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Hollow Knight’s sequel is on its way to PC soon.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the sequel to Hollow Knight that we’ve been waiting four years for. We’ve seen bits and pieces of the game since its announcement in 2019, but haven’t had any hard details on when it’s coming out.
Originally planned as DLC, Silksong follows up the first game with a shift in perspective and an upward journey through the kingdom of Pharloom. We’ll learn more about the dreary world through the eyes of Hornet, the new playable character, and get access to a bunch of new tools to work our way to the top of the kingdom.
Team Cherry has been tight-lipped about the game for the last few years, but that hasn’t stopped fans from obsessing over every detail that’s available. Hollow Knight introduced a rich world that people want to pick apart. Hopefully we’ll learn more about it soon.
Hollow Knight: Silksong doesn’t currently have a release date. All we know is that the game is deep into development.
We asked Team Cherry co-director William Pellen for an update on the game’s progress, and he said, «We’re still working steadily on it, and we’re all looking forward to sharing more about it once we get closer to release.»
A leak from Nvidia GeForce Now, which has retroactively proven to have held fairly accurate information, put a February 2022 date on the game. While that seems unlikely without a recent announcement and no acknowledgment from the developer, it might suggest that the game is close to release. 
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a sequel to Hollow Knight, 2017’s side-scrolling action RPG. Some have called it a Souls-like for its challenging boss fights and how you recover items from the spot you died. Silksong carries those ideas forward, but with some specific changes to the way the original game worked.
The debut trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong still sells it best. It opens on Hornet and immediately bursts into action. It’s both familiar and new as you see Hornet dash toward enemies and thwack them apart. There’s even what looks like a grappling hook tool too.
At the edges of the screen you can see pathways that lead to other areas and ledges that climb further up into the kingdom. It’s a barrage of new enemies and bosses to fight. One boss battle looks like it takes place on a bed of flowers with the sun shining down, which could be a bit of a nod to the final fight in Sekiro and Bloodborne.
There are also a slew of new characters to meet, all with their own little vocal traits that have become somewhat iconic for Hollow Knight NPCs. They’ll all be scattered in the world and in the new towns you can visit to resupply and rest as you explore Pharloom.
If you want to see full-on gameplay, you can check out the Nintendo video that features 20 minutes of Hollow Knight: Silksong. It covers everything from the intro to the first boss, and you can get a good look at some of the new abilities that Hornet has.
Like Hollow Knight, Silksong is a side-scrolling action game. You’ll face over 150 different types of enemies and many bosses. The game functions sort of like a Metroidvania game, where you’ll poke around in a large map, pick up items and upgrades, and find secret passages.
Hollow Knight: Silksong will likely be fairly difficult compared to other games in the genre. Hollow Knight received many comparisons to the Dark Souls series for its punishing bosses, encounters, and death mechanic. The game gives you a lot of tools, like Souls or Silk, to heal yourself and attack enemies, but it still largely relies on quick reflexes and clever platforming.
Christopher Larkin will return as a composer for Hollow Knight: Silksong after working on the original game. Larkin released a couple previews of the game’s soundtrack, which are filled with triumphant strings and gloomy piano—a perfect fit for the game’s atmosphere.
Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He’s done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He’s interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.
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