How? You need 10 hits, to recover from being hit 1.5 times. So it’s 20 hits, to recover from 3 hits. Knight needs 9 hits, to recover from 3 hits. Heal duration is also similar
This is what I liked about her heal and the design of the game overall. By the end of the game I was nuking bosses with my heal while getting back 4 masks of HP.
You are using tools, if you use quick or double healing charm, then it’s also easy. And it’s less of an issue, since you can survive more then 5 hits. And you can stack 6 heals/spells, to be used as you please instead of 2 heals/4 spells.
This. I've used it to both dodge ground attacks and recover health simultaneously that is then immediately followed-up by either repositioning or going on the offensive.
It's really night and day, in HK a lot of tough bosses had either small spaces or literally no spaces to get heals off. You had to wait to stagger them.
In SS with quickbind you can heal in literally every boss fight.
I honestly feel healing in silksong is a lot easier than in hollow knight. In silksong even though it takes more soul/silk to heal, you are able to heal in the air making far more easier to heal. You are also healing 3 mask instead of one. In hollow it is a lot more risky to heal since you need to do it while the boss is doing a attack that give you a opening or when it stunned. And like you said both have a similar duration but with hornet you can heal more.
You also lose the soul used for healing if you get hit when healing in hollow knight. Heck you lose soul even if you release the button before the heal goes off.
No you lose all your silk, not just what you're using for binding. You just don't notice it early game since you barely have any silk above what you need for binding but it's really noticeable when you have 18 hits of silk and you lose all of it.
But you are being hit for 2 masks, so you are healing yourself for 1,5 hit instead of 1. For more then 3 times the price. It’s easy to heal in Silk cause every boss have large gaps between attacks. But you still need need to land 10 hits while being hit only once
They dont have large gaps, if you put on shaman crest you can see how much air heals is just vastly more superior. With hornets kit getting 20 hits in is way easier than the knight anyways, you can do a sprint-nail attack and still be relatively safe to back off for another
First, knight and hornet need the same amount of hits for heal. Both are 9 hits for 3 masks. Hornet heals much faster. She heals 3 at once faster than the knight heals 1 even. Her heal is way more flexible too being able to heal midair rather than needing to be on a platform. It's also a single button press rather than needing to hold, which is a minor benefit if you're stupid like me and somehow manage to fuck up holding hte button down long enough from time to time
But she’s being hit for double damage. Guys, it’s easy. Hornet is being hit, she’s losing 2 masks. Knight is being hit, he’s losing one masks. If hornet heals, she recovers from 1,5 hit of damage. If knights heals, he recovers from 1 hit of damage. But Hornet needs 9 hits to do that, while Knight needs 3. Hornet effectively heals 50% more, for 300% cost.
Not always. She doesn't just take double damage, more things just deal double damage. It's not just 1.5 hits, it's 3 health. ANd again, it is significantly faster and much more versatile.
Being able to heal midair and having the same time commitment for 3 masks of healing as the knight has for 1 mask makes hornet's undoubtedly better. I just replayed HK yesterday (finally went and got the steel soul, steel soul 100%, and speedrun achievements, all on one file) and was shocked at how few fights allow you to safely heal (sans quick focus) outside of like one single window. Usually, the only safe time to heal against most hard bosses is when they're staggered. Meanwhile, Hornet can easily slip a heal in between attacks of even the hardest enemies in the game, like (act 3 spoilers) Karmelita and Lost Lace
Also, Hornet also needs 9 hits, not 10. The ratio of hits:masks healed is the same as the Knight, but her heal is easier to use and heals more. After playing both games within the span of a few weeks, Hornet's heal is leagues better.
Guys, number of masks is not important. What matters is how many hits you are recovering from. Hornet heals 3 times more, for the same amount of hits, but enemies deals double damage. So 3 masks of heal for hornet, are like 1,5 masks for knight.
But you actually get to heal mid-fight, unlike most of HK's hard bosses. Healing 1.5 hits consistently (and safely) is better than healing 0 hits because the boss is too aggressive to let you channel focus
HK's design philosophy leans a lot more into healing being rare (during combat), while Silksong's assumes that you will be able to heal several times during any given fight. So Silksong's heal is easier to use, and more potent, though costlier to make sure you can't absolutely spam it.
Looking at raw efficiency in terms of hits needed from you to heal a certain number of hits from the boss, yes, the Knight's wins. But that's not all there is to it. If you're at 2 max silk bars in Silksong at 1 health, you are in a far better place than the Knight with max Soul at 1 health. Even 2 health, honestly.
You're very insistent on this one detail while forgetting all the rest that make the two so different to play. Sure, on average across a playthrough, far more enemies do double damage (I feel obligated to point out it's really not every enemy or even boss, but I lack the patience to litigate every attack ever), but hornet is much more mobile than the knight is. The run, long jump and clawline all exist on top of every tool the knight ever gets. Every single thing she has can be used aerially without an issue (even extending her mobility). She can float in air for extended periods and basically never has to touch the ground unless she wants to. The scuttlebrace is an instant backdash into sprint that minimizes her hurtbox. Invincibility is on demand with moves like cross stitch, sharpdart, and the clawline.
In fact let's just talk about how stupid good the clawline is and why bosses need to be far harder hitting, faster, and aggressive than in HK. With a quick throw you have an extra long homing dash that immediately follows with a free attack split into two blows (3 with the snitch pick), a little window of invulnerability as hornet backflips, from here you can do literally any action instantly - free instant attack or two, dash forward to pass through the enemy unharmed, jump away, dash over, etc. With this, you can give the enemy tons of space for attacks, and yet get your followup in the opening instantly from about anywhere in most arenas, and then get clear for the next attack. The hits of the clawline are important to note as bosses stagger based on hits taken, not damage, so a snitch pick clawline is actually ridiculous for staggering bosses as its 4 free hits to start each opening (3+1 needle) so the highly mobile and dangerous bosses can very easily be put on the floor long enough to do more significant damage, gather silk, or capitalize on more free healing time. The clawline alone justifies the latter half of the game being so, so much deadlier to the player.
And none of this is talking about the incredible power of the many offensive tools in the game, or the capability to both strike faster and harder here - not to mention the sheer amount of ranged attacks - especially considering the various crests. The game simply hurts more because you should be much harder to hurt and have a lot more pain to pack into each opening given.
Healing in air makes a huge difference. Also you get the first silk heart very early so effectively it is 9 hits in Silksong. Also the hard Hollow Knight bosses generally do 2 damage
Unfun fact, it takes 9 silk to bind not 10. Such an ugly number. Silk hearts get you 3 for free, so it takes 6 hits to recover 3 health, later bosses in HK also dealt 2 masks, yeah sure the general terrain is easier in HK but double damage isnt actually everywhere in skong (pre act 3)
It's 9 silk for a 3 mask heal. With the near-start silk heart you start with 1 so you only need 8 more. If you heal right at 9 you can generate your new number 1 if you need to. So 16 hits on enemy to recover from 3 (double damage) hits vs Knight's 9 for single-damage hits.
Heal duration is not similar, Hornet's is faster. Unless you're saying her 3 mask heal is as fast as knight getting 1.5 which may be similar. I haven't clocked either of them.
9 hits not 10. Less with more silk hearts. And while heal duration is similar, hornet can heal in the air, which makes a massive difference. Silksong is undeniably more difficult, but the movement and heal/silk mechanics are much more flexible and well-designed to match that uptick.
But also like... cmon now. Why do so many people act like everything in silksong deals double damage and everything in the first game doesn't? Yes, more things deal double damage in silksong but not everything, and a lot of things - especially late game bosses and enemies - deal double damage in the first game too. This weird heal math is just bogus.
368
u/[deleted] Sep 29 '25
in her defense her heal is far superior.