It finally happened. After years of us wearing clown wigs and staring at blank Nintendo Direct screens until our eyes bled, Hollow Knight Silksong Steam isn't just a placeholder page or a cruel joke anymore. It’s a real, tangible thing that millions of people have actually played, beaten, and—in true Team Cherry fashion—suffered through.
The journey from a 2019 DLC announcement to the 2025 launch was, honestly, a mess for our collective mental health. But looking at it now, with the game sitting pretty as a Steam Awards Game of the Year winner, the "Silksanity" era feels like a fever dream we all survived together. If you're just jumping in or wondering why your Steam library suddenly feels more "buggy" than usual, there's a lot to catch up on regarding where Hornet’s adventure stands right now.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Silksong Steam Launch
You’ve probably seen the memes. For the longest time, the common wisdom was that Silksong was "vaporware" or that Team Cherry had vanished into the Australian outback. The truth is way more boring: they’re just three perfectionists who kept making the game bigger.
When the game dropped on September 4, 2025, it didn't just meet expectations; it kind of steamrolled them.
One big misconception was the price. Everyone expected a $40 or $60 "AAA-style" price tag because of the hype. Instead, it launched at **$19.99**. That’s basically the same price as the original game from nearly a decade ago. It’s a move that feels almost aggressive in today’s gaming climate, but it worked. The game hit over seven million copies sold within months, and that doesn't even count the millions who played it through Xbox Game Pass.
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Another weird thing? People thought Hornet would play exactly like the Knight. She doesn't. At all.
If the first game was a slow, methodical dance, Silksong is a frantic, high-speed chase. Hornet is tall. She’s fast. She talks! That last part still catches people off guard. Hearing your protagonist actually engage in dialogue with NPCs like Sherma or the Forge-Daughter makes Pharloom feel way more populated and "alive" than the decaying ruins of Hallownest ever did.
The Steam Deck Situation and Technical Tweaks
If you’re playing on a Steam Deck, you’ve probably noticed the game is a "Great on Deck" poster child. But it wasn't perfect at launch. Early players on the Hollow Knight Silksong Steam version dealt with some weird resolution scaling on ultrawide monitors.
Team Cherry has been uncharacteristically fast with patches lately. We’re currently on Patch 4, which smoothed out the 21:9 and 16:10 support. They also finally fixed that one softlock in the Gilded Citadel that was ruining speedruns.
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Why the Public Beta Branch is Your Best Friend
A lot of players don't realize that Team Cherry uses the Steam "public-beta" branch to test the real experimental stuff. Right now, they’re testing a massive engine-level update that adds:
- Unity Input System upgrades (basically making every weird third-party controller work natively).
- Dithering options to stop that annoying color banding in the darker areas of the Deep Docks.
- Native 4K support that doesn't tank the frame rate on mid-range GPUs.
To access this, you basically just right-click the game in your Steam Library, hit Properties, go to Betas, and opt-in. It’s where the "Hollow Knight Refreshed" features are being stress-tested before they head to the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 version in 2026.
Sea of Sorrow: The DLC We Weren't Expecting
Just when we thought we could finally put the game down, Team Cherry dropped the Sea of Sorrow announcement. This is the first official free expansion, slated for 2026.
Based on the teaser trailers and the Steam database leaks, it’s looking very "nautical." We’re talking underwater (or at least water-adjacent) biomes, which is a bold choice given how much gamers usually hate "the water level." But this is Team Cherry. If anyone can make a coral forest feel as iconic as the City of Tears, it's them.
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The expansion is rumored to focus on Pharloom Bay, a location that was actually cut from the base game. It’s supposed to dive into the origins of Lifeblood—that glowing blue gunk we’ve been injecting into our bug-veins since 2017.
Actionable Insights for New Players
If you’re just now looking at that "Buy" button on Steam, or if you're stuck on the first major boss in Bonebottom, here’s how to actually survive:
- Stop Hoarding Shells: Unlike the first game, where Geo felt like a precious resource, Silksong’s currency is meant to be spent. You lose a percentage of it when you die, but you can "bead" it to save it. Use your shards to craft tools early. The Pimpillo bombs are literally life-savers in the early-game platforming sections.
- Bind Your Heal: Healing in Silksong is instant but consumes your entire Silk bar. You can't just tap it for a quick hit like in Hallownest. You have to commit. Practice the "Bind" mid-air; it’s the only way you'll beat the later bosses like the Steel Assassin.
- Check the Steam Workshop: The modding community has already gone nuclear. There are "Silk-skin" mods that let you play as the original Knight, and difficulty mods that make the game even more punishing if you're some kind of masochist.
- Watch the Achievement Language: If you’re a lore hunter, pay attention to the Steam Achievement descriptions. Team Cherry hid some very specific flavor text there that explains the "Silk Curse" better than some of the in-game dialogue does.
The wait was long. Like, "we grew entire civilizations in the time it took to finish this game" long. But Hollow Knight Silksong Steam has proven that sometimes, the hype is actually justified. We’ve got at least another year of content coming with the 2026 expansion, and the Steam version remains the best place to see every tiny, hand-drawn frame in its full glory.
Next Steps for Players:
Check your Steam version number to ensure you're on at least v1.0.4 to avoid the save-file corruption bug in the Greymoor area. If you’ve already finished the game, consider opting into the Public Beta branch to help Team Cherry test the 2026 "Refreshed" features before the Sea of Sorrow DLC drops.