If Hollow Knight: Silksong is too easy for you, or you've finished it and want further punishment, there is a much more difficult way to play it: on Steel Soul Mode. In the original Hollow Knight, accessing Steel Soul Mode meant defeating the main game at least once. In Silksong the same is true, except there is also another easier and quicker way to unlock it too.
But first, what is it? Steel Soul Mode is basically a permadeath mode for Silksong. When you die it's game over, and if you try to re-access the save file you'll be asked if you want to overwrite it. There's no going back, and as a result some items related to death have also changed in Steel Soul mode. For example: the Dead Bug's Purse, a tool which lets you retain half of your rosaries on death, becomes a Shell Satchel, which increases Hornet's tool pouch size.
How to unlock Steel Soul Mode in Silksong
The most legitimate way of unlocking Steel Soul mode in Silksong is to simply complete the main game. But if you want to dive straight into it before that, you have to:
- Head to the "Extras" screen from the main menu
- Input the following: Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right
Yes, that is a shortened version of the Konami code.
If you input these commands correctly you'll hear a deep "whoosh" sound, and the screen will flash white very briefly. Then, when you start a new game in an empty save slot you'll be given the option to start in Steel Soul Mode:
If you die on your run—and I mean, you probably will?—you can see the new death screen you'll encounter below. Besides being really tough, Steel Soul Mode has some of its own secrets and even at least one unique quest which players have discovered. Obviously, it's not for the faint of heart, but in many ways it's Silksong's equivalent of New Game Plus.
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