Silksong Bilewater walkthrough

Bilewater is one of Silksong's worst regions, so you won't be at all surprised to find that the area is one huge swamp. Coated in maggot-infested waters that will steal your Silk, packed with explosive enemies, and covered in traps, Silksong's Bilewater is not for the faint-hearted or the impatient, but it is well worth exploring at some point or another.

Bilewater also boasts one of Silksong's worst bosses too. The boss itself isn't all that bad, but the runback to him and the gauntlet of enemies you must face prior will be the true test of patience here. To help you with navigating Bilewater and spending as little time here as possible, here's our Silksong Bilewater walkthrough.

Silksong Bilewater walkthrough

If you've thoroughly explored Whispering Vaults in Silksong, there's every chance you've unlocked a shortcut between the Exhaust Organ – where you fought Phantom – and Bilewater's Bellway Station.

In this walkthrough, however, I'm going to assume you've accidentally stumbled upon the horrible place that is Bilewater via Sinner's Road (and are no doubt looking to be done with this place as quickly as possible) to ensure we don't miss anything.

If you're yet to even do that, your route to Bilewater from the Sinner's Road Bench is shown on the below map. It's also worth noting that you'll need to destroy a breakable wall at the end of this route to reveal the path into Bilewater.

Upon arriving in Bilewater, I also have some bad news. The Bilewater Bench is quite the trek away, and if you die while on your way there, you're going to have to run all the way through Sinner's Road again… So, be as careful as possible in the following section, and be mindful to not fall into the maggot-infested waters as these will prevent you from being able to Bind if needed.

We're going to beeline for the Bilewater Map first and foremost before grabbing the Bilewater Bench and Bellway, but there are two things we can quickly grab – a Ruined Tool and a lost Flea – along the way.

Collect the Ruined Tool

After entering Bilewater via Sinner's Road, you want to keep heading right, being careful to not fall into the maggot-infested waters. If you do, these maggots will chomp away at your Silk into you next rest at a Bench or you manage to get enough Silk to Bind.

It's also worth noting that Bilewater is laden with traps: falling crates, tripwires that'll unleash huge spiked traps, and so forth. It's actually wise to sprint through the area rather than treading carefully, as you'll sprint past traps you activate before they're able to hit you.

This area also features Miremite and Swamp Squit enemies. They're not too bad to take down, but beware that they'll explode shortly after being felled…

With housekeeping out of the way, keep proceeding right along the platforms and past the traps and enemies until you reach some disappearing platforms and what seems like a dead end (pictured below).

This isn't actually a dead end at all, but we are unfortunately going to need to dive into the water to proceed… Keep heading right past what seems like a dead end to emerge at a Needolin door.

Play your Needolin at this door and keep heading right into Weavenest Murglin. Drop down immediately and keep heading right until you can climb upwards again. Do that, head left, and you'll arrive at a Bench that has the Ruined Tool on it.

Now, the Ruined Tool is useless as it is, but it can be crafted into one of three slightly different Silkshot weapons by taking it to either the Twelfth Architect in the Underworks, the Forge Daughter in Deep Docks, or the Mount Fay crafting table alongside a piece of Craftmetal.

You can only choose one of the above options and will not be able to get any alternative Silkshot Tools during your playthrough, so choose carefully. If you want my advice, however, I'd craft the Ruined Tool into Silkshot at the Mount Fay crafting table, as this version of Silkshot is capable of dealing the most damage!

With the Ruined Tool collected, exit Weavenest Murglin.

Rescue the first lost Flea

After exiting Weavenest Murglin and entering Bilewater once more, you want to head upwards this time, but keep a careful eye out for a breakable wall on your left (pictured below).

Destroy this wall and proceed left into the following room, where you'll need to quickly dispatch some of Grindle's minions – Snitchflies – to rescue a lost Flea.

With that done, you can exit this room and continue climbing upwards. At the top of the chamber, exit the room to your left again. We're off to get the Bilewater Map next!

Purchase the Bilewater Map

In the following room, you want to keep heading left until you exit into a tall chamber whose floor consists of maggot-infested water and disappearing platforms. There's also an upwards exit in this room, but there's nothing of note up there – apart from the opportunity to be kidnapped and taken to The Slab – so you can skip it for now!

Once you exit into the next room, head left towards the next exit but don't leave. By the exit, there's a wall you can climb upwards. You'll also notice some of Shakra's Throwing Rings here too… We're getting closer!

Climb up this wall and head right past the Miremite enemy. To the right and just below the Miremite, there's two green orbs to pogo off onto another climbable wall.

Again, head onto the platform on your left, past the second Miremite enemy. From here, head upwards and to your right to enter the room containing Shakra.

You'll then need to cough up 90 Rosaries to purchase the Bilewater Map finally.

The good news is that we're going to unlock the Bilewater Bench and Bellway Station next! Exit the room with Shakra and go back on yourself, exiting the tall chamber via the bottom left-hand corner (the route we're next following is pictured below).

Unlock the Bellway and Bench

In the next room, keep heading left until you exit again, being wary of the enemies here.

Upon arriving in the following room, which has a Bellway sign by the door, you need to head downwards and right, being wary of the many Swamp Squits and spiked walls here.

After exiting via the bottom-right corner in this room, you'll find yourself at the Bilewater Bellway Station, which costs 80 Rosaries to unlock, and our first Bench, which costs 60 Rosaries to unlock.

Finally, you can rest and dispel those maggots eating away at your Silk if you haven't already! Before exploring the rest of Bilewater, I recommend going left of the Bellway and unlocking the shortcut to the Exhaust Organ while you're here (which means getting infested and resting again). It'll make returning here later – if needed – much easier.

Collect the Quick Sling Tool

Next, we want to return to where we bought the Bilewater Map from Shakra. But rather than entering her room, we actually want to continue ascending up this tall chamber, which is tougher than it first looks.

From the entrance to Shakra's room, head left and upwards onto some wooden platforms. You'll soon see a huge vomiting Bloatroach that you'll want to avoid, or kill.

The goal for this section is to carefully climb up the wooden platforms while avoiding the Bloatroach vomit, which has a deceptively large hitbox and will catch you off guard if you aren't careful here. You can also quickly dispel the Bloatroach's by pogoing off them if you're confident!

After going past two Bloatroach enemies, take a look at your map. You want to go through the exit on the right-hand side of this room, which means pogoing off the two green orbs in the middle of this chamber (just above the first two Bloatroach enemies).

In the next room, immediately exit again to the right. The next room should greet you with a Swamp Squit. First things first, head upwards immediately using Cling Grip.

You'll now be in a small area with two Mothleaf Lagnia enemies who largely stay out of your way and cause no trouble.

In the top left corner of the room, there's a trap; don't bother with it! Instead, climb to the top-right corner of the room and attack the wooden beams here to reveal a hidden path upwards.

Climb the path and take a left to retrieve the Quick Sling Blue Tool.

Next, jump back down to where the Mothleaf Lagnia enemies are and head right. We've a Mask Shard to collect here before continuing deeper into Bilewater.

Collect the Mask Shard

You want to keep continuing to your right through the following passage, which is laden with Slubberlug enemies that'll dive out of the maggot-infested water at you. There's a wall to climb at the end of this passage.

You're not in the clear after climbing the wall, as you'll now need to proceed right through another Slubberlug-infested passage while dealing with disappearing platforms. There's another climbable wall at the end of this passage that finally leads to your reward however: a Mask Shard.

You now have the joy of going back through the Slubberlug passage and into the chamber with the Bloatroach enemies again…

Unlock the second Bench and collect the Memory Locket

We've quite the route to go on next. So you don't get lost in the perilous place that is Bilewater, our route from the Slubberlug passage to where we're headed next – the second Bilewater Bench – is labelled on the map below.

Assuming you are in the center of the tall chamber containing the Bloatroaches, pogo off the green orbs to your left to arrive on a ledge that has a falling boulder on it. From here, climb the wall upwards.

From where the Miremite is, there is another wooden wall on your left to jump to. And just like the bottom half of this chamber, there'll be more wooden platforms ahead for you to use to avoid the upcoming Bloatroach's trail of vomit. It's all very pleasant.

There'll be two Bloatroach enemies for you to jump and Clawline past before reaching the exit, which is in the top-left corner of the chamber. Don't forget that you can pogo off these enemies safely if need be! They also happen to be great for quickly farming some Silk if you're infested.

The next room contains a spiked passage with some Mothleaf Lagnia enemies. You'll need to use a combination of Clawline and Cling Grip to climb up to the exit on the upper right-hand side of this room.

In the next room, there's unfortunately more Bloatroaches that you need to climb past, and maneuvering past these guys is more difficult than it was earlier. On my first run of the area, I was struggling so much with this specific part of Bilewater that I quite literally died on purpose so I could pogo off my cocoon… I don't recommend doing that, but it's certainly a decent strategy to employ if you're struggling with platforming at any point.

Jump to the first wooden barrier in this room. You want to jump up from it and Clawline onto the upcoming green orb to reach a second wooden barrier and Bloatroach.

Now, getting past this next Bloatroach is tricky… you want to pogo off the green orb on your left, then quickly switch directions and pogo off the Bloatroach here to reach the ledge on your right.

Then, you need to quickly sprint right and exit the room (shown below) or jump to the wooden barrier here to avoid the third Bloatroach's vomit.

If you're anything like me, it is likely that you'll take some damage during this whole process, so be prepared for that. The path to the next Bilewater Bench still has a while to go yet, but it's fortunately a much more straight-forward route from here on out (well, there's no Bloatroaches at least).

In the next room, keep right and head upwards – past the spiked walls and lone Miremite – to reach an area full of dead Pilgrims. A grim sight. Exit the room to the right of them.

The following room contains multiple pesky Stilkin enemies to avoid, as well as plenty of traps, so be prepared to jump over obstacles plenty. Again, all you need to do in this particular room is keep right – being cautious of maggot-infested waters and traps – until you reach the very end of the room.

At the end of the room, there'll be some disappearing platforms among the maggot-infested water, as well as a wooden climbable wall above (shown below). We don't want to go upwards just yet!

Instead, head to the right of the disappearing platforms and downwards into the maggot-infested waters (sorry!), where you should see a breakable wall in the bottom right-hand corner.

Destroy the wall and proceed right and downwards into the next room. At the bottom, head left and upwards to reach another breakable wall. You know the drill, destroy it and exit to finally arrive at the second Bilewater Bench.

To the left of the Bench is yet another breakable wall. Destroy it and exit to encounter two hanging cocoons; destroy them to receive a Memory Locket.

The rest of the path to our left is essentially a shortcut which allows us to skip the second set of Bloatroach enemies from earlier. That said, we have this shiny new Bench and shouldn't need to maneuver past the Bloatroaches again now… but worse enemies await.

Rescue the second lost Flea

From the Bench we've just unlocked, it's time for us to track down and rescue our second lost Flea. Exit the way in which you entered the room (to your right), and in the next room, proceed right and upwards again. The route we want to take is labelled on the below map:

Once in the room with the maggot-infested water and disappearing platforms, you want to head left and climb the next wall you come to. It might seem like a dead end, but if you keep climbing, you'll discover a hidden – albeit heavily trapped – passage.

Past the traps here, you'll find a lost Flea trapped among some vines. Attack the vines to free him!

Now believe it or not, we're almost done with Bilewater, as all we have left to do is defeat the area boss. That said, there are two optional objectives – Shakra's quest and collecting the Twisted Bud item needed for the Twisted Child ending – that you might want to complete first.

If you don't care for either optional endeavour, feel free to skip to our next mandatory objective: defeat Groal the Great.

Complete Shakra's quest [optional]

Shakra's quest – Trail's End – is concluded in Bilewater, but to kick it off, you'll first need to collect all of Shakra's Maps, which means visiting the likes of Sands of Karak, among other areas, if you haven't already.

After collecting all of Shakra's Maps, the Trail's End Wish becomes available from Bellhart's Wish Board, and tasks you with tracking down Shakra's location in Bilewater. You do not need to have defeated Bilewater's boss to access this Wish or Shakra's location.

Once that's done, you need to embark on the following route from Bilewater's first Bench (or second, if you're already here) to find Shakra in Bilewater.

Upon doing so, you'll wrap up Shakra's quest and receive the Throwing Ring Tool. She'll then be available to fight as a boss in Greymoor and summon for help during the High Halls gauntlet too if you're yet to do that.

Collect the Twisted Bud item [optional]

This optional objective is completed by accessing Bilewater via Whispering Vaults. It's also entirely optional as we don't need the Twisted Bud item to see the credits roll, but you will want to grab it if you're hoping to see all endings for Silksong (and 100% the game).

To access this hidden area of Bilewater, you must make your way to the southeast corner of Whispering Vaults, where there is a gruelling spiked passage to float down that deposits you in Bilewater.

If you take a left and destroy the breakable wall here, you can grab the Twisted Bud item from the next room. If you then go and give this to Greyroot in Shellwood, they'll afflict you with a curse that prevents you from healing. You must defeat the final boss with this curse to unlock the 'Twisted Child' ending and achievement.

If you then exit the room containing the Twisted Bud, head south, and head left again, you'll come to a trapdoor. Attack the rope here to continue onwards, and keep left, where you'll find another breakable wall to destroy.

At the end of the following passage, you'll be able to collect a Memory Locket. You can then exit the passage and head south to arrive at the Bilewater Bellway again.

With these two optional objectives dealt with (or skipped), it's now finally time to conclude our horrible journey through Bilewater with an equally horrible boss: Groal the Great.

Defeat Groal the Great

The route from Bilewater's second Bench to Groal the Great's arena is labelled on the below map. As you can no doubt see, this is perhaps the worst runback to a boss fight in all of Pharloom, so here's hoping you're able to defeat Groal the Great quickly!

From Bilewater's second Bench (the one without the Bellway), you want to exit into the room on the upper right.

In the next room, proceed right and upwards to reach yet another room. Here, head slightly left and stand on the disappearing platforms, then double-jump up to the wooden wall above you.

After climbing the wall, head right and exit the room. You'll be in a huge chamber whose floor is maggot-infested water and disappearing platforms. The room also largely consists of green orbs for you to pogo off, as well as plenty of Swamp Squit enemies to avoid.

Your goal here is to reach the exit on the upper left-hand side of the room, using the orbs and enemies – and your pogoing abilities – to get there.

You now want to proceed left through the following passage past the Swamp Squit and Stilkin enemies. At the end and in the next room, you'll be greeted with a formidable opponent – Groal the Great – but only after defeating multiple waves of enemies first. These are as follows:

• 2x Stilkins
• 2x Stilkin Trappers
• 1x Spike Trap, swings once
• 3x Swamp Squits
• 1x Stilkin, 1x Stilkin Trapper
• 1x Spike Trap, swings twice
• 2x Swamp Squits, 1x Stilkin Trapper

And in case you thought that runback to the boss was bad, you will also have to defeat the gauntlet of enemies prior to Groal the Great every… single… time. Good luck!

If you need some help taking this beastly frog down, here's our Silksong Groal the Great boss guide.

Once Groal has been successfully felled, you can exit to the left of his arena to grab the Seeker's Soul item and activate a drawbridge that then allows you to go upwards – past a breakable wall – into Putrified Ducts at long last.

For more on Hollow Knight: Silksong, take a look at our Silksong walkthrough, as well as all Craftmetal locations and all Silk Heart locations.