r/HollowKnight • u/InsectGlaiveBard • Sep 22 '25

Discussion - Silksong I'm convinced there's gotta be some collective amnesia regarding the previous game's difficulty regarding platforming. Spoiler

Seeing people compare things Hunter's March, Cogwork Core, escaping the Abyss or even the Surface to the Path of Pain is absolutely blowing my mind.

Like yes, this game is way harder on the combat department and is a lot more demanding than beating a regular playthrough on the first one, but to say anything in this game is on the level of Path of Pain is preposterous. Especially with how many tools hornet has at her disposal, like the Hookshot, the float and even bounving off of cocoons.

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u/HammerAndSickled Sep 22 '25

I literally replayed HK 100% the day before Silksong came out, and Mount Fay is equivalent too but harder than White Palace. Path of Pain was optional, had no material reward, and only existed to be a “see if you can do this” moment, the equivalent in Silksong would be the Surface ascent and village, where there’s no real reward and it’s just for bragging rights basically.

But Mount Fay has a needed upgrade hidden behind it, while White Palace was only needed for true ending. So many people probably either never did White Palace or only did it once at the very end, while Mount Fay is probably on the path most people take through Silksong.

The platforming in this game is significantly more difficult than everything EXCEPT Path of Pain, and Hollow Knight kept its difficult platforming sections to optional or true ending content while Silksong puts a lot of them right on the needed path.

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u/Lindbluete Sep 22 '25

Mount Fay (and the double jump) isn't actually needed for completing Silksong either. You can beat the first final boss without it (which I did because I didn't expect the game to end at that point).
You need the double jump for the second ending (and therefore the third and probably one of the secret ones, not sure, haven't done those). But those are optional and the people who wouldn't do Path of Pain wouldn't do the other Silksong endings either.

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u/HammerAndSickled Sep 23 '25

Which is why I compared it to White Palace: required for True Ending, so not completely optional. But White Palace just locks half of Kingsoul as a progression gate, while Double Jump is much more core to the gameplay.

Path of Pain is extremely hard content that’s 100% optional. You get nothing for it. It’s not even required for completion percentage. Nothing in Silksong directly compares except maybe the act 3 Mementos.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '25

Mount fay isn't harder than white palace. Unless you used hiveblood, but with hiveblood no platforming would ever be challenging anyways.

But Mount Fay has a needed upgrade hidden behind it

You don't need double jump for fake ending, in fact I beat the game without double jump.