Crests in Hollow Knight Silksong are special implements used by Hornet with which she can equip various Tools. Crests and Tools function similarly to the Charms and Notches from the original Hollow Knight. Hornet swaps between different Crests, each with its own set of color-coded slots for various Tools. The Tools grant Hornet new ways to approach combat and exploration, and presumably granting her some passive abilities as well. This page will cover more information on Crests as they become available.
Crests in Hollow Knight Silksong
How to Unlock Crests in Hollow Knight Silksong
To unlock new Crest slots, you’ll first need a Memory Locket. These function much like Charm Notches, appearing occasionally in shops but most often hidden across Pharloom in obscure or hard-to-reach areas.
Once obtained, unlocking a slot is straightforward. Sit at a bench, inspect one of the small dots near the larger Crest circles, and the slot will be activated. Each slot allows you to expand your build, but choosing when to use a Locket is important. Crests drastically change your combat style, and you may prefer to wait before committing to an upgrade.
How to Equip Skills in Silksong
Once you've unlocked a Skill, you'll have to head to a Bench to equip it. Take note that Skills, along with Tools and Crests can only be equipped on Benches. The unlocked Skill can then be equipped in the Crest Menu. Each Skill requires a white crest slot indicated by a white circle.
Hollow Knight Silksong Tools and Memory Lockets
Crests can enhance four categories of Tools, each identified by color:
Red for weapons
Blue for defense
Yellow for exploration
White for Skills
As you progress, additional Crests are unlocked through key story moments where Hornet absorbs new styles. After such events, the game will automatically switch you to the newly obtained Crest, leaving you without Tools until you rest at a bench. From there, you can use the menu to swap between Crests, though unlocked slots do not carry over between them.
Because of this, Memory Lockets are best saved until you are confident about which Crest you want to invest in. Once you’ve gathered enough, you can freely commit upgrades to your preferred build, customizing it with the tools and playstyle you enjoy most.
For a full breakdown of every Tool and its effects, please visit our Tools Page.
All Crests in Hollow Knight Silksong
Hunter
Stalk prey and attack with lethal strikes.
Reaper
Attack with heavy, arcing slashes and reap additional Silk from enemies.
Wanderer
Cut swiftly and nimbly with short, precise strikes.
Beast
Tear foes with savage slashes. Bind to enter a wild fury and steal life from prey.
Witch
Whip the needle in sweeping swings. Leech the life of foes through twisted roots.
Architect
Spin the needle as a screw, shredding foes. Spend Silk to rapidly craft new tools.
Shaman
Cast the blade forward and empower silk Skills with powerful runes.
AnonymousTier list of crests i have so far in my opinion:
Reaper:why would you use anything else
Hunter:balanced, fun every now and then
Wanderer: complete and utter ass. Remove this. Unfortunately I don't play that much and don't have beast or architect or anything but I'm just trying to get bellhone rn so that can wait
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Reaper is my favorite so far, when you get the hang of it it's really op, 2 slots in each, only two I haven't tried is architect and shaman. Witch would be my favorite, but I rely too much on a compass to get my bearings, and the fact that I can't heal normally, which sucks.
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Ranking crests in this game has not really any sense imo, at least, the way many do it. If i had to say, the only single crest one step above the rest is architect (as long as you have a massive ammount of shards) because of how op spamming high dps tools is. The rest of the crests are all good in their own way, some like reaper,shaman and hunter push you to play safe, other are more risk very offensive oriented like witch and wanderer.
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The beast crest would be the best if it had any blue tool slots
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Personal uses that i have given to each:
Wanderer: Great for exploration and moving around, although it's the highest DPS, i tend to play More in the defensive side and focus on dodging, Which Is why i don't use It much in combat.
Hunter: Personal pick for combat, the focus meter really adds a lot to It and Is just so satisfying to have of constantly filled up, and although It took me while to get used to the 45 degrees. Boy was It rewarding to master It and use It against bosses.
Reaper: My struggle one, basically when i get tired and i need the constant Silk to spam Skills/Healing. Not really much to say about that one.
Beast: Not my thing although i do see the appeal if you are capable of timing well the rage mode passive. But since i'm clumsy, this one's out + The pogo( Good for those who can use It)
Witch: Haven't used It much but i've seen the damage healing build and i got to try It out, moveset wise Is probably one of my favorites.
Architect: Not fan of the moveset, although i haven't used It enough so might change opinions. Other than that Best for random bullshit go.
Shaman: Missed It and i don't have Time to play now so I got nothing to say, seems cool though.
- Anonymous
I love how people just started making tierlist in the comments as if it won't spark a warzone in the replies lol.
Just cant play Architect. I know its op, just the fact that you losing something that you have to farm makes me feel uneasy when fighting, even if i beat every boss first try.
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More favorable tier list be :
S - Architect (If you can accept trading your sanity grinding the entire game) - Wanderer (Undeniable Highest Melee Dps Crest)
A - Hunter Reaper - Both very solid for different things. Reaper keeps you alive for a long time with the extra silk - Hunter is your bread and butter solid allrounder
B - Shaman - This one is weird, on paper you have really good damage, in reality you sacrifice all healing because you lose your dmg otherwise. Alot of the bosses still only come down to using parry at the right moment because they are too aggressive to have you dash in their face casting storm. Heal is Dogshit. Melee is Slow but can be very useful, projectile range increases with longclaw too (This is your flea minigame crest if you couldnt tell, yes ik charms dont apply).
I want to love this crest but not having any yellow and no red is genuinely awful. If it atleast had 3 blue or 2 spells 1 red wouldve been ideal. Imo its fun when it works but more often than not you gotta work harder to achieve same things on other crests.
C - Beast - Has some niche use when jumping from walls into bosses with pogos, can almost infinetely loop some annoying flying ones which is nice. Despite that way too gimmicky to be used for more than that unless you're a psychopath
D - Witch - Yeye I know you can heal to full with multibind and all of that but the running attack is uncontrollable having you run into enemies or lose some dmg, the pogo is literally bugged doing same dmg as a normal hit, the attackspeed is slow and the payoff is that your heal gets increased by the amount of enemies you hit. Cool if only it wouldnt have the worst range I have ever seen. 3 blue notches are insane and I wish it was on any other crest. And for this whacky healing build they want you to waste 3 blue slots? I'm good buff this garbage crest
- Anonymous
Here is my tier list for every crest.
DISCLAIMER: I don't really think any of the crests are weak, you can beat the game easily when you master them, this is just my opinion based on my 2 playthroughs and a bit of speedrunning knowledge.
S - Architect and Shaman: Most damage potential in the game, best boss-killers but meh for exploring. Clunky movesets at first, but gives lot of reward when mastering.
A - Hunter and Wanderer: Best all-rounders with solid moveset and great for exploration. Insanely flexible and have probably the best nail damage builds.
B - Witch: Best defensive crest thanks to it's silk efficiency. Solid moveset but kinda eh for exploring. Bind is a bit hard to use, and lacks damage comparing it to the other movesets, but still good.
C - Beast: Clunky to use and explore in, no blue crests, really bad pogo. Decent damage potential, but outclassed by all the others on A and S.
D - Reaper: Decent moveset but attacks are way too slow. I know a lot of people love this crest but honestly I find it so meh compared to the others, it's only strenght is the big ass pogo.
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There are enough memory lockets in the game to fully upgrade every crest. You cannot “waste” lockets.
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Shaman and Witch are your dedicated boss nukes. Witch bind with the Claw Mirrors, Multibinder, and Quick Injector is basically Abyss Shriek 2.0 with lifesteal. Shaman probably has the highest skill ceiling of all the crests, but if you can meet it, it is almost certainly the best damage crest because it makes all your silk skills busted as hell.
Hunter, Reaper, and Wanderer are all-rounder crests that are best for general exploration and can hold their own in boss fights. All three have their merits and it mostly comes down to which moveset you prefer.
Architect is fine. Not having a silk skill hurts because there’s no innate output for silk other than binding, and trying to use all three tools consistently results in an unsustainable consumption of shards. I recommend Silkshot to spend your silk. I wish the quick-craft ability on the bind used silk in place of shards, or at least only used shards when you were out of silk. Maybe that’s OP, idk.
Beast is just bad. The short period of lifesteal after binding is really hard to take advantage of with how much enemies, and especially bosses, move around. Multibinder in the vesticrest remedies this slightly, but that’s a competitive slot even without Beast. It also makes your pogo worse by adding a small delay and a curved trajectory, which would make it a dealbreaker for me even if it had two blue slots.
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I wouldnt worry too much about 'wasting' memory lockets. Im in act 3 with all the crests and have them all maxed out minus two slots on one crest.
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FOR ARCHITECT THERE IS A VENDOR IN UNDERWORKS NEAR THE BENCH ON THE RIGHT SIDE, GRAPPLE UP AND HE SHOULD SELL A KEY BUT YOU HAVE TO BUY HIS STUFF FIRST WHICH REQUIRE CRAFTING METALS. AFTER YOU GET THE KEY JUST WRAP AROUND OR LOOK AT THE MAP THERE SHOULD BE A SYMBOL OF A CIRCLE ON TOP OF THE BENCH OPEN THAT AND THE CREST IS URS
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You can upgrade crests at the old weaver spot under the first spawn once u unlock the Y ability (xbox), the guitar. Go to the weaver door and play it then itll open and you can upgrade your crest
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Omg can’t wait for silksong ;)
Why is it TAKING SOOOO LONGGG!!!!
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Wanderer number one. Some of us are PATIENT.
Witch is unfortunately really dookie. I really wanted to like it. Same with Architect. It feels like using AI with how many resources I have to blow through just to pop volts and purple cogflies over and over.
Never got my hands on reaper, about to see what the fuss is about. Same with Shaman, though I don’t plan on using it since I’m one dive away from the end.
Beast is certainly reliable in a pinch but only because I figured out how to use it with my playstyle of not getting hit. I could take it or leave it.
Hunter is always going to be solid, in a “just okay” way.
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