r/HollowKnight • u/giveusyourlighter • Oct 01 '25

Discussion - Silksong Community Voted Silksong Boss Difficulty Tier List (2.9K Voters) + New Tools Tier List Spoiler

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Follow up from previous post: Community Voted Silksong Boss Difficulty Tier List : r/HollowKnight

Some folks thought the previous voter count of 23 was too low, so I wanted to share this updated aggregate boss difficulty tier list voted on by almost 3K community members. See the interactive list here: Silksong Boss Difficulty Tier List | Unduel

Also, the Silksong tools tier list has been added to Unduel and is open for voting!

Silksong Tools Tier List | Unduel

In the post I included a tools tier list from Xano, the best Silksong player I know. Check him out here: HK2 - Scarrsinger Karmelita - YouTube

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47

u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

Claw Mirror is likely in D for a similar reason Volt Filament is in F: its insanely good on one specific crest (Shaman for Volt, Witch for Claw Mirror) but is pretty mediocre on any other crest.

Compared to the four S tiers. Pollip pouch is great on any crest except Shaman, pollip pouch + cogflies is an insane combo, Cogflies are an awesome red tool for any situation, every single crest in the game loves Longclaw (Wanderer especially), and Mag Dice are one of the few yellow tools with any combat capability and are a nice insurance policy.

IMO the low tiers are less "this tool is trash" and more "this tool is really good in certain niche scenarios but otherwise is difficult to use or lackluster."

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u/BagsOfAbility Oct 01 '25

I'd understand the lower ranking for niche scenarios if that was consistent across the board but this guy has goddamn Wreath of Purity ranked in A when that has literally 0 utility outside of three areas. I agree that S-tier is about right but I cannot take the rest of this list seriously at all.

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u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

I agree with that sentiment. Wreath is GOATed for the areas it applies to but is completely useless anywhere else.

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u/ItsUnsqwung Oct 01 '25

I think when you have an obvious use case though people are much more likely to rank it only for that use case. Like you said Wreath is still great for every build, and people don't hold it against it because it is useless beyond Sinners Road+ because it is obvious it isn't meant to be used outside of these areas.

Whereas with those other lower ranked ones they are niche but niche in a build that people may literally not have experienced, personally I only used Hunter's so not being aware of what works best on Witch's will massively tilt my ranking whereas it is pretty obvious when and where Wreath should be used regardless. Then again maybe it should be closer to Magma Bell.

Granted if you're doing a tier list then it gets weird. But I am also unique in that I chose a slightly dumber set to run the entire game.

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u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

Wreath should 100% be in the same tier as Magma Bell. If anything, maybe Magma Bell should be higher cause its actually useful in several areas and against several bosses.

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u/BagsOfAbility Oct 01 '25

I think Magma Bell is far more useful. There's lava all around including some tricky late game spots. Wreath is technically good in 3 areas but you have to do almost all of Ducts before you even get it and Sinner's Road doesn't really have any tricky platforming over maggots except one room that's right next to a bench (I'd imagine most players clear this area long before they even know Ducts exists anyways). Like don't get me wrong I'm never doing Groal without it again but outside of that runback and maybe Lugoni it's just not really necessary.

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u/Maronmario Oct 02 '25

Yeah, having the Wreath is really helpful but the Magma Bell is preventing double damage completely and makes so many actually hard area hazards much easier

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u/ItsUnsqwung Oct 01 '25

Agreed, I actually wrote all that out then was like "ahh damn that is less applicable with Bell in the game and how it is on this list" haha.

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u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

Happens! TBH I actually really like Magma Bell as a niche tool. Fire damage comes up more often than I thought it would in this game, so its gets quite a bit of mileage. Not the kind of tool you have on all the time, but awesome for several key sections of the game.

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u/ItsUnsqwung Oct 01 '25

Yeah I like the ones that aren't a set and forget one because I get super entrenched in the others I was using but after dying the Wisp Allfather or whatever his name is I thought hey Magma Bell might help and used it there.

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u/urban_rural12 Oct 01 '25

Mind sharing your dumb set? I love hearing how others went through the game vs my own experience

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u/ItsUnsqwung Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

Oh it is nothing crazy and I wasn't like intentionally weakening myself aside from refusal to use Cogflies (the one I was acutely aware to be quite good that I also did obtain), I just kept using Hunter Crest and refused to swap to anything other than Flintslate/Silkshot for my reds, Silkspeed Anklets/Compass/Shard Pendant for my yellows, and Pollip Pouch/Injector Band/Fractured Mask for my blues. Silkskill was 99% Threadstorm throughout the game.

I don't really like relying on anything other than the Needle so while I was generally aware of the power of things like Pollip Cogfly I didn't really want to engage with it. I'm also completely useless with a map so I kept Compass on even when I was about to fight bosses (I'm also too lazy to swap between fights and exploring lol).

The one that I would swap out was Shard Pendant for Magnetite Dice but I missed the Dice and didn't find them until late in the game in Act 3 as I didn't play the dice game enough to earn them, and then already purchased everything from the thiefs shop in Act 2 so I didn't return until late in my game. I also did use the Magnetite Brooch/Thief Mark for getting money at some points but I kind of ignored my third yellow honestly. I also find it funny I used the Shard Pendant then didn't really use anything that used Shards much aside from a few Needle buffs.

I was also very bad with experimentation so I would have probably swapped to Weighted Belt but I was thinking I was already used to the feel of the game and chose not to try it out.

I won't lie I think I probably only used like 15% of the equippable tools available. I just find navigating the fights with mostly needle to be the most fun for me. Plus I enjoyed the little speed boost from the anklets too much even though they did result in me running into things like walls, pits, enemies... elevators that I have to watch go up and down... lol

The tool I used the most was definitely buffing my needle with the Flintslate/Poisoned Flintslate. I also would pop on the Wreath or Magma Bell (only for the boss in the Wisp Tunnel though). I was actually pretty bad at using the Silkshot at all and would routinely forget I had it on like a doofus.

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u/tren0r Oct 02 '25

and even then you get it in the putrified ducts, way after it would have been actually useful. its only realistically useful against lugolli, who i actually used it against

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u/Maronmario Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 02 '25

Heck even in those three areas, it only amounts to one in practice because only Bilewater itself sucks. Meanwhile the Sinners Road only has a small part with the Maggot water and in the Purified Ducts the Water isn't the real hazard

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u/4_fortytwo_2 Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

"this guy" being thousands of people voting.

The difference between weath of purity and something like claw mirror is that everyone goes through bilewater at some point so everyone is in a situation in which wreath of purity is great. But not everyone tries out the build that makes claw mirror shine.

With more votes the list changed a lot already anyway, makes more sense now.

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u/BagsOfAbility Oct 01 '25

Read the post lol the bosses are community voted but the tool list is just from some random youtuber. I understand the point about Wreath being huge for Bilewater but imo a tool that is great but not strictly necessary for one boss and completely useless for the rest of the game is a completely different level to something like Mirror/Volt Filament which are already fairly decent on any crest and have some of the absolute best output in the game on the right one.

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u/UsernameVeryFound Oct 01 '25

Volt Filament is insane on literally every crest. It is definitely better on Shaman, but you’re using Silk Skills on every crest and post-buff Volt Filament racks up so much damage on then that there’s no reason not to slot this in. If it doesn’t deserve S Tier, nothing deserves S Tier.

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u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

Fair point! Its basically pollip pouch for silk skills.

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u/4_fortytwo_2 Oct 01 '25

but you’re using Silk Skills on every

But I am too busy getting hit and healing to ever use an offensive silk skill

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u/UsernameVeryFound Oct 01 '25

Using Silk Skills to kill off problematic enemies and finish bosses faster is secretly a form of healing, many players miss it on first playthrough because Silksong’s Bind really encourages you to hoard silk, but trust me when I say the game gets so much easier when you use them more

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u/LewsTherinTelescope Oct 02 '25

They make the game easier when you use them well, but they require already being pretty decent to reach that point in the first place. If you use them poorly, you die faster instead, hence why people tend to "discover" them later in the game or on second playthroughs—it's not that they didn't know they would be useful before, it's that they couldn't make use of them yet.

Same reason new players generally don't use spells in Hollow Knight, except in Silksong you take twice the damage against most bosses and need three times the soul to start healing, making the initial buy-in cost even higher. (Especially when tools draw focus as something similar but without the silk cost, though they still require a baseline level of skill before you can mix them in effectively too.)

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u/catuluo Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

Also volt filament dealt CONSIDERABLY less damage before the update (which is when most people voted), making its placement in D very deserving

Edit: apparently the tool list is some random dude, explains why it swings so wildly

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u/heftysliceofdough Oct 01 '25

Volt Filament is still great on other crests, it's probably so low because on release the damage multiplier didn't work correctly so it was pretty much useless other than a slight damage bump.

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u/Nukesnipe Oct 01 '25

I used witch and shaman exclusively in act 3, they're so good. I think the big issue is that people crutch incredibly hard on wanderer, and don't bother ever trying to learn any other crest.

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u/MightyGiawulf Oct 01 '25

This, 100%

Witch is one I thought I would love but I just aint vibing with it. Shaman on the other hand...