Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s Most Popular Mods Make the Game Easier

By Bee Wertheimer | September 8, 2025 | 4:08pm

Video Games News hollow knight: silksong

Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s Most Popular Mods Make the Game Easier

In the four days since its release, one of the most frequently discussed characteristics of Hollow Knight: Silksong has been its difficulty. The sequel’s gameplay is certainly more challenging than the first game, perhaps due to its original conception as DLC; unlike a lot of other game sequels, Silksong expects you to have already beaten Hollow Knight.

As a result of Silksong’s demanding gameplay, players are flocking to mods that ease the game’s friction. As reported by PCGamer, all of the top Silksong mods on Nexus make the game easier, with the most popular being Synthlight’s Always Have Compass Effect.

Like the original, Silksong requires you to sacrifice a tool slot to display your location on the map screen. Synthlight’s mod gives you the compass for free. They also have a mod that gives you the magnet effect for free, which ranks close behind on the charts.

Other popular mods include visible enemy health bars, weaker enemies, and custom respawn points.

Most Popular

As associate editor Elijah Gonzalez writes, Silksong’s difficulty harmonizes with its narrative. The game is about religious self-flagellation, and its crushing difficulty is used to emphasize this theme. “Just to make this clear, though, giving players the option to engage with this degree of punishment is a fair thing to ask,” says Gonzalez, “and as much fun as online gatekeepers enjoying telling those struggling to ‘Get Good,’ folks who don’t want to be crushed to a fine pulp should be able to make their way through this experience as well.”

Much like Silksong, Celeste is a game whose difficulty is central to its narrative. In order to make Celeste accessible to different players, though, the developers created a robust Assist Mode that allows players to completely customize the friction of their personal gameplay experience through granular options. Mark Brown says about the success of Celeste’s Assist Mode and its presentation, “Game designers have a duty to protect players from themselves…but if designers give players good information, then they should also trust that players will make the right decision for how they want to play.”

Considering Silksong’s already evident cultural significance, I think Team Cherry should have implemented accessibility settings so differently abled players didn’t have to rely on modders to make the game playable for them.