The wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong has done strange things to the human psyche. We’ve moved past simple memes and entered a phase of deep, almost forensic analysis of every pixel Team Cherry has ever released. Lately, if you’ve been lurking in the Discord or scrolling through Reddit, you’ve probably seen a phrase popping up: right of the polyp silksong. It sounds like gibberish to a casual observer. To a fan? It’s a rabbit hole.
Honestly, we are all just trying to make sense of the Kingdom of Pharloom before we actually get to step foot in it.
The "Right of the Polyp" isn't a lore entry you missed in the first game. It’s a specific geographical and mechanical obsession regarding one of the most distinct areas revealed in the Silksong trailers and demos—the Greymoor and the fungal-adjacent outskirts. When people talk about the right of the polyp, they are usually dissecting the literal placement of assets in the Moss Grotto or the Coral-esque regions.
The Geometry of Pharloom’s Fungal Growth
In the original Hollow Knight, the Fungal Wastes were a masterclass in platforming. In the sequel, things look... crunchier.
When you look at the footage of Hornet moving through the mossy, spore-filled corridors, there is a recurring visual motif of polyps. These aren't just background art. They are interactive. Team Cherry has a habit of hiding secrets behind "breakable" or "interactable" environmental objects. The obsession with the right of the polyp silksong specifically stems from a frame in the 2019 Nintendo Treehouse demo where a hidden path seemed to trigger exactly to the right of a large, pulsating fungal growth.
It’s about the level design.
If you watch the way Hornet’s silk-based movement works, it’s much more diagonal and vertical than Knight’s was. Because of this, "hidden" corners are harder to hide. Developers have to get creative. By placing a large, distracting polyp in the center of a room, the "right" side becomes a blind spot for a player moving at high speeds.
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Why the Community is Obsessed with This Specific Spot
The "Polyp" in question is often cited as part of the Coral Forest or the Gilded City outskirts. There’s a specific enemy type—those bell-headed hunters—that seems to guard these areas.
Some fans, like the tireless lore-hunters on the Hollow Knight Wiki, have pointed out that the biological makeup of Pharloom is vastly different from Hallownest. Hallownest was decaying. Pharloom is thriving, but in a predatory way. The polyps represent growth. If there is a secret to the right of the polyp silksong, it likely leads to one of the new "Tools" Hornet can craft.
I’ve seen theories suggesting this is where you find the blueprint for the Pincerfly Trap. It makes sense. You find biological tools in biological areas.
Mechanical Nuance: Is it a Secret or a Bug?
Let's be real for a second.
Sometimes a polyp is just a polyp. However, Team Cherry doesn’t really do "filler" assets. Every sprite is hand-drawn. Every placement is deliberate. When the community focuses on the right of the polyp silksong, they are betting on the studio's history of "environmental storytelling."
Think back to the Hidden Station in the first game. Or the way you found the path to the White Lady. It was always tucked behind something that looked like a wall but felt... off.
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Breaking Down the Visual Cues
- Luminescence: Most secrets in Pharloom have a slight golden or red glow.
- Parallax Layers: If the polyp is on the mid-ground layer, the secret is usually behind it.
- Sound Design: Christopher Larkin’s score often thins out when you’re near a hidden transition.
In the specific footage people keep referencing, the wind sound effect changes when Hornet stands to the right of that fungal mass. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a "hush" in the audio meant to make the player stop and look.
The Silk and Song Connection
We know the game revolves around these two elements. Silk is the physical. Song is the... well, we aren't 100% sure yet, but it seems to be the power source.
The right of the polyp silksong might not just be a physical location. It could be a prompt. There are rumors of "Song Altars" scattered throughout the world. If a polyp is reacting to a specific frequency, Hornet might need to use a specific tool or ability to "unlock" the path to its right.
This isn't just wild speculation. We saw Hornet play a needle like a harp in the very first reveal.
How to Spot Secrets in the Final Game
When Silksong finally drops—and yes, it will eventually drop—you need to change how you look at the screen. Forget the "head-bash every wall" strategy from the first game.
- Watch the Silk: Does it snag on a background element?
- Look for Symmetries: If there is a polyp on the left and a gap on the right, there is probably a secret on the right.
- Check the Map Fill: If your map has a "bump" in the border near a fungal cluster, keep hitting the wall.
The right of the polyp silksong is basically a placeholder for our collective curiosity. It represents the thousands of tiny details we are ready to explore. It’s the excitement of knowing that even a weird-looking mushroom might be the gateway to a whole new boss fight or a piece of lore that explains what happened to the weavers.
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Pharloom is a vertical kingdom. We are climbing toward the Shining Citadel. Every secret we find on the "right" or "left" of these environmental markers helps us map out a world that is significantly larger than the one we left behind in the Dirtmouth well.
Actionable Tips for the Pharloom Bound
Stop looking for "cracks" in the walls. In Silksong, the "walls" are often alive.
If you want to be ready for the release, go back and watch the Moss Grotto gameplay. Pay attention to the foreground layers. Team Cherry loves to hide paths in front of the player, obscured by large objects like polyps or pillars.
Train your eyes to look for "breakability" in the organic matter. If it jiggles when you hit it, it’s a clue. If it stays static, it’s just a wall. The right of the polyp silksong is just the beginning of the hunt. Keep your needle sharp and your ears open for the transition in the background music; that is your most reliable compass in the deep, dark layers of the Greymoor.
Study the movement of the "Lace" boss fight. The environment there is reactive. If you can understand how the arena changes based on her attacks, you’ll understand how to find the hidden paths in the rest of the game. The kingdom wants to keep you out, but the silk always shows the way.
Don't just run past the scenery. The answer is usually right there, tucked just to the side of the most obvious thing on your screen.
Next Steps for Lore Hunters:
- Re-watch the 2022 Xbox trailer at 0.25x speed specifically during the "Coral Forest" segments to see the background shifts.
- Compare the "Grimmchild" mechanics to the new "Hatchling" tools to see if biological entities can "sniff out" these hidden polyps.
- Map out the verticality of the known "Deep Docks" to predict where the secret shortcuts will likely connect.