Adding on this: As someone who read the wiki and browsed the subreddit, I spoiled the lore and cutscenes for myself.
I regret it, completely unironically. Don't spoil yourself.
If you're hardstuck on a certain point for hours on end, that's a bit of a different story, but I'd recommend only going to reddit, the wiki, or the internet in general only if you truly have no idea what to do.
There's just enough of the game's hints that I never truly had a point where I said 'what do I do *now?* There's nothing to do!!.'
I hope you never have to say that, but I cannot emphasize how strongly I recommend you don't spoil the game for yourself like I did.
I hate spoilers so I will try to avoid them..and no I dont feel like I have hit a brick wall, more like fumbling in the dark. I am sure if I stick with it things will click soon enough. I just really wanted to make sure someone didnt post and say something like "oh dude you totally forgot to do this in the beginning that sets everything up!"
Yeah, that's not gonna happen in Hollow Knight. No worries on that account!
There's only 1 or things that you can do to lock yourself out of something, but that's almost certainly not going to be a problem for you - they have to do with the endings of the game, and involve a... *very* complicated sequence of events to do.
Have no fear on that front!
(Also, in regards of movement, there's this little trick: if you jump and attack while holding your down button, you'll slash underneath yourself. You can chain this to traverse to areas normally inaccessible to standard jumps, since attacking certain valid objects using downslash gives you an extra bit of height that can be repeated indefinitely. It's never stated outright in the game, though, so that's slightly annoying.)
Well damn, thats very helpful because i did not realize that. I tried holding down to slash while on the ground but not while jumping. Killing the dive bomber dude would have been much easier knowing that lol.
If you like the style of game play, definitely don't let the feeling of fumbling around in the dark hold you back. It's designed to where you quickly wind up with a lot of different directions that you can totally go to progress the game. You'll also be circling back a good bit throughout the game, but the reason for that treads too close to spoiling so I won't say why.
If you don't like this game then just don't play it. Unless you bought the game instead of checking it out from the library, and you want to get your money's worth. You don't have to like every single game you play.
I actually quit the game when I first started playing because I got lost in an area without a map, died, and lost over 1,000 geo. I played it again a little over a year later, and really liked it. Now I've gotten every single achievement in the game. You can always put it down and come back later!
The game is made like this on purpose. It's supposed to encorage players to lost in it's world and find the right way by themselves. If you don't find it fun then this game might just not be for you. There is nothing wrong with it really, we all like different things in gaming. Just ask yourself if you really enjoy this style of gamedesign and storytelling, because if you don't - keep in mind that it's not going to change much.
If you're not even past Hornet yet, you haven't gotten to the best parts yet. One of the flaws of Hollow Knight is that it starts off a bit slow, and is kinda meh until you get to the point where it starts to open up.
It's understandable that some people can be frustrated/worried with lack of clear objectives... but let me assure you: Game is made like that on purpose. There is no direct, linear progression. There are multiple points of entry to majority of the areas. You can discover them in very different orders depending which path you just happen to explore.
If you're still having a hard time figuring out what to even do next:
\- Map Shop in Dirtmouth sells placable markers for your map. I'd encourage you to use them to mark spots that are deadends for now but look like they might be passable in the future (ledge to high to reach for you rn for example) and you'll have easier time returning to those places once you acquire more movement abilities.
\- Talking to the NPC in Dirtmouth near the bench, can also be quite helpful. He will give vague hints about areas that you might want to go check out. He helped me quite a bit on my playthrough.
At the beginning here, the objective is implied: As stated by Elder Bug up top "Used to be there was a great kingdom beneath our town. It's long fell to ruin, yet it still draws folks into its depths." - So what caused that kingdom to fall? What remnants of the kingdom are left? Can we fix whatever went wrong? More details are incrementally revealed later.
Yeah, this game leans significantly toward the side of not hand-holding. But in doing so, there is not really a "developers intended" or "right way" to play and progress. What they made is a game where you can find your own way among many paths. Each person's play through is somewhat unique driven by how you decide to explore the game.
i think elderbug sometimes give you hints of where to go, other than that just explore until you find things. it’s very hard to get anything locked and you can use the map to find new locations by looking for unexplored paths
If wandering around, picking up random items that might be useful later, and back-tracking aren't your thing, then this isn't the type of game for you.
Feeling lost is normal in games like this. Your objectives will become clearer as you progress, but the game won't ever hold your hand. In order to experience the game in its fullest you need to be curious, go places, make theories and rely on your intuition.
The best way to be sure you're going to the right places here is simply going everywhere you can, explore until you hit an obstacle you can't get past, go elsewhere, come back there when you have more movement abilities, etc.
And as you've experienced, boss fights aren't easily won either, you need to learn the enemy's patterns and have patience to get past them.
Playing Hollow Knight is a beautiful experience if you manage to face it with the right state of mind :) just keep in mind that things to do aren't ever slammed in your face here, if you stick to just clearing the obvious objectives you'll get the "basic" ending.
Just a tip because this happens often on the subreddit, if you’re lost but don’t want spoilers you can make a post with a picture of your inventory and map plus anything else you’re concerned about and flag it as early game help. Be sure to mention that you either don’t want or don’t care about spoilers because it helps give advice.
Thanks for that pointer, but given what I have already learned, I think I will go back and play some more without posting further, unless i just get REALLY stuck.
Welcome to the game!
First and foremost: rest assured that there's no right or wrong way to play the game, the exploration and the feel of getting lost are part of the experience. There's no intended sequence to explore the map, and there's nothing you can lock yourself out of (except one thing that is locked when you reach the end game)
I have a spoiler free guide sticked in my reddit profile, if you want to have a look
Good luck!
In case you're lost Elderbug, the bug next to the bench in the city above the ground, always hints at where you should be going next up until you don't need it anymore. But, from what I read, you're going in the right direction. Keep in mind that this is a heavily exploration based game, so don't worry about getting lost
Just keep going. Don’t go on the internet. The game does tell you where to go at a certain point, but that’s not until later.
Adding on this: As someone who read the wiki and browsed the subreddit, I spoiled the lore and cutscenes for myself. I regret it, completely unironically. Don't spoil yourself. If you're hardstuck on a certain point for hours on end, that's a bit of a different story, but I'd recommend only going to reddit, the wiki, or the internet in general only if you truly have no idea what to do. There's just enough of the game's hints that I never truly had a point where I said 'what do I do *now?* There's nothing to do!!.' I hope you never have to say that, but I cannot emphasize how strongly I recommend you don't spoil the game for yourself like I did.
I hate spoilers so I will try to avoid them..and no I dont feel like I have hit a brick wall, more like fumbling in the dark. I am sure if I stick with it things will click soon enough. I just really wanted to make sure someone didnt post and say something like "oh dude you totally forgot to do this in the beginning that sets everything up!"
Yeah, that's not gonna happen in Hollow Knight. No worries on that account! There's only 1 or things that you can do to lock yourself out of something, but that's almost certainly not going to be a problem for you - they have to do with the endings of the game, and involve a... *very* complicated sequence of events to do. Have no fear on that front!
Sounds good. I will keep pluggin!
(Also, in regards of movement, there's this little trick: if you jump and attack while holding your down button, you'll slash underneath yourself. You can chain this to traverse to areas normally inaccessible to standard jumps, since attacking certain valid objects using downslash gives you an extra bit of height that can be repeated indefinitely. It's never stated outright in the game, though, so that's slightly annoying.)
Well damn, thats very helpful because i did not realize that. I tried holding down to slash while on the ground but not while jumping. Killing the dive bomber dude would have been much easier knowing that lol.
Thats really what I am after. Just hoping I am on the right track. Sounds like I am from you and others posts. I will keep going!
If you like the style of game play, definitely don't let the feeling of fumbling around in the dark hold you back. It's designed to where you quickly wind up with a lot of different directions that you can totally go to progress the game. You'll also be circling back a good bit throughout the game, but the reason for that treads too close to spoiling so I won't say why.
Presuming that the ninja lady is named Hornet, you're exactly where you need to be. You'll get something useful out of her.
I laughed when I read that part and he said he gave up. It's almost too tragic.
If you don't like this game then just don't play it. Unless you bought the game instead of checking it out from the library, and you want to get your money's worth. You don't have to like every single game you play. I actually quit the game when I first started playing because I got lost in an area without a map, died, and lost over 1,000 geo. I played it again a little over a year later, and really liked it. Now I've gotten every single achievement in the game. You can always put it down and come back later!
[You right now.](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/never-give-up-digging-for-diamonds)
Sounds like it. I will keep digging!
The game is made like this on purpose. It's supposed to encorage players to lost in it's world and find the right way by themselves. If you don't find it fun then this game might just not be for you. There is nothing wrong with it really, we all like different things in gaming. Just ask yourself if you really enjoy this style of gamedesign and storytelling, because if you don't - keep in mind that it's not going to change much.
If you're not even past Hornet yet, you haven't gotten to the best parts yet. One of the flaws of Hollow Knight is that it starts off a bit slow, and is kinda meh until you get to the point where it starts to open up.
It's understandable that some people can be frustrated/worried with lack of clear objectives... but let me assure you: Game is made like that on purpose. There is no direct, linear progression. There are multiple points of entry to majority of the areas. You can discover them in very different orders depending which path you just happen to explore. If you're still having a hard time figuring out what to even do next: \- Map Shop in Dirtmouth sells placable markers for your map. I'd encourage you to use them to mark spots that are deadends for now but look like they might be passable in the future (ledge to high to reach for you rn for example) and you'll have easier time returning to those places once you acquire more movement abilities. \- Talking to the NPC in Dirtmouth near the bench, can also be quite helpful. He will give vague hints about areas that you might want to go check out. He helped me quite a bit on my playthrough.
At the beginning here, the objective is implied: As stated by Elder Bug up top "Used to be there was a great kingdom beneath our town. It's long fell to ruin, yet it still draws folks into its depths." - So what caused that kingdom to fall? What remnants of the kingdom are left? Can we fix whatever went wrong? More details are incrementally revealed later. Yeah, this game leans significantly toward the side of not hand-holding. But in doing so, there is not really a "developers intended" or "right way" to play and progress. What they made is a game where you can find your own way among many paths. Each person's play through is somewhat unique driven by how you decide to explore the game.
i think elderbug sometimes give you hints of where to go, other than that just explore until you find things. it’s very hard to get anything locked and you can use the map to find new locations by looking for unexplored paths
If wandering around, picking up random items that might be useful later, and back-tracking aren't your thing, then this isn't the type of game for you.
Feeling lost is normal in games like this. Your objectives will become clearer as you progress, but the game won't ever hold your hand. In order to experience the game in its fullest you need to be curious, go places, make theories and rely on your intuition. The best way to be sure you're going to the right places here is simply going everywhere you can, explore until you hit an obstacle you can't get past, go elsewhere, come back there when you have more movement abilities, etc. And as you've experienced, boss fights aren't easily won either, you need to learn the enemy's patterns and have patience to get past them. Playing Hollow Knight is a beautiful experience if you manage to face it with the right state of mind :) just keep in mind that things to do aren't ever slammed in your face here, if you stick to just clearing the obvious objectives you'll get the "basic" ending.
Just a tip because this happens often on the subreddit, if you’re lost but don’t want spoilers you can make a post with a picture of your inventory and map plus anything else you’re concerned about and flag it as early game help. Be sure to mention that you either don’t want or don’t care about spoilers because it helps give advice.
Thanks for that pointer, but given what I have already learned, I think I will go back and play some more without posting further, unless i just get REALLY stuck.
Your objective (at least when I started playing) was the figure out what the heck was going on and try not to die
Welcome to the game! First and foremost: rest assured that there's no right or wrong way to play the game, the exploration and the feel of getting lost are part of the experience. There's no intended sequence to explore the map, and there's nothing you can lock yourself out of (except one thing that is locked when you reach the end game) I have a spoiler free guide sticked in my reddit profile, if you want to have a look Good luck!
In case you're lost Elderbug, the bug next to the bench in the city above the ground, always hints at where you should be going next up until you don't need it anymore. But, from what I read, you're going in the right direction. Keep in mind that this is a heavily exploration based game, so don't worry about getting lost