Let me paint you a picture: back in Hollow Knight, Hornet was the boss who made me hurl my controller across the room in Greenpath and later in Kingdom's Edge. Now, in Silksong, I finally get to play as her. But the universe has a twisted sense of humor, ... moreLet me paint you a picture: back in Hollow Knight, Hornet was the boss who made me hurl my controller across the room in Greenpath and later in Kingdom's Edge. Now, in Silksong, I finally get to play as her. But the universe has a twisted sense of humor, because Lace has arrived to fill the vacant role of 'nightmare that lives in my head rent-free.' If you have already fought Lace once in Deep Docks and thought that was the end of it, surprise! She is back for round two near The Cradle, and she has not come to cuddle. I was on my way to confront Big Momma Silk when Lace jumped me for the second time, and honestly, I was not emotionally prepared.
This guide is written from the perspective of an ordinary player—me—who got absolutely shredded by Lace 2 the first few tries. I will walk you through where to find her, what to equip, and how to survive all three phases without losing your mind.
Where This Rematch Happens
I will not lie to you: getting to Lace's second fight is a mini-quest in itself. You will need to collect the threefold melodies required to operate the elevator near Cogwork Core. That means:
Clearing
Whispering Vaults
, which includes finding a secret sound cylinder for one very particular NPC.
Surviving
High Halls
, home to one of the deadliest battle arenas in Silksong.
Getting through
Cogwork Core
, a platforming and puzzle combo that will test your patience.
Once you have all three melodies, return to the elevator, play the tunes, and ride it up. Fair warning: the moment you step out of that elevator, the fight starts. No dramatic cutscene to catch your breath. Lace is just there, ready to ruin your day.
Preparing for Round Two (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cogfly)
Before I talk strategy, let us talk gear. Honestly, there is no single must-have item for this fight, but after my own trial and error, I found a combination that kept me alive long enough to actually enjoy the choreography.
Here is what I ran with:
Tool / Crest
Why It Matters
Cogfly
Your tiny mechanical buddies do consistent damage in phase three and help end the fight before Lace's nastiest attacks can stack up.
Silkspeed Anklets
This fight is all about hit-and-run. The extra speed lets you dart in, poke, and sprint to the other side of the arena before Lace can punish you.
Barbed Bracelet
Only use if you are extremely confident in phases one and two. It can shorten the fight, but if you are sloppy, it will cost you.
The core idea is to stay mobile. Standing still against Lace is basically asking her to turn you into a pincushion. Keep moving, keep poking, and let the Cogfly do a chunk of the heavy lifting when things get chaotic.
How To Beat Lace 2
Phase One: The Needle Dance
The first phase is all about reading Lace's quick stabs and closing the distance before retreating. Her main attack is a steady string of stabs that she uses to chase you down. My advice? Sprint away, and when you are out of room, pogo off her head to escape.
She also has a jump-and-diagonal lunge. Watch where she is going to land, jump above the impact point, and pogo on her after she touches down. Her thrust attack is even nastier: she slides across nearly the entire arena in one motion. The trick is to wait for her to commit, leap up, pogo on her head, and then haul yourself to the opposite side.
One more thing that caught me off guard: her parry. If you hear the
clink
of her blocking your attack, run. Fast. She will immediately launch into a flurry that can drain two masks if you are too close. Treat that sound as your early warning system.
Phase Two: Bubbles of Doom
After you stun Lace for the first time, she decides to get a little more creative. Her jump attack now leaves behind three light bubbles that deal damage if you touch them. Instead of trying to dodge around them, I found it more consistent to dash under her jump and hit her from behind—there is a small safe pocket between the bubbles if you time it right.
Beyond the bubbles, phase two is mostly the same as phase one. Keep chipping away at her health, avoid the new AOE trick, and you will eventually stun her again. That is when the real chaos begins.
Phase Three: Thread Storm Nightmare
Phase three is easily the worst. Lace takes flight and marks out a huge circle covering much of the arena, then unleashes a flurry of attacks that looks a lot like your own Thread Storm ability. The saving grace? It is very well telegraphed. Whenever you see that large glowing circle with white light fizzing in the center, dash away as fast as you can.
This is also the moment I started spamming my Cogfly minions like there was no tomorrow. They deal solid damage and can shorten this terrifying phase so you do not have to survive her barrage any longer than necessary. If you can stay calm, keep moving, and let your little mechanical helpers chip away at her, you will finally put Lace down for less
When I first dropped into the hidden corridor below Grand Gate in
Hollow Knight: Silksong
, I expected another silent guardian to throw itself at Hornet. Instead, Shrine Guardian Seth stopped, looked at me, and spoke. That small gesture changed everything... moreWhen I first dropped into the hidden corridor below Grand Gate in
Hollow Knight: Silksong
, I expected another silent guardian to throw itself at Hornet. Instead, Shrine Guardian Seth stopped, looked at me, and spoke. That small gesture changed everything. In 2026, after all the waiting and speculation, his boss fight still feels less like a duel and more like a conversation. The music is unusually slow and a little sad, which makes sense once you know the story. Seth was designed with and named after
Hollow Knight
fan Seth Goldman during his cancer treatment, thanks to the Marty Lyons Foundation and Team Cherry. I’m not going to lie, I put the controller down for a moment before the fight began.
It hit different.
Finding the Hidden Path to Seth
I had to climb the Grand Gate elevator shaft, hug the left wall near the top, and smash a breakable panel. The path beyond demanded a few careful pogo jumps over gaps. It felt like the game was asking me to slow down. Seth wasn’t guarding a main route; he was waiting at the end of a quiet detour.
Preparing for a Fair Fight
I’ll be honest—I overprepared for this one. In the end, my usual Crest worked fine. Seth seems to want a clean, evenly matched exchange. Ranged tools and area attacks can sneak in extra damage, but they aren’t required. Comfort mattered more than optimization.
Seth’s Moveset and How I Learned to Punish Him
Seth fights in two phases with a needle and a cymbal shield. In phase one, he signals much of what he does, and the real battle is patience. His shield isn’t just gear; it feels like a partner with its own rhythm, humming whenever it lands.
Attack
Tell
My Response
Three-hit melee lunge
Jumps backward before starting
Back away, then strike once or twice after the combo ends
Ground shield toss
Hurls shield across the arena, then dashes to catch it
Jump over the shield, run to the end of its arc, and hit him during recovery
Aerial shield throw
Leaps and throws the shield diagonally
Let the shield hit the ground, run beneath it, and attack when he lands
Downward dive
Dives from the air on a diagonal
Avoid it, then keep away from the golden shockwave after he lands
No joke, that shockwave caught me more times than the dive itself. After landing, Seth usually followed it with a lunge, so I learned to stay patient instead of forcing a hit.
In phase two, Seth chains multiple dive attacks before a final lunge. The same rule applies: avoid the golden shockwaves, keep him in sight, and wait for recovery. I prioritized front or back hits because his shield made aerial approaches feel sloppy.
Rewards, Rivalry, and a Song
Beating him opened a way to Shellwood Shrine and gave me the Shellwood Shrine Key plus 200 Rosaries. But the bigger reward was that Seth survived. He lost his Shrine Guardian status and became a wandering NPC. During Act Three, I found him in Greymoor, Shellwood, Grand Gate, and Fleatopia. Each meeting gave him a little more peace. In Fleatopia, he bragged—politely, I think—about setting high scores in all the flea mini-games. When I beat those scores, I earned the Guardian’s Memento, a spiny medallion that now hangs in Bellhome.
The final touch? If I played my Needolin in front of Seth after Fleatopia, he sang along. The melody wasn’t flashy; it was an ode to perseverance and courage. That moment turned a cameo into a tribute. Maybe that’s why the boss music always felt like a memory rather than a threat.
That quiet tribute stuck with me long after I put the game down. Silksong rewards that kind of patience—the willingness to learn a boss’s rhythm, adapt, and eventually turn a struggle into something close to harmony. It’s a feeling I chase in other games too, and it’s part of why I keep an eye on what’s coming next to Steam. Between the recent Hollow Knight-inspired metroidvanias and bigger indie showcases, there’s always another arena to learn and another melody to uncover.
But with so many releases dropping each week, the price tags add up fast. That’s where I’ve found the steam deal finder(https://dealnesthq.com/ ) at DealNest genuinely useful—it lets me wishlist everything that catches my eye and then jump in when the discounts line up. That way, the next song I’m humming doesn’t have to come with a full-price sting, and I can spend more time mastering the next boss instead of second-guessing a purchase. less
Maths assignment help can be useful for improving analytical and logical reasoning skills. Maths assignment help https://myassignment.services/mathematics-assignment-help.html can support students in understanding challenging mathematical concepts and com... moreMaths assignment help can be useful for improving analytical and logical reasoning skills. Maths assignment help https://myassignment.services/mathematics-assignment-help.html can support students in understanding challenging mathematical concepts and completing complex problems with greater clarity. Students can explore guidance related to algebra, calculus, statistics, geometry, trigonometry, and other mathematical topics. Effective assistance can help learners understand formulas, follow problem-solving methods, and identify common calculation errors. By reviewing step-by-step approaches and explanations, students can strengthen their understanding rather than simply focusing on final answers. This type of academic support can make difficult mathematical assignments more manageable while encouraging students to develop confidence in solving problems independently. less
Here in 2026, I still remember the collective whiplash on August 21, 2025, when Team Cherry finally pulled back the curtain on Hollow Knight: Silksong. The announcement of a September 4, 2025 release date hit like a well-placed nail bounce in Greenpath. A... moreHere in 2026, I still remember the collective whiplash on August 21, 2025, when Team Cherry finally pulled back the curtain on Hollow Knight: Silksong. The announcement of a September 4, 2025 release date hit like a well-placed nail bounce in Greenpath. After years of memes, speculation, and near-total radio silence, giving the indie world just a couple of weeks’ notice felt less like a victory lap and more like a jump scare. I’ve been covering games long enough to know that timing is everything, and Silksong’s near shadow drop blew up the calendar for plenty of smaller studios.
The collateral damage was real. As of August 2025, at least seven indie titles shifted their launch plans to steer clear of Silksong. I’m not talking about tiny, under-the-radar projects either. The list included Aeterna Lucis, Baby Steps, CloverPit, Demonschool, Faeland, Little Witch in the Woods, and Megabonk. Some of those games had been in the “when it’s done” oven for years, and suddenly their teams had to decide whether to share oxygen with the most anticipated Metroidvania sequel since, well, Hollow Knight itself.
🎮 Delayed Game
📅 Reaction
Aeterna Lucis
Avoided Silksong launch window
Baby Steps
Avoided Silksong launch window
CloverPit
Avoided Silksong launch window
Demonschool
Avoided Silksong launch window
Faeland
Avoided Silksong launch window
Little Witch in the Woods
Avoided Silksong launch window
Megabonk
Avoided Silksong launch window
Hell Is Us Director Calls the Surprise Date “A Little Callous”
Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is no stranger to high-pressure projects. Before serving as creative director on Hell Is Us, he worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. His first solo project was critically praised in our review: “Hell Is Us is a rare gem that we don’t normally see in the gaming industry. It’s more than a game that simply “doesn’t have waypoints or quest markers.” Instead, it’s an engaging experience that truly trusts the player’s intelligence, curiosity, and active listening skills.”
But the buzz didn’t quite match the reception. Speaking on the Friends Per Second podcast, Jacques-Belletête admitted he believes Silksong absolutely affected Hell Is Us’ performance, even if he can’t prove it with hard numbers. That’s not sour grapes; it’s just the reality of a packed year. Borderlands 4 was breathing down everyone’s neck, and the summer had already been swallowed by Nintendo Switch 2, a new Mario Kart, and a fantastic 3D Donkey Kong platformer.
Still, the way Team Cherry dropped the date got under his skin. “As the ‘GTA 6 of indie’… to shadow drop something like this is a little callous,” he said. And honestly, I get it. In the same way major publishers tiptoe around Grand Theft Auto 6, Silksong is the indie equivalent of a cultural black hole. Attention is finite. We saw this with The Dark Knight in 2008—when the only movie brave enough to open alongside it was Space Chimps. The Barbenheimer schedule clash worked out, but that’s the exception, not the rule.
The moment the Silksong date hit, Jacques-Belletête and his team went into scramble mode. He described it bluntly: “We all jumped on our phones really quickly with our publisher and all sorts of things like that...a lot of emails and texts and messages back and forth between a lot of people, between us and our publisher. It was a real thing.” That image of tiny teams firing off messages while Hollow Knight fans celebrated is the indie games industry in a nutshell.
Looking back from 2026, I don’t think this is about whether Silksong deserved its moment. It did. But for smaller studios, a two-week notice from a giant can feel like being asked to politely move out of the way. The lesson for me is simple: surprise drops are thrilling for players, but they can be brutal for developers who don’t have a marketing budget big enough to shout over the noise.
For players, the flip side of a crowded release calendar is that it's harder than ever to catch everything at launch. Between surprise drops, packed summers, and tight budgets, waiting for the right moment to pick up a game has become just as important as knowing which ones to play. That's especially true for indie titles like Hell Is Us, which can easily slip under the radar before a player's backlog clears up.
That's why many gamers now track the best game deals(https://dealnesthq.com/ ) before committing their wallet — giving smaller releases a second chance to shine when the spotlight finally moves on. A little patience, a saved search, and a timely discount can turn a game you almost missed into your next favorite experience. less
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