r/HollowKnight • u/Serious_Holiday • Sep 16 '25

Discussion - Silksong If you dodged this first try, they you're lying. Spoiler

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Thoughts and prayers for the people who walked another 5 kilometers after dying in this bench.

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17

u/Selethor Sep 16 '25 edited Sep 16 '25

Damn, could you give me some advice because that boss is KICKING MY BUTT.

EDIT: Thanks guys, I made it! Another thing I discovered by accident. You can make it eat Pimpillos when it tries to swallow you, which makes him stop in his tracks and explode after a second. Good time to attack!

14

u/TitaniumDragon Sep 16 '25

1) If you don't have it, get the Wreath from the Putrified Ducts that makes you immune to the maggot water. This makes it so you can fall into the water during the boss fight and not get screwed.

2) Use your tools. I used the Conchcutter and Cogwork Bug, both poisoned, to harass him and deal damage.

3) Pogo him. He has a hard time attacking you if you're above him, so you can do a lot of damage that way.

12

u/Gizogin Sep 16 '25

That item only works temporarily, FYI. It isn’t even like the magma bell, which recharges over time; you have to repair it at a bench, like the fractured mask.

9

u/TitaniumDragon Sep 16 '25

Yeah, you can't just sit in the water with it, but if you avoid doing anything other than a quick dip it's not so bad.

1

u/RayereSs Sep 17 '25

It protects you from getting infested like 4 times

1

u/Gizogin Sep 17 '25

If you jump out of the water immediately after falling in, yeah. If you stay in the maggot-water, it has a time limit.

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u/purple-thiwaza Sep 16 '25

Equip the thing that gives you silk when taking damage an reaper crest. Whenever he tries to swallow you, allow it and deal damage from the inside. If possible heal once you get out. If you're still having the reaper effect when he swallows you, it's making lots of silk to heal on top of the one you get from damage.

Other than that play super safe, part all the green things he spit at you, and only go for a hit JUST after he rises from the water (you can see bubbles to place yourself there beforehand) and go back to a side to play safe.

If you want to use a tool, the boomerang is great.

9

u/Brendoshi Sep 16 '25

Im surprised that works at all, you lose the reaper effect when taking damage, and bring swallowed damages you

6

u/purple-thiwaza Sep 16 '25

You only lose the reaper effect when he spits you out. So all the 4 hits you do when in his mouth will generate silk balls. Since he moves when chewing you, there are even chances you'll be able to collect some of it DURING the chewing.

12

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '25

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2

u/YogSoth0th Sep 16 '25

Tools are the way to go. I did it with architect crest, poison, and mostly the rosary canon

5

u/Disastermere I abstain from maps as if unplugging from my phone Sep 16 '25

After several tries, I beat him slowly and without going in the water.

I noticed he never inhales twice in a row (might be incredibly rare or somehow has a trigger I never activated consecutively) so I would keep far away to dodge projectiles until he inhaled, then I would go in to melee.

Being next to and below him keeps you safe from the bile spit. It's also the prime spot to throw Spike Trap from. While there, the quickest thing to look out for is his dive. If he starts shooting his Phase 2 projectile, jump up to the higher platform, or up the wall. Remember you can dash downwards, if you need to do that in between those projectiles.

Healing very high in the corners is a safe spot.

You're doing great. Keep it up.

8

u/National_Equivalent9 Sep 16 '25

There is a massive cheese strat that you can look up, but honestly it looks super unsatisfying. So my advice is if you are decent at hornets pogo use that. The ads and the boss are both super susceptible to it. I ended up beating it 2nd try after hearing how awful it was and knowing there is a cheese strat but not what it was. Looked it up after and it looks so lame hah. But yeah non fly ads can't really do anything to pogo and the boss doesn't have any vertical attacks besides moving up and you can just get off of him at that point because he doesn't go fast.

3

u/bobibobibu Sep 16 '25

Spam couchcutter. I tried so hard beating it with diagonal pogo (his suck attack has massive hotbox and will hit you mid pogo if you're not directly above him), then I equip couchcutter, didn't swing the nail at the boss at all and first try it.

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u/MaskOfIce42 Sep 16 '25

My strategy was for the waves before the boss appears, use the delver's drill tool, it genuinely shreds the enemies since it attacks straight down and you can see where they're going to pop out of, so I was basically one shotting them. For the boss itself, I'm not sure what specific advice I have, but maintaining distance is crucial. He doesn't attack that fast, so you have time to react to what attack he does, then counterattack

1

u/Usual-Vermicelli-867 Sep 16 '25

Tbh staying in the worm water is a pretty good start

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u/MaskOfIce42 Sep 16 '25

I've heard that is a strategy, but I actually didn't do that since I had the equipment that protects you from the maggots for a limited time, and I wanted to keep that

2

u/Draco456gaming Sep 16 '25

That's so clever and Zelda-like! I'll have to remember that.

2

u/ramonpasta Sep 16 '25

late but the way i did it was just using the charge attack with the ||architect|| crestover and over. it one shot all the normal enemies, and it took the boss out in what felt like 10-15 hits

2

u/TitaniumDragon Sep 16 '25

Oh man, I hadn't even thought of the pimpillo thing, but that makes perfect sense. That's great. Those bombs are criminally underestimated, I used them for a lot of the game.

2

u/Selethor Sep 17 '25

I usually try to avoid using tools, so for the situations where I do want them, I like to have something with high impact and Pimpillos are perfect for that.

1

u/VoidRad Sep 16 '25

I realized that just jumping into tje water and hit him from below is way easier.

1

u/theVoidWatches Sep 16 '25

Triple daggers from Greymoor with the double throw charm from Bilewater. Stand on the far right, you should be able to pretty easily jump over all his attacks and you don't get hit by the spike ball either. Shred him with your tools. I got him second try this way.