Silksong Shellwood walkthrough

Shellwood is a large region in Hollow Knight: Silksong that you’ll reach after paying a fleeting visit to Bellhart. Reaching Shellwood in Silksong means that you’re one step closer to The Citadel, but you’re still a long way from being done with Pharloom.

To make sure you don’t miss anything vital to the story or progression, here’s our Silksong Shellwood walkthrough to help you out.

Silksong Shellwood walkthrough

As is usually the case when exploring a new area in Silksong, your first objective in Shellwood should be finding Shakra and purchasing the Shellwood Map from her. We’ve a few things to do before we can reach her though.

Beat the Shellwood gauntlet

First things first, rest at the Bellhart Bench then enter Shellwood to your left. You’ll soon come to a room with water, Pond Skippers, and a Pondcatcher enemy. The door on the far left side of this room is locked right now, so you’ll ideally want to take care of the Pondcatcher so he doesn’t bother us later.

Next, begin climbing the platforms on the left-hand side of the room (pictured below).

Dispatch the upcoming Shellwood Gnat and you should find yourself on a platform in the middle of the room with some bells embedded in it (pictured below). You want to go right from here and down onto the large platform.

Look right from the large platform and you’ll see another platform you can use Sprintstep to reach (pictured below). Another Shellwood Gnat waits for us there.

From this platform, you now want to go upwards and keep left, aiming for the exit in the top-left corner of the room.

In the next section, you’ll see that there is a Bench above us that we can’t quite reach yet. Instead, go left and drop down into a room where the Shellwood gauntlet begins. Here, you’ll need to battle waves of Phacia and Splinterbark enemies to continue.

Get the first Shellwood Bench

Once you beat the gauntlet, head left and upwards to reach the room’s exit but don’t leave just yet. Keep platforming upwards to come to the Shellwood Bench that costs 80 Rosaries to unlock - rest!

Exit this room to the left after resting and you’ll come to an elevator. Ride this elevator the whole way down and keep left upon exiting.

Find Shakra to purchase the Shellwood Map

Exit the elevator and head left into the next room where you’ll find Shakra; purchase the Shellwood Map from her for 60 Rosaries. If she moves before you get a chance to buy the map, it is likely that she has returned to Bone Bottom, so check there.

Before we continue any further, go right into the room we were previously in. Platform upwards in this room, past the Pondcatcher enemy (or kill him), and go into the first exit on your left. Be careful of the Splinterbark enemies that emerge from the ground on some platforms.

Meet Greyroot

Enter the small house that you will now have arrived at. In this next room, you’ll meet the mysterious Greyroot NPC.

Speak to Greyroot to start the Rite of the Pollip Wish; all six Pollip Hearts needed for this Wish are found by destroying glowing purple flowers in Shellwood. If you need help finding them, take a look at our Pollip Heart locations page.

With that done, return to Shakra and go left in the room that she is in. You will need to pogo across some flowerbuds to reach the other side of the room.

Collect the Mask Shard

Once in the next room, you’ll see that you’ll now need to pogo upwards using more flowerbuds (pictured below). If you want a closer Bench to this area, proceed left through the next room to reach one that costs 60 Rosaries to unlock.

Rather than go straight to the top of the room, keep an eye out for exits on the right-hand side of the room (pictured below). Enter this room, pogo across it carefully, and break the wall at the very end to retrieve the Mask Shard for this area.

You can now exit this room and continue pogoing and platforming to the very top of the chamber we were just in. There is an exit on either side of the top of the chamber; the left exit takes us to the Bellway as well as another Bench, while the right exit is where we continue progressing through Shellwood.

Unlock the Bellway and Bench if you can afford it, rest, and then keep right.

Beat Sister Splinter

By going into the room right of the tall chamber we just jumped up, you’re in the room containing the Clip Grip Skill, but you’re a short while away from unlocking it yet. We will grab this soon but if you want to beeline for it, take a look at our guide on how to unlock the Clip Grip Skill.

In the following room, go right and exit. You will pass some flowerbuds on the way; go up them to retrieve a Pollip Heart.

In the following room, you will then need to platform upwards, taking caution to avoid (or kill) the Gahlia enemies.

After reaching the top, unlock the elevator shortcut; this will take you back down to one of the Shellwood Benches. I recommend resting at it!

Go back up the elevator and exit into the room to your right. Swim across the river in the next room and use the platforms at the end of the room to go upwards. Take a left at the top.

You’ll then arrive at some more flowerbuds that you need to pogo off of (shown below), while steering clear of the spikes below; keep going left.

After some tricky pogoing, you’ll enter the room where the boss fight against Sister Splinter takes place. If you need some help with beating her, take a look at our Sister Splinter boss strategy guide.

Upon successfully beating her, exit to the left of the room, but pay a visit to this arena after resting to say hello to an adorable NPC. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

Unlock the Cling Grip Skill

In the next room, make your way to the top-left corner and exit; it's time for us to finally unlock the ability to double jump along walls. The route we want to go in order to reach the Clip Grip Skill is labelled on the map shown below.

By going this way, you will have to make your way past some more Gahlia enemies. These are another opportunity for you to to practice your pogoing, as you can repeatedly bounce off of their heads to kill them. Alternatively, Silkspear takes them out quickly.

Following exiting the boss arena, jump down and to your left. You should see two flowerbuds above some spikes; pogo off these to exit the room via the left.

You’ll arrive in a room with another Gahlia and a lake below you. Go left to come to an area with more flowerbuds – above some spikes – to pogo off of. Use the first flowerbud to head left, heading past (and killing) more Gahlia enemies, then use the second flowerbud to head right.

More Gahlia enemies here! Go past them, keeping right, to pogo off another three flowerbuds. You can now exit the room.

Keep right and you will arrive at the altar that unlocks the Cling Grip Skill. Bind to it to get your new ability! It'll make traversing Shellwood much easier.

The good news is that there isn’t much left to do in Shellwood now, but we do have a Flea to free, one handy Tool to go and collect and then you’ve two options for what to do next.

Free the Flea

After unlocking Clip Grip, I highly recommend doing some backtracking for a few final things. Dive to the bottom of the room containing Clip Grip, using your Drifter’s Cloak to avoid enemies and spike traps.

Exit the room to your left and carefully platform down the right-hand side of this chamber. At the very bottom, destroy the breakable wall to free the Flea that is trapped in it.

For more help with tracking down all of Pharloom’s Fleas, take a look at our Silksong Flea locations guide.

Unlock the Longpin Tool

With the Flea freed, carefully head back up and go down the left-hand side of the chamber next. You then want to exit the room to the right – past where Shakra was.

In the following room, go right again. You will be able to unlock the door leading back to the very beginning of Shellwood – where the Pond Skippers and Pondcatcher enemy are – so do that.

Go through the door you just unlocked and once again, we need to platform upwards and over to the right-hand side of the room. This time, we have Clip Grip to help!

Here, you should see a purple flower you can destroy, revealing a small chamber to enter.

Enter the chamber to collect the Longpin Tool.

Visit Bellhart or Blasted Steps next

Provided you unlocked the Bellway and Bench up in the top-left corner of Shellwood earlier, you now have a few options for what to do next. The first option is to go to the Shellwood Bellway and keep left, eventually arriving in the new region of Blasted Steps.

Your second option, and what I highly recommend doing first, is using the Cling Grip Skill to explore the rest of Bellhart and face your next boss. This boss drops a key item you’ll need while in Blasted Steps and defeating them ultimately allows you to meet all of the NPCs in Bellhart and upgrade your Needle.

To explore Bellhart further, go to the Bench in the middle of the region; this is the Bench you will have no doubt been running back and forth from when fighting Sister Splinter.

Instead of riding the elevator, jump on top of it and then use Cling Grip to jump on and climb the wall to the left of it. On your right, you’ll find a passage that leads deep into Bellhart. Enjoy!

For more on Hollow Knight: Silksong, take a look at our list of all bosses, as well as our Silksong walkthrough.