Top 10 Essential Tools to Master in Hollow Knight: Silksong

Over 65 different Tool items exist in Hollow Knight: Silksong, with the best ones providing strong skills, buffs, or other benefits to help you overcome various challenges. Divided into four categories (red, white, blue, and yellow), Tools are helpful pieces of gear you can only equip a few of at a time. As a result, you’ll want to use the strongest ones that suit your playstyle.

Red Tools typically grant Hornet combat skills or additional abilities to use while fighting Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s deadliest bosses. White Tools do the same thing, but their skills use Silk resource to activate, and are gained naturally without taking up Tool slots. Meanwhile, Blue and Yellow Tools usually give you passive bonuses, with the former tied to combat and the latter more focused on exploration.

Cogfly

Helpful Companions To Fight At Your Side

The Cogfly is a Red Tool that allows you to summon a small bug companion to fight enemies alongside you. This straightforward tool can be a huge relief in larger battles, as the Cogfly can strike foes you can’t pay attention to at certain moments.

Having one or more Cogflies at your side will even the odds in larger battles and give you a numbers advantage in singular boss fights. Until they are damaged, Cogflies are one of the only Tools that remain without resetting when you sit on a bench, making them valuable companions for how long they last.

Compass

Always Know Your Location

Getting lost in a game like Silksong is almost expected, as each region of this Metroidvania is a large, intricate area filled with multiple rooms and paths. As such, the Compass is a must-have Tool that keeps track of your location in this seemingly endless space, becoming more and more useful the more locations you discover.

The Compass should always fill a slot in your equipment, as without it, you’ll be aimlessly wandering through regions trying to find your bearings. The only time not to use this Tool might be when you are about to face a boss, with a runback that is easy enough to remember if you lose.

Fractured Mask

Take One More Chance To Keep Fighting

The Fractured Mask is an extremely important early game Tool, especially for players trying to overcome Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s deadly Steel Soul difficulty. This Tool, when equipped, puts a mask over your last piece of life, shielding you from what would be a killing blow.

This Tool only works once before you rest on a bench, so it is essentially a get-out-of-jail free card that works once before death. This extra life can be the deciding factor in a desperate battle, either with the game’s strongest enemies or to overcome environmental hazards. Just having a small bit of extra health can come in clutch during challenges you face early in your journey.

Warding Bell

Become Less Vulnerable While Restoring Life

Using Silk to restore your health can be a dangerous task, as it takes time to do and keeps Hornet in place. The Warding Bell tool makes this process less risky, generating a large shield around you while you start binding life back, preventing enemies from fully taking advantage of your vulnerable state.

As you upgrade Hornet throughout the game, you’ll have more chances to regenerate multiple pieces of life through one, quick binding during a fight. This makes the Warding Bell even more valuable as time goes on, as it still manages to block enemies during the long start-up of a Bind.

Flea Brew

Faster Attacks Create Easier Fights

Flea Brew is an incredibly strong tool for the immediate buff it provides when consumed, increasing your attack speed and movement for a short time. With a single consumption of this item, you can dodge more attacks, deal greater damage with additional strikes, and escape dangerous situations quickly.

Like other Red Tools, you can have multiple uses of Flea Brew equipped before you have to reset them by resting. Being able to continuously raise your speed will help during perlonged battles, either against sturdier bosses or in arenas where you have to get past many waves of enemies.

Shell Satchel

Improve Your Inventory Space For Other Tools

On the surface, the Shell Satchel tool doesn’t seem to do much, but those who rely on Red tools in their build will find this to be one of the best items for Hornet. This tool almost doubles the number of projectiles, caltrops, Cogflies, or other Red tools at your disposal, regardless of what they do.

This means that you can have additional uses of Flea Brew, more ranged attacks with a Silkshot, or extra traps with Tacks or some other item. Regardless of how you play, having more opportunities for Red tool buffs, attacks, or skills can be very helpful in areas where you’re fighting for a longer period of time.

Plasmium Phial

Much like Flea Brew, uses of the Plasmium Phial provide temporary buffs, only this time to your vitality. Activating this tool gives you an extra bar of life, beyond the normal maximum you’d normally be allowed to have.

This simply gives you a way to take more hits before dying, giving you extra chances to survive in tougher fights. Extra health is always a welcome bonus for any player, regardless of their preferred playstyle in this game.

Longclaw

Bolster The Range Of Your Attacks To New Heights

Even as you upgrade the Needle in Hollow Knight: Silksong, the damage of the weapon still struggles to hit flying targets or highly mobile opponents. This is not the case when you equip the Longclaw tool, which extends the range of each one of your strikes to hit targets from further away.

This tool can help you preserve projectiles for other foes, or have an easier time using far-off enemies as stepping stones to reach new locations. The Longclaw is useful in some exploration, but its undeniable benefits in battle make it an item that is incredibly versatile for almost any build.

Spool Extender

More Threads To Lend To Your Journey

The Spool Extender is very similar to the Plasmium Phial, only it allows you to store extra Silk rather than gain additional life. That being said, since Silk can be converted into life, this tool is better for giving you more ways to use the game’s most valued resource.

This tool only becomes stronger as you gain more abilities that cost Silk, making it a long-lasting item you can use throughout your whole adventure. Even without using Silk-dependent abilities, this tool gives you a greater maximum pool of resources to regain vitality in Silksong‘s difficult encounters.

Barbed Bracelet

Only For The Most Daring Wanderers

Only the strongest warriors can use the Barbed Bracelet tool, which bolsters your damage to absurd levels, but also increases how much damage you take as well. This extremely risky object can make bosses fall in half the hits, but only if you are experienced enough to dodge their attacks expertly.

This tool represents the pinnacle of combat, with players who take no damage able to wipe out enemies with ease using their maximized damage. This tool isn’t recommended for every player of Hollow Knight: Silksong, yet its additional damage still makes it one of the strongest tools in the game when used by someone who can wield it properly.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Systems

10/10

Released

September 4, 2025

Developer(s)

Team Cherry

Publisher(s)

Team Cherry

Engine

Unity

Franchise

Hollow Knight