As with all big releases, Silksong’s launch was the starting gun for two gaming races: Modding and speedrunning. The latter is still in a discovery phase before recordkeeping begins on Speedrun.com on October 1, but the Silksong Nexus already has mods up the wazoo—mostly to make the challenging metroidvania a little bit easier.
The number two slot on the Nexus top 30 feels like an old friend: Always Have Compass Effect by Synthlight. Silksong, like the first Hollow Knight, requires you to give up space among your buildcrafting “tools”—the equivalent of charms from the first game—to have an icon showing your place on the map screen.
You effectively have to make yourself weaker to receive that comforting navigation aid. Synthlight’s mod just gives you the effect for free, and the author has a similar project for the magnet tool that makes picking up currency easier. Both projects require the BepInEx Unity plugin to function.
I tend to be an obnoxious, curmudgeonly purist when it comes to stuff like this: I like friction in games, even when it’s a little wonky or annoying. It’s just so much more memorable than a game that goes down too smooth.
I also appreciate the commitment of a developer who insists on keeping a feature players dislike, such as the powergamer-thwarting compass. I hated Elden Ring’s Ulcerated Tree Spirits in their 12 appearances in the base game, but FromSoft bringing them back in Shadow of the Erdtree and Nightreign was an all-time gaming bit.
But I get it, and I like that these mods are effectively an ersatz difficulty slider in the absence of an official one. If you’re finding Silksong too punishing, the Nexus’ top 30 list also has mods for reduced enemy damage, fast travel, boss health bars, and more. I may insist on my own misery in this hobby of ours for no real reason, but you don’t have to.
