Gaming

there's a lot of bugs so watch out for those

There's been some great advice in this thread. In the future though here's a shout out for one of my favorite wikis out there, the before I play wiki .

It's great and has useful tips for all kinds of games. Good luck in Hollownest!

Honestly just play and have fun. The only tip I used my first playthrough was a steam guide that had the recommended progress route. It's 100% unnecessary but some areas are EXTREMELY difficult, and others are very hard to find so it was helpful to know where/when I should go.

Prepare to feel lost. Not in a bad way, hopefully, but let your curiousity lead the way. The lore is spread out, and there's a lot of backtracking obviously since it's a metroidvania. Don't forget to use the map either, it can give you hints where you might be able to go next.

Don’t expect to be able to reach a lot of areas for a long time (at least for me, I sucked).

Learn to use your pogo (jumping and slashing downwards) early and often, as you'll need it to get through bosses and obstacles later on.

Know that you can pogo (attack down on spikes, enemies and mushrooms) and get a little boost up. I didn't know this on my first playthrough which made navigating through the jumping platforms sooo much harder than it should.

If you like it, make sure to try Ori and the Blind

It's hard. And punishing.

You'll get lost and die a lot, maybe even take a break for a while then come back to it. But that's the best part

If you're not playing hand-held, make sure your TV is set up to minimize input delay (usually called "game" mode or something like that). An extra few tens of milliseconds of lag can make a game like Hollow Knight unplayable :(

Make good use of the bank! If you die on your corpse run you lose all your money, so it's definitely worth it to pay for the bank account and store it all there instead.

Getting lost is part of the experience.

I got lost on where to go countless times. The initial response of your brain is This is not fun. I braved through it and instead said I need to get lost less so I invested more time to getting maps and mark dead-ends or impassable places and it made the game one of the best games I've ever played.

You will die a lot 😅 but just take it easy. There are guides out there to help.

Don't look up walkthroughs until you're really stuck for a long time. Discovering stuff is a huge part of the game and part of the fun.

Hey! Have a lot of fun, this game is one of the ones that is difficult but totally worth it. A very nice and epic game to start on a Sunday morning.

I recommend diving in and seeing what you make of it. You should get to the first boss without too much trouble. You'll probably need a fair few goes before you beat it but at that point you can decide if you like the game or not.

I LOVE Hollow Knight. It’s one of those games I wish I could erase from my mind and play from scratch again. As someone relatively new to gaming (when I started playing), it was infuriatingly hard at times. But it definitely made me a better gamer – probably moreso than any other game I’ve played.

My advice would be to definitely pick it up and give it a try. Don’t be too intimidated. The music and art are gorgeous and it’s an absolute blast once you get into it! And if you get frustrated, take a break and come back a little while later. I had so many occasions when I immediately succeeded after a 30-45 minute break.

Also: I agree with what everyone says about not looking stuff up unless you have to. Spoilers make the exploration aspect way less fun and exploring is one of the best parts.

Ah nice, I've also started the game recently. I'm around 18h in. Currently keep dying to the Mantis Lords.

Granted I'm 18h in cus I've also discovered 2 areas I'm not supposed to from what I see. The City of Tears and the one with a lot of wind where you learn a new move (forgetting the name).

Man I envy you so much right now, just go blind. You may get lost a little bit but just enjoy the ride. I won't exaggerate but it may be the greatest game in human history :)

Oh man you're in for a treat! One suggestion: when you get to the late game, if you haven't and can, switch to a controller, late game can be difficult, much more so if you seek optional areas, those can be crazy hard and plain impossible on a keyboard.

And prepare for feels. It's surprising how invested you can become on a bunch of bugs.

Edit: I see you're on the Switch, never mind keyboard comments, was mistaken

• Metroidvania action adventure style game so be prepared to explore and backtrack quite a bit.
• It's tough at points. Keep on trying and you will persevere, but be prepared for some challenge along the way.
• Upgrades matter. I haven't played in a while but one specific part of the game at least was made immensely easier when equipping the proper skillset for the job.
• Have fun!