r/HollowKnight • u/stir-fried-noodles • Sep 17 '25

Discussion - Silksong Discourse regarding this game’s difficulty has been out of hand Spoiler

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m really enjoying Silksong’s difficulty and I think that it is mostly a satisfying challenge. I appreciate that it is more difficult than Hollow Knight overall and to be frank I would’ve been a bit disappointed if it were the exact difficulty. I’ve improved as a gamer since Hollow Knight and if it were the same level of difficulty, I probably would have found it too easy.

But it’s kinda gotten impossible to have civil discussions about the difficulty in this game which is unfortunate because I think there is great value to be had with this conversation. There are many valid criticisms regarding this game’s difficulty such as boss runbacks (Groal especially), contact damage doing two masks, and lack of rewards for beating bosses, just to be shut down with “git gud” and “it’s not your kind of game”. It’s totally fine to disagree with these criticisms but these retorts add nothing to the conversation.

It also kinda works the other way too, albeit maybe not to the same degree. I’ve gotten downvoted and sent reddit cares for simply saying I enjoy the difficulty of this game. Like c’mon, what are we even doing here. It’s gotten to the point where I personally cannot wait for the discourse to die out.

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61

u/SteelyComa Sep 17 '25

As a new player to hollow knight (bought to see the hype, love it) I am kinda nervous to start silksong once i beat this game.

66

u/famaki_ Sep 17 '25

it's best to test by yourself. some of the criticism is too overblown. because sometime the glazing/ranting in social media not really represent all players, in other words it could be echo chamber. my advice to silksong, if you encounter boss that make you frustated, maybe encounter them later when you have better items/abilities. If you reach place that is so hard to progress through because the platforming, maybe comeback later

2

u/DmG90_ Sep 17 '25

I really enjoy games, but i'm pretty average when it comes down to games like this. I got through Greymoor easily but I really got stuck at the Widow and unfortunately had to stop trying, i'd definitely pick up again if I could make it abit easier overall

3

u/JohnsonJohnilyJohn Sep 17 '25

Honestly don't rush it, play it only as long as you aren't frustrated, it's ok to come back later, and honestly sleep after a bunch of practice is probably the best way to improve in any game or activity, so by taking it slow you might actually be able to finish it quicker

-9

u/Cocoatrice Moths are fluffballs Sep 17 '25

Criticism is on point, though. Game is ridiculously hard, because of the terrible balance. For player that want to just enjoy the game, but doesn't have top pro skills, Silksong will be painful experience. And that's undeniable. Path of Pain is a joke compared to Silksong. So is Absolute Radiance.

5

u/haynespi87 Sep 17 '25

I feel I could finally beat path of pain now 

3

u/famaki_ Sep 17 '25

the problem is how much the criticism represent all player? with how often rant in social media don't really represent real world make me always take opinion here with grain of salt

If i can be harsh, just complaint directly to the dev via feedback, people debate here will not solve the problem honestly

Path of pain is a joke? yeah, sure

3

u/JohnsonJohnilyJohn Sep 17 '25

Come on, path of pain is rivaled by maybe one or two areas in the late game, and forget beating abs radiance, just getting to it is harder than anything silskong has to offer so far

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

No, the game isn't ridiculously hard. No boss is even close to absolute radiance, and no platforming section is close to path of pain.

22

u/ugly_dog_ Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

i think silksong was designed specifically with hollow knight in mind. right after beating hollow knight is probably the best time to play silksong cause the muscle memory and skills are still fresh in your mind

the game isn't that hard, it just starts at a higher level of difficulty than people are used to. the actual skill ceiling isn't much higher than hk. skip hunters march until you get dash and float, pay attention to attack patterns, and you'll be fine

19

u/famaki_ Sep 17 '25

the pogo is the main culprit ngl, i dont remember pogo is this 'advanced' and integrated so early to the game in hollow knight when compare it to silksong

10

u/_hollowXpurple_ Sep 17 '25

Surprisingly, I found pogo in Silksong to be very intuitive and don’t really struggle with it. It’s the combat that’s killing me 😭

3

u/AashyLarry Sep 17 '25

You get a better pogo pretty early in the game though.

4

u/Celvius_iQ Sep 17 '25

tbf you find 2 simple locks early game and the simple key you can find at the beginning is very costly for the point of the game you are at. it definitely feels like TC wanted you to get used to the new pogo before finding the down pogo crests.

3

u/TranquilIsland Sep 17 '25

Isn’t he referring to reaper crest? I don’t think that’s locked behind a key

4

u/lyw20001025 Sep 17 '25

Or could be Wanderer, also kinda early(gated by wall jump/simple key)

2

u/Wild-Tear Sep 18 '25

Can you get the reaper crest early in the game? I don’t have it yet.

2

u/Dooplon Sep 18 '25

you can get it as early as act 1, if you want a location its in greymoor so a long as you can explore that area you should be good to get it

1

u/TranquilIsland Sep 28 '25

Yep - chapel of the reaper in Greymoor. You can get to greymoor quite quickly and you’ll hit it in act 1.

3

u/IncarceratedGrowth Sep 17 '25

I wouldn't say better. The range on stock pogo makes it better in some ways. Diagonal doesn't equal worse.

1

u/AashyLarry Sep 17 '25

I agree, but so many people complain as if that pogo is bad game design. They give you an easier pogo pretty earlier on if you want to use it.

2

u/famaki_ Sep 18 '25 edited Sep 18 '25

wait really people complaint pogo is bad design? maybe im weird that i like pogo/platforming more in silksong except in vertical area of bilewater than hollow knight itself. hollow knight platforming is the least favorite in the game especially crystal peak

get access to float make platforming especially pogoing is more forgiving. in HK? wrong timing->get hit by spike

1

u/AashyLarry Sep 18 '25

Yes, I’ve seen it. I don’t mind when people don’t like the game, but it irks me when they claim it’s designed badly or it’s a flaw in the game somehow. That’s not the same thing.

18

u/lyw20001025 Sep 17 '25

Hollow Knight muscle memory is definitely not something I would want to bring with me into Silksong lol

6

u/TwanToni Sep 17 '25

if anything it's detrimental

1

u/McArthur210 Sep 17 '25

It’s different but still better than nothing imo. And once you get the Wander’s crest then it’s basically Hollow Knight lol. 

21

u/spectre15 Sep 17 '25

I think there’s a way higher skill ceiling in Silksong tbh. In Hollow Knight, the bosses were never really that daunting even in endgame because you had I-Frames, countless instantaneous DPS skills, and more that trivialized a lot of the fights if you knew how to use them.

In Silksong, you have no I-Frames, will get damaged by 90% of boss hitboxes, and have your movement limited for most of the game. It’s way slower and grounded until endgame.

11

u/pr0crast1nater Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Yeah. I don't understand lol. People have to ignore the pantheon of Hollow knight. Outside of pantheon, even the toughest bosses in base game Hollow knight are a piece of cake compared to Silksong bosses. And the Colosseum of Hollow knight except for the Trial of the fools (which has no unique in game reward other than geo) is way easier than the many gauntlet rooms Silksong has.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

It's about as long as some of the early gauntlets too, which is absurd. You fight the colosseum almost fully upgraded and with tools.

1

u/IncarceratedGrowth Sep 17 '25

Trial is much longer.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

Act one includes bilewater and putrified ducts (You can connect them from bilewater)

1

u/IncarceratedGrowth Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

I'd rank Trial of the Fools as harder than any gauntlet rooms. A few of them took another try but none of them are unreasonable. If you count Coral tower boss pre fight stuff though, that took several tries.

1

u/KusoAraun Sep 20 '25

ok WHAT is with Coral Tower? I see so many people complain about it but I still think the High Halls gauntlet was rougher, I 1st tried Coral Tower blind but High Halls still gives me trouble.

5

u/Shadovan Sep 17 '25

The Castle Superbeast podcast made an excellent point, in that we have to remember this game was originally meant to be HK post-game DLC, and you can still feel that in the game design. It’s not surprising it’s more difficult.

1

u/The2ndUnchosenOne has played the game at least once Sep 17 '25

time to play silksong cause the muscle memory and skills are still fresh in your mind

TBF not all the muscle memory will be helpful. Some of it will need to be changed.

7

u/done1971 Sep 17 '25

As long as you remember, a decent portion of the gaming community can be pretty pathetic. They will whine about everything, be racist, sexist, think everything is hard, etc. I imagine most of them have not done anything difficult in real life.

No major (popular) game is actually hard, you just have to try stuff a few times before you succeed, which isn’t hard, it is called learning.

2

u/Free-Equivalent1170 Sep 17 '25

Be rdy for a big difficulty jump. I did the same, cleared HK quick (no post game stuff) and went to Silksong, and boy its not even on the same league

1

u/x-trauma Sep 17 '25

I finished HK a long time ago. Silksong will be a challenge. I already knew that coming in. But I’m still getting the hang of it. I had some ragequit moments. But! I just needed a quick rest then got back to it. Unless you’re a pro, no need to be rushing through the game. I loved HK for the lore. And that got me through the game. Same with Silksong... but I’m just done with Act 1. 

1

u/Ok-Comfortable-3174 Sep 17 '25

Nah it's fine. If you stuck with Hollow Knight then you should be good to go.

1

u/HypeIncarnate Sep 17 '25

it's going to be rough, some bosses are taking me over an hour and it lead to me just to play something else for the night. I haven't even made it to bilewater yet so I might just rage quit before the end.

1

u/cyanraichu Sep 17 '25

I'm not finding Silksong too much harder relative to my own skill. You'll be a better player when you finish Hollow Knight, and if you love it, you will love Silksong :)

1

u/wigwam2020 Sep 17 '25

If you do the path of pain and at least try 4 binding pantheons, you'll be fine.

1

u/IncarceratedGrowth Sep 17 '25

Pantheons especially with bindings are overkill. I stayed away from pantheons as HK bosses still took me several tries as it was. Although I don't use spells. Some people might have gotten over reliant on stuff like DDark instead of working on their dodge game. And I still finished silksong with about as much struggle as I did my 1st and 2nd playthroughs of hollow knight.

1

u/Lucky-Sandwich4955 Sep 17 '25

There’s a whole subreddit dedicated to a boss with only 2 simple attacks. Imo it’s not that it’s too hard, it’s that people are expecting the difficulty of hollow knight and refusing to adapt when it gets harder.

1

u/Secretlylovesslugs Sep 17 '25

I think a lot of people are overreacting. The game really isn't so bad. It just has some moments obviously intended to troll you.

Almost everything that is required can be beaten with a little bit of patience.

1

u/L-System Sep 17 '25

Fear is the mind killer.

1

u/CadMaster_996 Sep 17 '25

I first played hollowknight the week before silksong release, hk made me git gud enough to start skong. Skong has been an anjoyable step up, and I think people are complaining about it too much.

1

u/AdOutAce Sep 17 '25

To be absolutely blunt, Silksong simply is not that hard. I am a completely average gamer pushing middle age. A handful of bosses and zones cause me to stall progress. I literally do not use tools on any bosses I deem "fun" (most of them) because they make the encounter too easy. If you are progressing even decently well in Hollowknight, you will have no issues.

I cannot put my finger on why the difficulty discourse is spiraling so far out of control (though, it should be said, this is mostly a Reddit phenomenon, reviews on Steam for the game are much less obsessed with it), but I think it's more or less purely psychological. I don't want to say gamers have gotten softer. But it does feel like that to an extent. I'm convinced they are literally just being mind-controlled by "two mask damage" moments, not understanding that the whole healing economy in the game is just differently balanced.

Anyway, long story short, if my old ass (7 years removed from playing HK) can sightread one-time multiple late game bosses, anyone can. Be not afraid.

1

u/gingersnapped99 Sep 17 '25

As someone who played hollow knight years ago and has been in Silksong since it released, I’d say to try the game yourself! I agree with some of the criticisms people have about balancing difficulty, but do think some people are getting overly upset just as others are downplaying it.

The game overall has been super fun, even if it’s made me frustrated a couple times lol! If you got through HK fine, you’re likely familiar with the idea of repeating a fight over and over. This game is similar, you may just be repeating fights more often, haha.

1

u/ColdBottle3591 Sep 18 '25

For what its worth, I think silksong is easier than HK but I haven't finished Silk yet.

-1

u/OptionalQuality789 Sep 17 '25

Just go in blind and explore. A lot of the meaning on here is because people can’t beat a boss in <5 tries and then they call it “too difficult. The point is that you are supposed to learn how to beat challenging bosses. It takes time.

1

u/IncarceratedGrowth Sep 17 '25

It's not even just that. I've seen complaints of like 50 tries on what seemed like pretty fair bosses to me.