Silksong players discover cheat code that makes the game even harder

Hollow Knight: Silksong players can jump straight into the toughest challenge in the game thanks to a hidden cheat code that unlocks Steel Soul mode without needing to complete a run first.

Steel Soul is the permadeath difficulty option. In this mode, benches no longer act as respawn points and death results in a full save file wipe. In the original game, the harder mode only becomes available once players finish the game at least once.

However, Team Cherry has decided to give immediate access to Steel Soul through a cheat code that fans quickly discovered.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Steel Soul mode cheat code

Fans discovered that inputting “Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right” in the Extras menu on the title screen instantly unlocks Steel Soul. The code surfaced through data mining and was quickly confirmed by players testing it in-game.

This makes it possible to start a first playthrough with the game’s highest stakes active, similar to how the original Hollow Knight locked Steel Soul until after completion.

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Thanks to Silksong’s multiple save slots, you can start a playthrough on both available difficulties without overwriting one or the other.

Team Cherry’s metroidvania has long been regarded as one of the hardest games in the genre, and Silksong doesn’t change that. It’s so hard, in fact, that modders have already made the early game easier for players.

Despite its difficulty, hundreds of thousands of people are playing the game every day. Just two days after launch, Silksong’s player count peaked at nearly 600,000.