Team Cherry

Keep the main route a simple climb with keys near their locks. Hornet is told early to reach the Citadel at the top of Pharloom, and Act 1's first six bosses and abilities come in a fixed order, drawn on the map as a U-bend through eight areas.

Each ability opens only a few locks, and the lock that matters is just around the corner from the key. The map shows open paths to unvisited areas, so map poking always shows where to go. Unlike Hollow Knight's hero, Hornet has a clear goal from the start.

The Cling Grip is the first key that opens many locks at once. After Sister Splinter, the wall climb reaches high-up items and optional bosses like the Skull Tyrant, and beating Widow frees Bellhart's shops and gives the Needolin.

The five-bell quest that gates the Citadel feels thin: two bells must be rung anyway, two are easy to find, and the Needolin is needed regardless.

Act 2 lets the player, not the map, choose the order. After the Cogwork Dancers, three melodies can be collected in any order, each testing a different skill: a 10-phase gauntlet, gear platforming, and a fight with Trobbio. Act 3 asks for any three of four hearts.

Two routes to the Clawline tangle the order further, and map icons always mark the melodies' general locations. The Citadel works like Castlevania's Dracula's Castle where Pharloom works like Metroid's Zebes, joined only by the Grand Bellway.

Optional content outweighs the mandatory path. After Act 3 there are 20 mandatory bosses and 25 optional ones, plus 20 mask shards, 18 spool fragments and dozens of tools, many of which change how the game plays.

More than 50 secret walls never show on the map, and Bilewater and the Putrified Ducts sit entirely behind them. The optional Faydown Cloak opens new areas and bosses in both Pharloom and the Citadel.

The true ending makes backtracking part of main progression. The wish Silk and Soul needs a hidden list including the Faydown Cloak, all of Shakra's maps and 17 quest points, and three of its four required items are behind hidden walls.

Mark Brown calls the result a new gold standard for Metroidvanias, a constant change of pace that never sings on the same note long enough to get boring.

Gate a skip behind a cost that rewards saving up. Silksong's 500-rosary simple key opens Deep Docks and Wormways doors that bypass Lace, the Drifter's Cloak, Fourth Chorus and Moorwing. Lace later appears in a cutscene saying she will save the fight for later.

Hollow Knight did the same with the 1,800 Geo Lumafly Lantern, a soft lock open in theory but closed by cost. The Flea Caravan also moves after 5, 12 and 22 fleas, and riding it to Greymoor means Moorwing never appears.

Offer an alternate route that swaps boss skill for exploration. Silksong's Act 1 has two ways into the Citadel: past The Last Judge, or through Sinner's Road and the Mist maze to the weaker Phantom, who has less health and does less damage.

Sinner's Road has guard dogs, swinging traps and silk-sapping bile, and the Mist loops back unless the Needolin sends fireflies toward the right door. Beating Phantom gives a parry silk skill.

Team Cherry's answer to difficulty is to let stuck players go elsewhere. Ari Gibson says stuck players should "have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled." Many bosses are optional and few block progress.

Garmond and Zaza in a Greymoor side room help fight Moorwing. Mark Brown got stuck on the Savage Beastfly, explored, and returned with new powers, charms and health that made it much easier.

Lighten death penalties so leaving the corpse behind is acceptable. Silksong lets players bank rosary beads and drops Hollow Knight's half-mana penalty until you recover your shade, so abandoning the cocoon to explore is fine.

Corpse running still works against exploring: dying costs loose rosaries and spool upgrades, pulling players back to retry. Tools that string rosaries and the Silkeater soften this.

Going elsewhere only works if Act 1 holds enough power to find. Before The Last Judge a player can find about 6 mask shards, 6 spool fragments, 1 needle upgrade and 25 tools; before Lace, 10 more mask shards, 12 spool fragments and almost every tool.

The Last Judge hits for two masks, so one extra mask barely helps, and in Act 1 the only answer to Moorwing, Fourth Chorus and The Last Judge was to retry. Act 2 can feel easier than Act 1.

Team Cherry's answer to difficulty is to let stuck players go elsewhere. Ari Gibson says stuck players should "have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled." Many bosses are optional and few block progress.

Garmond and Zaza in a Greymoor side room help fight Moorwing. Mark Brown got stuck on the Savage Beastfly, explored, and returned with new powers, charms and health that made it much easier.

Lighten death penalties so leaving the corpse behind is acceptable. Silksong lets players bank rosary beads and drops Hollow Knight's half-mana penalty until you recover your shade, so abandoning the cocoon to explore is fine.

Corpse running still works against exploring: dying costs loose rosaries and spool upgrades, pulling players back to retry. Tools that string rosaries and the Silkeater soften this.

No difficulty options leaves some players locked out of the rest. Like Hollow Knight, Silksong has no difficulty modes or assist options, which Mark Brown calls a shame since players who can't beat bosses miss the map and lore.

VGC gave it 3 out of 5, calling the challenge "demotivating and sadistic" while praising almost everything else. Long runbacks, random patterns and ammo that doesn't refill on death make parts feel unfair, though Brown still found it "tough, but survivable."

A short guided opening leads into a kingdom that opens all at once. Vengeful Spirit, Mothwing Cloak and Mantis Claw each unlock only a little more map. After the Mantis Claw, the City of Tears, Howling Cliffs, Deepnest, Ancient Basin and Resting Grounds all open together.

The opening steers with vague hints rather than a stated goal: the Elderbug says to head down, a sign points to the city, and Hornet dashes just out of view to lead players west. Team Cherry describes starting with "a basic, linear progression of item acquirement that would break apart, branch out and wind around itself."

Several routes to key places mean players rarely get stuck. The east side of the City of Tears and the Resting Grounds each have four routes, and the Mothwing Cloak has two critical dashes to the Fungal Wastes where Super Metroid has one Grapple Hook point.

Players find the Dream Nail without signposts because several ways lead into the Resting Grounds. Game-changing abilities can be collected at the same time, which most Metroidvanias avoid.

Add a connection whenever it makes sense and strands no one. Every zone except the Hive links to at least two others, and when Deepnest grew until it touched the Queen's Gardens, the team added a link.

Team Cherry's rule: "If we can add a connection between adjacent areas, and it makes sense in the world, and it doesn't cause players to get stuck somewhere, then we do it." Connections often start one-way and open from the far side later, and only nine of fifteen areas have Stag stations.

Trust players to find their own way instead of signposting. Team Cherry avoids heavy signposting so that being lost makes players learn the layout personally, relying on their observation, tenacity and skill.

Maps are earned: there is no map at first, Cornifer sells sketchy zone maps, the map fills in only when resting on a bench, and seeing your position costs a charm slot. "We try to let the player loose in a wild world, not push them explicitly one way, and reward them for choosing their own path."

Hidden bosses and side stories make the world feel alive. Hollow Knight has more than 30 bosses, but a player may fight only about 10 to 15. Brooding Mawlek, Nosk and the Collector sit behind secret rooms or unusual abilities.

Rewards like 16 Mask Shards, 9 Vessel Fragments and charms stay useful in a hard game, so side content never feels wasted. Team Cherry: "Just having it there, out of sight from most players makes the world more truly alive."

The true ending abandons the openness and sends players to walkthroughs. Reaching the credits takes about 20 hours and the true ending about 10 more. Missing one jump in the Kingdom's Edge leaves players stuck with no second route.

Build sequence breaks on purpose and enjoy the ones players find. In Hollow Knight, nail bounces off decorations and flying enemies make the Monarch Wings optional, and the Vengeful Spirit kickback or Crystal Heart can skip other upgrades. Some enemies were placed on purpose to allow shortcuts.

The community found skips the team never considered, and one Kingdom's Edge spot was patched because players could get stuck before the Monarch Wings. "Watching players discover new routes is a huge joy for us and is a really empowering moment for a player."

Gate a skip behind a cost that rewards saving up. Silksong's 500-rosary simple key opens Deep Docks and Wormways doors that bypass Lace, the Drifter's Cloak, Fourth Chorus and Moorwing. Lace later appears in a cutscene saying she will save the fight for later.

Hollow Knight did the same with the 1,800 Geo Lumafly Lantern, a soft lock open in theory but closed by cost. The Flea Caravan also moves after 5, 12 and 22 fleas, and riding it to Greymoor means Moorwing never appears.