10 Hollow Knight: Silksong Tips You Need To Know Before You Play

Hunting for Hollow Knight: Silksong pointers? The follow-up to Team Cherry’s beloved Metroidvania adventure casts you as Hornet, now stranded within the realm of Pharloom. Our primer outlines essential elements to smooth your earliest steps.

Hollow Knight: Silksong beginner’s guide – 10 pointers you should master before jumping in

The article is split into several parts. We begin with fundamental gameplay systems you’ll want to grasp right away, then move on to movement, discovery, and battle tactics.

Arguably the most crucial Silksong lesson is that your curative spell can be disrupted at the worst moment. Here’s the breakdown:

• Bind skills consume Silk, displayed as a meter on the upper-left of the HUD. Landing blows on foes adds segments to this gauge.
• When the bar tops off, you can unleash powers—including your recovery incantation.
• Keep in mind, Bind Heal takes two seconds to finish. If struck mid-cast, Hornet still suffers harm and the Silk is wasted.
• Facing floor-bound attackers, try leaping skyward before channeling the heal. As long as no hit lands during the animation, your vitality will refill.

Tied to the previous point, you’ll also benefit from scavenging Mask Fragments across the land:

• Hornet’s life is shown by the quartet of mask sigils in the top-left corner. Certain strikes can wipe out multiple sigils at once.
• Four Mask Fragments combine to expand your maximum vitality.
• Some fragments are tucked into secret alcoves, while shopkeepers will sell others.

A further key Silksong truth: rooms stay blank on your chart until you secure a map:

• Scrolls are sold by an NPC called Shakra; her spot shifts as the story unfolds.
• Zone maps—like Mosslands or The Marrow—only reveal a faint silhouette at first.
• You’ll also need a Quill to ink in rooms you’ve walked through; take a seat on any bench to finalise the layout.
• Shakra additionally stocks a Compass. Equip it while resting to display Hornet’s icon and stop yourself from wandering in circles.

Related guide: All Shakra map locations

Benches are peppered throughout Pharloom:

• A handful appear automatically; others demand a Rosary toll to activate.
• Sitting fully restores your masks.
• The Crest menu opens here, letting you swap crests, tools, projectiles, arts, and so on.
• Benches also write a hard save. Fall into a chasm? Reload instead of trekking back uphill.

Rosaries act as the primary coinage in Silksong. Use them to buy wares, unlock benches, and open fast-travel gates. Beads drop from most creatures and pop out of scenery they dangle upon.

Be aware: currency scatters and rolls, sometimes tumbling into lava or spikes. Grab the Magnetite Brooch from a Bone Bottom vendor; it yanks nearby Beads toward you so you can skip the scramble.

Once the Bell Beast boss is toppled, fast travel awakens. At the start you’ll only have The Marrows and Bone Bottom.

Later, watch for triple-arrow sigils that lead to subterranean chambers. Offer Rosaries to permanently register new hubs—well worth the price for quicker journeys.

While we’re talking about out-of-reach spots, it’s essential to cover the pogo technique. No, pogo isn’t some overseas betting outfit in Manila. Instead, it’s a familiar trick carried over from the first Hollow Knight, letting you gain altitude by striking things in the environment. The basics go like this:

• To pull off a pogo, swing your nail downward and connect with valid targets—think crimson crystals, floating balloons, spike hazards, foes, or even enemy weapons. Doing so dodges incoming harm and dishes damage back.
• The impact sends Hornet springing skyward, and you can chain another downward slash mid-air to keep the sequence going.
• By default the strike angles slightly downward, which can feel fiddly when you’re trying to line up the next bounce.
• After you obtain the Crest of the Reaper, you can slot it to swap to a straight-down plunge, mirroring the classic feel from the predecessor.

In every Metroidvania and action-exploration title—Hollow Knight: Silksong included—an evergreen tip is to keep an eye out for secret routes and handy bypasses.

• Strike switches to open barred doors or metallic grates.
• Tiny alcoves often hide brittle walls or blockades ready to shatter.
• Smack a magma boulder and leap clear of the blast; it may uncover a corridor beyond.
• Whenever a room feels oddly spacious, scan the upper reaches for extra platforms.

The adventure is peppered with optional tasks you can tackle between story beats. Some appear on settlement notice boards like the one in Bone Bottom; others are handed out by characters you bump into. These errands are dubbed “wishes,” ranging from tracking down three mossberries to collecting elusive spine cores. Ticking them off enriches your journey and often rewards you in unexpected ways.

That wraps up our starter primer for Hollow Knight: Silksong. May these pointers serve you well as you press deeper into the perilous reaches of Pharloom.