This is very weird. The development overhead is not that high for going to disk from digital. The publishing overhead is, but it looked like Skybound games was taking care of that?
I haven’t played Hollow Knight in about 2 months and boy do I feel rusty. When I started the game up I was in Crystal Peak but not sure if I was trying to get anywhere in particular. So, I just headed in an unexplored direction.
After several attempts I found myself in the Resting Grounds and got the Dream Nail. I feel like I’ve put a lot of hours into the game but a peek at the table of contents of a walkthrough makes me think I’ve got a long way to go. I believe I’ve already played longer than the average main story completion time on How Long To Beat. So, I’m pretty sure I suck.
I’ve been to: King’s Pass, Dirtmouth, Forgotten Crossroads, Greenpath, Fungal Wastes, City of Tears, Crystal Peak and Resting Grounds.. I like the game, but my progress feels slow. It’s hard, not Cuphead hard, but hard. I mostly think that is a good thing.
You are pretty much where I left off. Need to return, and then suffer for not having played it in months.
How did you get good enough to get past the beginning of the game? When you eventually die, it just feels like you lose so much progress, I don’t feel like playing it for at least a month or two. Then I pick it up again, and make lots of progress, then I die and end up exactly where I was when I started.
It definitely helps to get the map for an area and look for the next bench. It can be frustrating before that is achieved. It feels like stumbling in the dark.
Are you using the benches to save your progress / update your map?
To reiterate others, progress in Hollow Knight is more about knowing the locations than collecting the… uh… monetary resource. You’ll get an overwhelming amount of it over the course of the game. If you discover a new area on the map and find a few secrets, that’s nice progress! Especially because you already found the secrets so going through the same areas will be quicker next time. (This feeling is the part that reminds me the most of Dark Souls in the game.)
As far as I know, there’s only one bench in the game. And yes, I used it. Every time I play the game, I lose all my progress and I start at that bench.
What is a map?
It is not the territory.
Once you find someone you can buy a map of that area. Once you have the map of an area it shows where you’ve explored.
Now that I've got the
Dream Nail and am supposed to collect essence by hitting the special tree, am I just supposed to wander around hoping to find them?
I found the first one and collected those. Then I killed Xero and got more than 100. So I went back to the Seer and she now wants 200.
I noticed that there are 3 guys marked on the map so I tried to get to one. They are in an area I can’t get to yet. Am I just supposed to wander looking for those trees? That doesn’t seem like fun.
You can buy pins for the trees so they will appear marked.
Also you can use the nail on several ghosts and corpses to get some extra essence.
Thanks. That seems like money well spent!
I never have the money when I run across him. He asks for 30 currency for a map. I have plenty more than that usually by the time I die, but by the time I pass him, I usually have about 10.
I did find a second bench. So now I can’t even find the map guy anymore, so I don’t think it will be an issue from now on. He says his wife sells maps in town (her shop was closed when I used to spawn in town), so maybe I’ll make it back to that bench again somehow. Most of this game seems to be one way though. If you miss a jump, you can’t make it back upwards, you can only go downward. Just that fact makes it the most frustrating game I’ve ever played, I think.
Hey, Rock, you may know this, and I know it doesn’t suddenly make the game easy, but you know that where you last died you leave a shadow that when you kill it gives you back the money you lost?
Thanks! I did not know that.
I did see a shadow a couple of times, but once I died before I reached it. And second time it killed me when I reached it.
Nice call Nightgaunt. I didn’t think to mention than.
That should definitely help your ability to accumulate some currency.
Glad I mentioned it! Good luck!
Man I’m torn about this game. I’ve made some progress as in I’ve explored some new areas - soul sanctum, royal waterways. Getting to the top of soul sanctum was hard. Died quickly once up there.
The game is good but exhausting. I don’t know if I can continue. Maybe I’ll take a break from it. I’m supposed to be getting 200 essence, but I can’t find any more - even with the pins.
It also would have helped if I had taken notes.