Shellwood Walkthrough

After defeating (or bypassing) the Moorwing in Greymoor, Shellwood is the next main area you will pass through in Hollow: Knight Silksong. The overgrown land is filled with plant-based threats, fresh bugs to face, and some challenging fights. This page will guide you through ascending to the top of Shellwood to defeat the Sister Splinter who guards access to a new wall-climbing ability, allowing you to break the curse over Bellhart and move onward toward the Citadel.

How to Reach Shellwood

While the most straightforward way to approach Shellwood is by traveling west through Greymoor and passing through the haunted settlement of Bellhart, you can also reach the opposite side of Shellwood through other means. By purchasing a Simple Key in Bone Bottom, you can unlock access to the Wormways above Moss Grotto, and take the path upward to reach the chasm Hornet originally fell through at the start of the game, which also leads to Shellwood. For the purpose of this guide, however, we will be starting at the Bellhart entrance on Shellwood's eastern side.

The Wishes that can be completed or worked towards during this area are:

Task	Description	Area Task Is Obtained	Quest Type	Reward	Complete?
Rite of the Pollip	Collect Pollip Hearts from the purple flowers of Shellwood.	Shellwood	Gather Quest	Pollip Pouch Tool	Rite of the Pollip

Jump to a section:

• Finding Shakra
• Reaching Upper Shellwood
• Sister Splinter Boss Fight
• Obtaining the Cling Grip
• Finding the Hidden Bellhart Entrance

Finding Shakra

As usual, one of the first things you want to do is find Shakra and obtain the map for the area.

After entering Shellwood from Bellhart, you will see a new Pond Skipper bug. These docile will simply dash across the water and pose little threat, but can sometimes ram into you unintentionally. The other bug ahead, which flies, is a little trickier.

These Pondcatchers normally hunt the other bugs, and throw spears in an arc towards you and consistently stay high above the ground, making it hard to hit them. They will get closer to the ground if you back away from them.

To the left is a locked door, so instead climb up the ledges. As you climb up, you will find another bug within a cocoon. These Shellwood Gnats can be on the floor or hanging from the ceiling, and just fly or walk towards you. Armored by the shellwood, you'll need to hit them three times at first. After this, they will pop out from their shellwood casings to reveal their vulnerable green bodies and fly at you, taking another two hits to kill.

Run and jump to the platform on the right to collect an item. Another of those Shellwood Gnats will spawn as you pick up the Frayed Rosary String.

Continue to the right and defeat the next Shellwood Gnat. Even further to the right, you can find a nest with some purple bugs called Wood Wasps.

Defeat them and destroy the nest. They will keep spawning until you destroy the nest, so try to prioritize it.

Destroying the nest will also reveal a passageway beyond, you can find a room with a new tool to grab. This is the Longpin, which gives you the spear that the Pondcatchers at the start of Shellwood had. While slow, its deals piercing damage against hardened foes, making it a good tool against tougher armored foes.

Longpin

Head back outside and then jump over to where you picked up the Frayed Rosary String. This time, jump upwards. Halfway up, you can find a Shell Shard fossil, which you can destroy to gain a bunch of Shell Shards.

Jump over to the left and attack the next Shell Shard fossil to gain some more Shell Shards.

Return to the nest you destroyed and then climb upwards even further. You will reach a high wall which you can climb up. Another Shellwood Gnat will spawn, and you can jump across the platforms to the left.

Continue upwards and left to enter the next room.

Above you in this next room there is a sign pointing to a bench, but we can't reach it just yet, so drop down. Here you will fight several waves of enemies if you wish to reach that bench.

The first wave is two white flower bugs known as Phacia, which surround themselves with a yellow, damaging pollen. You can simply wait for this attack to finish and then defeat them as they don't move all that fast.

The second wave is against two stickbugs, a Splinter (the vertical one on two legs), and the Splinterhorn (the horizontal one on four legs). Both will perform small swipes forward to deal damage. You can hit both of them at once, and Tools can deal a lot of damage to both of them quickly.

The main other attack to watch out for is a charge from the horizontal Splinterhorn, which is shown by the enemy holding its pincers out in front of it.

The third wave is against a Phacia, joined by another Splinter and Splinterhorn duo. Once again, tools or any area-of-effect attacks you have are a great choice here to hit several of the enemies at once.

With all the enemies defeated, you can press on left and up. If you keep climbing upwards, you can activate a bench, which will be handy later on, so it is best to use your 40 Rosary Beads if you have them spare.

Continue to the left and into the next room. Here, you can activate the elevator switch to take the elevator down. At the bottom, on the right, you can step on the switch to open the door ahead, linking back to the locked door we saw at the very start of Shellwood.

Along the bottom of this room, you can find some more of the Pond Skippers and Pondcatchers.

Jump onto the elevator (be careful not to jump into it or you'll be stuck while it rides back to the top) and then up to the platform just above.

Run and jump across to the left -- but beware that some of the sticks poking out of the ground can reveal themselves to be either Splinters or Splinterhorns, which will pop out of the ground when you draw close.

Once again, run and jump to the next platform to climb even higher in this room. Another Splinter/Splinterhorn are likely to spawn out of the ground on the platform when you reach it.

Climb even higher and then jump down off the ledge on your right, gliding further right until you land on the platform.

From here, you can scale the platforms leading upwards to find some more of the Wood Wasps. Avoid the spikes and continue jumping upwards to find a purple flower. If you attack it, it will drop a Pollip Heart. These are needed for the Rite of the Pollip Wish quest, which we haven't started yet. But you can collect the items before beginning the quest. Make note of the smaller purple flowers in the area, as it provides a clue to the other locations.

Pollip Heart 1

Return to where you dropped down to reach this Pollip Heart and jump across to the ledge on the left. On the left is a mysterious passageway.

Enter it and then enter the house inside. You can talk to Greyroot, a mysterious bug who will give you the Rite of the Pollip quest, asking you to find six Pollip Hearts for her ritual. We have already found one, so we only need to find five more. Accept the quest.

Further up past the entrance to Greyroot's home, you can find another Shellwood Gnat and a nest if you jump down on the other side of the ledge.

With everything completed here, continue into the next room on the left at the bottom left corner of this room, as it is the only path we can take for now.

In here, you can find Shakra, who will sell the Shellwood Map and the Bellhart Map for you to buy. The Shellwood map is the priority, but grab both right now if you have the spare Rosary Beads.

Item	Rosary Bead Cost	Description
Bellhart Map	40 Rosary Beads	A town built within the thick vein of bells that runs through Pharloom's core. One wonders who would craft so many, and for what purpose?
Shellwood Map	70 Rosary Beads	Tangled roads choked beneath bramble and root. The flora is often as deadly as the creatures who call this place home.

Reaching Upper Shellwood

Continue to the left to find a series of white flowers. Like the red buds of Hunter's March, you can perform downward strikes to pogo off them. However, once the flowers bloom, you can't strike at them again, and will need to wait a moment for them to close, meaning you'll need to make these jumps in one go, or be forced to try again from the start.

As you enter the next room, there are two paths to take. Start by taking the lower path by following the sign for a Bench. In the next room, immediately jump upwards toward a gap in the ceiling.

In this enclosed upper room, you can find a lore stone to interact with:

"Pilgrim. Spare a song for those who lay here silent, by strength abandoned they fell before the final scent."

If you jump up, you will find an enemy who initially tricks you into seeming non-hostile, only to wallop you with some Rosary Beads. This Covetous Pilgrim loves rosary beads, but isn't opposed to dealing a lot of damage with them. It's only real attack consists of swinging the beads around wildly, delivering several hits back and forth or a jump followed by these same hits.

The trick to defeating it is to bring the bug to the end of the path and jump and attack it there, instead of trying to avoid the attacks on the same level platform, which is extremely difficult. Tools can also be used to deal a lot of damage. While it will take a while, this is the safest method. Once it is dead, you can grab the Rosary Beads it drops. Unfortunately, he doesn't respawn so you can't farm him for more beads.

Exit the room and continue to the left, defeating or running past the bugs on the way, whichever you prefer. You'll soon come to a cargo area with hanging ore platforms and a cart, but they are too high up to climb. Remember this area for later!

At the end of the room, you can attack the vines to open up access to a new bench room. This device can string your Rosary Beads together and features a bench, but it will require some Rosary Beads to activate it. Consider using it if you find yourself dying a lot and losing all of your precious beads. By creating strings, you can conserve them and only break them into currency when you need to buy something.

To the left, you can find a path that leads to the Wormways, but we won't be exploring that until later when we have the ability here in Shellwood to give us full access to the region.

Return back the way you came to the room that had the sign for the bench and multiple pathways to take. This time, jump upwards, bouncing off the white flowers. Be wary, as Phacia enemies hide among the normal flowers, and you'll want to carefully take them out before bouncing upward to the top of the thorn-filled shaft.

Once at the top of the platform, jump down to the right to find one of the Lost Fleas embedded in the wall. Attack it to free it. You will be attacked by different white flowers on the wall called Pollenicas that fire projectiles that track you.

You can attack or try to bypass them quickly. If you do go on the offensive, time their salvo of three shots before rushing in to hit back. The Lost Flea can be found at the bottom of the area, guarded by one last Pollenica you can either hit with ranged tools/silk skills or ignore.

Shellwood Lost Flea

Climb back up and enter the room on the right first, as it leads to an important collectible.

Hop across the white flowers to find a breakable set of vines. Hit them a few times until they break and hop across the platforms in the next room. At the very end, you can find another set of vines to destroy and a Mask Shard behind it!

Shellwood Mask ShardIf you've been following our guide, this should be yourfourth Mask Shard(including the one sold atBone Bottom, one above the Seamstress in theFar Fields, and the one below theWormwaysentrance), which means you'll finally have an additional point of health!

Exit the room, killing or avoiding the white flower enemies which have spawned in the room. Head upwards to find two more pathways, and travel to the left this time. Here you can find the Bellway, which you should activate as it will be key to exploring a little later in this walkthrough. However, the room beyond it is locked from this side.

Head back outside of the Bellway and continue into the room on the right on the opposite upper corner. Here, you will find a giant harp below what appears to be another Weaver Altar, but you can't interact with it just yet. Continue to the right, climbing up the platforms.

Use the white flowers to climb up and then attack the purple flower to gain the next Pollip Heart.

Pollip Heart 2

Continue to the right and into the next room.

If you head downwards, you will end up by the bench you previously unlocked -- don't drop down! Instead, head up, killing the flowers called Ghalias that have creepy faces that sprint out in the wall on the way up. You can jump over their stretchy neck attacks, and use downward strikes off their stalk-like necks.

One of the Ghalia that you can kill is actually hiding a small tunnel to take you to the other side. Dodge the other Ghalia on this side, and jump up two ledges to find a bug husk holding a Frayed Rosary String, then return back through the passage to the left side.

Climb to the top left corner, and then continue to the right and then jump down and stand on the switch. This will open the elevator, allowing you to use it as a shortcut to the bench below. Continue to the right into the next room.

Follow the path across a pool of water, and then up several platforms that seem to border the Bellhart region. You can't climb all the way up, so head left when you reach the next ledge.

Use the white flowers and platforms to jump over the spikes and enter the next room for the boss fight against Sister Splinter.

Sister Splinter Boss Fight

• Recommended Tools: Sting Shard/Flea Brew, Warding Bell/Fractured Mask
• Recommended Skill: Thread Storm
• Recommended Crest: Hunter

After entering the boss room, Sister Splinter will appear hanging upside down from the ceiling. Right off the bat, anticipate needing to jump quite often to land any attacks, much like the boss fight with Fourth Chorus. Sister Splinter has 3 main moves she uses during this fight.

The first is Triple Slam, her primary attack where she lifts one arm before she begins to smash at the ground three times with both hands. Pay close attention to which hand she raises as this will tell you how to dodge; if she lifts her left arm, dodge to the right and vice versa.

Her second attack is Summon Vines. Sister Splinter will disappear into the vines in the ceiling and summon a huge thorny vine to shoot down in hopes of hitting you and reducing the amount of free space you have in the area.

You’ll need to hit the vine three times before you can destroy it. While she does summon it pretty quickly, keep a sharp eye out for a beam of a light which will tell you where in the ceiling the vine is going to shoot down. This should give you enough time to get out of its way. As the fight progresses and she gets more aggressive, she will summon multiple vines. Use your Silkspear to destroy multiple vines at once.

Brendan's Recommendation 🗡️

Given the speed of this fight, using a slower attack style like the Reaper Crest may have you struggling to keep up with Sister Splinter, especially with the constant thorny vines. Using a faster attack like the Hunter Crest will let you tear away the vines faster. Since she sticks to the ceiling where you can't throw pins, set traps with your Sting Shard instead.

Sister Splinter’s third attack is Summon Splinterbarks. This isn’t so much an attack as it is her calling on reinforcements. Before she summons them, she’ll scream and then retreat into the ceiling, after which two Splinterbark enemies emerge from above to begin their assault on you.

Pro Tip: attack her while she screams to get an additional few hits in before she momentarily disappears and you need to turn your attention to the Splinterbarks. If you haven’t gotten rid of them by the time she comes back, you can use Sister Splinter’s Triple Smash attack to YOUR advantage and have her hit the Splinterbarks to get them out of your hair.

Like with most bosses in Silksong, the key to defeating Sister Splinter is going to be a combination of memorizing her attack patterns and being quick and nimble to both avoid her shots at you, and land some heavy hits on her and her little cronies. Take advantage of the times you can stun her by unleashing your Silk Skills and Tools when she's in range!

Once she's taken enough damage, Sister Splinter will splinter apart, and the thorny vines will finally vanish for good, allowing you to progress further west.

Sister Splinter Defeated

Obtaining the Cling Grip

With Sister Splinter defeated, continue to the left and into the next room.

Jump down and to the left. On your left, you will see some white flowers below you. Glide down and to the left to find a purple flower. Attack it to get the next Pollip Heart.

Pollip Heart 3

Use the white flowers to climb back up and then climb further up on the left side of this room using the other white flowers and platforms. Glide over to the left and then enter the next room once you reach the spikes.

Continue to the left and then attack the vines to open up a pathway. Climb upwards, avoiding the flowers on the way and destroy the next set of vines. Jump across the gap to the right and destroy the other flowers and next set of vines, or move quickly before they can burst out. If you can't dodge fast, jump at the last moment to keep using downward strikes while they are exposed.

Just beneath you, you can find some Rosary Beads to collect.

Return back above the Rosary Beads, and carefully bounce across the row of flowers to reach the far side, returning to the previous room. Up here, you can interact with the Weaver Altar to bind a new Ancestral Art Ability, and gain the Cling Grip, which is effectively a wall grab.

Cling Grip

Now, you can climb up the wall on the right by pressing the jump button when pressed against it.

Finding the Hidden Bellhart Entrance

In the next room, you can travel across the water and then climb up to find one of the Splinterbarks you fought during the Sister Splinter fight. Continue upwards and then fight more Splinterbarks.

At the top, you can find a Shell Shards shell to attack and some vines to destroy along the left wall.

Destroy the vines and then kill the Wood Wasps, and destroy the purple nest in the next room to reveal a new passage. Pass through the opening that appears and head downwards. Here you can find a plant to destroy, giving you another Pollip Heart.

Pollip Heart 4

Drop back down into the waters below and head right, and you can find another spot to hop up, revealing some Rosary Beads. Even further to the right is a shortcut back to before the Sister Splinter fight.

Before you find a new way into Bellhart to dispel its curse, it is worth grabbing another Pollip Hearts now that we have the wall climb ability.

From the Bench near Bellhart in Shellwood, head right and stay as high up as you can while proceeding. You will see some vines and flowers blooming on the ceiling. Use the wall jump to ascend to the top, and after dealing with some Wood Wasps, claim your Pollip Heart. See it's exact location on the map above.

Pollip Heart 5

The last Pollip Heart we can claim by finding a secret path out of Bellhart, which we'll save for the next section. For now, make your way back to the northeastern edge of Shellwood, east of the Sister Splinter fight where the bells border the woodland.

Climb upwards with the wall-climb ability you now have and destroy the wall on the right, revealing a new entrance into Bellhart.

Before you do, run and jump to the wall on your left and jump upwards constantly. Eventually, you will enter a secret room with a Shard Bundle.

Destroy the second and third walls, and you can enter Bellhart properly from the top, which we'll cover in the next section.

Shellwood

Shellwood Checklist
Tools Collected
Longpin	---
Ancestral Art Abilities	Bosses Defeated
Cling Grip	Sister Splinter Defeated
Lost Fleas Found	Mask Shards
Shellwood Lost Flea	Shellwood Mask Shard

Up Next: Bellhart Walkthrough

PreviousGreymoor WalkthroughNextBellhart Walkthrough

Top Guide Sections

• Differences and New Features
• Essential Tips and Tricks
• Walkthrough
• Boss Guides and Boss Order

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Hollow Knight: SilksongTeam Cherry

Initial Release: Sep 4, 2025

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