Hollow Knight: Silksong is Team Cherry's sequel to Hollow Knight, and it puts you in control of Hornet - faster, sharper and far more acrobatic than the Knight ever was. Captured and carried to the unfamiliar kingdom of Pharloom, she begins at the bottom of a vast world and must fight her way up towards the citadel at its peak, unravelling what happened to the place as she climbs. Hornet's moveset changes how the whole genre feels: she dashes further, vaults off walls, and fights with a needle and a silk thread that lets her bind enemies, heal, and craft tools on the fly. Those tools - traps, throwables, and hunting gear built from what you harvest - give every encounter multiple approaches, and combat is noticeably quicker and more aggressive than in the original. Beneath it sits the same hand-drawn art, haunting score and quietly told story that made the first game a classic, spread across a kingdom full of hidden routes and optional bosses. If you like challenging hand-drawn platformers, you might also like Hollow Knight and OvO.
Move with the arrow keys or WASD, jump with Z or Space, and attack with X or the assigned strike key. Press C or Shift to dash, and hold down plus the attack key to strike beneath you - pogoing off enemies and spikes is essential for reaching higher ground. Hornet can cling to and jump off walls, so use vertical surfaces to climb shafts that look impassable. Heal by binding silk once you have built up enough from hitting enemies, and open the tool menu to equip crafted items before a boss fight rather than during one.
