Silksong has been out since last September, and it's still happily kicking newcomers around. If you're only just starting, or the upcoming Sea of Sorrow expansion nudged you into finally buying it, a few early habits will save you a lot of pain. The big thing to internalise: Hornet is faster and more aggressive than the Knight ever was, and the game expects you to play like it.
Healing is aggressive, not defensive
This is the one that trips up Hollow Knight veterans. Healing costs silk, and you build silk by hitting enemies. You can't tuck yourself in a corner and top up like the old days. If you want to heal, you have to earn it by staying in the fight first. Play passive and you'll just run dry.
Hit, then move
Because of that, the whole rhythm is hit-and-run. Land a strike or two, reposition, come back in. Staying alive matters more than greedy damage almost every time in the early game, and patience now teaches you the patterns you'll need for the nastier stuff later.
Set up your tools at a bench
Your Silk Skills and tools get mounted on a Crest while you're resting at a bench, and the white-slot skills spend silk when you use them. Don't just leave whatever you found equipped. Think about the area you're heading into and load out for it, then adjust when it isn't working.
Hit the walls
Pharloom is stuffed with hidden rooms, and a lot of them are behind walls that look solid. If a bit of the map feels like it should keep going, whack the wall. Secret paths tuck away Rosaries, items and shortcuts, and the early currency you scrape together this way is worth the detours.
None of this makes Silksong easy. It isn't. But get these four things into your muscle memory and the early hours stop feeling like a wall and start feeling like the good kind of hard.
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