Technologies

How to Get the Map in Silksong and Unlock Shakra’s Full Shop

Your first stop in the game should be finding this map and getting access to Shakra’s shop.

When it comes to Metroidvania games like Hollow Knight: Silksong, the map is arguably the most important item to have, as it shows where you’ve explored and where you need to go next. And, like a lot of aspects of this game, it’s not meant to be easy.

Silksong, like its predecessor Hollow Knight, has a map feature you can expand as you play, but you have to find one particular NPC to unlock it. Once you find that character, the game will feel slightly easier in getting around its nooks and crannies — until it crushes you with difficult sequences and boss fights.

Read more: Hollow Knight Silksong Guide: Read These 11 Tips Before Starting

How to find the map in Silksong?

To get a map, you’ll need to go from the hub center of Bone Bottom to The Marrow, which is directly to the east. While exploring the area, the sound of someone singing will quietly echo. Following the singing will take you to Shakra, the bug warrior who also does cartography.

Shakra will introduce herself, and if you continue to talk to her, she will tell you about her map-making skills. This is when she’ll officially become a merchant and sell all the map items you could want.

What does Shakra sell?

At the start, Shakra has several items for sale, but the most important ones are maps, a Compass and the Quill.

There will be two maps for sale when you first meet Shakra: The Mosslands map and The Marrow map. The first will cost you 40 rosaries — the in-game currency — and the other will cost 50 rosaries. As you progress into a new area of the game, return to Shakra, and she will have the map for that area available for purchase.

The next item to buy from Shakra is the Quill. It costs 50 rosaries, and whenever you rest at a bench, Hornet will quickly mark on the map where she’s been.

The last item you’ll want to buy is the Compass. It’s an equipable tool that will show an icon of Hornet’s current location on the map, giving you a clear idea of where you are. This will cost 70 rosaries.

Shakra also has other items available to buy, such as Bench Pins that show where you can rest at a bench and Shell Markers to indicate where something important is on the map.

This will cost a lot of rosaries to get them all, but luckily, if you continue exploring The Marrow, you will find a bench as well as a passage to loop back to the Mosslands, where a shortcut to Bone Bottom will be waiting. This creates an easy setup to kill enemies for rosaries, rest and repeat. This is a good opportunity to get these important items without risking much and also developing your combat skills.

How does the map work?

Depending on the platform, there is a map button (it’s left bumper on the Xbox). Hold the button and the map overlay will appear. You can even move Hornet around while you’re viewing the map.

One thing to note is that the map doesn’t auto-populate as you explore. Maps come with an outline of the area, and you still need to go through the area to fill it in. Once Hornet rests at a bench, she will mark up the map to indicate where she’s been, what markers she’s come across and so on.

How do I find more maps and pins?

When you take out the next boss, the Bell Beast, Shakra will move her store to Bone Bottom. She’ll be located in a section above the other denizens that you can reach by following the hanging metal rings. She will hang out here until you find her again throughout the game. Even when you meet her somewhere else, once you finish interacting with her and rest at a bench or die, she will head back to the Bone Bottom.

As you explore more areas, Shakra will also have more maps and more items, so always make sure to head back to Bone Bottom.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is out now on PC, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS4 and PS5. It’s also available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Technologies

This New AI Feature for Cars Promises to Keep You From Missing Your Exit

Polestar is integrating Google Maps’ live lane guidance into the head-up display.

Technologies

Android Users Downloaded OpenAI’s Sora AI App Nearly Half a Million Times in One Day

How much AI slop does 470,000 Sora app installs equate to?

It’s only been two days since OpenAI dropped the Android-compatible version of its Sora app, but the AI social media app’s popularity seems to know no bounds. A new report from Appfigures found that the Android app was downloaded 470,000 times on the first day it was available. That’s four times as many downloads as compared to Sora’s initial iOS app launch in September, according to TechCrunch, which originally reported the news.

Keep in mind that the iOS app was downloaded over a million times in under five days. It was also restricted to North America and required an invite code. Since Sora has dropped its invite code requirement and opened up the app to more countries, it makes sense that Android downloads would be higher than the iOS ones. But it’s still an eye-popping statistic, even for an app that has quickly become one of the most powerful and controversial AI developments so far.

The Android app is just one of many updates OpenAI has dropped in recent weeks. In a new post, OpenAI’s head of Sora, Bill Peebles, outlined what’s coming soon for the AI-video app, including new creation tools, improved social features and much-anticipated Android support. OpenAI also said it would be working with unions like SAG-AFTRA and other celebrities and public figures to help manage the creation of potentially inappropriate or illegal videos, including deepfakes.

You can download Sora now on the Google Play Store and start scrolling right away. Here’s everything that’s inside the Sora app. For more, check out our guide for how to spot AI-generated videos.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Cameos and editing tools

Sora recently gained new creation tools in the form of character cameos, which are now expanding beyond people. Cameo is Sora’s primary feature that allows you to use other people’s likenesses to create nearly any kind of AI video. Soon, you’ll be able to cameo your dog, guinea pig, favorite stuffed toy or generated characters from existing Sora videos. Several Halloween-themed characters have been added recently.

The app’s generation interface will also highlight trending cameos in real-time, likely building on popular existing social media features, such as the For You page or Explore page on Instagram.

OpenAI is also introducing basic video editing tools, beginning with the ability to stitch clips together directly within the app. Peebles says more advanced editing features are on the way, hinting at a broader creative suite that aims to move Sora beyond short, one-off generations to an app that can be used by professional creators.

On the social side, the team is experimenting with new ways to utilize Sora with friends and communities, rather than just a global feed. That could mean channels for your university, workplace, hobbies or sports teams, bringing a more localized vibe to what has so far been a mostly chaotic public stream of AI videos.

These changes follow the first major Sora update earlier this month, which introduced longer video limits and a storyboarding feature. The company announced that free Sora users can make videos up to 15 seconds long on the iPhone app and the web (which is the only way Android users can use Sora at the moment). Pro users also receive an additional 10 seconds when creating on the web, for a total of 35 seconds. The announcement came one day after Google upgraded its popular AI video model, Veo 3, to handle longer video generations.

New payment options for videos

As OpenAI added new features and opened up its app to anyone (no invite code needed), it also introduced payment plans. Previously, free users could generate up to 30 videos per day, while Pro users had a limit of 100 videos per day. Now, if anyone hits their generation limit, they can pay $4 for an additional 10 video generations.

Since your Sora account is linked to your ChatGPT account, if you pay for ChatGPT Pro, you’re a paying Sora user. For more information, see all the payment plans.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding, available only to Pro users on the web, lets creators plan out videos on the web before generating them. Storyboarding has long been a part of the professional filmmaking process and is occasionally included in more professional software programs. Google’s AI filmmaking program Flow, for example, allows for storyboarding. But this is an interesting and somewhat unexpected addition to Sora.

Sora has only been around a short time, but the vibe on the app is focused on shorter, funny videos, echoing OpenAI’s claim that the app is designed to help people connect with their friends. Professional-grade videos that are longer and better planned aren’t very common, but these upcoming updates will likely change that.

This could be a sign that OpenAI is attempting to attract the professional creators it has previously alienated. Professional creators would need storyboarding, video editing, longer run times, and higher resolutions, and OpenAI seems to be addressing these needs quickly.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 7, #410

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 410 for Friday, Nov. 7.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. I thought the blue category was the easiest group of the four, but maybe that’s because I’m a movie buff. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: You need strength for this.

Green group hint: Lone Star State.

Blue group hint: Gonna fly now.

Purple group hint: Apparel hidden in the words.