Team Cherry: Silksong Feels Brutal Because Hornet’s Speed Forced Enemies to Get Smarter
Team Cherry says one big reason Hollow Knight: Silksong can feel tougher than the original is Hornet herself — she’s faster and more capable, so enemies had to be upgraded to match. The studio explained this at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) during the Game Worlds exhibition, and shared specifics about enemy design, player options, and an early patch that adjusted some boss difficulty. For the direct coverage, see Dexerto.
- Why Silksong feels harder
- How enemy design matches Hornet
- Exploration as a way to manage difficulty
- Patches and the modding scene
- ACMI exhibition and the Silksong zine
Why Silksong feels harder
At ACMI, co-director Ari Gibson framed Silksong’s difficulty around the player character. In simple terms, Hornet’s increased speed and skill set changed how combat needed to be built.
Gibson said, “Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight — so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent,” and that higher baseline led to generally tougher encounters across the game.
How enemy design matches Hornet
Co-director William Pellen explained the flip side: enemies had to gain tools to *catch* a more mobile player. Specifically, he noted new behaviors that let foes chase or check Hornet’s movement.
Pellen said, “In contrast to the Knight’s enemies, Hornet’s enemies had to have more ways of catching her as she tries to move away,” and that Team Cherry added mechanics for enemies “to evade and check you.”
Design goal: raise the whole world
Team Cherry described their intent as bringing non-player characters and encounters up to Hornet’s level. In practice, that means more complicated enemy patterns and placement, which several players interpret as higher difficulty.
Exploration as a way to manage difficulty
The developers pointed out that Silksong keeps Metroidvania exploration central, and that gives players options beyond face-to-face fights.
Gibson said, “Silksong has some moments of steep difficulty — but part of allowing a higher level of freedom within the world means that you have choices all the time about where you’re going and what you’re doing.”
He also emphasized that it’s acceptable for players to step away from a tough encounter: “they have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled.”
Patches and the modding scene
Shortly after release, Team Cherry issued a first patch that made some bosses slightly easier to tackle. That update arrived in part after modders on Windows PC created adjustments aimed at lowering difficulty, and it followed community feedback.
ACMI exhibition and the Silksong zine
Alongside the Game Worlds show, ACMI produced a softcover, 64-page zine focused on Hollow Knight: Silksong. The zine features concept art, character sketches, maps, and a new interview with Team Cherry, and it is available to buy from ACMI’s shop.
More details are available on this ACMI product page.
Overall, Team Cherry attributes Silksong’s higher perceived difficulty to Hornet’s design, the corresponding enemy upgrades, and a development choice to let players address tough spots through exploration or learning rather than forced linear progression.
