Silksong Journal, Entry 8

This week I was visiting a Zelda community gathering, so my progress is rather limited, but here and there I'm using a quiet hour to play some more Silksong. The screenshots in this post will have a different format than usual because of this.

Another ramification is that I mainly focused on side quests, so the only new area that I have explored is the Memorium. The main goal was finally upgrading my needle a second (and third) time, however. For this I had to complete the "Great Taste of Pharloom" quest, where to delicacies were still missing.

But after my pointless victory over the Last Judge, I kept exploring the Sands of Karak a little more. The top of that area still seems unreachable to me, where maybe Hornet will later have her Wirebug move, but at least I was able to find the Crustnut after digging through lots of coral. So, only one ingredient was left, the Pickled Muckmaggot.

There were also some new nookies around the Citadel to explore, so I did some of that before I continued my search. And here I kept running into some friendly faces, like the Green Prince and Garmond. I'm speculating that they might assist you in the battles ahead, but this also meant that there had to be a third helper somewhere...

As for the Green Prince, I also met him later near the Citadel's center, mourning over the remains of the Cogwork Dancers, which were designed after his image. I had defeated them before freeing him from his cell, so I'm wondering whether he will get involved into the battle if you free him earlier. It sounded like I did him a favor, however.

Thanks to the double jump, I was able to enter another sub-area, the "Memorium". It's like a collection of the different normal enemies around Pharloom, based on the different areas. There was even some sort of stag beetle enemy that I have yet to encounter normally, the Rhinogrund. As well as some bigger coral monsters, but I haven't explored all of Karak yet, as already mentioned.

A small side quest requires you to track Songclave's merchant through here. As a result you can buy even more stuff, which includes a tool that amplifies your Needolin. It appears that this may even be required to complete the current main quest, where this seems a bit random.

I also took another shot at the Unravelled, which became easier thanks to the double jump, because you don't have to time your jumps so perfectly whenever it charges at you. After winning the battle it seemed like I got nothing out of it, except for a fancy Weaver sequence, which was weird. But apparently I got another Silk Heart here, the first since the Bell Beast. They regenerate some silk and are quite useful for when you're using the Clawline a lot in some platforming section.

You can also access the Underworks from here, which lets you peak behind the scenes of the break and confession rooms. Since I didn't immediately understand that I had obtained a Silk Heart, this left me a bit confused, because there was nothing to find here, besides another artifact.

But since I was back to the Underworks, I also returned to the Architect and now allowed to purchase its key, after collecting two pieces of a mechanical heart. You get another crest as a reward here, which let's you use three tools at once, but no silk skills. The drill effect is quite nice, but so far I'm finding this about as useful as the Beast... Which I'm never using. In fact, I usually rely on the Wanderer most of the time and use the Reaper for some bosses. The Hunter is fine as well, but I prefer the downwards pogo. 

On the matter of Weaver stuff, another Weavenest (Karn) at the Blasted Steps gave me a new silk skill for drilling myself through enemies, which is really cool. It's like a straight Screw Attack.

And when you return to Eva at Weavenest Atla, she will give you the "Vesticrest", which lets you equip tools independent from your current crest. So, far this lets me use one yellow and one blue slot in addition, which is super nice. I keep the Weighted Belt and Warding Bell on them, because those are the tools I almost always want to have.

But I had to look up what triggers the Vesticrest upgrades, because she only talks about looking into my nature, where I was guessing it has to be either collecting crests or the Silk Hearts. It's related to the crests, though, specifically how many slots for tools you have unlocked. Luckily, I have found lots of Memory Lockets, which allowed me to unlock all slots of all five of my crests so far (Hunter, Reaper, Wanderer, Beast and Architect).

The Flee Caravan has also moved to the Citadel entrance now, where the Last Judge used to be. It would be funny if you could drive away that boss via the fleas as well, but they didn't give me this option any earlier. (I also learned from a friend that the Moorwing will appear elsewhere in Greymoor when the fleas have scared it off, which wouldn't make much sense for the Last Judge.)

In the Memorium you can also encounter a flea, which has been trapped for a long time and grew very large. It will turn into a mini-boss, but it's very easy and the monstrous flea will get back to its sense, where afterwards you can find it sleeping in the background at the caravan. That's cute. I hope collecting all fleas won't make me feel as confused as what happened with the Grubs in the first game...

Anyway, back to the Pickled Muckmaggot. I first thought that you may be able to obtain it from the weird dent at Greymoor, where the resident asks for something vile. But the chef at the Citadel points you toward someone called "Lugoli". My original idea was that you should be able to find an item with "muck" in its name at the Sinner's Road and this turned out to be true, but you need the double jump for it.

Here we're dealing with the idea of "cannibalism" in the world of Hollow Knight again, where other bugs get chopped for food. This was one of the dark secrets that you could find in the City of Tears, but here they've really dove deep into the idea.

And this was one annoying boss fight, standing in the way of enhancing my needle. The maggot slime balls gave me quite some trouble at first, because getting hit by them prevents you from healing normally. The boss also has quite a huge hurtbox, where she does the Princess Peach body slam and double damage. Sometimes she does this body slam even twice in a row... Using the Reaper made the fight easier for me because of this, because it lets you keep your distance, but it wasn't a guarantee.

So, this wasn't going so well at first, where I had the idea that there might be a tool in the game that protects you from the maggot effect, like how Isma's Tears protects you from acid in Hollow Knight. But more like the Magma Bell, I suppose. This could have helped me quite a bit, but I probably went looking in the last place where I should have been looking for such an item... Bilewater.

The double jump let's you climb further up in this area, but this resulted in a journey of misery in the search of another bench. There is one at the station, but I had to return from there whenever I died. And I died quite a bit. The climb requires you to dodge huge, floating monsters that spit acid, but at least you can pogo on them to obtain more silk. And there these flying mushroom creatures that I used to heal up... a lot. 

A bench sign will give you hope, but of course this lures you into another trap, where in this case it crumbles down into a pit of maggots once you sit on it... Nice. And everywhere from here is just more death, where I died a couple of times going through the tunnel with the maggot fish that jump out of the water to drag you down. Why do these biting attacks always have to do double damage? One of the most annoying attacks for me in the game, next to the Flintflame bombs.

Eventually, you can find a bench to rest among many corpses, but it's hidden. And not finding it before proceeding might be soul-crushing. You can travel further into "Bilehaven", the village of the hostile bush creatures here, for a mob battle. And I was so happy to beat this fight after a couple of attempts, only for it to continue with a boss battle... Yeah, I'm not doing this now.

And everywhere in this area you still have to deal with the maggot problem, where taking on Lugoli felt easier than any of this. Sure enough, I was able to learn her patterns and how to dodge (most) of the maggot balls to finally claim the Pickled Muckmaggot. So, it was time for a feast...

The whole interaction was hilarious. I love how Hornet stays totally cool during what could as well have been another boss confrontation. And there it is, after all these efforts, my needle got another polish, doing minimally more damage than before...

 

However, as much as I was in the mood for celebrating, something felt off in all of this. For a second needle upgrade this was rather excessive. You had to do five side quests in total, including a lengthy, timed delivery and a whole boss fight... The latter even required you to get the double jump first.

Also, Pinmaster Plinney tells you that you can bring him just more Pale Oil to sharpen your needle even further, which meant that there is more than just one. The oil at the kitchen was the first one I discovered and I was so focused on it that I must have missed something very obvious somewhere else. Like the exact same pin shop sign inside the Citadel...

It turned out that there is another Pale Oil up for grabs, much easier to obtain than the one at the Citadel kitchen. You can access this from the Whispering Vaults, which means that you need to defeat the Cogwork Dancers first, but once you get there all it needs is a block moving puzzle. I had only breezed through the area before, so I simply missed this, and I then kept ignoring this area for a while, because I wanted to wait with the Threefold Melody quest. So, I now got two needle upgrades quickly after another, but at least I can feel the difference.

The Whispering Vaults also held the last piece of the Cogwork Heart, where there are three in total. For each one you need to solve a little bell puzzle, replaying the exact notes, and you can give this to a mechanical creature that will aid you from now on.

So, that's my third musketeer! Garmond, Green Prince, and... thing. Engage! This is so cool, to have a number of companions who can appear anywhere in the Citadel. The "Second Sentinel", which is how it's actually called, even trashes the Grand Reeds in the long upper halls, the giant guards that fight with a violin bow. Not that I needed the help at this point... They were a pain earlier in the game, but with three needle upgrades I can take them out quickly with a rush of the Wanderer. Or I can just avoid them entirely via the double jump.

It's a bit confusing, however, because the sentinel looks a lot like the Reeds and other stronger enemies inside the Citadel. So, whenever it appears out of nowhere it even scares me a little. But in any case, I should have now done everything relevant before assembling my grand performance.

In other news, Hornet can have her own Bellhouse in Bellhart, which is cute. You can find items that you can place there, like the Materium from the Memorium, which lets you look at all the different materials you've found in the game. You can even purchase additional furniture, for when you have too many Rosaries on you, including a whole spa for 1100.

On the topic of spending money, I also have discovered Grindle's shop at the Blasted Steps for some thievery tools and other stuff. I like the tool that improves your Clawline, but it's nothing extraordinary.

The one pilgrim nearby, who tricked you in a game of dice, is now found dead. Can't say that I'm all too sorry, but it's a bit sad how he died there alone. This gives you some sort of lucky charm, where there is a chance that you don't get hit, like with the Carefree Melody.

And I was able to take out the second Savage Beastfly by now. The funny thing was that I still died right after defeating the beast, because one of its fiery comrades got me right after the finishing blow. I was worried that I had to repeat the whole battle, but the game was nice enough to leave the proof lying around.

There was some more new stuff in old places. For example, you can keep collecting more Mossberries, where I found another at the Memorium. This let's you eventually upgrade the Druid's Eye to the Druid's Eyes... Though, I never really used this charm.

Curiously, when I returned to the cave at the very end of the Hunter's March, I was able to find a new tool there, a boomerang weapon. I don't find it particularly useful, either, however. So far, the triple pins and the tacks are my favorites.

However, my actual goal was to locate a Rhinogrund in the wild. The Hunter's Journal doesn't classify it as a unique creature inside the Memorium, so there has to be at least one down below. Maybe it's what's ramming against the gate at the Pilgrim's Rest, where I have yet to solve that mystery...

But the real highlight during the community gathering was the next boss in sight, Trobbio, who brought a lot of entertainment. But more on that in entry number 9.

Hero of Law

Usually, I'm not much into ROM hacks and randomizer stuff, because I hardly can keep up with the official releases, but this week I'm on a Zelda community gathering. And here I could witness this absolutely marvelous crossover between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Ace Attorney.

It was made by Newer Team and you can find everything you need to know on the game's website. I can only advise to give it a try, where it's a short game and you will be in a for a fun evening.

Talon got killed and Princess Zelda found him on a visit of the Lon Lon Ranch, where it looks like Malon did it with a Poacher's Saw. Link in his finest Zora Suit becomes her defense, while Ganondorf Dragmire poses as the prosecution, which is absolutely hilarious.

Any fan of Ocarina of Time will immediately know who actually did it, but of course it's about delivering proof by using evidence and all given statements. Like in your regular Ace Attorney game. It's a bit weird to have Link talk as much, but he also often just delivers his thoughts, where a lot of it is funny.

Overall, this ROM hack is absolutely impressive. The soundtrack is also a banger. If nothing else, go download it for a treat, also on the Hero of Law website. 

Nintendo Music: Zelda II - The Adventure of Link Added

They've skipped August for their not-so-monthly Zelda soundtrack addition in Nintendo Music, but we've gotten Zelda II - The Adventure of Link today. While this game is among the least popular from the Zelda series, its soundtrack always has been awesome with some very catchy tunes, like the Palace theme, which has been prominently featured in all Super Smash Bros. games since Melee.

It's also worth checking out the Famicom Disk version, because there are some notable differences, starting with the title theme, which makes better use of the soundchip. The Battle song is also completely unique, where it may sound strangely familiar to you. That's because it was later remixed as the mini-boss battle theme in The Minish Cap.

Silksong Journal, Entry 7

Next on my list of detours was Mount Fay. Once you have the Clawline, you can reach this icy area from the Slab. And I climbed the whole thing for my biggest achievement in the game so far. Spoilers for this whole area ahead. In addition, I visited the Sands of Karak and finally challenged an old advisory.

Now, when you can immediately find a bench at the beginning of a new area, then you know something is off. Though, in this case it's only provided temporarily by Chakra, but still... Mount Fay is quite reminiscent of Mount Hebra from Echoes of Wisdom, where you have to stay inside warm zones. Or else you will freeze to death, but it takes about 10 seconds before you rapidly lose your health.

There are even Weaver-installed lights to keep you warm. And a tablet the cave at the bottom tells you how climbing this mountain is a challenge that none of their kind was yet able to overcome... Sounds like fun. In fact, this sounded like some endgame challenge and certainly felt like it, where you have to perfectly align your Clawline shots on enemies, air-dash, float, climb, and even bounce off spikes to make it to the top. Now add some buzz saws and you make the White Palace proud.

And since the whole area is freezing, you're constantly on a timer, going from one warm light to the next, with little to no leeway between. Still, I gave it a try, but once I reached upper section I felt like the game wanted to troll me, because I was standing in front of an abyss that I could only cross with a double jump:

Well, eventually you can make the jump with the Clawline somehow, but I tried twice and fell down twice. And going all the way back up there for another attempt is purest frustration fuel... However, I noticed on my fall down that there is another pathway in the middle of this abyss. And you can proceed from there, into a long passage with ice water, which will instantly damage you, so better not miss a single shot with your Clawline.

This whole thing was essentially screaming, "Return here once you have the double jump! It will make this much easier. Don't push yourself so hard when not necessary!"

It's a mentality that I had before with a variety of other challenges, though I eventually bested them nevertheless. And there was also this other thought in my head that I couldn't shake: What if this leads to the double jump? While it makes you go in circles without one, you still can push through. And so I kept pushing...

As a motivator, you do find some benches on your way, but they are bit tricky. I arrived at the first one with only one mask left, only to find it blocked off. Luckily, I figured it out before losing my last hit point to the cold. But I froze to death after passing the next bench, which is hidden without any warning. This one is evil, because you have to backtrack a loooong way to return there. You have to climb up an entire ski slope and then go through multiple sections in another ice cavern, which brings you back to the icy abyss from before:

But once you've created the shortcut on the outside afterwards, you could just drop down here to the first "bench" at Chakra's place. That's what I did the second time, just to be "safe"...

Well, I do like how this area mirrors the other end of the map with the Deep Docks and Far Fields. It makes me wonder whether each direction on the map will represent a certain element. Earth with the Moss Grotto in the bottom left, ice with Mount Fay in the top left, probably water with the oceanic region in the top right, and finally fire with the Far Fields and Deep Docks in the bottom right. If these regions are arranged like the locks on the Grand Gate, there might be a fifth one representing air, above the Citadel. When you're reading this, you will probably know already, and I'm going to find out.

But clearly I had too much time to think when doing this climb, repeating the same jumps over and over again. The Weavers also tell you about a beast awaiting at the top, granting you a wish. And that you should know what to wish for. So, I kept thinking what I wanted to get out of this, after torturing myself for about an hour, which were really only things:

1. A double jump
2. Something to protect me from the freaking cold 

Much to my surprise I received both in one item, the Down Cloak. It lets you perform another jump mid-air AND protects you from the cold with its downs. This is amazing, and the best I've felt after getting something in this game done.

Thank you so much, mountain bird beast! I honestly expected this to become another boss battle to test my patience even further... But this wasn't the case and now the world has opened up to me. There are a number of locations that I can now check out. And the excuse of not having a double jump is finally gone. I'm free now, yippieh!

I first have to get used to it, however, because my muscle memory is locked to Hornet gliding when you jump mid-air. This even got me into trouble while further exploring down Mount Fay. There is this one passage where you have to get through some spikes:

My instincts still tell me to jump from the wall, then glide, and then maybe clawline to the other side. But now I keep jumping into the spikes like an idiot. And this caused also some frustrations in the next area I went to...

Even though I have the double jump now, I wasn't even done with checking all Clawline locations. And there was another one at the Blasted Steps, at the tent of the "Pinstress" in the far edge, where on my way I met Nuu again feasting on the dead Conchfly.

By the way, the sand worms don't deal double damage any longer since the first patch, so they nerfed this area quite a bit, which is a welcome change. Especially with where I was heading...

From the tent you can enter the "Sands of Karak", the coral region I already heard about. That's were I should be able to find another delicacy, but first you have to make it through the place. As I mentioned earlier with Mount Fay, the later areas usually are extremely stingy when it comes to offering benches.

You have to hit these yellow rocks, which temporarily make some corals bloom, which can be used for platforming. The area was designed for the Clawline and while you think that the double jump should make it easier, I was messing up quite a lot, because it can break the flow. And of course they had to add more Drizbits to make this truly frustrating. And then you have to return all the way down from the tent in the Blasted Steps again... Ugh...

It takes a while to reach a bench, but this has to be one of the most rewarding benches for me... Because it sits right atop the Last Judge! You can create a shortcut here, which leads back down to the Blasted Steps. And you will drop down right before the chamber where you fight this dreaded boss.

So, this was fate. I now had to do it. Well, I had planned to do this next anyway, because with the double jump it is easy enough to return to this boss from either bench. So, the fight was on...

And this was easy enough. I don't know why the internet keeps complaining about this particular boss... Just kidding, of course, I wouldn't want to have done this without the double jump and the more convenient bench right above.

As a Wanderer enthusiast, this is also a boss who invites you to smack wildly at her, only to get punished quickly by that whirling attack whenever you get too greedy. But eventually I've learned...

Sadly, there was nothing really to gain here, other than finally completing that main quest. You open the hall to the Grand Gate and that's really it. This is the problem when bosses only act as a gatekeeper and nothing else. In the least there could have been a Mask Shard or so in the room that was inaccessible before. So, back to the Sands of Karaks, I guess... 

Silksong Journal, Entry 6

Oh, behold the glory of the glorious Citadel! After getting to the second act of Hollow Knight: Silksong, I've had some of my best times with the game so far, but also some of my most frustrating ones. By now I have reached a certain point right at the center of the Citadel and explored most of the Choral Chambers before that, with detours into the Underworks, the Slab, and the Whiteward. I also got caught up in a variety of distractions all around Pharloom, where I have been playing courier quite a bit...

Exploring the Citadel itself, especially the Choral Chambers, is quite the treat. The music is beautiful and the majority of the enemies are not that difficult to deal with (except for those fighting with pins), while they are on the richer side, dropping lots of Rosaries for you. It pays to run around here and smash some choir bugs.

Well, I made the "mistake" to go all the way around to where you would come out if you had entered the Citadel via the "Grand Gate", and not its backdoor. I mainly wanted to see what it's like. And it's hilarious how the game immediately tries to lure you into a trap. If you don't understand that you can climb those large scales at the Grand Gate hall, you may run directly into an elevator... one that malfunctions.

This leaves down in the "Underworks" and you have to fight your way out of there first. And this whole part can be entirely avoided, especially in my case where I didn't need to go here at all, but it gives you a valuable insight into the shadow of the Citadel. Here, bugs grind like slaves around the clock to keep the whole place running. They are literally working themselves to death.

It gets especially sinister once you finally get to a bench and learn that they only remain active for a moment and you have to pay some Rosaries each time you want to sit down. You want to rest? You have to pay for it! And if you do, you will be in good company of the corpses left by those who couldn't afford it. It's already common around Pharloom that all of the bell benches have to be unlocked with your money, but this is taking things to the extreme. Exploitation of the working class at its finest.

In the Citadel you can find a new transportation system, the so called "Ventricas", which is essentially a network of bug-sized pneumatic tubes. Since I already had activated other nodes, I didn't actually have to fight my way out of the Underworks, because there was a node down there. But I did so anyway in case there is a reward for it... (I think there wasn't.)

Another detour brought me to the "Slab", an area to the west / left of the Citadel, but there is not much I could achieve here yet, other than unlocking a Bellway Station. I was told that you can get there quite early in the game by getting caught and I have an inkling how that might happen, but I'm going to see for how long I can ignore this part.

Back to the Citadel, I could cleanse myself from the dirt of the Slab inside the nice bathhouse that they are offering. It even has a shower! But to my surprise I found a certain someone bathing there as well: Sherma! She also made it into the Citadel.

And while I'm happy that she is still alive, this raises a number of questions. First and foremost, how did she get into the Citadel? The Grand Gate is still closed and guarded by an annoying boss, who I won't touch for a while. I last saw her at the Blasted Steps, so it's unlikely that she also went all the away around. And she certainly wouldn't want to go on the Sinner's Road, since she is a good, little pilgrim.

Well, I also opened a path into the Citadel via the Slab, so this could be an explanation, but I doubt that this is the case. I can't say for sure, because I went to the Slab first, but it might just be an oversight from Team Cherry's end that Sherma already appears.

You can also meet Grindle again, where Hornet gives him her signature slap when he tries to steal from her. But at least in his case I can imagine that he also sneaked in some other way. And Garmond will eventually roam these halls as well, enjoying the brutal slaughter of choir bugs as much as I do, but I met him last at the Sinner's Road, so he definitely went the same way as I did.

There is a new type of enemy in the Citadel that it's really scary, the Clawmaiden. It reminds me of the Hunter Metroids from Metroid Prime, where they can siphon you from a distance. But in this case they are targeting your silk. They don't always appear and I'm not exactly sure what even triggers them, where I first thought it might be the usage of your silk skills. But that doesn't seem to be it...

Eventually, I arrived at the dining hall and this opened a can of worms, where I don't just mean the hygiene in the kitchen. You can get the oil here, which you require to sharpen your needle a second time (at least I think that's what this is, but maybe I misunderstood). And of course that's something you want to have, but there is a catch... You first have to bring five delicacies from all over Pharloom.

One is easy enough to acquire, the Mossberry Stew, but the others each bring their own challenge. The "Pickled Muckmaggot" sounded like something that you can find at the Sinner's Road, but while I was able to find some connoisseurs of Muckroach guts, who I had missed before, you instead will get a new tool from them, the "Tacks". But those are quite awesome, because you can litter the ground with them for lots of damage.

They even prove themselves useful for acquiring the next ingredient from Halfway Home, the Vintage Nectar, which is treated like a fine wine stored in a cellar. Except that this cellar has a big ant problem... Well, if you look at the map, the tavern is located right above the Hunter's March, so this surprise makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, you have to survive multiple waves of enemies with another Skarrgard at the end, which is where those tacks came in handy. I love how the small ants carry your tacks away, along with the remains of their fallen big brethren. There are so many fun details in this game, I could probably write a whole blog post about listing them all.

Next up were these two suckers: Pill & Tipp. Or Tipp & Bill. That's another reason why I went to the Sinner's Road, you have to look for Tipp there. And previously you had to search for Bill to get new supplies for the shop at Bellhart. Anyway, these courier bugs task you with deliveries to certain places, where this works pretty much like the Delicate Flower quest in Hollow Knight. This means that you are not allowed to use fast travel and you should avoid getting hit at all cost. The major difference is that you have some leeway, where your goods can take a number of hits before they eventually break.

Still, the strategy is the exact same. Clear the path beforehand. And don't use any benches to avoid respawning enemies. This makes it significantly easier. For the food delivery quest, however, you're also on a timer, because the "Courier's Rasher" will eventually spoil rotten.

I'm not sure what is the best route to do this, but it's not like I had any options with the main gate to the Citadel still blocked. And I doubt going via the Blasted Steps is actually faster, so I went over Greymoor and Sinner's Road into the Citadel. I got hit once and accidentally bumped into a wall for two hits, but barely made it nevertheless. I believe you might even be able to connect the Underworks to Bellhart or the Shellwoods somehow, but even if this were the case, I'm not sure it would be any easier. It is a long road to clear, though.

But all these efforts didn't pay off right now, because I don't even know how to get the other delicacies yet. One is said to be at some choral region, where I haven't been yet. And this feels like quite some severe gatekeeping for what's only the second needle upgrade. In Hollow Knight you could get the first two nail upgrades fairly quickly, and I'm quickly getting tired of doing too little damage.

Anyway, if you found the deliveries fun, there is more where they came from. You also get optional courier quests, where you can deliver goods to all the other towns and settlements all around Pharloom, which includes the newest one you can create at the First Shrine, Songclave:

It sits at the top right at the Citadel and you can meet Sherma here once more, who is still in good faith, despite seeing the state of the whole place. But that's going to change soon.

Since I'm sometimes a little too stubborn when it comes to video game challenges, I actually went out of my way to clear the whole path to this settlement again for the delivery, only to find out that they changed their target to the Pilgrim's Rest. Come on now...!

On a side note, you can obtain another Simple Key from Songclave and since I came across the Green Prince multiple times during my tours, I just let him out at some point. There was no other keyhole for me to use it right now anyway... Let's see what this will bring. But he seemed like a nice guy. 

Songclave also lets you acquire the White Key, giving you access to the Whiteward, what's probably the creepiest place in the entire game so far, all cobwebbed like some haunted house. And what's up with the baby carriages?

It's where they have experimented with Weavers, where their silk is behind the whole Haunting in Pharloom. Hornet learned that the silk gets woven into the shells of the bugs and that the silk controlling the bugs is attaching itself to these strands, which explains why some bugs fall victim to the Haunting, turning hostile against you, while others are immune.

There also some annoying enemies in the Whiteward, which rapidly attack with silk, and some new, fat scissor monsters. But eventually you get back to the Underworks to the place where the Diggernauts got constructed, which scared me for a moment. 

But instead of another annoying boss, you can find the Clawline here, this game's version of a hookshot. The main difference is that you will get pulled to your needle, even if it doesn't hit a wall or an enemy, so you can always use for some aerial acrobatics, making the ZL/L2 button get a lot more usage that in Hollow Knight with the Crystal Dash. Which was awesome, but very situational.

Anyway, I find it very hit and miss, literally. It takes some getting used to it, where you always have to pay attention to Hornet's vertical alignment before you shoot. Still, this was very exciting for a new upgrade, because I had a variety of markers on my map with positions of those hanging rings. And I immediately got some major incentive to explore, because there is another shop down there, ran by the constructor. You can invest some good money here for cool tools, like a sawblade weapon, but they require you to obtain Craftmetal, where I had already spent all of them at the Forge Daughter.

Luckily, you can easily return there, because it creates a shortcut back to the nearest Ventrica, via a tunnel that extends through the magma chamber. These crossroads that let you only go straight, where the Citadel also makes use of one below Songclave, are actually quite clever.

Now, some of those markers on my map let me back into the Far Fields and Deep Docks... But oh boy, I was now in for some frustrations. And it's mainly their fault:

The Flintflame Flyers. While I previously complained about the Driznits, they are nothing compared to these overly annoying motherbombers. I can't overstate how much I hate these guys with their giant double damage explosions that don't even harm them. It would actually be a lot fairer if they just blew themselves into oblivion with that nonsense.

There is a mob fight around here, which has three of them in an enclosed chamber and this got me to give up after a number of attempts. And each time you return there, you still have to deal with the Flintflame Flyer shown above, where you only have limited to space to dodge his bombs. But as usual, the Wanderer is for the win, because eventually I realized that I could just pogo the guy into the magma.

There is a similarly frustrating mob fight further down Far Fields, where you end up in a magma chamber with crumbling floors and lots of flying enemies, including a new variant that shoots lava balls, the Tarmites. Well, you can purchase the "Ascendant's Grip" at Songclave, which lets you stick to walls and is very helpful in this fight. It's still frustrating as hell.

At this point I developed the mentality that all of these challenges might be a lot easier to overcome with a double jump, so I decided to proceed with my main goals for a bit. Though, I very much doubted that I would get the double jump so soon after the Clawline...

Still, I went on into center of the Citadel to face the boss there, the Cogwork Dancers. And this was a lot of fun! Learning a boss fight in Hollow Knight (and similar games) is often like learning a dance, where they took this literally here. And a boss that keeps showing you its next move is certainly the nicest thing this game has done in a while.

The ending of the fight was also heartbreaking. If you were ever supposed to feel sorry for taking down a boss, they certainly have achieved this here, despite the fact that these are machines... You can find smaller machines like these two nearby and whenever you destroy them, it is revealed that they are powered by one of the Lumaflies, those creatures that have helped and guided you before. Overall, I keep smashing the lanterns around the Citadel just to free them. Out of principle. Thank you, little butterflies!

After defeating the Cogwork Dancers, this is where the game has its Tourian statue moment. You're tasked with learning the "Threefold Melody", which has three parts and you need to track down three individuals all around the Citadel, where you're given their locations on the map. It's similar to the three Dreamers in Hollow Knight, though here you are not required to travel all over the world to find them.

I've done some first exploring through the lower part of the Cogwork Core, which is giving me White Palace vibes, though I'm getting these vibes from a lot of places. Somewhere in this game world another Path of Pain will be waiting for me...

From there I took a first look at the Whispering Vaults, which is where the "luvvv youuu!" boss seems to be waiting, who I recognized from the trailers... like actually most bosses so far, so Team Cherry wasn't shy from showing a lot with how little they have shown.

You can find a very disturbing centipede down there as well, who is doing a music collection and wants you to bring him cylinders. I also hadn't realized until earlier that the artifacts that you can sell at Bellhart give you little lore pieces this time, which you can access via a small menu there. So far I was simply keeping them in case I need the Rosaries, but there was lots of money to spend with all the new shops.

Eventually you loop back into the Choral Chambers and I decided to do some more side missions before this whole Threefold Melody quest. One of them takes you back into the Whiteward to rescue Sherma...

Now she eventually opens up to the idea that not everything is peachy about the Citadel and her little faith trip... But who am I kidding? At least I'm not worried any longer that she will fall victim to the Haunting with what Hornet has learned about it.

Via the Surgeon's Key, where I completely forgot where I found this one, you can also open a big hole at the Whiteward which traps you with another boss, the Unravelled. It's in the category of "easy boss who will summon other enemies to make it difficult" and I felt like having a double jump would make this much less annoying, because he is so huge and charges through the entire room.

But I can't keep using this as an excuse, so I went back into the Far Fields and Deep Docks to deal with the open ends there. Plus, there was actually a path further down into the Deep Docks that I previously didn't take. And it speaks for itself that the boss battle, the Forebrother Signis and his brother from another mother, felt a lot more doable for me than the mob battle with the Flintflame Flyers.

This unlocks a sauna, yay! I could now open the big vault door from the other side, but I'm still missing something to enter the giant bell housing further down. Or I simply didn't understand what to do there, which happens more often than not.

After some more attempts I also have beaten the stupid bomb mob battle, but this "only" let me find another flee. I like these guys, I really do, but after such hardships you expect a little more... Like one of the Craftstones that I was originally looking for. Or maybe Team Cherry is just severely underestimating how painful these mob battles can be for mortal players.

On my way back to the magma cavern at the Far Fields, I came across another Savage Beastfly... This wasn't a major surprise, because there is a quest at Bellhart to hunt it down, but I expected it to be behind the gate near the Pilgrim's Rest, because some beast keeps slamming against it...

But you fight the Savage Beastfly in the same arena that made you face the Fourth Chorus (the Diggernaut)... And now it will break the floor when it's doing its downward smash and also spawn Tarmites to its aid, which may even fire on the remaining floor tiles. Their burning spit remains for a while, so you can't step on them afterwards.

However, you can just leave... You're not locked into the screen here and can even use this to cheese the battle a bit. You can heal yourself in safety or take out the Tarmites from a distance... Still, I couldn't be bothered, since I still have trauma from the first time beating this boss.

At least I then did the magma cave battle for another victory. Another hard earned one, I might add, because after besting all the foes down in the crater, the magma rises for a Tourian-esque escape sequence. But you are getting properly rewarded for this one with another Mask Shard. Well, in my case it felt rewarding, because this gave me my seventh mask. I can survive more than three hits now with your regular bosses, yaaayyyy!