Hollow Knight: Silksong Fans Discover Secret Mode That Actually Makes the Game HARDER — Here’s the Code to Unlock It

Hollow Knight: Silksong is a hard game — that much is clear. Indeed its difficulty is one of the main talking points in the days since Team Cherry’s hotly anticipated sequel came out. But fans have discovered there’s a secret mode that actually makes the game harder.

Warning! Spoilers for Hollow: Knight Silksong follow.

Fans have found the unlockable Steel Soul Mode Permadeath using a variant of the famous Konami code. As IGN has detailed in our Hollow: Knight Silksong cheats and secrets guide page and in the video below, you activate this mode by going to the Extras option on the main menu then inputting the following sequence via the D-pad:

• Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right.

If you’re having trouble doing this, be sure to check out our Silksong cheats and secrets guide page for extra advice.

Over the weekend, we reported on how some Silksong players were expressing criticism across social media, subreddits, Discords, and Steam reviews about the game’s difficulty scaling and brutal runbacks. There’s one very early miniboss causing a lot of players a whole heap of trouble, too.

Today, September 9, Team Cherry detailed Hollow Knight: Silksong’s first post-launch patch, which makes “slight” balance changes to the early game, perhaps in response to this initial feedback from the community.

Thankfully, IGN is here to help. Here’s how to unlock and use the map, how to get Rosary Beads, Achievements and Trophies list, and our ever expanding Silksong Interactive Map. Also, you may need the Bell Beast boss fight guide. It’s a hard one!

We’ve also got a story on Silksong’s best mods, almost all of which make the game easier.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.