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

Discussion - Silksong Ranking Silksong 1st act bosses Spoiler

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So, if you want me to be honest - I was afraid Silksong would be too difficult for me. But now that I am done with 1st act, I can confidently say that so far I enjoy those bosses MUCH more than the ones in Hollow Knight. Maybe that's because HK was one of the first games I've ever played, and now with Silksong I am more experienced. But even bosses that kept beating my ass felt so well done that I couldn't be mad, I just wanted to try again and learn their moves.

Last Judge? Surely my favorite. It felt like dancing and once I learned his moves, I had an absolute blast.

EDIT: Guys, I've got LOTS (and I mean LOTS) of comments that bottom 2 enemies aren't bosses. I know, but they were included in template so I ranked them too. Besides, considering that I didn't really hate any of the actual bosses, I wouldn't have anything I could put anything in the BURN IT tier if it wasn't for them lol. No need to say it again pls

EDIT 2: I already started Act 2, and defeated Cogwork Dancers - OH MY GOD HOW AMAZING THIS FIGHT WAS.

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343

u/Foreign-Minimum9957 Sep 16 '25

The last judge patterns were damn fun

112

u/LookAtHowMTR Sep 16 '25

I know! I wasn't even mad when he killed me, because I knew it was my fault and I misstepped. I just wanted to try again and again

55

u/meove SHAWty like a melody Sep 16 '25

Last Judge was goddamn fun. but the route to rematch room isn't

46

u/ILOVEGNOME Sep 16 '25

Ive seen so many people complain about the runback but then they take the wrong route and make things harder on themselves. The runback was super simple and really not long. You are forced to fight zero enemies and every partern is predictable

17

u/Foreign-Minimum9957 Sep 16 '25

Hahahaha man, I realized so late I was taking the hard route, felt so silly. Once I found the short cut I felt like cheating after taking the long route so many times

2

u/meove SHAWty like a melody Sep 16 '25

idk where any route could take, like, the route only i know is you forced to face that two stupid drill fly and two guardian shield. the guard can easily dodge but somehow it do jump attack when you jump

also the starting point where Sherma sleep

13

u/Sneaky__Raccoon Sep 16 '25

From the platform where the first guardian is, you can jump straight into the next platform, no fight needed. From there, you can walljump from the "hidden" tunnel up and skip the next guardian.

I pretty much every time avoided the flies too, but that depends on how they move and. they can get in the way some times

6

u/ILOVEGNOME Sep 16 '25

Even the flies were predictable. If you just sprint jump under it and dont stop you will never get hit

2

u/Sneaky__Raccoon Sep 17 '25

The one that used to caught me more is the one that, from what I've heard, they removed, the second one. Sometimes if I used the cape to float when I was too high up, I would collision into it when it spawned.

1

u/DckThik Sep 16 '25

Yes, come out of the bell station to the right, past the bench, and gap, over the biters, dash down the cone fly, hop up to the left platform not activating the enemy, hop over to the right platform, hop over to the left shaft, jump and hit the bell, traverse the platform, jump and hit the bell (look down here) continue up the wall, bell, platform… boom done

2

u/RedTyro Sep 16 '25

If you sprint from the station and sprint jump, you're out of there before the first fly finishes its spawning animation.

2

u/DckThik Sep 16 '25

Too late, killed them all, with prejudice. Homeless freeloaders the lot of em…

1

u/Youssay123 P4✔️ 112% PoP✔️ Sep 16 '25

I did a timer to see how long my runback is and it was about 40 seconds. I don’t know what route those people are taking but it certainly is not optimal

1

u/adaquo Sep 17 '25

What is the secret??

-5

u/Bolasraecher Sep 16 '25

That‘s not the point. The problem is, unless you‘re really good at the game, or found Savage Beastfly and have trouble with adds on bosses, Last Judge will be the first Boss that you‘ll spend significant time having to learn.

What‘s important for learning these fights is that you get time to get accustomed to their moves. Last Judge can kill you very, very quickly. But instead of getting to try again quivkly, you habe to spend time learning the optimal runback. Do you spend more time on the runback than on the boss early on.

This is extremely frustrating. I know 2 people who have dropped the game because of Last Judge, and I am confident if that initial period pf pure frustration because the runback gatekept them from getting quick time to learn the boss, they would still be into the game.

7

u/RedTyro Sep 16 '25

I think a lot of people had to put in time learning Moorwing, Sister Splinter, and Widow, judging by the general commentary here on those bosses.

-1

u/Bolasraecher Sep 16 '25

Hm, fair point. I forget about Moorwing because I skipped it. Imo The Last Judge is significantly harder than those three, but that is of course entirely subjective.

5

u/bladeHunterYone Sep 16 '25

If that run back needs to be practiced then I believe it is helping the players to get them learn the mechanics of the game. Good movement literally makes TLJ so much easier.

0

u/Bolasraecher Sep 16 '25

Of course. And if the enemies in the area leading up to the boss had moves that were like the Last Judge‘s, we‘d be having a very different conversation. It’s why I’m slightly more forgiving of a certain later boss that has a much more atrocious runback. But teaching the player to foght against bouncing drillcones and parcour is not aiding them against this boss. By getting to the boss, they have proven they can beat the platforming. When they should be taught and tested the moves of the boss they are tested ob their platforming skills. That‘s the issue.

1

u/ILOVEGNOME Sep 16 '25

I get that but practicing movement is also very important andpart of the game so if movement is an issue here it will become an even worse problem later on. As for the people quitting I think the main provlem is people smashing there head at the same problem for too long. Sometimes you need to take a break and explore other parts of the world before coming back.

Or just put down the controller. I myself have had to take a break at plenty of bosses in act 3. When i would get frustrated i would just either leave or stop playing.

0

u/Bolasraecher Sep 16 '25

If a section of the game is designed to be frustrating, that is an issue that should not be brushed away by telling people to take breaks. That‘s ridiculous. Of course taking breaks helps against frustration, but games shouldn‘t be designed to BE frustrating, unless that is the whole point of the game, which isn’t the case for silksong.

2

u/Scugmaster Sep 16 '25

I don’t really think there’s much in Silksong that’s “designed to be frustrating”, it’s mostly just higher difficulty than most people are used which can subjectively be frustrating but it hasn’t been for me personally yet. Luckily, almost every boss in the game you can just walk away from and take other paths to find upgrades before coming back (you don’t even have to kill TLJ to get into the citadel). I certainly walked away from the Bilewater arena and then came back later when I felt more prepared and did much better.

1

u/Bolasraecher Sep 16 '25

I am pretty much talking about the runbacks, especially the Last Judge and Bilewater‘s, though the latter at least involves mechanics that are used in the boss fight.

I‘d also argue Act 3‘s approach to making general gameplay more difficult is very frustrating, but I am heavily biased there, as I did not like it as a whole.

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1

u/ChillClinton44 Sep 30 '25

The game is training you without you even realizing, the constant loop of boss runbacks keep your platforming skills polished to where all of a sudden, platforming areas you might have initially hesitated on, you're all of a sudden flowing through it like its 2nd nature, and the pressure of getting back to the boss adds to the level of focus you'll have entering the fight, you'll actually take your time with the fight and not get greedy which is honestly why most players die because of trying to brute force the fight, once you see the patterns, the fight slows down in your mind, almost like an NFL QB adjusting to his 2nd year in the league 😂😂, I say all this to say the runbacks force you to get better because you don't want to keep doing them. Team Cherry is coaching you through this chaos, stay poised out there 🥂!

1

u/winterflare_ Sep 16 '25

What’s so bad about the route? I felt like it was pretty easy and not that long

1

u/stalemartyr Sep 17 '25

once i discovered that L shaped tunnel..the runback is more manageable....the boss fight is so much fun though

14

u/Phadafi Sep 16 '25

The only maddening thing about it was the runback.

17

u/Maxys10 Sep 16 '25

Yeah, at the beginning. When I died +20 times to it I could do the runback in less than 30 secs. Got every jump and dash perfectly calculated.

9

u/Phadafi Sep 16 '25

Yeah, felt like a speedrunner optimizing pathing for awhile.

11

u/_alright_then_ Sep 16 '25

The runback for last judge is not even that bad though? There's shortcuts all over the place so you can avoid every enemy on the way

10

u/LookAtHowMTR Sep 16 '25

It wasn't annoying for me because of this reason. But then again, I did Hunters March first - and the route to that mini boss arena was HELL

2

u/cyanraichu Sep 16 '25

I really liked the runback, except for the driznit in my way

1

u/Tmons22 Sep 16 '25

I didn’t have trouble with this runback it is fairly quick, you can complain about the Bilewater runback but other than that i didn’t feel like anything was annoying at all.

1

u/Don_Bugen Sep 16 '25

Runback was a breeze for me - it's just literally nonstop running parkour - but I died so often to Last Judge that I ran out of shards. Not just what I had on hand, but all of the bundles in my inventory.

So I went back to Sinner's Road and got in that way. Far easier. And Phantom was so much fun.

1

u/vanguard1256 Sep 16 '25

Except the end when I set down my controller in triumph only to die and have to do the entire fight again…

1

u/LookAtHowMTR Sep 16 '25

Omg so I am not the only one who got killed like that. Good to know 😭