Potentially millions of fans woke up this morning, eager to get their Hollow Knight: Silksong download going, only to be hit with a giant roadblock: Nearly every digital storefront had gone down. Turns out, when no one can pre-load the indie equivalent of Grand Theft Auto 6, you’re basically setting up a mini-DDoS situation. And while most people appear to be able to purchase and download Silksong on their platform of choice by now, the brief period of downtime was enough to create an entirely new meme.
If you’ve actually managed to get far enough into Silksong, then you know that the first boss is a verdant flying insect called Moss Mother who bursts from a cocoon hanging on the wall. She then swoops down with a scream, intent on trying to sting Hornet dead. The fight is a simple one in that Mother telegraphs her attacks rather visibly and does not approach Hornet particularly fast. The arc of her swoop is generously big, and although the fighting area sometimes breaks down into pieces of rubble that can harm Hornet, the showdown is less of a progression blocker than it is a learning exercise in figuring out Hornet’s moveset. Heck, someone’s already beaten Moss Mother without taking any damage at all.
But as far as fans are concerned, the first real boss was to get the game at all. It was bad enough that on Twitch, hundreds of thousands of people were sitting idly by as they watched streamers unable to buy the game. But after waiting literal years, what’s a few hours? Perhaps this is why most people approach the downtime as an opportunity to joke, and it seems that Steam users in particular were good sports about it.
“Silksong‘s first boss is so fucking hard bro,” reads one post on X, with a screenshot of Steam’s error page attached to it. “Silksong is fun and all but this first boss fucking sucks,” another said while sharing an image of Hornet facing off against the error code E502 L3. Best of all, some intrepid players went ahead and turned the idea of Steam’s error blobs into fan art.
The lil’ dudes were pervasive enough for players that they’ve kind of taken a life of their own. Some fans are even trying to name each blob, but the jury’s still out whether or not any of it will stick, especially once people can actually start playing the game.
If you’re still stuck trying to buy Silksong, maybe try turning it off and on again?
