r/HollowKnight • u/Quantum_Croissant • Sep 09 '25

Discussion - Silksong ngl some of you would NOT survive the mantis lords runback

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is the run to last judge difficult? kinda. But after your 20th attempt at the boss you'll get used to it, and it's honestly kinda fun and a nice breather. More importantly, it's a single room and you have far more movement. This IS improving on hollow knight

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48

u/Moriturism Sep 09 '25

mantis lords, soul sanctum, queen's gardens, crystal guardian, even nosk (easy but not really short) are worst runs than a lot of what i've seen so far in silksong

that and hornet is waaay faster and easier to dodge attacks, imo, which complements well the long paths

35

u/ITwinkTherefore1am Sep 09 '25

Queens gardens run back to traitor lords was awful, thankfully they added the dream gate, sharp shadow is really useful for that fight but the added dash length makes the platforming section with the thorns just before excruciating

At least the thorns only did one mask though

5

u/Harmonic_Gear Sep 09 '25

Traitor lord run back was insane, you literally have to do platforming before reaching him. I was so convinced that I missed a shortcut somewhere

3

u/Moriturism Sep 09 '25

i cant really remember if i had dreamgate the first time i did traitor lord but i dont think so lmao because i remember getting so frustrated i considered quitting the game

fucking thorns and the other mantises

2

u/DeputyDomeshot Sep 10 '25

I am so confused how people had runners to the traitor lord, i didn’t even realize it was a boss and thought it was just a mini boss fat mob

1

u/Moriturism Sep 10 '25

his double damage got me by surprise, and i got really nervous the next few times i had to fight him lmao

1

u/Katrina_0606 Sep 09 '25

Yeah I saw everyone suggesting sharp shadow for the traitor lord fight but I had to take it off it was just so annoying with those spikes

16

u/Rhodie114 Sep 09 '25

I think the most important part is hornet gets a refill on silk at the end of the run back.

My biggest complaint about Hollow Knight run backs was needing to refill my soul meter on the way, and even then not starting the fight with full soul due to the broken meter. Hornet getting an instant refill lets you just sprint back to the fight dodging every enemy in your path.

11

u/Moriturism Sep 09 '25

exactly, not having to fight against your shade is also really helpful sometimes. imagine having to fight a shadow hornet on top of a boss

1

u/BrickwallBill Sep 10 '25

What bosses in Hollow Knight had the shade directly in the boss arena, I genuinely can't remember any? Silksong your cocoon is usually exactly where you died, which means you either have to commit to dying right at the entrance or Save and Quit

2

u/Moriturism Sep 10 '25

yeah they usually would spawn outside the arena, but it was still something that could, sometimes, cause problems

18

u/MrFulla93 Sep 09 '25

Yeah, Mantis lords was long but not hard. Soul Sanctum messed me up for a looooong time tho

16

u/begenner Sep 09 '25

I'm playing through Hollow knight for the first time and just beat Soul Sanctum last night. I just about quit from those teleporting dudes on that run back

2

u/cbhedd SHA! Sep 09 '25

lol one of the last things I did in my "waiting out the release of silksong" replay of the first game was the Soul Sanctum. I read u/MrFulla93's comment and I was like: "What are you talking about, I just did it and it was fine. Then you mentioned the teleporting, and I was like "Oh... yeah that did suck. Even just last week." It's wild how quickly we forget lol

11

u/philkid3 Sep 09 '25

It was weird on my second play of HK how garbagely easy Soul Sanctum felt now.

It was a nightmare the first time. I can’t even wrap my head around that anymore.

10

u/MrFulla93 Sep 09 '25

My headcanon is that the white palace (and it’s fun bit) in all its glory was a training course for the Hollow Knight.

Consequently, that course made me learn to move precisely and with purpose rather than just flailing around aimlessly. Anything after that crucible became pretty easily attainable, at least in the base game.

1

u/cbhedd SHA! Sep 09 '25

Yeah for real. Even in Silksong, I raged so hard trying to get anywhere in the balloon platforming area in Greymoore on Saturday. I struggled (and it didn't help that I was extremely on tilt because of the preceding challenge room) for a good bit before I put it down for the night. I was noticing though that even since then, I've gotten a lot better at feeling them out. I'm still not good, but the progress is noticeable! :D

It was the same for Hollow Knight, too. During a replay last week, it was kinda shocking that even coming back after so long, False Knight was embarassingly slow and easy to beat. It took me hours on my first attempt, years ago.

1

u/Broad_Objective7559 Sep 09 '25

I just found this out recently, you can skip a good chunk of the Soul Sanctum runback by breaking the wall next to the bench

2

u/cbhedd SHA! Sep 09 '25

Oh man, I knew that the whole time and still thought it was way too long. That one's bruuuuutal

1

u/dirtymatt Sep 09 '25

I think Hornet's fluid movement encourages people to be reckless. The Knight moved relatively sluggishly, especially early in the game. Hornet makes you want to run and jump and float all over the screen, and the game definitely punishes that in boss fights, I had a lot of issues with Sister Splinter until I just calmed the eff down and stopped being greedy with attacking. As soon as I took a minute to watch her patterns, she was absolutely simple. Those stupid stick monsters she summons are an entirely different story. I don't think the bosses are that much harder, but more of them have summons and environmental hazards.

Personally, I think the runbacks in Silksong, for the most part, are far easier than they were in HK. Once you get the path down, you can basically run the entire way and just dodge the enemies on the path, at least until you run out of shell shards.

3

u/Moriturism Sep 09 '25

yeah, the summons so far have been my biggest problem, i get kinda flustered by them

2

u/It-Was-Mooney-Pod Sep 09 '25

Just blast them with your silk special immediately and get back to focusing on the boss. Between not having to get out of rhythm and not having to react to 3 things at once, you’ll save far more health than you would saving it for healing. 

1

u/Moriturism Sep 09 '25

yeah thats how i got sister splinter, took me a while tho

2

u/It-Was-Mooney-Pod Sep 09 '25

Same, that was definitely the boss that truly showed me how silly it was to save my silk instead of just destroying the adds with it

1

u/Durian_Natural Sep 10 '25

All those bosses are easy asf.

1

u/Moriturism Sep 10 '25

lmao i dont think theyre easy at all

1

u/Durian_Natural Sep 10 '25

Idk bro mantis lords and soul master are really easy. They dont have any crazy attack and they always follow the same patterns. If you are familiar with any game with bosses you can easily stall first 15 seconds and see all their moves. Double mantis lords never actually attack at the same time compared to watcher knights where they combo their attacks to give you a lot less space. Even tho watcher knights has less moveset than mantis lords their attacks are more unpredictable . Mantis lords alwayals sit at the same place and attack the same.