Hollow Knight: Silksong New Patch Update Hidden Details

The newest patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong just came out, bringing a handful of subtle changes to the combat system that were not mentioned in the official patch notes, but these changes have been found through in-game testing done by the community.

The adjustments made mainly affect charged attacks, crest interactions, and Silk Skill modifiers. These come together collectively, changing the way players approach combat in the future.

While Team Cherry has not publicly announced any changes, the tweaks can be observed in-game. Some previously overpowered abilities have been nerfed, while a few abilities may be finally getting their spotlight in the meta.

One of the biggest changes is that now charge attacks can generate silk, shifting some plastyles because what was once a purely offensive attack can now also provide value as a utility.

Tests done with the damage mod show that Hunter's crest's charged attack now produces two silk, while other crests make one. This may add to the layers in combat; the factor of resource management in combat was already present. 

Players are rewarded for taking the risk of doing charged attacks mid-fight. The change fits Silksong's emphasis on silk being both an offensive and defensive resource, encouraging more varied playstyles.

But not all charged attacks have escaped unscathed; The Architect crest's charge attack, famous for its high damage output, has been nerfed. Previously, it landed seven consecutive hits of 13 damage, but in this patch, that has been reduced to five hits. Maintaining the same damage per strike but lowering total output by about 29 percent. 

Despite this reduction in overall damage, it still remains one of the stronger charged attacks in the game due to its raw damage output. Now it just feels more balanced compared to the other crests.

In contrast, the Witch crest charge attack has not been altered, with its total damage output still being around 161. Given its longer animation and large pushback from hits, which already made it difficult to use, it keeps its high total damage balanced. 

Another significant adjustment involves Flintslate, a tool known for amplifying the damage of especially charged attacks. Before the patch, it gave an extra 10 damage to every tick of a charged attack, heavily favoring multi-hit attacks. 

The update changes this to scale with the damage of each hit, boosting each tick by roughly 50 percent. This change has diverse implications. Crests like Hunter, Reaper, and Beast benefit substantially from the scaling, making their charged attacks far stronger than before. 

In contrast, single-hit charges, such as Witch and Wanderer, see only a slight decline in effectiveness. But the Architect's crest suffers the most since it can no longer stack as much damage through its rapid sequence of hits. Flintslate still functions the same as before on regular attacks for all crests, but its role in charge-centric builds is now heavily affected.

The Clawline attack also got adjustments, specifically when it is paired with the Hunter's Focus buff. Before the patch, when you used to achieve the second bar of Focus, it granted a staggering 90% damage increase to Clawline, creating an imbalance compared to other buffed attacks.

This new patch reduced this bonus to bring it more in line with the rest of the roster. Even so, Clawline maintains its edge, as each hit using it counts as two charges toward maintaining Focus, making it still a reliable tool for builds that utilize that attack.

Finally, changes to Volt Filament, which have proven to be the most dramatic changes, have shifted it from a niche tool to a powerhouse. Before the patch, Volt Filament added only a minor damage buff and did not scale with Silk Skills directly, resulting in a modest 5–15% damage increase at best.

But after the new patches, the filaments also boost the base skill's damage itself, resulting in roughly a 30 percent increase across most Silk skills. One exception to this change is Rune Rage, which gains only about 16 percent under ideal conditions, and often less in practical scenarios.

 Even so, the tool now represents a major upgrade for Silk Skill-focused builds, encouraging experimentation with ability-driven combat rather than pure melee.

Overall, this update is packed with numerous features, and I suggest you try out these changes yourself and get accustomed to them while testing builds from other developers under this new development.