How To Fix the Hollow Knight Silksong Crash at Launch

Hollow Knight: Silksong is now available, and it has killed Steam. Yes, if you’ve managed to somehow buy the game on the client, there is a chance you can still run into a crash while trying to launch the game. This is normal for most PC releases, and Silksong is no different.

Here are my recommendations to fix any crashing issues you can run into while trying to launch Hollow Knight: Silksong or during gameplay.

Verify Game Files

Hollow Knight: Silksong isn’t a large game on PC or consoles, but considering the state Steam is in right now, it’s possible for something to go wrong during the download or installation process. To make sure all your game files are in order, verify those in the client:

• Open Steam and navigate to your library
• Here, right-click on Hollow Knight: Silksong and select Properties
• In the Installed Files tab, click on Verify integrity of game files

After you’re done, Steam will download anything missing or broken, and you should be set.

Update GPU Drivers

Make sure you’re using the latest GPU drivers, especially if you haven’t updated those in a while. You can get the latest drivers for your GPU from the links below.

• NVIDIA
• AMD
• Intel

Disable Citrix Workspace

The original Hollow Knight had a conflict with the Citrix Workspace software. If you have that installed and active, please disable it while trying to play Silksong, as it might have a similar conflict.

Disable RivaTuner

Similarly, the first Hollow Knight didn’t always appreciate RivaTuner’s performance monitoring and has been known to cause crashing issues. If you have that enabled in the background, disable it while playing Silksong.

Generic Troubleshooting

Apart from that, you can try the following generic troubleshooting suggestions.

• Update DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables
• Switch to your dedicated GPU if you’re playing on a laptop
• Add the game’s folder to your antivirus list of exceptions or exclusions.
• Make sure that the date and time on your Windows are correct.
• Update Windows to the latest version (1909 or higher).
• Make sure you meet the minimum system requirements.

After you’ve gone through my list of suggestions, Hollow Knight Silksong should run properly and without any major stability issues. For most users, I reckon the crashing is largely because of some broken files or missing redistributables, because Silksong is a pretty light game otherwise.

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