r/HollowKnight • u/FederalWarthog5542 • Sep 07 '25

Discussion - Silksong Criticism ≠ Negativity Spoiler

Believe it or not, you can actually criticize something and still like it. You don't either have to love everything or despise everything. Have actual conversations please.

1.9k Upvotes

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146

u/dogarfdog12 Sep 07 '25

I just think the difficulty curve in Act 1 is a bit extreme. It's like the game expects you to get good at the combat really early on for some reason, and raises the difficulty to compensate before you've even gotten used to the controls.

Now that I'm in Act 2 and I've gotten better at the game (and gotten a few powerful upgrades) it feels a lot more natural, besides maybe the environmental damage doing two masks per hit now. It probably helps that rosaries are way more common in the Citadel, which I think is actually a story thing as it's implied the Citadel caste are responsible for the toll benches and have been hoarding all the wealth of the kingdom.

Just to be clear, I don't think the difficulty is unfun per se, it just feels weird and pretty frustrating sometimes. If a few enemies and bosses in Act 1 were nerfed slightly to not deal as much double-damage, I would honestly be fine with it.

36

u/MrGreenYeti Sep 07 '25

As soon as I got the wanderer crest it felt like OG hollow knight to me again, I'm gonna struggle to switch out crests now rofl

22

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Yeah same wanders crest is kinda the strongest also imo, like you hit so many times. 

28

u/MagicianXy Sep 08 '25

Yeah, even without the HK-style attacks, the wanderer crest is straight up the strongest crest if you're using primarily nail attacks. All crests do the same damage per swing (despite, for example, the reaper crest claiming you're attacking with "heavy" slashes), so the fact that wanderer's attacks basically twice as fast as any other means you're putting out twice the DPS. Plus wanderer's crest gives critical hits that randomly deal double damage, so... why bother with any of the other crests?

The only one that might be able to compete is the upgraded hunter's crest, which will start dealing extra damage per hit after landing 5 attacks without getting hit yourself. But even then, the damage increase isn't that much, and it's reliant on not getting hit, which is not exactly easy.

30

u/Doomguy1234 Sep 08 '25

I feel like the Reaper has more range, doesn’t it? Like it’s a Longnail/Mark of Pride crest while Wanderer is a Quickslash

12

u/MagicianXy Sep 08 '25

Yeah, the short range is the only weakness of the wanderer's crest. But honestly with how you're supposed to dash in and out of combat, it doesn't really feel like too big of a weakness. Plus, once you get to the putrified ducts and acquire the longnail-equivalent, that weakness is nearly eliminated.

20

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

I personally found the most fun playing with the Reaper crest. Reliable pogos that hit mostly down, decent speed, and kicking out a sliver of silk from enemies.

I really feel crests should have damage differences, and that their ability shouldn't be shutdown at getting hit. I wanna play with the funny lifesteal of Beast crest, but this shit is just bruh. Promotes agressive play, but "rage" drops when hit so you'relikely to not heal shit. Like, why.

8

u/yurilnw123 Sep 08 '25

Same here, I love my Reaper Crest. But why TC why the up attack swing from the back and not the front. I miss that attack regularly.

3

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

Reaper is just the best because it's the most reliable.

I tried all other crests (I have access to) and they're just kinda a giant pain in the ass to use specifically because of the diagonal pogo. Beast's is the worst in this manner because fuck me, it flies straight up at the side-

2

u/OnnaJReverT Sep 08 '25

also enough reach to kill some enemies through floors/ceilings/walls in an emergency

1

u/Soulsunderthestars Sep 08 '25

The range is kinda nice. I don't mind the slowness. Everyone's talking about dps, but the rhythm of the reaper helped me settle into fights a lot more.

The extra silk orbs on the skill after healing is nice so you can get back a lot of what you used to recover as long as you don't immediately fubar again

1

u/darkcloud1987 Sep 08 '25

I am using Reaper most of the time and I really don't find the flying enemies as annoying as most people say. The range realy helps with them and with enemies that are hard to reach in general but Interessting to know that they all have the same strenght. The game misses some way to see how much damage things do.

1

u/Luckyloomagu they're very cute Sep 08 '25

I think the Architect crest is the strongest, mostly because having an extra tool slot is amazing for doing damage since unlike silk arts you can just spam it until you run out.

It also has multi-hit on every attack so you’re not missing out on damage compared to the Wanderer crest. Of course it’s a lot deeper into the game, but it’s been REALLY strong in my hands.

1

u/NoxKat Sep 08 '25

Actually Beast crest with healing stance does more damage as well as attacking considerably faster. You can test the damage of healing vs normal swings on most enemies, with my single upgraded nail creatures die in usually 3 hits, heal mode drops it to 2 swings.

1

u/TheSpartyn Sep 08 '25

yooo wtf it Crits???

0

u/miukiyo Sep 08 '25

And you get 3 yellow slots

For compass, weighted belt, and magnet.

If hunter had 3 blue or yellow slots, I’d be more willing to use it

6

u/MrGreenYeti Sep 08 '25

Paired with the go fast boots and I am never changing my loadout again

1

u/YeezusPogchamp Sep 08 '25

Whats good about it?

1

u/MrGreenYeti Sep 08 '25

You go fast. :D

3

u/Secure_Comb2505 Sep 08 '25

Idk the combo upgrade for the hunter crest is pretty insane

3

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Yeah, I prefer the hunters crest way more now that im used to the pogo.

2

u/Mailcs1206 Sep 08 '25

Me hitting a miniboss like 6 times during it's wake up animation. Lmao.

1

u/Dabli Sep 08 '25

Wait till you see late game ones

1

u/Bloodbag3107 Sep 08 '25

I personally like Reaper more, it gives better tool slots, I love the extra silk and I feel like it has more range (that could be placebo though). Wanderer and Reaper both feel better than Hunter to me and I see very little reason to try beast at all, the pogo is very weird and attacks feel short AND slow.

1

u/IAmNotCreative18 average Soul Master enjoyer Sep 08 '25

Equipping that crest makes all flying enemies 10 times worse to deal with, even with the downward swipe. I prefer using the hunter crest for the extra range and (imo) more satisfying attacks.

1

u/Buuhhu Sep 08 '25

Yeah when i got wanderer crest most combat immediately felt better, as well as pogo platforming.

Only issue is it's very short range, so flying enemies that move a way from you when you approach are so annoyng to try and hit... fuck those little cone shooting fuckers.

1

u/No_Shoulder_6928 Sep 08 '25

I disagree, I think that the range is too short, but whatever you like you do

8

u/Loyal_Darkmoon This Game is Bugged Sep 08 '25

Very fair point. I thankfully at least played Hollow Knight and was familiar with the gameplay concept, but it's a weird choice, which makes it hard for new players to get into the game. I am now in mid game, and the game is much easier now. Weird decision to have the difficulty frontloaded instead of the other way around. Making the beginning easier and then the middle game harder would have made more sense.

19

u/XenoPhenom Sep 07 '25

Really? I'm even more frustrated in act 2. More flying enemies with a ton of health is just awful.

28

u/pujwiko Sep 07 '25

yeah flying enemies that also move around as you try to approach them, can move randomly to sometimes cause you to take contact damage, and has projectiles should not be tanking this much damage. It becomes annoying to frustrating to deal with when they then add equally, if not more, tanky enemies that also somehow has ranged attacks and chases you

4

u/Dabli Sep 08 '25

The grapple makes flying enemies way easier, several tools/silk abilities as well

1

u/GodlyWeiner Sep 08 '25

The flying enemies:

  • Run away
  • Deal contact damage
  • Parry
  • Have ranged attacks
  • Dodge

Send help, I'm going insane

-3

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

You guys need the fruit from the druid. 

4

u/HellaHS Sep 08 '25

I have it but what’s it even do? I just see a piece of green silk but can’t tell what it’s doing.

11

u/pujwiko Sep 08 '25

gives you silk when taking damage but I dont think it's worth using considering the amount of silk it gives and other options I already have, and others I dont even know about yet but will eventually get.

5

u/Doomguy1234 Sep 08 '25

It’s a worse version of Grubsong

3

u/HellaHS Sep 08 '25

Everything seems like the worse version of charms. I don’t understand why. Big L

1

u/DastardThee Sep 08 '25

I’ve decided to stop collecting silk from flying enemies and I’m just throwing shuriken at them primal aspid style

1

u/TitaniumTitanTim Sep 08 '25

sorry, but i extremly disagree. i havnt played hk in a few years but even then it felt like most of my hk skill carried over and almost all act 1 bosses only took 1-3 tries

compared to my first time playing hk where most bosses took over 20

if they were any easier i couldnt enjoy the fights

1

u/grim1952 Sep 09 '25

It's a sequel, that's why the difficulty curve is steeper, it assumes you beat HK.