Silksong already has 2 multiplayer mods, and we're not even a week in yet

Two Hornets stand face-to-face in Silksong.

(Image credit: Team Cherry / nek5)

Silksong making a mockery of you? Are you gnashing your teeth, clenching your fists, almost snapping the controller in two as Moorwing reduces you to a thin red paste for the 78th time (there's a skip for that, you know)? Why not bring a pal? Just to be clear: it won't actually help. They'll just be there for moral support. But maybe that'll help as you bear down on death #79?

Yep, less than one week after release, and Silksong already has a multiplayer mod. Actually, it has two of them: SilklessCoop by nek5 and Silksong Steam multiplayer mod by XvX. Following in the footsteps of Hollow Knight multiplayer mods like HKMP, both these mods let you team up with a pal as you roam Pharloom.

But before your head fills with visions of ganging up on bosses, some bad news: they both seem to be pretty much visual-only, at least for now. That is to say, you can have another Hornet hang out in your world (and vice versa), but I don't think you're gonna be taking on enemies together. The Silksong Steam multiplayer mod promises "you can do basic PvP," but that's not shown off in the one and only video its author has uploaded, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.

Even so, I think it's incredibly impressive. We're just five days out from Silksong crashing Steam and multiple other storefronts with a tsunami of enthusiasm, and the black magic mods are already here. Hell, XvX even implies in their mod description that they'd have gotten it done sooner, but they got distracted by Delta Force.

As you might expect, the setup process for this kind of thing is a tad intricate. Nek5's mod requires you to download the BepInEx 5 Unity patcher, the software to host a server, and has not one but three distinct sets of instructions depending on the precise nature of your hosting setup. XvX's instructions are simpler but, to be honest, I wonder if a lot of complexity isn't being elided there.

The protagonist of Hollow Knight Silksong, Hornet, looks up at a crowd of bugs suspended from the ceiling in web — (Image credit: Team Cherry)

Frankly, I'm more liable to admiringly watch the modders do their work from a distance than I am to start playing with these things installed already, but I think it's amazing we're already at this point.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

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