First Hollow Knight Silksong update arrives early, and we all needed it

Developer Team Cherry launched Hollow Knight Silksong without much fanfare after seven years of development. It didn't need an extensive marketing campaign, because its predecessor has achieved cult status in the Metroidvania and indie game communities. All it took to break all known gaming storefronts was a YouTube announcement and a two-week notice period to get players on high alert. However, soon after the game released, players have been disheartened with its difficulty. Team Cherry has responded quickly, and a patch fixing some frustrations went live in the early hours of this morning.

In a blog post published on September 9, Team Cherry said that the patch was due "mid next week." However, it has outdone itself and put the patch live just three days after that announcement, giving all Hollow Knight Silksong players an easier time at the start of the game.

You can read all about the Silksong update here, or just jump into the game to see for yourself. If Team Cherry wants Silksong to be considered as one of the best PC games around like the original, then it will need to listen to player feedback and tweak a few more sections of the game in future.

With that in mind, the team is working on "further fixes" that will be implemented in a second patch, although it doesn't give a timescale for that at present.

The biggest changes are the difficulty reduction for early game bosses Moorwing and Sister Splinter, which will probably impact new players the most as many early adopters have already sped past the pair. However, other tweaks have been implemented retroactively, so you might notice inaccessible areas have suddenly opened up to you.

Team Cherry is likely hoping that this draws players who fell off the game back in and prove that, like wizards, updates arrive precisely when they need to. You can read the full patch notes here.

If you're still struggling with the game, our Silksong map guide can give you some pointers, and we've also found all of the Silksong Mask Shard locations for your benefit.

Will you be jumping back into Silksong with the new patch, or did you never leave? Let us know in our community Discord server. I'm definitely in the latter camp.