The Best Crest in Silksong

Here is a guide to help you master the Crests and combat system in the world of Pharloom.

Understanding Combat Basics

Before diving into the specifics of each Crest, it's essential to grasp the core combat mechanics. Your primary weapon, the needle, begins with a base damage of 5. With each of the four available upgrades, its damage increases by 4, culminating in 21 base damage at its maximum level. Keep in mind that some foes possess unique defenses, which may alter the damage you inflict.

The Power of Crests

Crests are powerful artifacts that fundamentally alter your playstyle. There are seven unique Crests to discover, and each one changes Hornet's basic moveset—including her running attack and down-strike—and provides a unique set of slots for equipping tools and skills.

Furthermore, every Crest has a hidden passive ability. These powerful bonuses are not always obvious, but understanding them is the key to unlocking your true potential. This guide will break down each Crest, revealing its hidden strengths and offering strategies to build around them.

Crest Guide & Build Strategies

Here is an in-depth look at each of the seven Crests:

1. The Hunter Crest

This is your starting Crest, offering a balanced and straightforward moveset with no initial passive abilities. It's a reliable choice for learning the fundamentals of combat.

• Passive Bonus (+1 Upgrade): After finding the upgrade, the Hunter Crest gains a powerful passive. Landing consecutive hits without taking damage will grant you a significant damage boost.
• • Tier 1: After 6-7 hits, your damage increases by 25%.
  • Tier 2: After 12 hits, your damage increases by a massive 40%.
    This buff remains active as long as you avoid getting hit, making it ideal for skilled players who can maintain flawless offense.
• Build Strategy: Since the damage bonus only applies to your needle, focus your build on enhancing melee combat. Pair it with tools like Pin Badge and Longclaw to maximize your offensive capabilities. The Threadstorm skill is an excellent choice for crowd control, allowing you to maintain your damage buff.

2. The Wanderer Crest

This Crest transforms Hornet into a swift, close-quarters fighter, reminiscent of the Knight from Hollow Knight. It grants a faster attack speed at the cost of reduced range.

• Passive Bonus: When your bind is ready to use, your needle attacks have a chance to inflict a critical hit for triple damage.
• Charged Attack: This Crest features a powerful 5-hit charged stab. This multi-hit attack synergizes perfectly with the critical hit passive, offering incredible burst damage potential. With a fully upgraded needle, it is one of the highest-damage charged attacks available.
• Build Strategy: Lean into the rapid, multi-hit nature of this Crest. Tools that enhance your needle attacks are highly effective here.

3. The Reaper Crest

The Reaper Crest is a fantastic choice for sustainability and resource management, especially in the early game.

• Passive Bonus: After using your bind ability, for the next 10 seconds, every needle hit will generate Silk Cores. These cores quickly replenish your silk, allowing for frequent use of skills and healing.
• Moveset: This Crest has the slowest basic attack of all seven. Its charged attack is also relatively weak.
• Build Strategy: The incredible silk generation is this Crest's main strength. It enables builds that heavily rely on silk-consuming tools and skills. It also makes healing builds incredibly viable, as you can constantly replenish the silk used for binding.

4. The Beast Crest

For those who favor an aggressive, high-risk, high-reward playstyle, the Beast Crest is a perfect fit.

• Passive Bonus (Fury Bind): After binding, you enter a "fury" state for 5 seconds. During this time, your nail damage is increased by 25%, and you heal for every successful hit you land (up to 3 HP per fury).
• Moveset: The bind animation is faster than average, allowing you to quickly activate its passive.
• Build Strategy: The key is to maximize damage within the short 5-second window. This Crest has limited tool slots and no initial slots for blue (support) tools, which can be restrictive. Focus on aggressive red tools like Flea Brewer and Flintsleate.

5. The Witch Crest

A favorite for its versatility and sheer power, the Witch Crest excels at controlling the battlefield with magic.

• Passive Bonus: Using your bind ability unleashes a powerful area-of-effect blast that deals three times your base nail damage to all nearby enemies. This damage also scales with your needle upgrades.
• Moveset: The charged attack is a devastating three-hit combo that can deal over 100 damage, making it the strongest charged attack in the game. The bind animation is also significantly faster than normal.
• Build Strategy: With ample slots for blue tools, this Crest is perfect for "spellcaster" builds. Combine Multi-binder, Claw Mirrors, and Injector Band for a devastating healing and damage setup.

6. The Architect Crest

This Crest is for the tinkerer who loves to overwhelm enemies with a barrage of tools and minions.

• Passive Bonus: Its primary benefit is providing three slots for red (offensive) tools, the most of any Crest.
• Moveset: Both the running and down-strike attacks can be charged for extra power and coverage.
• Build Strategy: This Crest is designed for minion-focused or "bullet hell" builds. Load up on tools like Cogflies, Curvesicles, and Pins to fill the screen with projectiles. However, be aware that it has no slots for silk skills, so your playstyle will revolve entirely around your tools.

7. The Shaman Crest

The Shaman Crest is the ultimate choice for players who want to unleash the full power of their silk skills.

• Passive Bonus: It massively boosts the damage of all silk skills by an amount equivalent to half a needle strike's damage. For multi-hit skills like Threadstorm, this bonus applies to every single hit, resulting in astronomical damage output.
• Moveset: Your basic attacks are imbued with magic, firing small arcs of energy. The bind animation is slightly slower than average.
• Build Strategy: This Crest has the fewest tool slots, forcing you to focus entirely on your skills. Equip tools that help you generate silk quickly, such as Druid's Eyes and Weavelight, to constantly fuel your devastating skill attacks. With this setup, a single cast of Threadstorm can become the most damaging attack in the entire game.