u/BostonCreamCat

I LOVE THE GAME AND THINK TEAM CHERRY ARE GREAT.
I am one of you and we're all in this together. Let's get that out of the way.

I think Team Cherry made the right call in introducing a secondary currency into SIlksong: it gave them a lot of space to create some tangible rewards that aren't lost on death, allowed more enemy differentiation, and the sequestering of rosaries to certain enemies gave them this great canvas to critique capitalism. (Topic for a different post) HOWEVER....

The Problem With Shell Shards is that—mechanically speaking—shards and whole in-game shell-shard economy is predicated on players behaving in a very specific way. That way, more or less, is: Using Red Tools intermittently throughout normal needle combat as a tactical problem-solver to push through certain spot-challenges, such as crowd control, a dangerous enemy with 1HP remaining, a flier that's hovering out of reach, a need for healing when you're out of silk, burst damage on a staggered boss, to fill a deficiency in a crest's moveset, etc.

This is an issue because there simply aren't the proper incentives/guardrails in place to encourage the desired balance here, so there's always going to be a huge segment of the player-base that doesn't operate that way. If you're the type that never uses Red Tools at all, or you're the kind that uses them constantly, or you save them up to empty your clip onto tough bosses, or you just forget about them, or you would like to use them but find them physically awkward to trigger in a game with already-demanding combat, then you're going to find the whole system baffling and/or frustrating: Shell shards will either be a disappointing reward (in a game that often already suffers from a lack of meaningful material rewards) or something that you're so desperate for that you'll likely have to alter your preferred playstyle. In all of these cases—which I think, collectively, likely constitutes a majority of the player-base—there'll be this subtle implication that (to paraphrase Joseph Anderson) you're playing the game wrong. After all, why are you finding yourself with 0 or 400 shards?

In my opinion, this part of the game needed a bit more development, because, frankly TC should have predicted player-behavior here. To say it in the most clear/reductive way possible: Hollow Knight gamers are FromSoft gamers, and FromSoft gamers just don't use consumables, basically never have. There's a lot of mechanical and psychological reasons why this is the case (non-respawning resources spent against respawning enemies, an inclination to save resources for the challenge ahead, low-impact of most consumables...) but there's no need to get into the weeds there. The bottom line is that TC simply didn't design Silksong with quite the correct rewards and trade-offs to steer players into the behavior they seem to have intended, as evidenced by the numbers coded into the game—tool damage, tool allowance, shell-shard capacity and supply.

But, hey, it's ok. It works well for a few people. Maybe a future update will adjust things a bit. But if you've felt something is just off, if you're a streamer who's had to argue with chat on this topic—don't worry. You're not crazy. There are dozens of us. And Silksong is still a triumph.

BUT, I don't want to end this post on a downer! I'm not an award winning VG designer, but here are some back-of-the-envelope ideas that I think might have put players more in the headspace that it seems TC were going for. These aren't polished, just a bit of fun—feel free to trash them if you want; they're not really the point of this post. I just wanted to give a little illustration that I think there may have been slightly more precise options. In general, I think most of the issue boils down to Red Tools overlapping too much in design-space with Silk Skills (something that a lot of people also chronically underuse) and I think the system would be better served if they were differentiated. Here are my ideas:

Reduce the number of uses that each tool has by a factor 5, but increase its damage by the same factor. Make tools DRAMATIC. Too often, you throw out a pin, and wonder if it really did anything at all. Make every tool FELT. Honestly, the base allowance of most tools could go down to just 1, as long as when they hit, you know it. Like, consider the Three-Fold Pin: If they had only 1 use, but outright killed any flying enemy they hit, imagine how much more satisfying that would be! If you used it effectively that once, you'd know that you, yes, I didn't waste it, which is the main fear of many Shard Conservers. And if Red Tools are dramatic and impactful, then hardcore players will be less inclined to dismiss them as peripheral to, or 'a crutch' for combat.
Give Red Tools a cooldown to use (2-10 seconds, adjust damage where appropriate). This means players won't be inclined to spam them when panicked—especially when about to die to a boss! This would subsequently have two small effects: Players who overuse tools would run out less, and powergamers who underuse tools might be more inclined to use them, since they'd otherwise be 'wasting' the cooldown recovery. Architect's Crest could eliminate the cooldown entirely.
Make Red Tools more about status effects than damage per-se. This will communicate that players are intended to rely on the Needle for the actual murdering. There's already poison and fire. How about a screen-wide knockback, Emit-Force style? A blinding flashbomb that stuns everything for a couple seconds? A net that brings down fliers? A brief ward on Hornet that cancels damage/knockback for her next injury? A Hornet-shaped decoy that distracts enemies? A Giant Flea Call that temporarily sends enemies running away in terror? A chilling blast that (thematically!) slows down bug movement?
Don't require shell shards for refilling Red Tool uses. Instead, let players use large amounts of shards to build new tools or upgrade specific tools' damage, range, capacity, etc. (I think The Last Of Us has something like this, with the 'gears' mechanic?). Don't give players enough shards that they can reasonably upgrade all tools, but allow them to spec into certain tools that they like. Perhaps the Forge Maiden can allow you to scrap a tool or its upgrades to refund/reapply those spent shards to something new and shiny you've discovered. The completionists might dislike this, but I think the worst-case scenario is that you've simply encouraged players to replay the game with a different 'build'—something game already sets out for itself with the crest system.
Knowing some players will just not want to use Red Tools no matter what, give players something else to do with shell shards! I liked how early on we could spend shards to provide superficial improvements to Bone Bottom, and was really surprised how that mechanic was never used again. It would be cool if you could spend 200 shards to put up a permanent platform to help you traverse an area that you know you'll be going through a lot (e.g. the infamous Last Judge runback). Repairing ventrica and elevators, repair the lights in certain dark areas, repair homes for a little dialogue, repair bridges over Shellwood pools or Bilewater maggots. Let everyone's Pharloom be a little different!

What's a decent no-frills digital frame?

The Problem With Shell Shards