The Short Answer
Hollow Knight: Silksong drops Hornet into the kingdom of Pharloom, and its biggest departure from the original Hollow Knight is how healing and resources work: you fill Silk by attacking instead of resting, then spend it to heal or unleash Silk Skills. Stick with the default Hunter Crest while you learn the rhythm of combat, explore Moss Grotto and Bonebottom thoroughly before pushing forward, and treat every fight as a chance to top up Silk rather than something to avoid. The opening hours are about learning that aggression, not caution, is what keeps Hornet alive.
Understand Silk Before Anything Else
Silk is the single biggest thing to internalize early. Unlike Hollow Knight's SOUL, which built up from hitting enemies and was mostly used for healing, Silksong's Silk fuels both your healing and your offense, and it only fills by landing needle hits. This flips the usual metroidvania instinct to play it safe: standing back and avoiding damage also means you are not generating the resource that keeps you alive.
Bind is your healing action, costing nine strands of Silk to restore three masks at once. Crucially, you can Bind while moving or even mid-air, which makes healing in Silksong far more aggressive than Hollow Knight's stationary Focus ever was. The catch: getting hit during the Bind animation cancels the cast and wastes the Silk, so you still need to find a real opening, just not a long one.
Learn Hornet's Moveset
Hornet plays faster and more acrobatic than the Knight. Her combat kit includes a quick needle for tight combos, a sprint (Swift Step), wall-jumps, and a harpoon move called Clawline that doubles as both traversal and damage. She can also parry and deflect projectiles, including reflecting thrown attacks back at enemies that threw them. Spend your first hour or two in Moss Grotto just getting comfortable landing combos and parries on weak enemies before you push into tougher territory; muscle memory here pays off for the rest of the game.
Stick With the Hunter Crest at First
Crests are Silksong's answer to Hollow Knight's Nail Arts and charms combined: each one reshapes Hornet's entire moveset and gives her a different layout of Tool slots. You start with the Hunter Crest, a balanced, all-round loadout that is genuinely good enough to carry you through the early game rather than a placeholder to replace immediately. Its flexible spread of Tool slots makes it forgiving while you are still learning enemy patterns.
Once you reach Greymoor, the Reaper Crest becomes available at the Chapel of the Reaper, trading speed for heavy, wide-arcing slashes that generate bonus Silk on hit. It is worth picking up as your second Crest if you want to lean into an aggressive, Silk-generating playstyle, but there is no rush to leave the Hunter Crest behind before then.
Equip Tools to Round Out Your Build
Tools fill your Crest's slots and replace Hollow Knight's charms entirely. They come in three colors: Red for active gadgets like throwing weapons and traps, Blue for passive defense, and Yellow for passive offense or exploration aids. Early useful picks include the Tool Pouch, which simply lets you carry more Tools at once, and the Crafting Kit, which lets you make stronger versions of what you find. Keep an eye out for Shell Shards, since Red Tools have limited uses and need Shell Shards to refill at a bench.
Get to Know Bonebottom
Bonebottom is your first real hub town, and the NPCs there matter more than they might seem early on:
- Flick the Fixer runs the builder and quest board, a good place to check whenever you pass through for side content you might otherwise miss.
- Shakra, the cartographer, sells maps for regions as you reach them; buying a region's map early saves a lot of blind backtracking.
Get used to returning to Bonebottom between pushes. Silksong rewards exploring outward and circling back to spend Rosaries and check quests rather than sprinting straight through the critical path.
Collect Mask Shards and Spool Fragments as You Go
Your survivability scales almost entirely through what you find, not levels. Mask Shards raise your maximum health, four shards for one extra mask, and Spool Fragments raise your maximum Silk capacity. Both are scattered generously through early areas, so make detours for obvious side paths rather than beelining the main route. The payoff compounds: more max Silk means longer combos of Silk Skills like Silkspear and more room for error before you are forced to retreat and Bind.
Use Bellways Once You Unlock Them
Bellway stations form Silksong's fast-travel network, and your first access comes from freeing the Bell Beast early in The Marrow. Once that is unlocked, use it liberally. Backtracking on foot to grab a Mask Shard you spotted earlier eats real time in a game this size, and Bellways make that kind of return trip nearly free.
Your First Real Boss
The Bell Beast itself doubles as your first meaningful boss fight in The Marrow, and clearing it is what opens your first Bellway. Treat it as a checkpoint for whether you have internalized the Silk-and-Bind rhythm: if the fight feels unwinnable, spend more time building Silk capacity and Mask Shards in Moss Grotto before trying again rather than brute-forcing it underleveled.
Looking Ahead in Pharloom
Silksong's story runs across three Acts, with Act 1 carrying you from Pharloom's lower regions up to the Grand Gate and the Last Judge. Team Cherry has also confirmed a free expansion, Sea of Sorrow, focused on Hornet's voyage across Pharloom's seas, due sometime in 2026. None of that affects your first hours, but it is worth knowing the game's roadmap is still actively growing if you are deciding whether to dive in now or wait.
First-Hours Checklist
- Internalize that Silk comes from attacking, not resting; play aggressively
- Practice Bind healing mid-combo, not just in safe corners
- Stick with the Hunter Crest until you reach Greymoor
- Equip a Tool Pouch as soon as you find one
- Explore Moss Grotto fully before rushing to Bonebottom
- Check Flick the Fixer's quest board on every return trip
- Grab every visible Mask Shard and Spool Fragment you can reach
- Use Bellways once unlocked instead of walking everywhere
Where to Go Next
Once Hornet's kit and your first Crest feel comfortable, check the Silksong tier list for how Crests, Silk Skills, and bosses rank against each other as you push further into Pharloom.
