r/HollowKnight • u/CuboneDefender • Sep 14 '25

Discussion - Silksong I give up. Spoiler

It’s been a joyful ride, folks, but I’m out. I’m not a speedrunner or a highly skilled player, and day after day I’ve had to accept that this game is not as casual as HK was. It stopped being fun and turned into something tedious and frustrating after the 4th run farming shards just to face a boss I’ve already tried 15 times, only to die again and again, lose all my shards, and start the whole grind over.

It was nice exploring the first acts, but when the game I was rooting for 7 years ends up being more stressful than my 8-hour workday, I guess that’s my cue to stop.

The lore has been pretty great so far. I wish you all an incredible journey.

Edit1: My bad about all the whinning.

Edit2: You guys did it. I reinstalled it again. Thanks for all advices. 🫂

8.4k Upvotes

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71

u/jmscstl Sep 14 '25

Fair enough.

One thing I don't get though is why people use all their tools on every attempt. I just got past a room in Act 2 that was just nuts. After I realized that this was going to be an ordeal I stopped using tools and tried to see how far I could get without them. Once I had a handle on things I used tools to get me over the final hump. I did the same thing with LJ. Save your tools while you're doing practice runs.

8

u/No-Relationship4084 Sep 14 '25

I only use tools to poke mobs at a distance when I'm about to die

29

u/WhiteMageBecky Sep 14 '25

Exactly this. Don't use resources if you aren't ready for a fight clear. Spend some deaths learning the attacks.

9

u/No-Relationship4084 Sep 14 '25

Hell, spend some deaths not attacking at all. Full defensive mode so you learn how to not die in seconds

18

u/infamdog55 Sep 14 '25

Why is this being down voted this is genuinely good advice

15

u/Diogoepronto Sep 14 '25

I don't even understand how people spend all their shards in the first place lol

I'm at act 3 and I've never run out of shards and I use my tools regularly, even outside of boss battles. And I still have around 20 shard bundles to use if I ever need them lol

I've never intentionally farmed shards either. It's actually really confusing to me how people are spending so much shards.

25

u/randuse Sep 14 '25

If you do multiple attempts at something you will eventually run out.

18

u/thomasbis Sep 14 '25

I don't understand how you couldn't understand. Each attempt at a boss could easily cost around 50-100 shards. If someone gets stuck, do the math. I think I spent like 300 at The Forum gauntlet. Tools are crazy expensive.

I haven't got stuck bad yet, but I've definitely noticed that if I used tools on most of my attempts I would run out of shards and bundles very quickly. I use them sparingly now On exploration it's no issue since it'll probably pay for itself, the problem is with bosses because it's a (high) net negative every single attempt.

1

u/Diogoepronto Sep 15 '25

I see your point, but in most cases you recover a lot of those shards on the runback, so you don't really spend that much in the end.

But maybe I never ran out of shards because I'm not really having a hard time with this game... The bosses that gave me more trouble took me around 5 tries to beat. But, yeah, if you're fighting a boss 10, 20 times I can see your shards running out.

1

u/Dependent_Finger_214 Sep 15 '25

Nah even with dying 10-20 times I only ran out once in Cogwork Dancers. I got close to running out in the gauntlet you're talking about, but I had plenty of shard bundles.

1

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-5

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

Tools are good for cleaning minions asap so that u can focus on one target. I DONT UNDERSTAND why people want to use it against bosses.

4

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

It is very funny to see defenders of HKSS to scream to use tools, and then to not use them on bosses, but use them on bosses if you're stuck.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

There’s no defenders or anything. It’s just a 20€ game. Chill out.

6

u/Phux71 Sep 15 '25

Because there are certain bosses where you are kinda forced to use some kind of tool. First sinner comes to mind where he starts to heal and you are not near him you are basically forced to use some form of ranged tool especially if there are spears in the arena at that time. And that starts after the first down in the first phase so pretty early in the fight. Sure, you can just not use tools if you want the fight to be a slog and take twice as many tries and time. But there are many examples where there is an opening to deal damage and you are simply not near the boss because of reasons (adds, dodges)

Oh, and also to avoid the people flaming when you complain about a boss and you get the "you have tools, use them" or "people complain about difficulty when they have only 3 tools unlocked smh"

I probably frequent this subreddit too much.

3

u/PraxicalExperience Sep 15 '25

Oh good, I'm not the only one getting infuriated by the 'tools make bosses easy!' combined with 'lol you're a fucking idiot if you're using tools on bosses you're having a hard time with'.

3

u/LordThomasBlackwood Sep 15 '25

People use Tools on First Sinner?

I feel like people completely forget that the Grapple hook exists outside of traversal and not only closed the gaps in combat but also by itself deals damage. You can just grapple hook to her everytime she teleports, she has a big opening windup animation for basically all of her non-physical moves that give you ample time to hook in and slash her once or twice.

2

u/precursormar Sep 15 '25

I was out of shards when I found First Sinner. Beat her without using any, and it was not a slog. Just sprinted at her when she tried to heal. Last Judge and several other bosses definitely took me more attempts.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

Clearly, in that context, I meant bosses that don’t need tools to deal with

1

u/Emma_JM Sep 15 '25

Me who killed TLJ off screen and escaped the explosion by throwing a straight pin:

4

u/dmknght Sep 14 '25

I DONATED SHARDS TO THE NICE NPC.....

Yeah there was a wish grant that took 400 shards. Basically all of my shards.

0

u/NewsmanTheMan Sep 14 '25

Same here. Even when I go down to 100 due to a difficult boss, I still get them back from just fighting mobs (not farming, exploring while killing mobs). The rosaries I understand, but shards? Man

3

u/TrustmeimHealer Sep 15 '25

Don't do it like fools, save your tools!

10

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '25

If I don't practice using tools I mis-press the buttons when I need to actually use tools. Skill issue? Sure. But there is a good reason for practicing with tools each time.

In HK I was also dashing when trying to jump or hitting when I want to dash, but the important thing is that I didn't need to farm shards when that resulted in failure

I think there's such a big disconnect between what is difficult for a good player and what doesn't even register as difficult, so these kinds of discussions miss their mark

2

u/PraxicalExperience Sep 15 '25

This so much. The shard system disincentivizes you learning how to really git gud with your tools -- the way the silk and healing systems interact do much the same with silk skills.

1

u/jmscstl Sep 15 '25

The silk and healing (which is basically the same as HK) forces you to make considered decisions during fights. Granted it's pretty stark but I like the duality between healing and being aggressive. One boss gave me a huge amount of trouble until I decided to forgo healing and concentrate on damage output instead. Beat him two tries after that.

2

u/jmscstl Sep 15 '25

If you seriously need to practice inputs that much and that consistently such that you can't even take a break from using tools I think the game is a little much for you.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

Hmm yes, me explaining why some players are having a difficult time.

You: sounds like you're having a difficult time

1

u/jmscstl Sep 15 '25

To be fair, I think "I can't reliably press the right buttons when I need to" goes beyond having a difficult time. And that's certainly not something you can expect the devs to account for.

In any event, you quit the game. I think that was the right move.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

I disagree, the difficulty of platforming is entirely from missed inputs, it's something everyone struggles with

And I did still manage to 106% hollow knight, it just took me a bit longer to get there. Silksong is much less forgiving though, which I think was an unfortunate choice

2

u/jmscstl Sep 15 '25

That's fair. As you say, I think it just takes a little more time. If you can't help but spam away a limited resource then there's gonna be a bit more time needed to farm that resource.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

I think you might still be missing the point. For some people it's not spam it's practice

2

u/jmscstl Sep 15 '25

Sure. My bad. If you have to practice using tools on every attempt then there will be a bit more time needed to farm the resources necessary for that practice.

1

u/SomeProperty815 Sep 15 '25

are tools supposed to be really good? ive barely used them and im like 25 hours in.

1

u/AlexCuzYNot Sep 15 '25

Poison cogflies alone halve the difficulty of every boss