Hollow Knight: Silksong has nearly 200 enemy types and 40 unique bosses, so you have to make sure your Needle weapon is upgraded to face them. Improving the Needle improves your primary damage, allowing you to contend with greater threats as you explore harsher areas. With multiple stages to enhancing the Needle's power, you'll want to unlock upgrades for it quickly.
With Hollow Knight: Silksong already breaking records, it may be hard in all the hype to determine what to do first when you start your journey. Before you can even consider upgrading the Needle, you need to at least have some abilities unlocked already. If you want to get higher damage, you have to gain the walljump ability from the Shellwood area ahead of time before searching for Needle improvements.
How To Find The Needle Smith In Hollow Knight: Silksong
One Character Must Be Saved To Gain Weapon Upgrades
The Needle can only be upgraded by the character Plinney, a smith who specializes in the type of weaponry Hornet uses. Plinney, however, is not someone you can find early in your adventure, and many players may have already skipped the spot where they can be found.
To reach Plinney, head east from Shellwood until you make it to a lift leading to the northeast part of the area on your map. Plinney is found in Bellhart, the next major location to the east of Shellwood, so your path after getting off the lift should be to reach that section of your map.
Once you depart from the Shellwood lift, go past the room filled with water and jump up to its exit at the top right section of the space. From here, carefully travel down along the walls of the following caverns, until you reach a larger room at the bottom. Head straight west froom this area until you spot a gap in the floor, which you can fall through.
Make sure to avoid the spikes hanging along the many walls in Bellhart, as they can easily drop your health to dangerous levels. You'll need your health to be high to face the one threat keeping Plinney from upgrading the Needle.
From the drop, you can head east again, past several corridors leading to a boss room. You have to defeat the Widow boss to free the people of Bellhart, including Plinney before they can assist you with the Needle. Taking out the Widow unlocks a lift leading into the upper sections of Bellhart, where Plinney will be more than happy to help.
How Upgrading The Needle Works
Complete Quests To Discover More Enhancements To Your Weapon
Pinmaster Plinney is quite experienced with a blade, and will offer you the Needle's first upgrade for free after you defeat the Widow boss. However, for every other following upgrade, you'll need to complete quests for Plinney before they'll agree to improve your weapon again.
The first upgrade for the Needle turns the weapon into the "Sharpened Needle." According to its description, it has a honed blade, but for gameplay purposes, it simply deals extra damage with every strike.
Each of Plinney's quests seem different, but many involve collecting rare materials from around the world. For example, one of the quests asks Hornet to retreive Iron Silk, a rare substance that can only be found in a specific area. It might take some time and maybe a few purchases in Hollow Knight: Silksong to find everything you need to complete all of Plinney's missions.
The extra damage bosses deal and the increasing strength of enemies makes finding weapon enhancements almost necessary to reach the end of the game. With how challenging Hollow Knight: Silksong can be, you'll want to defeat the Widow early to unlock Needle upgrades fast as your adventure only grows harder.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91/100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
- Engine
- Unity
- Franchise
- Hollow Knight
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
