Hollow Knight: Silksong: How To Upgrade Your Needle & Weapon Damage

Hornet is certainly strong, but even she and her trusty needle need a bit of a boost. And in Silksong, Hornet can upgrade her weapon a handful of times to boost her damage.

In this guide, we've got you covered on how to upgrade Hornet's needle so you can do more damage in Silksong, and how many times you can upgrade it.

How to upgrade the Needle

To upgrade the needle, you'll need to find Pinmaster Plinney, a resident of Bellhart, one of the game's towns. However, the first time you get there, something seems... off.

Before you can make Hornet more powerful, you'll need to save the town and its residents. And to do that, you need to go through the Shellwood region, get another Ancestral Art, and then defeat Widow at the top of Bellhart. Phew. Then, with Bellhart free and the residents back to normal, you have yourself a new town to visit!

Plinney's house is the highest one on the right, with a pin sign above it.

All Needle upgrades

Hornet can upgrade her Needle four times during Silksong, with the final upgrade being particularly late in the game.

Here's how to get every single needle upgrade, then!

1st Needle Upgrade - Save Bellhart

Plinney will upgrade your Needle for free the first time you speak to him. Do it! It's a much-needed boost in attack. It might not feel like much, but every little extra bit of damage helps.

2nd Needle Upgrade - Pale Oil in Whispering Vaults

After you've got your first upgrade, speak to Plinney again and he'll talk about a rare Oil that he needs to improve your weapon further. Accept his wish and you'll have a new quest to undertake — though you can't complete it until you reach Act 2 and get to The Citadel.

Once you reach Act 2, you'll want to seek out the Whispering Vaults area, which you can access after defeating the Cogwork Duo boss west of Songclave, The Citadel's only haven.

Once you've done that, you can drop down to the lower part of the Cogwork core and make your way through some tricky platforming to head east, which will eventually take you to a rotating pathway and the entrance to the Vaults.

When you're here and you're inside the extremely large chamber, make you're way through the area until you reach a door on the left. Go through it and you'll be inside a smaller room with pushable blocks (there's a Lost Flea in this room, too.)

Head through the door on the far left to enter a darker room full of movable blocks. Hit the first one at the bottom to the right, and then walk up to what looks like a wall on the left. Hit it to push that block.

The rest of the puzzle is relatively self explanatory, so follow the blocks around until you reach a switch. Hit it and you'll open a new door which takes you back to the Choral Chambers. The Oil is right in front of you.

Take it back to Bellhart for your next attack boost!

3rd Needle Upgrade - The Great Taste of Pharloom reward

Plinney offers his services again — if you can find more Oil. And there is more! But it's tricky to get as it's a reward for a very long Wish: The Great Taste of Pharloom.

We have a complete guide covering the entire questline, as you'll need to gather five separate ingredients to finish it. And one of these requires a rather challenging run from Bellhart to the Choral Chambers. So check out The Great Taste of Pharloom guide if you need help.

Once you gave the Pale Oil, though, head back to Plinney along with 500 Rosaries and upgrade your weapon yet again!

4th Needle Upgrade - Flea Caravan (Act 3 only)

You can't get your final weapon upgrade until Act 3, but you'll also need to rescue all 30 Lost Fleas — so go check out both of our guides for help with that. Plus, make sure you have 900 Rosaries on hand.(This amount might change when the upcoming patch drops on Switch).

Then, once you're in Act 3, head to Fleatopia, which is on the east side of the Putrified Ducts near the waterfalls. Speak to Mooshka, who gives you a brand new Wish: Ecstasy of the End. Sounds ominous. But it's not!

Instead, the Fleas are holding the Festival of the Flea, and you're going to take part. You have to get the top score on all three minigames — Juggle, Bounce, and Dodge. The latter two are relatively easy, but Juggle can take a few tries, so keep at it.

Once you're done, you'll get tons of Rosaries and a Pale Oil. Perfect! Back to Bellhart we go.

Go to Plinney's house and you'll see he's left a note on the door. He's gone to pay his respects in Shellwood. It's a bit dangerous for him to be out and about right now, so let's go and find him.

The graves are simple to find — you just need to head west a few screens from Bellhart. Then, once you reach the room with bench signs, jump up and you'll reach the grave area.

And, of course, Plinney is in danger. Fight three waves of enemies, then talk to him, and he'll head back to Bellhart. Now you can go get that final upgrade.

Return to his house and cough up the Pale Oil and 900 Rosaries for your final upgrade, which will help with Act 3's much-tougher enemies a lot.

That's your lot for Needle upgrades. We've got a whole host of other Hollow Knight: Silksong guides for you to check out if you need help anywhere else!