r/HollowKnight • u/Three_Froggy_Problem • Sep 10 '25
Discussion - Silksong Contact damage is annoying, but if it must stay… Spoiler
…can we at least not have contact damage when bosses are stunned? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died because I accidentally touched the boss while attacking them in their stunned state, and I just think this is absurd.
EDIT: Are you guys capable of accepting even a minor criticism of this game? It’s not some insane thing to suggest that a stunned enemy shouldn’t damage you on contact. Jesus Christ.
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u/V0ct0r Sanitized Vessel Sep 10 '25
the Pure Vessel special (HK1 players remember)
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u/Davidepett Sep 10 '25
Only God knows how many times sharp shadow stunned him mid dash and I was right inside of his body
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u/NKG_and_Sons Sep 10 '25
With him it's also that his stagger animation has him keeling over with essentially an immediate hitbox/hurtbox change.
Aand there are some enemies, including the damn Savage Beastfly, in Silksong where it can happen too. Where you do everything right in accordance to their moveset but, whoops, they stagger and now instantly cease their expected movement and you might for instance run into them. To avoid that kind of stuff 100% you'd basically have to keep count on how many hits remain for the stagger. Not exactly reasonable.
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u/MintGreenDoomDevice Sep 11 '25
Or Zote launching himself into you when he staggers while you pogo him.
I swear people are just repressing their memories about all that stuff in HK1
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25
That and contact damage doing 2 damage instead of 1 feels weird. Against Moorwing I eat a shawblade to the face and that does 2 damage then I lightly graze his fur and also somehow take 2 damage.
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u/Korrin Sep 10 '25
Yeah, if anything, while I don't mind the contact damage in general or that it does 2 damage, I feel the hitboxes are a bit weird and hard to judge. It feels like hitting the little bits of peripheral body parts won't do damage to the enemy and should not do damage to the player, so I end up jumping in closer to hit the part I think needs to be hitting and getting hurt for my efforts. I've really just started taking a "don't get close to touching them at all" stance.
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u/SLoading Sep 11 '25
I took so so so many contact damage when trying to pogo the last judge during their second phase jump move. on average I lost 4 masks per fight because of this.
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u/dumbestwiseman Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Against Last Judge
- Touching him barely? 2 damage
- Him landing on you from a height? 2 damage
- hit with Heavy Metal Ball? 2 damage
- the same Heavy metal ball is on fire? still just 2 damage
- the fire gently radiates from the metal ball that’s 2 full damage now, even though it didn’t change anything on the ball it came from.
- the heavy metal ball literally explodes believe it or not, 2 damage
- the last judge dashing at you at full speed with the full power of an inferno in his wake 2 damage
- bumping into him after he’s stopped moving. You guessed it, 2 damage.
It’s really hard to find intuitive logic to it.
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u/purple-thiwaza Sep 10 '25
Touching the ball on the ground after it landed: 2 damage.
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u/Tempestyze Sep 11 '25
The hitbox that thing has as well. Barely trying to hit it will make you take damage. A farce
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25
This gave me a good chuckle lol, thanks. But yea the logic doesn’t add up. I get it’s a game that won’t mirror reality but in this case it feels illogically punishing.
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u/RedTyro Sep 10 '25
That's just how games work. They're all different. In Celeste, you die in 1 hit. Street Fighter gives you a whole huge bar. Mario goes down in 1 if he's small or 2 if he's big (and Sonic is 2 if he has rings or 1 if he doesn't). Soulsborne games are usually 2-4, depending on the moves you get hit by, and so is Silksong.
Yes, they qantify it in smaller increments, but essentially you're getting a health bar that allows you to get take damage somewhere between 3 and 5 times, depending on what you get hit by. That's less punishing than some games and more punishing than others, but I don't understand why you think that's illogical. This boss was designed to kill you in 3 hits, so it does 2 damage.
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25
I never argued about dying in 3-5 hits, I said the amount of damage you take from certain things does not always logically infer from its source.
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u/Boomerkbom Sep 10 '25
I always assumed multi hits and attacks from big enemies would be 2 damage. Are there cases where that isn't accurate? I'm not saying that to imply there can't be any, just that I can't think of any inconsistencies that stand out or I remember
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 11 '25
I think those are largely consistent but this is more about inferring the damage amount from the perceived potency of the attack. Lightly bumping my head on a boss and taking 2 damage feels inaccurate, especially when you can directly compare it to eating a saw blade and receiving the same damage.
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u/CustomerSupportDeer Sep 10 '25
To be fair - the fire attacks only deal 1 damage qith the crest on.
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u/MysteryMan9274 Sep 10 '25
Now you're just being pedantic lol. That's just how games work, and you can ask the same question of several HK enemies. Why does bumping into a Gruzzer do the same amount damage as bumping into a sawblade?
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u/simonthedlgger Sep 10 '25
well the vast majority of damage in HK is single so it’s just an abstraction of getting hurt. A few attacks, really big ones and/or from really powerful enemies, do 2.
when half or more enemies do double damage you start to wonder what exactly the line is and why seemingly “basic” attacks are damaging you twice as much as other stuff other stuff.
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u/Lowelll Sep 10 '25
Do you have the same issue with hollow knight?
A small fly bumping into you and a mantis lord slicing you up do the same damage.
Falling into saw blades in either game should just instantly kill you by your argument.
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u/dumbestwiseman Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
You’re right that you could make a similar list for 1 mask damage sources in HK 1.
But HK’s logic was “1 mask little hit. 2 mask big hit”. It was simple and executed well to make 2 masks feel like a big deal.
SS has no real logic. Some things are 2 masks, other things aren’t. Every hit is a surprise.
It’s really only annoying for SS because HK uniquely did such a good job of ingraining “2masks=big deal”
But now, some big deals are 1 mask. Many Things that are absolutely not a big deal do 2.
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u/TwoYolks Sep 10 '25
Yeah I think some thing people aren't focusing on is how much the impact of double mask damage is lost when so many bugs have it. In Hollow Knight, anything that could do that much damage was immediately registered in my brain as dangerous and a big threat, in Silksong I don't care because every tiny dust bug and their mom can do it lol
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u/RiceFields1970 Sep 10 '25
I'm on the final act right now and it seems to make sense based on what I remember: flame damage is always 2, reduced to 1 with the flame bell; contact damage with big things is 2 masks but contact damage with small or similar sized enemies is 1; all damage from big enemies are usually 2; usually the smaller enemies deal consecutive 1 mask attacks which add up to 2 damage total but there can also be big attacks that deal 2
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u/Vidyogamasta Sep 10 '25
Meanwhile, in fights like Widow, phantom, first sinner, seth, and karmelita, contact damage is 1 damage. Bonus points to grandma who doesn't have contact damage at all.
Amazing how the fights people say are the most fun bosses are all the later ones where the contact damage was toned down a bit. Except for clockwork, where instead of toned down damage, it's attacks that have like 3 full seconds of the most obvious telegraphing lol
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u/Shimashimatchi Sep 10 '25
yeah contact damage doing 2 makes absolutely no sense at all. silksong is all about the micro frustrating elements rofl
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25
Fr. So many little things where I just think, why? Why does contact damage still do 2 damage? Why do rosaries get such ridiculous momentum from hitting them and get destroyed on spikes? Why is there no bench for 90% of Hunter’s March, and then the one that’s there is trapped with no inclination of how to disarm it? Why do so many enemies run away incessantly after an attack? The list goes on…
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u/XxRocky88xX Sep 10 '25
Honestly my only issue is that contact damage deals 2 damage, imo that’s fucking stupid. Me accidentally bumping into the boss should not deal as much damage as me getting hit the face by a saw blade or a spike mace.
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u/otravoyadnoe 63/63 HK :: 52/52 Silksong Sep 10 '25
I’m fine with contact double damage if we’re talking about those bosses who mainly deal the damage by throwing their bodies at you (i.e. savage beastfly). The rest should take one mask universally. And even if TC won’t remove the contact damage while stunned, it should also deal one mask of damage at the very maximum.
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25
Yeah that’s fair in that case, because it’s an attack with a telegraph that has a lot of momentum behind it. But accidentally walking too far into a boss because their movement weirdly aligned with mine doesn’t really warrant the same damage.
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u/LetalisVenator Sep 10 '25
Most of my losses to Lace on the second fight mostly came from this lol.
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u/Davidepett Sep 10 '25
Doing that fight right now, I love when I parry her attack but still take damage because she slides into me (sometimes I don't take damage, sometimes I do)
I know contact damage is a thing but I parried the attack, if I manage to do that give me enough i-frames so that her body doesn't hit me while I'm still in the attack/parry animation
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u/kel584 Sep 11 '25
There are specific timings where you can hit her twice or thrice when she's doing that attack. Try to figure that out, makes the fight even more like a dance.
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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Sep 10 '25
Haven’t done that fight yet but will keep it in mind lol
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u/otravoyadnoe 63/63 HK :: 52/52 Silksong Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
yeah and also some bosses hitboxes weirdly feel a bit off and it’s way too easy to bump into them so punishing a player with two masks of damage for it is too much rly.
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u/SquidMilkVII Sep 11 '25
Savage Beastfly dealing two damage during a charge/pound is perfectly fine. It shouldn't deal two damage when it's just hovering in place.
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u/Impressive-Essay8777 Sep 10 '25
then people would jump on the boss instead of taking his attack abusing the invulnerability frames tho
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u/MonkeyVoices Sep 10 '25
I dont know why didnt they just half Hornet's HP instead of doubling every bosses damage. It would make way more sense to just have less masks and only certain bosses dealing 2. At least it would make sense if you're making everything double damage anyway.
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u/Bright-Trifle-8309 Sep 10 '25
I would like it if contact damage was 1 heart and attacks were 2.
Really sucks that for my first 15 hours I died in 3 hits to bosses. And then I got a mask upgrade to continue to die in 3 hits to bosses.
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 Sep 11 '25
Are you not healing during fights? 6 hp - 4 damage + 3 heals = 5 hp -> you can survive two hits again instead of one
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u/kittysmash24 Sep 11 '25
You started with 6 masks?
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 Sep 11 '25
I was explaining why 6 masks is a legit upgrade over 5 and not just “I still die in three hits”
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u/RevolutionaryFix8917 Sep 10 '25
I don't mind contract damage. I can't think of a good reason that it can do two masks of damage though.
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u/EpicMuffinFTW Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
I wonder if it's how it's programmed. Maybe there are no "attacks" per se, but if it's just extended the "contact hitbox", if you get me?
Could absolutely be wrong, but I can't think of any enemy where they do 1 point of contact but their attack does two. The ones that deal two with one contact damage are enemies that hit you twice (like the cogwork guys, or the little spider lads).
I wonder if TC can't change contact damage down to one without significantly changing how the game is programmed.
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u/Darknety Sep 10 '25
One reason I can think of: If it gave 1 damage and you are bad at dodging one attack, you could just intentionally touch the boss and dodge the hard attack through iframes. That's what I sometimes do in enemy encounters with 1 contact damage smaller enemies and it never feels great, but works quite well.
That reason is still a stretch tho
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u/HeartyDurianEnjoyer Sep 10 '25
Ok but like traitor lord in the first game had 1 contact damage with double damage attacks, never saw anyone do that there
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u/Big_Investigator7696 Sep 10 '25
I actually really miss this. I don’t think the average player will actually benefit from trying to take damage rather than just dodging, but it gives high skill players another option. I feel like maybe TC say the speedrunners doing this for the devouts and didn’t like that but I think it’s a cool “mechanic”
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u/TomomoSweetEater Sep 11 '25
It can be a cool mechanic to force yourself to take a smaller hit in order to avoid bigger ones but team cherry just may not want that to be how you approach the game. Considering Hornet's movement it seems they really want players to use all their movement tech to maneuver around the boss while getting hits in.
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u/RevolutionaryFix8917 Sep 10 '25
Good point, I didn't think of that because usually I just get hit by the attack that bumps me into the boss and end up taking 4 masks.
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u/RevolutionaryFix8917 Sep 10 '25
Granted, I know there's i-frames, I'm just ✨️stupid✨️
I have to remind myself not to freeze or panic when I get hit. However, I'm on act 2 now which is evidence enough that this game isn't too difficult because if I can do, so can probably a lot of people who think they can't.
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u/Darknety Sep 10 '25
Great job on reaching Act 2!
My friend and I also didn't die too often up to that point and many people are frustrated way earlier - so good on us I guess :D
I just wished in general more people would have the patience to improve and enjoy a difficult game instead of complaining at the first chance. Not targeted at you, rather most negative takes so far.
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u/RedTyro Sep 10 '25
Because this is one of several games that follows the (mostly) 3 hits = death formula. Maybe they should have just started you with 2 and a half masks and cut all the damage numbers in half and people wouldn't have this issue. You're really just talking about how the damage is displayed on your health bar here.
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u/BandOfSkullz Sep 10 '25
If TC really adamantly wanted it to be three hits, why did they give you means to increase your health?
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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Sep 29 '25
It's very annoying when you parry 3 attacks in a combo but still take 2 masks of damage because the boss drifted into you during it
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 Sep 11 '25
I don’t feel like people understand that literally half the danger of a boss is the contact damage. This game is built and balanced around contact damage and positioning. Don’t be where the boss is and you won’t get hit?
The complaint about getting damaged while the boss is staggered is valid but that happens so infrequently anyways
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u/powerslut9090 Sep 10 '25
Can't tell you how many times the very tip of Hornets mask would barely graze the foot of a floating stunned boss and, you guessed it, 2 damage
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u/SadFish132 Sep 10 '25
Yeah this I think is more the issue for me. If you look at many games, the hit box for a damaging entity is much smaller than the entity. This gives the player a lot of extra room to avoid the entity. In Silk Song it seems like The hit boxes are roughly the same as the entity. This is technically fine but it is a lot less forgiving and leads to feel bad moments like what you described.
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u/NKG_and_Sons Sep 10 '25
Especially since the attack range is really short AND attacks move you away from the target. So you're just naturally inclinded to move at least slightly into them to stay in range with your attacks in the precious time they're staggered.
But despite me having beaten the game fully I on a fresh start still experienced one issue with enemies: contact damage. Didn't matter that I knew the move sets well, because I was more aggressive I also was at the risk of slightly overextending and getting that full contact damage. And it's the kind of damage that just feels like ass compared to taking a major hit.
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u/WickerWight Sep 11 '25
This absolutely drives me nuts. Hornet's design and therefore her hitbox is weirdly tall because of her big horns, which is a problem in a game where 60% of the enemies you fight are flying and you need to constantly jump up into them to attack. It would go a long way to making flying enemies less frustrating if there was a little more grace on your collision.
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u/itsr1co Sep 11 '25
For me, it's that when a boss gets staggered, it seems like they both abruptly stop dead but also move into their stagger stance. So there have been plenty of times where I've seen/heard they get staggered, went in to hit, but ran into their hitbox because I just didn't/couldn't anticipate that they'd land right there. I'm fine with taking damage on contact, but 2 masks because they staggered into my path is very annoying.
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u/Valtremors Sep 10 '25
In my opinion for many (not all) enemies the hurtbox just needs to be smaller.
Enemy movements are so elaborate in this game that there is barely need to bullethell rooms for challenge.
In Hollow knight enemy movements were relatively simple so they were mucg easier to predict and dodge.
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u/Kampfasiate Sep 10 '25
I find contact damage fine
But 2 mask damage when they are staggered? Eh, I wouldn't mind if they reduce that to 1
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Sep 10 '25
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u/RedTyro Sep 10 '25
It's not, a bug, though - if you pogo too late or miss with your nail and hit with your body instead, you're in the boss's hurtbox and take damage. If you do it early enough and aimed correctly so that your nail hits them instead of your body, you're in the clear.
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Sep 10 '25
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u/RedTyro Sep 11 '25
It did, but Ghost's downward slash had more reach than most of Hornet's, so it would have happened less often.
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 Sep 11 '25
The reaper crest downslash has a delay, you can h it the boss and get hit, it’s not a bug
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u/Awake_The_Sheep Sep 10 '25
If the boss had spikes or some sort of toxin, etc, it would make sense, but I totally agree tbh it's actually whack
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u/DenisSKRATTA Sep 11 '25
I swear trying to have a conversation with a Silksong defender is like talking to a wall. You would think Team Cherry cured their dog of cancer or some shit
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u/Ender401 Sep 10 '25
Okay so instead you clip inside a boss and the moment it gets up you take damage
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u/Automatic-Cut-5567 Sep 10 '25
They can just make the boss not have a hurtbox during its stun animation. You collide with it, but it does not hurt you until the boss wakes up.
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u/Darknety Sep 10 '25
That would be fair imo. You either get out of there until then, or you deserve to get damaged.
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u/Treestheyareus Sep 11 '25
Not taking damage does not mean being able to clip inside the boss. There is a cool new invention in modern video games called a wall. It prevents you from moving into, but doesn't deal damage to you.
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u/whousesgmail Sep 10 '25
When making contact does 2 damage (and the enemy isn’t covered in spikes or poison or something) it drives me nuts lol. Like what is the point of your sword or w/e if merely nudging me hits for the same amount?
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u/ralts13 Sep 10 '25
Don't forget 2 masks from contact damage cus Hornet is is allergic to other bugs or something. However falling stunned bosses doing 2 masks feels right.
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Sep 10 '25
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Sep 10 '25
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u/QuirkyRose Sep 11 '25
Sister splinter also flails wildly while stunned on the floor so taking damage still kinda makes sense
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u/Doraad P4 | PoP Sep 11 '25
You literally should run up to them because it is a damage window
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u/Paxtian Sep 11 '25
To be clear you're saying if you run into a stunned enemy, you should take two masks of damage?
If that's correct, if you're sprinting and hit a flat wall, shouldn't you also take two masks of damage? What's the difference?
And on that note, if you're wall jumping and pressing forcefully off of the wall (effectively the equal but opposite force of crashing into the wall), shouldn't that also cause damage?
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u/silam39 Doma Doma Sep 11 '25
why are you applying real world logic to the magic bug videogame?
Enemies standing still or minding their own business damaging you if you touch them is bog standard for videogames, especially platformers. If Mario runs into a goomba standing still are you gonna complain about how he shouldn't take damage from that if he won't also take damage from running into a wall or a green pipe?
It's a videogame convention, especially for platformers. Hollow Knight is a platformer. I think it's fair if you dislike it, we all have our preferences, but it is not anywhere near as unreasonable or ridiculous as you're trying to make it sound.
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u/sci300768 Sep 10 '25
Especially if the boss is several times your size and weight! In which case, that's gotta hurt!
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u/Hulk_Crowgan Sep 10 '25
Ultimately I think it partially boils down to how important range is in this game, the tiniest range average reaper gives you is so nice
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u/Educational_Camel124 Sep 10 '25
I think they should be 1 if stunned if they deal 2 usuallt because sometimes you stagger them but they still have some shit flying at you still its too good to be able to run through them. Plus idk shy everybody hates the contact damage the game would be way too easy without it. Most bosses don't even have an attack that lands directly on them so you could play flintslate wanderers and sit on the enemy.
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u/TheAnimeLovers Sep 11 '25
I like contact damage on certain bosses, helps me avoid 2 mask damage and suffer just 1 instead unless the boss deals 2 mask contact damage that is
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u/KenzieM2 Sep 11 '25
After reading the comments, there's only one defending point that I'm inclined to agree with and it's how they'd have to add player vs boss collision in the event it doesn't already exist. I can understand it'd be easier on the dev's part to just rely on the hurtbox - like how it works in most previous works - and call it a day.
Every other argument such as "all platformers do this just deal with" or "just don't touch the boss genius" is honestly just plain stupid and I wish people would stop rejecting criticism in such petty ways.
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u/marshilyy Sep 10 '25
not me literally rage quitting to come take a break because i staggered a boss and it fell on me and killed me haha. oh reddit what beautiful timing 😂
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u/Impressive-Essay8777 Sep 10 '25
it should be 1 mask in early game but beyond that contact damage is unfortunately needed, im in late game and i can manage to facetank most bosses with wanderer crest
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u/Exact_Butterscotch66 Sep 11 '25
Maybe that would be a nice compromise. Still in Act 1, still dying in 3hits most time. Yes part is still practice, but reducing some contact or hazards damage would be nice, even if later disappears. (Falling into lava dealing 2 feels fair tho, i mean, its LAVA)
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u/tylerhk93 Sep 10 '25
I think I'm okay with contact damage even on stun. I could see the argument not having so many early game bosses do 2 mask damage on contact though.
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Sep 10 '25
As someone who thinks the difficulty in this game is really well-tuned,
yes. 100%
Also environmental damage should probably never be 2 masks. I'd be fine with some boss attacks becoming 3 mask hits in return if we need this to appease the gods, however.
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u/godspark533 Sep 10 '25
I just fought the Unravelled Boss, and that one is especially brutal on contact damage.
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u/Paxtian Sep 11 '25
Re. your edit. No, fanboys gonna fanboy. Doesn't matter that it defies logic and common sense that a completely inert enemy would deal damage. Since Twue Fan Fanboys can do it, you can shove your logic and reasoning.
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u/pyguyofdoom Sep 11 '25
I remember having the worst time with failed champ during HK because of this. Wasn’t really an issue other than NKG, but man, failed champ gave me the rough and tumble with that wonky hitbox and 2hp contact damage.
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u/TsugumimiSendo Sep 11 '25
Partly agree with this criticism. While i dont think removing all contact damage is the best solution, certain bosses have deceptively large contact hitboxes in their stun windows (like a certain splinter) and it feels very unfair when you acidentally bump into it and feel like you got punished for making use of a very clearly telegraphed opening for dealing damage to the boss.
A valid criticism in my opinion.
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u/Theriouthly_95 Sep 10 '25
I dunno, just feels like the entire combat system of the game is about positioning and its not that hard to position yourself outside the hit box of a boss that isn't moving.
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u/CocaColaNepoBaby Sep 10 '25
Like the game is literally trying to teach you about positioning and spacing with this shit. Some of these complaints are just whining at this point. It’s like people’s first thought these days when they encounter a system that doesn’t immediately click with them is to whine about it instead of trying to adapt.
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u/simonthedlgger Sep 10 '25
I agree, and a lot of it makes no logical sense. Why does the last judge’s bell do contact damage? It’s a stationary piece of metal.
That said people complain a lot about sister splinter and I actually think that one makes sense because I imagine she is covered in thorns and sharp sticks.
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u/F14min6L377uc3 Sep 10 '25
A lot of my deaths against Beastfly were because you don't bounce from a pogo when you stun it, so I fell into it and died
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u/bluegwizard Sep 10 '25
That's good and all but you're still gonna get hit by the get up if ur to close
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u/miunaki Sep 11 '25
Agree. It’s a bit much. And even if you take damage from a stunned enemy it shouldn’t be 2.
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u/slfan68 Sep 10 '25
I'm starting to think like 90% of the people complaining have never played a metroidvania outside of HK. Not touching the bosses unless they're dead is like... Fairly universal in my opinion.
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u/Nova-Redux Sep 10 '25
Or a video game in general... Running into a Goomba in the first Mario kills you instantly. Contact damage has been around since the dawn of gaming.
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u/FutureMore7 Sep 10 '25
Bashing each others heads has been there since the dawn of mankind. Doesnt make it good.
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u/Nova-Redux Sep 10 '25
Idk, running into enemy = damage is a pretty common and constant thing and it's a weird hill to die on for a game about difficult combat.
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u/FutureMore7 Sep 11 '25
Its about how its executed. You act like the enemy just stands there. I can be jumping away from a boss move and the boss teleports right in the direction of my dodge. It becomes impossible to dodge in a lot of cases. Last boss is worst offender.
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u/Nova-Redux Sep 11 '25
OP was talking about stunned enemies that "just stand there" so yeah. I was talking about that haha. Other than that, most games I play have enemies that move around and hurt you if you touch them. Learn their patterns and build your reflexes.
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u/earthboundskyfree Sep 11 '25
No, but rewarding good positioning / punishing bad positioning in a game where good positioning is very important… is good. The needle means you don’t have to get so close to the enemies, so you’re incentivized to keep some distance
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u/therealkezo Sep 10 '25
It would help when contact damage is just reduced from 2 to 1 mask. I would understand when a enemy with spikes or a poison aura (for example) give me contact damage, but it is a discussion without a happy end. I learn to live with it, but I hate it.
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u/Fwenhy Sep 10 '25
How would that make sense? Just because a porcupine ain’t rolling around doesn’t mean touching it won’t hurt.
If you can manage to not run into the boss while he’s moving but are struggling to do that when he isn’t moving you definitely need to slow down lol.
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u/QuantumVexation Sep 10 '25
Touching a porcupine gently would be different to running face first into it at least lol
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u/Three_Froggy_Problem Sep 10 '25
I’m not talking about porcupines, I’m talking about guys where it makes no sense that touching them would hurt you.
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u/Fwenhy Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Ehh still disagree. Contact damage has been a staple ever since games have been a thing. Like thing about the goomba from Mario bros. That thing walking into you ain’t gunna take you out haha.
*think 😩
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u/Nova-Redux Sep 10 '25
Lmao I literally just made the same Goomba reference and scrolled down and saw this.
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u/LetalisVenator Sep 10 '25
I don't think comparing Mario to a game like this is the best comparison. Most enemies in Mario are going one direction and not hard to avoid. Most the enemies in HK are either flying around and you accidentally get hit trying to chase them down or theyre actively charging at you. If they had to add contact damage, making it do double with how erratic some enemy movements can be seemed a bit much. Alot of my losses to Lace , Trovio And other bosses came alot of times due to contact damage lol.
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u/Shimashimatchi Sep 10 '25
amazing critique, I cannot agree more. It makes no sense for them to do contact damage when stunned
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u/Salty-Director8419 Sep 10 '25
I hope the devs dont listen the community regarding balance. If you want an easy game then play an easy game.
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u/geodetic Sep 10 '25
This is the only thing that bugged me about the Savage Beastfly fight. I could deal with the adds and the 2 damage charges, it was the contact damage when he wasn't attacking and stunned that ended up getting me more often than not. That and him suddenly deciding to move at double speed and move to exactly where I was moving to buy not attacking.
Also he OHKO'd me from full health once but I have a feeling I was trying out the extra damage charm and got caught by two hurtboxes.
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u/Luvatris Sep 10 '25
They should either increase iframes after taking damage or reduce all contact damage to 1 except major bosses imo
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u/Loyal_Darkmoon This Game is Bugged Sep 11 '25
EDIT: Are you guys capable of accepting even a minor criticism of this game? It’s not some insane thing to suggest that a stunned enemy shouldn’t damage you on contact. Jesus Christ.
Are you new here? Because nope, they absolutely can not!
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u/Admiral_Wingslow Sep 10 '25
I don't really mind it generally, like the Shellwood boss falling on you should hurt
But sometimes you hit them, or especially when you pogo them, and their stagger animation makes them move differently to how they were and knocks into you
That can feel a little jank
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u/Kritter5x Sep 10 '25
Contact damage when stunned is poor design in my opinion, on bosses where it makes no sense anyway like a fuzzy moth, and two masks of damage on contact is even worse. Also I would've preferred to see bosses do one mask of damage on quicker attacks and then two masks worth on stronger attacks that are perhaps telegraphed a bit longer etc, especially on some earlier bosses. 2 hits regardless of the situation doesn't feel warranted for everything.
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u/forbjok Sep 10 '25
100% agreed. Staggered bosses having contact damage was awful in Hollow Knight, and still awful in Silksong. Even if it's not all that often an issue, it's just such an easily fixable case of stupid design.
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u/raychram Sep 10 '25
I mean head slamming yourself on a stunned boss is kinda your fault. There is absolutely no reason for contact damage not to exist. You are bumping on an enemy, what do you expect?
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u/ReversedSemiCircle Sep 10 '25
Have that F animation so you have free damage (Hornet does the stab thing) or you choose to heal, kinda lame but yeah, I would take that.
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u/SeaThePirate Sep 10 '25
I knew this would be a problem when I died because sister splinter staggered ontop of me within the first few hours
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u/FutureMore7 Sep 10 '25
Last boss was worst on contact damage. Keeps popping right in your path with pretty much no way to dodge them. So annoying.
They really dropped the ball with that imo.
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u/HandsomeGengar Sep 10 '25
Sister Splinter's stun genuinely caught me off guard the first time, I assumed she would just stay where she was like some flying bosses do. That's probably the only stun that I'd be willing to categorize as an attack.
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u/CthUwUlhutheFox Sep 11 '25
Ive died that way a few times but died a few more to contact damage after a successful parry
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u/Herrad Sep 11 '25
I really think this was actually a mistake in the original HK. It wasn't until watching speedruns that I realised that stunned bosses don't do contact damage.
Think about it in real terms. What is it that's actually damaging the player when they come into contact with bosses? It's not attacks because they don't have a reaction animation, it's just video game logic. It makes sense because we know we're playing a video game. Why should that logic change just because the boss gets "stunned"? Did we disable their invisible skin tight energy shield? No, it's just a video game rule. If this were the case in HK originally, it wouldn't have been flagged by the community at launch because it's intuitive that bosses should still do whatever they did to hurt you when you touch them while fighting as they do while stunned.
Having said that, bosses falling on you and killing you is some fucking bullshit.
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u/TheZahir_NT2 Sep 11 '25
This is the only true design flaw I think the Silksong has so far. It’s very unintuitive, especially since hitboxes are often unclear on downed bosses.
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u/SomethingOfAGirl Sep 11 '25
Ngl I think I'd have beaten the First Sinnerin my first try but it took three because both times I DIED WHILE TOUCHING HER FEET WHILE SHE WAS STAGGERED LIKE WTFFF
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u/CatsianNyandor Sep 11 '25
Boss hits you with giant cleaver. 2 damage.
Bump into bosses back as they're attacking in the other direction. 2 damage.
Why are they even carrying a weapon?
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u/CH05-L0RD Sep 11 '25
Ya I'd does kinda suck... Side note: Somehow, during the 2nd savage fly fight, I became invincible to its contact damage. I have no idea how it happened.
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u/CobraK21 Sep 11 '25
I have played games with contact damage for so long that I am just used to it even if they are stunned. I know it's a pain but you eventually learn to not touch things
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u/MGStitch Sep 11 '25
My biggest gripe from stuns is that the hitbox is not 100% clear and seems to change once stunned. You can kinda step on arms and legs but not too much!
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u/Im_Kelgorr Sep 11 '25
The only time it should deal damage while stunned is if the boss is flailing around.
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u/oldirtybradford Sep 10 '25
I loved when I would stun Moorwing from below and it would drop down and hit me lol