Hollow Knight: Silksong

Keep the main path simple and put the depth in optional content. Silksong's golden path is a clear climb from Moss Grotto to the Citadel. Beside it sits a much bigger pile of optional content: 12 mandatory against 17 optional bosses by the end of Act 2, and 20 against 25 after Act 3.

Players can also find 20 mask shards, 18 spool fragments and dozens of tools, many of which change how the game plays. Casual players keep moving forward, while obsessive explorers are rewarded for memorising the map. "The amount of stuff you CAN do far outweighs the stuff you HAVE to do."

A clear goal and a fixed opening sequence get players moving. Hornet is told in Bone Bottom to reach the Citadel at the top of Pharloom. The first six bosses and abilities arrive in one fixed order, tracing a U-bend through eight areas like a simple metro map, until the Cling Grip opens many locks at once.

Each new ability opens only a few locks, and the lock that matters is always close to the key. Hollow Knight's hero, by contrast, drifted into Hallownest by accident and wandered looking for something to do. The five-bell quest gating the Citadel is the weak spot: two bells must be rung anyway and two are easy to find.

Map poking keeps freedom from turning into confusion. Each area has no map until it is bought from the cartographer Shakra, and visited areas fill in at a bench. Open paths to unexplored areas show on the map, so a stuck player can check each one until they make progress.

In Act 2, icons mark where the melodies are, so the open structure stays navigable.

One early encounter teaches that some obstacles are for later. A beefy guard on a path off the Marrow kills Hornet quickly, signalling she should leave and return stronger. Coming back with the dash, she beats him and enters Hunter's March, which holds a flea and a secret shop.

"It's teaching you, very early on, that sometimes you'll want to leave and come back later."

The map layout tells the story of the pilgrimage. The climb from the depths of Pharloom to the heights of the Citadel is drawn on the world map itself, and each location has a reason for being where it is.

Details like pay-per-use benches and rosary-poor enemies in the Underworks show its squeezed workers. "The level design and the way you transport through it tells the story just as clearly as any lore dump."

A hidden route offers an easier final boss for struggling players. Act 1 can end at The Last Judge on the Blasted Steps, or through Sinner's Road and The Mist to the Exhaust Organ, where Phantom has less health and does less damage. Both open the Citadel.

The Phantom route tests exploration and survival instead: guard dogs, swinging traps, silk-sapping bile, and a maze that loops back unless the Needolin sends fireflies toward the right door. Beating Phantom gives a parry silk skill, so the alternative feels like a discovery rather than a concession.

Collecting fleas moves the caravan and turns a boss optional. After 5 fleas the Flea Caravan moves to Greymoor, into Moorwing's boss room, so Moorwing never appears there and the fight becomes optional. It later moves to the Blasted Steps after 12 fleas and the Pale Lake after 22.

It works like Hollow Knight's Grubfather, but it moves, so a collection rule rewards exploration with a skip.

A 500-rosary key lets saving players bypass several bosses. The simple key from Bone Bottom opens a Deep Docks door that bypasses Lace and a Wormways door that skips Lace, the Drifter's Cloak, Fourth Chorus and Moorwing.

Team Cherry planned for it: skipped bosses return later, and Lace gets a cutscene saying she will save the fight for later. The cloak is still needed in Act 2.

The Citadel is a self-contained zone with its own travel and economy. Pharloom works like a Metroid map and the Citadel like a Castlevania castle, joined only by the Grand Bellway. The Citadel uses pneumatic elevators instead of the Bell Beast, rich Choral Chambers enemies drop many rosaries, and Underworks benches charge a fee.

Each Citadel area still has its own idea: spinning gears in the Cogwork Core, box puzzles in the Whispering Vaults, elevators in the High Halls and horror in Whiteward.

Three melodies in any order let the player shape the act. After the Cogwork Dancers, the Threefold Melody quest asks for three pieces, each testing a different skill: a 10-phase enemy gauntlet in the High Halls, gear platforming in the Cogwork Core, and a boss fight against Trobbio.

The Vaultkeeper's Melody is only a cylinder and must be taken to Cardinius to be played. With all three, an elevator leads to the Cradle, Lace and Grand Mother Silk.

Two routes to the Clawline double the chance of finding it. The Clawline can be reached by beating Trobbio and taking the elevator to the Cauldron, or by finding the White Key in Songclave and dropping through Whiteward.

A particular boss is not always in the way, and players can even finish the High Halls gauntlet before the quest starts, turning Act 2 into a tangled graph.

Most power sits after the hardest Act 1 boss. Before The Last Judge a player can find about 6 mask shards, 6 spool fragments, 1 needle upgrade and 25 tools. Before Lace they can add 10 mask shards, 12 spool fragments, 2 needle upgrades and almost every tool.

The Last Judge hits for two masks, so one extra mask barely helps and retrying was the only answer in Act 1. That is why Act 2 can feel easier than Act 1.

Alternating linear and open acts keeps the pace changing. Act 1 is a tight chain of bosses and upgrades, Act 2 is loose and non-linear, and Act 3 mixes a linear Abyss with exploratory heart hunts.

"It's a constant change of pace that means Silksong never sings on the same note for long enough to get boring."

The open world itself acts as a difficulty setting. Stuck on the Savage Beastfly, Mark Brown explored elsewhere, gained powers, charms and maximum health, and beat it much more easily on return.

Team Cherry's Ari Gibson wants players to "mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled." Garmond and Zaza in a Greymoor side room will help fight Moorwing. This only works if the world holds enough power to find.

Corpse runs pull against the go-elsewhere design. Dying drops loose rosaries and spool upgrades, pulling players back to the same spot. Silksong softens this: rosaries can be banked as bead strings, the Silkeater helps, and mana is not halved until the cocoon is recovered as in Hollow Knight.

Mark Brown still sees a tension between a death penalty inherited from Dark Souls and a design that wants players to "die... and then go explore somewhere else instead."

Wishes give lost players another goal. Side quests such as killing enemies, tracking NPCs or collecting ingredients send players into forgotten areas when a boss has them stuck.

Great Taste of Pharloom needs four ingredients and delivering a rasher from Bellhart to the Citadel before it disintegrates. Several wishes can run at once in Act 2.

Backtracking is rewarded but almost never required. Returning with the dash opens Hunter's March, the Drifter's Cloak reaches the Savage Beastfly and Hunter's Crest, and the Clawline opens Mount Fay and the Sands of Karak.

The optional Faydown Cloak from Mount Fay eases the Cogwork Core and opens new areas and bosses in Pharloom and the Citadel.

Over 50 secret walls hide content that map poking cannot find. Hidden walls and foreground-covered passages hide items, bosses, shops and whole areas such as Bilewater and the Putrified Ducts, none shown on the map until found.

Bilewater has two entrances and the Ducts a Jubilana trail, giving more than one chance. Mark Brown still finished the game without visiting Bilewater.

The true ending's hidden prerequisites leave many players lost. The Silk and Soul wish appears only after unlisted requirements, including all of Shakra's maps, the Faydown Cloak, the Bellhome key, the Flea Caravan move and 17 quest points.

The first Google results for "Silksong how" are about unlocking Act 3. "Perhaps there could have been another, less obtuse, way to have this thing unlock."

The hardest exploration comes after casual players see an ending. In Silk and Soul, backtracking finally becomes part of main progression, and three of the four items are behind hidden walls or in hidden areas.

Players return to Bone Bottom, Moss Grotto and Bellhart for things missed earlier, and the Caretaker's dialogue gives clues for each part.

Act 3 recasts the known map and holds back convenience. Act 3 corrupts the map with broken paths and void-mutated enemies, and the Bell Eater takes over fast travel until beaten, after which a Needolin call gives a quality-of-life warp.

It echoes Hollow Knight's corrupted Forgotten Crossroads and Symphony of the Night's upside-down castle.

A fourth heart lets players skip one hard requirement. Act 3 asks for any three of four hearts: Might, Pollen, Wild and a secret Conjoined Heart from beating the Clover Dancers in Verdania.

It helps players who cannot find Nyleth's shrine or cannot beat Karmelita, repeating Act 1's way around a wall.

Hard-won victories are the ones players remember. Beating The Last Judge after an hour of slow improvement left Mark Brown with sweaty palms, a racing heart and an involuntary shout, where a first-try boss barely registers.

Difficulty also fits the story: in Pharloom other pilgrims fail, and Hornet and the player must grow to succeed.

Hard works only when players can see a path to victory. Mark kept retrying The Last Judge because he lasted longer each attempt and every mistake was his own.

Fair means players can learn from mistakes, feel themselves improving and blame themselves for slip-ups. "I kept going because I could see a path to victory."

Long runbacks and random patterns turn challenge into anger. Silksong's long walks back to bosses, unpredictable troll moves, highly random patterns and secondary ammo that does not refill on death push players to quit or win with only relief.

VGC gave it 3 out of 5, calling the challenge demotivating and sadistic while praising almost everything else. Retrying should be quick so players keep learning the pattern rather than replaying beaten content.

Overlapping spawns make simple boss patterns unreadable. The Savage Beastfly has simple patterns but spawns many enemies that block Hornet and drain health, so safe spots become almost impossible to predict.

Silksong has no difficulty options, which narrows its audience. Like Hollow Knight, it has no modes or assists, so players who cannot beat bosses miss its map untangling and lore.

Mark Brown calls this a shame, pointing to Tunic, whose toned-down bosses let his wife enjoy its riddles.

The open world itself acts as a difficulty setting. Stuck on the Savage Beastfly, Mark Brown explored elsewhere, gained powers, charms and maximum health, and beat it much more easily on return.

Team Cherry's Ari Gibson wants players to "mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled." Garmond and Zaza in a Greymoor side room will help fight Moorwing. This only works if the world holds enough power to find.

Few bosses block progress, so a bad fight rarely ends a session. Many bosses are fully optional and there are very few places where one completely bottlenecks the way forward.

Corpse runs pull against the go-elsewhere design. Dying drops loose rosaries and spool upgrades, pulling players back to the same spot. Silksong softens this: rosaries can be banked as bead strings, the Silkeater helps, and mana is not halved until the cocoon is recovered as in Hollow Knight.

Mark Brown still sees a tension between a death penalty inherited from Dark Souls and a design that wants players to "die... and then go explore somewhere else instead."

Non-refilling ammo nudges players away from one boss. Secondary tool ammo does not regenerate on death, so players must kill enemies to top up, which breaks the loop of retrying the same boss.

The same mechanic can feel like farming, which is why it also appears on the list of unfair parts.