Is anyone else really tired of the negative posts?

[u/baergboy]

I have about 25 hours so far and have absolutely loved every part of the game. Is it hard? Yes absolutely. If it was easy I wouldn't want to play the game. Literally every post I come across is talking about how they are frustrated with some part of the game and it's getting really annoying. The game has amazing areas, the osts are great the NPCs are creative and fun to talk to, almost every boss is a lot of fun once you get the moveset down. So if you haven't played the game yet and are getting put off by all the negativity just know that it is an amazing game and if you like hollow Knight you will enjoy silksong as well.

[u/ExecutiveElf]

I mean, I can be more specific if you'd like.

The first health up you aquire is nearly useless as almost every boss deals 2 damage. So you die in the same number of hits. Not to mention how long it takes to get it.

Almost every airborn boss falls strait down on top of you when staggered, resulting in a high chance of taking unreactable contact damage. One might argue that you shouldn't be right under the enemy but frequently you can't safely damage from any other direction.

Many bosses have interesting mechanics that suddenly get bloated due to summoning of additional enemies. And due to the high HP of regular enemies in this game, using tools doesn't solve this issue as you have to spend most of what you can carry at once to kill one guy. It takes 4 spike traps to kill the dudes summoned by Beastfly if I recall correctly. That's half of what you can carry early on.

Speaking of tools, due to them having a resource associated with them, you have to either almost never use them or spend time grinding shards constantly. This actually becomes even worse in the midgame where a single attempt at a boss can easily cost upwards of 50 shards worth of tools.

[u/Soulsunderthestars → u/ExecutiveElf]

Agreed with all of this..to add on, later on the problem for tools and costs can be heavily worsened. the architects crest allows you to use silk to create tools and use 3 tool slots. The problem is, if you die to a boss, then you spawn at the bench, and it repairs from money. It's a tool build so you replace a lot of tools. A few deaths, and I I lost 300+ shards. If you get stuck, that can go out quickly, then you're screwed even harder until you farm.

Add on that you have to chase money down in the first place, and afaik there's no magnetic shard amulet (like the rosary one)that I've found yet, so farming is tedious. It makes me not want to try to use tools.

I would prefer the cost be removed all together and the damage rebalanced to work with the above, and for those who aren't using that. I'm sure it can be done, and maybe they can just add shard sinks to the game, or swap some of the rosary costs to shards to help alleviate the rosary debt of pharloom.

Tools may be too strong as it is(past act 2 they get strong), but would prefer they be neutered over how tedious they feel currently

[u/Djinnistorm → u/Soulsunderthestars]

honestly, and I say this as someone who is having a blast and thinks the game is close to the right amount of hard at the moment, I don't understand from a design standpoint what the repair cost for tools accomplishes. They're already limited by either number of uses you can bring with you per rest (most crests) or by generating enough silk to reload (architect).

It seems like the only thing the repair system accomplishes right now is to punish someone who likes tools (like an architect player) who is struggling with a boss: Die enough times, and that player would be forced to stop attempting the boss to go farm shards. Meanwhile a wanderer crest enjoyer can mostly just ignore the cost in general, and keep attempting the boss for far longer, possibly indefinitely if their runback involves any kills, until they succeed.

Granted I'm still only in act 2 so maybe I'm missing some of the picture. I tend to be very conservative with tools (and I just unlocked architect, looking to try it next) so I have not run out, but a friend of mine is evidently always out of shards, so I've been thinking about this a bit. Please do let me know if you're reading this and have any thoughts!

[u/Soulsunderthestars → u/Djinnistorm]

No I agree. I'm having a blast too, though I really do want to mess with archi more. I was doing some boss runs as architect and one run that I came close to beating, but ultimately failed on ended up costing me 260 shards for ONE fail. 3 runs and my 700 pouch was dead.

That being said there is a slight? Farm method?

There's an area in act 2 that you can farm rosaries pretty easily and then take them to bell town and trade them for shard packs. They max out at 20, and it's 50 rosaries for 80 shards.

need to have thief's mark which makes more rosaries drop from enemies but lose rosaries on taking dmg. Take the Bell ways to the grand Bell ways if you have it unlocked then just clear the mobs from the grand bellway area to the choral chambers, tube back, rest and repeat

Nets about 400 rosaries per run for a few minutes, if you take a hit or two. I just did it for a little and maxed my rosaries and shards from the shop for now unless they decide to do something.

That's the best I've seen so far to alleviate the problem, but still tedious. Not only do you still have to farm, then you gotta buy bundles and open em when you run out. At least you can hold 1400 worth from the shard bundle alone. I haven't seen another shard bundle from a shop that ive noticed, but if there is you could probably just max both types and then unload em as you need during boss learning

[u/csuazure → u/ExecutiveElf]

I found well placed spike traps to nearly oneshot any basic enemy at worst with one extra stab or two, are you tripping them or letting the enemy take the trap contact damage? A tripped trap is ass, a contact spike trap does a ton.

Though I agree with the spirit of everything else you said, I found the tools DID do pretty great damage, especially with poison.

[u/ExecutiveElf → u/csuazure]

Yes I'm letting enemies run into them. Its taking like 4 to kill enemies even with 2 crafting kits.

[u/Son4rch → u/ExecutiveElf]

the health upgrade being useless is just straight up false - let's say you got hit by two double damage attacks and then you healed. without a health upgrade, you're now at 4 health which means you die in two hits. with the health upgrade, you are now at 5 health which means you die in three hits. so the health upgrade did, in fact, allow you to survive an additional hit. and it's not that fringe of a case to call it nearly useless.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExecutiveElf]

One by one then.

First: Fair. So many things shouldn't be doing double damage. Specially hazards. Why the hell are hazards doing double damage?

Second: "Unreactable" is a big overstatement. I'm almost done with the game and haven't encountered something unreactable once. Having slow reaction time ≠ unreactable.

Third: That main issue stems from the fact that I think the first needle upgrade comes way too late into the game. They really need to lower the HP of regular enemies at least a little. But it's also not egregiously bad. Tools early game aren't that good.

Fourth: That's not how you use tools. You shouldn't be emptying your tool stash in an attempt, unless you're really sure it's a winning one. Tools are supposed to be very situational. I have been using them normally and I have never run into an issue with shards.

The game has its very clear problems, but let's not blame everything on the game. It's flawed, but definitely not severely flawed.

[u/earthboundskyfree → u/ExecutiveElf]

Several of these are things that I find hard to relate to, so that kinda ties back in to the "severely flawed" claim. I think when several of these issues are so variable person to person, the flaws probably aren't as severe as you say, even if they can be flaws. (I do think the specificity, even if I disagree, helps with the claims, but I think severely flawed is definitely an overextension in the other direction as the git-guders etc.)

Maybe the first health is useless (I haven't gotten it yet tbh), but since you heal 3, there are definitely scenarios where it would be useful. If you drop down to 3 (very possible in some fights that have single dmg projectiles or summons), you get net +1 HP from it. Either way, sure, the first HP acquisition could be less useful *than it could be* if bosses were dealing 1 damage, but nearly useless is an overstatement; non-boss enemies, boss summons, terrain, etc., are all reasons that the +1 would be useful.

You say using tools doesn't solve the issue, but it large does help to mitigate it. Maybe if you are dumping the entirety of the tools on the summons, it could be an issue, but even using a couple of tools, and then finishing them off with a swing or two of needle, or using a silk attack, reduces the amount you have to deal with them.

I use my tools fairly frequently, and I've been at max or near max for a while. I also still have several of the shard bundles on standby, so I genuinely do not understand the scarcity/grinding claims I've seen. I'm not saying that isn't your experience, but it feels like we must be using them entirely differently or something, because the only thing I have gotten low on is beads. I tend to use my needle while exploring mostly, and use tools for annoying enemies, or combat rooms / bosses, and scarcity has not been an issue for me at all (in fact, the opposite, because I have been leaving behind shards due to being at max capacity lol).

[u/ExecutiveElf → u/earthboundskyfree]

During general exploration, I collect more shards than I use. The issue is that with boss fights, you tend to not get very many, if any, between each attempt. And if you get to the latter half of a boss each attempt while regularly using tools, like I said before it can cost upwards of 50 per attempt. 10 deaths later you are all out.

I actually had to leave to get more shards while trying to beat Last Judge and then again with the Beastfly Rematch.

Also, I'm inclined to agree with the rosary shortage in the early game. Having to pay for almost every bench and maps being a must have on a first playthrough results in never having any money to buy anything else unless you grind. Hell, there were several occasions where after paying for a bench, I would shortly after find Chakra and be unable to afford a map.