How to Change the Needle in Hollow Knight: Silksong – A Real Player’s Guide

Last updated on November 18th, 2025 at 11:06 am

When I first began playing Hollow Knight: Silksong, I was hitting enemies like I was swinging a toothpick around instead of defending myself with an actual weapon. Four hits just to drop basic enemies? That gets old fast. And then I learned about Needle upgrades, and suddenly the combat was much more fun.

Here’s everything I discovered about how to make the Needle more powerful and why it matters.

The Needle Upgrade System Explained

So, how do you go about upgrading your Needle in Hollow Knight: Silksong? It turns out the process is rather simple once you know where to find all that’s required. Hornet gets four in total upgrade tiers and they’re spread through the three Acts. The first one’s free (no really, you just get it), and the subsequent ones cost an odd item they have to grind for called Pale Oil.

Nor are the upgrades negligible add a little damage, and nothing more. I mean, 4-hit kills to 3-hit kills on trash mobs and then annihilating stronger enemies more and more rapidly. It’s the kind of quality-of-life enhancement that makes you wonder how in the world you ever lived without it.

Upgrade 1: Your Free Bilhardt Power-Boost in Bellhart

Here’s the good part your first upgrade to Needle is completely free. Once you’ve slain the Widow and lifted Bellhart’s curse, visit Pinmaster Plinney. He’ll offer you the upgraded Needle at no resource cost.

And the difference is noticeable almost immediately. I went from four hits on basic enemies to three, which doesn’t sound like much but it adds up when you’re grinding through combat set pieces. It goes from slightly dull to actually sharp.

The best part: Snatch this the second Bellhart does its duty. It’s nothing you want to sit on, and it greatly smoothes your advancement into the early to mid game. I learned my lesson the hard way by advancing without it first, and I’m telling you picking it up right after makes combat encounters suddenly seem so much less irritating.

Level 2-4 upgrades: The Search for Pale Oil

Now things get interesting. The remaining 3 upgrades are all powered by Pale Oil, and this is where the game pushes you to explore. They each require one Pale Oil to be returned to Pinmaster Plinney, and they become more difficult to locate.

They range from puzzle-oriented sections in the Citadel to late-game challenges, so the difficulty really does align with the game itself. And so, you’re not stuck grinding for something that is beyond your reach yet (though the bad news is it’s all designed in such a way that these are things you find as you play through each Act).

Where to get Soft Oil: The real Challenge

Pale Oil #1: Whispering Vaults puzzle

The original Pale Oil resides in the depths of the Whispering Vaults beneath the Citadel. To get it you’ll have to solve a crate-pushing puzzle that might sound easy, but it involves a little bit of boring back and forth. Here’s what you need to do Go to the left side of the Citadel where you will see a room filled with crates. You have to shove them into the correct order to unlock the inner chamber and Pale Oil that awaits there.

This one stumped me for a while, I won’t lie. The solution is not immediately obvious, but when you figure out the order, it clicks. If you’re stuck, the Fextralife interactive map has overlaid solutions to each of the puzzles (and this is what saved me from banging my head against a wall).

Pale Oil #2: Big-Time Sensualitea – For the Greater Good of Pharloom Quest

This one is connected to a side quest in Choral Chambers. Mergwin’s Berry-picking Wish can be finished for the Pale Oil. It’s not fighting-intensive there’s more exploration and collect-such-and-such stuff but it’s a task worth performing, because in return you get a resource while also experiencing some of the game’s quieter moments.

Pale Oil #3: Flea Festival Done And Dusty

The last Pale Oil is locked behind Act 3’s Flea Festival. You must locate every flea hidden throughout the celebration and be victorious in every one of the minigames. This one’s much more a matter of time spent than skill check, but if you’re at all meticulous about exploring, you’ll have tripped over the majority of them.

Are All These Upgrades Just Psychological?

I tried this with various kinds of enemies and the progression is there. The first upgrade is usually about minus one hit to most fights. Subsequent upgrades continue to shave down that number until those weaker enemies go down in a single hit.

Against bosses, progress is also slower but equally significant. You’re not one-shotting a boss with a full upgrade, but you’ll notice your fight lengths will be lower. Add that to Silk Skills and some other options, and you can really create a seriously aggressive style of play for melee that feels strong but not all powerful.

The scaling is not that bad actually. The first few upgrades feel slight (because they are) but by tier three and four, combat rolls far more smoothly. It’s the sort of progression that makes you understand why the game gates these upgrades they simply change how much mileage Hornet gets out of herself.

Upgrade Strategy: Playing It Smart

Here’s my own method, and it’s worked brilliantly for me. Ye can catch the free upgrade in Bellhart now. Don’t wait. From there, when you’re playing naturally through Act 2 and beyond, work your way to Pale Oil that is accessible versus searching for rarer iterations. Whispering Vaults is simply annoying but doable early, whereas all the Flea Festival stuff happens naturally at the end.

Stop worrying about timing upgrades perfectly, too. The game is designed to drip feed those things, and there’s no penalty for getting them “late”. But simply explore thoroughly and they’ll come to you.

What you’ll do: Pair your Needle upgrades with Crests and other tools as you go. The Needle is not your only tool silk-based ranged attacks help you control different enemy types. Take upgrades as part of your loadout, not the only strategy.

FAQ

Q: Can I level the Needle before Act 2?

A: Only the first one in act 1 occurs quickly. Everything after that needs Pale Oil, which you only start to see in Act 2. So no, you can’t fast-forward the other tiers, and really that’s OK. The pacing works.

Q: Do you really have to pay money for upgrades?

A: Nope. No geo drain here. Instead of currency, you pay with artifacts (Pale Oil), which is way cooler thematically. It makes upgrades seem like accomplishments rather than purchases.

Q: So, what are the number of hits actually saved by each upgrade?

A: The upgrade gap is usually 4-hit to 3-hit, and increased firepower starts to have diminishing returns beyond that. Toward the end, you’re mowing down basic enemies with your one-hit kills. Bosses take longer but it adds up across an entire fight.

Q: What does this mean for mods and additional tiers?

A: Official content ends at 4 difficulty tiers, but modders have played with balance tweaks and new upgrades. If you’re looking to go even further, there are some options for you at NexusMods. I will say, however, that they’re fan-made and do not appear as part of the base game.

Resources That Actually Help

If you get lost, here is what I have used and where my recommendations actually align. Gamerant has a detailed walkthrough listing what players need to do to unlock each step in chronological order and Polygon’s guide covers navigating through it all without being too convoluted.

And for those of us who are visual learners, YouTube has very strong timestamped guides from channels that have actually played through the areas. Use Fextralife Wiki for fast lookups of enemy breakpoints and precise upgrade effects.

The r/HollowKnight subreddit is more helpful than it has any right to be, also if you really are in a pickle. Ppl there actually know the game inside out and are never condescending about questions.

The Bottom Line

Upgrading the Needle in Hollow Knight: Silksong changes everything about how Hornet fights. You start feeling that you’re no longer whittling away at enemies, but actually looking forward to each battle. The build-up pays off, the search for Pale Oil gives you a reason to explore and escalate.

Snag that free upgrade right away, play long and methodically as you work your way through Acts 2 and 3, and don’t worry about getting the absolute most out of your path. The game is designed well enough that if you sweep the map, you’ll discover these upgrades organically. Before you know it, you’ll be picking off your foes as efficiently as they deserve.

Go get that Needle sharp.

Also Read: Hollow Knight Silksong Gameplay Guides: Everything You Need to Know