Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of the biggest launches of the year, hitting huge player concurrent numbers on Steam alongside a positive reception from critics. But amid the excitement over Team Cherry’s long awaited sequel is a debate within the community about whether the game is too hard — perhaps even unfairly so. So it comes as no surprise to see Silksong’s early days mods dominated by those which make the game easier.
Over the weekend, we reported on how some Silksong players were expressing criticism across social media, subreddits, Discords, and Steam reviews about the game’s difficulty scaling and brutal runbacks. There’s even one very early miniboss causing a lot of players a whole heap of trouble, too.
“Is it just me, or are some of the things that make Silksong ‘difficult’ just cruel?” wondered redditor Machi-Ato. “The game has artificially inflated difficulty and playtime due to overtuned numbers and menial tasks/runback,” reads a post on Steam.
Now, some players are saying their criticism of the difficulty and Silksong generally shouldn’t instantly be dismissed as “hate,” and those “git gud” comments should stop. Others are countering that suggestion by saying it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest players soldier on. This one is showing no sign of slowing down, that’s for sure.
Best Hollow Knight: Silksong mods a week after launch
A cursory glance at Silksong’s NexusMods page shows a number of mods that make the game easier to play at the top of the download chart. For example, Xiaohai’s ShowDamage HealthBar, which displays enemy health bars and damage numbers when attacking enemies in the game, has been downloaded 16,200 times already. Baiker’s No Double Damage, which prevents enemies and normal bosses hits from dealing more than one mask of damage, has been downloaded 15,100 times.
Meanwhile, LordGregory’s Always Have Compass Effect, which always shows the player’s position on the map, has been downloaded 13,500 times. The same modder’s Always Have Magnet Effect (Pulls Shards Too), which always makes rosaries/shards magnet to the player, has seen 11,100 downloads so far. All this in just a few days after Silksong’s launch on September 4.
I’ve installed 2 #Silksong mods to not go crazy
– No double damage, cause that’s just crazy
– Unlimited Rosaries… cause I just got to a point where they’re used like “Ink Ribbons”!!! pic.twitter.com/XHbAQIQVPa— Marauderz (@marauderz) September 7, 2025
You get the idea. Silksong mods are tapping into the game’s difficulty, making it easier to work through at least on PC. And it’s there, in online communities for the game, that fans are suggesting players who are struggling with the game give mods a shot.
For example, redditor mckant posted an interesting thread, upvoted 3,600 times, about how their wife had quit Silksong “for good” due to the difficulty.
“My wife is a massive hk fan and has been waiting for silksong to come out for years,” mckant explained. “She is not the most skilled of players but she was able to complete hk and enjoy her time. Silksong, instead, is breaking her apart. She has spent three days fighting Moorwing without beating it and she’s dropping the game for good. I hope she’ll pick it back up sometime but it’s sad to see all the anticipation die out like this.
“I am loving the game and I am having a blast with it but I have come to the realization that this game is extremely punishing to lower skilled players who still make up a sizable share of the fanbase.
“I think that this disconnect is very concerning and explains why so many people are complaining about the game’s difficulty. It feels like Team Cherry doesn’t understand that much of the appeal of hk wasn’t the challenge it offered but also the lore, the exploration, and buildcrafting (and so on).
“These are all aspects of Silksong that are, effectively, gatekept by an arbitrary difficulty barrier. I have seen many people here on reddit saying to git gud but don’t think that discourse about the game’s difficulty should be handwaved so easily. If nothing about it is done, I think that a lot of ‘casual’ fans will be inevitably estranged from the game.”
In response, in among posts debating not just Silksong’s difficulty, but how it’s difficult, fans are suggesting mods will save the day, particularly that No Double Damage mod.
“If she is playing on PC, check out some of the Nexus Mods for the game that make it easier,” suggested Lermatroid. “For example there is No Double Damage which makes all attacks only do one mask of damage!”
“I’m a masochist but saving this link to share with people,” replied Please_Not__Again. “Every basic enemy has no business doing double damage.” Of course, console players are out of luck, leaving them to battle Silksong without the aid of mods.
Thankfully, IGN is here to help. Here’s how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It’s a hard one!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
