Shhhhh. If we’re quiet, we might be able to avoid discourse with this one. If you’ve spent your weekend playing Hollow Knight: Silksong and found that the likes of enemies inflicting double damage and spawns being miles away put a dampner on the fun, mods can help.
I know, I know, these are videogames and we must take their difficulty with the utmost seriousness. How else are any of us supposed to learn important life lessons, like ‘press button dodge at this point’, unless we go through hours of frustration trying to beat one boss (or look such info up)? As such, I stress that these mods, like all mods, are entirely optional. No need to shout at people for using them. Save your voice for singing love ballads to Hornet during breaks in the action.
Right, now I’ve addressed the very powerful elephant in the room, let’s take a gander at Skong’s Nexus Mods page, which has filled out nicely now the metroidvania’s got a weekend under its belt. Silksong’s most endorsed mod thus far is one by Baiker that stops enemies and “normal bosses” from dishing out double damage, while leaving hazards free to keep on punishing you. Don’t look at the comments on it, if you’ve not got your internet argument observation popcorn handy.
Also up there in both the download and endorsement rankings is a mod from XiaoHaiNB, which adds health bars and damage numbers to baddies. Probably my favourites so far are the death counters. You’ve got a choice of two from modders Rexxah and NordboDev, and they’ll just sit there on your HUD, reminding you how many times your abilities have proven to be a bit too hollow shite.
Going back to the easening up, there’s ‘Stakes of Marika – Rebirth Anywhere’ from modder Kassent. As you might expect, this one takes a bit of inspiration from FromSoft’s Ancient Hoop by ensuring that “when you die in a scene, you will respawn at the scene entrance instead of at a bench miles away”. It also lets you set custom respawn points, which is cool.
For those annoyed by Silksong’s insistence on not being able to check where you are on the map at a glance, there’s ‘Always Have Compass Effect’ by Synthlight, which does what it says on the tin. The same modder’s stepped in with a mod that makes delivery items less fragile than a shipment of unpacked wine glasses precariously balanced to form a 20 foot tall tower and positioned next to some partially lit fireworks.
The final mod that’s caught my eye so far is this one for lore enthusiasts, which ensures you only have to kill a single enemy to be able to read their species’ journal entry.
Make sure to check the requirements of each of these if you fancy giving them a go, as most require the likes of BepInEx and MelonLoader to get up and running.
