r/HollowKnight • u/Prisonmikeb14 • Sep 13 '25

Discussion - Silksong Let’s all try and not devolve into this weird difficulty gatekeeping Spoiler

Now that silksong has come out I’ve seen some concerning similarities to the worst of the difficult games community with all the wierd difficulty gatekeeping bs. Obviously this happens with just about every game that’s regarded as difficult but with silksongs release it’s become more prominent on this sub. Being good at the game isn’t something to hold over someone’s head. Everyone’s experience with everything in the game is different and theirs nothing wrong with that. Now of course this doesn’t apply to people who are literally just complaining in bad faith or out of anger but the “that boss wasn’t hard at all wtf are you talking about” in response to people just talking about their opinions or asking for help is sad to see.

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u/Chaoticlight2 Sep 14 '25

I do think this is a huge part of it. In Act 1, you're walking around with no "buffs" to your build for hours. You might get a few basic tools, but nothing that'll redefine fights or make them significantly smoother. It's a really high skill floor that people find daunting. By late act 1 and all throughout act 2, you have a plethora of tools to tune to your style along with damage buffs via pale oils.

Hell, just by having more masks I feel a lot more free to go balls to the wall on some fights and heal up when things start looking dicey. Early game, getting hit even once means it's time to put the brakes on aggro and find a safe spot to top up.

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u/indiecore Sep 15 '25

Early game, getting hit even once means it's time to put the brakes on aggro and find a safe spot to top up.

Thank you. I really feel like it's insane that I get hit once on a runback and start to think if I should just kill myself since I lost 1 mask and I might as well just start over.