Hollow Knight: Silksong Gets Major Silk Soar Mechanic Update

Movement Overhaul for Hornet#

According to GamesRadar+, Team Cherry has released a new update for Hollow Knight: Silksong that introduces significant changes to the Silk Soar mechanic. The adjustment to this core movement ability has been described as "game-changing" by fans who got their hands on the update.

The news comes after an extended period of silence from the Australian indie studio, leading some community members to initially question whether the announcement was legitimate. One fan's reaction captured the mood: "Wait, this isn't a really good Silkpost?" The skepticism is understandable given that Silksong has become one of gaming's most memed-about vaporware titles, despite Team Cherry never actually canceling or indefinitely delaying it. The community has simply been starved for concrete updates since the game's initial reveal.

What Changed#

Silk Soar is one of Hornet's primary traversal abilities in Silksong, allowing the protagonist to navigate the game's interconnected world with a fluid, thread-based movement system. While the original Hollow Knight featured tight, momentum-based movement centered around the Knight's dash and double-jump, Silksong builds on that foundation with new mechanics tailored to Hornet's agile combat style. Where the Knight felt weighty and deliberate, Hornet's kit emphasizes speed and aerial control, making her feel fundamentally different to pilot through Hallownest's successor kingdom.

The Silk Soar mechanic itself functions as a sort of grappling dash that lets Hornet zip between anchor points or launch herself across gaps with precision. It's meant to be the spiritual successor to the Crystal Dash and Mothwing Cloak from the original game, but with more directional freedom and combo potential. Early gameplay footage showed players chaining Silk Soar with other abilities to maintain momentum through complex platforming sequences, something that became core to Hollow Knight's speedrunning scene.

The specific nature of the tweak and its impact on gameplay flow remains a point of discussion among players testing the changes. Some reports suggest the ability now has different acceleration curves or altered cooldown windows, which would significantly affect how players approach both combat encounters and sequence-breaking opportunities. In a Metroidvania, even small adjustments to core movement can ripple outward, changing which areas become accessible when and how boss fights play out. If Silk Soar now covers more or less distance, or if its startup frames have been adjusted, that could fundamentally alter the game's pacing and difficulty curve.

Community Response#

After years of waiting for news about the highly anticipated sequel, fans expressed a mix of excitement and disbelief at receiving an actual gameplay update. The Hollow Knight community has become known for creating elaborate fake announcements during the long development cycle, making genuine news harder to distinguish from fan-made content. The subreddit has seen everything from photoshopped Nintendo Direct screenshots to fake developer interviews, all crafted with enough polish to momentarily fool even veteran community members.

This culture of "Silkposting" emerged partly as a coping mechanism for the wait, but also as a testament to how passionate the fanbase remains despite the radio silence. When Team Cherry does drop actual news, it often gets initially dismissed as another high-effort fake before people verify the sources. The fact that this update came through GamesRadar+ rather than Team Cherry's own channels added another layer of confusion, though established gaming outlets covering the news lends it credibility that a random Reddit post wouldn't have.

The timing of this update is particularly interesting given that Silksong has missed multiple projected release windows without official comment from the developers. Team Cherry has historically been a small, tight-lipped studio that prefers to let their work speak for itself rather than maintain constant community engagement. While this approach worked fine during Hollow Knight's development, the sequel's higher profile and longer development time has tested fans' patience. A mechanical update like this suggests the game is in active playtesting and refinement rather than stuck in development hell, which is genuinely encouraging news for those who've been following the project since its 2019 announcement.