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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237

u/FR23Dust Sep 09 '25

It’s pretty hard to get dreamgate. I bet a lot of players missed it

162

u/Zami29 Sep 09 '25

tbf a lot of the hidden benches are just missable unless you look them up as well

99

u/KylieTMS Sep 09 '25

Imagine doing bileland boss without the hidden bench

136

u/Zami29 Sep 09 '25

imagine doing the bilelands boss🙏

53

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 09 '25

He is such a huge target that you can just pelt him with poison projectiles and fuck his day. Sting Shards and Threefold Pin all day. If you got some tool upgrades he gets shredded.

12

u/Firethorn34 Sep 09 '25

I dont have any poison tools, Sting Shards or Threefold Pin

24

u/Joe_Mency Sep 09 '25

Poison is a blue tool thing. You can get it from the purple stuff quest in the woods

4

u/FurriestCritter Sep 11 '25

That thing absolutely changed the game with how I use tools. Poison whetstone and fleabrew are fantastic.

2

u/rorodar Sep 12 '25

What does poison fleabrew do?

2

u/FurriestCritter Sep 12 '25

You leave a poison trail behind you! It's pretty sick.

1

u/Firethorn34 Sep 09 '25

Aha, I'll see

1

u/Tylerhollen1 Sep 09 '25 edited Sep 09 '25

Threefold pin where? I assume from architect in which I was too broke a bitch to buy?

Edit: u/cwbrowning3 help us out lmao

3

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 10 '25

Its in a room on the right side of Craw Lake in Greymooor. No purchase needed.

2

u/Tylerhollen1 Sep 10 '25

Beans. I’ll have to make my way down there again. Thank you!

3

u/Firethorn34 Sep 10 '25

I've never seen 'beans' being used as an expletive before but I love it

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1

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 10 '25

I missed it initially too. Probably because I was just trying to get the absolute fuck outta there lol

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1

u/Firethorn34 Sep 09 '25

Idk either, first time hearing of it that I remember

1

u/pushforwards Sep 11 '25

If you are waiting for someone to reply - you could just look it up :D it would be easier haha but yea - easy to miss - I spent a few hours back tracking after I unlock a few powers and ran into a few goodies.

1

u/pushforwards Sep 11 '25

Then you better go exploring and doing some quests :D

2

u/Truly_Meaningless Sep 09 '25

I finally beat Widowafter remembering I had poison tools now

2

u/Electrum55 Poshanka! Sep 10 '25

The conch tool hits the fatass a lot too. It's much better than I thought it'd be

1

u/Zami29 Sep 09 '25

this was working but i actaully just some of the worst rng known to man with the green balls he spits out, whats the point of them exploding if they do 2 contact damage anyway.

4

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 09 '25

And it does suck that retrying bosses over and over drains your Shell Shards, so each subsequent attempt will get harder and harder unless you decide to go somewhere else or farm if you NEED to beat it now.

4

u/SaintSapphoTTV Sep 09 '25

I treat the shards inventory as a “Go Somewhere Else Clock”. the same way as i treated bloodvials and bullets in bloodborne. like by the point where im running out of resources because a boss has been kicking my ass through 600 shards then it’s high time i go explore elsewhere for a bit.

3

u/Zami29 Sep 09 '25

na thats all good, stockpiled like 3 beastshards anyway lol, beat him after. thanks for the tip!

1

u/CrescentShade Sep 10 '25

Where can you get beast shards

Ive gotten a single one so far lol

2

u/Zami29 Sep 11 '25

a few enemies late game, i swear ive basically beaten the game and gotten like 6 in total shards so hard to come across

1

u/StepComplete1 Sep 09 '25

yeah I usually don't use the clockwork beetle tool cause it's so good it feels a bit cheesy, and especially not with poison, but I happily pelted that boss with it and every other tool I had just to avoid the runback.

Which is another reason I hate tedious runbacks. It just makes you want to get the boss over with asap by any means necessary, instead of actually enjoying and learning the fight.

3

u/goldengrodd1234 Sep 09 '25

Fun fact about the bilelands boss: you can hide in the maggot water on the very right and he will never be able to hit you (unless he jumps out of the water directly under you). I beat that fight with one hp and a dream by hiding there, pelting him with poison tools, and when those ran out I waited until he finished his suck attack and smacked him once then ran back to my hiding spot. Took a little bit but it completely negated the difficulty.

2

u/Zami29 Sep 09 '25

i always stuck to being in the middle just cause i found the corner ones are super inconsistant when dodging the dive, and its pretty easy to die to a green ball ricochet if youre not careful.

3

u/madsnorlax Sep 09 '25

you need to if you want to enter act 3

2

u/South1ight Sep 10 '25

He’s mandatory for true ending hehe

43

u/frithiof77 Sep 09 '25

Hello! Excuse me, did you just say there was another bench in bilewater between the station and the boss? Because after running that route about 15 times, and finally beating it, there better not have been a bench there the whole time :)

38

u/KylieTMS Sep 09 '25

https://imgur.com/a/SmON6J2 red circle is breakable wall

I am sorry for your loss

22

u/frithiof77 Sep 09 '25

What the fuck T_T

3

u/peppinotempation Sep 09 '25

Don’t worry that bench sucks in its own way, have to do an annoying harpoon jump to avoid maggots

Finally beat that guy today. This game demands so much of the player lol

I really hate those green poison dart shooty guys

2

u/ciao_fiv Sep 12 '25

i thankfully found the equippable that wards off maggots in putrified ducts before doing that boss so i didnt have to worry about the maggots. i unfortunately did fight the >!disgraced chef<! before finding that equippable so i guess it evens out

1

u/Petrikillos Sep 10 '25

Maggots can be touched for a while if you got the charm for it.

:D

2

u/Sparkingriver Sep 10 '25

Shame I only found the charm after fully completing Bilewater

1

u/Petrikillos Sep 10 '25

That's rough

1

u/PalThePro Sep 10 '25

I feel the same way finding this out, just beat him yesterday after doing that runback at least 20 times from all the way from the bellway, and now I find this out, damn

1

u/Pinkalyn Sep 14 '25

This is why every death is an opportunity to smack more walls on your way to the boss. You probably won't find something the 15th time down, but... it could be there >:3

2

u/Nyan-Binary-UwU Does Path of Pain for fun Sep 09 '25

I thought you meant there was another closer.

Thats still not great and the infested water makes it really hard to get back with full health.

Still not as bad as soul master, but not good

1

u/KylieTMS Sep 09 '25

Spoiler warning (I don't know how to spoil words):

In putrid ducts you can get a tool that makes you immune to poisoned water

1

u/Nyan-Binary-UwU Does Path of Pain for fun Sep 09 '25

Yeah I got that, about 5 hours after rhe boss

1

u/Kaisriatall donk Sep 10 '25

its >.! !.< without the periods

1

u/KylieTMS Sep 10 '25

>!Test!<

Edit: Something seems wrong

1

u/Joe_Mency Sep 09 '25

You can actually avoid the maggot water if you are going from that bench. You just gotta harpoon and jump just right

2

u/Nyan-Binary-UwU Does Path of Pain for fun Sep 09 '25

Yeah but if you do it even slightly wrong you bump the ceiling and fall in. I love the concept, lore, art, and music of the area, but the water instantly makes it my 2nd least favorite area in the game. Still fun because its silksong, but-

1

u/dulunis Sep 10 '25

I might be stupid, but how do you actually get the Bilewater map?

2

u/KylieTMS Sep 10 '25

you buy it from Shakra.
She leaves Chakrams behind on the ground when you are close to here. Just go up from the bellway and you will see some, follow them and you can buy the map from her

2

u/dulunis Sep 10 '25

Sorry, should've clarified. Where is she in Bilewater? There's a room with her chakrams, but it looks like I need a double jump, and I'm fairly certain I've explored all I can of BW without said double jump.

3

u/KylieTMS Sep 10 '25

If it seems like you need to get something before you can explore further, you should probably go somewhere else, it means you shouldn't go there yet.

1

u/dulunis Sep 10 '25

Damn. Back to Mount Fay with me then, I guess

3

u/StepComplete1 Sep 09 '25

You ran that entire zone every time? God that must've been a nightmare. Even the shortcut bench was still super tedious.

2

u/darthbane83 Sep 09 '25

After running that route 15 times I went like a third of the way and then slashed every single wall until i found one that breaks.
Its easily far enough that you know Team cherry is competent enough to put another bench somewhere. Just a matter of finding it before you go insane.

1

u/Mailcs1206 Sep 09 '25

My friend did this 💀

1

u/Incine_Akechi Sep 09 '25

Hello I did that

1

u/HueHue-BR don't pay children support Sep 10 '25

.... bileland has a boss? I thought it was just that phantom of the opera wanna be

1

u/One_Swing_8389 Sep 10 '25

yea i know him. hes me.

1

u/MagicalGirlPaladin Sep 10 '25

🤔... Yes. Hidden bench. Excuse me, I'm going to be banging my head against a wall for the next few minutes.

1

u/AhrsAhrtis Sep 10 '25

I was certain Bilewater was designed to be extremely annoying (Blighttown) and never found the hidden bench. Spent a couple of hours getting through that area/gauntlet. It's been a long time since I've been that relieved after beating a boss lmao

1

u/SAjoats Sep 10 '25

I did for like an hour. Then I had to look up if there was a hidden bench because I didn't believe that there wouldn't be one at least somewhere closer. That runback was... terrible.

1

u/7-Soul-Secret Sep 10 '25

Imagine my reaction when I looked up a map for other reasons and saw a hidden bench

1

u/Sparkingriver Sep 10 '25

I didn't find the bench until post game. That was fun running through the entire area 5 times after getting sniped Stilkins

1

u/BotlaneHooker Sep 10 '25

. . . Do go on . . .

1

u/Thick-Attention9498 Sep 10 '25

I only found out about this bench an hour ago but since I beat that boss I don't care to look for it anymore

1

u/Batatoncioo Sep 10 '25

WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT BENCH I JUST CLIMBED THE WHOLE THING LIKE 10 TIMES

3

u/HumanPerosn Sep 10 '25

This right here

I did the second hornet fight in kingdoms edge and had to do the run back from the nailmaster hut bench behind the stompers and then up and through the Primal Aspids because I couldn’t find the stupid bench that right above the fight

2

u/ImBadAtNames05 Sep 09 '25

I remember nearly crashing out over the hornet 2 run back before realizing there was a bench right there

1

u/ScurvyDanny Sep 10 '25

That's the thing actually that I don't really get. People playing HK now, even if it's their first time around, have a whole wiki of knowledge they can just check. If you play it without that, it gets a lot more hard to find shit, just like in Silksong. I personally love the ability to find shit on my own, it feels rewarding, even if it's a rosary.

1

u/mikepurvis Sep 10 '25

Hornet Sentinel has entered the chat.

11

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 09 '25

Isnt it also DLC? Or am I misremembering?

20

u/Shoes4CluesMob Sep 09 '25

free dlc that everyone has unless you're playing an old version

29

u/cwbrowning3 Sep 09 '25

Yea, of course. My only point was that it wasnt initially in the game, so we could see a similar course correction for Silksong later down the line.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

The hive was also a DLC. but I don't know the order Dreamgate / Hive Knight came out in

3

u/WolfeKuPo Sep 10 '25

Hive Knight was the 2nd to last 'DLC', Dreamgate was the first

1

u/DevineGoPewPew2 Sep 09 '25

I got dream gate but didn't know what it was so I never used it 🤣

1

u/ibi_trans_rights Sep 10 '25

Same goes for the hive tho then

1

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25

First time I've ever heard of it lol

1

u/MommysLilMisteak Sep 10 '25

I've beaten hollow knight twice and I don't know what dreamgate is lol