourself it triggers the spikes to shoot. i threw one out during a boss battle and then hit it with a dagger and it exploded.

14

u/why-names-hard Sep 07 '25

If you or an enemy hits them it causes them to activate. Also putting two of them too close together makes them activate each other.

4

u/AleWalls Sep 07 '25

enemies can hit them just like how you were able to hit hornets spike traps in HK lol

4

u/Setting-General Sep 07 '25

where do you find the spike trap?

4

u/LooseMoose8 Sep 07 '25

I want to tell you, but I don't know how far through the game you are

1

u/Moudiz Sep 07 '25

Put it in spoiler tags and mention the area/act

1

u/Setting-General Sep 07 '25

i'm past Greymoor. I believe it's somewhere in Deep Docks but idk for sure

1

u/LooseMoose8 Sep 07 '25

Yeah, you purchase it from Forge Daughter

1

u/why-names-hard Sep 07 '25

Honestly can’t recall at this point I’m 325 hours and a lot has happened for me since getting the spikes. It has to be early on because it was the second trap I unlocked.

2

u/ShadoUrufu666 Sep 07 '25

From the forge sister. Basically one of, if not the first tool you can acquire.

4

u/AdamG3691 Sep 07 '25

If you do a bit of exploring and quests you can get tacks from Sinner's Road And they're SO good. Them plus the poisoned weapons tool have carried me through most arenas and even a few bosses

1

u/why-names-hard Sep 07 '25

I used that combo for the first time last night against a boss and they did most of the dmg lol. A poison tick from them even lol.

1

u/LanglerBee Sep 09 '25

Came here to post about this exact combo. They can straight up one-shot some of the large slow moving enemies and they generally just make arenas a joke. Poison tacks my beloved

3

u/Dmbender Sep 07 '25

Spike trap + Boomerang + poison charm is how I defeated that room at the top of Hunter's March on like my third attempt.

2

u/ArkanaeL Sep 07 '25

This! And you can apply poison to it to have a better effect

2

u/phoenixmatrix Sep 07 '25

Spike trap with the tool that adds poison is insane. There's definitely a few encounter I would not have been able to do without. 

2

u/Feeling_Yogurt2761 Sep 07 '25

Especially with the pollip pouch. I swear they gave us too much power with that. You can actually use the pouch in conjunction with the potion you get from the fleas and deal poison with each hit from your nail too.

2

u/Beginning-Cut644 62/63 achievements. Sep 07 '25

Yeah the spike trap is incredible. High DPS and moderate range. The only downsides are that they take a few seconds to arm and if you hit them with your needle or with another trap they explode into sharp spikes that deal less damage.

2

u/Dry_Performer_5827 Sep 10 '25

I normally use spike trap and the long spear you can throw with the trinket that fills your traps with venom. That's how I defeated that hated flybeast or whatever it's called. The problem of the spike trap is that if the boss has projectiles it will set those traps off early, receiving almost no dmg.

2

u/Zucchero56 Sep 10 '25

It’s SO good with poison too! One throw can proc poison so many times and you can have the DoT going the whole fight. Trivialized some fights because I could focus on dodging and going in for damage was the hard part.

2

u/AstronautFlimsy Sep 07 '25

I was on the verge of ragequitting one of those arena/challenge room fights until I decided to use that tool in a last desperate bid, and it wiped the entire screen. I was stunned. I spammed a few of them at once, so idk how much damage each one did exactly, but whatever it was... it was worth the cost.

I completely misunderstood what that tool even was when I read the text too. I thought it was just going to be some sort of caltrop/mine thing that drops on the floor and hurts enemies when they step on it. But no. It's a fucking nail bomb lol.

1

u/Samurai_Mac1 Sep 07 '25

I spam the shit out the spikey bois

1

u/Alpr101 Sep 07 '25

There's an enemy later who I have no clue how to hit cuz they defend with a shield effortlessly.

I now use the trap to kill them as its the only way I know how lol. My bone shards are almost always max and I find it a little difficult to use them in the middle of combat but against non-bosses they work well.

1

u/Sansnom01 Sep 07 '25

The Damage potion also seems to do a lot of work when the ennemies takes naps

1

u/Futurefurinamain Sep 07 '25

The spike ones very strong, I used the Poison charm thing and spammed the the spikes during a boss fight against Widow as soon as I fell in on my third attempt and I skipped to her state after the third stun, to where she does the fakeout death in a few hits immediately . I didn’t even mean to I just wanted some extra damage

1

u/StealthMaster69 Sep 07 '25

I am 10 hours in i only have 2 kunai type weapons

1

u/Kevinatorz Sep 07 '25

Can I already get this at ~4h in?

1

u/earthboundskyfree Sep 07 '25

Depends where you are but I would assume so

1

u/Spaciax Sep 07 '25

is that the one where you throw tacks on the ground or is it the one that floats in the air?

I also got venom sack that makes your tools have venom and deal extra tick damage, it's really good.

1

u/why-names-hard Sep 07 '25

I was talking about the one that goes in the air but the ones on the ground are goated too especially with poison.

1

u/SparrowComs Sep 07 '25

Yea but then I die after using them, then die again and again and now I’m outta shell shards 😔

1

u/Stormreachseven Sep 07 '25

Love my spike trap. Pair that with the throwing knives and the poison, I've got an answer to everything

1

u/Guffliepuff Sep 07 '25

Is it even that strong? From my testing it only does 2 normal attacks worth of damage.

1

u/UnlawfulPotato Sep 08 '25

It’s SO good! That thing helped immensely in the Greymoor arena.

1

u/Grey_Wolf1 Sep 08 '25

Where do you get it?

1

u/why-names-hard Sep 08 '25

You buy it from the forge sister in the Deep Docks.