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- Screenshot of Hollow Knight Silksong, Courtesy of Team Cherry

Tips for the Bosses of Silksong, Part 2 – Splinters and Widows and Skulls, Oh My!

Originally posted on Total Apex Gaming | By JB Dennis | Last updated Oct 7, 2025 2:46 PM ET

These 3 bosses make up the middle section of Act 1 of Silksong. Sister Splinter gives you Cling Grip, Widow opens up Bellhart (which lets you upgrade your Needle), and gives you the Needolin, and Skull Tyrant is part of a Task. You’ll probably end up facing all of them before you venture into the Blasted Steps to end Act 1, though you technically only need to take out Sister Splinter and Widow.

Sister Splinter: Gatekeeper Boss from Above

The boss is actually pretty easy on by itself. Just dodge the downward strikes and only try attacking after the 3^rd on lands. The issue is the thorns and the adds.

The thorns will cut off space that you can use to dodge so, you need to get rid of them as soon as possible. Fortunately, you can destroy them pretty easily. There is a delay between spawn time and Sister Splinter returning, so you can usually take down 1 in that time. It takes 3 Needle hits or 1 Silkspear.

The adds need to be handled immediately. They create too much chaos if left up for too long. You can drop them with a single Silkspear, so save those for them. If you can hit an add and a thorn branch at the same time, all the better.

Sister Splinter will destroy thorns and kill adds if she hits them, but that does require some luck or expert positioning. Also, just a point to remember, when you stagger Sister Splinter, she will fall from the ceiling to the ground, where you can hit her. You can still take damage from running into her during this time (including if she lands on you when falling), so be careful.

Widow: Hording Made Manifest

Screenshot of Hollow Knight Silksong, Courtesy of Team Cherry

There is a lot going on during this fight, but it’s easy once you know the trick to dealing with everything.

When she runs across the screen, flailing her claws, just jump over her in the direction she’s coming from and hang in the air (Drifter’s Cloak or Binding). That way, you can avoid the debris she pulls up. Also a good opportunity to do a pogo attack
When she teleports into the air, stay on the ground and run towards where she’s positioned (you’ll avoid the lunge), and then turn and jump over her as she charges. You can try pogo attacking, but 9/10 she’ll block it.
Falling bells, for vertical bells just avoid, for diagonal, move in the direction they are coming from. You’ll split under their trajectory and won’t get hit by the bounce.

Phase 2 adds a wider area of vertical falling bells, which just means you have to vacate said area. Easy enough. However, when Widow hits Phase 3, that’s where things really get ridiculous. Everything is faster, more bells fall, and the slashing charge is harder to see coming.

The best advice is to save up your tools and skill and try to beat her down as fast as possible. You can still dodge the charge by jumping over her (just look out for when she leaps backwards), but the thing that will probably kill you during this Phase is the bells. They are extremely erratic, so just try and take her down fast.

Skull Tyrant: Cheese Your Way to Victory

There are 2 Skull Tyrants that you may have to face. The first comes from the Wish. The second is a chance encounter in Bone Bottom. After you kill the first Skull Tyrant, there is a 30% that a second one will show up in Bone Bottom if certain conditions are met. Both versions are easy if you cheese them.

When fighting the first Skull Tyrant (Wish), there is a crevice in the map that it can enter. If you hang out in there and throw ranged attacks at it, you’ll kill it in no time. You can even get a few melee hits in, but the hit box for the boss is very, VERY finicky, so be careful. You’ll be safe from the falling rocks here, too.

As for the second Skull Tyrant (Bone Bottom), you can just jump over the gap that leads down into the starting area. Again, just lob ranged attacks at the boss, and it’ll go down soon enough. It took me 7 uses of poisoned tacks, 10 uses of poisoned long pins, and 2 Silkspears. You will have to deal with the falling rocks, but they aren’t too bad.

This article first appeared on Total Apex Gaming and was syndicated with permission.

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