A Surprise Patch With Subtle Shifts
After years of anticipation, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally landed in players’ hands earlier this year, placing Hornet at the center of a sprawling new adventure. But Team Cherry isn’t finished refining the experience.
Following two September updates, the second patch—rolled out on September 21, 2025—brought a wave of bug fixes and balance changes. Some of those adjustments were buried beneath the surface, unlisted in official patch notes. Now, players are discovering that the update quietly redefined how certain tools, crests, and attacks operate.
What the Patch Notes Didn’t Tell You
Hidden Changes Spotted by Fans
While Team Cherry’s patch notes focused on technical fixes—like preventing Shrine Guardian Seth from slipping out of bounds—players noticed something else. YouTuber Visic highlighted that several gameplay mechanics were altered without formal mention.
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The most notable shift? Charged attacks now generate silk. This makes aerial combat more efficient, giving players additional resources to pressure flying enemies. Crests tied to silk production were also updated:
- Hunter’s Crest now grants two silks per charge.
- Other crests provide one silk each.
- Witch Crest remains unchanged.
- Architect Crest suffers a 29% damage reduction, frustrating some fans.
Tools Take a Turn
The Flintslate tool now packs a punch—delivering 50% more damage when paired with Hunter, Reaper, or Beast Crests. But not all builds benefited: Witch and Wanderer setups saw slight nerfs, while Architect-focused players faced the heaviest downgrade.
Other changes include:
- Clawline attack under Hunter focus: now weaker, reducing burst potential.
- Volt Filament: significantly buffed, boosting both its utility and overall skill damage.
- Cogwork Wheel: inventory cap lowered from 16 to 10 units, trimming resource stockpiles.
How Players Are Reacting
A Boost for Silk Strategies
On Reddit, the silk-generation buff earned praise. One fan noted that Hunter’s Crest could finally become “as good as or better than regular attacks,” hinting that the adjustment might elevate underused builds.
A Divided Community Over Nerfs
Not every tweak landed well. The Architect Crest nerf sparked heated debate, with some players arguing that it undercuts the creative strategies they had built around it. Others welcomed the balance adjustment, saying it forces experimentation beyond one dominant setup.
Why These Changes Matter
Shaping the Meta in a Post-Launch World
Balancing updates are nothing new for modern games, but Silksong’s adjustments are particularly impactful. By altering how silk is generated, Team Cherry is influencing core combat loops—especially for players who rely on precise resource management in tougher encounters.
These tweaks also suggest the studio is taking cues directly from the community. Tools like Volt Filament, once seen as situational, may now hold greater weight in late-game builds, while once-powerful crests are being carefully scaled back to encourage variety.
A Pattern of Steady Refinement
This isn’t the first time Team Cherry has stepped in with balancing patches. The September 12 update already reduced the difficulty of notoriously tough encounters, including battles against Moorwing and Silent Splinter. Taken together, the two patches show a developer willing to iterate quickly, balancing challenge with fairness.
What Comes Next for Silksong?
With Silksong finally out in the wild, Team Cherry faces the challenge of keeping the game fresh for both newcomers and veteran Hollow Knight fans. If the hidden September changes are any indication, future patches could continue to reshape the meta in subtle but meaningful ways.
For players, that means the journey isn’t just about exploring Pharloom’s towering landscapes—it’s also about adapting strategies to an evolving ruleset. And for Team Cherry, it’s proof that a game long defined by patience and precision now demands the same from its developers.
