The notes for Hollow Knight: Silksong's first proper post-release patch have arrived. Team Cherry have been busy fixing bugs and making some "slight balance adjustments in the early game", which you can now give a go early via beta branches on Steam and GOG.

That'll mean you're testing the changes ahead of the update's planned full deployment next week, with Team Cherry aiming for a mid-week arrival "barring any unforeseen issues". Now you know that, let's get into the changes, which the studio have outlined in a post on the Steamy platform.

First of all, the bit that might prove controversial among hardened Skongers. As part of those early game balance tweaks, Team Cherry have opted to roll out a "slight difficulty reduction" for the boss fights against Moorwing and Sister Splinter. How you feel about that will likely depend on whether you've spent the past few days yelling at folks for seeking out mods or guides to help make their path through the metroidvania a bit less stressful.

Outside of that, the balancing's also seen Sandcarvers have their damage reduced, plus increases in the rosary rewards dished out by relics, psalm cylinders, and courier deliveries. The prices of bellways and bell benches you run into around the game's midway point have also dropped a bit. Oh, and there's been a "slight increase in pea pod collider scale".

That's it for the balancing, with the rest being bug fixes for problems like "getting stuck floating after down-bouncing on certain projectiles", "courier deliveries sometimes being inaccessible in Act 3", and that "situation where players could remain cloakless after Slab escape sequence" I mentioned in the strap. No prolonged Hornet nudeness for the horn-dogs. Well, coatlessness really, but either way she might have gotten a bit cold, so an important fix.

I'll list the rest of the fixes below, so you can scan through to see if anything you've run into crops up:

  • Fixed wish Infestation Operation often not being completable during the late game.
  • Fixed wish Beast in the Bells not being completable when Bell Beast is summoned at the Bilewater Bellway during the late game.
  • Fixed craft bind behaving incorrectly when in memories.
  • Fixed Lace tool deflect soft-lock at start of battle in Deep Docks.
  • Fixed Silk Snippers in Chapel of the Reaper sometimes getting stuck out of bounds.
  • Fixed Claw Mirrors leaving Hornet inverted if taking damage during a specific moment while binding.
  • Fixed Snitch Pick not giving rosaries and shell shards as intended.
  • Removed float override input (down + jump, after player has Faydown Cloak).

"All fixes will apply retroactively, so players who've hit a significant bug that prevents progress may want to switch over to public-beta to receive the fix," Team Cherry wrote. "Further fixes are already being worked on for a second patch. If you have an issue and you don't see the solution in the list above, we may be working on it."

If you're planning on jumping into the patch's Steam beta, instructions for getting access can be found here. Just remember that you'll likely need to disable any mods, such as these freshly released multiplayer ones, that you've got installed first.