How to beat Sister Splinter in Silksong

Sister Splinter is found hiding away in Hollow Knight: Silksong’s region of Shellwood, blocking your path to a very important Skill that’ll help you with future traversal and the discovery of all kinds of secret areas. Fortunately, Silksong’s Sister Splinter is not the hardest boss you’ve faced yet.

To help you with taking this formidable opponent down and continuing your exploration of Shellwood and beyond, here’s how to beat Sister Splinter in Silksong.

Looking for more help on your adventure through Pharloom? Check out our Hollow Knight: Silksong walkthrough and bosses list.

How to beat Sister Splinter in Silksong

After departing Greymoor and going through the harrowing area of Bellheart in Silksong, you’ll find yourself in Shellwood. Sister Splinter is deep in the area, marked on the below map.

The fight against Sister Splinter starts off very simple. So much so that you might be wondering exactly where the difficulty is here; don’t worry, this comes shortly after you stun her for the first time. After this, she’ll continue with her usual arsenal of attacks while also spawning Splinterbark enemies. Not just one or two either… she will keep spawning them.

Avoiding these mobs while also avoiding Sister Splinter’s attacks is where things become very tricky to keep on top of, but once you’re familiar with her attacks and countering her mobs, it won’t be long before you manage to topple her. One thing that I will recommend from the get go is that you should take the Silkspear Skill into this fight.

Sister Splinter’s moves and how to counter them are as follows:

• Triple Hand Smash: Sister Splinter smashes the ground, aiming at Hornet, three times with her hands. She will alternate hands each time and you can easily dash beneath these attacks. These attacks will also destroy thorns and Splinterbark enemies if you can lure her into attacking them.
• Summons Thorns: Sister Splinter will summon thorn barriers in the arena, reducing the amount of space you have to move around in. As the fight progresses, she will summon more, ultimately filling the arena. You can attack these to destroy them or lure her into destroying them with her hand smashes, but the best way to get rid of multiple thorn barriers at once is by using the Silkspear Skill on them.
• Summons Splinterbarks: After you have stunned Sister Splinter once, she unleashes a new attack which sees her roaring before summoning a Splinterbark enemy. She’ll start by summoning two and disappearing temporarily, then continue to spawn more of these enemies throughout the fight. These seem to spawn infinitely, so you do not want to neglect them. Fortunately, Sister Splinter’s hand smashes will kill the Splinterbarks but you can get rid of them quickly using Silkspear. You can also parry their attacks if they come at you.

All in all, Sister Splinters moveset is quite simple and very easy to avoid. All you want to do is keep jumping upwards – or diagonally – towards her and attacking her head and hands.

It’s when Sister Splinter invites Splinterbarks into the arena that things begin to get challenging, as avoiding her attacks while also avoiding the slice attacks of the Splinterbarks is hard work. You want to keep attacking Sister Splinter so she doesn’t continue to spawn mobs, but you also want to try your best to simultaneously dispatch these mobs – using Silkspear or the boss herself – so you are not overwhelmed by them.

I’d even argue this fight is one of luck, with your success partially dependent on just how many Splinterbarks the boss summons and how many she kills with her own attacks.

Another thing you want to be cautious of is getting trapped in a corner of the arena when Sister Splinter is stunned and falls from the ceiling. Remember that stunned bosses will still damage you if you touch them. So, having Sister Splinter fall directly onto me with Splinterbarks simultaneously coming at me was a very swift end to the fight that happened more than once. Try your best to dash out of the way – but not into the Splinterbarks – when she is stunned, keeping the arena clear of thorns where possible so as to not limit the space you have to move around in.

When Sister Splinter is stunned, you ideally want to go in for as many attacks as possible, but if Splinterbarks are getting in the way, I’d prioritise taking these down with Silkspear and then get back to attacking the boss. You ultimately have lots of opportunities to attack Sister Splinter when Splinterbarks aren’t buzzing around or there’s just one to avoid.

As the fight goes on and you stun Sister Splinter more than once, you will notice that she speeds up slightly and at times, summons an arena full of thorns. Her speed improvements aren’t too much to worry about but when she begins summoning multiple thorns at once, use the light – which shows where the thorns are appearing – to avoid them and quickly destroy them with Silkspear so you don’t end up trapped.

For more on Hollow Knight: Silksong, take a look at our Silksong walkthrough.