How Long it Takes to Beat Hollow Knight and All DLC Before…

After seven long years, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally has a concrete release date, and it's a lot sooner than many fans expected. Officially set to launch on September 4, developer Team Cherry promises that Hollow Knight: Silksong will be worth the wait, with the once-DLC having grown into a fully-fledged sequel over the best part of a decade.

Naturally, Hollow Knight: Silksong's release date reveal has stoked the fires of the hype train's engine, and in turn, that fervent excitement has piqued the interest of many gamers who have never touched the series before. Thankfully, new or returning fans have just enough time to complete the original Hollow Knight before Silksong's launch on September 4, though they'll want to start their journey as soon as possible.

All playtime averages below have been taken from HowLongToBeat.com.

How Long It Takes to Beat Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight White Palace Minecraft recreation

How Long It Takes to Beat Hollow Knight's Main Story

27 Hours

Those wanting to power through Hollow Knight's main story have a sizable, but manageable journey ahead of them. According to HowLongToBeat's polls, it takes around 27 hours to see Hollow Knight's story through to completion. At the time of writing, fans have a little over a week to go before Hollow Knight: Silksong's release, which means they'll need to put about three hours into Hollow Knight every day to have it completed in time for the sequel.

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According to Speedrun.com, the fastest Any% run of Hollow Knight completed the game in just 30 minutes, 49 seconds.

How Long It Takes to Fully Complete Hollow Knight

64.5 Hours

Fully completing Hollow Knight's base game is a much more tricky feat, however. If players want to see absolutely everything Hollow Knight's base game has to offer, including every side mission, every hidden boss, every collectible, and the entirety of its main story, they'll need to put around 65 hours into the game. That sort of grind would require them to put around nine hours into the indie Metroidvania every day in the week leading up to Silksong's launch.

Those wanting to strike a balance between just beating Hollow Knight's main story and completing everything it has to offer will still need to make some significant time sacrifices this week, with it taking most players around 42 hours to complete Hollow Knight's base game story and side content.

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How Long It Takes to Beat All of Hollow Knight's DLCs

In the year following its initial 2017 launch, Hollow Knight received four separate DLCs, each one adding its own unique set of quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes, lore additions, and a handful of new bosses. All of these DLCs are free for Hollow Knight owners, and all have content worth experiencing, though they're all going to set players back a good few hours.

Hollow Knight DLC	Main Story Length	Completionist Length
Hidden Dreams	48 Minutes	1 Hour
Grimm Troupe	2 Hours	4 Hours
Lifeblood	30 Minutes	4 Hours
Godmaster	10.5 Hours	30.5 Hours

While Hidden Dreams, Grimm Troupe, and Lifeblood are all fairly manageable time sinks, Hollow Knight's Godmaster DLC requires some serious time and effort on the player's part. Essentially a boss-rush mode, Godmaster is a final test of strength and determination that will likely push many players to their breaking point.

Absolute Radiance battling Hollow Knight

The Grand Total

104 Hours (To fully complete everything in Hollow Knight including all DLC and optional content)
41 Hours (To complete just Hollow Knight's main story and the stories of each DLC)

Even if players are just mainlining Hollow Knight and its four DLCs, they're going to need to drop around 40 hours into the game, which means they'll need to start as soon as they can if they're hoping to get it done before Hollow Knight: Silksong's launch next week.