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Hollow Knight Silksong: Release Date, Gameplay, & Latest News

Last Updated: October 21, 2025

Hornet, the protagonist of Hollow Knight Silksong, leaping in the haunted kingdom of Pharloom with her needle weapon.

The shadow of Hallownest looms large, but a new kingdom awaits. Hollow Knight: Silksong, the sequel to Team Cherry's breakout indie masterpiece, remains one of the most anticipated games in recent memory. Years after its initial reveal, the journey of the princess-protector Hornet is no longer a distant promise but an imminent reality, with new ratings and store listings signaling that the long wait is nearly over.

Originally envisioned as DLC for the first game, Silksong grew so ambitious that Team Cherry announced it as a full-fledged sequel in February 2019. Players will trade the silent, stoic Knight for the nimble and vocal Hornet as she's captured and brought to the haunted, gilded kingdom of Pharloom. Her goal is simple: ascend from the kingdom's depths to its shining citadel, uncovering the secrets of her captors along the way.

A New Kingdom, A More Acrobatic Challenge

While Team Cherry has preserved the core DNA of Hollow Knight—challenging boss fights, intricate world design, and cryptic lore—Hornet's gameplay introduces a fundamentally faster and more vertical experience. Unlike the Knight, Hornet is a taller, more agile warrior. Her movement is defined by aerial grace, featuring dashes, high jumps, and the ability to clamber onto ledges. This enhanced mobility is not just for show; it's a necessary tool to navigate Pharloom's vast, interconnected regions and overcome its more than 150 new enemies.

This shift in traversal and combat has led to much discussion about Silksong's difficulty. The original game was renowned for its tough-but-fair challenge. In Silksong, Hornet's ability to heal is tied to her Silk, but instead of the Knight's stationary Focus, she can Bind on the move, instantly healing three masks at the cost of her full Silk meter. This suggests a faster-paced combat loop where finding moments of respite is replaced by aggressive, on-the-fly recovery.

Furthermore, Hornet’s arsenal is built on crafting. Using Shell Shards collected from enemies, she can craft a variety of tools and traps, from sharpened pins to bombs. This system replaces the Charms of the original, offering a more dynamic way for players to customize their loadout and approach to combat encounters. The design philosophy appears to be providing players with more tools, but also increasing the speed and complexity of enemy threats to match.

The Long Road to Release

The development of Silksong has been a journey of intense anticipation and prolonged silence. After its 2019 reveal, news became scarce, leading to a fervent community following that turned every gaming showcase into a moment of hope.

A major breakthrough came during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022, where Silksong reemerged with a new gameplay trailer and a confirmation that it would launch day one on Xbox Game Pass. At the time, Xbox stated that all games shown were slated to be released within the next 12 months. However, in May 2023, Team Cherry's marketing lead, Matthew Griffin, officially announced a delay, stating, "We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can."

Since then, signs of an impending release have multiplied. In early 2024, the game received official ratings in Korea, Australia, and most recently from the ESRB in North America, which gave it a T for Teen rating for "Fantasy Violence" and "Mild Blood." Store pages have also gone live on the Xbox Store, PlayStation Store, and the Nintendo eShop, allowing players to finally wishlist the title—a critical step that almost always precedes a launch announcement.

While Team Cherry has yet to announce a firm release date, all evidence points to a launch arriving sooner rather than later. The sequel will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, and will be included with Xbox Game Pass from day one. The long silence has been broken, and the hunt is about to begin.