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Hollow Knight: Silksong patch explained — boss tuning, bug fixes, and a fairer economy

15 September 2025
Nintendo Switch 2Nintendo Switch
10 min.
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Hollow Knight: Silksong patch explained — boss tuning, bug fixes, and a fairer economy

Summary:

Team Cherry is rolling out the first post-launch patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong, a swift follow-up to a launch so busy it briefly rattled store fronts worldwide. We break down what actually changes and why it matters for your next run. Expect progress-blocking bugs to be resolved, smoother combat interactions, and a more welcoming start thanks to lighter touches on early bosses like Moorwing and Sister Splinter. Enemies that hit a bit too hard—looking at you, Sandcarvers—are being toned down, while item interactions such as pea pod colliders become more forgiving. The economy gets friendlier too: mid-game Bellway and Bell Bench prices dip, rosary rewards rise across relics, psalm cylinders, and courier deliveries, making upgrades less grindy. We walk through the fixes, the balance tweaks, and the knock-on effects for routing, speedrunning, and late-game cleanup, then share practical tips to prep for patch day so you can jump back in with confidence and feel those improvements immediately.

Hollow Knight Silksong launch recap and why a quick patch matters

Silksong’s arrival was the kind of moment that reminds everyone why this series commands such devotion. Demand spiked so fast that major storefronts buckled for a while, leaving players smashing refresh like it was an in-game mechanic. A launch that big always reveals edge cases no internal test plan can fully mirror, so moving quickly is key. The first patch steps in to sand down the sharpest edges and stabilize the handful of progress-stoppers that slipped through. For new players, that means a gentler ramp that teaches mechanics without punishing missteps. For returning Hornet diehards, the patch cleans up interactions and tightens pacing, so more of your time goes to skill expression rather than fighting glitches or overly stingy costs. It’s exactly the kind of early cadence that builds trust and keeps the momentum rolling after a blockbuster debut.

What Team Cherry is changing at a glance

Let’s set the table. The update combines targeted bug fixes with measured balance tuning and a small but meaningful economy refresh. On the bug side, it addresses specific progression blockers—like quest wishes failing to complete under late-game conditions—and removes interaction quirks that could leave Hornet in odd states after certain bindings or tool uses. On balance, the patch trims early boss difficulty to make the first hours less punishing without losing identity. Enemies that overperformed get brought in line, while some world interactions gain clearer hit detection. The economy tweaks lighten mid-game costs and pump up rosary earnings, so upgrades and routes feel fairer. That blend speaks to a philosophy: preserve challenge, reduce friction, and reward exploration with steady, satisfying growth.

Progress-stopping bugs that get fixed

Nothing sours a run like completing a scenario perfectly and watching a quest fail to resolve. This patch targets exactly that frustration. Cases where players could remain cloakless after escaping the Slab are resolved, preventing a gear state from sticking when it shouldn’t. Wishes tied to Infestation Operation and Beast in the Bells now complete reliably, even when conditions in late-game areas complicate triggers—specifically when the Bell Beast is pulled at the Bilewater Bellway. Interactions that occasionally left players floating after a down-bounce on certain projectiles are corrected, and courier deliveries that became inaccessible in Act 3 are back on the critical path. These are surgical fixes, but each one unlocks hours of progress that would otherwise stall, especially for folks chasing 100% completion or tight route planning.

Combat, movement, and interaction fixes that smooth the ride

A great action-platformer relies on trust—when you parry, bounce, or bind, you expect a consistent result. The patch shores up edge cases where that trust could wobble. Craft bind now behaves properly inside memories, so your rhythm stays intact in those reflective sequences. A nasty soft-lock stemming from the Lace tool’s deflect at the start of a Deep Docks battle is gone, ensuring fights begin and end on your terms. World actors also behave better: Silk Snippers in the Chapel of the Reaper no longer drift out of bounds, and Claw Mirrors won’t leave Hornet inverted if she takes damage during a precise window while binding. Even loot behavior gets a tune-up as Snitch Pick now grants rosaries and shell shards as intended. These are the little hinges that make a complex world swing smoothly.

Early-game difficulty adjustments: Moorwing and Sister Splinter

Early bosses do a lot of heavy lifting. They teach spacing, tempo, and resource usage while setting the tone for the rest of the journey. Moorwing and Sister Splinter were doing that job, but a touch too sternly for players just learning Silksong’s cadence. The patch dials them back slightly—think tighten a screw, not replace the door. Expect windows that are a hair more forgiving, patterns that read cleaner, and chip damage that doesn’t snowball so brutally. The intent isn’t to flatten the curve but to smooth that first climb so more players meet the game’s depth instead of bouncing off its front gate. If you already mastered them, you’ll still find them engaging; if you struggled, the fight becomes a lesson instead of a wall.

What these tweaks mean for your first hours

In practice, those small changes create breathing room. You’ll have time to read tells, learn jump-cancel timings, and test tool usage without drowning in retries. That’s a win for accessibility and for retention: more players stick around long enough to discover how satisfying Hornet’s kit can be once the movement and parry rhythms click. It also improves pacing for fresh save files, which matters if you’re introducing friends or streaming a newcomer run. Think of it as a better on-ramp to the same highway—once you’re cruising, the speed and danger come roaring back.

Enemy and environment tuning: Sandcarvers and pea pods

Roaming threats can define how safe it feels to explore between set-piece fights. Sandcarvers were hitting a touch too hard relative to when you encounter them, nudging players into overly cautious play. The patch trims their damage, restoring a healthier risk-reward balance in those stretches. Separately, the pea pod collider gets a slight size increase. That might sound tiny, but it reduces those frustrating near-miss collects and clarifies when an interaction should land. Together, these adjustments make navigation more fluid and less fiddly. You still need awareness and timing, but you’re spending less mental energy second-guessing hitboxes and more on route choice and map memory.

Economy refresh: rosary rewards and mid-game price cuts

Good progression economies reward curiosity and reward skill with steady forward motion. This patch loosens a couple of chokepoints. Rosary payouts from relics and psalm cylinders go up, and courier deliveries now pay better, which means successful exploration and task completion translate more reliably into buying power. At the same time, mid-game prices for Bellway access and Bell Benches see a small reduction. That’s a subtle but impactful shift: fast travel and rest spots become less of a tax on experimentation, encouraging detours and riskier routes. The result is a loop that feels fairer and more generous without becoming trivial—players still make choices, but fewer of those choices feel like austerity measures.

Where you’ll feel the economy changes most

If you stalled out debating whether to unlock a Bellway or sit on rosaries for an upgrade, the decision gets easier. If courier runs felt underpaid for the effort, the increased rewards help those errands justify their time. And if relic hunts were fun but not lucrative, the new payouts nudge them into “worth it” territory. Over a full playthrough, those small boosts add up to fewer dead ends and a faster, more satisfying ramp to your preferred build and routes.

Courier deliveries and late-game clean-up

Act 3 hiccups around courier deliveries were a quiet drag on completionists and lore-chasers alike. The fix here does more than unstick a checklist item; it restores a rhythm to late-game errands, letting you thread deliveries neatly into boss attempts, shard upgrades, and hidden room sweeps. Combined with increased courier rewards, that loop now feels like a pillar rather than a side chore. If you parked a save because deliveries wouldn’t trigger, this patch makes it the perfect time to dust it off. Expect fewer interruptions, better payouts, and a smoother path to seeing a file through to the ending you’ve been hunting.

Quality-of-life changes that tidy up inputs and bindings

Movement tech is where Silksong sings, so input clarity matters. The update removes the float override input (down + jump) once you’ve acquired the Faydown Cloak. That reduces accidental state flips and keeps your aerial control predictable as your toolset grows. Elsewhere, binding and reflection scenarios that could warp Hornet’s orientation no longer do so, and memory-specific behaviors align with expectations. These don’t reinvent any system, but they declutter the feel of high-tempo sequences. If you practice advanced movement or challenge runs, the payoff is consistency: fewer “why did that happen?” moments and more confidence attempting tight strings or stylish recoveries.

How newcomers and veterans should adapt after the patch

If you’re new, lean into the friendlier early bosses to practice spacing and resource timing. Try tools you sidelined before; with inputs stabilized and damage tuned, you might discover routes that felt too punishing a week ago. If you’re seasoned, treat the patch as a chance to reroute: faster Bellway unlocks and richer rosary income can reshape farming, shopping, and fast-travel decisions. Revisit fights you brute-forced—cleaned-up interactions might open safer, faster patterns. And if you bounced off a bug or a stingy reward loop at launch, this is your cue to jump back in and reassess with fresh eyes and a more generous economy.

Practical prep: save safety, platform rollouts, and re-routes

Before updating, close the game cleanly and make sure cloud saves have synced. If you keep manual backups on PC, grab a copy of your save folder out of habit. Platform rollouts can land at slightly different hours, so plan sessions with a little buffer if you’ve scheduled a return to Pharloom. Once you’re patched, revisit areas tied to fixed wishes, redo courier rounds you parked in Act 3, and check shops and benches informed by the new prices and payouts. You’ll feel the economy shift fastest if you string these activities together—think delivery, relic sweep, then bench and spend while planning the next route.

Optional: test routes on a fresh file

Because early bosses and payouts shifted, a brand-new save is a great sandbox. Time your early upgrades, see how quickly you can afford key unlocks with the rosary changes, and test whether alternate paths now beat your old benchmarks. Even if you return to your main file afterward, those experiments inform smarter choices across the run.

Strategy shifts for bosses, routing, and speedruns

Bosses that saw slight difficulty reductions may invite greedier punishes, but keep discipline—patterns are cleaner, not defanged. If you speedrun, the bigger story is economy and input reliability. More rosaries sooner and cheaper mid-game travel can alter shopping and bench splits, while stabilized interactions reduce reset risk from flaky states. That combination could lower variance and enable tighter, more aggressive routes. It’s worth combing through your notes to mark new shopping thresholds, revised fast-travel decisions, and any segments affected by the bug fixes, especially battles that previously risked soft-locks or odd binding behavior.

Community checklists to update

Route docs, boss cue sheets, and completion trackers should all get a pass. Flag any wish lines that were previously inconsistent, annotate new rosary expectations for relic runs, and revise any warnings tied to Lace deflect, Claw Mirrors, or down-bounce edge cases. A little housekeeping now saves hours of confusion later, especially for new players following your guides or for marathon runs where clarity is king.

What this signals for future updates

The pacing of this first patch tells a story: Team Cherry is listening and prefers precise, player-first changes over sweeping rewrites. Early friction gets eased, progression blockers get cleared, and the economy is tuned just enough to keep curiosity rewarding. That’s the right kind of confidence-builder for a live post-launch cadence. It hints at future updates that keep honing combat feel, expanding accessibility without diluting identity, and addressing quirks as the wider player base uncovers them. If you’re in for the long haul, this is exactly the tone you want to see set in month one.

Troubleshooting after updating and where to report issues

If anything feels off post-patch, start with the basics: verify integrity on PC, reboot your console, and confirm you’re on the latest build in the system menus. Recreate any issue cleanly and note the area, quest state, and tools used. Clear, reproducible steps are gold when reporting. Platform community hubs and official channels are the fastest way to surface lingering bugs; they also help other players spot workarounds while a hotfix is in the oven. With the most disruptive cases in this patch already addressed, the remaining rough edges should get easier to isolate and fix, keeping the overall experience trending upward.

Conclusion

We’re looking at a smart first step: fix the blockers, smooth the inputs, tame the early spikes, and pay players more fairly for their time. The spirit of Silksong—challenging, elegant, and endlessly rewarding—stays intact, but the path through Pharloom gets that extra layer of polish. Whether you’re just meeting Moorwing or you’re routing late-game wishes, this patch tilts the experience toward flow rather than friction. Lace up, pick a path, and feel the difference.

FAQs
  • Q: When is the patch arriving?
    • A: It’s slated for the middle of next week, with timing varying slightly by platform. Check your storefront for the update prompt on the day.
  • Q: What are the biggest gameplay changes?
    • A: Early bosses Moorwing and Sister Splinter are slightly easier, Sandcarvers deal less damage, pea pod interactions are more forgiving, and mid-game Bellway/Bell Bench prices drop.
  • Q: Which progression bugs are fixed?
    • A: Cloakless state after the Slab escape, late-game wish completions like Infestation Operation and Beast in the Bells, floating after certain down-bounces, and Act 3 courier access issues.
  • Q: Are rewards actually higher?
    • A: Yes—rosary payouts from relics and psalm cylinders increase, and courier deliveries pay more, making upgrades and routes feel less grindy.
  • Q: Do I need to back up saves?
    • A: It’s always wise. Ensure cloud sync completes before updating, and on PC consider a manual backup of your save directory as an extra safety net.
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