The Green Prince is one of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s most opaque NPC threads, and it’s the key to a late-game region players keep missing: Verdania, a postgame area sitting just east of Greymoor. If you’ve finished the main story and still can’t open that entrance, this walkthrough lays out the practical steps to meet the Green Prince, free him, progress his appearances in the Citadel, and crack Verdania open once you’ve shifted the world into Act 3. If you’re just getting started, the game’s overview and media live on the official site.

First encounter: find the Green Prince in Sinner’s Road

You’ll first meet the Green Prince in Sinner’s Road, an area reached from the top-right of Greymoor. Push right through the opening rooms, using levers to drop trapdoors as you go. After a short loop downward and left through a side passage (watch for grabby parasites on the way), you’ll arrive at the base of a columned section with the Green Prince sitting behind bars.

His cell uses a Simple Key. If you already have one, you can free him now; if not, you’ll pick one up nearby.

Simple Keys: four reliable places to get them

Simple Keys are consumable; each unlock burns a key. You can obtain several during a run:

  • Bone Bottom vendor: Pebb sells a Simple Key for 500 Rosaries.
  • Sinner’s Road: a key lies at the top of the area after a platforming gauntlet and a tough enemy room.
  • Songclave vendor: Jubilana stocks one for 650 Rosaries after you resolve the “Wandering Merchant” wish.
  • Sands of Karak: another key sits on a corpse by a bench at the far right of the zone (typically accessible once you have the double jump and Clawline).

Where Simple Keys are used (and why each matters)

  • Sinner’s Road prison cell: frees the Green Prince to start his postgame thread.
  • Deep Docks door (right side): opens a sizable sub-area and grants the Flintslate tool (temporarily imbues your Needle with fire), plus a crafting material. You can grab Flintslate early even if you can’t fully clear the branch without Clawline.
  • Bone Bottom/Wormways entrance: unlocks an alternate route that connects toward the Chapel of the Wanderer and a crest pickup.
  • Citadel — High Halls: a keyed door left of a bench before the main objective hub.

Tip: If you want an early power bump, spend your first key in Deep Docks to pick up Flintslate, then circle back for the Green Prince once you’ve secured another key.

Free the Green Prince, then track him in the Citadel

Return to Sinner’s Road and use a Simple Key on the Green Prince’s cell. He leaves rather curtly, but you’ll find him later in the Citadel during the late game. He appears in two spots there — first in a High Halls or Choral Chambers walkway, then near the former Cogwork Dancers arena. Exhaust his dialogue when you see him. After that second Citadel encounter, he relocates to Verdania, the off-map sector east of Greymoor.

Here’s the catch: Verdania doesn’t open in Act 1 or 2. The entrance only breaks open in Act 3. If you’re standing at that sealed wall in eastern Greymoor with nothing to interact with, you haven’t flipped the world yet.

How to reach Act 3 (Silk and Soul path)

Act 3 loads as a transformed version of Pharloom after credits — but you need a specific finale. The path is driven by a late-game wish colloquially referred to as “Silk and Soul” from the Songclave’s robed caretaker (the figure you first meet at the First Shrine). The precise trigger mix can vary by save, but the consistent pattern looks like this:

  • Clear out the town wishboards: finish the available requests in Bone Bottom, Bellhart, and the Citadel. This includes donation and multi-part entries such as “Trail’s End,” which tends to appear after you’ve bought all region maps (don’t skip the late one in the Sands of Karak).
  • Progress the Flea caravan: escort and relocate the caravan multiple times until they settle at the Putrified Ducts’ lakeside. If the move won’t trigger, find the hidden Flea NPCs in the Ducts’ upper reaches — one sits up a path reached by letting a ceiling plant carry you to a tucked-away chamber. Count-wise, players report roughly two dozen rescued Fleas before the final move prompt appears at the lake.
  • Collect the three “souls” and the Snare Setter:
    • Maiden’s Soul: return to the maiden near Bone Bottom. If she’s missing, rest at the Bone Bottom bench to spawn the Skull Tyrant event; defeating it tends to put her back in place nearby.
    • Hermit’s Soul: from Bellhart’s Bell Beast station, go right through a false wall and descend through the side rooms to find the hermit below.
    • Seeker’s Soul: defeat the boss near the top of Bilehaven to receive this drop.
    • Snare Setter: in Weavenest Atla, enter the room above the bench and jump into a concealed opening beyond the final lamp to reach a small cache holding the tool.

Once you’ve completed the caretaker’s conditions, head into the final sequence again. On the last hit prompt, choose to play the Needolin instead of binding. After credits, your save icon looks “darkened”; loading that file drops you into Act 3.

Note: In Act 3, many common enemies strike harder (attacks that dealt one mask now deal two), and Songclave’s regenerative service is disabled.

Open Verdania and continue the Green Prince thread

With the world in Act 3, go back to the blocked passage on the far right of Greymoor. The barrier is now shattered. Head inside, meet the Green Prince one more time, and Verdania becomes a proper, explorable region. From there, expect tougher enemy mixes, platforming routes that lean on late-game mobility, and a few NPC payoffs seeded by earlier wishes.

Direct route through Sinner’s Road (if you still need the key and cell)

If you’re still in Act 1–2 and just need to free the Green Prince:

  • Enter Sinner’s Road from Greymoor’s top-right.
  • Room 1: push right, clear enemies, exit right.
  • Room 2: head straight to the lever to open the trapdoor; drop and sweep left to a rosary stash (parasites attach here), then climb the looping path back up and around to the lower base where the Green Prince’s cell is visible.
  • Upper branch: instead of using a key yet, continue climbing to the zone’s upper-right platforming wing. Bounce across the star-shaped spear traps and pendulums. Flip levers to connect shortcuts.
  • Top-right arena: defeat the elite mob at the summit to claim a Simple Key. A nearby side cell also holds a Flea you can free.
  • Mid-depth rest: there’s a bench beside a dreamcatcher-like setpiece and an NPC named Styx; rest to set a spawn for this run.
  • Return to the Green Prince’s cell and spend the Simple Key.

If the “Silk and Soul” wish won’t appear

Several small blockers can keep the caretaker from offering his request. These are the common fixes that have worked consistently:

  • Finish “Trail’s End” by ensuring you’ve purchased all remaining maps across Pharloom, including the late-game Sand’s of Karak map from Shakra.
  • Move the Flea caravan all the way to the Ducts’ lake. Players who stopped at earlier camps didn’t see the caretaker’s request.
  • Buy a home and place the required material to “set” it; a few saves only refreshed the wishboards after doing so.
  • Rest at a bench in Bellhart or Songclave after turning in batches of wishes to force a board refresh.
  • Defeat Lace at the Cradle; in some runs, this seemed to be the final nudge before the caretaker would speak.

You don’t need to grind the repeatable courier deliveries; the one-offs to Songclave and other hubs are enough. Likewise, players have reached Act 3 with a couple of optional hunts or cooking tasks still open, so focus on board-listed wishes, wayfarer chains, and the caravan.

What you gain by doing this now

Freeing the Green Prince early opens an NPC arc that pays off in the Citadel and, later, in Verdania. Pushing the key door in Deep Docks nets a weapon buff that makes several midgame fights cleaner. And shifting into Act 3 not only unlocks Verdania but also remixes familiar areas with more dangerous variants, fresh encounters, and late-game loot — a cleaner way to mop up remaining wishes with higher stakes.

If you’re still staring at a locked Verdania gate after the credits, the simplest sanity check is this: confirm your file has booted into Act 3 (darkened save icon, enemies hitting harder), confirm the caravan is seated at the Ducts’ lake, and confirm you’ve spoken twice to the Green Prince in the Citadel. From there, head east of Greymoor — the wall should be broken, and Verdania should open the moment you step through.