Silksong player pops the hood, checks the gauges, and determines the best silk skill is one you get very early on: "This should surprise absolutely nobody"

Hollow Knight Silksong screenshot of Hornet sitting shocked in a chair.

Hollow Knight: Silksong mathematicians and meta goblins have once again taken a crowbar to Team Cherry's box of magic to reveal what is dishing out that sweet, sweet optimal DPS. This time, Hornet's silk skills are under the microscope, and the damage king by a disgusting margin is Thread Storm, a crowd favorite and a remarkably early unlock.

We can thank YouTuber Rusty, widely known for perilously long Elden Ring ranking videos, for these findings. Using normally concealed damage numbers combined with a few Crests and tools, he put all six silk skills against each other to find out what wins in a raw damage contest. The results are inescapable: Thread Storm is the best one, and it's not even close.