Silksong’s Replacement For One Mechanic

Hollow Knight: Silksong was always going to shake up the gameplay formula fans had fallen in love with. As a sequel seven years in the making, it’s kind of Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s whole purpose to take the building blocks of its predecessor and both iterate and innovate to produce something familiar but new. I was fully prepared for these changes, or at least I thought I was before Silksong actually came out.

I was ready for a new kingdom to explore, a new journal and quest-tracking feature, a new tool management system, and for Hornet’s new bevy of attacks, abilities, and the animations that string them together. But after finally getting my hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong after all these years, I have to admit that there’s one new mechanic that I just don’t like.

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I Just Can’t Get On Board With Hollow Knight: Silksong’s New Air Attack

A Spoiler-Free Refresher on Hollow Knight: Silksong's Kingdom of Pharloom

Different Isn’t Always Bad

Much like most players, I imagine, Hornet’s air attack was one of the first things I noticed when booting up Hollow Knight: Silksong for the first time. Unlike The Knight’s simple downward slash, Hornet’s air attack sees her charging downward in a diagonal arc.

After experimenting with the new mechanic for a few minutes, I clocked that it felt a little tricky to predict the arc of the dive, but I didn’t pay too much attention to that feeling. After all, anything that further separated Hornet’s playstyle from The Knight’s was good in my books for the sake of variety.

Let’s Talk About Those Red Flowers

I progressed through the first hour or two of my Hollow Knight: Silksong playthrough without ever really thinking about Hornet’s new air attack. But then towards the end of ‘The Marrow’ area, I encountered a handful of red flowers placed intriguingly on a wall. My Metroidvania instincts kicked in right away, and I leaped into the air, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting foliage.

I pinged off the first red flower with ease, and then the second, and landed gracefully on the platform above with no issue at all. I spotted a few more red flowers in front of me, this time placed precariously above a bed of spikes.

This platforming feat was a little more tricky to pull off, but I achieved it first try, and felt thoroughly rewarded for doing so. Along with the tangible reward of some Rosary Beads hidden at the end of this platforming challenge, I took great joy in seeing Hornet’s elegant acrobat-inspired animations.

But then I reached ‘Hunter’s March’, and my tune quickly changed. The most infamous area from Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s early game, Hunter’s March presents players with a gauntlet of difficult challenges that combine combat encounters that are much harder than anything players have faced thus far, and platforming segments that require pinpoint accuracy. In this area, red flowers are used liberally.

Initially, I reveled in the challenge of Hunter’s March. I took my time combating the new foes, and I carefully committed to each and every jump and air attack. I did start to notice that not all of my air attacks would land where I expected, but it still wasn’t a major issue worth thinking about for too long.

Flash forward well over an hour, and I’m in my own personal nightmare. I’m back at the start of Hunter’s March, again. Somehow, I’ve made no real progress. In fact, I’ve permanently lost all 500 Rosary Beads that had been in my possession. I’m starting to feel a tad agitated. Naturally, I want to make it through this area as quickly as possible and put it all behind me at this point, but speed is not the name of the game in Hollow Knight: Silksong, especially when it comes to those bloody red flowers.

Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s red flowers require calm, precise inputs to traverse. But at this stage I was far from calm. Suddenly, every air attack seemed to travel just an inch off-course, and in Hunter’s March, that minute error will see you hurled into a bed of spikes.

Attacking enemies in Hunter’s March in Hollow Knight Silksong

To make matters worse, Hunter’s March also throws a small army of airborne ants at you, all of which seem to be made with the express purpose of kicking me while I’m at my lowest ebb. I cannot count the number of times I would perform a perfect red flower bounce only to be hit by an airborne bug mid-jump, fall into a pit of spikes, respawn, and be hit by that same bug and smacked into that same bed of spikes, rendering me utterly dead in just three seconds total.

Sounds Like a Skill Issue

Now, there’s a strong chance you’ve just read all of the above, and you’re thinking it’s a me problem, and that I just need to “git gud.” Well, you’re not wrong. I was frustrated. I was tired. I certainly wasn’t helping myself by just repeating this Sisyphean cycle over and over again. But I’m not entirely to blame.

Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s new air attack is very finicky. Its arc is difficult to predict, and to counter that, you’ve got to position yourself right on top of a red flower or enemy to ensure that the attack lands, which is exceptionally risky given Silksong‘s unforgiving hit detection.

Silksong Hornet Death Animation Dying Dead Final Hit

I understand that Hollow Knight‘s ‘pogo’ jump attack was likely replaced for the sake of more dynamic combat encounters in the sequel, but I can’t help but miss its wide, predictable arc.

I know Hollow Knight: Silksong has a few different Crests that swap Hornet’s air attack for a more traditional pogo attack, but they can’t be found before reaching Hunter’s March for the first time.