Hornet can travel faster and is more acrobatic than Knight

Can mantle or clamber onto ledges as well

Caves around Hornet have expanded to accommodate her height

Team Cherry approached the enemy design differently since Hornet is a fast and competent fighter

Cancel out of mantling animations to gain height faster

Enemies are more complex

One enemy disguises itself as a discarded skull

Another enemy is like the Moss Charger, but has more legs and accelerates as it goes with more complex patterns

Magic isn’t as prominent in Pharloom, but there are strange things happening like pilgrims involved with cult-like behavior

Hollow Knight: Silksong starts out by getting players acclimated to old and new systems

More varied areas to start out with, beginning in Moss Grotto and then going into the lava-moated ‘boneforest’ area, which was cut from the first game

This plays host to the hub town of Bonebottom and the bell-lined tunnel known as The Marrow

Many early enemies and falling hazards now give out two hits to the health bar

Hornet can heal with Bind, an ability that uses the silk she gathers by hitting enemies to bandage wounds

Three masks instead of one

Team Cherry’s Ari Gibson: “… you spend more time either at full health or almost dead, and the gameplay is kind of snapping between those two states”

You’ll come across strings of beads, and they can be broken at any point to use as currency

While strung, you’ll keep the beads if you die; they’re like a banking system

Some vendors will string beads up for you so that you can pay them a small amount and get them to put back onto strings

There are around 100 different benches that come out of the floor when approached that act as save spots

Difficulty intended to be around the same as the first Hollow Knight

Those that haven’t played the first game can jump in here easily

Hornet has tools that can be crafted or replenished at benches by using Shell Shards from enemies

Pimpillo Bomb: area-of-effect blast

Sting Shards: extend spikes in mid-air or when struck with a weapon

Straight Pins: can be thrown like kunai

Straight Pins can be modified to become Tri-Pins to throw three at once

Hornet learns these tools and their modifications from Pharloom residents

Hornet is a strong personality with a clear role, and she speaks

Players will be able to see “a variety of strange places”

Initial goal is to get to the Citadel, which is at the top of the world

Hornet’s Crests: customizable, themed loadouts

Hornet can take on different tasks for NPCs

Keep track of tasks with noticeboards scattered throughout the world such as Bonebottom

Tasks go along with the organically unfolding quest lines of the first game

Tasks seem to involve combat challenges, finding secret locations, and more

One task, “Gather” has players rounding up Mossberries and bringing them to the Druid of the Moss Temple

Hollow Knight composer Christopher Larkin is back

Hornet lost her traditional strength after time being bound in a cage, and is now sort of restoring it; the Weavers are helping her

Silk Spear: get a superpowered forward lunge and cut through sticky web barriers; uses part of Hornet’s silk supply

Last Judge: foe that fires rings of flame