Hollow Knight: Silksong's second patch is live in Steam beta, includes fix for bug caused by "dying to bosses while killing them"

Hollow Knight: Silksong's second patch is here ahead of an impeding full release, with Team Cherry having shared the notes and initiated Steam beta testing. No balancing tweaks this time around, just a bunch more handy bug fixes that're well worth being aware of.

"We're getting close to finalising the second post-release patch for Hollow Knight: Silksong," the studio wrote in post on Steam. "Where the first patch dealt mainly with critical issues, this next one focuses on a few still remaining, while also cleaning up some bugs around specific tools." They added that if you do opt to test it out via the beta branch, you should "expect a few more additions and tweaks before full release".

As for the tweaks made thus far, you'll find 'em laid out below:

• Added Dithering effect option in Advanced video settings. Reduces colour banding but can slightly soften the appearance of foreground assets. Defaults to 'Off'.
• Updated Herald's Wish achievement description to clarify that players must both complete the wish and finish the game.
• Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava.
• Fixed rare cases of Shrine Guardian Seth getting out of bounds during battle.
• Added catch to prevent Lugoli sometimes flying off screen and not returning during battle.
• Further reduced chance of Silk Snippers getting stuck out of bounds in Chapel of the Reaper battle.
• Fixed various instances of dying to bosses while killing them causing death sequences to play messily or out of sync.
• Fixed Shaman Binding into a bottom transition causing a softlock.
• Cocoon positions in some locations updated to prevent it spawning in inaccessible areas.
• Fixed Liquid Lacquer courier delivery not being accessible in Steel Soul mode.
• Fixed some NPCs not correctly playing cursed hint dialogues in certain instances.
• Fixed Pondcatcher Reed not being able to fly away after singing.
• Fixed Verdania memory orbs sometimes replaying layered screen-edge burst effects.
• Fixed the break counter not working for certain multihitter tools eg Conchcutter.
• Fixed Volt Filament damage multiplier not applying for certain Silk Skills.
• Fixed Cogflies and Wisps inappropriately targeting Skullwings.
• Fixed Cogflies incorrectly resetting their HP to full on scene change.
• Fixed Curveclaw always breaking on the first hit after being deflected.
• Fixed Plasmium Phial and Flea Brew sometimes not restoring as intended at benches.
• Various other smaller tweaks and fixes.

Aside from Disgraced Chef Lugoli sometimes just deciding he's done with Hornet and nopeing out never to be seen again mid-fight, the one that's caught my eye is the death sequences messing up if you expire the moment you deal a fatal blow to a big baddie. Surely that's a) pretty tough to pull off and b) something that should offer a unique outcome. I'd say the boss' expiration going sideways in some hilarious fashion would count for the latter.

So, here's hoping Team Cherry add in a less troublesome bug to ensure anyone who pulls off the double death still get a quirky reward to ease their pain. Anyway, I'll stop waffling, check out our great Silksong walkthrough Ollie's worked really hard on.