I’ll be honest: in Hollow Knight: Silksong, nothing calms my nerves like spotting a Mask Shard. These little fragments are basically extra heartbeats for Hornet, and let’s be real—extra heartbeats are exactly what you want when a multi-phase boss is breathing down your neck. Across the whole adventure, there are 20 Mask Shards scattered around the map. Every four shards combine into one full Mask, so you can end up with five additional health segments by the time you’ve truly cleaned house.

How Mask Shards Work

Collect any four Mask Shards and they combine into a full Mask, adding another piece of vitality to Hornet’s health bar. Since the hardest bosses in Silksong can chew through two health pieces with a single attack, those extra Masks are not just a luxury. They give you more room to learn patterns, make mistakes, and still walk away from a fight.

There are enough shards to build five additional Masks in total. That might not sound like a mountain of health, but against a boss like The Last Judge, two extra Masks can be the difference between a close victory and bouncing off the same fight for an hour.

Where Mask Shards Hide

I’ll be the first to admit I missed a bunch on my first pass. Mask Shards are scattered all over the massive world map, and the game loves to tuck them into places you’d swear you already checked. Some are sitting in dark, secret corners of rooms I had walked through multiple times. Others are locked behind abilities that only show up later, which means you’ll need to backtrack once your movement kit expands.

Don’t be afraid to retrace your steps. In my experience, a ledge that looked useless at hour ten can suddenly become a trailhead at hour twenty. Some shards are gated by story progression, so you may not be able to reach them until you’ve moved into an entirely different Act. That’s normal. The game is designed to make you feel clever for returning.

Milestone Health Checklist

Based on the game’s major milestones, here are the shard counts I recommend having before those big fights:

The Last Judge is a particularly nasty gatekeeper at the end of Act 1, so having at least four to eight shards before that fight gives you a much friendlier buffer. By Act 2, you’ll want roughly 12 shards in your pocket, and by the final Act, you should be chasing every last one.

Exploration vs. Combat

One thing I appreciate is that exploration itself doesn’t demand a specific number of shards. The hazards in areas like Mount Fay are usually tied to your abilities or resistances rather than raw health. You don’t need 12 shards just to survive the freezing weather, though having more health does give you a little extra time to look around before resting.

That said, for the toughest encounters, Mask Shards become incredibly important. They turn a brutal learning curve into something you can actually survive long enough to understand.

My Practical Advice

Honestly, if I could go back to my first run, I’d tell myself this:

• 🧭 Grab at least 4 shards before Fourth Chorus.

• 🕷️ Aim for 8 before Widow and The Last Judge.

• 🗺️ Backtrack after every major movement upgrade.

• 🔍 Check dark corners even if a room feels familiar.

• 💪 Shoot for all 20 before the Act 3 finale.

Take a breath. Then go hunt them down.

At the end of the day, Mask Shards are insurance. The game knows exactly where to hide them, but a little patience—and a lot of backtracking—goes a long way. I’d rather walk into a fight with too much health than just barely enough, and in Silksong, every shard is one step closer to that peace of mind.

That same spirit of hunting—scouring every corner, checking every nook—is what makes finding a great deal on your next game feel so rewarding. Just like you’d backtrack for a hidden shard, a few minutes browsing the right marketplace can turn up surprising savings that let you stretch your gaming budget even further. It’s the kind of patience that pays off in both worlds.

Whether you’re picking up a fresh adventure to tide you over between Silksong runs or grabbing a gift for a fellow hunter, keeping an eye on places that aggregate the best game deals can save you from overpaying. A quick check before you hit that buy button is a lot like checking behind one more waterfall—you never know when you’ll find exactly what you were hoping for.