Fans of Hollow Knight have been stuck in a waiting purgatory for the past few years, testing their patience with the much-anticipated release of Silksong. After its announcement in 2019, complete with Team Cherry presenting a demo at E3 2019, a new trailer for the game revealed at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase 2022, and a soft promise of a 2023 release date, will 2023 be Silksong’s year?
Thankfully, Hollow Knight has plenty of replay value to keep players entertained and challenged. For those who have completed the game, defined as unlocking the ending in which Radiance is defeated, here are five worthwhile late-game challenges to do in Hollow Knight while waiting for Silksong’s long-anticipated release.
7 Collect All The Charms
For collectors who consider themselves completionists, collecting all 45 Charms in the game will round out the Knight’s arsenal of abilities to change up and experiment with different builds, whether the gamer prefers a more nail-based or spell-based build. The gamer can also mix and match as they wish.
Collecting all charms will also grant Salubra’s Blessing, which will automatically fill all of the soul vessels when the Knight is sitting on a bench. No more going out of the way to find the hot springs.
6 Rescue All The Grubs
Who can resist how cute the Grubs are? In addition to freeing all of them, which involves a boss showdown with their kidnapper, the Collector, rescuing all the grubs will grant the Knight the Grubberfly's Elegy charm, which enables “Nail attacks [to] fire a projectile dealing 50% Nail damage per hit.” It also “Contains the gratitude of grubs who will move to the next stage of their lives.”
If that sounds pretty vague, for story purposes, the gamer should rescue all the grubs and obtain the charm to find out the fate of the grubs.
5 Defeat Trial Of The Fool
It’s called Trial of the Fool for a good reason. Any challenger would have to be a fool to die over and over again with no unique reward other than Geo, bragging rights, and a Steam accomplishment.
Throughout all seventeen waves, all the enemies, while not particularly difficult on their own once the gamer has maxed out their Nail and advanced far along the game, do gang up and test the gamer’s perseverance, skills, and timing. The Trial of the Fool Trial Board did give a disclaimer: “Fight for Geo... and the glory of being a Fool.”
4 Listen To The Entire Soundtrack
Hollow Knight’s soundtrack, composed by Christopher Larkin, is highly praised for taking the story and gameplay of Hollow Knight to the next level in all its orchestral beauty. What are gameplay, art, and story if there is no music to transport gamers into a more fully-immersive experience? Music is an often underrated component that elevates a game's journey.
The main menu alone is worthy of sitting in front of just to listen to the haunting and beautiful main theme. In addition to the original soundtrack, Hollow Knight: Gods & Nightmares was released to coincide with the release of four content packs: Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, Lifeblood, and Godmaster.
3 Defeat Nightmare King Grimm
Speaking of additional content packs, Nightmare King Grimm is the dream variant boss of King Grimm. While he does not contribute to the main storyline, once King Grimm is defeated, he slumbers in his troupe tent in Dirtmouth, available at any time the Knight wishes to challenge him. He is faster and stronger than his normal non-dream counterpart, testing the gamer’s reflexes and experiences built up throughout the game. The difficulty of defeating him rivals the difficulty of the Radiance, a required and must-defeat final boss to unlock the canon ending.
Both the Radiance and Nightmare King Grimm are the only two bosses to be given a full-screen title card at the beginning of their fights, if one does not count the Radiance’s Absolute variant as a third boss. Team Cherry makes it obvious that when a boss blasts a full-screen title card on a gamer’s monitor, the Knight is in for a frustrating but worthy adversary. Once Nightmare King Grimm is defeated, and all nine flames are collected, the Grimmchild will advance to its final form in Phase 4, proving to be a useful minion that deals 11 damage per shot.
2 5-Hour Speed Run
Once familiar with the entirety of the map and skills to navigate the story and main bosses, gamers can challenge themselves with a 5-Hour Speed Run to gain the 5-Hour Speed Run Achievement on Steam.
This will challenge gamers to master the core mechanics of the game that will likely carry over once Silksong is released.
1 Steel Soul Run
Upon finishing the game for the first time, Steel Soul Mode will be unlocked and accessible from the main menu. Unlike regular mode, if the Knight dies, then the game will end. This is truly a challenge for the true masochists seeking a challenge to survive the entire game. Completion of this challenge may very well prepare gamers for the Steel Soul equivalent in Silksong.
As an added bonus, all seven tasks listed above can contribute to the elusive 112% completion status on Steam, and earn a respectable status within the Hollow Knight community. It goes without saying that these are only some recommended suggestions to tackle while waiting for Silksong. Ever since Hollow Knight’s release in 2017, Team Cherry has earned a devoted fanbase of gamers who return to the game for its engaging gameplay and lore. By the time Silksong is released, it will behoove Hollow Knight gamers to refresh and sharpen up their skills and experience which will surely transfer from the Knight to Hornet.
Hollow Knight is available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.