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My Silksong tips for beginners are going to help any of you that have been caught up in the hype around Hornet’s own adventure and are now discovering just how challenging it all is.
This is not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve put together a whole host of tips to help you progress and keep your cool on your quest across Pharloom. From abilities we recommend, to items to claim and side quests to complete, here are our top tips. Good luck, pilgrim!
1. Be Patient
Silksong is (spoilers) a challenging game. Whether Hornet is performing incredible feats of platforming prowess or tackling multiple foes at once, it's a test of all your skills.
Because of that the best advice I can give is to have patience. Move with purpose, and try not to get frustrated when facing an obstacle. In fact, with health being at such a premium, sometimes it’s better to just find a bench to rest at before attempting a challenging section again.
It becomes easier to analyze enemy patterns when you gain access to the Swift Step skill. This lets you sprint, but also dash in mid-air, letting you watch enemy animations and routes play out.
2. Use Bind Heal (and upgrade it)
Bind Heal is the first Silk Skill that Hornet gains access to, and lets you use her silk to fix her wounds. It’s a very useful tool, potentially giving you an extra few tries at a tricky platforming section or combat encounter, but it does take a while for it to work, and it locks Hornet in place (although it can be used in mid-air).
Once you beat Lace in Deep Docks, you can head to Far Fields. In a large vertical room, there’s a route on the left that looks like a dead end, but with sunlight peering through. Head there, and jump up. On a corpse, you’ll find a Warding Bell, which, when equipped, protects Hornet during a healing animation.
3. ‘Set up’ each new location before you explore too much
When arriving in a new locale, it’s easy to feel disorientated. You’ll need to buy a map and acclimatize yourself to all the new foes and potential pitfalls you've discovered. While it’s not always possible, we recommend doing the following to ‘set up’ whenever you reach somewhere new:
- Find a bench - whichever bench you find first, rest at it to give yourself a respawn point and save yourself a painful backtrack.
- Unlock the nearest fast travel spot - each location in Silksong is accessible with the Silksong Bell Beast fast travel stations, but you’ll need to locate the right spot and spend rosaries to unlock it (some Silksong Rosary farming will be helpful there). The Bell Beast is an early boss, so you’ll unlock this functionality near the start of your adventure.
- Buy a map - Silksong Map vendor Shakra appears in different spots depending on your progress, so she may shift. I’d recommend buying as many maps as you can afford, potentially making navigating new areas a little easier.
4. Grant some wishes
Wishes are Silksong’s version of sidequests, and there are plenty of them. While some give you some extra rosaries, some are particularly useful for progression through the game.
Specifically, we’d recommend completing the Silksong Mossberries quest (Berry Picking Wish), and get Silksong Spin Cores for the Seamstress.
Doing so will net you the Druid’s Eye and Drifter’s Cloak, respectively, helping you gain extra silk in combat and allowing Hornet to glide gracefully from platform to platform.
5. Spend your shards
Silksong Shell Shards are a resource used for crafting and replenishing gear when you reach a bench, and it can be tempting to want to hoard them.
Unlike Rosaries, however, these aren’t dropped on death, so holding hundreds can mean you reach the cap of 400 shards pretty quickly. Doing so means you can’t pick any more up, so be sure to spend them on things like Wishes.
6. Backtrack regularly
This might sound obvious, but you’ll be doing a lot of retroactive exploration in Silksong. As you gain fresh abilities, you’ll open up new paths that you may not have been able to access before.
As a result, I recommend heading back to earlier areas regularly, particularly if you’re hitting a wall. You may find a Mask Shard to increase Hornet’s maximum health, or a bundle of rosaries you can use to unlock another upgrade for her quest.
There are two significant abilities when it comes to backtracking:
- Swift Step: Being able to jump and dash in mid-air, or sprint into a jump that goes further, is a huge boon for more horizontal platforming sections in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
- Cling Grip: Essentially a the Silksong wall jump, being able to climb sheer walls opens up a whole host of additional paths in Silksong.
If you’re struggling with platforming sections and haven’t visited the Seamstress in Far FIelds, I’d wholeheartedly recommend doing so.
Not only is her quest to unlock the Drifter’s Cloak completable within a couple of minutes, but the item itself can be a safety net of sorts.
Being able to glide back to the platform you leapt from when things go sideways, or get a second bite at the (team) cherry on one of the potentially infuriating ‘Pogo’ sections, can save your sanity.
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