Team Cherry's Latest Silksong Spell Casts a 'Fix' on Its Most Hated Boss – But What About the Real Curse?
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Team Cherry has publicly released a *Hollow Knight: Silksong* update, primarily fixing the infamous Savage Beastfly boss's lava bug, but Jeff wonders if merely patching a glitch addresses the core design issues that made the Beastfly *Silksong's* most hated foe.
Right, so you know that feeling when you cast a spell to fix a minor glitch, but the original, *major* curse still lingers, humming quietly in the background? Yeah, Team Cherry just dropped an update for *Hollow Knight: Silksong* that feels a bit like that. The beta-only update 1.0.28650 has finally gone fully public, meaning any dang fool (like me, once I finally dive in) can download it without spelunking through Steam playtest branches.
Now, before we dig too deep into the digital entrails of this patch, a quick shout-out to the brilliant folks over at Rock Paper Shotgun, whose original reporting by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell first clued us in on the nitty-gritty of this release. They’ve been diligently tracking Team Cherry’s mystical machinations, and we’re all the better for it.
As some of you might know, I'm still noodling my way through the lower levels of Pharloom (no pressure to review, thank the stars), so I tapped our resident *Silksong* whisperer, James – the bloke who's practically got calluses on his thumb from countless hours in the game – to cast his expert eye over the patch notes. And let me tell you, when I asked him to point out the important bits, a shadow glided over his face, then returned and took up residence in one earhole. Wordlessly, he outstretched a gnarled finger towards item 3 on the list: "Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava."
And just like that, mates, I was formally introduced to the Savage Beastfly.
I’ve since done a bit of arcane background reading – and inasmuch as it’s safe to extrapolate from thousands of all-caps forum posts and the existential wails of defeated players – this Beastfly appears to be *Silksong’s* most-hated NPC. And not just 'challenging' in that delightful, soul-crushing *Hollow Knight* way, oh no. We're talking 'crushingly unfair and unpredictable.' Complaints are lodged against everything: its inconsistent hitbox (like trying to hit a ghost with a wet noodle), its two-mask damage output (because who needs health?), its irritating habit of summoning an entire bloody parliament of minions, and the white-knuckle RNG effect of mixing all these delightful elements together.
“It doesn't even look that good!” the detractors howl, and fair dinkum, I've seen the art. It’s no Malenia from *Elden Ring*, inspiring epic fan art and passionate odes. It's just… a mallet with wings. (Though, knowing the internet, someone, somewhere, is probably still trying to Rule 34 it, because that's just how the digital ether works. A rare gift indeed, that intersection of masochism and formicophilia, if you ask me.)
And get this: all of that glorious loathing merely describes the *first* iteration of the boss. The second introduces lava and destructible platforms, just for a bit of cheeky funsies. So, the now-fixed technical issue of the Savage Beastfly diving into lava and never returning? Honestly, for many, that was a feature, not a bug. "Let the bastard stay in the magma, if it loves magma so much!" I can practically hear the collective sigh of players across the globe. "Let it burn forever in a hell of its own creation!"
The loathing is so extreme, mate, there’s a whole bloomin' subreddit dedicated to this creature and all its works, boasting 34,000 weekly visitors. And just to dial up the chaos, it's apparently rife with fake reporting about undiscovered, even tougher Savage Beastfly variants, because if there's one thing *Silksong* players love doing, it's rustling each other's digital jimmies.
Now, here’s where my inner digital wizard gets a bit philosophical. While this Savage Beastfly does appear to savagely beastfly in the face of what most would call 'sporting boss design,' I can't help but wonder if a piss-boiling abomination like this is, paradoxically, a marketing asset for a game like *Silksong*. Think about it: bosses that are merely 'good' and 'well-designed' don't tend to attract dedicated subreddits of pure, unadulterated vitriol. Malenia doesn't have one, as far as I can tell. Nor do Giygas, Psycho Mantis, or Sephiroth. They're legendary, sure, but their infamy is born of respect, not exasperated rage. I'm surprised I haven't seen the Savage Beastfly cited more in the ongoing discussion of whether *Silksong's* overall difficulty is key to its mood, or just, well, contrived.
Anyway, beyond the Beastfly brouhaha, the patch notes – essentially unchanged from the beta test last week – do include a fair few other tweaks and fixes that might actually make your journey through Pharloom a smidgen less frustrating. We’ve got a new Dithering effect option to reduce colour banding (though it might soften foreground assets, so choose your poison, eh?). The 'Herald's Wish' achievement description has been clarified (good for completionists!). And there's a host of other bug squashes: Shrine Guardian Seth and Second Sentinel are less likely to knock you out of bounds, Lugoli won't fly off screen and disappear (mostly), and Silk Snippers are less prone to getting stuck. They’ve even fixed instances of dying to bosses *while killing them* that led to messy or out-of-sync death sequences – because nothing quite ruins a heroic final blow like the game having a digital conniption fit. Plus, various other bits and bobs, like fixing Shaman Binding softlocks, inaccessible Cocoon spawns, and issues with item restoration at benches.
So, what does this all mean for us? Well, on the one hand, Team Cherry is clearly listening, diligently patching up the more egregious technical hiccups that pull us out of the immersive, challenging world they've crafted. And that's genuinely good news! On the other hand, the core design philosophy behind a creature as universally reviled as the Savage Beastfly seems to persist. This update might have stopped it from taking a permanent lava-bath, but it hasn't fundamentally re-engineered the 'mallet with wings' into something more universally appreciated. It’s a step forward, sure, but the true challenge for *Silksong* – balancing its legendary difficulty with fair, engaging boss design – continues to be a curious, if somewhat chaotic, adventure for all of us.
Stay curious, stay chaotic, and try not to let too many Savage Beastflies ruin your day, eh?
Tags: HollowKnight, Silksong, TeamCherry, GamingNews, PatchNotes
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun