Wormways Walkthrough

The Wormways is a small optional region you can uncover in Hollow Knight: Silksong. It's maze-like and cramped passages are teeming with hazards, with some secrets that can only be unlocked through use of a key. This walkthrough contains information on how to access all of the Wormways, where you can encounter an important NPC and sidequest, an alternate exit that leads to an unlockable Crest, and all the hidden secrets and collectibles waiting within.

How to Access the Wormways

The Wormways is a fairly unique region in that it holds multiple entrances and exits, and each leads to different pieces that may be locked off from each other. The only way to fully explore the region is through unlocking its main door with a Simple Key.

The earliest and straightforward path can be undertaken once you have obtained the Swift Step ability in the Deep Docks. With it, you can return to the Mosshome area above Bone Bottom (where there is a handy lift leading up from the town) to a high area with several hanging cages. Jump and air-dash between the hanging cages while avoiding the flying bugs to reach the far left side.

Be sure to look for a ledge below the entrance holding a pile of Rosary Beads.

If you've gained the Drifter's Cloak from the Far Fields, you can also drop down the left side of the large chasm and hug the left wall as you float down above Moss Grotto to find a small ruin along the ceiling, holding more Rosary Beads and a Weaver Effigy that can be sold in Bellhart.Moss Grotto Weaver Effigy

A secondary path can be found if you try to explore the Wormways much later, after you've passed through the Deep Docks and Far Fields, up through Greymoor and left through Shellwood. You'll find a large broken bridge at the edge of Shellwood that you can cross to enter the upper right portion of the Wormways where Shakra can be found, and eventually lead you down toward the main entrance.

Given the contents of the Wormways, we recommend waiting to fully explore this region until you have searched Shellwood to gain the Cling Grip, and also obtain a Simple Key -- either purchasing one in Bone Bottom, or finding one at the top of Sinner's Road above Greymoor.

Quests that can be completed or obtained in the Wormways are:

Jump to a section:

• Unlocking the Wormways Door
• Finding the Alchemist
• Locating Shakra
• Finding the Plasmium Buds
• The Path to Bonegrave
• Chapel of the Wanderer

Unlocking the Wormways Door

This walkthrough will follow a complete path of the different explorable areas, starting with the main entrance across from Mosshome.

Inside this entrance hall, you'll find the long room is guarded by a Great Beast called a Craggler. While unique, it's not exactly a boss, but it sure hits as hard as one.

The Craggler only has one real move: it scurries along the ceiling and then spews down a raid of acid for a full second. Luckily, there are several platforms you can hide under to take shelter.

It's not exactly required to defeat (and it won't respawn once killed), but if you want to take it out, you'll need good timing to dart out of hiding, jump and perform an upward slash, then retreat back down before the next salvo. It can take awhile to whittle him down (approx 40 slashes), but you'll get a Beast Shard for your troubles!

Whether you kill it or dash past and into the next room, you'll find a locked door in front of you, and a sealed hatch above that can be opened if you entered the Wormways from Shellwood.

Before using a Simple Key to unlock the stone gate, be sure to hop down into the pool of water below if you haven't explored this area previously. Jump and slash the rock wall on the right of the pool to reveal a secret area hiding a Mask Shard that you can put toward your next Health Point!

Passing through the door and entering the Wormways proper, you'll soon find this region only has a few large rooms, but the twisting passages can make it seem larger than it actually is. To make matters worse, there are unique hazards here in the form of endless spiked worms burrowing through the tunnels that can heavily damage you on impact.

After crossing the first pit, you'll find a find a never-ending group of these worms (called Groms) that burrow through from above in random spots. Use the clouds of dust to alert you to where they'll burrow out from to dart past the group and continue left, to where two more Groms burrow on either side of a platform at a steady pace.

The Wormways hassle can also be an unexpected boon if you know how to make use of the Grom. Since they reliably fall in certain spots, you can actually use them as a free source of infinite Silk. As long as you take careful swipes from the side, you can keep building up Silk to bind as much as you need before moving on!

Ignore the opening along the bottom for now and keep moving left across the platforms to jump over spikes and dodge past worms until you can leap up and dash to a high ledge going back to the right, and enter the room above.

In this hallway, the left path leads to a Weavenest, but its door is high up off the floor. In truth, this is the only part of the Wormways you won't be able to access until Act 2, when you find the Double Jump ability. Once you do, return to unlock Weavenest Karn, a small sub-region featuring a long passage leading to a new Weaver Skill, the Sharpdart.

Finding the Alchemist

For now, head to the right past more tunneling worms from above and over some platforms (note the shaft high up above you).

On the next platform, you're likely to be ambushed by a Gromling. These annoying smaller worms will always burrow up near you, and lunge or charge in your direction before retreating to strike again when you least expect it. In bigger rooms like this, it's best to backpedal out of range of their lunge to slash, and then jump over them and slash from above. Unlike the endless larger worms, you can wait for the Gromlings to reappear and finish them off, but they will respawn over time.

Carefully jump and dash past the tunneling worms across the floating platforms to the far right wall, where you can spot a series of alcoves leading upward. Use them as a quick spot to keep out of range of the worms falling from above, and time your jumps to avoid the Groms as you travel upward until you can dash to a tunnel on the left.

Dash under the next group of falling worms, and be ready for another Gromling or two to ambush you in this small corridor. There are three separate shafts above (but only one not clogged by worms), and a pathway further left and up. Hold off on taking the left path for now, and instead, use your Cling Grip to wall-jump up the middle shaft.

When the pathways open up, keep wall-jumping straight up to enter a secret room at the top of the Wormways. It's here you'll find a large laboratory filled with blue liquids, a Bench to rest at, and Alchemist Zylotol.

Speak to the Alchemist to learn about his missing assistant, and eventually he'll ask if you want to take over in helping with his research on Plasmium (a substance that may look familiar if you played the first Hollow Knight). Accept the Alchemist's Assistant Wish Side quest, and he'll give you a temporary tool, a Needle Phial, to extract the blue substance from Plasmium Buds hidden throughout the Wormways.

Be sure to equip the Needle Phial at the bench before you leave.

Locating Shakra

Slide back down the shaft in the previous room, and this time take the left tunnel path to wall-jump up a short area and drop down again. As you slide down, you'll find the first Plasmium Bud on an alcove to the right. Simply approach and use the Needle Phial on it to stab it, and extract the specimen.

Now return back to that middle shaft leading up to the Alchemist, but this time take the tunnel on the right at the cross-section. This leads past more burrowing worms to a pathway out of this room to the right you can open by attacking the rock wall.

This large open vertical room offers a brief respite from the constricting worm passages, but it does have a few hazards in the form of haunted Pilgrims.

Start by leaping across to the hanging platform and working your way up the right wall, dealing with flying Pilgrims as you go. Aim for the highest bronze-colored platform, and look to the upper left corner for a broken archway with a shaft above it.

Carefully wall-jump up the shaft and avoid the spikes to reach the very top, where you can grab a Frayed Rosary String.

Floating down the tall room, you can spot an opening on the right, but before you head through, be sure to drop down to the very bottom. Here you'll find a lever opening the gate back down to where the locked door and Moss Grotto entrance was.

Just above the lever, inspect the base of the vertical room on the right side. Slash at the rock wall to reveal a secret passage leading right.

Inside, you'll find a Lost Flea being harassed by flying bug in a room filled with more Haunted Pilgrims!

Climb back up the vertical room and enter the opening on the right side. In this large twisting room, you'll start to see and hear signs of your favorite map maker, Shakra. There's a pathway across floating platforms above spikes to the right with worms dropping down everywhere -- but thankfully with the Cling Grip you can simply wall-jump up as soon as you enter the room to take an alternate tunnel path above them (though Gromlings can still ambush you here).

Make your way upwards along crumbling platforms to a high ledge, and jump left to find Shakra, who will sell you the Wormways Map for 70 Rosary Beads.

You can keep following the path on the ledge opposite Shakra to dodge past more falling worms, and wall-jump up the right shaft to temporarily avoid the falling worms.

On the next ledge up along the shaft with the falling worms, keep heading left to find a small gravesite. Be wary of two Gromlings that will appear on either side to ambush you as you draw close. Once they are defeated or retreat, inspect the lone husk to find a Yellow Tool -- the Dead Bug's Purse, which allows you to keep some Rosary Beads on death!

If you have the Needolin Ability unlocked, you can also play it here to see the whispering fragments of bugs paying their respects to the fallen in this forgotten grave.

The path upwards from here leads to the Wormways exit, below the bridge that broke during the cutscene at the start of the game. It's here that you can bounce across the small platforms to reach Shellwood (if you haven't already discovered it).

If you have, and if you restored Bellhart and have undertaken the My Missing Courier Wish Side Quest, it's also here that you'll find the missing Courier Tipp, being harassed by a few bugs on a lower ledge below the Wormways Exit.

Finding the Plasmium Buds

There's one last major area and an alternate exit to explore. You'll want to return back down to where the stone door was that the Simple Key unlocked, and head left through the first passageway. This time, look for an opening along the floor to jump down into.

This area is even more twisty and maze-like than the rest of the Wormways, but there's plenty of secrets to look out for.

Start by carefully making your way down to a shaft where worms are falling from, and dive down to the first ledge on the left. Watch out for a Gromling at the end of this path, then climb up to a ledge above to enter a room on the left.

Move along the pathway and jump over the gap with the tunneling worms (the pit below leads down to a dead end), and keep moving left while dealing with the occasional Gromling.

Once you reach the far left wall, slide down until you find an alcove on the left (look for the blue vines in the background), and attack the wall to reveal a hidden path.

Follow the twisting pathway up and over to slide down a second shaft, and you'll find the blue glow of a second Plasmium Bud to extract with your tool.

While you're here, be sure to also look for an alcove to the left, and strike the wall to reveal a hidden room. In here you'll find what became of Zylotol's previous assistant, and you can pay your respects by playing the Needolin if you wish.

Return back the way you came to where you opened the first secret path, and this time drop down to the passage below. It's a long square section that can get a little confusing in the dark, but keep to the right to drop down to the lowest passage.

Take this pathway all the way to the right (don't jump up any shafts above as they lead to dead ends), and you'll find a husk at the very end of this tunnel holding a Memory Locket. To make your way back, return to the shaft on the far left of this room, take it all the way up and then move all the way right to return to the previous room.

Now that you're back in the room below the first Wormways passageway, head down by following the tunneling worms and keep dashing right.

When you drop down the second shaft of tunneling worms, dash right to a mossy pathway, and you'll find it leads to the final Plasmium Bud.

Extract it with your tool, and be sure to return to the Alchemist Zylotol when you're finished here. In exchange for your hard work, he'll award you a very different kind of Red Tool -- the Plasmium Phial. Like the Flea Brew, this tool serves as a buffing item that gives you temporary Blue Hit Points that can only be replenished by the Phial, and you can only have 4 at a time, but give you a great buffer in dangerous situations!

The Path to Bonegrave

Just below the last Plasmium Bud location, you can drop down the rest of the shaft wit the tunneling worms to find a final pathway leading down and exiting the Wormways. This leads to a breakable wall you can only open from this side, leading to a hidden section of the Moss Grotto you may not have reached yet without the Cling Grips.

On the other side of the collapsed wall, collect the Rosary Beads on the ceiling and watch out for poison-spitting Pilgrims. The path along the upper right leads over to the Ruined Chapel next to Bone Bottom, but you should explore this side first.

Carefully float down below and angle to the left first to find some platforms where a bug floats around holding one of the Mossberries you can give to the Moss Shaman in Mosshome to gain some extra currency.

Down far below, check the right side of a small pond for a vine-covered door, which you can open to clear a path back toward Bone Bottom and the rest of Moss Grotto.

The main point of interest down here is a large chapel across the pond in the middle of a graveyard (which also sports a few Rosary Beads.

Chapel of the Wanderer

Inside the Chapel of the Wanderer, head down and to the right to collect a few scattered beads, but be on the lookout for tripwires along the pathway below.

A tripwire at the bottom of the shaft on the right will trigger a boulder to fall from above, so dash right toward some more Rosary Beads. Trigger the tripwire below them, and dash back left to avoid a spike trap before claiming the beads.

As you dashed across the passage, a floor opening will have revealed itself, allowing you head deeper into the chapel, and into an extended gauntlet against haunted Pilgrims!

The first wave will consist of 3 simple Pilgrims (1 flying, and 2 crawling ones) that you can take out quickly is you isolate them.

The second wave will have another flyer, as well as a large pilgrim that will roll around on the ground like a ball. Stick to the air for this part and slash downward to bounce off and defeat them both.

The third wave will include a hopping Pilgrim and one armed with a large bell mace. Take out the smaller enemy first and then bait out the bigger one's swings to dash in and chip away at him.

For the final wave, you'll be against three Pilgrims, including a bigger rolling Pilgrim and a flier. Don't forget to make use of your Tools like the Sting Shard to set traps for the enemies to walk into and take major damage.

When the final wave is defeated, the doors will open. Take the path out to the left and drop down to find your reward: a body you can harvest with your Bind to earn the Wanderer Crest. This equippable Crest can change Hornet's moveset to employ extremely fast and precise attacks, but at a very short range!

To leave the chapel, head back up the shaft to open up a breakable ceiling, and grab the Rosary Beads up top (but beware of triggering a spike trap) before jumping up the rest of the way to the entrance.

Be ready to have to deal with some risen dead Pilgrims that appear in the graveyard after you exit, but other than that, you'll have completed this region.

At this point, you'll likely want to continue the climb toward the Citadel and reach Act 2 -- but be sure you've also explored the other optional region in this area, Weavenest Atla. To progress in the main story, you'll want to either keep climbing above the Wormways and Shellwood to reach the Blasted Steps, or you can take the alternate path to Act 2 by entering Sinner's Road above Greymoor, and trying to traverse The Mist beyond.

Up Next: Blasted Steps Walkthrough

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