Hollow Knight: Silksong Guide | How to Complete the Trail's End Quest

Here's a guide on how to complete the Trail's End quest.

Game Guide by Imdeadfrfr on Oct 15, 2025

The Trail's End longing in Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of the most complex and rewarding side quests of the game, involving Shakra, the eternally wandering mapmaker who's been mapping Pharloom way longer than you've been alive.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, Guide, How to Complete, the Trail's End Quest

In this guide, I will help you complete the Trail's End quest in Hollow Knight: Silksong.

It requires patience, precision, and skill to complete it in a way, as you must follow Shakra's route through nearly all of the areas, collect his maps, and finally meet him for a final adventure that ends with both an emotional conclusion and a highly formidable new weapon.

To find the Trail's End wish, you first need to locate Shakra in each region of the world. He doesn't stay put anywhere long, so this task alone consumes time.

Make sure you've purchased or obtained maps from him at the following places: Bone Bottom, Wormways, The Marrow, Deep Docks, Hunter March, Farfields, Greymoor, Sinner's Road, Bilewater, Bellheart, Shellwood, Blasted Steps, Sands of Karac, and Mount Fay.

Whispering Vaults is out, so you can skip that one. Travelling through all of them and getting their maps is absolutely required; if you miss one, the quest will not be triggered.

You need to encounter Shakra in all of the regions in Pharloom.

Once you've travelled past Shakra in each of them, return to Bell Hart, where the employment board will now have a fresh advertisement: "Trail's End (Wish)." Accept it, and you'll begin the quest properly.

Your first destination is Bilewater, a dark and perilous area with toxic pools, spiked traps, and enemies that will test your reflexes to the utmost.

Make sure the double jump ability is unlocked before heading there because you'll need it to reach most of the platforms and areas that you'll be utilizing, and the quest can't otherwise be completed. Start at the nearest fast travel spot in Bilewater, traveling right and up. It's all about platforming and dodging from there.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Guide | How to Complete the Trail's End Quest

As you climb, you'll notice several varieties of enemies — ones that spit things at you, ones that charge or fly at you. You can kill them for souls to heal yourself, or simply dodge them if you're sure you can. The path begins with some narrow ledges that go up through the shafts of stone.

Pogo fast enough, and the ranged guys won't be able to get a hit in. If you're cornered, remember flying enemies make for great pogo devices; they even have a purpose for healing in between jumps.

You will be led up to a hugely tall vertical corridor with other hostile creatures in it. If you've equipped a throwable weapon, such as needles or other ranged tools, use them to clear the space ahead of time.

Otherwise, time your movements to slip between openings in their patterns. At the top of this shaft, instead of continuing to the right, take a moment to go left. You've got two options here, depending on what shortcuts you've already created, but either way, you get to the same destination in the end.

The next bit is the most challenging: the parkour. You'll use your double jump and wall cling a lot to scale this section. The Cling Grip charm (or ability) comes in very handy, as it allows you to take a brief pause on walls before jumping once more.

Each of the rooms will have intense parkour and traps.

The next rooms are covered in traps that make spikes emerge when you step on some of the tiles. The best way through is to wait between jumps and watch each trap's pattern. Some will trigger immediately, while others have a short delay, so it's all about patience.

Also, there's a crazed combat area where multiple enemies spawn simultaneously, so the room is massively deadly. Depending on your charm and health setup, you can rush through or battle through them.

Every now and then, the game dumps all of them at once, and the battle then becomes random in toughness — silky smooth one moment and savage the next. When you are low on health, use your environment or nearby enemies to set up healing opportunities.

The higher up you travel, the tighter the level becomes, with you needing to make precise jumps across platforms, traveling left and right, and narrow walkways.

Not grasping or falling off a jump here results in an immediate drop back down, but with regular timing, you'll reach the top. You then head right into a narrow room edged with spike traps below. Jump down gently, taking no damage, and head to the right again.

After all of this, you'll eventually meet Shakra. It's a quiet, long climb through danger, so the tranquil moment in this final room is a welcome relief. As you approach, a conversation begins — both a farewell and a reminiscence of your shared experience.

Shakra acknowledges your effort in tracking his work across Pharloom, noting how you've braved every danger just to follow his trail. The dialogue unfolds slowly, box by box, giving players time to appreciate his final words.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Guide | How to Complete the Trail's End Quest

It feels like closing the final page of a long-traveled map. When the conversation ends, the game informs you as such: the wish has been granted, the Trail's End accomplished, and you are rewarded with an achievement for having done so.

Your reward is one of the game's most eccentric weapons — the Throwing Rings. These are the "hard-throwing weapons of the warrior Shakra, blood-forged throwbacks between enemies and hard surfaces." In functional use, it is a mid-range combat weapon that works best in close quarters and against multiple enemies.

In terms of equipment, you can throw twelve rings simultaneously, and they ricochet between enemies and walls before returning to you. The rings' bouncy nature allows them to hit multiple targets with a single throw, which makes them particularly useful in small areas. Their shape is a testament to Shakra's nomadic, wandering personality — constant motion, constant return.

To manage the journey more comfortably, carry healing-oriented charms or devices that enable you to heal up quickly between battles. Bilewater's traps punish inaccuracies severely, and a way of recovering health regardless of soul might be the difference between life and death.

If you've already exposed shortcuts to the upper levels of Bilewater, use them to bypass some of the early dangers. Be mindful, too, that many enemies along the way are deliberately positioned as pogo platforms — being cognizant of this can help keep you moving swiftly and alive.

Throughout a typical side quest, Trail's End is more of an acknowledgment — to the player's discovery, to Shakra's love of maps, and to persistence in general. The journey through each zone and climb through Bilewater's deadly tunnels mirrors Hornet's growth, turning what is initially a drudgery into a moment of reflection.

When you finally meet face to face with Shakra, it is not just the ending of a quest but the ending of a long friendship. The reward, the achievement, and the new weapon become secondary to the emotional satisfaction of the meeting.

Completing Trail's End is as much a matter of endurance as it is one of discovery. You've followed the cartographer through storm and destruction and abyss, only to find him standing still at the end of the world.

The Throwing Rings that you receive are not merely another piece of equipment — they're a symbol of all the journey took: finesse, endurance, patience. As you leave Bilewater and return to the world above, the shadow of Shakra's path is still behind you.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Guide | How to Complete the Trail's End Quest

The maps are complete. The dream has materialized. The journey has reached its end — and so has the story of the cartographer who could never stop roaming.

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