•Patrik Mršnik• 13 min read
Games
Do You Need To Play Hollow Knight Before Silksong?
Do you need to play Hollow Knight before Silksong? We touched on the topic in our review. It turns up every time somebody buys the sequel on hype, with a 2017 Metroidvania sitting unplayed in their library. Millions of people bought Hollow Knight: Silksong without ever touching the original.
Team Cherry sold millions of copies of the sequel within a few months of launch, with many more players reaching it through Game Pass. Plenty of those newcomers grabbed it with game keys and jumped straight in.
The short answer is no. Silksong runs its own story in its own kingdom with its own protagonist, and nothing in it demands homework. Below, you'll find what carries over, what you miss, and the one group of players who should still start with the 2017 game.
Article Summary
You do not need to play Hollow Knight before Silksong. The sequel tells a self-contained story in Pharloom, with a new map and a new cast, and Hallownest turns up mainly in memories.
Hornet plays nothing like the Knight. Sprinting, a grappling hook, mid-air healing, and swappable crests make the sequel a faster game with different rules.
Silksong's difficulty is the real barrier, and the lore has nothing to do with it. Hornet starts on five masks, and the bulkier enemies take two of them per hit.
Series veterans get more from the ending and from the small reveals, so lore hunters should play Hollow Knight first.
Silksong Tells Its Own Story In Pharloom
Silksong opens with Hornet caged and carried toward Pharloom, a kingdom with no ties to the ruins of the first game. The map is new, the cast is new, and the central mystery belongs to this game alone. A player arriving cold gets the setup in the opening minutes and never trips over a reference they were supposed to recognise.
Hornet herself needs no introduction either. She turns up in the first game as a boss you fight twice, and Silksong reintroduces her from scratch through how she moves and how the bugs of Pharloom react to her.
The structure helps too. Three acts, a climb from the lowlands up to the Citadel, and a chain of quests called Wishes posted on wishwalls in the main settlements. None of that machinery asks what you did in 2017.
What Newcomers Miss By Skipping The First Game
Skipping Hollow Knight costs you flavour and a few quiet payoffs. Item descriptions, the memories of figures from Hallownest and the weight of the ending all read differently to someone who knows the first kingdom. None of it gates progress, and none of it leaves a hole in the plot.
Mechanical literacy is the bigger gap. Hollow Knight teaches you to read a boss in two attempts and to treat a locked door as a note for later. Silksong assumes that training and hands you harder fights in the first hours than the original ever did.
Element | Hollow Knight | Silksong |
|---|---|---|
Protagonist | The Knight, deliberate and grounded | Hornet, fast and aggressive |
Setting | Hallownest | Pharloom, a separate kingdom |
Build system | Charms | Crests plus red, blue and yellow tools |
Healing | Stand still and channel | Bind for three masks, usable in mid-air |
Opening difficulty | Gentle for a few hours | Sharp from the first area |
Should You Play Hollow Knight First Anyway?
Play it first if you care about lore, and skip it if you mainly want the better game. Hollow Knight is the slower, softer introduction to the genre and it makes the sequel's callbacks land. You can play similar games as well.
Everyone else can start with the sequel. Silksong is the stronger game on movement, builds and boss design, and going backwards afterwards works fine.
Team Cherry announced a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Hollow Knight on 15 December 2025, free for existing Switch owners, with higher frame rates and resolutions. Silksong also has the free Sea of Sorrow expansion lined up for 2026 with no date attached. If you want either game, Steam gift cards and game keys from GameBoost cover both.
FAQs About Hollow Knight
Final Words
The honest version of this question is less about lore and more about patience. Nobody bounces off Silksong for missing a reference to Hallownest. They bounce off it in the Marrow, five deaths into a boss they have not learned yet.
If a hard opening puts you off a game for good, spend a weekend with Hollow Knight first and arrive at Pharloom already fluent. If you like being outmatched, start with the sequel and let it teach you the hard way.
Either order works. The mistake worth avoiding is starting Silksong, quitting in the first few hours, and deciding the series is not for you. That verdict belongs after the crests open up.
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“ A former sports journalist and editor, Patrik joined Gameboost SEO team in 2026. He has spent most of his life playing Football Manager, but his sphere of interests spreads through whole gaming universe.”
