You’re given the difficult choice early on in Hollow Knight: Silksong of whether to make your way across the Blasted Steps or Sinner’s Road. It’s more of a pacing choice and less of an exclusion, since you’ll ultimately be crossing them both. But depending on which way you choose to do it, it can affect your experience. Both roads have their own environments, threats, and rewards that will affect how fluidly you experience the game.
The Blasted Steps
The Blasted Steps is the more accessible route overall. The layout of the area tests your platforming with great gusts of air and sandy ground where it’s not advisable to stay, but the danger is ongoing instead of prohibitive.
The battle that defines this path is against The Last Judge. The battle is not that intricate, even if the backtracking to the boss following a loss will try patience.
Why most players suggest this path first:
- Plain dangers: not punishing but challenging
- Frustrating boss: test of will rather than edge technical expertise
- Progression-oriented: level clearing clears the path to the Citadel and moves the quest into Act II
In short, Blasted Steps is the safe haven, taking you through with no big obstacles.
Sinner’s Road
Sinner’s Road is much more difficult, both mechanically and mentally. Wet ground features leech pools and pitfallingly frustrating platforming that rewards tiny mistakes. The icing on the cake is in The Mist, the fog-covered puzzle section that bewilders like the “Lost Woods” of yesteryear adventure games.
It boasts at its core the Exhaust Organ, home to the Phantom boss. Phantom is a no-brainer difficulty spike of The Last Judge. Living has a payoff: the Cross Stitch Silk Skill, which significantly opens up fight possibilities and makes easier work of subsequent combat.
Sinner’s Road also packs in optional content:
- Some NPC battles, fleshing out backstory, could and do have side rewards
- Unusual objects which reward checking out every nook and cranny
- Shortcuts which lead back to earlier levels
- A small bench which raises the stakes on survival
For intrepid players, the challenge is balanced by the density of reward, but to do so too early costs frustration and devastating setbacks.
Optimal Strategy
Both levels are worth visiting, but the sequence does matter. For most players:
- Subjugate Blasted Steps first, so an easier entry is made into Act II
- Get back to Sinner’s Road later, when you have more equipment and equipment to deal with its threats
However, if bruisers are eager to get the Cross Stitch right away, they can head to Sinner’s Road right away. It’s a high-reward, high-risk tactic that depends entirely on your pain tolerance spikes.
