Hollow Knight Silksong: Should You Play on Controller or Keyboard and Mouse?

If you are wondering whether you should play Hollow Knight Silksong using a controller keyboard and mouse, this article will help you decide.

Should you play Silksong on a keyboard and mouse or a controller? (Image via Team Cherry)
Should you play Silksong on a keyboard and mouse or a controller? (Image via Team Cherry)

Hollow Knight Silksong is significantly difficult as compared to its prequel title. All gameplay mechanics including combat and pogo have been greatly amped up, which puts a lot of stress on precise actions. As such, deciding your input device and making a choice between using a controller and keyboard-mouse becomes important. Based on your choice, your gameplay experience can change significantly.

A controller is the better input device for Hollow Knight Silksong. The developer, Team Cherry, share the same opinion, and have mentioned it quite a few times. That said, you can still play Silksong using a keyboard and mouse. It might make certain sections more complicated, but it certainly is doable. If you are wondering why using a controller is better for Hollow Knight Silksong, this article will answer the question in details.

Hollow Knight Silksong: Controller vs. Keyboard and Mouse 

Use a controller to play the game (Image via Team Cherry)
Use a controller to play the game (Image via Team Cherry)

Hollow Knight Silksong is a platforming Metroidvania title, which places a great deal of focus on combat and precise parkour. Achieving the required level of precision is a challenging task when using a keyboard and mouse, especially since compound inputs are very common in Silksong. This same task becomes relatively easy when using a controller, as a new player to this genre won’t have to constantly look at their device to perform multiple actions simultaneously.

You might even be able to remap certain actions to macros, which will make the overall experience and complex movements much easier. While this is can also be achieved in a keyboard and mouse, your overall control will be restricted since one hand has to control mouse, and the other keyboard, at all times. As such, a controller is clearly the superior device when it comes to platforming titles like Hollow Knight Silksong.

What If You Don’t Have a Controller?

Playing Hollow Knight Silksong with a keyboard and mouse isn’t as smooth as playing on a controller, but it works. The game can still be completed using keyboard and mouse controls. However, as mentioned before, you are going to have a much harder time mastering the controls for movement and attack, which is the key aspect of the Hollow Knight series. 

In case you want to play Hollow Knight Silksong using a keyboard and mouse, here is our best keyboard controls guide to help you get an edge in the more complex sections.


Hollow Knight Silksong logo.

We provide the latest news and create guides for Hollow Knight Silksong. Meanwhile, you can check out the following articles or catch us playing games on YouTube: