Team Cherry has a great opportunity to take a hidden feature ofHollow Knight’s charm system when working on Hornet’s new build inHollow Knight: Silksong. Given that the charms already open up a wide variety of options for players to unlockHollow Knight’s best builds, the system is already working with an impressive framework to build upon.
One notable update for build variety and accessibility thatHollow Knight: Silksongcould implement would come from reworking the overcharm mechanic and the hunt for charm notches. This could help lighten the grind of collecting charm notches towards the end of the game, while keeping Hornet’s build variety elevating throughout the game.
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Levels of Overcharm that Reduce Over Time
The current form of the overcharm mechanic inHollow Knightoccurs when players equip a number of charm slots that exceed the total number of charm notches they have available to use. This results in players being able to create builds with a number ofHollow Knight’s strongest charms, at the cost of taking double damage whenever being attacked by any source. It’s a powerful risk/reward system that can add a level of challenge in exchange for setting up some of the strongest builds available in the game.
WithHollow Knight: Silksongfollowing Hornetinstead of the original Knight, the differences between the characters can easily be shown by giving them different ways to adjust the risk of overcharming. Similar to the original, going beyond the specified “max” equip load causing double damage is still a great way to offer a tradeoff for going all-in on a specific build. However, instead of needing to collect charm notches, Hornet should be able to equip the same maximum number of charms from start to finish with differing levels of equip load penalties depending on how many are attached and how far into the game the player is.
An example of these varied levels of overcharm would be the light, medium, and heavy equip system found in otherSouls-likes similar toHollow Knight, with a penalty on Silk recharge rates at different levels. Then, instead of finding charm notches throughout the game, Hornet could find upgrades that alter the threshold for these different levels of equip load. This way players can still make powerful endgame builds as soon as they find the required charms, but won’t be able to use all of Hornet’s accompanying toolkit until they do the work of finding the notch upgrades.
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Longtime Hollow Knight Fans Can Hit the Ground Running
One hurdle to always overcome with a game likeHollow Knight: Silksongthat stands in the shadow of its predecessoris getting fans that have had years to engage with and improve their skills with the original game invested in the sequel. A more open approach to build variety without the more strict restrictions of charm notches could help to bridge that gap from one game to the next, by letting early overcharmed builds add their own level of innate challenge. At the same time, new players coming to the sequel without having played the originalHollow Knightwon’t be expected to equip every charm they can at first if that makes the game harder from the start.
It’s a built-in difficulty slider that could make subsequent playthroughs easier to start for players that return toHollow Knight: Silksongrepeatedly but doesn’t have to impact an initial run of the game for those who want to engage more casually. This level of customization would just be an elevation onHollow Knight: Silksong’s light RPG mechanicsthat carry over from the original. The result is a win-win scenario for players at all skill levels jumping into the game for the first time when it releases and returning after beating the game once.
