Hollow Knight Silksong: Everything we know so far

The new year brings renewed hope for a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date. Team Cherry's long-awaited sequel to one of the best Metroidvania games ever has had a big question mark over it since its 2017 reveal, quickly becoming one of our most wanted new games currently in production. Several mysterious delays have pushed Silksong further and further out of reach over the last 8 years, but maybe 2025 will be not only the year of GTA 6, but Hollow Knight Silksong too?

Yes, that's a long shot to say the least, but with how long Silksong has been occupying the top spot among Steam wishlists you can't blame us for the anticipation. That said, we do know fairly little about the upcoming PC game - save that it's set to come to Xbox Game Pass on day one.

It's been a difficult road for Hollow Knight Silksong, fraught with all manner of rumor and speculation as to the reason behind its incredibly lengthy development. Once slated to release in 2023, a controversy surrounding the Unity engine's intended pay-per-download business model led to speculation that an engine swap could incur further delays on top of Silksong's initial postponement - which pushed its launch date from early 2023 to an as yet unconfirmed launch window. Despite this, Team Cherry offered reassurances in February last year that Silksong is still very much in the works, and with a January 2025 statement promising players that Silksong is "real, progressing, and will release", things are looking promising albeit hazy. Read on below as we take you through everything we know so far about Hollow Knight: Silksong, from its development history to gameplay clips and more.

Hollow Knight: Silksong news

• Hollow Knight: Silksong developer teases us with a bunch of cryptic Nintendo Switch 2 clues including a cake, Imagine Dragons, and some Australian wine
• Hollow Knight: Silksong fans tragically trolled by a random Steam update listed as "for beta testing"
• Hollow Knight: Silksong is "not in dev hell," says tester who finds fan cynicism "disheartening" but agrees developer Team Cherry "should be better" at communicating
• Taking the mantle from Elden Ring fans, Hollow Knight Silksong hopefuls are going feral over the Metroidvania's first hidden Steam update in 14 months
• As the wait for Silksong continues, Hollow Knight fans threaten to "sacrifice" their own forum to get the developer's attention
• Hollow Knight Silksong's agonizingly long road to release might actually be an accidental stroke of genius
• Hollow Knight Silksong community in shambles after finding something new in 4-year-old gameplay clips
• Unity's imposing fees have Hollow Knight Silksong fans worried about their anticipated Metroidvania sequel
• After Nintendo Direct no-show, Hollow Knight Silksong playtester throws fans a lifeline

Hollow Knight Silksong release date speculation

The Hollow Knight Silksong release date has yet to be revealed, having been pushed back from an early 2023 target. Team Cherry's Matthew Griffin confirmed the of the delay, noting in a statement that while "development is still continuing" the scope of the project requires more time. "We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can," adds Griffin.

Hollow Knight Silksong platforms

The Hollow Knight: Silksong platforms have been confirmed as Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC – via Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. Additionally, Team Cherry has confirmed that a Hollow Knight: Silksong Xbox Game Pass release has been secured, meaning it'll be available to all subscribers on the day of release.

Hollow Knight Silksong trailer 

Above you can watch the debut Hollow Knight: Silksong reveal trailer, which Team Cherry used to announce the game to the world for the very first time all the way back in February 2019.

The two-minute trailer began with Hornet’s kidnapping, showing her breaking free to explore lush meadows and dank underground passageways. The trailer showed there are new enemies to conquer, new bosses to fight, brand new friends to meet along the way, and new towns to explore, complete with NPC characters and their associated quests.

And now we have this second Hollow Knight: Silksong gameplay trailer to pour over from E3 2022. More gameplay sneak peeks, more bosses and bad guys, and more from our old pal Hornet – who's been promoted from friend and foe of the original game to playable hero.

Hollow Knight Silksong gameplay

As for Hollow Knight: Silksong's gameplay, initially the only footage we had to go off was from the debut trailer. Despite it being a pure introduction to the sequel, we actually did get to see plenty of clips of protagonist Hornet jumping into action, as she bounds and leaps over enemies with finesse. And now that's been solidified and built upon by the more recent trailer, with everything looking incredibly fluid.

It’s clear then that Hollow Knight’s blend of platforming and 2D combat is returning for Silksong. In fact, Team Cherry looks to have made the platforming distinctly more acrobatic with Hornet than with the Knight in the original game: the new protagonist looks like a gymnast compared to the Knight, deftly flipping over huge enemies with ease.

Healing also works differently in Silksong than in Hollow Knight. Instead of slowly refilling her health like the Knight did, Hornet can instantly heal three health nodes, and not only that, but she can also do this on the move. However, Hornet has a Silk metre, and healing three nodes of health immediately empties the bar.

Hollow Knight Silksong story

If you’ve played Hollow Knight, you’ll no doubt remember Hornet, who frequently got in the way of the player character, but ended up becoming their ally partway through. Hollow Knight: Silksong actually switches out protagonists, replacing the Knight with Hornet for this new adventure.

In this new game, Hornet finds herself kidnapped, and spirited away to a kingdom called Pharloom. Said to be “haunted by Silk and Song” according to developer Team Cherry themselves, Silksong’s basic plot puts Hornet right at the bottom of this new kingdom, and tasks her with ascending to the top of the kingdom and reaching a shining citadel to find out the truth behind her kidnapping.

Additionally, there’s also going to be side quests for Hornet to take on. These sound a lot more fleshed out than in the original Hollow Knight, as Silksong actually allows you to keep track of all your side quests in a journal. Perhaps this is an opportunity to tell more stories outside of the main plot of Silksong.

Hollow Knight Silksong development

Hollow: Knight: Silksong actually began development as another DLC chapter for the original Hollow Knight. Set to star Hornet, developer Team Cherry quickly realised the scope of the DLC was far bigger than they anticipated, so they actually carved out the space for a full-blown sequel starring Hornet instead.

Looking at the sequel now, it’s not hard to see why. Hollow Knight: Silksong’s debut trailer boasted of over 150 brand new enemies, including new bosses to fight in addition to this. In fact, there’s brand new features for the sequel, like the ability to craft weapons, tools, and traps from materials gathered off of fallen enemies.

If you liked the music of the original game, then we’ve got good news for you. Original composer Christopher Larkin has returned to collaborate with Team Cherry to score Hollow Knight: Silksong, which means the new adventure promises to have memorable tunes for punchy moments.

Can't stand the wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong? Then you might want to check out one of the best Metroidvania games, or even some of the fantastic games like Hollow Knight that are out there just waiting to be played today.