Team Cherry’s first post‑release update for Hollow Knight: Silksong arrives with a focus on stability and light early‑game balance. The release notes for version 1.0.28470 outline numerous bug fixes plus a few targeted tuning changes: a slight difficulty reduction for the bosses Moorwing and Sister Splinter, and reduced damage from Sandcarver enemies. The patch also adjusts the rosary economy by modestly lowering certain prices and increasing some rewards.

What’s changing in 1.0.28470

  • Balance (early game): slight reductions to Moorwing and Sister Splinter difficulty.
  • Environmental hazard/enemy tuning: Sandcarvers now deal less damage.
  • Economy: small price cuts for mid‑game Bellway and Bell Benches; increased rosary rewards from relics, psalm cylinders, and courier deliveries.
  • Input change: removal of the float override (down + jump) after acquiring Faydown Cloak.
  • Bug fixes: a broad set of stability and progression fixes, including rare soft‑locks, out‑of‑bounds enemies, and edge cases with movement and binding.

Sandcarvers: what they are and why they’re being tuned

Sandcarvers are wormlike predators that hide beneath pools of shifting sand and burst upward when movement is detected. In practice, they function as both an enemy and a traversal hazard in sand‑filled corridors. Pre‑patch, a misstep in these sections could erase a large portion of health, especially for players still building out masks and tools.

Reducing Sandcarver damage addresses a specific early‑game pain point without removing the threat entirely. The goal, reflected in the “slight balance adjustments” framing, is to maintain tension across sand‑traversal sequences while avoiding outsized penalties for a single mistake. This change also complements the modest economy tweaks by reducing the frequency of costly runbacks and resource losses in areas that gate main‑path progression.

Why adjust the early bosses at all?

Moorwing and Sister Splinter are among the first bosses that test Silksong’s tighter movement, parry windows, and resource management. A “slight difficulty reduction” here typically means small, surgical changes (for example, tuning damage values or brief windows in specific patterns) to smooth the onboarding curve. The intent is not to de‑challenge veteran players but to reduce early skill cliffs that can stall progression for new or returning players.

Economy changes in context

  • Prices: slight reductions for Bellway/Bell Bench activation in the mid‑game.
  • Income: increased rosary rewards from relics, psalm cylinders, and courier deliveries.

These adjustments ease early–mid game pacing by trimming mandatory unlock costs and nudging up earnings from common activities, reducing the need for repetitive farming after a setback.

Availability and how to try it early

The update is slated to roll out to all players “mid next week.” PC players can opt into the public‑beta branch on Steam or GOG to use the patch immediately. All fixes apply retroactively, so progression‑blocking issues resolved by this build won’t require a fresh save.

Key takeaways

  • This is a stability‑first patch with targeted difficulty smoothing where early spikes were most acute.
  • Lower Sandcarver damage reduces traversal punishments in sand sections while preserving risk.
  • Small economy tweaks aim to improve flow and reduce grind during the game’s opening acts.

Team Cherry notes that additional fixes are already in progress for a second patch. If you’ve bounced off specific early encounters or lost time to an edge‑case bug, 1.0.28470 is a straightforward quality‑of‑life upgrade with minimal impact on the game’s broader challenge.