hollow knight silksong walkthrough

Hollow Knight Silksong walkthrough: planning your first run through Pharloom

A practical Hollow Knight Silksong walkthrough treats Pharloom as a connected web of regions rather than a checklist of boss fights. Hornet’s new adventure expands the Metroidvania formula Team Cherry built in the first game, with faster aerial movement, a denser cast of optional characters, and a quest structure that rewards revisits. First-time players get the smoothest experience when they understand the order in which regions open, the abilities that gate those regions, and the encounters that punish under-preparation. This guide maps the critical path, marks the checkpoints where new players most often stall, and gives concrete combat and resource notes for each phase of the run.

The route below assumes a standard first playthrough on the default difficulty. Sequence breaks are possible for experienced Metroidvania players who want to push the map with advanced movement tech, but the recommended path keeps the intended difficulty curve intact. Where a side activity pays off in the long run, it is flagged next to the relevant main-story beat so you can choose between a detour and a clean push forward.

Opening hour in the Citadel: what to learn first

Your first objective after the opening cinematic is simple: survive the fall, internalize the new movement and combat verbs, and reach a stable hub. The opening stretch doubles as a tutorial, but the lessons it teaches matter for the entire run.

Master the dash and pogo early. Silksong gives Hornet a faster air dash than the original Knight’s shadow dash, and a downward needle strike that lets you bounce off enemies and spike traps. Both are essential traversal tools, not just combat options.
Rescue the first captive, then explore. The first captive you free opens the hub area and unlocks the quest-tracking interface. Until that captive is rescued, you cannot reliably tell which optional objectives are active.
Spend rosaries at the first vendor you find. Vendors restock after specific story milestones, and the early shop inventory is weighted toward map pieces and healing items rather than permanent upgrades.
Map the immediate area before descending. Bench locations, hot springs, and shortcuts are the safety net of any Metroidvania run. Note them as you pass rather than scrambling for them later.

The first hour rewards patience. Dropping into a deeper chamber without mapping the safe rooms above you can lock you into a chain of difficult encounters with no recovery point. If you die, the respawn point is the most recent bench, not the area entrance, so learning the geometry of every new room is more valuable than killing every enemy on sight.

Core abilities and the regions they open

Ability	How it is acquired	Primary use	Unlocks or accelerates
Swift Step dash	Default after the opening	Horizontal evasion and air mobility	All early zones, basic platforming
Needle Pogo	Default after the opening	Bouncing off enemies and spikes	Vertical sections, hazard shortcuts
Silk Soar	Mid-game ability tied to a story captive	Vertical ascent using silk threads	Upper Citadel paths, several side areas
Clawline	Mid-game ability tied to a region boss	Grappling and pulling toward rings or anchors	Long horizontal gaps, certain boss arenas
Silk Bomb variants	Crafting recipes unlocked via vendors and NPCs	Area-of-effect damage and crowd control	Enemy-dense rooms, optional mini-bosses
Hunter’s March crest	Optional quest reward	Modified needle attacks and parry timing	Stylized combat, certain boss patterns

Silk Soar and Clawline are the two abilities that most change how Pharloom feels. Silk Soar turns the map vertical and opens the upper citadel, while Clawline converts long horizontal gaps into reliable shortcuts. Most sequence breaks rely on one of these two abilities, often combined with needle pogo for additional height.

Region-by-region progression path

The recommended order below keeps the difficulty curve smooth and the quest log coherent. Each step lists the region, the rough challenge level, the critical boss or capture, and the optional activities worth doing before you leave. The challenge ratings are relative; the actual time to clear a region depends heavily on how much optional content you chase.

Order	Region	Challenge	Key encounter	Recommended optional tasks
1	Citadel entry and Mosslands	Low	First major mini-boss	Map vendors, simple side captives
2	Bone Bottom hub expansion	Low to medium	Hub quest unlocks	Quest item exchanges, vendor unlocks
3	Deep Docks and the Aqueducts	Medium	First major boss	Diving sub-area, optional mask shard
4	Far Fields and the Windcarvers	Medium	Wind-based traversal puzzle	Wind shrine, optional NPC chain
5	Greymoor and the Bellway tunnels	Medium to high	Bellway guardian mini-boss	Shortcut unlocking, merchant rescue
6	Slab and the cell complex	High	Slab centipede boss	Prisoner rescue chain, mask shard runs
7	The Cradle and upper citadel	High	Cradle choir and final ascent	Final captive chains, crest upgrades

Each region has its own set of fast-travel stations once you unlock the appropriate ability. Clear a region’s optional content right after the main boss whenever you can, because the act of leaving often triggers new fast-travel points that shorten the return trip dramatically.

Early route through the Mosslands and Bone Bottom

The Mosslands are the first real region after the opening, and they double as the game’s vocabulary lesson. The verticality is moderate, the enemy density is forgiving, and the map vendors are close enough that a wrong turn costs only a minute or two. Treat every room as an opportunity to learn the dash-pogo-dash rhythm that the rest of the game assumes you have.

Bone Bottom is the first hub and the most important checkpoint in the early game. Most of the captive chains, wishboard contracts, and vendor unlocks in the first act flow through the NPCs you meet here. Returning to the hub after every major detour is faster than it looks, because the Bellway shortcut network starts here. Spend a few minutes each visit to clear the wishboard, turn in any captivables you picked up, and check which NPCs have new dialogue. The dialogue is how the game signals that a chain is ready to advance.

By the end of the Mosslands, you should have the map for the region, at least one bench route that reaches back to the hub, and a small stockpile of rosaries earmarked for the next vendor. If you have not unlocked at least one captive, revisit the rooms you skipped before pushing toward Deep Docks. The captive gives you the quest log interface that the rest of the guide assumes you have.

Deep Docks and the first real boss fight

Deep Docks introduces a new pacing problem: rooms are longer, the enemy groups are larger, and the platforming sections start to punish sloppy air control. The first major boss lives at the end of this stretch, and it is the fight that most new players attempt before they are ready.

Prepare by stocking healing items, mapping the bench route back to the hub, and clearing at least one of the optional diving sub-areas in the Aqueducts. The diving sub-areas contain mask shards and a spool shard that quietly smooth the boss fight. If you arrive at the boss with a full mask count and at least one extra silk bar in reserve, the fight reads as a pattern exercise rather than a wall.

For the actual fight, stay close at the start, learn the two-hit combo, and use the long pause after the boss’s aerial slam to heal. Most deaths in this fight come from chasing damage during the slam recovery rather than waiting for the safe window. A consistent two-hit-then-dash rhythm clears the fight in a few attempts.

Far Fields, Greymoor, and the Bellway network

Far Fields is the wind-based region, and the puzzles there are really movement tutorials in disguise. The wind currents feel awkward on the first attempt, but the moment you commit to using them as a platforming layer rather than a hazard, the entire region opens up. The wind shrine optional content is worth doing because the crests you earn there are useful for several mid-game bosses.

Hornet’s kit is denser than the Knight’s, and several moves that read as combat tools double as traversal verbs. The table below summarizes the major abilities, how you acquire them, and the regions or shortcuts they unlock. Treat it as a checklist for mid-run progression rather than a strict sequence, because the game allows flexible routing once a few of these are in hand.

Greymoor is the first region that punishes under-explored maps. The Bellway tunnels are the most important fast-travel network in the game, and the sooner you activate a station, the sooner the rest of the run speeds up. The Bellway guardian mini-boss sits inside the tunnel system, and the fight is a useful test of the dash-pogo combo you built in the Mosslands.

For the Bellway guardian, hit twice, dash away, and repeat. The arena has limited floor space, so cornering yourself near the edges is a faster path to a reset than the boss is. The reward is the first real fast-travel station, and the rest of the run feels different once that station is online.

Slab, the cell complex, and the centipede

Slab is the prison region, and the geometry is designed to make you feel boxed in. The cell complex houses several captive chains that pay off in the late game, and the centipede boss is the fight that most clearly tests whether you have spent your shard upgrades.

Before you attempt the centipede, finish at least one of the prisoner rescue chains in the surrounding cells. The chains award mask shards, a crest fragment, and a vendor unlock that makes the rest of the prison more navigable. Walking into the centipede fight with an under-leveled build is the most common reason first-time players report that the boss is unfair.

The centipede flips phases when its health crosses a threshold. Treat each phase as a separate learning task, and use the brief invulnerability window after a phase change to heal rather than to attack. Chasing damage through the phase transition is the most common cause of a lost run in this region.

The Cradle, the choir fight, and the final ascent

The Cradle is the upper citadel, and it is the densest region in the game by room count. The verticality is intense, the enemy density is high, and the choir fight at the top of the region is the closest thing Silksong has to a raid-style encounter.

Multi-phase choir fights test resource pacing more than reaction time. Use silk bombs on the adds rather than on the boss, because clearing the adds is what stabilizes the arena. If you spend silk on the boss while adds are alive, the fight snowballs into a resource problem that no amount of healing solves.

The final ascent encounter uses vertical space extensively, and Silk Soar becomes a damage tool as well as a traversal tool. Keep a reserve of silk specifically for the ascent, and use the arena’s high ground as a healing perch between phases. The ascent is also where the previously optional crest upgrades pay off, so the build you have been investing in since the Mosslands finally has a stage that demands it.

Boss strategy notes for the critical path

Bosses in Silksong reward pattern recognition and resource management more than raw reaction time. The list below covers the fights that consistently cause first-time players to retry multiple times, with notes on the safest opening pattern, the moments to heal, and the common mistake that leads to a lost run.

First major boss (Deep Docks). Stay close at the start, learn the two-hit combo, and use the long pause after the aerial slam to heal. Most deaths come from chasing damage during the slam recovery.
Bellway guardian. Hit twice, dash away, and repeat. The arena has limited floor space, so avoid getting cornered near the edges.
Slab centipede. Treat each phase as a separate learning task. Use the brief invulnerability window after a phase change to heal, not to attack.
Cradle choir. Use silk bombs on the adds rather than the boss, because clearing the adds is what stabilizes the arena.
Final ascent encounter. The arena uses vertical space extensively. Keep a reserve of silk specifically for the ascent and use the high ground as a healing perch between phases.

If a particular boss feels unfair, revisit the previous region. The most common reason a boss reads as impossible is that the player has not yet picked up a passive upgrade or shard that the fight quietly assumes. Returning to clear a few optional rooms often makes the next attempt feel reasonable.

Side content, captives, and quest chains worth pursuing

Silksong is unusually generous with optional quest lines, and several of them carry meaningful mechanical rewards. The most important side activities for a first run are the captive chains, the wishboard contracts, and the crest hunts. Each one is gated by progression, so the recommendation is to clear them in batches as you pass through the relevant region.

Captive chains. Each captive you free unlocks a vendor upgrade, a fast-travel point, or a passive bonus. The chains often require you to revisit a region with a new ability, so clearing them in a single sweep is not always possible.
Wishboard contracts. Bounties from the wishboard offer rosary rewards and occasional rare items. The harder contracts often test specific abilities, so pick contracts that match your current kit.
Crest hunts. Crests modify Hornet’s move set and are essential for some boss patterns. The most useful crest for first-time players is the one that stabilizes healing timing during long fights.
Mask and spool shard runs. Mask shards increase effective health, and spool shards increase silk capacity. Both are worth the detour, but prioritize mask shards in the early game and spool shards once you start relying on silk-heavy abilities.

Do not try to complete every quest in one pass. Pharloom is built for revisits, and the quest log is designed to remind you of unfinished business when you return to a hub. A practical rule is to clear one captive chain and one wishboard contract per region before moving on.

Resource management: rosaries, silk, and healing

For players who want to compare the new systems with the original game, the differences and new features breakdown for Silksong highlights the mechanical changes that shape the second-run meta and helps frame which strategies from the first game still apply.

Resource pressure in Silksong is real, but it is not punishing if you plan for it. The three resources to watch are rosaries (currency), silk (ability fuel), and healing charges (consumable early, regenerating later). The table below summarizes how each behaves in the early, mid, and late game.

Resource	Early game	Mid game	Late game
Rosaries	Scarce; spend on map pieces and simple healing	Steady; spend on mid-tier upgrades and equipment	Plentiful from boss clears; spend on remaining upgrades
Silk	Limited to short bursts; rely on needle pogo	Improved by spool shards; abilities become reliable	Comfortable reserves for extended encounters
Healing	Consumable; carry extras into risky rooms	Charges regenerate; save extras for boss attempts	Full regeneration plus passive bonuses from crests

The single most common resource mistake is spending rosaries on optional cosmetics before the map is complete. Map pieces and bench fast-travel points are always worth the price, because they cut down on backtracking and reduce the time you spend dying in unfamiliar geometry.

Traversal, fast travel, and shortcut planning

Pharloom is denser than the original Hallownest, and the fast-travel system is the single biggest time saver once it is fully online. Plan your route with the following checklist in mind.

Unlock the Bellway network before pushing deep. The Bellway is a chain of stations connected by hidden tunnels. Each station you activate shortens future travel dramatically.
Mark one-room shortcuts in your mental map. Silksong rewards players who notice one-way doors that become two-way doors after a story beat.
Use hot springs as soft checkpoints. Hot springs refill resources but do not save progress. Use them as a tactical pause, not a substitute for benches.
Check the map before every major descent. The map shows the rough elevation of each room, which helps you decide whether to commit to a long fall or to find a longer but safer path.

If you find yourself crossing the same region three times in a row, you have almost certainly missed a shortcut. Pause and re-explore the area with a focus on walls that look slightly off, because most shortcuts hide behind breakable facades or one-way vents.

Combat fundamentals that carry the whole run

Most combat encounters in Pharloom are designed around a small set of verbs, and learning those verbs well is more efficient than chasing every new weapon. The fundamental rhythm is dash, strike, dash away, then re-engage. Holding the dash horizontally when a vertical adjustment would end the encounter faster is the single most common input error in the early game.

Healing is a verb with its own timing rules. The healing animation locks you in place for a moment, and that moment is the most common window in which a player takes a free hit. Heal only when the immediate threat has finished its animation and the next attack is at least a second away. The crests that shorten the healing animation are some of the most valuable upgrades in the game for that reason alone.

Enemy telegraphs are consistent within a region but vary in length between regions. A telegraph that looks safe in the Mosslands may be too short to punish in Greymoor, so the rule is to learn one region’s timing before pushing into the next. Rushing between regions without internalizing the new telegraphs is the most common cause of a mid-game stall.

Common first-run mistakes and how to avoid them

Most first-time stalls fall into a handful of patterns. Recognizing them early saves hours of frustration.

Skipping the map vendor. Without a map, rooms repeat visually and exploration slows to a crawl. The map is always worth the price.
Fighting every enemy on sight. Most rooms have a skip path that bypasses the enemy group. Chasing kills depletes resources for no mechanical reward.
Ignoring bench placement. Benches are spaced to allow recovery between rooms. Pushing past a bench to fight an optional boss without a nearby save is the leading cause of repeated loss streaks.
Saving silk for the boss and running out on the way there. Reserve one full silk bar for the boss arena entrance. If you arrive empty, the first minute of the fight is spent dodging rather than dealing damage.
Forgetting the dash downward. Hornet’s downward dash is the single safest tool against ground-based enemies. New players often hold the dash horizontally when a vertical adjustment would end the encounter faster.

Build planning: which crests and tools to prioritize

Build planning matters most once you have a few crests available. The table below outlines three common first-clear builds and the encounters where each one shines. Pick a build early and invest in its supporting tools so that the late-game upgrades feel coherent rather than scattered.

Build focus	Primary crest	Key tools	Strengths	Best encounters
Balanced first clear	Starting crest	Healing tools, silk bombs, basic traps	Forgiving, easy to learn, low risk	Most mid-game bosses
Aggressive melee	Hunter’s March crest	Quick slash tools, parry-focused crests	High damage, fast clear times	Single-target bosses, mini-bosses
Silk-heavy caster	Silk-focused crest	Spool upgrades, area-of-effect silk tools	Strong crowd control, safe at range	Add-heavy arenas, multi-phase fights

The balanced build is the safest for a first run, but it can feel slow during multi-phase fights. The aggressive build is faster but demands consistent parry timing, which is harder to maintain under pressure. The silk-heavy build is the most forgiving in add-heavy arenas but requires spool shard investment to feel smooth.

Settings, accessibility, and performance notes

Silksong ships with a small set of accessibility toggles that meaningfully change the experience. The most useful is the camera zoom option, which makes room geometry easier to read during the Cradle and the upper citadel. The hit-invincibility window is also adjustable, and extending it slightly is a reasonable choice for players who want the late-game bosses to feel fair.

On the performance side, the game runs at a stable frame rate on most current hardware, but the Cradle and the choir fight are the two places where a mid-range laptop will dip. Lowering the particle density in the settings menu has a larger effect on the choir fight than lowering the resolution, because the choir spawns large numbers of short-lived adds that drive the particle budget.

Save data is automatic and tied to a single profile per platform, so the first clear unlocks the modifiers, boss-rush variants, and the harder captive chains on the same file. If you want a clean file for a second playthrough, archive the save before starting a new run.

Advanced tips for players returning for a second run

Once you have completed the critical path, Silksong opens up significantly. The following list covers the activities that are most worth pursuing on a second or third run, and the preparation each one requires.

Pure completionist runs. Clear every captive, every wishboard contract, and every mask shard. The hardest contracts require full crest upgrades, so plan a build order before you start.
Speedrun routing. The major time saves come from skip glitches, optimal Bellway routing, and aggressive pogo chains. Community-maintained route notes update as new strategies are discovered.
Low-percent runs. Restrict yourself to a small set of upgrades and route the game around your limitations. Low-percent runs are a popular way to learn the map in unusual detail.
Boss-rush variants. After the first clear, certain NPCs offer boss-rush variants with modified rules. These are the best way to learn advanced dodge timing.
Photo and lore runs. The game includes a photo mode and a dense environmental story. A second run focused on lore and screenshots is a different kind of completion.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a first Hollow Knight Silksong walkthrough take?

A first run that focuses on the critical path and a moderate amount of side content typically takes between 25 and 40 hours, depending on how much optional exploration you pursue. Completionist runs that clear every captive, wishboard contract, and shard run can exceed 60 hours.

What is the best early-game region to focus on?

The Mosslands and the immediate hub area are the best early-game focus because they introduce core mechanics at a controlled pace. Pushing into Deep Docks before you have a stable map and at least one bench route usually leads to repeated losses.

Which ability should I prioritize unlocking first?

Silk Soar is the single most impactful ability to prioritize because it opens vertical routing and the upper citadel. Clawline is the second priority because it converts long horizontal gaps into reliable shortcuts.

Are there difficulty settings or modifiers in Silksong?

Standard difficulty is the recommended first experience, and most optional modifiers are unlocked after the first clear. The game does not expose a traditional difficulty slider during the first run, so preparation and build choice are the main ways to manage challenge.

Can I revisit previous regions after the story progresses?

Yes. The story opens new fast-travel stations and shortcuts as it progresses, which makes revisiting previous regions faster and more rewarding. Most captive chains require revisits with new abilities, so the game is designed to be explored in multiple passes.

What should I spend rosaries on first?

Map pieces and bench fast-travel points are the highest-priority purchases. Healing items are a close second during the first region, and permanent upgrades become more valuable once the map is complete.

How do I prepare for the harder late-game bosses?

Stock mask shards for survivability, spool shards for sustained ability use, and at least one fully upgraded crest. Clear the optional content in the previous region before attempting the late-game boss, because the optional rooms often contain the upgrades the boss quietly assumes you have.

Is there a recommended order for the optional captive chains?

There is no single correct order, but a practical approach is to clear one chain per region as you pass through. Chains that require a specific ability can be deferred until that ability is unlocked, and the in-game quest log flags these dependencies for you.

How does the Bellway fast-travel system work?

The Bellway is a network of stations connected by hidden tunnels. Each station you activate becomes a fast-travel point, and the network gradually connects every major region. The most efficient unlock order is to push outward from the hub and activate stations as you encounter them.

What is the most common reason a first run stalls?

The most common stall is a combination of an under-explored map and an under-leveled build. Players often skip optional rooms that contain mask and spool shards, then hit a boss that quietly assumes those upgrades are present. Returning to clear a few optional rooms usually resolves the stall.

hollow knight silksong walkthrough