A Hollow Knight: Silksong Playthrough to the End: Boss Strategies and the Story of Pharloom

The protagonist this time is Hornet, princess of Hallownest, the setting of the previous game. The story begins when Hornet is kidnapped and brought to an unfamiliar land. The narrator starts by exploring behind the starting point, calling it "the first thing you do in this kind of game." Beyond it they find a hidden room, wake a sleeping enemy, and defeat it, which becomes the first battle of the game. At this point, the narrator senses that this sort of "warm welcome" is likely to continue.

In the boss room deep in the cave, they fight the Moss Mother. The narrator treats it as a tutorial boss and uses it to learn Hornet's controls. Still, they say that having small enemies mercilessly summoned even in the very first boss fight gave them a sense of how harsh the journey ahead would be.

After defeating the Moss Mother, Hornet reaches a settlement. Everyone in this land seems devoted to pilgrimage. Hornet, too, sets out up the steep path to find out why she was taken.

While exploring around the settlement, Hornet frees a beast tangled in silk, which leads to a fight with the Bell Beast. The narrator explains how the newly learned skill Silkspear works. Each time a normal attack hits an enemy, one segment of the silk meter in the upper left fills, and the skill can be used by spending four segments. According to the narrator, if you compare DPS alone, swinging normal attacks is more effective than Silkspear. Even so, against an enemy like this one that only shows itself for an instant, it's effective to drive the spear in during that moment.

On the story side, the video notes that remnants left by the mysterious Weavers grant Hornet skills, and that traces of silk identical in nature to Hornet's own remain throughout the land. The narrator says that these details already begin to reveal Hornet's roots.

In the lava area, Hornet is attacked by a strange creature called Lace. Just before the fight, the narrator sees white butterflies fly away from Lace. The narrator recalls that in the opening cinematic, white butterflies were also what gave Hornet the chance to escape while being carried to the upper reaches. From this, they suggest one might read the intentions at play: the upper echelons of this land want Hornet, while Lace wants to stop that by getting rid of Hornet. This is presented as the narrator's own interpretation.

Also in the lava area, Hornet fights Fourth Chorus, a giant bug built from clockwork. The narrator says that the existence of a giant weapon driven by rotors, gears, and the souls of bugs suggests Pharloom possesses advanced mechanical technology. This is one of the technologies refined by the Weavers—the upper echelon of this land—to make Pharloom's prosperity eternal, and its full picture becomes clear as you explore further.

The strategy is simple: just keep hitting the head. When it attacks from the side, the head's position shifts a lot, so Silkspear comes in handy. According to the narrator, in this situation Silkspear deals three times the damage of a normal attack. When updrafts appear on the left and right of the stage, use the cloak tailored for you along the way to fly up and knock down the large rocks on the ceiling.

In the forest area, Hornet sets the newly acquired tool Sting Shard before the fight even begins, trapping the boss. The opponent, Sister Splinter, is the ringleader currently ruling the forest, and it fights by summoning underlings and hiding among the trees. The star here is the newly granted skill Thread Storm. It sends silk threads lashing around Hornet's body and can blow away the summoned small enemies and spike pillars all at once. According to the narrator, its power is several times that of a normal attack, and it's efficient if you can hit the boss with it at the same time.

Past the forest, Hornet finally arrives somewhere resembling a city. But this land is laced with cursed thread. Living bugs have lost their minds, and even dead bugs are being manipulated by the threads. While searching for part of the cause, Hornet meets one of the Weavers, the Widow. The Widow appears to have the power to guide silk by playing music, and the narrator speculates that the threads in the city are probably her doing as well.

As the narrator explains it, the Weavers are high-ranking beings in this land, apparently created when the supreme being, Silk, granted intelligence to small spiders. The narrator sums up that the Widow fanatically worships Silk, who created her, and had been stringing threads throughout the city in accordance with Silk's will. In the second half, the BGM changes key, and the narrator uses the new tool Curveclaw to finish the fight quickly.

In the chapel, Hornet fights the Savage Beastfly. It only charges at you, so you just need to dodge and attack. The narrator adds a small anecdote that Hornet apparently used to play as a child by dancing around this charging bug.

From a large skull in a cave emerges the giant bug that was inside it, the Skull Tyrant. As thanks for guiding stray fleas back to their companions, Hornet had been treated to Flea Brew, which increases attack speed. The narrator drinks it and runs circles around the enemy with quick movements. On stone steps swept by sandstorms, Hornet fights a pair of Great Conchflies. They wear large coral conch shells and make drill-like charges, but Thread Storm and Sting Shard prove their worth here too.

The pilgrims' destination is a holy place called the Citadel. Hornet, too, has followed the pilgrimage road, suspecting that it was those of the Citadel who abducted her. Standing at its gate is the Last Judge. Those who have sinned cannot pass this gate; only the pure are allowed through after receiving the Judge's judgment. The narrator breaks through using Silkspear for ranged attacks and Flea Brew, whose poison effect greatly increases DPS.

There are two routes into the Citadel, and the boss on the other route, Phantom, is also tackled at this point. The narrator places just a few of the newly acquired tool Tacks and deals damage mainly with normal attacks and Thread Storm. However, the opponent moves quickly, and chances to land hits are scarce.

According to the narrator, Phantom has been burdened with the role of disposing of waste from the Citadel. She plays an exhaust organ and continually releases steam mixed with silk residue into the surroundings. Her fighting style resembles Lace's because Phantom is Lace's older sister. The narrator says both sisters appear to be daughters Silk created to be loyal to her. Phantom's shell, presumably once pure white, has worn away to gray, but the narrator feels her appearance still shares something with Lace. After long years, Phantom wishes for release, and the narrator defeats her, saying, "Let's give her her final rest."

While Hornet rests at the settlement, the Skull Tyrant defeated earlier appears again, and one pilgrim dies in the collision. Its behavior pattern is the same as before, so the narrator again boosts attack speed with Flea Brew and defeats it quickly. In the starting area, Hornet meets the Moss Mother again, this time joined by a second one. The narrator keeps attacking with tools and Silk Skills while watching out for the bugs summoned underfoot. They also mention that the grinding sound when an attack hits multiple times is irresistible.

In the hilly region to the east, Hornet finally fights Moorwing, who couldn't be met until Chapter 2 due to the route taken. The Savage Beastfly, rampaging again in the lava area, is dispatched with tools.

The Cogwork Dancers fight has a dance motif, with an elegant melody playing in sync with the boss's movements. However, the narrator goes in with the whole room covered in traps and destroys them without giving them a single beat of breathing room. As a result, the narrator jokes self-deprecatingly that it became a hollow battle without a shred of musicality.

In a kitchen visited for a request, Hornet fights Disgraced Chef Lugoli. This cook kept making delicacies even after being banished from the Citadel for repeated culinary crimes, and Hornet came seeking the finest of those delicacies.

In the prison, Hornet fights the Broodmother. Here, many bugs were bred and raised, and assigned to guard the prison as wardens. This place is said to be the "Sanctuary of Absolution," which holds the Citadel's sinners. The narrator parries the body press with a skill granted by Phantom and settles the fight by continually throwing claws from a moderate distance.

Father of the Flame, fought in the crematorium of the flame zealots, is a boss with a special gimmick. The main body can't be attacked until four lanterns are destroyed. The narrator destroys the lanterns with the powerful downward attack from the spinning tool Delver's Drill, and once the main body appears, attacks while planting Voltvessels in the ground and dodging fireballs.

Elsewhere, the Raging Conchfly, the other half of the pair, is handled with the new skill Sharpdart while blocking projectiles. The Voltvyrm, a sea anemone-like creature wreathed in electricity, can be dealt with by attacking while avoiding the electricity. As for the Second Sentinel, a clockwork guardian, the narrator keeps it short: "I was just kind of whaling on it and somehow won."

Garmond, who was patrolling near the settlement, asks for a sparring match, and the narrator obliges with full force. Garmond fights in a mounted style, riding Zaza, but the narrator's impression is that their health is far too low.

The other sparring partner is Shakra, whom Hornet meets in various places. Shakra continues journeying in pursuit of traces left by her master, and sells Hornet a map of each area whenever they meet. The narrator remarks that the journey through Pharloom is long and dark, but the presence of bugs like these gives Hornet courage.

Exploring the prison again, Hornet finds a sealed Weaver and frees her. Alongside this First Sinner fight, the narrator explains the history of the Weavers. The Weavers were made as sacred daughters, but later learned that they were neither daughters nor sacred, and broke away from Silk, growing into opposition. The narrator thinks this one was the first to be charged with sin as the trigger for that, and that the rebellion spread from there.

In a medical facility within the Citadel, the story goes even deeper. The rebelling Weavers succeeded in putting Silk to sleep inside a cocoon, and the key to this was, surprisingly, music. The narrator sums up that what was created to make Silk's sleep eternal were highly advanced acoustic devices designed with mechanical technology, the system of "pilgrimage" that gathers the bugs' songs and souls, and an endless supply of labor powered by silk.

At this facility, surgeries that inject silk into bugs to extend their lifespans and experiments stitching multiple souls together were apparently performed. The boss, the Unravelled, is a subject of such procedures. A particularly giant individual that crawls out of the ground appears to have been made by stitching many corpses onto a single conductor. The narrator says that this boss's appearance conveys just how heavy a burden was placed on the "conductors" who led the choirs. There is a room in the Citadel where recordings can be played, and you can apparently hear audio of the brutal surgery performed on this conductor.

The narrator then offers their own view: these seemingly inhumane acts can also be seen as an expression of the wish to escape Silk's control and live freely, so it seems they can't be condemned outright.

In the Citadel's theater, the flamboyantly dressed Trobbio, the Red Tornado, appears, and Hornet defeats him. Upon reaching the summit, Lace is waiting once again. Here the narrator lays out the relationships that drive this game's story. Hornet is the child of the Pale King and a Weaver. Silk wants Hornet, and Lace is jealous of that. This feud drives the story forward in a big way.

After defeating Lace, rather than facing Silk immediately, Hornet gathers the souls of powerful bugs to set the ultimate trap. As part of this, she defeats Groal the Great. The making and setting of the trap was undertaken by the Snail Shamans. The narrator couldn't learn the details of what kind of trap it was, but says at this point that it's a relief things seem likely to settle down nicely.

The narrator says Grand Mother Silk resembles the previous game's boss, the Radiance, in the way she wields needles. In the second half, collapses are happening in the background, but the narrator ignores them and keeps attacking.

Inside the crumbling Citadel, Hornet somehow survives. What the Shamans had prepared was a dangerous trap using the Void. Lace's unintended interference caused the plan to fail, and threads of Void spread across all of Pharloom. Furthermore, due to Silk's fierce resistance as she tries to protect her daughter, Pharloom has begun to crumble from below.

Of the Bell Eater that attacks in the Citadel's lower levels, the narrator says it feels like a powered-up version of the early Bell Beast, and that the openings of Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 seem to be depicted as contrasts. With far better gear than back then, the narrator goes all out with favorite tools to finish the fight. Partway through, the Bell Beast joins the battle.

While searching the lava area for a diving bell to peer into the edge of the Abyss, Hornet runs into the bugs that oversee the laborers, Signis & Gron, the Dock Foremen. After the first is defeated, the second shows up late and hops around trying to flee, but can't escape the boomerang's trajectory.

To save Pharloom as it is swallowed by the Void, Hornet begins gathering power from the once-mighty bugs.

Skarrsinger Karmelita, the song queen of the Skarr and their finest warrior, unites all of the Skarr with her voice. The narrator remarks that the bosses up to now were so weak they vanished in an instant, but the bosses around here offer a satisfying level of challenge. The narrator mixes in the new boomerang Curvesickle while fighting, notices that Karmelita seems to use the same thing, and says, "These are great, aren't they."

Since Shrine Guardian Seth had challenged Hornet to a pure duel, the narrator deliberately fights with only the needle and skills, no tools. The fight has two halves, and the first half proceeds relatively gently. The second half adds more intense attacks using cymbals, but the pattern is set: a thrust attack always comes after three consecutive ones. That makes it easy to land Thread Storm, creating big openings to attack.

Nyleth, the forest's creator deep within the shrine, is extremely weak, and the narrator says it makes sense that a guardian was stationed at the entrance. Crust King Khann of the ancient coral-encrusted tower also led a loyal army through strict rule, but perhaps his own combat ability wasn't that high, as the fight ended with nothing but a series of gentle attacks.

On the snowy mountain, the Pinstress, who taught Hornet her charged attack, lies fallen. A former warrior of a proud order of knights, she seems to have wished to end her life in a life-or-death duel rather than be swallowed by the Void as Pharloom crumbles. But Hornet believes that strong bugs like her will be needed precisely after the collapse is stopped, and does not grant her wish.

Caught in a trap in the forest, Hornet fights the Skarr hunter Gurr the Outcast. The narrator uses no tools and attacks with Thread Storm alone. With the electrified effect of the tool obtained from the Voltvyrm, and with the silk meter's capacity having increased by this point, simply spamming Thread Storm dealt enough damage to win.

Deep in a cave, a somehow familiar substance called Plasmium was being researched. What sprouted and grew from a researcher's corpse is the Plasmified Zango.

Answering Zaza's call, Hornet finds Garmond standing there, captured by the Void. The narrator describes Zaza, who caught up, as also trembling and looking sorrowful. Once captured by the Void, unless one has considerable resistance, there's no choice but to defeat them, and Hornet defeats Lost Garmond.

When Hornet plays music to a bug found near the border, the Watcher at the Edge awakens for the first time in a long while. It seemed to have been in a long slumber, but its movements show no sign of decline. Since it blocks nearly all frontal attacks, the narrator comes prepared with tools that can pierce its sturdy guard. The narrator thinks that, compared with the previous game, the range of options for tools and gear is very broad, and that one of the joys of this game is seeing all sorts of playstyles from different people.

Tormented Trobbio, in his encore performance at the theater, scatters even more fireworks than before, and the main body now disappears quickly as well. The narrator jokingly remarks that this greatly improved the show's runtime and made for a very fun boss fight. Trobbio himself, meanwhile, seemed to be sinking along with the crumbling land, tormented by melancholy.

The presiding judge who stands before Hornet after she is summoned by the Crawlaw is Pharloom's crow king and enforcer of justice. With a steel beak, he brings the hammer down on bugs charged with sins. The narrator speculates that Hornet may be being denounced for the crime of causing the Void's flood and hastening the collapse. The narrator quickly clears the opening fight against small enemies by throwing tools, defeats their representative, the Crawfather, and declares Hornet "acquitted and released."

In the ruins of a fallen kingdom, Hornet fights the Palestag, a sacred creature symbolizing the kingdom. Afterward, in the throne room, she meets the kingdom's last descendant, the Green Prince. This kingdom was ruled by two princes who loved each other. To secure the Citadel's guarantee of the kingdom's safety from invasion, one prince offered himself to the Citadel. The Citadel used this prince to manufacture the Cogwork Dancers, but the kingdom's demands were not accepted, and the kingdom fell into ruin. Recounting this history, the narrator defeats the Clover Dancers.

Having gathered power, Hornet at last obtains the means to resist the Void. She is said to have obtained it by using the Everbloom—a sacred, delicate flower that once existed in a distant land—and the power dwelling in the hearts of bugs to enter her own memories. To save Pharloom and to rescue Lace, Hornet leaps into the cocoon of Silk, who continues to resist.

The final boss is Silk's daughter, consumed by the Void: Lost Lace. As the narrator explains it, when Silk tried to drag Hornet down with her, Lace tried to stop it as a small act of rebellion. That feud has brought about this land's collapse, and the goal is to calm Silk's rage and restore things to how they should be. During the fight, Silk screams and collapses, the shell of the cocoon bursts, and enormous waves of Void surge toward Hornet from the left and right.

In the second half, Lace's attacks grow even fiercer, and new attacks are added. Even so, Hornet's approach is the basics: build the silk meter with normal attacks and deal big damage with Silk Skills. The narrator considers landing Thread Storm the real thrill of this fight, and also aims for its extended effect from additional input after activation. Then, calmly waiting for attacks that leave big openings, the narrator defeats Lost Lace.

In the ending, Hornet and the others escape their predicament, and Pharloom is saved from the brink of collapse. Looking back, the narrator says the intricately woven world was once again wonderful, and that the music, visuals, and text that convey it were all thoroughly enjoyable. The controls feel good as an action game, and the exhilaration of having fun just moving around carries over from the previous game. The narrator's conclusion is that this is a work with a strange charm that makes you want to pick it up again and again.