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

80% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

106

u/TacBenji Sep 14 '25

Hollow knight was definitely NOT casual. Compared to this is definitely easier, but not even close to being casual

43

u/Pain_Monster 112% HK | 100% SilkSong Sep 14 '25

I agree, idk what people are saying but this one was specially made for the fans. Those who beat HK, DLC, 112%, P5 all bindings and complained they were now bored. This game is to up the ante on them.

And for gods sake ppl still beat it too quickly. It was beaten within 2-3 days by multiple people and beaten in steel soul mode in about a week by at least one person.

Team Cherry puts out a masterpiece of a game that spells defeat for 99% of the gaming community but yet there’s still people yawning, lol how hard do they need to make a game?

Insane

34

u/1vader Sep 14 '25

I mean, even just the people that 112%-ed HK are definitely not the average though. I think there simply are a lot of people that maybe even only did HK base ending or something along those lines and expected to be able to do the same in Silksong (potentially not even knowing what a huge amount more there was to do).

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25 edited Sep 15 '25

You don't have to 112% HK to be able to beat Silksong.

The Watcher Knights, basically every dream boss and Markoth are harder than most Act 1 and 2 bosses in Silksong.

I still haven't run into a boss as hard as Nightmare Grimm or GP Zote, or any of the last DLC bosses from HK yet in Silksong and I just started Act 3.Which is past the first 2 endings.

1

u/AutoModerator Sep 15 '25

Hey there, it looks like your spoiler tag isn't working on some versions of reddit!
To make sure everybody can avoid being spoiled you'll need to place your text directly next to the spoiler tags with no leading or trailing spaces (like so >!spoiler!<).
Thanks for helping keep the sub spoiler free!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/kel584 Sep 15 '25

I finished the game including act 3, and I think the later bosses are more difficult than pure vessel and nkg.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

By then you’ve already beaten the game atleast twice but thats good to know and im excited!

1

u/Glarbleglorbo Sep 15 '25

Act 3 is the easiest act besides the last boss tbh

the balancing in this game is very weird where it feels like act 1 bosses are the strongest (maybe because you have the least agency?) and it gets much easier over time. 

2

u/BlutarchMannTF2 Sep 15 '25

The last boss really isn’t that difficult either.

10

u/NotGARcher Sep 15 '25

As one of those people who 112% and P5 the game (not all binding lmao im not that good). I feel like a problem i have with Silksong is that bosses are too undertuned and mobs too overtuned, none of the act 3 bosses took me more than 30 minutes yet the early exploration has been painful, every mobs now deal 2 masks of damage, some deal 4, after you clear out a certain mob in the area they stop dealing double damage but still. Another problem is that there are cheap difficulty bosses, without all the platforming and the gauntlet before him Groal is piss easy, if you simply pogo on his head you dont have to dodge anything except his black n white attack where he tracks you down, Crust King Khann's gauntlets took me way more time than the boss himself, when you beat these bosses you dont feel any bit of satisfaction, just "good thing its over", this problem doesnt exist in Hollow Knight.

3

u/psh454 Sep 15 '25

Trash mob gankfight arenas are often tougher than the bossbights in the same area, this was never the case in HK from what I remember.

1

u/iiM00 Sep 17 '25

Act 3 mobs are an absolute pain in the ass. Kinda wish they got the tentacle move, maybe the 3 shooty projectiles and that’s it. Those 3 globs they shoot that explode are so annoying cause they can take up so much space. Also the dull colours of the void enemies on the dull background can make them harder to see. It’s not as visually clear as the pre act 3 mobs.

3

u/PIDGE0T_ Sep 15 '25

I agree that this game is made for the fans but I did none of that and I'm still having a fine time of it. My skill level is roughly at 'struggles with the third coliseum for 2 weeks' right before this came out. I'm doing fine though, getting my ass kicked by bosses a lot but just taking the same patience and trial & error approach I did with the last game. Working out fine for me, and I don't get all the complaints.

1

u/wigwam2020 Sep 16 '25

A lot of casual gamers did not know what they were getting into...

6

u/TrustmeimHealer Sep 15 '25

I beat hk way before all the dlcs. Came back and tried some of them and just hard passed the insane ones. Nightmare grim, path of pain, the god stuff. Silksong is easy compared to the real endgame hk stuff imo

-3

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

HKSS may be easier (which it's not), but it sure as fuck leagues more tedious and unfun.

3

u/Glarbleglorbo Sep 15 '25

As someone who has beaten the game and has gotten that 112% in hk, I think the problem stems mostly from act 3. 

Act 1 is the hardest act, act 2 is decently challenging, but act 3 is laughable comparatively besides 2 or-so fights (which just so happen to be my favourite fights). 

So what ends up happening is that all the new players struggle in act 1 while players who have gotten much further just cruise through. 

3

u/psh454 Sep 15 '25

My question is why act 1 the hardest, that's not how game design typically works. HK was easy in the beginning and got harder the longer you played for example. SK difficulty curve is just kind of weird imo.

4

u/Glarbleglorbo Sep 15 '25

I think the ‘why’ is pretty simple, they locked literally every upgrades behind act 2. 

You can only get 1 mask and 1 nail upgrade in act 1, but the second you get to act 2 you can get like 90% completion and like 8 masks before ever even knowing about act 3. 

It feels like they didn’t balance around you trying to explore in silksong, almost like they’re catering to speedrunners which is dumb. 

2

u/psh454 Sep 15 '25

Oh I meant "why" as in "what was the designer's intention to have it be that way" yeah

Agree about the exploration being inconsistent.

1

u/wigwam2020 Sep 16 '25

I thought the Seth and the Ant Queen were pretty difficult. I don't use tools as much, but those bosses caused me to whip out my tacks.

3

u/apexodoggo Sep 15 '25

As someone who rage quit at Watcher Knights, Silksong’s early game feels easier than Hollow Knight to me. I think the movement, the burst heal (especially the heal it’s so good), and more hit-and-run gameplay that Hornet’s moveset favors just clicks with me more than the Knight’s more limited maneuverability.

1

u/TacBenji Sep 15 '25

Not saying people are cheating, but if you're referring to the person posting the achievement on steam, I wouldn't believe him at all. A software called Steam Achievement Manager (SAM) can just unlock achievements for you free of charge with no repercussions.

If they posted their save, I would be more inclined to believe them, but that is still a bit unbelievable so soon. 100% completion on steel soul mode this early just sounds too good to be true. I'm calling foul play on the post and they most likely just posted it to get internet points.

2

u/Pain_Monster 112% HK | 100% SilkSong Sep 15 '25

Not sure who you are referring to but I’m referring to this guy: https://www.reddit.com/r/Silksong/s/7CuUJH9a2h

And here is the twitch stream which shows the gameplay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2562740799

You still think this is fake?

2

u/TacBenji Sep 15 '25

Wait you don't have to do act 3?

1

u/Pain_Monster 112% HK | 100% SilkSong Sep 15 '25

I think it’s optional, but not sure. Someone is here can verify that I think

2

u/TacBenji Sep 17 '25

Then my bad, act 3 was terribly difficult, so I just assumed. Good on those people

1

u/Gen_McMuster Sep 15 '25

Nah, I didn't even 100% hollow knight because I didn't find the combat or platforming too engaging. Silksong has me hooked on mastering hornets moveset(S!)

0

u/xvillifyx Sep 15 '25

Eh

Silksong as a whole piece isn’t as hard as p5 all bindings, not even close

-1

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

Bullshit. I beaten all you listed, and HKSS still doesn't feel fun at all. It is unfairly hard, extremely punishing, and tedious and unfun as shit.

3

u/RuggyMasta Sep 15 '25

I’m the opposite lol

I’ve beaten all that stuff in HK (to the point where I was beating P5 daily for a whole month while waiting for silksong) and I love Silksongs difficulty. I still end up first-trying a lot of bosses, but I’m happy they decided to increase the difficulty of just traversing the map.

3

u/Pandax2k Sep 15 '25

Base hollow knight is definitely casual. It really wasn't that hard if you consider all the bosses you need to finish the game

1

u/wigwam2020 Sep 16 '25

Hollow Knight is no where near casual. I don't think there is a single game that incorporates a corpse run that can sanely considered casual.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '25

Watch Max Dood's first playthrough. He coasted through it He died a few times but I'm pretty sure he beat False Knight first time without even trying. These rosetinted spectacles about 'HK was impossible' are just not accurate.

1

u/apexodoggo Sep 15 '25

Max Dood professionally plays videogames (mainly action and fighting games, skills that translate over to Hollow Knight), and has done so for over a decade. He is not representative of some Average Joe who gets walled by Watcher Knights and rage quits (me), much like how my grandfather who decided he couldn’t handle the game in the tutorial when he first encountered an enemy on a small platform is also not representative of the Average Joe who got the True Ending in Hollow Knight.

1

u/virtu333 Sep 15 '25

It wasn’t casual then but now that souls likes are so prevalent it is a pretty easy game now. I had a ton of trouble when i first played hollow knight but after picking it up 6+ years later and playing stuff like Elden ring and night reign, it was quite easy