Hollow Knight: Silksong is the sequel to Team Cherry’s acclaimed 2017 metroidvania Hollow Knight, shifting the focus from the mysterious Knight to Hornet, the warrior princess of Hallownest.

Originally announced in February 2019, Silksong eventually launched on September 4, 2025, following one of the longest and most closely watched development periods in modern indie gaming.

The game takes Hornet away from Hallownest and into Pharloom, a vast kingdom filled with new enemies, bosses, characters, locations and challenges.

This wiki covers everything important about Hollow Knight: Silksong, including its story, world, combat, crafting system, movement mechanics, development history and availability.

The Story: Hornet's Journey Through Pharloom

Silksong follows Hornet after she is captured and transported to the mysterious kingdom of Pharloom.

Rather than exploring Hallownest as the Knight did in the original game, Hornet must climb through Pharloom while uncovering the secrets behind the kingdom and her own connection to it.

The game's central journey revolves around:

• Hornet's capture and arrival in Pharloom
• Her attempt to reach the kingdom's heights
• The mysterious silk and thread that run through the world
• Strange kingdoms, settlements and creatures
• New characters and factions
• The mysteries surrounding Pharloom

The story is designed around exploration, environmental storytelling and discoveries rather than simply presenting the player with a linear narrative.

The Setting: The Kingdom of Pharloom

Pharloom is the primary setting of Silksong.

While Hollow Knight took place primarily beneath the ruins of Hallownest, Silksong places Hornet in a different kingdom with its own culture, architecture and inhabitants.

Pharloom is characterized by its vertical structure.

Hornet's journey is largely about climbing upward through the kingdom, with different regions introducing new environmental hazards, enemies and challenges.

The kingdom includes:

• Large interconnected regions
• Ancient structures
• Settlements
• Underground areas
• Mechanical and industrial environments
• Dangerous wilderness
• Areas connected through vertical traversal

The world follows the exploration-focused design philosophy of the original Hollow Knight, encouraging players to discover shortcuts, hidden areas and optional paths.

Characters: Hornet

Hornet

Hornet is the protagonist of Silksong and a returning character from Hollow Knight.

Unlike the mostly silent Knight, Hornet is more expressive and has her own personality, dialogue and motivations.

Her combat style also reflects her identity as a trained warrior.

She fights primarily with a needle, which acts as both her main weapon and an important part of her traversal and abilities.

Gameplay and Mechanics

Combat

Combat in Silksong is built around Hornet's needle and her considerably more agile movement.

Compared with the Knight, Hornet is faster and has a wider range of movement options.

Key combat characteristics include:

• Needle combat: Hornet's primary weapon.
• Fast movement: Hornet can quickly reposition during fights.
• Aerial attacks: Her mobility allows her to attack enemies from different angles.
• Tools: Various tools provide additional offensive and defensive options.
• Silk: Silk is an important resource used for Hornet's abilities.

The result is a combat system that feels faster and more mobile than the original game's.

Movement and Exploration

Movement is one of the biggest differences between Silksong and Hollow Knight.

Hornet can perform more athletic movements than the Knight, allowing her to navigate Pharloom's vertical environments more freely.

Her movement abilities are closely connected to exploration, with new abilities opening previously inaccessible routes.

This creates the familiar metroidvania loop:

Explore → discover an obstacle → gain a new ability → return → access a new area.

Crafting and Tools

One of Silksong's major additions is its tool system.

Hornet can collect and craft different tools that provide new ways to fight enemies, solve problems and approach encounters.

Tools can include offensive options, defensive equipment and utility items.

The crafting system adds another layer of customization to exploration and combat, allowing players to adapt their approach to different situations.

Silk

Silk is closely connected to Hornet and plays an important role in her abilities.

It can be used to perform special actions and abilities, giving players another resource to manage during exploration and combat.

This creates a gameplay system that differs from the Knight's Soul-focused mechanics while maintaining the resource-management philosophy of the original game.

Bosses

Boss encounters remain a major part of the Hollow Knight formula.

Silksong introduces a large collection of new enemies and bosses designed around Hornet's faster movement and expanded combat options.

Boss battles test:

• Timing
• Positioning
• Movement
• Attack patterns
• Tool selection
• Resource management

The game's difficulty remains an important part of its identity.

Development Timeline: The Seven-Year Wait

The development of Silksong became one of the most closely followed stories in gaming.

2017 — Hollow Knight Releases

Team Cherry released Hollow Knight, which quickly established itself as one of the most acclaimed modern metroidvania games.

2019 — Silksong Is Announced

Team Cherry officially announced Hollow Knight: Silksong in February 2019.

Hornet was revealed as the protagonist, with Pharloom introduced as the game's new setting.

2022 — Gameplay Revealed

A major gameplay presentation showed significantly more of Silksong, including combat, environments, enemies and Hornet's abilities.

The game was expected to release within the following year, but development continued.

2023–2024 — Continued Development

The game remained highly anticipated while Team Cherry continued development.

The lack of a release date generated years of speculation and became a recurring joke throughout the gaming community.

2025 — Release

After more than six years of development following its announcement, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally launched on September 4, 2025.

The release ended one of gaming's longest-running “when is it coming?” conversations.

Technology / Engine

Silksong continues Team Cherry's use of Unity for development.

The game's visual identity remains based around detailed hand-drawn 2D artwork, animation and atmospheric environments rather than photorealistic 3D graphics.

Its technical design focuses heavily on:

• Detailed 2D environments
• Fluid character animation
• Large interconnected areas
• Fast combat
• Atmospheric lighting and effects
• Dense environmental detail

The visual style helps maintain a strong connection with the original Hollow Knight while giving Pharloom its own identity.

Platforms and Availability

Hollow Knight: Silksong is available on:

• PC
• Nintendo Switch
• Nintendo Switch 2
• PlayStation 4
• PlayStation 5
• Xbox One
• Xbox Series X|S

The game is available digitally, with physical editions also released for supported platforms.

4. Why It Matters

Hollow Knight: Silksong is significant because it represents one of the most anticipated follow-ups in indie gaming.

The original Hollow Knight became a benchmark for modern metroidvania design, combining exploration, challenging combat, atmospheric world-building and interconnected level design.

Silksong expands that foundation rather than simply reproducing it.

The biggest change is Hornet herself.

Her faster movement and needle-based combat allow Team Cherry to design encounters and environments around a more mobile protagonist.

Pharloom also provides a completely new setting rather than simply extending Hallownest.

The game's unusually long development timeline became part of its cultural impact as well. The seven-year wait generated enormous anticipation and turned Silksong into a recurring topic across gaming communities long before its eventual release.

5. What to Know at a Glance

Quick Facts

6. The Bottom Line

🎮 The Bottom Line

Hollow Knight: Silksong expands Team Cherry's acclaimed metroidvania formula with a new protagonist, a new kingdom and a faster style of combat.

Hornet's needle-based fighting, agile movement, silk abilities and crafting tools create a different gameplay experience from the Knight's journey through Hallownest, while Pharloom provides a huge new world to explore.

After being announced in 2019 and spending more than six years in development, Silksong finally arrived on September 4, 2025.

For fans of Hollow Knight and modern metroidvanias, it represents both a continuation of Team Cherry's formula and a significant evolution of it.