Highlights
- Hollow Knight: Silksong is still a mystery after five years, missing its expected release window despite signs of life.
- The Silk Soul Mode in Silksong is set to be a transformative experience with more impactful changes than the original Steel Soul Mode.
- Team Cherry could add many features in Silksong's Silk Soul Mode, including new enemies, quests, different endings, and playable characters.
For the time being, Hollow Knight: Silksong is still under wraps. Announced in February 2019, the 2D action-platformer metroidvania has been the focus of speculation for over five years, and no surefire signs of its release have appeared yet. There was a brief moment of hope when the June 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Showcase claimed that every title present would come out within a year of the show, but Hollow Knight: Silksong missed that window. Statements from playtesters and social media activity have indicated that the project is still alive, but there's no substitute for an official announcement.
There's good reasons why Hollow Knight fans are still waiting for Silksong after this long, however. Back in 2017, the successful Kickstarter title Hollow Knight took the internet by storm, gaining in reputation as it spread from PC to consoles. Hollow Knight smartly merged the metroidvania genre with choice elements of Soulslikes, all while boasting an enormous, polished adventure in an affordable and charming package. The original Hollow Knight's Steel Soul Mode and post-launch support even gave it replay value, at least the first part of which Hollow Knight: Silksong will replicate with its own Silk Soul Mode.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Needs Its Own Path of Pain
One of the most iconic features of Team Cherry's critically acclaimed Hollow Knight was the Path of Pain, and Silksong deserves a worthy successor.
Silksong's Silk Soul Mode Is Based On Hollow Knight’s Steel Soul Mode
Steel Soul Mode is an alternative to Classic Mode that Hollow Knight players unlock after beating the game for the first time. It's a permadeath mode that ends after one death; the only other changes of note are that the Rancid Egg merchant Tuk is deceased, and the redundant Shade-recalling Confessor Jiji is replaced by the Rancid Egg-buying Steel Soul Jinn. Beating Hollow Knight's Steel Soul Mode unlocks a couple of achievements and grants a unique menu style, but that's about it. Nowadays, Steel Soul can be seen as a speedrun training tool, given that optional challenges like Dream Bosses or Godhome don't trip its permadeath.
What Steel Soul Reveals About Silksong's Silk Soul
Aside from Steel Soul Mode’s victory screen teasing either Silksong or Hollow Knight's challenging DLC, and Jinn sporting a similar design to an enemy seen in a Silksong trailer, the mode doesn't have anything else to offer. That seems to be why Hollow Knight: Silksong's advertised Silk Soul Mode is planned to be a transformative experience compared to a normal run. Hollow Knight developer Team Cherry has mostly kept the mode’s contents a secret from players, only confirming that it is a postgame unlock, and that it “spins the game into a unique, challenging experience.”
Potential Features Coming To Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Silk Soul Mode
It sounds like Silk Soul Mode is going to be a more built-out experience than Steel Soul Mode was, with more impactful changes than simple permadeath. That's not to say that permadeath is out of the question, but given how much larger Hollow Knight: Silksong’s map seems compared to its predecessor, it may be best to rein in any endurance-based challenges. Fan speculation has run wild about what this could mean, and one theory interprets the mode’s name as referencing Hornet’s Silk, which replaces the first Hollow Knight’s Soul resource, becoming her new health bar.
While that is a good theory, it's far from the only one. Silk Soul Mode could bring a sweeping list of changes to Hollow Knight: Silksong, including:
- New Game+ Upgrade Retention
- Item/Enemy Randomization
- New Enemies
- Remixed Enemy Layouts
- Additional Boss Attacks and Phases
- New Quests
- A Different Ending
- Playable Steel Assassin Sharpe
In making Silk Soul Mode so different from normal Silksong, Team Cherry could implement harder content similar to the Dream Bosses and Godhome into Silksong itself, ensuring that the extended Hollow Knight DLC period leading to Silksong's creation isn't repeated. Any more details will have to wait until Hollow Knight: Silksong itself is ready to be shown.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Franchise
- Hollow Knight
- Platform(s)
- PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X , PC , macOS , Linux
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
- Genre(s)
- Metroidvania
