Why Silksong is so dang hard, according to Team Cherry

Just about all Silksong players can agree on one thing, whether or not they played the original Hollow Knight: The game is pretty freakin’ hard. Developer Team Cherry addressed the game’s difficulty at the September opening of a gaming exhibition at Australia’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) museum, sharing insight into just why the new game is proving so challenging.

“Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight — so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent,” Silksong co-director Ari Gibson said (via Dexerto).

Co-director William Pellen added, “In contrast to the Knight’s enemies, Hornet’s enemies had to have more ways of catching her as she tries to move away,” explaining how Team Cherry added new ways for Hornet’s enemies “to evade and check you.”

Team Cherry intended to “bring everyone else up to match [Hornet’s] level,” and maybe did so a bit too much, as the game’s first patch made some bosses slightly easier to tackle. That patch came after modders attempted to make the game slightly easier on Windows PC.

Being a Metroidvania, exploration is a key component of Hollow Knight: Silksong, and letting players get lost is one way Team Cherry allows them to somewhat circumvent the game’s difficulty. “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,” Gibson said.

He said it’s “fine” if players are stuck on a challenging boss or encounter as “they have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled.”

In addition to the Game Worlds exhibition, ACMI put together a softcover, 64-page zine on Hollow Knight Silksong. It includes “exclusive concept art, character sketches, maps and a new interview with Team Cherry” as it “celebrates the artistry, world-building and lasting impact of Hollow Knight and its sequel, Silksong.” It ships internationally, though it’ll cost a pretty penny.

If you’re trudging through Silksong, check out Polygon’s tips for beginners and compendium of Silksong guides, or scan our full Silksong interactive map. Or maybe playing through Silksong‘s permadeath mode is more your speed. Either way, the game ain’t getting any easier.