Because Hornet is stronger, you have to be stronger too.
Hollow Knight: Silksong developer Team Cherry has commented on the game’s now-infamous difficulty level. During a game exhibition panel, the game developer explained that the sequel is only more difficult because its protagonist Hornet is inherently more skilled than the Knight. Thus, the enemies had to be made more fearsome to match her abilities.
Team Cherry also added that if players get stuck during “moments of steep difficulty,” they should just do some exploring instead.
Team Cherry addresses Hollow Knight: Silksong’s difficulty
During an ACMI Game Worlds panel held in Melbourne Australia and spotted by Dexerto, game developer Team Cherry noted that Hollow Knight: Silksong’s high level of difficulty comes from the skillfulness of its protagonist. Co-director Ari Gibson explained that “Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight–so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent.”
Co-director William Pellen added that enemies had to be designed specifically to combat Hornet’s wider swathe of abilities compared to the Knight, a nickname referring to Hollow Knight’s unnamed protagonist. Instead of reducing Hornet’s known abilities from the first game, the developer chose to “bring everyone else up to match [her] level.”
“The basic ant warrior is built from the same move-set as the original Hornet boss [...] The same core set of dashing, jumping, and dashing down at you, plus we added the ability to evade and check you. In contrast to the Knight’s enemies, Hornet’s enemies had to have more ways of catching her as she tries to move away.”
That might explain why Hollow Knight: Silksong’s enemies hit so hard. Hornet’s lifebar is represented by multiple ‘masks’, with the masks getting reduced one-by-one when enemies touch her. Some boss attacks in Hollow Knight: Silksong hit for two masks, making these big fights a daunting challenge for players to take on.
What do you do when you can’t get past a bossfight?
The good news is that if players get stuck on a certain fight in Hollow Knight: Silksong, they can find other ways to progress. With multiple winding paths, it is possible for players to make multiple diversions from the main path to gather resources and make upgrades, and that’s exactly what the developer advises players to do:
“The important thing for us is that we allow you to go way off the path. So one player may choose to follow it directly to its conclusion, and then another may choose to constantly divert from it and find all the other things that are waiting and all the other ways and routes. Silksong has some moments of steep difficulty–but part of allowing a higher level of freedom within the world means that you have choices all the time about where you’re going and what you’re doing.”
The developer is unperturbed by players who might be stuck on a seemingly insurmountable bossfight, with Gibson saying “That’s fine [...] they have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled.”
There you have it: instead of hitting a wall with a challenging bossfight, maybe do some light exploring instead. There's plenty to see and do in Pharloom, after all.
