Hollow Knight: Silksong is out, and it was worth the wait — a sequel that moves Hornet from Hallownest to the unfamiliar land of Pharloom and hands the player one of the best action-adventure games of 2025.
Key facts
- Release date: 4 September 2025
- Developer and publisher: Team Cherry
- Platforms: PC (Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Linux, macOS
- Genre: Metroidvania, platformer, adventure
- Modes: Single player
- Copies sold: Over 7 million by mid-December 2025
- First free expansion: Scheduled for 2026
Trailer, via Team Cherry.
From Kickstarter stretch goal to full sequel
Team Cherry did not set out to make this game. Hornet was meant to be playable downloadable content for Hollow Knight, funded as a stretch goal during the original game’s 2014 Kickstarter campaign. The project grew. In February 2019, Team Cherry announced it would become a full standalone sequel instead. Then came a delay past a 2023 release window, and years of silence that turned Silksong into one of the most anticipated games in indie history.
The wait ends with a game that knows exactly what it is. Silksong is a Metroidvania in the purest sense: a large, interconnected kingdom you learn by getting lost in it, gated by abilities you earn and bosses you survive. The sequel to Hollow Knight (2017) follows Hornet, Hallownest’s former princess-protector and a major secondary character in the first game, after she is captured and transported to Pharloom.
Pharloom, the Haunting, and a pilgrimage to the Citadel
Pharloom is a ruined religious kingdom afflicted by the “Haunting,” a madness that afflicts bugs and reanimates their corpses through Silk. Hornet, a descendant of the Weavers, is captured by a group of veiled bugs and brought there. She escapes her captors and falls into the Moss Grotto, where she learns her kidnappers were adherents of the Citadel — a supposedly holy institution at Pharloom’s summit that attracts pilgrims from across the kingdom. Hornet decides to ascend to the Citadel to find out why she was taken.
That climb is the spine of the game. Along the way she meets pilgrims and other non-player characters, and in the Deep Docks she encounters Lace, a being strung entirely of silk who tries to stop her from reaching the Citadel. Hornet defeats her; Lace flees upward. The story eventually reveals that the Weavers were spider-like bugs ascended by Grand Mother Silk, a godlike being. They believed themselves divine descendants, served her, then rebelled when they learned they would never be the true gods of the kingdom.
They trapped and lulled her to sleep within the Cradle, but she reached out anyway, causing the Haunting. Some Weavers left for Hallownest. One of them, Herrah, gave birth to Hornet.
The endgame sends Hornet into the Citadel and the Cradle, where she fights Lace again and learns Lace is another creation of Grand Mother Silk, disillusioned by her own unnatural existence. Then Hornet faces Grand Mother Silk. The fight can end with Hornet defeating the deity and binding her power, becoming Pharloom’s new monarch, or with a parasite inside Hornet consuming them both. A third path opens for players who have completed most Wishes and other key objectives, working with the Caretaker of a shrine-turned-sanctuary.
Crests, Tools, and Silk that changes how you fight
The combat is where Silksong separates itself from its predecessor. Hornet moves more acrobatically than the Knight and heals faster. Side-quests, called “Wishes,” are tracked in a menu and come from non-player characters or quest boards. Equippable “Tools” split into three categories: blue and yellow Tools are passive and support-oriented, while red Tools are offensive weapons, manually activated, with limited charges replenished using Shell Shards at Benches.
Hornet can only carry so many Tools of each colour. That capacity shifts when you change “Crests,” the game’s gameplay styles. Each Crest changes the speed and range of Hornet’s attack move-set and carries a unique mechanic — one might boost damage when you avoid hits, another might let you replenish Tools without resting at a Bench.
Attacking enemies and interacting with certain objects adds “Silk” to a reservoir. That Silk is spent on healing three Masks at once or on “Silk Skills,” extra attacks unlocked by finding remnants of the Weavers and their society. Benches let you adjust Tools, Crests and Silk Skills, heal, and respawn after losing all hit points. Movement options unlock over time, expanding Hornet’s mobility and her combat options.
The Crest system is the clearest departure from the first game. Adjusting Tools, Crests and Silk Skills at a Bench gives the player a loadout to rework between attempts, and the speed and range of Hornet’s attacks change with each style. It is a small change on paper and a large one in the hand.
A hard game that earns its difficulty
Silksong drew acclaim for its graphics, soundtrack, story, world design and gameplay, though opinions on its high difficulty were mixed. That split is fair. This is a demanding game. Pharloom is a kingdom afflicted by the Haunting, and the game makes you feel the cost of every step toward the Citadel.
The commercial result settles the question of whether the wait hurt. Silksong had sold over seven million copies by mid-December 2025, with millions more playing through Xbox Game Pass. Team Cherry has committed to free expansions, the first scheduled for 2026.
What matters here is not the sales figure. It is that Team Cherry announced a standalone sequel in February 2019 and released it on 4 September 2025, and came back with a game that justifies the scope change. The 2014 stretch goal was a bonus character. What shipped is a full kingdom, a new combat system, and a story that turns Hornet from a memorable side character into the center of her own mythology. The delay was long, and the silence around it was longer. Neither is visible in the finished product.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of the best games of 2025. It is difficult, it is dense, and it does not explain itself. Play it anyway.
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