The indie gaming classic Hollow Knight’s long-awaited sequel, Silksong, is here. Just like the 2019 original, the new game is mysterious and labyrinthine. I’m having an absolute blast playing it, but there are a lot of quirks and challenges you’re going to have to face. 

Here are 11 tips to help you navigate the first couple hours of the exciting — and difficult — Silksong. 

Read more: I Played Silksong on the ROG Xbox Ally X and I’m Ready for More

11 Hollow Knight: Silksong tips for beginners

Early rosary cache

Rosaries are this game’s version of currency, which you can use to buy amulets and maps from early game merchants. If you die, you’ll have to recover them from your corpse in order to collect what was lost. In the opening area of the game, you can find a rosary cache to give your wallet a boost early on. Right before entering Bone Bottom, there’s a hole to drop down. Hold left as you fall and you’ll find a bone wall you can break. Here you’ll find your reward.

Learn the pogo

Bouncing off enemies is an early way to double jump. To do it, hold down while attacking in the air. It’s much harder to pull off than it was in Hollow Knight due to Hornet’s attacks, which are angled diagonally rather than straight down. However, if Silksong is anything like the first, you’ll be expected to master this technique in order to find and unlock everything in the game — there could be secret areas that can only be reached or bosses that can only be defeated with this technique. Make sure to master this skill early on.

First spool fragment and shortcut

After meeting Shakra, the map merchant, head left into the next screen. There is a flying enemy near the far left wall. Use the pogo jump technique off of them to reach and exit the room in the top left corner. If you kill the enemy, simply leave the area and rest at the nearby bench to respawn them (benches also save your game). After reaching the next room, drop down the first hole. There’s also a rosary cache to your right as you descend. Continue down until you reach a lever, which activates the elevator, giving you a shortcut back to Bone Bottom.

From the top of the elevator shaft, head right. You’ll also see an enemy glowing green below you as you progress. It holds a Moss Berry, and in order to get it, you’ll either have to keep pogo attacking them or fall and slash repeatedly. You can use your new elevator to keep ascending back up if you fall down.

Eventually, you’ll find another cache of rosaries hanging in a small room, but be careful, as they’re boobytrapped with spikes right underneath. However, these spikes only activate once, so you can just wait for them to disappear. Attack the wall in the bottom left of this room to open a secret door that leads to the Spool Fragment — you’ll want to prioritize collecting these, as they increase your max silk capacity.

Buy the first four items from Shakra

Maps are extremely useful in Silksong, so buy them whenever you have the chance. When you first meet Shakra, they’ll have two for you. In addition, you can also buy the Quill and Compass. These will help fill in the map and, if equipped, show your location. Try and grind out enough cash to buy all four of these items. If you’re low on funds, the enemies in the area to your left will drop around five rosaries each, and there’s a nearby bench you can sit on to keep respawning them.

If you followed my advice and collected the Spool Fragment above, you should have more than enough currency to buy all four.

View the entire map

Holding down LB (on Xbox) will bring up the map of your current area. In order to see the entire area, and how each section connects to one another, double tap LB instead. 

Choral Commandment

You can find a Choral Commandment, which can be given to a certain collector later on, shortly after encountering Shakra. Climb upwards from their position and to the left. Up again past the lever and there is a breakable wall immediately left of you.

Moss Druid

Right after obtaining the Silk Spear technique, head to the bottom right corner of the room and destroy the webs with your new skill. Inside and past the right exit is Moss Druid (and a save bench) who will give you your first side quest of finding three moss berries. If you found one early on, and a second one that I mentioned while going for the Spool Fragment, you can collect a third just below them by dropping down the hole left of the bench and past a hidden wall in the bottom right corner of the room. Finishing this side quest will earn you an achievement.

Easier healing

Unlike in Hollow Knight, you don’t need to hold down the bind button (B on an Xbox controller) to heal. In Silksong, you simply need to tap it once you have enough silk. This will grant you three pips of life back. You can also heal while in the air, so take advantage of it when landing could mean your death.

Different types of equipment

Hollow Knight only had one type of equipment, but Silksong has four. They’re distinguished by colors: white, red, blue and yellow. White is for your spells, such as the Silk Spear, red is for tools, blue holds amulets, and yellow is for additional items, such as the compass. You can only equip one of each at a time (at least for now).

How to defeat the Bell Beast

The first real boss fight of the game is the Bell Beast and it’s located shortly after collecting the Silk Spear skill. 

The Beast has three main attacks. The first will see either side of the ground rumble followed by the Beast surfacing and charging toward you. Simply jump over it and do a pogo attack as it passes. The second attack begins like the first, with the ground on the side of the arena rumbling, but this time the Beast will launch into the air and arc over you. It’s very easy to just walk the opposite direction to avoid getting crushed. You can also quickly counter and get in two attacks while it tries to get unstuck from the wall. The last attack will start a little differently — this time the center ground will rumble. The Beast will pop up and launch two bell projectiles horizontally. To dodge, just hop over the bell.

When you’ve whittled the boss’s health down halfway, the Beast will surface and scream, shaking the whole area. This will cause bells to start dropping down from the ceiling while you continue the fight. They’re pretty easy to avoid since they only bounce once before disappearing. Simply hop over them as you continue the pattern of attacking and dodging the Beast’s three attacks.

Unlocks after the Bell Beast

After defeating the Bell Beast you get an achievement and a silk heart. This will regenerate a little bit of silk automatically after every use. After falling in combat, the Bell Beast will also have a change of heart and become your mode of fast travel.

Make sure to revisit Bone Bottom once you’re victorious as you’ll now be able to take on additional side quests from a sign in town.

Hopefully these tips give you a better grasp of the dangerous and complex world as you begin your adventure in Silksong.

Google’s new Pixel 10 phones are here, and they boast a handful of spec upgrades over their predecessors, as well as more AI features.

The three models look very similar to last year’s Pixel 9 phones. There’s a standard Pixel 10, a higher-spec Pixel 10 Pro and a large Pixel 10 Pro XL. 

There are still some differentiators between the baseline and Pro models, but that lead is shrinking with more top-level features trickling down. All in all, they’re powerful handsets that rank among the year’s best phones.

Pixel 10 price comparison

• Pixel 10: $799. The Pixel 10 didn’t get a price increase from last year’s standard model despite getting more features.
• Pixel 10 Pro: $999. The Pixel 10 Pro also kept its predecessor’s price, though it hasn’t changed much from the Pixel 9 Pro.
• Pixel 10 Pro XL: $1,199. The top-end Pixel 10 Pro XL got a $100 price hike this year, with a handful of spec upgrades.

Both the Pixel 10 ($799) and Pixel 10 Pro ($999) retain the prices of their predecessors, keeping them in line with their equivalents from other brands, like the Samsung Galaxy S25 ($799) and Galaxy S25 Plus ($999). 

But the Pixel 10 Pro XL got slightly more expensive this year, getting a $100 price bump to $1,199 (up from the $1,099 Pixel 9 Pro XL with 128GB of storage), likely to account for the higher 256GB starting storage option. 

Pixel 10 lineups’ design and display changes, compared

• Pixel 10: Unchanged, but additional camera. The baseline model got an extra camera, widening the lens part of its camera bump, and the display is slightly brighter.
• Pixel 10 Pro: Unchanged. The smaller Pro model looks almost exactly like its predecessor, and the display is slightly brighter.
• Pixel 10 Pro XL: Unchanged. The larger Pro XL looks just like its predecessor, and the display is slightly brighter. 

The Pixel 10 lineup looks virtually the same as last year’s Pixel 9 phones, leaving most of the upgrades under the hood. 

All three phones retain the general design of last year’s phones: a metal back with a pill-shaped camera bump. The only major difference is that the glass on the Pixel 10’s camera bump is slightly wider, owing to the third, telephoto camera fit into it. All three models are ever-so-slightly heavier than their predecessors (from 6 grams on the Pixel 10 to 11 grams on the Pixel 10 Pro XL), possibly due to their nominal battery capacity increases. 

The standard Pixel 10 retains its predecessor’s 6.3-inch OLED display, though its maximum brightness has been increased to 3,000 nits (up from 2,700). Likewise, the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL inherit their 6.3-inch OLED and 6.8-inch OLED displays from their predecessors, but they also get maximum screen brightness increases to 3,300 nits (up from 3,000). 

Comparing Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL cameras

• Pixel 10: Added rear camera, for a total of three. A 48-megapixel main, 13-megapixel ultrawide and new 10.8-megapixel telephoto make up the rear cameras, plus a 10.5-megapixel selfie camera.
• Pixel 10 Pro: Same trio of rear cameras. A 50-megapixel main, 48-megapixel ultrawide and 48-megapixel telephoto make up the rear cameras, plus a 42-megapixel selfie camera.
• Pixel 10 Pro XL: Same trio of rear cameras. A 50-megapixel main, 48-megapixel ultrawide and 48-megapixel telephoto make up the rear cameras, plus a 42-megapixel selfie camera.

As with other brands, Google has previously differentiated its standard and Pro models by reserving an extra zoom camera for its top-end phones. That changes this year, as the standard Pixel 10 gets a telephoto lens, shrinking the feature gap between the phone tiers.

The Pixel 10 packs a 48-megapixel main camera, though its 13-megapixel ultrawide is a slight downgrade from the 50-megapixel ultrawide shooter in the Pixel 9, which means the new phone may not take as sharp of photos when set to its widest capture settings. The trade-off is the addition of a 10.8-megapixel telephoto with 5x zoom that still adds a lot of functionality, even if it may not take as high-resolution photos as the zoom cameras on its Pro siblings.

The Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL retain their predecessors’ trio of rear cameras: a 50-megapixel main, a 48-megapixel ultrawide and a 48-megapixel telephoto with 5x zoom. Ostensibly, not much has changed here, though they still take up to 8K video (better than the 4K video maximum on the Pixel 10).

The selfie cameras on all three phones are unchanged from last year, but represent a boost when going from the 10.5-megapixel front-facing camera on the Pixel 10 to the 42-megapixel selfie shooters on the Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL.

All Pixel 10 model specs, compared

• Pixel 10: Better CPU, slightly bigger battery. The Pixel 10 gets the Google Tensor G5 chip, as well as a 4,970-mAh battery.
• Pixel 10 Pro: Better CPU, slightly bigger battery. The Pixel 10 Pro gets similar spec upgrades, including the Google Tensor G5 chip, as well as a 4,870-mAh battery.
• Pixel 10 Pro XL: Better CPU, slightly bigger battery. The Pixel 10 gets the Google Tensor G5 chip, as well as a 5,200-mAh battery.

This year’s Pixel 10 lineup got the usual set of incremental upgrades along with slight boosts to battery capacity, which could have an impact, however small, on increasing battery life.

Like the other models, the Pixel 10 gets the new Google Tensor G5 chip, which Google promises will perform better than its predecessor, last year’s Tensor G4. The new handset inherits the Pixel 9’s 12GB of RAM and baseline storage options of 128GB or 256GB. If you want more, you’ll have to use cloud options or pay more for a Pro or Pro XL model.

The Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL also have the Tensor G5 chip, which helps power new AI features. Similar to the base model, the Pro versions inherit the same specs as their predecessors: 16GB of RAM and the options of 128GB (Pixel 10 Pro only), 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage.

Across the board, all models got slight battery capacity increases, though curiously, the Pixel 10 Pro has the least with 4,870-mAh (up from 4,700-mAh in the Pixel 9 Pro). The next largest is the standard Pixel 10, which got an increase to 4,970-mAh (up from 4,700-mAh in the Pixel 9). The Pixel 10 Pro XL has the largest battery with a 5,200-mAh capacity (up from 5,060mAh).

The Pixel 10 Pro XL also has the edge in juicing up its battery, with a maximum 45-watt wired charging, compared to 30 watts on the Pixel 10 and 10 Pro. All three support Qi2 wireless charging.

All three Pixel 10 phones receive Android 16 out of the box. It was released in June, a month after Google I/O 2025, far earlier than when it typically comes out (usually alongside that year’s Pixel phones). They also get a slew of new AI features like Magic Cue, which scrapes data from Gmail, Google Messages, Google Calendar and other information sources to surface timely details and events.  

Sharing a YouTube Premium or YouTube Music family plan with people who don’t live at your address could soon cost you the perks you’re used to. Several users have reported receiving warnings that their accounts will be paused within 15 days if they don’t comply with YouTube’s rules on family plans.

The policy isn’t new. YouTube required family plan members to share the same household in 2023 but it looks like enforcement is stepping up. If you lose Premium, you can still stream videos and listen to music with ads but you’ll have to deal with ads and fewer features, which is a big downgrade for most people.

If you’re currently splitting an account across multiple locations, now’s the time to check the fine print. YouTube is making it clear: Premium is for households only and ignoring that rule could mean losing the ad-free experience entirely.

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A YouTube spokesperson told CNET, «Our family plan policy hasn’t changed and we are continuously enforcing it. You can learn more about the YouTube family plan here.»

On its support page, YouTube says that an account manager can add up to five family members in a household to their Premium membership. But, the post says, «Family members sharing a YouTube family plan must live in the same household as the family manager.» Groups can only be changed once every 12 months.

YouTube has been testing a two-household plan that would offer a discount for those who want to share, but that plan is not yet available in the US.

YouTube offers a one-month trial for its Premium and Music accounts, which cost $23 per month.

Subscription sharing crackdowns

YouTube joins other paid services that have started to enforce policies to cut down on the sharing of premium services.

Disney Plus and Netflix were among the services that began discouraging, and then actively blocking or restricting accounts they find are sharing passwords. Max joined them this year, introducing an $8 fee for those who want to share their account with one other person.

Similarly, Amazon is ending a program that allowed for sharing of its Prime service, requiring that those who don’t live at the same residence use their own paid Prime accounts for things like getting packages shipped free. Amazon’s Prime Invitee benefit-sharing program is ending Oct. 1.

The enforcement is meant to help recover revenue that these companies say they lose when people use someone else’s premium account instead of paying for their own. 

«It’s not hard to understand why streaming services feel the need to crack down. After all, the revenue to spend on new content or an improved experience must come from somewhere,» says Carl Lepper, Senior Director of Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Intelligence at JD Power.

«The calculation from streaming companies seems to be that limiting password sharing and account access will lead to more subscribers. You could argue the same about any sort of subscription service. It’s fairly intuitive. There’s a solid amount of evidence from media coverage that it works, at least initially,» Lepper says.

Does it work long-term? Lepper tells CNET that companies have to balance enforcing their policies without «ticking off» existing customers or denying potential customers from getting a chance to see what their service has to offer and potentially converting to their own account eventually.

Enforcement itself isn’t free, he points out. «Streamers themselves need to devote time and resources to enforcing such a policy,» Lepper says.