Your Hollow Knight: Silksong playthrough carries on towards the Deep Docks after visiting The Marrow. Deep Docks consists of several ancient structures that have been overrun by enemies and consumed by lava, creating some deadly environments to traverse. Hornet has to travel through this area to progress towards The Citadel and can fight an optional boss called Lace, who will test your patience.
The Deep Docks begins after you have reached the far right section of The Marrow, and enter a set of enclosed, ancient-looking rooms with lifts.
The Tasks that can be progressed in Deep Docks are:
Jump to a section:
Unlocking The Bellway
Once you reach the first room in Deep Docks, continue to the right and into the next room. You can use the elevator to climb upwards.
Use the second elevator to reach the top of this section of Deep Docks.
Here, you can insert 30 Rosary Beads into the device to spawn a bench, which is worth doing as there isn’t another bench until the other side of the Deep Docks.
Climb back down and attack the Shell Shards shell on the right.
Return to the bottom and continue right. You will now enter the Deep Docks proper.
You can initially jump up, but first, we will jump down, as you can find the Bellway directly on the left.
Jump down and insert 50 Rosary Beads to activate it. You can farm some on the enemies at the beginning of the Deep Docks or at the end of The Marrow.
If you need to, travel back to Bone Bottom, otherwise, jump in the bell pit and attack the wall behind the bell beast. There is a secret path here that leads to one of the Lost Fleas.
In the next room, you will have to learn a somewhat challenging parkour sequence that requires you to dodge falling lava. The trick is to jump to the next platform just when the lava has stopped falling next to you. There is a brief window of just over a second to jump to safety on the next platform.
Thankfully, the runback to this area isn’t too long, as the bench is just above you in Deep Docks. Jump across to the left and defeat the skull bug.
Proceed to jump upwards.
Then, jump all the way to the right across the platforms higher up.
At the end, you can find a Lost Flea. Attack it and it will return to the Caravan. You can then return to the Bellway and exit the room.
Just to the right, you can find Shakra, who will see some additional items now that you have entered the Deep Docks. Her inventory adds the following items:
Item
Rosary Bead Cost
Description
Deep Docks Map
50 Rosary Beads
These docks, I thought them small when first I passed. Now I feel the structure’s true bulk hides below the molten lake.
Vendor Pins
80 Rosary Beads
Many of Pharloom’s bugs have useful equipment and items to trade. It would do you well to keep track of their locations with this pin. These pins will mark vendors on your map.
Ring Marker
40 Rosary Beads
You can use these to mark places of importance or reminders on your map. With these I often mark the locations of worthy foes.
As with the other items, you will want to buy all of these as soon as possible, but you can farm Rosary Beads fairly easily throughout the Deep Docks. For now, the Deep Docks map is the most important. The Vendor Pins are self-explanatory, but the Ring Marker allows you to manually place pins on the map to highlight key points of interest that are otherwise unmarked.
Shakra may move insantly after speaking to her for the first time in the Deep Docks, but don’t forget you can summon her in Bone Bottom.
Obtaining Swift Step
Once you finish with Shakra, you want to climb back up. When you reach the door that leads to the bench, continue further upwards.
Defeat the flying enemy above and jump to the right. But, fall off the ledge ahead.
Here, you can find a room, as well as a switch that you can activate.
Hit the switch and then jump back up, taking the room on the right. In this room, you can find a few pilgrims to bugs with bells on their heads and not much else.
Therefore, exit back out and continue upwards.
On the left, next to the platform on a chain you can find another switch. Activate it to raise it, allowing you to jump up further.
Continue to the right and enter the next room.
Defeat the enemy on the right and then jump down to the bottom. Here you can find another enemy digging away at the coal on the ground. Defeat them and continue to the right.
The hot coals here won’t harm you instantly, allowing you to jump across them without taking any damage. But if you stay on them for too long, you will take some damage. You still want to avoid falling in if you can help it.
Ahead, you can find a new enemy type. These fossilised hopping bugs will hop towards you. They can’t be pushed back and will just try to catch you in a corner or against the lava.
Jump up and to the left to find a skull bug, before continuing to the right. Just watch out for the boulder in the ceiling on the right platform edge.
Push further to the right and kill the hopping bug, as well as the flying bug in the air and the large skull bug.
Ahead, you can progress along the platform embedded in the lava as the area slowly transitions into the fourth main area of the game: Far Fields. However, we can’t enter that region just yet, and we will loop back around to the main halls of the Deep Docks.
For now, continue onwards and defeat the hopping bug just ahead.
Just after the bug, you will need to hop across the lava to reach the other side. Watch out for the boulder in the ceiling of a platform.
Continue to the right and then loop back around to the left, using the platforms where you just were.
At the end, you will find a flying bug. The ant you saw previously won’t reappear, but you can obtain some Rosary Beads from the post on the platform.
With this section almost fully explored, the final thing to do is head to the far right and attack the orange rock in the ceiling. This will open up a secret pathway above you once it explodes.
This area contains some other enemies from the Far Fields, including a flying ant which will attack you almost instantly. Functionally, these don’t behave any differently from the dragonflies above Bone Bottom, attacking with short charges forward.
On the right, you can find a path leading to a bench. This can be activated with 30 Rosaries and is worth doing before the next main fight.
Exit back out and continue upwards, defeating the additional ants on the way up. The path to the right leads to a dead end, so continue up even further.
At the top, you can find another gap in the ceiling to jump through. To the right is a locked door, so head left instead.
Here you will fight two of the larger ant varieties, alongside some basic ants, across a few waves of enemies. These are much trickier than the base ants and have a lot of health, taking around six hits to kill. They have two basic attacks. The first is a melee combo which they will perform up close.
The second is a weapon throw, which will target you and fly in a straight line, allowing you to jump over it or fall and avoid it.
Once it dies, two ground ants will spawn, which can be killed fairly quickly. This is followed by two of the flying ants.
Finally, the second larger ant and a flying ant will spawn. Try to focus on one of these first, as it can be hard to deal with both of their attacks at the same time. A few hits and a Silkspear attack will kill the larger ant.
Once every enemy is dead, you can progress to the left and jump down.
Continue all the way down and kill the ants as you go, avoiding the spike traps at the same time.
To the right, you can destroy an orange rock and run back to avoid the explosion. This will lead back to the path down to the Deep Docks.
Instead, head left.
Jump across the platforms ahead to find another ancient statue you can bind with.
This will give you the Swift Step Ancestral Art, which is a new ability that allows Hornet to run across platforms and the environment. It can be activated with R2 (PlayStation), RT (Xbox), ZR (Switch), and C (PC) button/key. The momentum allows Hornet to jump to platforms further away.
Reaching The Forge Daughter
You can use the Swift Step ability to jump to the platforms on the left.
Along the bottom, you can flick a switch behind an enemy to reach the original bench at the start of the Deep Docks.
However, if you run and jump along the platforms above you, you can reach another switch. Hit it to lower the platform on a chain, allowing you to jump further up.
You will need to run and jump to reach the platforms.
At the top, you can find another Lost Flea.
With everything completed in this section of the Deep Docks, return to the base of the area, by the Bellway.
Continue to the right from the Bellway, into the next room.
Immediately jump up to the platform and run and jump to the ledge in the distance. At the end, you can find a switch which, when hit, will open the gate ahead.
But, before we proceed right, head down by hitting the trap door switch.
Fall through and head to the bottom. Take a left and at the end of the corridor by the elevator, jump up to the platform above.
Continue left to find a secret room with a Shard Bundle. This can be broken via your inventory to give you 80 Stone Shards instantly if you need them in a pinch.
Take the elevator down and jump off halfway to find some additional Stone Shards on your left by attacking the shell with them encased.
At the bottom of the elevator, take a left.
In this next room, you need to jump all the way down. On the way, you will find another new enemy type. These small squishy fire bugs will spit out fire in a radius around them every few seconds, taking a few seconds to charge up the attack.
They will also do this as they die, self-destructing in the process. You can land hits in between these fire explosions.
Continue down, killing the enemies along the way. Ignore the room on the right for now and continue to the bottom of the area. The very bottom has a locked door you can’t open, but on the left, you can enter a small room to the side.
Inside, you will find two pilgrim enemies that can be killed easily with one Silkspear attack. Above them, you can find some Rosary Beads.
There is one string on each side of the ceiling.
At the end of the corridor, there is one final enemy and a shell you can open by hitting it. Doing so will cause a bunch of Stone Shards to pop out.
Return to the previous room and go through the door on the right about halfway up.
In here, you can run and jump across the platforms and coals. Kill the pilgrim enemies that are on the path upwards. If you need any Stone Shards, you can destroy the silver rocks in the lava to drop some. They can then be picked up.
Continue upwards, hopping across the burning coals to the right.
You will find a switch which you can hit, adjusting the position of the coals.
Now, you can run and jump across them to the left.
At the top of the platform, you will find your first Mask Shard, which you can jump and grab. Collecting enough of these to fill the Mask in your inventory will give Hornet additional health.
Continue to the left and hit the trapdoor to return to the beginning of the room.
With this area explored, return to the bottom of the elevator you took earlier and take a right. Jump up to hit the switch on the ceiling.
This will open a small lore room with a tablet you can read. You can hit the switch again to leave.
Continue to the right to fight a small set of enemy waves in an enclosed room. The first wave is two pilgrims, one with a pitchfork and another who flies.
The second wave has a new enemy type. This charging bug has a shield and can’t be attacked from the front, except during brief moments when it recovers. Therefore, it is best to jump over it and use a Silkspear attack. Alternatively, you can keep jumping over it or avoiding its hops, landing attacks as it recovers.
Next, you will face two flying pilgrims at once.
The fourth wave consists of one flying Pilgrim and one charging bug. It is best to take out the flying pilgrim first with air attacks, as it can disrupt your jumps and how much room you have to dodge the charging bug.
The final wave has a regular pilgrim with a pitchfork and one of the charging bugs. A Silkspear attack can wipe both of them out quickly.
Head right straight away and run and jump to the platform on the other side. This leads to a door where the Simple Key can be used if you have bought this in Bone Bottom. Using the key here will consume it, but it does allow you to skip the Lace boss fight ahead. Overall, it isn’t worth using the key here as there are better opportunities to use it elsewhere.
Now, return to the room where you defeated the waves of enemies and jump up, hitting the trapdoor above you. Do the same for the second one.
To the left, you can find a bench and a switch, which links back to the top of the Deep Docks, by the path we opened earlier.
To the right, you can find the Forge Daughter, an NPC. She will explain that she can craft tools for you to use. To craft them, she will need Rosary Beads and some Craftmetal.
Her initial inventory consists of:
Item
Material Cost
Description
Crest Slot
Sting Shard
140 Rosary Beads + 1 Craftmetal
A vicious stabbing trap? We can build it. Just know, it disturbs us, these devious implements you conceive to kill.
Red
Magma Bell
110 Rosary Beads + 1 Craftmetal
This trinket is our own invention. It wards against the deadly lava and heat around these docks. The workers used to request them of us. Now they’ve lost the mind to care.
Blue
Crafting Kit
180 Rosary Beads
Crafting by claw alone produces inferior results. With this kit you can craft finer, sharper, and deadlier tools… if that is your wish.
N/A
Shard Bundle
50 Rosary Beads
To maintain one’s tools is a constant task. These shards should be kept close when you travel, that you can repair and replenish as the need arises.
N/A
To the right of her, you can find Ballow, who is digging away but doesn’t have much to say.
Return to the elevator in the centre of Deep Docks and continue through the open gate you previously opened to fight Lace, the boss in the next room.
Lace Boss Fight
Lace can be a shock to the system compared to the other bosses in the game. They are far more nimble than the Moss Mother and Bell Beast and has a variety of attacks and combos that you can easily be caught by.
The first thing to understand about Lace is that they can parry most of your hits, and they will enter a guarding stance, crouching and holding her rapier upwards, randomly after the majority of their combos and attacks.
When you see this, if you attack, they will send out a flurry of hits forward, which can be tricky to dodge. The attack also take two pips of your health.
This can be dodged with a well-timed jump backwards or over them just before they counter, but it is easier said than done. So, it is best to only attack once or twice every time you go on the offensive. They won’t always counter however, sometimes they will just go into another attack.
Finally, watch out for the lava on either side of the arena. You want to keep to the middle third of the arena if possible, as a few of Lace’s hits can knock you back. You can push Lace into the lava, however, with your own attacks dealing some damage in the process. They don’t die instantly; however, they just respawn.
Their main moveset consists of a regular combo, a dash, and an aerial diagonal ground attack. The dash and aerial attack will be what they use most often.
To dodge the dash on the ground, which is signified by Lace holding the rapier horizontally by their side, you can jump over as they lunge forward. If you land close to Lace, you can hit them once or twice.
But be wary, as they can follow this up quickly with the regular combo. This is a two-hit attack that hits directly in front of Lace in an arch. Lace will hold the rapier by her side, facing downwards, when they are preparing this attack.
You can jump over this or simply back away to avoid it, but if you get hit by the first attack, you will get knocked backwards. They can also perform this attack on their own when you get close to them.
Finally, Lace has a diagonal aerial dash. They will jump in the air for a brief second before jumping down at a 45-degree angle.
This can be dodged by running or walking underneath her after they are airborne, backing away (the diagonal attack does carry them forward slightly, so allow for some extra room), or jumping over them as they land on the ground.
Either method works, and you will likely use a combination of evasive manoeuvres during the fight, depending on the situation.
The goal is to whittle Lace’s health down with one or two hits in between their attacks. It is a somewhat drawn-out fight, but attacks like Silkspear can be a big help.
Midway through the fight, Lace will become stunned, allowing you to land several hits or pull off a Silkspear attack.
In phase two, Lace’s moveset doesn’t change much. However, they gain one additional attack. They can summon this circular light aura anywhere in the arena. They will charge this attack for a few seconds before unleashing a flurry of hits within the area.
If you are caught in the area, you will take two hits instantly. Therefore, in this second phase, you need to stay on the move far more, and we suggest constantly changing the direction of your movement, so you have an escape route if they ever prepare this attack.
The corners of the area act as great areas to hide.
When they finish the attack, they will slam on the ground. Afterwards, this is the perfect time to perform a Silkspear attack or land a few hits as they recover.
Eventually, Lace will be defeated and run off.
Continue to the right and hit the switch to activate the bell, opening the gate ahead, allowing you to enter the Far Fields.