Hollow Knight: Silksong, finished act 1
Sep. 18th, 2025 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkMore Silksong! I played a little over 28 hours by now and just finished act 1, I'm having a great time. I wish I had more time to play.
Day 8 of playing Silksong:
This is right after the first patch went live, that slightly nerfed Moorwing. And it was probably a combination of that and that I had a lot of practice already, but this time it only took me around half a dozen attempts to finally defeat it.
That led me to Haunted Bellheart! I was just thinking that I was missing the kind of magical-mystical atmosphere some areas of Hollow Knight had, and then I got that great intro that that spooky cursed town. I found the hermit under the travel station, but nothing else in the town for now.
Instead I made my way further, into Shellwood. It looks gorgeous. I found a creature asking for purple pollips to help with/enable birth, Hornet said she would help if the creature could offer some sort of power, intrigued by that. I made my way straight through Shellwood and first fell down to Bone Bottom, then tried again and discovered the Wormways. Dangerous but not very interesting, is my first verdict.
I went back to explore Shellwood properly and had some trouble with some of the flower pogo platforming along the way, but I did find a fourth mask fragment and have six masks now, nice. And I found the travel station, very convenient.
Along the way I returned to Greymoor a couple of times to farm rosary beads because it's very good to always have some strings in reserve for unlocking benches or buying maps. Once I also rested in Bellheart and then quit the game, and when I returned Hornet was tangled up in the threads and had to cut herself free, that was cool.
I also found Sister Splinter! That is the other boss the patch mentioned nerfing. I died twice very quickly and then decided to look up a video of the fight to shorten the process of learning it. That helped a lot, especially knowing that the annoying additional supports she summons can be killed with one silk attack. It only took me iirc 4 attempts after that to beat her :) Thread Storm helped a ton. I made my way through the area she was guarding and finally got Cling Grip, i.e. wall climb, very cool. So many places I can go now!
First place I went was over Bellheart, where I also freed the fifth flea. I went further in and found Widow, the creature manipulating the silk keeping Bellheart captive. She called Hornet "birthling, child of Wyrm and Weaver…" After the first loss I decided to call it here for the night, and next time I can decide if I want to continue fighting her or do some backtracking first. Around 19.5 hours in.
While I think I could have beaten Moorwing and Sister Splinter without a nerf eventually (not even sure what exactly they changed, I think just made some of the more difficult attacks less frequent maybe for Moorwing, and maybe total HP, idk), it felt like the game opened up a lot after that fight so I think making it easier for players to get to the good part makes sense.
Day 9
I backtracked through Shellwood to find the rest of the Pollip Hearts for Greyroot. Poison for my tools seems very potentially useful! Then I went to the top left and discovered the Blasted Steps, but decided to leave that for later.
I visited the flea caravan again and travelled with them to the Greymoor plains. As thanks for the help I got an elixir for faster movement and attacks, that seems useful even if limited, but haven't tried it yet tbh.
Some more backtracking: I found an arena room between the Marrow and the Deep Docks that will give me a mask shard, but I decided to come back for it later. I also discovered the Skull Tyrant in the Marrow and also decided to come back later. I did defeat the giant ant guard – not that hard with enough patience tbh – and discovered Hunter's March. So that's what people were cursing ^^ yeah it's tricky but not equivalent to the amount of cursing I saw imo. Except the arena, I gave up on that after a few tries and decided to come back later. I did a parkour challenge in the Far Fields instead which sadly only gave me rosary beads as a reward, but at least now I should have plenty for the next little while. I hope.
I also explored the top of Greymoor. To the left of the tower I found an NPC looking for "a specimen with something special inside" iirc, making a note for later, and I also found materials to build myself a new tool with the craftmetal I still had. It's a bomb but it only has three uses, I don't think I'll use it much. Same with the longpin I found: my two most-used tools are still the first two, the dagger and the trap. I either can't get up the tower itself yet or haven't figured out how, but at the top right of Greymoor is a new area called Sinner's Road. After the first enemy I encountered there I decided to leave that for later, too…
I also rescued a flea called Kratt. He made his way to the caravan and offers a spa for a fee, Hornet tried it out and hit him when he tried to peek so at least now she can use it for free ^^ (It fills up silk.)
Then: back to Widow! It took many attempts but I can get to her second phase consistently now, but that second phase, whew. It's so difficult to keep track of everything.
Day 10
I finally beat Widow! I half-cheesed it, tbh. I looked up a video to get some tips after a while, and someone in the comments said that the bells never reach the right corner. That meant instead of paying attention to everything at once I could focus solely on the Widow's direct attacks, and I beat her the first time I tried that strategy. I'm glad I did it, too, because that last phase still took a long time and wasn't fun.
I can play the needolin now! Silk strung across my needle! Nice. The jump sequence inside the cocoon with the spiderlings skuttling around?, spooky and intriguing. And what Hornet said about the Widow being a Weaver with her silk weirdly compressed inside her shell, uh-oh…
Bellheart is alive again! Nice. I could finally sell the relics (including a choral commandment to capture Hornet), and sharpen my needle, and I just need to find that one courier to restock the main shop. I also found Sherma again! He's on his way to the Citadel. And I got more map markers from Shakra, thankfully.
I picked up the silver bells in the "bell veins," then I tried the Hunter's March arena again but gave up after a few tries. I found Loddie in the Marrow and will definitely come back to do the aiming challenge later.
Then I went to Greymoor and finally figured out how to get up that tower! (I had to hit the lever a few times in quick succession. …I figured it out eventually.) I got a silk thingy that will let me reclaim my cocoon from a distance, and freed another tricky to reach flea. I also went to the top left of craw lake and found a silk spool. And I got Creige at the Halfway House all the pelts he wanted to construct a scarecraw and now my tools do more damage, nice.
I found Tipp the courier and then immediately (well, after some bead farming in Greymoor) bought Frey's new stock. I found the Chapel of the Wanderer left of Bone Bottom and got the Wanderer's Crest, I found a second silk spool, and I finally got rid of the flint beetles with the help of poisoned tools.
I decided to tackle Sinner's Road… I did make some progress! Not much though. What are these maggots, ugh.
I changed my mind and decided to take another look at the Blasted Steps first. I made it further in and found Shakra and got a map! Looks like this area leads right up to the Citadel so that's my next goal. And no maggots, bonus.
Around 25.5 hours in.
Day 11
I tried the giant conchflies a second time and decided to leave them for later. Instead I climbed up the Blasted Steps to the bench and travel station there – not easy but not as hard as I had feared, tbh. (Maybe it's easier to say that because Sinner's Road sucks.) I even found some craftmetal on the way. And I found out that playing the needolin shows me the last (?) thoughts of the dead, and even some of the living, cool. (Unfortunate that playing it consumes silk, though it makes sense since you literally need it for strings.) I also met Sherma again at the bench, nice. Left of the travel station I discovered a bug that wants to play dice with me (haven't tried that yet) and an area I can't get to yet, and then to the right I discovered the Great Gate, and the Last Judge guarding it.
I made a quick trip back to Bellheart and Pavo praised Hornet for her assistance with the wishes, and she said she's almost forgotten how good simply helping can feel (paraphrased. I don't want to interrupt gameplay for story but I think I'll have to watch a playthrough afterwards not only to see different pathing but also to remember character and story things better.)
I'd heard that the runback to the Last Judge was atrocious, and there were some parts of the climb up to the bench that I found very tricky, so I was surprised that I found the runback much less difficult than I'd feared. (Except for the first conchfly, but I'm learning how to jump over it.) Same with the Last Judge, at first: it only took me a couple (three, iirc) tries to discover the second phase. Fire! Very cool but very dangerous. I died twice pretty much immediately.
I got impatient and looked up the fight and found out that I'd just been very unlucky with my position both times and that it's not actually as unavoidable as it seemed. I regret slightly not trying it more often myself before looking it up. But I also found out that she has a ton of health so that will be a fight of endurance for sure. And my next few tries I died pretty fast, teaching me not to underestimate her.
Day 12
I tried the Last Judge a few more times, managing to survive some time in the second phase but judging from the video I saw the second phase is long. So instead I went down to the Great Conchflies and managed to beat them after only a few tries. After struggling with making my way across the windy sand, I found the Pinstress and learned my first needle attack art, nice. I can keep the charge for the attack while moving and jumping, too, that will take some practice but could prove very useful indeed. When I played the needolin she thought about "an order of fair maidens" so I expect I will meet her sisters eventually :) I also found out that the needle art attack looks different with each crest, interesting.
Back to the Last Judge, and the fight is starting to become fun. I'm improving. It really helps that I've figured out how to jump over the first conchfly on the runback (sprint jump! I can pull it off most of the time now but it took a bit of practice.) I switched to Wanderer's crest earlier because I could get three hits in in one window in the first phase, I even upgraded it specifically so I could add the magma bell, but then switched back to Reaper because the short range of Wanderer made it very hard to hit her in the second phase. I would love to have the magma bell and the poison on at the same time but I'd have to upgrade a crest and I'm not sure which one(s) I prefer in general yet, or how rare memory lockets will be in the future, so I'm holding on to them.
Day 13
I beat the Last Judge! That was fun. Once I got into the rhythm of it I really enjoyed the fight. I went back to Wanderer's crest and I survived for longer and managed to get more hits in every time, it got to my favorite part of a boss fight where it feels like a dance. And then I beat her! :D
I think that was my favorite boss fight of act 1. The Fourth Chorus was also fun, and Bell Beast and Lace too though I didn't find them as challenging, same with the Giant Conchflies. I didn't like Moorwing or Sister Splinter or the Widow as much (the Widow solely because of the second phase.) I really hope there is a godhome equivalent eventually, I'd love to fight some of these bosses again.
It took me around 28 hours to finish act 1.
On to act 2!
The first look of the Citadel is very cool. And then walking across the walkway, through a door that has presumably not been opened for a long, long time because of the Judge guarding it ("undefeated for generations," Hornet suspects in the journal), and the way is littered with corpses of pilgrims… oof.
I don't think I could have gone straight up the tower, but I walked through first anyway and got stuck in the elevator and fell down into the Underworks. (The bench there requires rosary beads to unlock – every time?? Which at first I thought was annoying but not too terrible, I'll return when I die anyway, but then I remembered I can only switch my tools etc. on a bench, boo.)
I hope it won't take too long to find another travel station, I was actually hoping to take another crack at Hunter's March, but I'm excited for this act.
Day 8 of playing Silksong:
This is right after the first patch went live, that slightly nerfed Moorwing. And it was probably a combination of that and that I had a lot of practice already, but this time it only took me around half a dozen attempts to finally defeat it.
That led me to Haunted Bellheart! I was just thinking that I was missing the kind of magical-mystical atmosphere some areas of Hollow Knight had, and then I got that great intro that that spooky cursed town. I found the hermit under the travel station, but nothing else in the town for now.
Instead I made my way further, into Shellwood. It looks gorgeous. I found a creature asking for purple pollips to help with/enable birth, Hornet said she would help if the creature could offer some sort of power, intrigued by that. I made my way straight through Shellwood and first fell down to Bone Bottom, then tried again and discovered the Wormways. Dangerous but not very interesting, is my first verdict.
I went back to explore Shellwood properly and had some trouble with some of the flower pogo platforming along the way, but I did find a fourth mask fragment and have six masks now, nice. And I found the travel station, very convenient.
Along the way I returned to Greymoor a couple of times to farm rosary beads because it's very good to always have some strings in reserve for unlocking benches or buying maps. Once I also rested in Bellheart and then quit the game, and when I returned Hornet was tangled up in the threads and had to cut herself free, that was cool.
I also found Sister Splinter! That is the other boss the patch mentioned nerfing. I died twice very quickly and then decided to look up a video of the fight to shorten the process of learning it. That helped a lot, especially knowing that the annoying additional supports she summons can be killed with one silk attack. It only took me iirc 4 attempts after that to beat her :) Thread Storm helped a ton. I made my way through the area she was guarding and finally got Cling Grip, i.e. wall climb, very cool. So many places I can go now!
First place I went was over Bellheart, where I also freed the fifth flea. I went further in and found Widow, the creature manipulating the silk keeping Bellheart captive. She called Hornet "birthling, child of Wyrm and Weaver…" After the first loss I decided to call it here for the night, and next time I can decide if I want to continue fighting her or do some backtracking first. Around 19.5 hours in.
While I think I could have beaten Moorwing and Sister Splinter without a nerf eventually (not even sure what exactly they changed, I think just made some of the more difficult attacks less frequent maybe for Moorwing, and maybe total HP, idk), it felt like the game opened up a lot after that fight so I think making it easier for players to get to the good part makes sense.
Day 9
I backtracked through Shellwood to find the rest of the Pollip Hearts for Greyroot. Poison for my tools seems very potentially useful! Then I went to the top left and discovered the Blasted Steps, but decided to leave that for later.
I visited the flea caravan again and travelled with them to the Greymoor plains. As thanks for the help I got an elixir for faster movement and attacks, that seems useful even if limited, but haven't tried it yet tbh.
Some more backtracking: I found an arena room between the Marrow and the Deep Docks that will give me a mask shard, but I decided to come back for it later. I also discovered the Skull Tyrant in the Marrow and also decided to come back later. I did defeat the giant ant guard – not that hard with enough patience tbh – and discovered Hunter's March. So that's what people were cursing ^^ yeah it's tricky but not equivalent to the amount of cursing I saw imo. Except the arena, I gave up on that after a few tries and decided to come back later. I did a parkour challenge in the Far Fields instead which sadly only gave me rosary beads as a reward, but at least now I should have plenty for the next little while. I hope.
I also explored the top of Greymoor. To the left of the tower I found an NPC looking for "a specimen with something special inside" iirc, making a note for later, and I also found materials to build myself a new tool with the craftmetal I still had. It's a bomb but it only has three uses, I don't think I'll use it much. Same with the longpin I found: my two most-used tools are still the first two, the dagger and the trap. I either can't get up the tower itself yet or haven't figured out how, but at the top right of Greymoor is a new area called Sinner's Road. After the first enemy I encountered there I decided to leave that for later, too…
I also rescued a flea called Kratt. He made his way to the caravan and offers a spa for a fee, Hornet tried it out and hit him when he tried to peek so at least now she can use it for free ^^ (It fills up silk.)
Then: back to Widow! It took many attempts but I can get to her second phase consistently now, but that second phase, whew. It's so difficult to keep track of everything.
Day 10
I finally beat Widow! I half-cheesed it, tbh. I looked up a video to get some tips after a while, and someone in the comments said that the bells never reach the right corner. That meant instead of paying attention to everything at once I could focus solely on the Widow's direct attacks, and I beat her the first time I tried that strategy. I'm glad I did it, too, because that last phase still took a long time and wasn't fun.
I can play the needolin now! Silk strung across my needle! Nice. The jump sequence inside the cocoon with the spiderlings skuttling around?, spooky and intriguing. And what Hornet said about the Widow being a Weaver with her silk weirdly compressed inside her shell, uh-oh…
Bellheart is alive again! Nice. I could finally sell the relics (including a choral commandment to capture Hornet), and sharpen my needle, and I just need to find that one courier to restock the main shop. I also found Sherma again! He's on his way to the Citadel. And I got more map markers from Shakra, thankfully.
I picked up the silver bells in the "bell veins," then I tried the Hunter's March arena again but gave up after a few tries. I found Loddie in the Marrow and will definitely come back to do the aiming challenge later.
Then I went to Greymoor and finally figured out how to get up that tower! (I had to hit the lever a few times in quick succession. …I figured it out eventually.) I got a silk thingy that will let me reclaim my cocoon from a distance, and freed another tricky to reach flea. I also went to the top left of craw lake and found a silk spool. And I got Creige at the Halfway House all the pelts he wanted to construct a scarecraw and now my tools do more damage, nice.
I found Tipp the courier and then immediately (well, after some bead farming in Greymoor) bought Frey's new stock. I found the Chapel of the Wanderer left of Bone Bottom and got the Wanderer's Crest, I found a second silk spool, and I finally got rid of the flint beetles with the help of poisoned tools.
I decided to tackle Sinner's Road… I did make some progress! Not much though. What are these maggots, ugh.
I changed my mind and decided to take another look at the Blasted Steps first. I made it further in and found Shakra and got a map! Looks like this area leads right up to the Citadel so that's my next goal. And no maggots, bonus.
Around 25.5 hours in.
Day 11
I tried the giant conchflies a second time and decided to leave them for later. Instead I climbed up the Blasted Steps to the bench and travel station there – not easy but not as hard as I had feared, tbh. (Maybe it's easier to say that because Sinner's Road sucks.) I even found some craftmetal on the way. And I found out that playing the needolin shows me the last (?) thoughts of the dead, and even some of the living, cool. (Unfortunate that playing it consumes silk, though it makes sense since you literally need it for strings.) I also met Sherma again at the bench, nice. Left of the travel station I discovered a bug that wants to play dice with me (haven't tried that yet) and an area I can't get to yet, and then to the right I discovered the Great Gate, and the Last Judge guarding it.
I made a quick trip back to Bellheart and Pavo praised Hornet for her assistance with the wishes, and she said she's almost forgotten how good simply helping can feel (paraphrased. I don't want to interrupt gameplay for story but I think I'll have to watch a playthrough afterwards not only to see different pathing but also to remember character and story things better.)
I'd heard that the runback to the Last Judge was atrocious, and there were some parts of the climb up to the bench that I found very tricky, so I was surprised that I found the runback much less difficult than I'd feared. (Except for the first conchfly, but I'm learning how to jump over it.) Same with the Last Judge, at first: it only took me a couple (three, iirc) tries to discover the second phase. Fire! Very cool but very dangerous. I died twice pretty much immediately.
I got impatient and looked up the fight and found out that I'd just been very unlucky with my position both times and that it's not actually as unavoidable as it seemed. I regret slightly not trying it more often myself before looking it up. But I also found out that she has a ton of health so that will be a fight of endurance for sure. And my next few tries I died pretty fast, teaching me not to underestimate her.
Day 12
I tried the Last Judge a few more times, managing to survive some time in the second phase but judging from the video I saw the second phase is long. So instead I went down to the Great Conchflies and managed to beat them after only a few tries. After struggling with making my way across the windy sand, I found the Pinstress and learned my first needle attack art, nice. I can keep the charge for the attack while moving and jumping, too, that will take some practice but could prove very useful indeed. When I played the needolin she thought about "an order of fair maidens" so I expect I will meet her sisters eventually :) I also found out that the needle art attack looks different with each crest, interesting.
Back to the Last Judge, and the fight is starting to become fun. I'm improving. It really helps that I've figured out how to jump over the first conchfly on the runback (sprint jump! I can pull it off most of the time now but it took a bit of practice.) I switched to Wanderer's crest earlier because I could get three hits in in one window in the first phase, I even upgraded it specifically so I could add the magma bell, but then switched back to Reaper because the short range of Wanderer made it very hard to hit her in the second phase. I would love to have the magma bell and the poison on at the same time but I'd have to upgrade a crest and I'm not sure which one(s) I prefer in general yet, or how rare memory lockets will be in the future, so I'm holding on to them.
Day 13
I beat the Last Judge! That was fun. Once I got into the rhythm of it I really enjoyed the fight. I went back to Wanderer's crest and I survived for longer and managed to get more hits in every time, it got to my favorite part of a boss fight where it feels like a dance. And then I beat her! :D
I think that was my favorite boss fight of act 1. The Fourth Chorus was also fun, and Bell Beast and Lace too though I didn't find them as challenging, same with the Giant Conchflies. I didn't like Moorwing or Sister Splinter or the Widow as much (the Widow solely because of the second phase.) I really hope there is a godhome equivalent eventually, I'd love to fight some of these bosses again.
It took me around 28 hours to finish act 1.
On to act 2!
The first look of the Citadel is very cool. And then walking across the walkway, through a door that has presumably not been opened for a long, long time because of the Judge guarding it ("undefeated for generations," Hornet suspects in the journal), and the way is littered with corpses of pilgrims… oof.
I don't think I could have gone straight up the tower, but I walked through first anyway and got stuck in the elevator and fell down into the Underworks. (The bench there requires rosary beads to unlock – every time?? Which at first I thought was annoying but not too terrible, I'll return when I die anyway, but then I remembered I can only switch my tools etc. on a bench, boo.)
I hope it won't take too long to find another travel station, I was actually hoping to take another crack at Hunter's March, but I'm excited for this act.
