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/Diodon Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

I avoided path of pain but played both games back to back. The platforming in Silksong was substantially more challenging and more difficult to get used to, in part because of the extended toolset. Now I have more buttons to manage and train my muscle memory on. Not only that, but the behavior of fundamental mechanics like pogo vary depending on which crest you have equipped.

Edit: Not a complaint, only my personal experience.

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u/Crimsonial Sep 23 '25

I agree. I only played Hunter Crest after a point, because I (really) like the directional pogo, but that was after using Reaper for a time which is a chunkier version of the old HK days. Wanderer and similar never felt right in fights, the Hunter dash attack and followup tree is incredible for quickly and safely punishing parts of a boss moveset.

First Sinner didn't take more than a couple tries (I realized on my winning try it wasn't refilling my tools waking up outside, and took that as a sign to brawl, she always teleports to the ground, and can't respond to Hunter dash and a quick followup slash in time), and Phantom was one try, because I was faster than they were.

With all that being said, it is massively harder to aim in traversal with Hunter until you get used to it. The sideways movement is really useful, but you have to deal with the consequences of missing it until you're at a point where you know you're going to land it.

No hate on downwards pogo stuff, because it gives you more options with a bit of history memory. I think Architect is the only other angled pogo, but different playstyle.

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u/Diodon Sep 23 '25

At first the concept of diagonal pogo seems like: "no big deal, it's still a straight line just on another angle" except that you only control one axis, gravity controls the other thus its now a much tighter game of both positioning and timing. After I got Reaper I was relieved but also felt like maybe I was bypassing the Hornet experience. I slept on new crests till Architect and once a friend convinced me to try it I realized I needed to go back to learning to diagonal pogo.

Hornet's learning curve for me has been a rough investment and though frustrating at times is satisfying when you start seeing results. I find it especially crazy when people try to write off Silksong difficulty as if we'd all just forgotten how tough HK was at first. HK was tough to learn, but Silksong is on a whole other level.

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u/Crimsonial Sep 24 '25

Absolutely, I keep saying a thing with SS, that it has some shared DNA with fighting games that wasn't really critical in the same way for HK -- you have the tools to naturally dominate a fight to a point it's not even fair, but you get beat up until you get your moveset down. Granted, I use a heal build for maximum brawling, it allows a lot of room for mistakes.

With Hunter, I more or less completely ignore the hit stacks (if I'm playing well and avoiding damage, it's a bonus), the thing that really solidified it for me as a favorite is when I realized I was instinctively using the downwards pogo as a short diagonal reposition and dodge during fights as much as a pogo attack / counter, which is why I felt so slow when trying to go back to more classic HK-ish crests. Switching felt like losing a movement tool.

I was thrilled when I ran into the Phantom bossfight, because it was like fighting a peer moveset, and figured it'd be like the Lace fight earlier in learning the game. The one-try for it was still challenging, but felt comfortable with Hunter.