The wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong was a long and arduous one, so it comes as no surprise that less than a week from launch, modders were already hard at work adjusting the game’s performance, visuals, and gameplay to suit differing preferences. Some of the best Silksong mods can adjust the rate at which you collect rosaries, one of the game’s currencies, as well as unlocking teleporting, or altering damage output.
Silksong sees you step into the role of a new protagonist, Hornet, and ascend a mysterious peak to reach the apex of a haunted kingdom. While there are obvious similarities to the original Hollow Knight, Silksong evolves the movement and abilities meaning there are more than a few differences, too. We’ve found the most popular Hollow Knight: Silksong mods available right now, as well as how to install them to tailor one of the best metroidvanias to your own preferences.
How To Install Hollow Knight: Silksong Mods
Hollow Knight: Silksong mods rely on a framework called BepInEx 5. To use it, just download the framework from Nexus Mods, and then hit F1 while in-game to bring up the mods configuration menu.
To install BepInEx 5 right-click Hollow Knight: Silksong in your Steam interface and navigate to “Manage” and then “Browse local files.” Open the zip file that you downloaded and drag all of the files into the Silksong folder you opened via Steam. Start the game and close it. Then open the BepInEx folder that should now exist within your Silksong files. If you can see “plugins” and “config” folders in there, the framework has installed correctly.
To add your mods to the game, download them and extract them into the BepInEx “plugin” folder.
Stakes Of Marika Rebirth Anywhere
You may recognize the Stakes of Marika from Elden Ring–but don’t worry, we’ve not got our games confused. This quality-of-life mod, created by kassent on Nexus Mods, is inspired by the feature in From Software’s mammoth title, and makes it possible to respawn at the entrance to the area you died in instead of having to navigate there from the last bench you rested at. You can also add customizable respawn points, if you think that option might be a little too easy.
To set a custom respawn point, press F8 on a keyboard or press both analog sticks in on your controller.
Teleport
It can be argued that part of the fun of the Hollow Knight games is getting lost after dying and spending an age trying to get back to where you were. Especially in the early game, the maps are barely helpful, so teleportation is a valuable skill. This teleport mod from YMC_MHZ addresses the pains of being lost in the popular metroidvania.
Pressing a shortcut on your keyboard or controller will set a position, indicated by a sound alert. Other shortcuts enable you to teleport to that position, your last bench, or another safe respawn point. It’s important to note that the mod won’t function during boss fights, inside closed combat areas, during cutscenes, or during triggered events.
Show Health Bar
If you’re anything like me, the peril of facing a boss when you’re not sure how much health it has, or how much damage you’re doing, can be exhilarating. If you’re far more sensible than me though, you might find it pretty exhausting to face the same enemy 20 times in a row with no indication as to how close you are to finishing them off. This health bar mod from xiaohai addresses the issue, adding a large HP bar at the bottom of the screen so you can visualize your progress.
Double Damage
Who really wants to throw themselves at enemies multiple times, learning attack patterns and perfecting the art of taking them down? If you find repeat attempts dull, or just want to feel like Hornet is near-invincible, consider this double damage mod from stebars. It pretty much does what it says on the tin, doubling your outgoing damage as default.
The multiplier can be configured, if you’re wanting to tweak the experience to suit you. For example, setting the multiplier to 0.5 will mean enemies take half the amount of damage as usual–perfect for those challenge runs you’re definitely going to do.
All Enemies Drop Rosaries
Rosary Beads are one of the most valuable in-game currencies in Silksong, largely due to the ability to trade them with Shakra for maps and other useful items, including the Compass Pin. While there are a few areas you can easily farm Rosaries by killing enemies and then resting at a nearby bench, this Rosaries mod causes all enemies to drop them instead of a select few. Not only that, but each enemy will drop additional Rosaries depending on their maximum health.
The amount of Rosaries dropped can’t be configured just yet, but the mod creator, YukkuriC, states it may be possible in the future–if they can figure out how.
Invincibility
Have you had enough of being schooled by the many Silksong bosses? Fancy being invincible, even if just for a short amount of time to get past a frustrating wall you just can’t break through? This invincible mod from PizzaWen simply states, “I have had enough,” and causes hit detection to be completely disabled. Stab, slice, and needle throw your way to victory without ever taking damage.
Be careful around the game’s rolling saws, as the creator states that sometimes you may become stuck due to the cogs’ damage not registering. Waiting a few seconds or moving slightly should fix the issue if you do run into it though.
Death Counter
Are you a glutton for punishment? Do you want to keep tabs on exactly how many times you’ve died during your Silksong playthrough? This death counter mod by Rexxah adds the information in (very tiny) text in a corner of the screen, so you can refer back to it. The mod supports per-game or per-run counters, and has hotkeys to reset deaths for situations where you may want to track deaths per boss, or similar.
Those of you completing challenge runs or speedruns especially may find this mod useful, or you might just want to keep track of how many times you cause poor Hornet to meet her untimely demise.
Echoes of Pharloom
This mod is slightly different from others on this list of the best Silksong mods, as it focuses solely on the in-game audio. Echoes of Pharloom, from legoat, upgrades the audio to a fully immersive 3D soundscape. You’ll hear every step, enemy, and environmental noise. The mod creator has also used spatial audio techniques, making it feel like you’re truly traversing through Pharloom alongside Hornet.
The reverb effects in caves and forests is really very impressive, and it’s easier to gauge how far away an enemy is with this audio upgrade.
Increased Attack Range
While this attack range mod is advertised as increasing Hornet’s range, creator MorniaOwO has crafted it so that the attack range is customizable. That means that, if you really want to, you can decrease the range of Hornet’s attacks for increased difficulty.
I’ve certainly noticed that Hornet’s attack range is notably shorter than the Knight’s in the first game, so you may want to use this mod to address any frustrations if you feel similarly.
No Double Damage
If you’re tired of difficult boss fights but don’t want to use the above mod to alter Hornet’s damage output, you might consider the no double damage mod from Baiker. This ensures all enemies and bosses can only deal one mask of damage per hit. It doesn’t affect environmental damage though, so the falling bells during the Bell Beast fight might still cause a problem.