Usage

Install the mod, then start a new file in any game mode. You'll know if it's installed properly :)

Motivation

When I play Hollow Knight, I almost exclusively use the nail for damage. It does more DPS and that's the playstyle I've grown the most comfortable using. So, when it came time to play Silksong, I did the exact same thing. I never used silk skills or red tools save for testing what they did. I just whacked away at everything with the needle until it died. That worked really well, and I had little trouble getting through the game. I don't think anything killed me more than 15 times, and only a handful went above 10. I never had to use a silkeater, and I also never had to farm for rosaries to afford a bench or fast travel station. All in all, I found the experience lacking in challenge.

Now that I have hundreds of hours in the game, the problem is even worse. I would never consider using tools in combat, because I know I can beat everything first try with just the needle. Why would I try anything else? I don't even buy most toll benches anymore because I know I'm not going to die anytime soon. Once you play the game enough, a lot of its systems simply become irrelevant to you. You rarely feel like you are respecting the game's challenge or having the intended experience. Because of that, replays are less fun and less memorable than your casual playthrough.

This mod changes that. It feels like I'm playing the game for the first time again, only that feeling of overcoming challenge is even more potent. I have died far more than I ever did in my first playthrough, despite being way better at the game, and I have loved every second of it. If you felt the same way I did, this mod is absolutely for you.

Changes

• Your maximum health starts at 2 (down from 5).
• Attacks with the needle are capped to 1 damage (down from 5). This applies after all other modifiers, so it is not affected by needle upgrades, elemental buffs, barbed bracelet, etc. All other attacks are unchanged.
• Mask shards and spool fragments no longer increase your maximum health and silk. Instead, gaining an extra mask or spool grants 1000 and 500 rosaries, respectively.
• When you die, you will regain any tools you used since your last save.

Why These Changes?

That may sound like an odd set of changes, so allow me to explain why I chose to design the mod like this.

Maximum health decrease: It goes without saying that you will get one-shot by a lot of attacks with just 2 HP. This change was inspired by the Souls games, where many attacks from bosses deal more than half your health and can even kill you in one hit. That makes the combat very high-stakes and more exciting. Team Cherry were likely thinking along these lines when they made double damage more widespread in Silksong, but I'm taking the idea even further. In Master Mode, anything can kill you.

Why not go down to 1 HP instead? Well, I think that would be too punishing for an engaging experience. It would remove the difference between single damage and double damage attacks, and since double damage attacks are usually slower and better telegraphed to compensate, they would become less dangerous than their counterparts. We don't want that. Besides, getting hit by a single damage attack while on 2 HP creates an interesting choice: do you risk it and use your silk on extra damage to defeat the threat? Or do you play it safe and carefully collect enough silk to heal back to full? With just 1 HP, that complexity is gone, and you are forced to just not get hit ever.

Naturally, being on lower health means you will die a lot more. That's a good thing. It allows you to play the game at a slower pace, and it means you will lose your rosaries more often. That means you have to explore more to be rich enough to afford things. You know, like in your casual playthrough. Getting to soak in all the details of this wonderfully crafted world is more fun than blasting through it, in my opinion. (Though that is also a lot of fun, don't get me wrong. I might feel differently if I were actually good enough to speedrun the game.)

Weak needle attacks: The idea behind this change is simple: I want you to use your silk skills and red tools for the majority of your damage. In the vanilla game, even if you put all of your silk into silk skills, they would make up less than half of your damage. Compare this to Hollow Knight, where spell builds get the vast majority of their damage from spells. Now, silk skills make up more than 75% of your damage (using silk spear). In Master Mode, your needle's only real purpose in combat is to gather silk, and silk skills are your real damage.

There is another benefit to this change: it forces you to use high-commitment attacks. This is one of the pillars of Souls combat, and it asks you to seriously learn the boss's moveset and find your openings. You probably never did this when playing Silksong casually, so this will add a lot of depth to your experience. But who said the bosses were your biggest threat? Enemy arenas have a substantial presence in Silksong, and in Master Mode, that presence is about to get a whole lot larger. Internalizing the patterns of multiple enemies is far harder than for bosses, and the enemy arenas are the true test of skill for this mod.

Replenishing tools: A frequently cited problem with Silksong's combat is that the limited number of shell shards disincentivizes using red tools against harder bosses. If you die too much, you will run out of shards and the boss becomes much harder. With this change, that can't happen. Red tools are a good complement to silk skills that don't require silk (usually) and typically have more range. Silk skills will still be the core of your build, but you'll find these tools an invaluable addition to your kit.

Other Recommendations

• Take the Hunter's March route to Swift Step, and do the craw arena immediately when you reach Greymoor. By doing this, you are making the game unnecessarily difficult for yourself, but you are already doing that by playing this mod. If the best feeling of accomplishment comes from the most difficult challenges, why not make that feeling as amazing as it can be?
• Avoid defensive setups, such as the Fractured Mask or Plasmium Phial. Offensive builds feel better to use and are more true to the spirit of the mod. No pressure of course; you should play however you want.
• Consider playing with the Moorlap (mirrored Pharloom) mod. This forces you to relearn muscle memory and think about navigation again. It makes a much bigger difference than you'd expect.

Conclusion

This mod is very hard. You may even be tempted to call it unfair at times, and you'd be right. You are incredibly weak in Master Mode, and your enemies are far stronger than you have the chance to be. But that's the point. The most authentic way to experience Silksong is to be weak; that feeling of being lost, oppressed, and outmatched is second to none. This is the most fun I've had playing Silksong, and I hope it's the same for you.

Know your enemy. Master your tools. Defy the odds. THIS is what we came for. THIS is why we play Silksong.