I bought the game on a whim for the switch, but I feel ill prepared. I don’t usually play heavy action games like this and I hear it’s especially hard for what it is. But I want to try.
there’s a lot of bugs so watch out for those
Omg first instinct was to downvote, but then realized the pun. Joke went whoosh
I reluctantly give you an upvote. RELUCTANTLY.
I happened to start HK at the same time as a coworker. We would sync every few days about what we discovered recently. It wasn’t a spoiler, it felt like I was back in the 90s talking with friends about game secrets before the internet spoiled it all. The game is just as much about the exploration as it is the challenge. Highly recommend if you have any friends who are also thinking of playing it.
Couldn’t agree more about the exploration. It is about discovery. Discovery and pure frustration at enemies. Great game that I never finished but still think about.
No, you can just go in blind and enjoy the journey.
If you find yourself in a fight that you keep dying to, you may try exploring other areas to make progression elsewhere before coming back and trying again.
I LOVE Hollow Knight. It’s one of those games I wish I could erase from my mind and play from scratch again. As someone relatively new to gaming (when I started playing), it was infuriatingly hard at times. But it definitely made me a better gamer – probably moreso than any other game I’ve played.
My advice would be to definitely pick it up and give it a try. Don’t be too intimidated. The music and art are gorgeous and it’s an absolute blast once you get into it! And if you get frustrated, take a break and come back a little while later. I had so many occasions when I immediately succeeded after a 30-45 minute break.
Also: I agree with what everyone says about not looking stuff up unless you have to. Spoilers make the exploration aspect way less fun and exploring is one of the best parts.
Honestly just play and have fun. The only tip I used my first playthrough was a steam guide that had the recommended progress route. It’s 100% unnecessary but some areas are EXTREMELY difficult, and others are very hard to find so it was helpful to know where/when I should go.
There’s been some great advice in this thread. In the future though here’s a shout out for one of my favorite wikis out there, the before I play wiki .
It’s great and has useful tips for all kinds of games. Good luck in Hollownest!
Oh man you’re in for a treat! One suggestion: when you get to the late game, if you haven’t and can, switch to a controller, late game can be difficult, much more so if you seek optional areas, those can be crazy hard and plain impossible on a keyboard.
And prepare for feels. It’s surprising how invested you can become on a bunch of bugs.
Edit: I see you’re on the Switch, never mind keyboard comments, was mistaken
I second the controller, and that it’s a good idea to learn to use directional pad rather than joystick, because precise movement is going to matter a lot in the late game.
I anti-second the controller - there’s no benefit to it, and as the other commenter said, you’re going to want to play with the d-pad anyway. Play with whatever you feel more comfortable with, there’s no difference between the two.
I was in the exact same boat you are now before I played. I almost never play platformers, and so even though I owned Hollow Knight, I always left it for some imaginary day when I felt up to it.
By complete coincidence though I also owned Steamworld Dig 2, due to loving Steamworld Heist by the same developer and wanting to see more of the world they’d created. Not feeling as intimidated by Steamworld Dig 2 because it didn’t have the same difficult reputation as Hollow Knight, I gave it a try.
It couldn’t have worked out better. Not only is it an amazing game in its own right, but the difficulty curve was absolutely perfect to prepare me for Hollow Knight. After finishing Steamworld 2 I was still craving more gameplay of that type, and was able to jump right into Hollow Knight and the difficulty just felt natural and achievable, since it was relatively close to the difficulty Steamworld 2 had ended on. The games are similar enough that my skills carried over, and I honestly think it helped me get the most out of Hollow Knight as a player who never played similar games prior.
That was my experience, and I’m always glad it worked out that way because now I love Hollow Knight and it’s one of my favourite games. So for anyone who has any doubts about their ability to play Hollow Knight due to their inexperience with the genre, playing Steamworld Dig 2 first may set you up perfectly to tackle Hollow Knight. It did for me, and I had a blast with both games.
Dude this is so weird. I started Hollow Knight a week ago, couldn’t beat the first boss and quit. I saw Steamworld Dig 2 and having loved the first one on Vita I booted it up on steam. Hard but chill, so when I finish that I’ll go back to HK :)
Man I envy you so much right now, just go blind. You may get lost a little bit but just enjoy the ride. I won’t exaggerate but it may be the greatest game in human history :)
Make good use of the bank! If you die on your corpse run you lose all your money, so it’s definitely worth it to pay for the bank account and store it all there instead.
You’re evil lmao
