By the time Hornet reaches the Citadel in Hollow Knight: Silksong, her satchel is cluttered with tools she may never use. Even in 2026, long after the first wave of pilgrims carved their routes through Pharloom, the Underworks still has a way of making a traveler feel small. The machinery hums. The pipes breathe. Somewhere above, something tinkers away like an impatient neighbor who refuses to knock. That something is the Architect.

Hornet first hears the tinkering after leaving the Whiteward and stepping into the Cauldron. The sound is maddening and unreachable. The Architect’s lair sits high above the metal constructs, and without the Clawline ability, the journey ends at a wall of heat and bad intentions. So she descends into the tunnels below, earns the Clawline, and climbs back up with singed edges and a new trick. One of the little clawline rings hangs from the ceiling, practically winking at her. She jumps, hooks on, and rises.

The Architect is not a boss. Not yet, anyway. They are a shopkeeper, a machinist, and possibly the most misunderstood NPC in the Underworks. Honestly, the whole place feels like a clockmaker’s fever dream. The Architect sells equipment, crafting kits, and other goodies, but the prize Hornet wants is the Architect’s Key. The price is 110 rosary beads—fair enough—except the Architect will not sell it to just anyone. They want proof. A certain number of tools must sit in Hornet’s inventory before the blessing is granted. At first, with a lighter pack, she is turned away. She returns later with 25 tools, and the Key is finally hers.

Key in hand, Hornet heads right, then up, then left. The path ends at a large, round, ornate door that waits like a locked secret. She slots the key in and steps inside. Unlike the other chapels where crests are earned through sweat and steel, this room is quiet. No challenge. No enemies. No choir of bells. She simply runs to the right and presses her bind ability in front of the automaton. The machine does not flinch. It accepts her. No fight. No fanfare. Just a quiet gift.

The Architect’s Crest is perhaps the strangest crest in Silksong, and that is saying something. It is built for high damage, a specialised moveset, and a whole lot of tools. If Hornet has Shell Shards to burn, this crest rewards her. If not, the skill ceiling is steep enough to make a bishop sweat. The crest comes with three main red tool slots, plus two blue and two yellow extra slots that can be unlocked with memory lockets. The real gimmick is that Hornet can craft more tools on the fly without returning to a bench. That is brilliant for consumables like Cogfly, which never seem to have enough uses.

⚙️ Crest Slots at a Glance

The moveset is the headline. The needle becomes a drill. It is slower than Hornet’s usual blade, but it hits like a falling anvil, especially when charged. She gets a new dash attack, and her diagonal downward pogo can be charged for extra damage. It changes the rhythm of combat completely. Instead of dancing around a boss with quick cuts, Hornet learns to commit, to wind up, to make every opening count. And hey, if a boss is giving her trouble, why not turn a needle into a drill?

There is a trade-off, of course. The drill is not a panic button. It asks for timing, Shards, and a little faith in the Architect’s strange design. But for players who love tool synergy—who hoard crafting kits and treat every bench like a pit stop—the Architect’s Crest feels like a puzzle piece snapping into place. You know how it is: one more tool never hurt anybody. In 2026, with the community still arguing about the best crests, this one remains a favourite for boss attempts that need a little more bite.

When Hornet finally leaves the Underworks, the machinery still hums behind her. The Architect goes back to tinkering. The round door stays shut. But the drill is hers now, and the Underworks has given her one more way to survive Pharloom’s beautiful, brutal clockwork.