Hollow Knight: Silksong Review: A Huge Metroidvania That Shows No Mercy

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the sequel to Hollow Knight from Australian studio Team Cherry. You play as Hornet, who finds herself in the unknown kingdom of Pharloom and climbs toward its summit. The game came out on September 4, 2025 on PC and every major console at once, and by December 2025 more than seven million players had bought it, according to the studio. In this review we tell you what Silksong does well, where it stumbles and whether it’s for you.

What Silksong is about

Silksong is a 2D Metroidvania. You gradually unlock abilities, and with them paths to places you couldn’t reach before. The protagonist is Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest, whom you know from Hollow Knight. This time she ends up in the foreign kingdom of Pharloom and you climb with her from mossy caves all the way to the top. Team Cherry promises more than 200 enemy types, and the game has three acts and multiple endings.

Combat, silk and healing

Hornet fights with a needle and is faster than the Knight from the first game. The studio itself names that as the reason even ordinary enemies had to become more complex. Healing is called Bind: your attacks fill a silk spool, and one Bind gives you back three masks of health, even in mid-air. You pay for offensive Silk Skills with the same silk, though, so you’re always choosing between healing and attacking.

By default your down attack goes diagonally, not straight down as in Hollow Knight. Bouncing off enemies and hazards takes practice, especially in the first hours. We cover how to get started in our beginner’s guide.

Crests and tools

Instead of the charms from the first game, you get Crests and tools. A Crest changes your attack set, including the down attack, and decides how many tool slots you have and of what kind. Red tools are offensive and you restock them with Shell Shards, blue and yellow ones work passively. You can only swap them at a bench, so you plan your loadout ahead. There’s an overview in our tools and crests guide.

Difficulty: where opinions split

Silksong has no difficulty setting. The only other mode is Steel Soul, where your first death costs you the whole save. On top of that, many enemies and almost all bosses take two masks per hit, where in Hollow Knight it was usually one. GamesRadar+ and PC Gamer both say Silksong is harder than the first game, and PC Gamer would have welcomed at least some option to tone down the harshest punishments.

IGN sees it more gently. Compared with other hard action games, it calls Silksong pretty forgiving, because you can almost always go somewhere else and come back stronger. After launch, Team Cherry slightly toned down the first bosses, Moorwing and Sister Splinter, in Patch 1, so the opening is a little friendlier today. Our tips for getting past the hard parts are in the difficulty article.

Exploration, the map and rosaries

You don’t start with a map. You buy it area by area from the cartographer Shakra, and the Compass, which shows where you’re standing, is a tool you have to keep equipped. Pharloom is full of hidden walls and secret rooms, so exploring pays off, you’ll just spend the first hours lost quite a bit.

The main currency is rosaries. When you die they stay in a cocoon where you fell and you have to run back for them. They only drop from some enemies, and Rock Paper Shotgun complains in its review that merchants bleed you dry. You can protect part of your money with a Rosary String, which isn’t lost on death. Where to farm them fastest is covered in our rosary farming guide.

What critics praise and what bothers players

On Metacritic the PC version holds 90 from 49 reviews, the PS5 version 92 and the Switch 2 version 91. PCGamesN gave the game a perfect score and called it a masterpiece, IGN gave it 9 out of 10 and describes a masterpiece of a 2D platformer packed with action, exploration and lore. Critics’ complaints revolve around the difficulty and the economy described above.

Players feel much the same. On Steam Silksong has 89.5% positive out of 426,156 reviews, a Very Positive rating. Metacritic users give it 8.9 out of 10 from roughly 7,500 ratings. We don’t count that into our score; it’s based on Steam and the critic score.

How long Silksong lasts

According to GamesRadar+ and PCGamesN, you’ll reach the first credits at the end of Act 2 in about 30 hours. A near-complete run including Act 3 takes 40 to 45 hours, and for 100% expect around 60 hours. The full breakdown is in how long it takes to beat Silksong.

Price and platforms

On Steam Silksong costs €19.50 and the only paid DLC is the soundtrack. One purchase on PlayStation covers PS4 and PS5, the Microsoft Store version supports Xbox Play Anywhere and the upgrade to the Switch 2 Edition is free. The game has been on Game Pass since day one, as of October 20, 2026 in PC Game Pass and Game Pass Premium. On Steam Deck it’s rated Verified. A comparison of all versions is in our price and platforms article.

Team Cherry keeps working on the game. The latest Patch 5 from March 2026 added a new bench and fixes, among other things, and the studio called it the last significant update before the Sea of Sorrow expansion. That one is free for all players and brings seafaring areas, new bosses and tools. As of October 21, 2026 no release date has been announced; we follow the news in our updates and Sea of Sorrow article.

Who Silksong is for (and who it isn’t)

It’s for you if you enjoyed Hollow Knight, Ori or Dead Cells and want a big world where every attempt makes you better. Hornet is faster than the Knight, the combat is sharper and under €20 gets you dozens of hours of content. If you have Game Pass, you can try it at no extra cost.

Skip it if you don’t have the patience for repeated attempts at one boss or you want a game you can set to an easier difficulty. That option doesn’t exist here.

Verdict: Is Hollow Knight: Silksong worth it?

Yes, if you want one of the best Metroidvanias in years and don’t mind being punished. We’re giving it 9/10.

Silksong is built on fast combat, tools that change how you play and a huge world that rewards every detour. Critics and players rate it very highly, and for its price it offers more content than most pricier games. Points come off for difficulty you can’t adjust at all and an economy that will sometimes have you farming rosaries instead of exploring.

Playing Silksong? All our guides are on the Hollow Knight: Silksong hub. Start with the beginner’s guide, and if a boss has you stuck, read our article on difficulty. You can also ask around on the GamersTogether Discord.

FAQ

This review is based on player ratings on Steam and critic scores on Metacritic, on reviews from IGN, PCGamesN, GamesRadar+, PC Gamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, and on official information from Team Cherry. Information verified on October 21, 2026. All our guides to the game are on the Hollow Knight: Silksong hub.