For players who already find Hollow Knight: Silksong tough as nails, a new fan-made mod has emerged to turn the experience into a full-blown nightmare. The long-awaited sequel from Team Cherry has already earned its reputation for fast-paced combat, intricate platforming, and relentless bosses—but now modders are taking that difficulty to an entirely new level.
Since its release, Silksong has captivated the Metroidvania community with its gorgeous art direction, precise gameplay, and complex mechanics. Team Cherry deliberately designed the game to be tougher than the original Hollow Knight, explaining that Hornet’s speed and skill required enemies and environments that could truly test a player’s reflexes. For many fans, that challenge was already more than enough—but for others, it was just the beginning.
A newly released mod called Crest Master has introduced an additional layer of punishment for those seeking an even steeper climb. This mod adds a special Cloakless Crest that completely removes Hornet’s signature cloak and needle weapons, forcing players to navigate and fight with nothing but kicks and basic movement abilities. This drastic limitation mirrors a short section of the base game set in The Slab, where Hornet temporarily loses her tools—but the mod allows that punishing restriction to apply across the entire adventure.
To make things even more intense, removing the cloak and needle doesn’t just strip Hornet of key movement options; it also slashes her damage output to around 20% of normal levels. That means boss fights, platforming challenges, and even basic encounters demand near-perfect execution. Players must rely solely on skill and patience to survive in this brutal new mode.
Interestingly, Crest Master wasn’t originally built just to make Silksong harder. Its main purpose was to let players instantly swap between different crests without needing to sit at a bench—a huge quality-of-life improvement for advanced players. The mod supports all seven official crests from the base game in addition to the new Cloakless Crest. This instant-switching mechanic allows more fluid experimentation and strategic depth, letting players adapt to enemies or environments in real time.
Despite that convenience, most of the community’s attention has centered around the mod’s punishing difficulty feature. Ironically, while Team Cherry has recently rolled out small balance patches aimed at slightly easing Silksong’s more unforgiving segments, the fan base seems determined to make things harder instead.
For players looking for an extreme test of endurance—or just to prove their mastery of Hornet’s agile combat system—this Nightmare Mode mod could be the ultimate challenge. With the Silksong community thriving and the modding scene growing more inventive every day, it’s clear that fans still can’t get enough of exploring (and suffering through) Pharloom’s hauntingly beautiful world.
