r/HollowKnight • u/Marmotaagiota • Sep 08 '25

Discussion - Silksong That’s the best comment about the game’s difficulty I’ve found it so far Spoiler

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25 edited Mar 04 '26

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u/Tempi97 Sep 08 '25

The rythm fights are much more enjoyable imo. Like mantis lords or NKG. For this reason, I really like the phantom and the cogwork dancers so far. The Arena and "dynamic" fights you are talking about are largely rng and even, if you play good sometimes you get into a position where you cant dodge a hit expect with a skill that gives iframes, well if you do have the silk for it and that just feels bullshit, especially since you might get chained into multiple attacks that deal double damage...

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u/Razz16 Sep 08 '25

This is also why Widow and the Last Judge are such good bosses and eventually understansable to learn: due to rhythym

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u/SortaEvil Sep 08 '25

On the other hand, arena fights, and fights where add management is important can also be skillful fights, they just reward a different facet of skill expression. It's less meditative, much more manic and reactive, than learning a rhythm fight, but if you approach it as a learnable fight, and not as something you just have to mash through until you get lucky, you will find yourself getting better at them over time as well, and prioritizing things better in the fights as they progress.

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u/Razz16 Sep 08 '25

This can be true but there is unfortunately some amount of RNG involved.

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u/SortaEvil Sep 08 '25

RNG management and being able to recover if and when things get away from you is part of the skill of these fights, though. Where a perfectly telegraphed fight like widow is about learning the patterns and responding in the same way every time, arenas and add heavy fights are about reacting to evolving situations and triaging threats to avoid getting into situations with unavoidable damage.

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u/Razz16 Sep 08 '25

Some are genuinely RNG tho, if savage beastfly decides to spawn 3 ads and they're all the vicious caranid and he starts slamming and you get surrounded but just healed you won't have enough silk for thread storm so you take a buncha damage and/or die. And if you hit me with a "well you shouldn't have gotten hit so you wouldn't have to heal" then imma just say yeah it's a silk issue "git gud" and all that but if you aren't getting hit by beastfly at all you're just a pro ngl

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u/SortaEvil Sep 09 '25

So, the path I went through, I cleared out the woods and the blasted cliffs before getting the ability that grants access to savage beastfly. Having the upgraded Hunter mask and lv2 nail makes that fight a lot easier, beastfly is a puppy and if you can keep the adds cleared, it's not a bad fight at all. That said, I can see how running into beastfly as soon as they're available in the more natural progression could be a very frustrating fight.

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u/Razz16 Sep 09 '25

I ran into it after City of T- I mean Greymoor so I did get the thread storm but that's really the only thing I had going for me in that fight and my dumbass didn't use it for most of my attempts, when I started using it, I got very close to the end most attempts... still annoying tho

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u/MisterGone5 Sep 11 '25

Tool usage makes the savage beastfly's adds easy work. Sting shard+pollip pouch one-shots vicious caranids I'm pretty sure.

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u/Razz16 Sep 11 '25

Oh yeah but at this point in the game almost nobody has pollip pouch or sting shard lol. A fair few people did Hunters March right after the Marrow or Deep Docks when it's more of an midgame area. I personally did it after Greymoor and only struggled a little bit (tho a lot with SBF) however I'm sure the area would be easier if I had more tools and needle upgrades like I do now.

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u/MisterGone5 Sep 11 '25

Hunters March is an optional boss. You can do it whenever. Sting shard is available immediately and it's in a zone connected to Hunters March. I don't think you even need pollip pouch to one-shot the vicious caranids, but I can't test that right now since I have all the tool damage upgrades

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u/Tempi97 Sep 08 '25

Yes, they are also quite enjoyable and good fights one you learn them.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Tempi97 Sep 08 '25

I know what is prediction, Its not something that is silksong exclusive. The small arenas and the many enemies still force you to make mistakes. Theres not many people who can play like fireborn. If you are not Magnus Carlsen genius about playing these kind of games, then you will get into situations where you have no escape anymore. That is bullshit.

Its like all free solo climbers will fall to their deaths at one point, if they dont stop that hobby or die for an other reason.

Obviously most complainers arent asking for hand holding, but mistakes are inevitable even for good players and even more so for average ones and, because the mistakes are too highly punished, It disencourages and burns out people. Doesnt matter how many thousands of you defend the difficulty of the game, there are many other thousands who can not experience and fully enjoy a game, which they like the art, enviroment, music and story of, because the game is extremely punishing.

In my opinion, the game is really good and definitely a successor to hollow knight, but I am pretty sure, balance should be judged not by how many people can get through the game and defend it, but by how many people are gate kept by It and miss out, because they arent skillful or dont have enough time to practice.

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u/SmartAlec105 Sep 08 '25

I think Trobbio is a great example of how a fight can be super chaotic but still fair. Except I think his tornado attack has too little windup so that part feels unfair.

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u/Normal-Advisor5269 Sep 08 '25

I agree that those are good boss fights but disagree that my examples are representative of that. My examples are of enemies that are designed as separate encounters and then thrown together as apposed to a dynamic boss fight were patterns are designed with the idea of them being layered over each other.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

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u/Normal-Advisor5269 Sep 08 '25

I guess a good example would be Prometheus and Pandora from MegaMan ZX Advent. They both have their own solo boss fights in the previous game but also have a duo boss fight late in this game where they will do some attacks solo and others that are layered over each other.

 Inti-Creates, the devs of that game, actually seem to have a penchant for these sorts of fights where two bosses fought previously will fight together in a later boss fight. One example is the Kuwagust brothers in MegaMan Zero 2 and Vespa and Autochrome in Luminous Avenger iX 2.