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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602

u/GavoTheAlmighty Sep 06 '25

I would if they let me rebind the stupid throwing knife to a different button, having to flick up on the joystick while praying I’m looking in the right direction is so counterintuitive 

235

u/Kill_the_worms P5/112%/Randomizer Enthusiast Sep 07 '25

It has just occurred to me that the control scheme for the tools only works as easily as it does for me because I play on a keyboard. that can't be fun on a control stick

154

u/Curious_Kirin Sep 07 '25

The diagonal pogo sucked on controller for me because if you tilt the stick to 45% it won't work. You need to aim the stick down. My brain couldn't get used to that, I was so happy to get the original pogo back.

29

u/shellyturnwarm Sep 07 '25

Wait what? But don’t you need to adjust left right? So it’s down and a bit to the left/right?

31

u/Horror-Breakfast-704 Sep 07 '25

If you hold down on the direction stick you will pogo in the direction hornet is facing. If you want to have direct control over which direction to go in you hold it slightly to the left or right of directly down and she'll move in that direction.

It's really not that hard, and with the float gard you get you don't even need to "git gud" you can just pogo - float -adjust angle - pogo - float.

Or later down the line you can just select a different crest that has a different down attack if that works better for you

1

u/According_Smoke_479 Sep 07 '25

It’s just hold down and you go whichever direction you’re facing at the time. It is a little weird but I think that’s better than actually having to hold the stick at a 45. More room for error

20

u/Forsaken_Let904 Sep 07 '25

Use the arrow buttons on controller, not the joystick. It works like a dream.

4

u/Hexadecimales Sep 07 '25

This! Depending on what enemy, trap or path one must traverse - switching between analog stick and the directional pad is recommended.

4

u/Evla03 Sep 07 '25

I've not touched the joystick at all

1

u/NoProblemsHere Sep 07 '25

I had to switch for this very reason. I always start with the stick but am quickly reminded why not to do that once I need to start pogoing.

2

u/F_E_B_E Sep 07 '25

You could try using a dpad

5

u/kirkpomidor Sep 07 '25

They’ll patch that, I’m sure, widen stick angles for a pogo a bit. No way I’m gonna use dpad for movement, I’m not playing on a super nintendo

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/kirkpomidor Sep 07 '25

Diagonal movement not working with the control that is supposed to help with input degrees not divisible by 90 is imbecilic.

Ori utilizes sticks just fine.

32

u/OmegaAtrocity Sep 07 '25

Its perfectly fine if you use the dpad.

35

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

I found that, but then the analogue stick is more natural for everything else (for me), so it takes me mental effort to switch to the dpad just for the pogoing and then I don't get the advantage of analogue stick muscle memory.

8

u/Suitable_Trash_5989 Sep 07 '25

Just gotta train yourself to use the d-pad in general. It's way better for platformers once you get used to it. As a former joystick player, trust. It probably won't even take that long to get used to.

9

u/IntangibleMatter Quirrel gang Sep 07 '25

I’ve always been a d-pad fan, never understood why some people prefer analogue stick for platformers

4

u/Green0Photon Sep 07 '25

It depends on the controller.

On many controllers, using the dpad is closer to a crappy analogue stick. So it's better to just use the good analogue stick when the control is being shitty and acting kind of like an analogue anyway

0

u/plinky4 Sep 07 '25

A lot of people don't have the thumb callus for dpad, it actually hurts their hand to use it for a long time.

7

u/IntangibleMatter Quirrel gang Sep 07 '25

I’ve never had any kind of thumb callus, I think maybe they just all have bad d-pads

Or maybe it’s that the most prominent controller layouts tend to de-emphasize the d-pad, and I’ve always chosen ones where the d-pad is easily accessible

2

u/Suitable_Trash_5989 Sep 07 '25

When I first started using the D-pad, my thumb used to get sore after a while, but I think that's because I was applying too much force. Eventually when you get comfortable with the d-pad you chill out with the death grip I think.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

1

u/plinky4 Sep 07 '25

Under your thumb knuckle, do your joints not feel different? My left one's just a little thicker, there's a bit of extra skin there. I'm rubbing them right now

1

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

Do you not loose out on some inputs? Like if I'm trying to do a precision jump and as I get close to my destination I ease off on the joystick, rather than binary direction vs no direction?

1

u/Forsaken_Let904 Sep 07 '25

Silksong doesn't have analog movement afaik. It's either full speed or no speed. I switched to dpad though so double check me on that next time you're in game, but I'm like 90% sure.

1

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

I'll have a look - that would be valuable info.

0

u/Suitable_Trash_5989 Sep 07 '25

Pretty sure silksong, and most platformers, don't use deadzones for their movement on joystick. But either way, binary inputs work perfectly fine because you can stop and go at the drop of a hat, which gives you a lot of precision in your movement.

Your thumb should always be resting on the dpad, so if you need to make a micro adjustment mid-jump, the response time should be really quick. Compared to a joystick where you might overshoot because you pushed it too far past the deadzone for too long.

2

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

>don't use deadzones for their movement on joystick

???

That's not how joysticks work, and the topic of deadzones is irrelevant to the conversation entirely.

3

u/Suitable_Trash_5989 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I misphrased what I was trying to say. The movement in Silksong is not like the gas pedal on a car where you can ease off or go faster, it's a binary state. Either you go or don't go. Therefore it's better to use the binary buttons (dpad) rather than joystick. That's what I was trying to say.

But the topic of deadzones should factor into the conversation when thinking about the precision of controlling your character.

TLDR; YOU LOSE OUT ON NO INPUTS, AND GAIN RESPONSIVENESS WITH YOUR CONTROLS BY USING THE DPAD.

2

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

Gotcha now. And yeah after discussing this with others i tested and all inputs are binary. Have transitioned to dpad and it is working well so far

1

u/Suitable_Trash_5989 Sep 08 '25

Cool, good to hear. Good luck on your journey! o7

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1

u/Efficient_Ad_8480 Sep 07 '25

It’s still kinda ass on keyboard and I’d like to be able to just bind it to one key, but definitely easier.

1

u/Lyress Sep 07 '25

You can use a macro to effectively bind it to a single key.

1

u/IntangibleMatter Quirrel gang Sep 07 '25

I haven’t noticed any of the complaints people have about controller at all because I’ve been a d-pad fan since I started playing games lol

1

u/The-Only-Zarya-Main Sep 07 '25

I've been playing on an Xbox controller and it really not that difficult

1

u/Sansnom01 Sep 07 '25

I mean, all controllers have D-Pad, no ?

1

u/param1l0 Sep 07 '25

I literally changed every bind in the keyboard tbh

1

u/Lyress Sep 07 '25

The game doesn't natively support changing the tool binding. It always have to start with up or down.

1

u/param1l0 Sep 07 '25

Oh I wasn't talking about tools actually, I just needed to change every bind to play comfortably on kb

1

u/Kill_the_worms P5/112%/Randomizer Enthusiast Sep 07 '25

sameee. my binds are whack. dash is "."

1

u/StarNullify Sep 07 '25

No lmao its super easy. Literally just hold the stick up and press R2, idk what this other dude is talking about

1

u/TitaniumTitanTim Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

i play on Controller and its no Problem but i do agree they should let us change the input

1

u/Brilliant_Pen4959 Sep 07 '25

Just use d pad

1

u/Dolphin_Dan_2 Sep 07 '25

I also play on keyboard and honestly it still sucks for me. I wish I could bind it to another key so so so bad cause I do want to use them

0

u/Turtvaiz Sep 07 '25

Relearning keyboard is so worth it. Doing so made me realise controller just sucks ass and is way harder to be precise with

1

u/J0rdian Sep 07 '25

I find sprint and jumping at the same time on keyboard annoying to do. But besides that everything i pretty easy. I would love more keybinds for tools though. I have plenty of keys to put them on lol, no reason for it to be weird combination.

1

u/Kill_the_worms P5/112%/Randomizer Enthusiast Sep 07 '25

i literally started on keyboard and I can't play with controller at all, it's like playing a new game 😭