The fact that Silksong is actually out and playable might still feel surreal for some audiences who have been awaiting the game for years, but the conversation has already turned onto the next contentious topic surrounding the game – its difficulty. Developer Team Cherry themselves have now promised a Silksong patch is coming for console players, but is available immediately on PC.
In many ways, this is the same discussion around video game difficulty that’s been going on at least since Dark Souls, with some finding the difficulty inaccessible and others preferring the challenge of having to get to know a game.
The Difficulty Discourse
In Hollow Knight and its recently released sequel, health is measured in terms of small mask icons that effectively work the same way that hearts do, in titles the Legend of Zelda or the Binding of Isaac.
Enemies and bosses at the beginning of the original Hollow Knight game dealt one mask of damage, before bosses towards the mid and late-game areas sometimes started hitting for two masks worth of damage at once.
In SIlksong, bosses even in the early game almost always hit you for two masks of damage, as do some regular enemies. This means when paired with the lack of abilities you start the game with, it becomes much more difficult to survive.
In addition, dying twice in a row (without recovering them) causes a player to lose all of their rosaries, which act as currency in the game.
Upcoming Silksong Patch
The specifics of what’s being done to tone down the difficulty is unclear.
The patch notes refer to two bosses in particular – Moorwing and Sister Splinter – as well as some tweaking of the rosary economy earlier on, presumably to give players more leeway if they lose a large amount of their money suddenly, and find themselves unable to purchase checkpoints.
However, due to the difficulty of the game, it might be unlikely that these small adjustments overhaul anything too fundamental, meaning that players who are struggling might have more success by looking into some Silksong tips and strategies to help alter how they play.
Hollow Knight Silkson Patch Notes
The patch notes, which can be found here, are as follows:
- Fixed situation where players could remain cloakless after Slab escape sequence.
- Fixed wish Infestation Operation often not being completable during the late game.
- Fixed wish Beast in the Bells not being completable when Bell Beast is summoned at the Bilewater Bellway during the late game.
- Fixed getting stuck floating after down-bouncing on certain projectiles.
- Fixed courier deliveries sometimes being inaccessible in the late game.
- Fixed craft bind behaving incorrectly when in memories.
- Fixed Lace tool deflect soft-lock at start of battle in Deep Docks.
- Fixed Silk Snippers in Chapel of the Reaper sometimes getting stuck out of bounds.
- Fixed Claw Mirrors leaving Hornet inverted if taking damage during a specific moment while binding.
- Fixed Snitch Pick not giving rosaries and shell shards as intended.
- Removed float override input (down + jump, after player has Faydown Cloak).
- Slight difficulty reduction in early game bosses Moorwing and Sister Splinter.
- Reduction in damage from Sandcarvers.
- Slight increase in pea pod collider scale.
- Slight reduction in mid-game Bellway and Bell Bench prices.
- Slight increase in rosary rewards from relics and psalm cylinders.
- Increase in rosary rewards for courier deliveries.
- Various additional fixes and tweaks.
