Silksong Patch 2 Drops, Fixes a Progress-Wiping Bug That Could Steal 3 Hours of Your Life
Curses in Hollow Knight: Silksong don’t just sting—they warp your journey and turn every fight into a white-knuckle wager.
Silksong patch 2 just landed, and while it is not a big balance shake-up, one tiny fix would have saved me a whole evening of confused wandering and quiet swearing. Team Cherry went after rare bugs and weird blockers this time, and one of those odd ducks was absolutely doing work on a major questline.
The one line in the notes that matters
"Fixed some NPCs not correctly playing cursed hint dialogues in certain instances."
What that actually means
This is about the quest that ultimately unlocks the Witch Crest. Hornet gets hit with a parasite, which throws her into a 'cursed' state until you undo it. In normal circumstances, a handful of NPCs are supposed to nudge you toward the solution: go see the old surgeon in Graymoor. The curse scene spits you out near Bellhart specifically so the locals can point you in the right direction.
Except, pre-patch, a bunch of players (hi) discovered that in Act 3 those Bellhart characters often said nothing helpful whatsoever. Their doom-and-gloom Act 3 lines were taking priority over the curse hints, which meant no breadcrumbs, no guidance, and a lot of aimless backtracking while your build is kneecapped.
Why the curse is such a headache
When you are cursed, your silk toolkit is gone. No healing, no special abilities. Your moveset shifts in ways that feel off, and as I remember it, you are not slotting tools either. It is meant to feel claustrophobic and temporarily disempowering. There is even a special ending if you manage to beat the Act 2 final boss while still cursed. You are supposed to clear the curse quickly; if you are already deep into Act 3, removing it gets trickier, and with the hint dialogue bugged out, it could feel basically impossible.
How I banged my head against it
I tried every route I could come up with. One guess sent me into a locked-room fight full of juiced-up Act 3 enemies that shredded me because my kit was crippled. The moment that confirmed this was busted: the Bellhart shopkeeper sent me to talk to another bug, and that bug had absolutely nothing relevant to say. Turns out the Bellhart crew was supposed to tell me, clearly, to head for Graymoor and the old surgeon.
I seriously thought about rolling my save back, but I would have eaten a three-hour loss of late-game unlocks and hard-won boss kills. I did not do it, but I did stare at the autosave catalog and wonder why it only seems to help every few hours.
Team Cherry fixed it, and thank goodness
Patch 2 is mostly a cleanup pass on weird edge cases and blockers rather than tuning combat or charms. This NPC hint bug is the standout because it un-jams a quest that already pushes players into a rough spot.
It used to be even worse
Fun bit of trivia from the official help page: earlier in development, there was a nastier variant where you could be stuck cursed forever because the item needed to finish the quest simply became unavailable in the late game. Compared to that, a silent NPC is practically a hug.
One last oddity for the lore goblins
If you somehow reach the Citadel or even Act 3 without buying the map quill from Shakra, Team Cherry slips you a secret cosmetic as a wink. It does nothing. It is purely a trophy for playing cartography on hard mode.