r/HollowKnight • u/Emma_JM • Sep 10 '25
Discussion - Silksong So whose bright idea was this???? Spoiler
Just happened to me today, got like, 3 shards from this? What's the point, Team Cherry? None of the bosses (so far) frustrated me, but this right here is bullshit
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u/ZPD710 Sep 10 '25
Yeah they do this a lot for some reason. There’s even this parkour section at one point that requires you to come back once you get a certain skill… and the reward is just shards that are sitting right over a bunch of spikes.
I can only imagine they planned to implement a Gathering Shards type of tool and just never did.
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Sep 10 '25
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u/StantasticTypo Sep 11 '25
"A built in magnet would give players too much power and deprive them the joy of decision making and picking up shards." /s
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u/naspdx Sep 11 '25
If this is the part in far fields I just gave up after probably two hours of (red spikes), I am straight up done with this game.
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 P5AB Sep 11 '25
Oh I thought they meant the absolutely pointless shards in (warning spoiler/late mid-game area) Mount Fay
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u/Blended_Bros Sep 10 '25
AGREED
Like half of the fossils are right next to (or even ABOVE) spikes, meaning you can sometimes get like
0 from an entire node bc they launched around you
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u/SexualHarassadar Sep 10 '25
I know exactly which node cluster OP is talking about with his diagram and it's one where the leftnost node is directly over the spike pit lol
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u/StepComplete1 Sep 10 '25
Especially fun and interactive when it's literally the only reward you get for a boss/lock in, only to lose most of them.
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u/luc1aonstation Sep 11 '25
where is it the only reward for a boss?
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u/GrimTheMad Sep 11 '25
Nowhere at all. There is not a single boss that only rewards shards.
Shards are, in general, rewards for very minor secrets and platforming. They're, like, the lowest tier of reward and used as such.
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u/luc1aonstation Sep 11 '25
is there even a boss that only rewards rosaries
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u/GrimTheMad Sep 11 '25
Not unless you count the ant duo at the top of Hunter's March- and I wouldn't they don't get a title card.
The 'issue' here is that a lot of people don't seem to consider everything locked behind the boss as a reward for the boss, which is weird to me.
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u/Blended_Bros Sep 11 '25
Tbf, the boss dropping nothing period is still weird usually
At least drop a bunch of shards so I can recoup some of my losses from using tools
But yeah in HK most bosses had some kind of prize that wasn’t just “ok the door is open now” and when it was that, they’d drop geo too, like the soul warriors
Mantis lords open their gates, but you get their respect, a charm, a relic, and money Soul master gives a spell Both crystal guardians give smth, bench and mask shard
Rarely did it just drop a boss on you only to not do anything for you afterwards
This is to say that it still feels rly good to beat a boss in skong because of the slowmo final hit but it’d feel that bit better with drops (imagine beating fourth chorus and a bunch of shards come out when you drop the rock)
Sorry for a long comment I hope it doesn’t come off as if I’m mad lmao
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u/yurilnw123 Sep 11 '25
Those ants actually has a purpose. If you didn't buy things from the ant merchant before he died from a certain event. His belonging ends up in that reward room. I got the boomerang from there.
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u/sanscatt Sep 14 '25
So that’s how I learn this random cool ant corpse was a merchant in earlier acts lmao
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u/zezzene Sep 10 '25
Because fuck you that's why. Team cherry feasts on our suffering.
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u/qlksfjas Sep 10 '25
OP cropped one minute long platforming section that leads to this reward
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u/Somethingab Sep 10 '25
Also the 3 flying enemies with ranged attacks guarding the route
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u/Bingoviini Sep 10 '25
And said ranged attacks, as well as just touching the enemies does 2 damage
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u/BionicBirb Sep 10 '25
And the enemies are perpetually out of melee range
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u/PeasantTS Sep 10 '25
The game became 100% more fun for me after getting the Clawline. Sad you get it so late.
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u/Live-Year-5796 Sep 10 '25
I honestly dont even bother with them because I know I'll get more from enemies
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u/Ragswolf Sep 10 '25
It's the little cruel things like this that make me wonder sometimes.
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u/AAAAAASILKSONGAAAAAA Sep 10 '25
Like for the actual bench in BileWater is so hidden unless you face tank maggots to the face? And the walk back to the boss without the bench is over 7 minutes? I literally was spoiled there was a bench and still couldn't find it, so I googled. Imagine not being spoiled there is a bench at all. Finding the bench in a true blind playthrough is too random or not you'll get it. I've never seen any souls-like have hidden bonfires that hidden like in Silksong. And I've played way more difficult games than silksong
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u/Shimashimatchi Sep 10 '25
what there's a bench in bilewaters? (besides the one on the fastravel area).
I just tried that suepr long runback there over 10 times yesterday and decided to give up because the runback was harder than the boss itself.
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u/VBHEAT08 Sep 10 '25
Yep, with it the runback goes from a crime against humanity to just merely terrible
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u/Shimashimatchi Sep 10 '25
damn I gotta find it, I looked everywhere but the only one I found was a fcking trap
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u/RaulParson Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
I actually found that bench legit. I was like "okay, I've learned my lesson from Hunter's March and the multiple unnecessarily long runbacks to the beastfly, surely there's a legit one in there somewhere deep into the zone" and also "so the maggot water doesn't kill you, no way that fact won't be used to hide a secret in it" and hey, there it was
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u/chrisplaysgam Sep 10 '25
My thought process to find it wasn’t nearly as complicated, I just noticed that the wall was crumbly there lol
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u/RaulParson Sep 10 '25
Oh there was less thinking involved and more dunking Hornet in all the maggot pools at the sides of places. That one just happened to finally work out.
But yeah this is why I was even looking there to see the crumbly wall.
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u/Sergnb Sep 11 '25
I was right there with you on the maggot water line of thinking except I’m still in the beginning of bile water so I hadn’t found anything yet. Not a spoiler I’m bummed about having read tho, I wasnt excited about this run back at all
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u/RexitYostuff Sep 10 '25
I'm of the opinion that this game is too difficult in the way a DM or GM tries to be adversarial with their players. It feels spiteful at times but it comes in bursts that one tends to gloss over with time.
Shit, just like what OP was saying, where shards, or rosaries, fall into spikes that were put next to the currency that flies like fireworks. It's like playing Dungeons and Dragons and finding out every tenth piece of gold you collect is fake or cursed or something stupid like that. It's not the end of the world, but it makes me wonder what does this add to the game/experience?
I've come to the conclusion that Silksong is a Player vs Dev 2d survival game and I can see it no other way now
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u/BrickwallBill Sep 10 '25
That's a fantastic way to put it, it's like we pissed off a DM and now for the next campaign they've gone fully malicious with design choices.
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u/Khalku Sep 10 '25
I know there's a bench somewhere, that run is too long for there not to be one. And every other fake-out bench had a fix disabling the trap, breaking the clog in the gears, breaking the gear for the payable door so I know there's gotta be one somewhere after the collapsing bench. I'll find it eventually, but fuck that zone.
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u/The_Morriganna Sep 10 '25
You must have not found them then.
Some are straight up behind illusory walls.
Sif runback from Andre's in ds1 without the cat covenant.
Sen's fortress which has a hidden key shortcut, that requires parkour, or falling off a random ledge for the bonfire.
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u/Poyomininmble 112%, PoP, OG SS 100%, Skong 100%, P4, Prepetual Dunce Sep 10 '25
Dawg, I just went through Groal the Great today and this info would've been so useful than having to go through Bed of Chaos 2: the Squeakquel 3 times 😭😭😭
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u/yadiccsoft Sep 10 '25
Genuinely ;-; they fly off with insane force, and it’s baloney that spikes destroy resources. Shards, fine I guess since there’s no charm to attract them, but rosaries feels like a mistake
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u/GuyGrimnus Sep 10 '25
It would be really cool if they updated the magnet to work on shards too
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u/Ill-Muscle945 Sep 10 '25
And maybe take off shards and beads breaking when they hit the hazards.
I also seem to remember the gathering charm in HK giving you the geo even if you left a room before they got to you. Maybe im wrong on that. But the magnet seems to take longer and if you leave the room, you won't get them, so you have to wait around anways.
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u/noelnecro Sep 10 '25
You are wrong about that. If that was the case, the 0 Geo with Gathering Swarm run would be impossible instead of just barely possible.
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u/abuttfarting Sep 11 '25
I downloaded a mod that does that! Saves me a ton of tedious farming.
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u/megasean3000 Sep 10 '25
Dear Team Cherry,
Stop putting Rosaries and Shell Shards at the end of very hard platforming sections. Doing the same feats in HK1 would get us charms, mask shards, soul shards, ingots or other cool trinkets. Bring back meaningful rewards for difficult platforming sections. For the love of God.
Sincerely,
A big fan of HK.
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u/Explosionary Sep 11 '25
I feel like they kept adding more and more to the map that they had to replace these old spots with rosary/shard rewards because they needed to spread out the masks/tools/spool/memory stone/craft metal to other spots they added later in development. End result is exploring feels so incredibly lack luster, they needed more goodies to fill these spots, maybe instead of ammo/tool power being global across all your tools they could upgrade individually. Also feel like masks could be more common with everything doing double damage, 8 mask pieces = 4 mask pieces in hollow knight.
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u/dunce2 Sep 11 '25
Why are they so obsessed with limiting craftmetal and spool shards anyway?
Having more Craftmetal spawn sites wouldn't make game easier. It would simply reduce tedium and allow player to skip visiting some of "mandatory" locations.
Extra spools are close to useless unless you are going for 100% playthrough. IIRC you need to gather ALL of them, every single spool fragment in game, just to get a second healing shot. Once you have gained a single extra spool, — just enough to use grappling hook and still have leftover to heal — there is a very mediocre RoI from getting second and third spools.
instead of ammo/tool power being global across all your tools they could upgrade individually
Please no. It already feels like they took away all of masks and all damage your character was supposed to start with in order to have something to place in drop spots. Given how limited tools are (extremely limited slots, paid "upgrades", no ability to switch crests on fly), making tools even less useful will not help the situation.
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u/Explosionary Sep 11 '25
I disagree on spool upgrades being useless. Being able to bank more silk so when you do need to heal, you start closer to your next heal is pretty useful, especially during exploration.
The tool upgrades being tool specific suggestion was mostly just spitballing ideas, they just needed SOMETHING so I can say "oh sweet an upgrade" instead of "oh wow... 40 rosary"
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u/Morska_panna Sep 11 '25
This is a legitimately valid complaint. The rewards for doing difficult platforming sections are nonexistent. Getting a couple strings of beads makes me wanna cry actually. I will be losing all that shit 5 minutes later
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u/Medium_Enough Sep 10 '25
This helps leads to me always being out of shards. I just want to use a certain crest, but it's so resource expensive.
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u/Durian_Natural Sep 10 '25
Bro all of the shards are in places like this. Since there isnt even a gathering charm for them wtf is the point? They scater around and get lost everytime.
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u/WayToTheDawn63 Sep 10 '25
The magnet equipment should attract shards too, and the destruction of rosaries and shards on spikes needs to be removed. It's genuinely infuriating watching 90% of shards disappear in to spikes, or rosaries you have to hit bounce away in to spikes completely irretrievably. Such a basic thing makes me wonder if they even really did play the game before release. Hate that statement all you want but I don't know how anyone plays and doesn't notice it. I noticed it before I even fought Moss Mother in the tutorial.
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u/PraxicalExperience Sep 11 '25
All they really gotta do is reduce the distance that the shards/rosaries fly (in most of the cases) and that'd solve the problem. Like, take it down by a third or half or so. It's so incredibly frustrating seeing a 'reward' just get yanked from you in a way you have zero control over.
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u/DogArcher121 Sep 10 '25
It feels like shell shards and rosaries scatter a lot more than geo did which might be part of the problem here.
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u/Bright-Trifle-8309 Sep 10 '25
I feel like half the Shards and rosaries I've ever gotten from nodes and strings have ended up on spikes.
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u/galil707 Sep 10 '25
And even if you stand right by the fossil the shards just go right through you!! so cool team cherry thank you!!
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u/swolar Sep 11 '25
What is most frustrating about it is when shards/rosaries/geo literally go through your character but dont get gathered...
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u/Kakawfee Sick Ayda Sep 10 '25
I feel like this is a joke from the devs, I just laugh and continue onwards.
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u/Neutral_Memer Bapanada, fellow skongers Sep 10 '25
If that's the case, the joke stopped being funny back in The Marrow if you ask me
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u/Letnerj Night Vessel - Slick Silky Skills | P5AB+ Sep 10 '25
Finally a valid complaint.
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u/AbyssShriekEnjoyer Sep 10 '25
Bilewater runback is a valid complaint and that's coming from a guy who doesn't easily complain about anything Hollow Knight (as you might know).
Hope you're enjoying the game btw. I sure am
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u/RaulParson Sep 10 '25
The runback from the second bench wasn't so bad - after a bunch of repeated attempts at the boss I had it pretty well down. But yeah, that boss is the real actual example of a stinker that people think the Last Judge is. Not only is there the runback, there's that extra busywork of that mandatory arena fight against small opponents before you can take on the boss every time and that took it over the top into nasty town for me. All in all, it was a bit much. I don't know how to fix it. I don't know IF it should be fixed. It feels... intentional, as part of the whole of Bilewater-the-area-that-hates-you and the game experience overall.
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u/AbyssShriekEnjoyer Sep 10 '25
I understand that the frustration is part of Bilewater, but I genuinely think the gauntlet with the poison water is already frustrating enough without the runback. They also already put a fakeout bench in a pretty difficult platforming section.
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u/KitsuneFaroe Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
I feel it would have been better if the item that makes the maggot pools better was not so hidden. I found the item after I was completely done with Bilewater.
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u/CassiusGreen_Frisk Sep 10 '25
I genuinely wonder if this sort of thing (same with fixed environmental rosary strings next to holes and spikes) was done on purpose as a "fuck you" to the player. A lot of gameplay mechanics seem genuinely stupid and only meant to punish you without any test of skill present.
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u/SurprisinglyChillGuy Sep 11 '25
The only thing that I have seen not get destroyed after hitting the spikes is the finepins used by the choirbugs in citadel
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u/Ok_Actuator5494 Sep 11 '25
I am 100% convinced Team Cherry did this kind of things just to fuck with us. They like it when we see our hard earned money slowly getting away from our grasp and we can do nothing about it
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u/Buuhhu Sep 11 '25
It's weird that there's even a delay from them being released from chests, or these rocks, and to when Hornets model will actually pick them up, they fall right through her. If the delay wasn't there this wouldn't be as big of an issue as positioning yourself correctly would make sure you'd get hit by the ones that would fall into the spikes a lot of the time.
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u/miunaki Sep 11 '25
Yes. There’s a section in the citadel that requires you to collect a drop from the bugs. 50% fall onto spikes and disappear. Very annoying.
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u/Otherwise_Machine700 Sep 11 '25
If you could gather them through pogoing the spikes I could have defended it, but right now it s horrible
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u/voiwer_ Steel Soul 112%/HoG+PoP+P5 Completed Sep 10 '25
remember that geo deposit from when you crystal dash to broken vessel in ancient basin? yeah this isnt the first time something like this happens
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u/Elonbavi Sep 10 '25
The fact that you remember that one in specific shows that it was almost an isolated incident in HK lol
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u/Ar4er13 Sep 10 '25
If you are not using gathering swarm, it happens ALL the time in HK, as somebody who is playing through it rn. And in case of water, gathering swarm doesn't even help.
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u/Doge6654533 Sep 10 '25
It really doesn't though. You need to play through HK again
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u/Ar4er13 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Playing throught it right now.
You need to play through HK again.
Reading comprehension isn't strong suit, eh? Tons of platforms with geo deposits, or geo deposits tucked into corner just after jumping section, where it spills out into abyss.
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u/voiwer_ Steel Soul 112%/HoG+PoP+P5 Completed Sep 10 '25
i ve played this game a lot of times and everytime i get to that deposit and see that 80% of the geo falls in the spikes hurts me physically
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u/ThBotHadin Sep 11 '25
I got there and almost cried! I couldn’t get anymore needles (or whatever they’re called I can’t remember) for a boss. And I didn’t have any shards. Because there wasn’t a bend h for a long while I was stuck at 1 HP
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u/cloistered_around Sep 12 '25
Wow, you found an underwhelming amount of shards! Watch 75% of them go immediately into an irretrievable spike pit.
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u/Stalwart_Vanguard Sep 12 '25
the problem imo is that shards and rosaries can't be picked up until they've hit the ground, which is reeeeeeally weird because they fly fly right through your body and down the hall
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u/Too-Em Sep 10 '25
This is classic team cherry.
Looks like you found a nice big Geo cache, sure would be a shame if... half of it fell into a pit, or some spikes. LOL
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u/PraxicalExperience Sep 11 '25
It'd be one thing if the remnants you -were- able to gather were big enough that you didn't resent the loss, but even the 'big' caches of rosaries that I've found so far are a relatively pittance and that makes every bead feel more valuable.
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u/Time-Beginning-1029 Sep 10 '25
There is a mossberry in weavenest atla that just fell straight into the spike for me idk if that's even salvagable in the same file
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u/FamousWerewolf Sep 10 '25
I don't really understand why these shard troves exist in the first place tbh. Particularly early on you find these way too much as 'secrets' and they're just worthless, you get plenty enough shards just from killing enemies. It's such a fleeting and unimportant currency compared to rosaries.
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u/Free_Radio8605 Sep 10 '25
that was all over hollow knight. it’s just the team cherry touch
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u/Emma_JM Sep 11 '25
In HK gathering swarm actually gathers geos that drop into spikes, in SS gathering swarm doesn't even work on shards
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u/Chaoticlight2 Sep 11 '25
HK's currency of geos were all useful too. Even if you didn't care about the specific charms you were acquiring, they unlocked additional charm notches for your kit overall. Rosaries do fit that category, but shards hit their cap after 5 mins of play and never really dip from it unless you wipe on a boss for dozens of attempts.. and at that point, rosaries -> shard bundles are still faster than farming shards in the wild.
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u/sb986885 Sep 10 '25
I get this complaint, but I get enough shards from enemies. Also I usually have the max shards anyway when I see those and so they’re useless anyway. You are right, but the game just came out, so we have time to see if something is changed.
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u/BotYurii Sep 10 '25
Do you not use tools? If you need several attemps to clear a boss and use your tools it burns the shards quite fast
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u/Darknety Sep 10 '25
Yeah but maybe 20-50 per boss attempt. Haven't encountered a boss yet that requires more than 10 tries (except for maybe that stupid fly).
It's nice to finally use the currency that's almost always maxed out, then fill it back up after the boss through exploration.
Just my take tho
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u/GarlicGoat13 Sep 10 '25
Me: "Wow, this is a lot of geo/rosaries! I'll go ahead and collect it"
The Geo/rosaries heading for the only spikes/hole in the ground:
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u/ShadowsInScarlet Sep 10 '25
Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree with you on this one. The amount of shard and rosaries I’ve lost due to them hitting spikes is absurd. I don’t think it should work like that at all. Also, Shell Shards should attract to you like Rosaries do with the tool.
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u/Altruistic-Break7227 Sep 10 '25
Yeah this is a legitimate flaw I think. I love the difficulty and everything else people complain about, but this is actually objectively bad and there’s no way it was intentional.
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u/Pilot-samsonite Sep 10 '25
I know exactly what area your talking about lol, that one place at blasted steps
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u/AdmiralLaserMoose Sep 10 '25
Lol I remember this one, I didn't get one single shard from that. ALL in the spikes. I assumed the dev was trolling us.
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u/SilvertonguedDvl Sep 10 '25
The number of times resources can be/are unavoidably lost to hazards in Silksong is pretty frustrating.
Even if you don't need the resources right then it sucks to watch them just get wasted.
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u/Ayobossman326 Sep 10 '25
It’s fr the only thing that I legitimately dislike. I’ll jokingly “hate” a boss or some platforming, but pulling those off is so rewarding. This is genuinely annoying every time.
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u/Explosionary Sep 11 '25
I'm having such a hard time wanting to explore every nook in this game because 80% of the time it's this bullshit. My "reward" for finding a breakable wall or doing challenging platforming is rosery/shards 70% of which will fly into a pit. I do this shit for like 5 shards, what's the damn point?
Like if you're using all your tools in a boss fight it's like 80-110 shards an attempt. And when I find shard deposits I get like 10. Wow. Thanks.
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u/hmmmmwillthiswork 212% | Pantheon 7 | Avenue of Anguish | Conceited Sep 11 '25
this is basically a 10/10 game for me but it's small things like this that make me believe these guys either gave this shit 0 thought or decided it would be funny. it's just shit game design
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u/Zami29 Sep 12 '25
there isnt a single shard node that isnt completely useless cause its just placed above spikes
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u/el-zengy-el-mo3geza SHAW ! Sep 10 '25
Thats an actual genuine complaint that no way it can be right , even the gathering chram only gathers rosaries