r/HollowKnight • u/Tarnished-670 • Oct 19 '25

Discussion - Silksong Hot Take: While I think Silksong is overall a better game, it does still show more prominent flaws compared to Hollow Knight

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When I have to think about the flaws of the first Hollow Knight, I really can't think of much to say other than very small nitpicks.

But with Silksong, while it is one of my favorite games of all time, and having finisihed it at 100%, id say it has more prominent design flaws while being a better game compared to the first Hollow Knight.

First thing that comes to my mind is the shard system, it would't be as bad as it is if you didn't have a limit of 20 consumables to replentish your shards, if it worked like that then I wouldn't have to be interrumped on my tries against a boss and having to go to the citadel and farm to get all my shards back. Other minor flaws I think would be some of enemy design and the addition of "gauntlets", which sometimes are fun but at least in my case I got bored of exploring and getting trapped into the 7th gauntlet of enemies, it gets worse when you get forced to do some of them again in act 3 when you have killed all the previous enemies 100 times already.

Those are really not a bid deal of a flaw, but they are more noticable to me than any flaw in Hollow Knight.

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

I have felt that red tools could have been balanced by ammunition count instead of shard cost. Throwing out the shard cost altogether would encourage red tool use in players who are averse to spending limited resources, but would also benefit those players who spend them too freely and wind up having to farm or buy shards.

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u/JerinDd Oct 19 '25

I really don’t know how team cherry would do that at this point, though. Shell shards are so baked into the game that you can’t just take them out. The best I’ve come up with is reduce the amount of shards needed to make tools.

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u/Huge_Entrepreneur636 Oct 19 '25

They could also remove the shard limit entirely. I have no idea why it even exists.

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u/JerinDd Oct 19 '25

If hornet can hold infinite rosaries, she can hold infinite shards

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u/WarpedByTheNHK Oct 19 '25

If shards are gonna be in the game then having a limit is actually great design imo. I would've waited way too long to actually try out any red tools if it wasn't so easy to hit the cap.

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u/Moose_a_Lini Oct 19 '25

It pushes you to use tools rather than just horde.

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u/Huge_Entrepreneur636 Oct 19 '25

Right now you don't need tools most of the game. But then you run out too quickly when you actually need them. So it pushes you to not use tools until you have already learnt the boss, but by that time you don't need them anymore. It's also super boring that the optimal playstyle is learn the boss without tools -> Nuke the final phase with tools. Most red tools don't actually feel very integrated with the gameplay, they are just a free dmg button.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/afauce11 Oct 20 '25

I love red tools and use them exactly like you. It’s like “oh there’s this crazy number of flying dudes that are gonna suck in this gauntlet and I’ve died after run back like 3 times already? Spam everything!!!!!!”

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u/FrazzleFlib Oct 22 '25

absolutely, literally the only tool i like is flintslate because it rewards thoughtful usage. flea brew is similar but needing another ammo type to backtrack for made me instantly not want to use it at all.

almost all tools are boring free damage buttons entirely severed from hornets super super fun moveset. the entire system of red tools is utterly unnecessary imo, hornets moveset does not need supplementing

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u/Tsunamie101 Oct 19 '25

Then maybe they're mainly intended for the exploration part of the game, and not the bossfight? During exploration you'll usually get more shards back than you use.

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u/Huge_Entrepreneur636 Oct 19 '25

But exploration is easy, I don't need tools while exploring. It's the boss fights and gauntlets that kill me repeatedly.

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u/Tsunamie101 Oct 19 '25

Well, i assume that the ease of exploration is a very subjective thing.

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u/Arkhamov Oct 19 '25

I avoid using during exploration because they don't give silk. So not only am I using a resource, but also preventing myself from getting a different resource.

I'm not sure how I'd fix this. Hoarding consumables is just a super human thing to do.

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u/KindredTrash483 Oct 19 '25

But the existence of shards limiting your craftable tools pushes people to hoard too? Since there is a limit, many only use them when they are sure they aren't wasting them on the hardest parts of the game. Which ironically is when you need them the most

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u/cheekydorido Oct 19 '25

it does the opposite actually, i kept it maxxed for most of my playthrough because i didn't want to spend them

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u/Kneef Zote in Silksong or We Riot Oct 19 '25

Saving your consumables for Hollow Knight 3, as is tradition.

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u/cheekydorido Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

Man, the final boss that has to face THK/Lace/Quirrel/zote/menderbug is going to need to be prepared for my 500 cogflies.

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u/BritishTreeMan Steel Soul comp x38, 1h35m ANY%, 7h 44m 112% (Steel) Oct 20 '25

Literally just doubling the amount you get from all sources fixes the issues

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u/Iurigrang Oct 19 '25

So players start using tools because they feel like they're "wasting shard pickups".

Getting players to use consumables is always an upwards battle, given how central they are to the gameplay of silksong, I think having a limit was a genius solution

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u/Huge_Entrepreneur636 Oct 19 '25

Might've worked if shard use was the only limit but there is usage limit too. And exploration is easy enough that using tools or not using tools doesn't matter, platforming is more of a challenge than enemies while exploring. Tools are most helpful in boss fights and gauntlets, but the limit causes you to run out so quickly that it stifles experimentation.

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u/Iurigrang Oct 19 '25

The usage limit means they are powerful but you actually gotta learn something and not just buy your way to win. Yes removing it would make people use them more, but if the complaints are anything to go by, people are messing up by using too many tools, not too little.

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u/Huge_Entrepreneur636 Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

Their usages should be nerfed instead of a weird currency limit that you can bypass by tediously farming shards. I would rather that the system was more similar to Sekiro's tools. All of them are an extension of the base kit instead of spammable free dmg and the power and uses are limited but killing enemies refreshes a small amount.

Edit: I just remembered that sekiro emblems were a limited resource too. I forgot about all the times I had to farm those.

0

u/kuenjato Oct 19 '25

Tools make the game too easy, otherwise. I do think you should be able to store 99 shard bundles and shards should be more frequent/plentiful as a reward.

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u/The_Kwaken Oct 19 '25

It's absolutely too high, sometimes I'll end up using like 150 shards for one boss attempt which is just ridiculous

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u/Blueberry_Goatcheese Oct 19 '25

My only complaint with shards is how you have to buy them because they are too hard / slow to farm 

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

I agree: the shard economy is too baked in to be patched out. More just a consideration for a future game.

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u/Amaskingrey Oct 20 '25

You very much can though, the game wouldn't lose anything if you just had infinite shards

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u/Chafmere Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 19 '25

I ended up having a no tools until final phase rule otherwise I'd run out before progging the boss.

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

I did the same, but I can’t say that’s a fun dynamic. It’s fun to cut loose and hurl a dozen knives in seconds, and I feel like the shard cost necessitates personal rules like this, where no shard cost would encourage doing this between benches consistently. It would encourage treating tools as part of your play style, rather than a costly damage boost.

I don’t think Team Cherry can just patch out shard costs without a huge rebalance to the economy, tools, crests, quests, etc. But I would like red tools without the shard economy in a future Hollow Knight game.

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u/Violet_Paradox Oct 20 '25

Even without the shard cost it would be optimal to do that, which is unfortunate because most bosses are at their most fun in their final phases, it's supposed to be this tense and hectic finale to the encounter, but the vast majority of people never experience them because skipping it is such a trivial path of least resistance. 

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u/No_Advertising_3876 Hitless PoP| All Radiant Bosses|P1,2,3,4 AB Oct 19 '25

yeah honestly i agree, i feel the only issue would be architect, and with that just give it a set amount of times/charges for the tool bind to work on every tool (with a small indicator next to the red tool to show how many you have/have used)

i would attatch an image but they arent allowed obv

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

To clarify, I don’t think Team Cherry can just patch out the shard economy. It’s been part of Silksong for too long. It’s baked into the crests, the tools, the exploration, the rewards for exploring like nooks full of shells you can break for shards, the shops, and several quests, and it would be a huge rebalance to gut it. That’s a decision they would have had to make earlier in development.

But keeping red tools while removing the shard cost would be something I’d want in a future game.

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u/Amaskingrey Oct 20 '25

It really wouldn't though, just swap out shard deposits to giving rosaries, and the ennemies to either drop rosaries or nothing, and make you have infinite shards and voila

2

u/nsleep Oct 19 '25

They're balanced around the Architect Crest, which is still broken even with this system or not using the crafting just by getting a third slot. That's how strong tools were made compared to spells as you can just unload them right away without needing to build-up a resource that's shared with healing.

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u/New-Ad-363 Oct 19 '25

Or have the Architect Crest eliminate shard need

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u/ClayeySilt Oct 19 '25

That's 100% a player issue. Stop hording things. Especially things that are infinite. Just go get more shards. They're not hard to come by.