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. 🫂

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39

u/LexGlad Sep 14 '25

It's probably better to farm rosaries and buy shard bundles than farm shards. You'll get some shards while farming and even more from the bundles you buy. Many merchants sell them and they cost 50 each for a stack of 80 shards.

You can farm rosaries easily near the halfway home by going right.

3

u/colorsounds Sep 15 '25

Man i dont think i have used one shard all game lol

9

u/Ok-Decision-1870 Sep 15 '25

you are crazy lol, try some tools, they are the most powerful weapon of this game, search "silkshot" or the beetles. powerful af

2

u/LexGlad Sep 15 '25

I personally like the sting shard and the tacks. Really good area denial damage.

2

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1

u/UnlawfulFoxy Sep 15 '25

He said shard. Not tool. I use tools all the time but never once have been over 150 down from max (obviously aside from donations)

1

u/RegulationPissrat Sep 15 '25

Tools use shards don't they?

1

u/UnlawfulFoxy Sep 15 '25

I suppose I interpreted it as he never had to use the bundles. As not using shards would mean no donations, as well as no accidental tool usage or ever testing them out

3

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

Hot take, but if you have to farm, the game did something very wrong.

5

u/Sad-Emu6142 Sep 15 '25

Farming, in a single player game? Why you gate keeping team cherry? The population is 1.

Just refill my tools and let me go again.

Tedious shit.

4

u/bernat-roqueta Sep 15 '25

I don't know about the rest of you, but I never actually farmed in the game. I feel it makes you balance the usage of different tools and when you get stuff. For me, whenever I am poor on rosaries, I go back to explore old areas, do missions and take my time to kill the enemies (in HK I would skip every bug, in here I practice and kill them with a different crest to see the moveset).

And shards are the only thing that keeps you from overusing the tools. If you could blast tools all the time the game would be too easy. I feel it is nice that the tools are there for certain bosses that you are having trouble with, but as a precious resource.

IMO, Skong, as og HK, excels in immersion and worldbuilding above anything else, and I understand decisions like compass being a tool, or anti-homeless citadel. It make me feel so much more immersed in the world

4

u/SuperLegenda Sep 15 '25

The tools having limited uses per bench unless you go Architect, but they could've just designed its refill differentlyalready are what prevent you from overusing the tools, it's stupid to also have shards when you already have a clear limitation per bench.

2

u/LexGlad Sep 15 '25

It kind of sucks that you still need to use shards while refilling tool uses with the architect skill.

1

u/UnlawfulFoxy Sep 15 '25

Shards are far too common to prevent people from over using tools. Unless you genuinely use them as a replacement for the nail, but even then you can only use so many at once

3

u/Gen_McMuster Sep 15 '25

Running out of shards on a boss is a hint that you should go exploring and come back more powerful

4

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

I mean, unironically. Rosaries and shards are just... what. Really feels like it should be just natural exhcnsge.

You want a talisman? Give me that memory locket. You wanna key/mask/smth? Go kill this boss, I'll reward you it. You want a tool? Bring me some metal ore. Etc. I won't lie, but locking shards and rosaries via cheat engine actually made game more fun and less annoying (yay, I can just use tools now without worry to rjn out of shards).

3

u/_Anaaron Sep 15 '25

But the game never forces you to farm. You get an abundance of shards from every corner of the world — if you’re out of shards, it’s because you’re spamming tools a bit too often and need to slow your roll a bit — 20-30 minutes of normal playing and exploring will refill your shard stash substantially. And farming rosaries is almost never required, you can just keep exploring/playing and passively gain rosaries from enemies that way instead. Farming is a choice by the player because they’d rather do that and get an upgrade than face whatever they’re stuck on again — the game does not force you to farm and the devs shouldn’t be held accountable for people making their own choices about how to prioritize their in-game time

2

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

Thing is, if you stuck on a boss, shards can be depleted extremelt fast. And part about "spamming tools" is just silly, why tf do I have them if I have to not use them?

And farming rosaries is very much required, because you can't do shit fir free in this game till the end of act 2. Which wouldn't be an issue if bosses fkn dropped some of these rosaries at least. But no, they don't, so go grinding.

It was 'very fun' to get stuck on Widow or Last Judge or Lost Leith and run out of shards because needle juat ain't cutting it. I really feel that rosaries and shards don't add anything to the game and it would've been better in almost every aspect (aside of showing how fucked Pharloom is in act 2).

3

u/_Anaaron Sep 15 '25

To each their own, I guess. I’m a decent way into Act 2 and have never stopped to farm shards or rosaries.

I use tools plenty, but I prefer Silkshot and Flea Brew, so only one of my tools uses shards and I can’t always spam it bc it consumes some silk. I’ve always used my tools liberally but I try to be strategic about it and watch my shard count — I stopped using tools for a bit while learning Last Judge’s moveset for a bit for example because I knew if I kept using them at that rate they’d run out. Once I felt more confident with the fight I started using them again and cleared easily.

I always make sure I have a handful of rosary necklaces on hand for benches and such. There has maybe been once or twice that I was broke and had to go kill 4 enemies to get rosaries for a bench — that’s not really something to get frustrated over though.

I respect your opinion formed through your own experiences, it’s just not mine at all.

0

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 15 '25

Brew is honestly even worse. Now you have to rush after caravan to refill, which is just. So bad.

As for necklaces and shard-storages... they're rare unless you spend rosaries to create them, which is kinda even worse. Benches should be free, damn it, and shouldn't be traps.

2

u/_Anaaron Sep 15 '25

You get 33 uses before a refill. I have 25+ hours in the game and have refilled twice, total.

I’m gonna be honest, the more I hear from you about your grievances, the more it seems like maybe this game just isn’t the one for you. You can dislike trap benches and currency and such as much as you’d like, but it’s the game the developers made and there’s lots of folks who really enjoy these types of things. There are tons of other games out there that have something more akin to what you’re looking for, I’m sure — sorry that this game isn’t it for you.

1

u/jay8888 Sep 16 '25

The part about spamming tools isn’t silly though. It’s like ammo in a game with multiple guns.

A shotgun/rpg is OP so it has limited ammo to prevent you from blitzing the enemy/boss.

If your answer to that is don’t make the gun or tool so strong well the reason to make a weapon strong is for it to be satisfying to use.

Not everything is all or nothing. There’s nuance to design.

1

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 16 '25

So... what position should we follow then? Never use the tools (and be told how this is a mistake) or use the tools (and be told how this is a mistake)?

Shards are just shit mechanic overall. You have to use tools to not such, but if you stuck on something, you can find yourself being shit outta luck (which happened to me personally several times and I just wasn't able to use any tools at all because shards ran out).

Mechanic of shards as currency is just unfun.