I’ve been enjoying Silksong a lot, but sadly it is not a game where you can trust the developers to leave good signposting and guidance. I don’t like to use game guides, so I ended up wasting a lot of time in this game, and then had to resort to guides anyway.

Here are some very light spoilers that will abate the worst of these. I’m not mentioning alternate paths, just things that the developers likely intended you to find, but might not. Collectively, I think this would have saved me 10 hours of pain.

Spoilers are organized by act and then region.

Act 1:

The Marrow: There’s a big enemy with a club blocking entry to an area. It’s not on the critical path, consider coming back when you have more items.

Far Fields: The boss of this area is very tanky. Fortunately, you can find a way to do environmental damage to it in the second phase.

Greymoor: The boss of this area is a significant challenge. There is an nearby NPC who can be recruited to help.

Blasted Steps: The runback for the boss is a huge pain. Just remember you don’t need fight enemies on runbacks. There’s a setup for reliably dodging the first conchfly.

Sinner’s Road: There’s a secret area in the room you find Shakra in you should check out asap. Don’t waste an early Simple Key on releasing that guy in a cage, the payoff for doing so comes later.

Bilewater: You can reach this area in Act 1, but you absolutely shouldn’t. There’s little of value here until significantly later in the game. The runback for the boss is brutal. There’s a secret bench that makes it tolerable. There’s also a charm that aleviates the maggot water, but it’s found much latter and is pretty well hidden.

Act 2:

At the start: Assuming you are entering after Last Judge, I recommend entering the citadel with 100-200 rosaries on strings.

The Cauldron: After you get the item in this area, I recommend prioritizing doing Mount Fey, if you’ve found it.

Mount Fey: This area seems inaccessible, but if you dash across the wide open first room and have the item from The Cauldron, you can eventually find heat sources to warm yourself. There is a fairly obvious secret bench in this area, don’t miss it.

Whispering Vaults: There’s an pale oil upgrade to be found through here. It’s not hard to find, but I’d hate to miss it.

High Halls: This area contains one of the better red tools in the game, it’s worth saving a pale ore for. The gauntlet at the end is notoriously hard, imho the hardest combat in Act 2. There’s two different NPCs that can assist, and a nearby secret that can help. Try to interact with the NPCs as much as possible to unlock them as an option. Consider doing the Taste of Pharloom quest before this one, and at worst, consider cheesing it.

Memoriam: There’s a significant area hidden behind a breakable wall here. Look around the area you rescue Jubilana from.

Putrified Ducts: There is a flea here that is critical to find as she supplies maps for tracking down other fleas. She’s well hidden – you’ll have to intentionally get captured by a barnacle.

Act 3:

Look, I’m 80h into the game and haven’t reached Act 3. Sorry!