Silksong's story follows Hallownest's former princess-protector, Hornet, after she is captured and transported to the unfamiliar land of Pharloom. Gameplay sees the player navigating through the large, interconnected areas of this kingdom, where they must battle enemies, traverse platforming challenges, and complete quests using various skills, tools, and movement mechanics. Originally planned as downloadable content for Hollow Knight, the project grew in scope over time, prompting Team Cherry to announce in February 2019 that it would instead become a full standalone sequel.
The game received critical acclaim for its graphics, soundtrack, story, world design, and gameplay, though opinions on its high difficulty were mixed. Within its first three days of release, it had over 5 million players, including 1 million playing with Xbox Game Pass and 3 million with Steam.
Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot showcasing Hornet in combat with three enemies
Hollow Knight: Silksong's gameplay is similar to its predecessor Hollow Knight, featuring 2D platforming and combat. Some changes are made from the original, such as the player character moving more acrobatically and healing faster. Side-quests (called "Wishes") are part of the game and are tracked in a journal. These quests are provided by the non-player characters or found at quest boards.[1]
The game also features "Tools" that require in-game currency to create. Tools are divided into three colour categories: blue Tools and yellow Tools, which are both support-oriented, and the typically offensive red Tools, which have limited uses and must be manually activated.[2] Hornet is limited in how many of each colour Tool she can wear, with her maximum capacity modified when changing between different gameplay styles known as "Crests". In addition to their varying tool makeups, the speed and range of Hornet’s attacks also differ between crests. Each Crest also possesses a unique mechanic, such as boosting damage if hits are avoided or allowing for tools to be replenished without resting at a bench.[3]
When attacking enemies or interacting with certain objects and locations, Hornet adds "Silk" to her reservoir. Silk can be used for healing, with three hit points recovered in a single heal.[4] Silk can also be expended to use "Silk Skills", additional attacks which are unlocked by locating remnants of the Weavers and their society when progressing through the game.[5] Hornet is limited in how many Silk Skills she can equip by her Crest, with most only allowing for a single Silk Skill to be accessible at a given time.[3] Tools, Crests and Silk Skills can be adjusted when sitting at Benches, which also serve as a source of healing and as respawn points after all hit points are lost.[5]
Hornet also unlocks different movement options throughout the game, allowing her to explore previously unavailable areas and giving her improved mobility for combat. These include a grappling hook-like Needle throw that aids horizontal movement, a cloak that catches wind currents to enable upwards movement and an ability that lets Hornet climb walls.[6]
Plot
Premise
Silksong takes place after the events of Hollow Knight and continues the story of Hornet in the kingdom of Pharloom. Pharloom is a ruined religious kingdom afflicted by the "Haunting", a Silk-based madness that afflicts bugs and reanimates their bodies. Hornet is a descendant of the Weavers, an advanced Silk-manipulating spider-like species, and is captured by a group of veiled bugs[a] to be transported to Pharloom. There she discovers her connections to the kingdom by travelling across the land, battling the Haunted inhabitants, and helping other bugs that escaped the Haunting to fulfill their wishes and restore the kingdom.
Synopsis
Hornet escapes her captors and falls into the Moss Grotto. She then finds that her captors were adherents of the Citadel, a supposedly holy institution located at Pharloom's summit that numerous pilgrims are attracted to and traveling towards. Hornet decides to ascend to the Citadel to discover the reason behind her capture. Throughout her journey, Hornet encounters the remnants of the Weavers and binds their power, as well as meeting other bugs such as pilgrims, Pharloom residents, and travelers from other lands. She also encounters Lace, a manic fencer who is strangely entirely composed of Silk. Lace taunts Hornet throughout her journey.
Through dialogue and cutscenes, it's revealed that the Weavers were spider-like bugs that were evolved by Grand Mother Silk, a godlike being. Initially believing her to be their mother, they served Grand Mother Silk before rebelling after discovering the truth. The Weavers contained Grand Mother Silk in the Cradle, the structure above the Citadel, but over time Grand Mother Silk was able to exert her influence to other bugs, causing the Haunting. Some of the Weavers left Pharloom to go to the kingdom of Hallownest, giving birth to Hornet and conditioning her to be a powerful ruler.
Hornet eventually gains access to the Citadel and reaches the Cradle, where she battles and defeats Lace. Lace is revealed to be the creation of Grand Mother Silk, and because of the origins of her creation, Lace is disillusioned and believes her existence to be unnatural. After this encounter, Hornet may face Grand Mother Silk. The fight can either end with Hornet defeating and binding Grand Mother Silk's power and becoming Pharloom's new monarch, or a parasite within Hornet consuming both of them.
Alternatively, if Hornet has fulfilled many wishes throughout her travels, she may work with the Caretaker - the keeper of a shrine-turned sanctuary for pilgrims in the Citadel - to craft a Soul Snare, a trap capable of deposing Grand Mother Silk. After Caretaker sets the trap, Hornet restrains Grand Mother Silk during the battle and activates it, only to discover it is a portal connected to the Void. The Void, a dark, volatile substance, ensnares and drags Grand Mother Silk through the portal. The deity attempts to drag Hornet with her, but Lace saves Hornet out of spite for her mother, and is dragged into the Void instead.
After waking up, Hornet finds Pharloom to have been brought to an apocalyptic state. Grand Mother Silk and Lace were teleported to the bottom of the Abyss, the deepest part of Pharloom, and are trapped in a cocoon underneath a sea of Void. Because of Grand Mother Silk's resistance, Void-corrupted threads have sprouted from the ground and are infusing Haunted enemies with Void. Hornet deduces that the strain of these threads will soon cause Pharloom to collapse. She confers with the Caretaker, who is revealed to be part of a family of spellcasting bugs known as Snail Shamans, and theorises that Grand Mother Silk is resisting the Void to save Lace. To reach Grand Mother Silk, Hornet works with the Shamans to retrieve a Void-warding flower called the Everbloom from her memories.
Using the Everbloom, Hornet dives through the sea of Void to reach the cocoon and defeats a Void-corrupted Lace, purifying her. The severely weakened Grand Mother Silk grants Hornet the last of her power so she can escape with Lace, but they fail to reach the surface as the Everbloom disintegrates. The protagonist from the first game then appears, rescuing Hornet and Lace and carrying them upwards. With Grand Mother Silk dead, the blackened threads fall away, freeing Pharloom from the Haunting and the Void being spread by it.
Development
Hollow Knight: Silksong was originally planned as downloadable content for Hollow Knight.[7] This piece of downloadable content, set to have the player control Hornet, was in development even before the release of Hollow Knight.[8] Eventually, due to the increased size and scope of the project, Team Cherry decided to expand it into a fully-fledged sequel titled Hollow Knight: Silksong.[7]
In the February 2021 issue of Edge, Team Cherry co-founders and co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen detailed aspects of Silksong's development. Their development style was described as being a "controlled scope creep", with Gibson stating "the way we approach these games... is that they are just a web of ideas, and notions, that all pass through this filter of bugs, and caves, and ruined civilisations and whatnot”, with Pellen adding “with destinations that we’re comfortable with not knowing what they are for a while – just building up or down to them.”[9] The developers were also not attempting to "create a more difficult sequel", with Pellen stating that "they're hoping for it to be a comparable test of skill to Hollow Knight".[10] Despite this goal, they both highlighted the fact that more enemies deal two points of damage, when compared to Hollow Knight, which Pellen stated was in order to have the player "spend more time at either full health or almost dead, [with] the gameplay... snapping between these states." Hornet's heal was made faster and stronger than Hollow Knight's protagonist's, in order to combat this.[11]
In a Bloomberg article in August 2025, Gibson and Pellen gave further detail on the game's development. They stated that their original vision for Silksong involved the game having a smaller world than that of Hollow Knight, instead implementing a quest system to encourage revisiting areas within the world, but that they progressively expanded the game's map as development proceeded.[12][13] The team decided to limit their communication about the game's progress during development, explaining that they wanted to focus their energies on the development process itself and that they wanted to avoid revealing too many of Silksong's secrets before release.[12][14]Bloomberg hypothesized that reasons for Silksong's lengthy development process included the small size of Team Cherry, as well as the developers' focus on delivering a finely tuned experience—Pellen was paraphrased as saying that "the last year or two [of development]" was focused on adding polish and additional detail to the game.[12] Gibson described the development of Silksong as "enjoyable" and "very satisfying"; he and Pellen both recounted that they could have continued expanding the game but forced themselves to stop in order to avoid delaying its release further than necessary; they will instead add extra content in post-release updates, like they did for Hollow Knight.[12][13]
The September 2025 ACMIGame Worlds exhibit revealed many details on the development of Silksong's map. Additions were being made all the way up until 7 August 2025, and areas such as the "Red Coral Gorge" were cut midway through development. Pellen was quoted saying “so we have a plan... but the plan is never so calcified that it can’t bear a change of course two weeks later, or two months later, or two years later.”[15][16] Additionally, a zine released on the exhibit's opening date; it included quotes from Gibson and Pellen. Notably, they addressed the game's high difficulty, with Gibson stating that "Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight — so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent," and that "[players] have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled."[17]
Release and marketing
Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced on 14 February 2019 in a trailer, with a developer diary video sharing more information.[7] Since the announcement, per GameSpot, "updates have been sporadic and infrequent".[18] The developers released an update in March 2019, sharing descriptions and images of characters who will appear in Silksong. They thanked the game's fans for supporting them regarding the announcement of the sequel.[19]Silksong was playable during E3 2019, at the Nintendo booth,[20] and a Nintendo Treehouse livestream additionally showed off the game.[21] Team Cherry released a new blog post soon after this, which mentioned that the area "Greymoor" is one of the biggest they've ever created; the post also explained further gameplay details.[22] In December 2019, Team Cherry released a preview of the soundtrack, composed by Christopher Larkin, as well as an update on the total number of enemies developed (which was 165 at the time), with a focus on a trio, described as "members of a scholarly suite."[23]
In June 2020, Team Cherry began a series of riddles that revealed non-player characters and short videos of Silksong once solved; these riddles continued into July. One of the characters revealed was "Seth", created by a fan named Seth Goldman who was battling terminal cancer and had wished to meet Team Cherry.[24][25] In December 2020, an issue of Edge revealed details about Silksong, with multiple screenshots and quotes from Gibson and Pellen.[26]
An article in PC Gamer from February 2022 showcased Pellen stating that Silksong was still in development despite the lack of updates since December 2020, and said that more details would be revealed as it got closer to its release.[27] A new trailer was revealed at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022, revealing that Silksong would be released on Xbox Game Pass at launch, with the game being available through the service for PC and Xbox Series X/S.[28] While no release date was announced, the XboxTwitter account stated in a tweet that all games in the showcase will be released within twelve months, implying they expected a release by 12 June 2023.[29] In September 2022, Sony confirmed in a separate tweet that the game would come to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.[30] Team Cherry marketing and publishing director Matthew Griffin declared on 10 May 2023 that the game was delayed, stating "We had planned to release in the first half of 2023, but development is still continuing", and to "expect more details from us once we get closer to release."[31]
On 14 February 2024, which marked five years since the game's announcement,[32] Griffin posted on Discord that Team Cherry was "...still hard at work on the game."[33] After nearly a year of silence, in January 2025, in response to rumors online,[34] Griffin said that Silksong was still in active development, was progressing, and was still planned for release.[35][36]
During the Nintendo Direct on the then-upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 system, which aired on 2 April 2025, Silksong was presented in a sizzle reel, where it was given a 2025 release date, alongside some new footage.[37] Soon after, Nintendo sent out new screenshots of the game to press.[38] On 1 May, IGN announced that Silksong would appear at ACMI's then-upcoming Game Worlds showcase, which opened on 18 September 2025. The exhibit was confirmed to include sprites from the game, information on boss fights, and the ability to play Silksong. They also shared a partial spritesheet of Hornet.[39] On 8 June, Silksong appeared at the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, as part of the reveal trailer for the ROG Xbox Ally. It was confirmed to be available on the console day one; the console is planned to release in Holiday 2025.[40] Soon after this announcement, Griffin clarified that the game would release before Christmas 2025, and that it is "...not tied to a console release."[41] On 30 June, ACMI posted an Instagram story that revealed new sprites of Silksong, alongside development sketches.[42]
On 28 July, a new Silksong demo was announced to be playable at the Xbox booth during Gamescom 2025, which started on 20 August;[43] the demo was later confirmed to be playable at the Nintendo booth as well, on 7 August.[44] On 19 August, Team Cherry—breaking their infamous radio silence[45]—announced that they would have a "special announcement" on 21 August.[46] A Bloomberg interview with Gibson and Pellen was also announced to release on that day; it was stated to "explore why Silksong has taken seven years to develop."[47] Also on 19 August, Silksong appeared at Gamescom Opening Night Live, where it received new footage.[48] Two days later, the Bloomberg interview was published,[12] and the "special announcement" aired on YouTube; it was the game's release trailer, which ended by revealing that the game would release on 4 September 2025.[49]
The announcement of the game's release date just two weeks prior to its release caused several other indie games originally set to release around the same time to be delayed for fear of being overshadowed by Silksong,[50][51][52] while others, such as Hell Is Us, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion and Cronos: The New Dawn, kept the release date as they intended.[53] Team Cherry did not send out review codes for Silksong, citing the difficulty of organizing them as a small team and the view that it would be unfair for critics to play it before Kickstarter backers and other players.[54] When the game released on 4 September, Steam, Nintendo eShop, the Microsoft Store, and the PlayStation Store all experienced errors.[55][56] Steam was taken down temporarily, making the platform inaccessible to purchase the game or download it for many users.[57] During the first three days of its release, Silksong had over 5 million players, including 1 million playing via Xbox Game Pass and 3 million via Steam.[58]
Reception
Pre-release
The playable Silksong demo at E3 2019 received critical praise. IGN writer Tom Marks liked "its combat and movement even more than the original", and said "Silksong has the potential to be even better than the original."[59] Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews praised the "tremendous amount of detail in the environments and in the backgrounds".[20] Writing for Game Informer, Matt Miller prematurely called Silksong a "worthy sequel", stating "the portion of Hornet's adventure on display maintains the tradition of excellence established by the original."[60]Nintendo World Report writer Melanie Zawodniak praised the speed in which Hornet could traverse vertically, as she believed such movement was "a bit too sluggish in Hollow Knight." Despite the short play-time, the demo made her certain that "Team Cherry [is] putting just as much of their skill and passion into the project as [in] their debut title".[61]
The demo at Gamescom 2025 was given similar praise. Writing for Destructoid, Adam Newell called the demo "stunningly beautiful with its lush visuals and animations", and stated that he was "hooked from the start."[62]GamesRadar+ writer Josh West stated "there's an attention to detail in its visual and audio design that's scintillating to experience. The play itself is smooth, Hollow Knight's occasional sharp edges sanded down to ensure that movement and motion is the star."[63] Writing for Game Informer, Wesley LeBlanc stated "if what I played today is any indication, Silksong will follow in [Hollow Knight's] steps – I really enjoyed what I played."[64]
As of late August 2025, Silksong was on roughly 5.2 million Steam users' wishlists, making it by far the most-wishlisted game on the service at the time.[65][66]
Fan culture
The first episode of "Daily Silksong News"
Due to the game's long development cycle, fans would often hope for Silksong news to appear at video game showcases. After repeated no-shows, the fans eventually would consider this hope illogical, so they used clown imagery to signify this, with the most popular image being an edited screenshot of Hollow Knight, showing its protagonist wearing a clown wig and nose.[67][68][69] The meme was referenced by Geoff Keighley in August 2024 and 2025.[68][69]
On 16 January 2021, the YouTube fan channel Daily Silksong News began tracking and reporting updates on the game's status every day, leading to over 1600 uploads. Almost every video consists of the script, "Today is [date]. This is [host name], your host for today bringing you your daily Silksong news. There has been no news to report for Silksong today. This has been your daily news for Silksong for today, [date]." Only 48 videos reported news prior to the game's release on day 1,692.[70][71][72] The channel's main host, Araraura, was interviewed twice by PC Gamer writer Harvey Randall,[70][71] and once by WIRED writer Megan Farokhmanesh.[73] Many videos were also guest hosted by other social media personalities.[70][71]
Since Silksong often received minimal news for lengthy periods of time, users on the Silksongsubreddit developed a meta culture of jokes, memes and factions; these included the creation of elaborate fake posts, known as "Silkposts", to trick readers into thinking there had been Silksong news.[74][73][75] In July 2025, the subreddit "sacrificed" four users via banning them in order to "secure Silksong's release", which received coverage due to its absurdity.[73][76]
Hollow Knight: Silksong received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[95] According to OpenCritic, 97% of critics recommended the game.[82] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 32 out of 40, with each critic awarding the game an 8 out of 10.[85]
Several critics felt that the game was a worthy sequel to the original and praised its larger, more ambitious scope, while others appreciated the low price point for such an expansive title.[91][93] The art design of Silksong was positively received by critics, with many writers describing it as beautifully crafted.[90] Likewise, Ashley Schofield of Video Games Chronicle noted the game as having gorgeous layering and intricately placed background details throughout, which she said gave Pharloom a strong sense of scale and depth.[94] The game's soundtrack was also well received, with Christian Donlan of Eurogamer describing it as "haunted, playful, and endlessly beckoning", and Simon Fitzgerald of Push Square noting its ability to create the proper mood for a range of different situations.[84][93] For its story, Tom Marks of IGN praised Silksong's writing as being consistently strong throughout. Will Bedingfield of NME regarded Hornet's "sharp, amusingly standoffish dialogue" as much more compelling compared to the original game's silent protagonist. Marks of IGN similarly called her an excellent hero that had a notably different tone from the original.[89][91] Schofield of Video Games Chronicle described the elements of characterisation and humour given to NPCs during side-quests as highlights of the game's writing.[94]
Reviewers noted the quicker, more nimble nature of Hornet during gameplay as compared to Hollow Knight's protagonist. Will Bedingfield of NME described her as "slashing her needle in bouncy flourishes", while Ashley Schofield of Video Games Chronicle complimented the sense of fluidity and exactness in Hornet's controls.[91][94] The game's world was praised for being highly detailed and rewarding to explore. Critics such as Tyler Colp of PC Gamer appreciated how the world design contextualised the broader narrative and how its details incentivised exploration.[92] Additionally, the world's boss battles were received positively by Oscar Taylor-Kent of GamesRadar+, who described them as being universally well-designed with a range of different fight structures.[88]
Critics considered Silksong to be a more difficult game than its predecessor. Some elements of its difficulty were particularly contentious, such as the long "runbacks" to get back to bosses, increased enemy damage as compared to Hollow Knight, scarcity of currency, and the difficulty of using Hornet's diagonal pogo, especially for platforming sections.[93] Some reviewers appreciated how the difficulty gave the game "character", integrated the gameplay with the story and world, and provided a sense of mastery when overcoming the challenges of the game.[84] Others, like Ashley Schofield of Video Games Chronicle, considered the difficulty tiring and demoralizing, feeling it inhibited the feeling of exploration.[94] Reviewers were also more mixed on the game's side-quests, some of which were praised for their world-building, but others of which were criticized for being uninspired and monotonous.[89][94]
Audience response
Due to its highly anticipated release and absence of pre-orders, Silksong caused digital storefronts such as Steam and the Nintendo eShop to crash upon its launch, leading to players being unable to buy or download the game.[55] It was also temporarily unavailable on the PlayStation Store. The game reached over 100,000 concurrent players within 45 minutes after release, peaking at over 500,000 active players during the first day, reaching 10th place on the list of the concurrent most played games on Steam and, as of launch, the 29th of all time. The game also topped sales charts on Steam and the eShop.[96]
The perceived increased difficulty of Silksong compared to its predecessor received polarised reactions from players. Various mods to make the game easier were also created a few days after release.[97]
The game received negative reviews from Chinese players on Steam, owing to significant quality concerns with the game's Simplified Chinese localisation. Addressing these concerns, Matthew Griffin wrote on 5 September that the developers intend to implement improvements to the translation.[98][99]
Similar to its predecessor, the game immediately spawned a significant speedrunning community after its launch, with a speedrun completing the game in under an hour being performed less than a month after its release.[100]
↑ "《空洞騎士：絲之歌》簡中文本引發Steam評論褒貶不一，官方回應將改善翻譯品質"[Hollow Knight: Silksong's simplified Chinese version sparked mixed reviews on Steam, official response promises improved translation quality]. Gamebase (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 5 September 2025. Archived from the original on 9 September 2025.
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