Discover everything you need to know about the best beginner’s guide in Hollow Knight Silksong, including some general strategies to initiate your journey.
Hollow Knight Silksong is a 2025 Metroidvania video game and has a bit of confusing gameplay mechanics. Unlike the first title, this game deals in angles and arcs. Learning all exploration and combat mechanics is essential to progress. Unlock all the abilities to use them in combat with powerful bosses and to become a powerful character.
From speaking with every NPC to collecting all the items, everything is crucial to surviving in Pharloom. The enemies become more powerful as you start progressing, so upgrading your weapon is essential. That’s why we bring the best beginner guide for Hollow Knight Silksong, where we discuss every aspect of the game.
Don’t Ignore Wishes or NPC Quests
Accepting and completing quests or wishes available to you in the early game can reward you with useful items, currencies, and even. Progress some of the NPCs’ questlines. So, make it a habit to always check the quest board in Bone Bottom, which is your first hub in the game. Some of the quests will require you to find certain items or hunt specific enemies in the field. So, it’s wise to have as many quests as you can so you can progress them organically while exploring the world.
You can also get NPC Wishes or Quests from certain individuals in the world. Most of the time, these NPCs will reward you with crucial special abilities that will help you access previously unreachable areas. So, keep lookout for these NPCs.
Take Advantage of Memory Lockets
Memory Lockets are one of the rare materials in the game that can expand your Crest Slots. So don’t forget to use them on your favorite Crest and expand their slots. A good upgrade example is using a Memory Locket and upgrading the Hunter’s Crest for this crest to have two Yellow Slots. So, you can equip the Compass and the Magnetic Brooch Tool. These are the two non-negotiable early tools that you should have, and more on them later.
Saving & Quitting Is Your Friend
Saving and quitting can actually save you a lot of time. When you Save and Quit the game, like for example, you are in the middle of nowhere, the game will fast travel you back to the last bench you visited. This is useful when you messed up your runs pretty badly and you want to avoid dying if there’s no bench near your current location. You can also take advantage of this trick when farming for Rosary Beads. When you save and quit, you also retain the Rosary Beads that you got before you did the trick.
Early Spots To Farm Rosary Beads
Rosary Beads are your main currency in this game. They are pretty scarce, especially in the early game. You will use them to unlock Benches, Beast Stations, buy Maps, and more. But most importantly, use your Prayer Beads to buy useful items and tools from merchants. Since you know how the Saving and Quitting trick works, you can use this trick by finding a location. Find the Pilgrims that are located near a bench area, and then farm these pilgrims. Then, saving and quitting. Do this over and over, and you can farm Rosary Beads fast.
Store Your Rosary Beads
Store your Rosary Beads when you can. You can do so by interacting with the special machine located in Greymoor. Spending 80 Beads on this machine will turn the Beads into an item consumable known as the Rosary String. Using the Rosary String will give you 60 Rosary beads in return, so you notice that you’ve lost 20 Beads by making it. But the main idea is, saving your Rosary Beads from being wasted when you failed retrieving your spool cocoon. Take the Rosary Strings as your insurance in real life.
Exhaust NPC Dialogues
Hollow Knight Silksong borrowed a lot of elements from the Soulslike genre, and one of them is exhausting NPC dialogues. When you encounter these NPCs, make sure to talk to them over and over, and you will notice that their dialogue changes as well. Most of the time, these NPC dialogues contain lore bits and pieces or useful information that may aid your journey.
What To Buy From an Early Shop
When starting the game, you will eventually find your first merchant in the game. All of the items she is selling are valuable. However, if you can only pick one or two items because of a lack of Beads, you can’t go wrong with the Simple Key and Magnetic Brooch. This is used to open gates with simple locks, so it is nice to have when the need arises. Second is the mentioned Magnetic Brooch, which allows you to magnetize drop Beads. This is a huge time saver, especially when doing farming sessions.
Prioritize Finding Maps
In a new area, your very first main objective is to find the map for that area. Finding the map should always be your priority. The NPC Shakra is a merchant who sells the maps along with other useful map items that you should be buying as well. This NPC is a fighter, and she will help you occasionally in certain fights. And by fighting alongside her, you will see that her weapons are Throwing Discs.
Most of the time, you can easily find her in a certain area by being on the lookout for scattered thrown discs. Make sure to use them as breadcrumbs to track her nearby location, and to finally buy the map.
Take Advantage of Map Markers
Shakra is selling all kinds of Map Tools, and we recommend trying your best to buy everything she offers. This is because you’re getting all of the markers you can get. The Compass tool allows you to track Hornet’s location when opening your Map. So, if you can only buy one, it is highly suggested to get the Compass first. Then, if you have the cash, buy everything that she offers.
Using markers to note unreachable areas, secrets, and strong enemies can save you tons of tons of time when backtracking later on. Your markers will dry out easily, especially since there are a lot of secrets in this game.
Backtracking is Essential
Backtracking is essential and should be a habit every time you get new abilities or tools. This may sound basic for seasoned metroidvania players, but for those new to the genre, this can mean everything. Since you already know how to use Map Markers, when you backtrack, it is easy to pinpoint these locations. Previously inaccessible areas will let you progress in the game. This also allows you to get strong upgrades and tools that you can use to power up your builds.
Be Better in POGOS
POGOS or the downward thrust platforming is much challenging this time compared to the first title. The most annoying part is that the downward thrust in Silksong has a diagonal animation. It can be a pain to navigate your first red flowers or the flowers where you will do your POGOS. Don’t try aiming for the flowers since it will be much harder that way when at midair. This is because you will miss a lot and die a lot if you do this.
What you do instead is avoid as much airtime as you can. Whenever Hornet is very close to the actual red flowers, press down and square immediately. This will lessen your airtime and allow you to focus on your timings only, especially when doing a series of POGOs.
Knockbacks Can Kill You
Knockbacks in this game can kill you in certain scenarios. You should also consider it, especially when engaging enemies at great heights. When you attack, notice that there’s knockback going on. If you don’t mind your distance when fighting on ledges and trying to damage enemies, you could fall easily and potentially waste a lot of time. Try to imagine falling on lava, Spikes, and super high places because of Knockbacks.
Take Advantage of the Scout Feature
A pretty basic tip is taking advantage of the Scout Feature. Pressing and holding the Up and Down directional buttons lets you scout the direction you press. This will most of the time save you from enemies or environmental dangers like lava, spikes, and more.
Vaulting, Launching Animation Is Your Friend
Taking advantage of the Vaulting or Launching Animation when interacting with platforms or ledges lets you climb faster. By practicing this tip, it will be easier and faster for you to get through a series of ledges or platforms. It could be tricky during your first tries. However, pressing the jump button immediately when Hornet is in the middle of the climbing animation at the edge of a platform will do the trick.
Be Paranoid Finding Secret Walls
Actually being paranoid when finding secret paths or passages, or breaking hidden walls, rewards you big time in this game. It means that making it a habit of attacking walls, especially when you hit dead ends, or running or forcing yourself towards dead ends. Most of the time reveals secret paths, especially when you find a dead end or an empty room. Empty rooms, most of the time, are an indication that there’s a secret path in it or a breakable wall.
Test Attack Gates
Not all gates can be unlocked with a key or a special item. Every time you encounter a gate that halts you from progressing, hit it first with a few swings and see if you can destroy it. There are destructible gates in this game, and it is a little bit tricky to just rely on your visuals.
Use Sprint Ability Wisely
Using the Sprinting Ability wisely can mean a lot of things. This ability can kill you big time. When you are in a sprint animation, notice that Hornet is harder to control, adding a touch of realism to the ability. Notice that when you change direction, there’s a little delay when doing so, just like in real life. So, when you first unlock this ability, don’t sprint blindly since you will find yourself getting killed by environmental traps or hazards. It can even kill you easily in boss fights.
There are a lot of bosses that can damage you with two health bars by just making contact with them. Most of the time, the Sprint Ability is the one killing you in that specific instance. Only use this ability if you absolutely know the timings when platforming, or if you have already mastered the enemy’s movesets.
Try Sticking to One Area
Newcomers will surely appreciate this tip since Metroidvania Maps are usually overwhelming, especially since this game has a lot of verticality in its areas. Although the early game is a bit linear at first, when you progress enough, the game opens up and you can navigate different areas at a time. Sticking to one area as much as possible and only moving on to the next one if you are sure that you’ve already explored the current area that you are in.
If you continue to hop between areas frequently, you will find yourself easily overwhelmed and disoriented. This game is already hard enough when it comes to platforming and combat, so try to pace your exploration and take one area at a time. On the other hand, you do have an option to explore another area if you find an enemy that you can’t beat, or feel that it is much stronger than your current level.
Don’t Overuse Your Silkspear Silk
Spear is your first damaging ability in the game, and boy, this ability hits hard. However, just like in healing, it will require spools for you to use it, so you will find yourself balancing between offense and healing most of the time. It is wise to save your spool charges on healing first, rather than spamming your Silk Spear, especially in early games when you are trying to learn the game.
If you don’t manage your Spool charges wisely, you will be dying a lot in hard fights. Only use the Silkspear or any damaging ability if you are already confident in the fight or in boss battles.
Destroy Your Spool Cocoon
When in need, it’s normal for you to die over and over when facing boss fights in this game. While backtracking to the boss’s location, you will gradually accumulate Spool charges. Most of the benches in this game are placed far away from the boss’s location. When you arrive at the boss arena, don’t destroy your Cocoon yet and save it for later use.
Use your Spool Charges with skill first, or in healing when you’ve already done so; that’s the time to actually destroy the cocoon. Destroying the Cocoon gives you max spool charges, so it will be a huge waste destroying it at the start of a Boss Fight. However, be extra careful doing this trick, since if you fail to destroy your cocoon and you die, you will lose all of your Rosary Beads in the process.
Parry or Clashes Are Rewarding
Parry or Clashes is a thing in this game, and it can give you a lot of advantages in certain scenarios. Parries, or to be exact, Clashes, happen when you time your attack at the right moment after the enemy pulls off its own attack. You will hear a clashing sound when you successfully do a clash and making you invisible to incoming damage.
You are not required to do this, but if you master Clashes, it can save you from getting damage when fighting in tight spaces. On the other hand, you can also deflect projectiles back to the enemies to damage them, but the timing is much forgiving compared to clashes.
Fight Your Battles Wisely
Not every enemy drops Rosary Beads, and as mentioned, Rosary Beads only drop from Pilgrims or other humanoid-type enemies. So, skipping some of the enemies may be ideal for you, like bugs, flies, and more. Since every enemy in this game can turn your runs into a nightmare, even the smallest ones.
Take Advantage of Sprint Attacks
Doing Sprint Attacks can give you a lot of advantage in combat. Sprint attack can give you ample wiggle room when dodging enemy attacks. Because after surprising enemies with Sprint Attack, this ability leaps you into the air when you can POGO or do a downward thrust as a follow-up attack. Although the Sprint attack animation changes when you change your crest, the Hunter Crest lets you perform good Sprint Attacks.
Don’t Forget To Use Your Tools
There is a high chance that you will forget that you have offensive tools. Take the time to understand what your tools are and what each of them can do. Learn how to use them frequently in boss battles or against elite enemies gives you a strong advantage. For example, the early Straight Pin is more than good enough to chip away at a boss’ health and is very easy to use and spam as a range attack between down times in combat.
