Is Hollow Knight Down? Live status & outage reports

Service info and troubleshooting

Game Won't Launch at All

If the game refuses to start, the first thing to check is your graphics drivers — outdated drivers are responsible for roughly half of these cases. Go to Device Manager, update your GPU driver, then verify game files through Steam: right-click the title, Properties → Local Files → Verify integrity. Also make sure you're not running the game from a path that contains non-Latin characters — that breaks the launcher silently.

Low FPS and Constant Stuttering

Hollow Knight runs on Unity, and Unity games are notoriously sensitive to background processes eating RAM. Close Chrome, Discord overlays, and any recording software before launching. In the in-game settings, disable V-Sync and cap the frame rate manually. If you're on a laptop, check that your dedicated GPU is actually being used — many systems default to integrated graphics.

Save File Not Loading or Corrupted

This usually happens after a crash mid-save. Navigate to %AppData%\Hollow Knight\Saves and look for files ending in .bak — those are automatic backups. Rename the corrupted save file, then rename the .bak file to match the original. Also disable cloud sync temporarily: Steam → Settings → Cloud, uncheck the option, then relaunch.

Crashes on Specific Boss Fights

• Check your system RAM usage during gameplay — crashes on intense scenes often mean you're hitting the memory ceiling
• Update DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables from the official Microsoft site
• Set the game's process priority to High in Task Manager
• If you're using mods, disable all of them — Hollow Knight's modding API can conflict with certain game builds

Black Screen After Cutscenes

This is a known issue on some AMD setups. Open the config file at %AppData%\Hollow Knight\Config and set fullscreen to false, then switch to borderless window mode inside the game. Alternatively, try switching the DirectX version if your launcher supports it.

Controller Not Recognized

Plug the controller in before launching the game, not after. Steam Input can interfere — go to the game's controller settings in Steam and set it to 'Forced Off'. Xbox controllers generally work out of the box; for third-party controllers, use x360ce to emulate an Xbox layout before starting.