Cut Content (Silksong)

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This page contains a list of cut content for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Before the release of the game, some content was announced or shown that ultimately did not make it into the final release. Some cut content was never announced but can instead be found in the game's files. This page contains the gallery, and information on more minor types of cut content; view the pages linked in the navbar for information on other types of cut content.

Audio

Music

Name	Notes	Preview
H110 Boss Defeat-09	Unused "boss defeated" fanfare, similar to the one used in demos, but with different instrumentation.
Peak harps main needolin melody	Unused Needolin melody, likely an alternative version of the song to summon Fayforn. See: Cut_Content_(Silksong)/Areas § Mount_Fay
Coral Gorge Main	Later re-arranged with different instrumentation and used for the Flea Caravan and Fleatopia. See: "Fleatopia" in Soundtrack (Silksong) § Original Soundtrack	Load video YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy ContinueDismiss
Coral Gorge Sub	See: "Fleatopia" in Soundtrack (Silksong) § Original Soundtrack	Load video YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy ContinueDismiss
Placeholder Battle Theme	Used in the 2019 demo for the Moss Mother battle. Completely removed from the final game and replaced with Strive. Allegedly an unfinished likely placeholder theme; there was also allegedly a second placeholder theme that was never revealed.	Load video YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy ContinueDismiss Fan recreation based on 2019 demo.

Sound

Name	Notes	Preview
DEMO_SET sounds	The folder DEMO_SET has mutliple unused and used sounds for characters like Chapel Maid and Fleas.	[Missing information]

Wishes

A wishwall in the Silksong reveal trailer contained five wish names that are absent in the finished game:

• "Mossberry Brew" (which was reworked into Berry Picking)
• "Madness of the Pilgrims"
• "Haunted Gallery"
• "Glimmering Pearls"
• "Plumed Rhino"

Text for two unused wishes "Coral Curative" and "Shining Cogs" remains in the game's script, and a default wish named "Beasts of Bone" is used as a placeholder for empty wish UIs, which are only visible when using modding tools.

Four other cut wishes are only referenced in cut dialogue for Alchemist Zylotol, and for the cut NPCs Learned Pilgrim and Bugpipers, but the names of these wishes are unknown.

• Alchemist Zylotol's first cut wish required the collection of "mossblood" from Moss Grotto enemies
• Alchemist Zylotol's second cut wish required the collection of "muckblood" from Bilewater enemies
• Learned Pilgrim's wish required the gathering of Pilgrim organs
• Nothing is known about the Bugpipers' wish outside of its existence

Wish	Type	NPC	Description	Objective
Mossberry Brew	Gather	Druid of the Moss Temple	Sweetness! Sourness! Bitterness! I need it all with hastiness! Cruel world, will you not provide me with the fruits I desire?	—
Madness of the Pilgrims	Hunt	Grunby of Bonebottom	My family curse has struck again! Strange singing pilgrims have surrounded my old home, violently attacking me whenever I approach. Please, let this plague be lifted!	—
Haunted Gallery	Wayfarer	—	—	—
Glimmering Pearls	Gather	—	—	—
Plumed Rhino	Grand Hunt	—	—	—
Coral Curative	Hunt	Residents of Bellhart	Our medicines are in short supply and pilgrims often arrive here injured. We can prepare a soothing salve from the ground shells of coral creatures, if we only had some... Hunt coral-shelled creatures and collect Coral Crust from their bodies.	Turn in the Coral Crust to the Bellhart wishwall and collect the reward.
Shining Cogs	Hunt	—	Hunt Cogworks in Cogwork Core and collect Shining Cogs.	Turn in the Shining Cogs to Songclave's wishwall and collect the reward.
Beasts of Bone	Wayfarer	—	—	—

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  Early Wishwall seen in reveal trailer

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  Wishwall menu screenshot from reveal trailer

Game Mechanics

Various mechanics and behaviours of NPCs, enemies, and items were reworked or removed over Silksong's development.

NPCs

• Shakra has code to appear fighting Black-Threaded enemies to the east of Bellhart in Greymoor, similar to how she fights to the west in Shellwood.
• Styx has an unused second upgrade for his Silkeater farm, which would allow him to raise three Silkeaters.
• Trobbio has a cut boss title of The Red Tornado Trobbio. This could only be seen in footage shown at the ACMI Game Worlds exhibit.
  • In the Japanese translation, this title is kept. This is likely an oversight, and suggests the title was cut late into development.
• Garmond and Zaza could appear in the Choral Chambers room Song_01, the room nearest to the Grand Gate.

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  Styx's second Silkeater farm upgrade with all cocoons

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  Styx's second Silkeater farm upgrade in Act 3

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  Trobbio's cut title

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Enemy Behaviours

• Moss Mother "Sleep" behavior and HP: Moss Mother could be skipped by avoiding her eggs; she also had more HP as of 2019, taking 32 hits to kill at base Needle (~160 HP).
• Skull Brute HP: Skull Brutes had more HP as of 2019, taking 7 hits to kill at base Needle (~35 HP).
• Caranid HP: Caranids had less HP as of 2019, taking 2 hits to kill at base Needle (~10 HP).
• Mawling HP: Mawling had less HP as of 2019, taking 2 hits to kill at base Needle (~10 HP).
• Aknid "Spit" attack: Aknids could wind up and spit a projectile towards Hornet. See: Cut Content (Silksong)/Enemies § Aspid (Cloverland)
• Skarrgard "Overhead Slash" attack: Skarrgards would slide forwards a short distance and then slam their club forwards. They had a similar attack seen in the Silksong reveal trailer, but without the forwards slide.
• Last Claw "Throw" and "Block" attacks: Last Claws could throw their weapons towards Hornet or block with the weapon before retaliating with a slash. They also have other unused animations which suggest a grounded version of their "Charge" attack and the ability to cling to walls.
• Pinstress "Triple Pin" attack: this attack originally used four pins, it is mentioned in a developer note.
• Driftlin "Blizzard Idle" behaviour: Driftlins would angle themselves while shaking, which suggests that they could have been pushed by strong winds.
• Lost Lace "Black Thread" attack: Lost Lace could summon pillars of black Silk bundles. If Hornet touches a bundle, an animation plays where she gets caught and Lost Lace unleashes a torrent of slashes dealing ++ to her.
• Clover Dancers "Tornado" attack variant: After embracing, the dancers would send out waves of swirling wind projectiles to the left and right instead of the large rotating whirlwind.
• Mortician "Spin Attack": Morticians could leap upwards while spinning their blade around them. This attack is also mentioned in a developer note.
• Judge "Proclaim Innocent" behaviour: Judges would not attack Hornet if she has never killed an enemy before (Last Judge does not share this behaviour).
  • In the current game, the only impediment preventing the player from reaching the Judges without killing any enemies is Moss Mother. However, unused code suggests that Moss Mother was once skippable if Hornet did not trample or break any of the eggs while passing through her arena.
• Cogwork Dancers grid patterns: the dancers have multiple unused grid variations of their "Cogwork Configuration" attack.
• Pondcatcher "Strung" behaviour: Pondcatchers could be enthralled by silk before activating, identical to certain pilgrim enemies in Mosshome.
• Bell Eater death behaviour: an alternate death sequence for the Bell Eater where its head and rear explode instead of being killed by the Bell Beast.
• First Sinner Bind behaviour: following First Sinner's defeat, Hornet would leap atop the Weaver and proceed to Bind her multiple times (similar to Widow's death sequence).
• Scrollreader and Lampbearer "Ambush" behaviours: both Scrollreaders and Lampbearers could fade in to "ambush" Hornet. This behaviour was likely used for a cut enemy gauntlet as it shares a similar naming scheme with other gauntlet enemies' behaviour.
• Karak Gor "Block" behaviours: Karak Gor would have had multiple variations of blocking attacks.
• Craggler "Aspid Bullet" attack, see: Cut Content (Silksong)/Enemies § Aspid (Cloverland)
• Scrollreaders had the ability to block attacks from Hornet.
• Vaultkeepers could have been struck in their shelled form.
• Wraiths have cut behaviour where one could be found attached to Hornet’s Cocoon upon discovering it.
• Grand Mother Silk has multiple cut attacks.^{[Missing information]}

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Enemy Miscellaneous

• Last Judge has a black-threading multiplier of 2x, though this can never been seen in-game as killing them is a prerequisite for Act 3. Last Judge also has code references to dropping a Silk Heart at some point.
• Last Judge, Forebrothers Signis & Gron, and Fourth Chorus all have unused code suggesting they may have dropped a Silk Heart at some point. Additionally, the Fourth Chorus' Silk Heart had a memory sequence prepared. Memory_Silk_Heart_SongGolem. "Song Golem" is the boss' internal name.
• In Act 3, two unused versions of the Winged Pilgrim were set up to fight Shakra outside the Greymoor entrance of Bellhart, both having 5x Black-Threading multipliers compared to the Winged Pilgrim's normal multiplier of 4x. One version had the standard Winged Pilgrim HP of 20 while the other had a lower HP of 15.
• There is a cut platform currently disabled in Father of the Flame's arena that would have made it possible to defeat the boss without having Faydown Cloak.
• Skarr enemies seem to have invaded the Marrow at some point, according to an unused save profile flag.
• Hardbone Hoppers have an unused sequence where some could prance through the foreground or background of the Act 3 Far Fields section.

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  Black-threaded Last Judge

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  Re-enabled Father of the Flame platform

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  Re-enabled Hardbone Hopper animation sequence

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Crests

• Upgrading Crests originally would have used an "experience" system where interacting with each Crest's unique function would slowly level up that specific crest and unlock its slots in place of Memory Lockets. According to Team Cherry, this mechanic was cut as it was difficult to explain using the UI and allowed for players to grind to unlock every slot right away.
• As of 2020's EDGE Magazine, the Reaper Crest's down-attack was diagonal, unlike its current directly-down attack. This was changed by June 2022.
• The Needle Strike variations for Beast Crest and Hunter Crest have cut designs. Beast Crest's would be a series of quick overhead strikes, and Hunter Crest's would have Hornet first make two large slashes which create a third cross-shaped slash. This cut Hunter Crest Needle Strike design is notable, as the cross-shaped slash is used by Pinstress and Second Sentinel in their fights.
  • A presumably even earlier version of the Beast Crest's Needle Strike can be seen in a 2020 promotional screenshot from EDGE Magazine.

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  Early Reaper Crest

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  Beast Crest

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  2020 screenshot

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  Hunter Crest part 1

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  Hunter Crest part 2

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Items

• The Wispfire Lantern Tool has a cut interaction that would cause Wisp lanterns to enter a Friendly state and not spawn Wisps.
• Roach Guts have a cut location where their Materium entry could be acquired in Act 3 if they were missed (due to Crull and Benjin's deaths).
• There are references in the code which suggests that the Needolin was obtained from a Weaver Burial Spire within the cut Weavenest area. Obtaining the Needolin from the spire would trigger a unique memory sequence, after which it is coded to teleport Hornet to the room Weave_04, which appeared to be the top of a Weaver Burial Spire within the old April 2021 map.^? Lace has cut dialogue spoken after Hornet wakes up from the Needolin memory, which further supports its location in the Weavenest. In the dialogue Lace taunts Hornet, stating that she could have killed Hornet while she was sleeping by the shells of her ancestors, the Weavers, and when questioned Lace states that curiosity was what brought her to this location "deep under the Kingdom".

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  Act 3 Roach Guts location

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  Weave_04 room with spire

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  Needolin in Weaver Spire FSM^?

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  Needolin memory respawn control

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  Fan-made hypothetical Needolin Weaver Spire appearance recreation

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Attunement (Memory Font)

Attunement is a mostly cut mechanic that would upgrade the effects of the Needolin. To do so, Hornet would have to find a room with a fountain referred to as a weaver_font and then use the Needolin on it. Doing so will activate a timer challenge requiring Hornet to collect memory orbs scattered about the room (nearly identical to those in Lost Verdania). After collecting all orbs, Hornet can then use the Needolin in another location in the room, which will create Needolin memories of Weavers and give the prompt, !!UI/ATTUNEMENT_INCREASED!!. The rooms featuring leftover code for this mechanic are greymoor_15b, library_11b, dock_11, and weave_08.

Increasing Attunement would reduce the time required to trigger all Needolin effects, including stunning enemies and bosses. Spider Strings, labelled internally as, T_attunement_charm, still increases Attunement level by 1, despite the overall mechanic being cut. Within Ari's sketchbook^?, it is noted: "Flower Knight, if you can play for long enough, High Attunement", with "Flower Knight" being an alternate name for Shrine Guardian Seth who guards Nyleth (internally referred to as FLOWER_QUEEN). This suggests that Attunement level was, at some point, also required to awaken bosses such as Seth. Supporting this, Watcher at the Edge has unused code which suggests that they would required high Attunement level to be awoken.

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  Re-enabled Weaver Font in Greymoor

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  Re-enabled memory orbs in Greymoor

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  Re-enabled attunement Weaver memories in dock_11

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  Memory orbs in Weavenest Atla

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  weaver_font
_0002_base

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  weaver_font_0000_dish

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Memory Font Showcase

Weaver Font Locations

In the old April 2021 map, seven Weaver Fonts can be found across the world. Three of these fonts (library_11b, dock_11, and weave_08), line up with the current rooms with disabled code. One font, greymoor_15b, is absent from the old map. And four additional fonts, in Red Coral Gorge, Mount Fay, The Cradle, and the Weavenest have had their rooms cut entirely.

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  Weaver Font in library_11b

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  Weaver Font in dock_11

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  Weaver Font in weave_08

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  Weaver Font in Red Coral Gorge

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  Weaver Font in Mount Fay

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  Weaver Font in The Cradle

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  Weaver Font in Weavenest

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Crest Shrine

Crest Shrines are a cut mechanic that appears to be related to acquiring Crests. The name comes from file names of various Weaver-related sprites, many of which are still used within the various in-game Weavenests. Several of the unused sprites can be reassembled into a Weaver statue, which was seemingly how certain Crests were acquired earlier on in the game's development, as on the April 2021 map two of these statues can be seen in place of the present-day Crest corpses in the Chapel of the Wanderer and Chapel of the Reaper. A third statue can be seen in a cut section of Mount Fay, though which Crest was associated with this Crest Shrine is unknown. Sprites also exist for a Hunter's March variant of this statue (likely related to Beast Crest), though it cannot be located on the map.

Chapel of the Architect and Chapel of the Witch remain mostly unchanged on the old map, and their sprites happen to also be labelled crest_shrine, which is notably not present in the names of unique assets from the other Chapels. This suggests that the Witch and Architect chapels already existed in their current state at this point as "Crest Shrines", while the other shrines were eventually reworked into the current Chapels.

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  Crest Shrine in Chapel of the Wanderer

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  Crest Shrine in Chapel of the Reaper

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  Crest Shrine in Mount Fay

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  Recreation of the Crest Shrine

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  Crest_Shrine_
0002_1_head
_ant Hunter's March variant

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  Crest_Shrine_
0002_1_head
_right_ant

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Weaver Burial Spire

Weaver Burial Spires have a few effects that have currently been disabled in-game. The first effect is a weaver_spire_shield which would kill any enemy that came too close to the Weaver corpse. The second is a series of Silk and rune Binding effects which are similar to those originally seen in the Silksong reveal trailer.

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  Re-enabled "spire shield"

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  Re-enabled Binding effects

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  Silksong reveal trailer

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Crafting

William Pellen stated in a November 2025 interview that there were "ideas around crafting" that were "shaved off" during development. In EDGE Magazine's February 2021 issue, Ari Gibson stated "Part of the fun of her toolset, particularly her offensive toolset, is that Hornet can develop new tools based on the stuff that she encounters in the world. You might meet an enemy throwing a pin at you like a javelin, for instance, and Hornet will pick up on the idea for herself — even adding a personal touch." This cannot be done in the final build of Silksong, and may be one of the "ideas" mentioned by Pellen.

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Holy Bench

Holy Benches are a cut mechanic first mentioned in the 2021 EDGE Magazine, they are benches surrounded by bells and would rise out of the floor automatically when approached. They also had built-in stations to create Rosary Strings. These benches still exist in-game but only act as toll benches - requiring Rosaries to activate and have no additional special functions.

Furthermore, according to Team Cherry, Holy Benches were going to have a "resource" mechanic to "awaken" each bench. This mechanic was ultimately cut as it was deemed too complex.

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  Unactivated Holy Bench in the Silksong reveal trailer

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  Activated Holy Bench in the Silksong 2019 demo

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  The replacement, a toll bench, seen in Blasted Steps (2025)

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Rising Holy Bench seen in 2019 demo

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Game Modes

Silk Soul

A mode set to drastically change the game, ultimately replaced by Steel Soul Mode. In February 2019, comparing the mode to Steel Soul, Ari Gibson said: "We're gonna try and take that, and just go a step further and mix it up a little bit, and give you something that potentially can last a little longer". He later said that the mode was unimplemented as of then, implying it may have been cut before much work was done.

Old revisions of the Silksong Steam page described the mode with "Challenge Silk Soul mode! Once you conquer the kingdom, test your skills in an all-new mode that spins the game into a unique, challenging experience".

In a later interview Team Cherry spoke about Silk Soul mode's removal, which was transcribed by Bloomberg as the following: "There are a bunch of intended base mechanics in Silksong around the benches, the bell shrines and whatnot, that didn't wind up eventuating. I think the game is better for it but as a result of that, that Silksong ^[sic]? mode died with those changes."

Gods & Glory

Likely leftovers from Hollow Knight's Godseeker Mode. CP3 means Content Pack 3 (Godmaster) which was originally known as Gods & Glory.

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Gallery

For more images from the ACMI Silksong exhibit, view this MEGA folder

Ari Gibson's Sketchbook

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Early Maps

Team Cherry did not consistently update the development map once making changes. Major examples include the existence of Dustroach Pens in every single map after its addition, and the top of Mount Fay, as in the August 2025 map, the connection to the Mask Maker segment is different than the one in a February 2025-dated press kit video, which showcases the current one.

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  July 2017 sketch

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  August 2017

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  October 2017

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  November 2017

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  September 2018

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  February 2019

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  May 2019

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  June 2019

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  September 2019

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  November 2019

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  January 2020

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  January 2020

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  April 2020

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  April 2021

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  September 2021

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  April 2022

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  May 2022

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  February 2023

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  February 2024

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  "August 2025"

Trivia

• April 2021 is a notable month for Silksong's development, as at that time, the map was seemingly nearly complete. During the following months, there were major reworks, which is when most of the cuts occurred.
• In early 2023, the map reached a state nearly identical to its current one. This aligns with Leth's comment in May 2023 that the game had "gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can", implying that Team Cherry began focusing on polish around that time. This also aligns with William Pellen's claim in August 2025 that the last "year or two" of development was focused on polish.

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