There’s no disputing Hollow Knight: Silksong is a difficult game, but one of the reasons people believe the challenge is insurmountable comes down to playstyle. Simply put, Silksong players can forget about all the tools at their disposal, or they haven’t realized yet that specific tools can completely defang certain encounters. Some players probably tested out a few tools, only to feel like they scarcely made a dent on their enemies. With Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s October patch, that’s changing.
Beyond expanding controller support and squashing a number of bugs, ver. 1.0.28891 of Hollow Knight: Silksong also includes this gem:
– Fixed Crafting Kits not increasing the damage of offensive blue tools (eg Sawtooth Circlet).
I don’t know about you, but I definitely remember picking up crafting kits and scratching my head. Tool pouches would clearly increase the number of items I could carry, sure. The effects of crafting kits, however, seemed nebulous. That’s a bewildering fact when you consider that crafting kits are supposed to increase your damage by 60 percent, a number that would surely make a noticeable difference during gameplay. At least, if it was working as intended. Turns out that it wasn’t!
Blue tools bestow passive abilities like magma resistance, and they can provide more weapons for Hornet’s arsenal. This tweak won’t affect the former, these do not offer offensive options. Equipment beyond the Sawtooth Circlet that will be affected by this change include:
- Pollip Pouch
- Claw Mirror
- Volt Filament
- Snitch Pick
- Wispfire Lantern
Fans are ecstatic about these changes. Tools like the Claw Mirror, which damages enemies with a flash, or the Pollip Pouch’s ability to poison enemies, were already pretty strong. Now they’re even better.
“Claw Mirrors didn’t need a buff, so HOLY SHIT” exclaims one player in a thread that calls these changes “peak.”
Given the wording of the update, players are unsure the damage increase might apply to tools that have both offensive and defensive capabilities. The Warding Bell, for example, helps protect Hornet while she’s healing. It also emits a small burst of damage to enemies. It’s possible that the patch improves that attack, but ultimately nobody equips the Warding Bell to improve their offensive capabilities. As a tools truther, this patch just gave me a reason to retry the last annoying gauntlet I got stuck on.
