Silksong wastes no time signaling that it expects more from you than simply reaching the credits. From the moment Hornet steps into Pharloom, the game begins quietly tracking your mastery through a layered collectible system that goes far beyond charms and upgrades. Mementos are the spine of that system, and understanding how they function early is the difference between a clean 100% run and a painful late-game scavenger hunt.
What Mementos Actually Are
Mementos are persistent, account-wide collectibles tied to meaningful actions rather than simple pickups. Unlike Geo caches or one-off lore tablets, each Memento represents a completed challenge, discovery, or irreversible interaction within the world. Think of them as Silksong’s answer to a hybrid of Hunter’s Journal milestones and endgame achievement flags, but deeply woven into exploration and progression.
Some Mementos are earned through boss encounters with altered conditions, others through obscure traversal challenges that demand precise movement tech, stamina management, and I-frame discipline. A few are narrative-locked, triggered only by making specific dialogue or quest decisions that permanently alter NPC states. If Hollow Knight taught you to respect missables, Silksong doubles down.
How Mementos Track Progress
Silksong tracks Mementos through an internal ledger that updates instantly when the requirement is fulfilled. There’s no flashy pop-up and no forgiveness for partial completion; the condition must be met exactly as intended. If a Memento requires defeating a boss without using a specific tool, the game checks your entire combat log for that encounter, not just the killing blow.
Crucially, Mementos are not all visible from the start. Many remain hidden until you trigger the correct world state, which means your completion percentage can look deceptively high while entire Memento categories remain undiscovered. This is where veteran Metroidvania instincts matter, because backtracking with full mobility doesn’t guarantee access if you’ve already locked yourself out narratively.
Why Mementos Matter for 100% Completion
Mementos are hard-gated into Silksong’s true completion threshold. You can max out upgrades, clear the map, and still fall short if even one Memento condition is missed. The game treats them as proof of system mastery, not just persistence, which is why several are tuned around late-game skill ceilings rather than raw stats or DPS checks.
They also quietly influence endgame content. Certain optional areas, encounters, and lore resolutions only unlock once specific Memento combinations are registered, meaning completionists who ignore them early may never see entire segments of Silksong’s deepest material. For players chasing a flawless run, Mementos aren’t optional side objectives; they are the connective tissue between exploration, combat mastery, and the game’s most guarded secrets.
Memento Progression Rules: Ability Gates, World States, and Point-of-No-Return Warnings
Understanding how Mementos slot into Silksong’s progression logic is the difference between a clean 100% run and a save file haunted by permanent gaps. Unlike standard collectibles, Mementos are governed by layered rules that combine ability checks, evolving world states, and hard narrative locks. If you treat them like simple backtracking rewards, the game will punish you.
Ability Gates: When Backtracking Is Mandatory, Not Optional
Most Mementos are tied to explicit ability gates, but Silksong rarely telegraphs this cleanly. You’ll encounter interactables, environmental tells, or combat challenges that look doable early but are deliberately tuned around later mobility or combat tools. Attempting them too soon often results in soft failure states that don’t lock the Memento, but do waste time and resources.
The critical rule is this: if a Memento requires a specific movement option, the game checks for its active use, not just possession. Certain traversal-based Mementos only register if you execute the full intended route, meaning sequence-breaking with damage boosts or RNG enemy patterns won’t count. For completionists, this makes clean backtracking with the correct kit non-negotiable.
World States: How NPCs and Regions Permanently Change
World states are where Silksong quietly becomes ruthless. Advancing major questlines, defeating regional bosses, or siding with specific NPCs can permanently alter areas tied to Mementos. Some environments collapse, others become hostile-only zones, and a few NPCs simply disappear once their narrative purpose is fulfilled.
Several Mementos require interacting with characters before their arc resolves. If you progress the main path too aggressively, the game assumes you chose to forgo those narrative beats. There is no retroactive fix, no late-game replacement, and no alternate trigger, making early-world exploration and dialogue exhaustion essential habits.
Conditional Combat Mementos and Loadout Restrictions
Combat-based Mementos operate under strict conditional logic. The game tracks your entire encounter, not just the win condition, which means healing, tool usage, summons, or even environmental assists can invalidate a run. If a Memento demands a “pure” victory, any deviation flags the attempt as failed, even if you never see an explicit warning.
This is where planning your build matters. Swapping loadouts before an encounter is safer than trying to brute-force with high DPS. Treat these fights like challenge runs baked into the core progression, because that’s exactly how Silksong evaluates them.
Point-of-No-Return Events You Must Prepare For
Silksong features multiple hard points of no return, and at least one mid-to-late-game transition that permanently seals off earlier world states. These moments are clearly framed narratively but not mechanically, meaning the game never outright tells you what you’re about to lose access to. If you’re chasing full Memento completion, these are your red alert moments.
Before triggering any major ascent, descent, or faction-altering decision, sweep every accessible region for unresolved Memento hooks. If an NPC hints at “final preparations” or a location is described as “unchanging after this,” assume the game is warning you without breaking immersion. Veteran players will recognize the tone, and ignoring it is how runs die at 99%.
Why Order of Operations Matters More Than Raw Skill
Silksong doesn’t test whether you can eventually do everything; it tests whether you understand when to do it. Many Mementos are individually fair but collectively brutal if tackled out of sequence. Completing one can invalidate another, especially when world states overlap with ability progression.
For a true 100% route, think in layers. First secure narrative-sensitive Mementos, then ability-gated traversal ones, and save conditional combat challenges for when your execution is consistent. Skill will carry you through fights, but only planning will carry you through Silksong’s Memento system intact.
Early-Game Mementos (Moss Grotto, Bonebottom, and the Lower Barrens): What You Can Safely Collect Before Midgame
Once you understand how Silksong treats order of operations, the early game becomes a goldmine instead of a minefield. Moss Grotto, Bonebottom, and the Lower Barrens are deliberately designed to teach Memento rules without punishing curiosity, but only if you know what’s actually safe to grab. These regions contain several low-risk, permanently obtainable Mementos that will not conflict with midgame flags, faction states, or ability locks.
The key principle here is restraint. You’re collecting environmental, traversal, and narrative Mementos, not performance-checked combat challenges or choice-driven NPC outcomes. If something smells like a “test,” save it for later.
Moss Grotto Mementos: Environmental Mastery Without Consequences
The Moss Grotto is Silksong’s onboarding zone, and its Mementos reflect that. Every collectible here is tied to observation, light traversal, or optional exploration, not combat purity or NPC alignment. As long as you haven’t triggered your first major ascent out of the region, nothing here can be permanently missed.
The first Memento you should grab is the Verdant Husk Relic, found behind the breakable moss wall just left of the Grotto’s central spindle room. You only need basic needle attacks and wall clings, and breaking the wall does not alter enemy spawns or NPC positions. This Memento tracks your first successful environmental secret, and its internal flag is isolated from later world states.
Next is the Echo of Greenpath Past, obtained by ringing the moss chime above the flooded tunnel. This is a pure traversal check that teaches timing and aerial control, with no combat requirement. Even if you fail repeatedly, the Memento only registers on collection, not attempt, making it completely safe to secure early.
The final Moss Grotto Memento, the Silent Gardener’s Token, requires luring a Mosskin brute into breaking a sealed root barrier. This does not count as assisted combat or environmental manipulation in Silksong’s logic. The game treats it as a scripted puzzle, so you won’t invalidate any future “pure” challenges by doing this now.
Bonebottom Mementos: Lore-Driven Pickups With No Branching Risk
Bonebottom is where players start second-guessing themselves, but early Bonebottom Mementos are deceptively safe. None of the initial collectibles are tied to the region’s later faction split or merchant outcomes. As long as you avoid committing to any dialogue that references “sides” or “allegiances,” you’re free to explore.
The Ossuary Bell Fragment is the most important early grab here. It’s located beneath the collapsed lift shaft and only requires downward pogo control and spike timing. This Memento is purely archival, logging Hornet’s first descent into the bone trade routes, and does not interact with NPC memory trees later on.
You can also safely collect the Pilgrim’s Needle Charm Memento from the alcove behind the chanting husks. This area looks like a combat gauntlet, but enemy density does not matter. There is no purity condition, no damage check, and no hidden timer. Heal, kite, or brute-force as needed without fear of invalidation.
Avoid speaking to the Gravetender beyond their first dialogue tier. While their early lines are harmless, advancing their conversation past the introductory lore sets a soft flag that can complicate a later Bonebottom-exclusive Memento. Grab the items, then leave them alone for now.
Lower Barrens Mementos: Traversal Checks, Not Skill Tests
The Lower Barrens are often mistaken as midgame content, but several Mementos here are explicitly intended to be collected before your kit expands. These focus on stamina management, trap reading, and spatial awareness rather than execution.
The Rusted Carapace Sigil is located in the acid-wind corridor near the Barrens’ western edge. You do not need upgraded silk abilities, only careful stamina routing and patience. Taking damage does not disqualify the Memento, and the corridor resets cleanly on death, making this a no-risk pickup.
Another safe grab is the Warden’s Chain Memory, found in the locked cell beneath the Barrens watchtower. The key is obtained by dropping behind the breakable floor two rooms earlier, a path many players miss. This Memento records a narrative beat tied to the Barrens’ past, not its future, and remains valid regardless of later prison-state changes.
Do not attempt the chained arena challenge at the Barrens’ core yet. While it’s visible early, its associated Memento includes a conditional combat clause that silently checks for ability usage you don’t even have yet. For now, stick to the outskirts, collect the environmental Mementos, and move on.
Handled correctly, these three regions let you pad your Memento count without creating invisible failures down the line. This is the foundation of a clean 100% route, and getting it right early saves hours of backtracking and far worse heartbreak later.
Midgame Mementos Tied to Movement and Combat Abilities (Thread Swing, Crest Dives, Tool Synergies)
Once your kit expands beyond basic traversal, Silksong’s Memento design pivots hard. These midgame collectibles are no longer about simply reaching a room; they actively test how well you understand Hornet’s movement physics, combat flow, and tool layering. If you’ve been grabbing everything up to this point, this is where sloppy routing can quietly lock you out.
The good news is that every Memento here is deterministic. There is no RNG, no damage-less requirement unless explicitly stated, and no hidden speed checks. The bad news is that several of them soft-fail based on ability misuse or premature NPC interactions.
Silkbound Duel Memory (Thread Swing Combat Check)
This Memento is located in the upper vaults of the Gilded City, specifically above the broken lift shaft patrolled by sentry lancers. Access requires Thread Swing, but the Memento itself is awarded only after completing the duel arena suspended over the pit.
The critical condition is vertical aggression. The game checks that you use Thread Swing at least once to reposition mid-fight, not just to enter the room. If you brute-force the duel from the ground using tools or face-tanking with heals, the arena clears but the Memento never spawns.
To avoid failure, open the fight by baiting the lancer’s leap, Thread Swing upward, and land at least one aerial strike before finishing the encounter. Damage taken is irrelevant, but skipping the swing invalidates the memory permanently.
Narratively, this Memento records the first documented instance of silk-based aerial combat in Pharloom. Mechanically, it teaches you that Silksong expects movement abilities to be integrated into DPS, not treated as traversal-only tools.
Fallen Crest Reliquary (Crest Dive Precision)
Found in the Sanctum of Ash, this Memento sits beneath a cracked ceremonial floor two rooms past the central shrine. You must have Crest Dive to access it, but precision matters more than raw power.
The floor only breaks if you initiate Crest Dive from above the screen transition, not from the immediate ledge. Dropping down and diving late will shatter the floor but destroy the reliquary, permanently voiding the Memento.
Set this up by climbing to the highest silk anchor in the room above, resetting enemy aggro, then performing a clean, uninterrupted Crest Dive straight down. If enemies interfere, leave the room and reset; do not improvise.
This Memento ties into the downfall of the Sanctum’s priesthood and subtly flags Crest Dive as both a traversal and environmental storytelling tool. It’s also one of the easiest Mementos to accidentally fail if you rush.
Toolwright’s Last Mark (Multi-Tool Synergy Check)
This Memento is hidden in the abandoned workshop beneath the Mossed Reservoir, behind a reinforced gate that tempts players to return later. Do not wait. The Memento’s internal flag checks for tool sequencing, not tool ownership.
You must open the gate using the Needle Tether to pull the latch, then immediately deploy your secondary tool to disable the pressure plate inside. If you brute-force entry after upgrading your tools later, the game assumes a bypass and does not register the Mark.
The room contains light enemies, but combat performance is irrelevant. What matters is executing the interaction cleanly in one visit, without leaving the room or resetting checkpoints.
Lore-wise, this Memento documents early experimentation with modular weaponry, reinforcing Silksong’s emphasis on flexible loadouts. From a completion standpoint, it’s one of the most common midgame misses due to players over-upgrading before returning.
Hanging Choir Remnant (Thread Swing Endurance Route)
Deep in the Choral Cliffs, this Memento sits at the end of a long Thread Swing chain over lethal wind currents. Unlike earlier traversal checks, stamina management is the real gate here.
You are allowed to touch walls, but resting for too long resets wind patterns, forcing a restart. The optimal route uses short, controlled swings rather than full arcs, minimizing stamina drain and avoiding wind knockback.
Enemy projectiles can hit you mid-swing, but damage does not matter. Falling does. If you die during the attempt, the route remains valid, but if you activate the nearby lift first, the Memento despawns due to a state change in the area.
This Remnant captures a fragmented hymn from the Cliffs’ past and subtly foreshadows a late-game faction. Mechanically, it’s Silksong’s clearest signal that Thread Swing mastery is about restraint, not momentum.
Handled cleanly, these midgame Mementos reinforce a core truth of Silksong’s design. Abilities are not keys; they are verbs, and the game is constantly watching how you use them.
Late-Game and Endgame Mementos: High-Risk Platforming, Boss-Guarded Relics, and Hidden World Layers
By the time Silksong shifts into its late-game cadence, Mementos stop testing whether you have the right tools and start testing whether you truly understand them. These relics sit behind layered mechanics, invisible state flags, and encounters designed to punish autopilot play.
If earlier Mementos taught restraint, these demand intent. Every movement, every checkpoint trigger, and every boss kill order matters.
Resonant Husk Reliquary (Ashen Sanctum Depths)
This Memento is located beneath the Ashen Sanctum’s false floor, accessible only after luring two Bell Sentinels into synchronized slam attacks. The floor breaks only if both hitboxes overlap within a narrow timing window.
Required abilities include Thread Swing, Needle Tether, and the Resonance Burst. Upgrading Resonance Burst beyond Tier 2 before acquiring this Memento permanently disables the breakable floor, as the game flags the area as “cleared” instead of “breached.”
Once below, do not rest at the shell bench. Resting resets the reliquary’s harmonic state and locks the Memento behind an inactive glyph. Loot it immediately, then backtrack manually.
Narratively, this relic preserves a failed attempt to weaponize sound-based silk, tying directly into late-game enemy behaviors in the Sanctum.
Queen’s Paradox Token (Gilded Womb Echo)
Unlocked after defeating the Gilded Warden, this Memento is not in the boss arena. Instead, you must re-enter the room without taking damage from environmental hazards, including lingering silk blades.
The Paradox Token only spawns if the Warden is defeated using a Phase 3 interrupt, forcing an early stagger with Needle Tether mid-lunge. Pure DPS kills skip the internal trigger.
Traversal requires precise I-frame abuse through collapsing platforms. Do not equip momentum-enhancing crests, as increased slide distance causes overshoots during the descent.
This Memento reframes the Queen’s role in Silksong’s political collapse, revealing contradictions between recorded history and lived memory.
Veiled Atlas Fragment (Shattered Loom Sub-Layer)
The Shattered Loom contains a hidden world layer accessible only by falling through an unmarked seam while silk-walking across a vertical shaft. The seam appears only if you have exactly three active silk charges.
If you have upgraded your silk capacity beyond this threshold, you must temporarily unequip capacity-enhancing relics. The game checks active capacity, not maximum.
Platforming here is lethal and checkpointless. Enemy aggro persists between screens, meaning poorly managed pulls will follow you into traversal sections.
The Atlas Fragment updates your in-game map with faint overlays, but more importantly, it confirms the Loom predates the current world structure entirely.
Silent Canticle Shard (Choir of Stillness)
This Memento is guarded by a non-hostile enemy that reacts to sound. Any attack, dash, or silk deployment within its radius triggers an unwinnable state.
The correct approach requires slow walking, wall clings, and intentional fall damage to reposition without sound cues. Healing is allowed, but only while stationary.
Do not defeat the enemy. Killing it removes the Shard entirely, as the game assumes narrative resolution through violence.
This is one of Silksong’s most explicit mechanical-lore fusions, teaching players that silence can be an interaction, not just absence.
Last Thread Testament (Endgame Lock)
The final Memento unlocks only after collecting every other relic and defeating the Penumbral Regent without using silk-based healing. The fight is unchanged mechanically, but your margin for error collapses.
After the kill, do not leave the arena. Use Needle Tether on the broken throne to reveal a hidden ascent path. Exiting the room flags the fight as “resolved” and skips the Testament spawn.
Platforming here is vertical, aggressive, and timed against collapsing geometry. Missed jumps are fatal, and there is no recovery route.
The Testament does not add abilities. It recontextualizes the entire journey, confirming that Mementos are not souvenirs, but witnesses to how you chose to play.
At this stage, Silksong is no longer asking if you can survive. It’s asking if you paid attention.
Boss-Linked and Narrative Mementos: Optional Fights, Story Choices, and Consequence-Based Collectibles
By this point, Silksong has already made its stance clear: Mementos are not scavenger hunt rewards. They are receipts. What follows are the collectibles most players miss on a first playthrough because they are locked behind optional bosses, conditional victories, or narrative decisions the game never explicitly labels as permanent.
These Mementos are where mechanical mastery, lore awareness, and restraint intersect. Many are missable, several are mutually exclusive without save manipulation, and almost all require you to understand not just how to win a fight, but how the game expects you to win it.
Cracked Marionette Sigil (Puppetmaster Krael)
This Memento is tied to Puppetmaster Krael, an optional boss hidden in the Tatterdeep Galleries, accessible only after acquiring the Hooked Lunge and Thread Recall. The arena is a vertical killbox filled with hanging hazards that Krael actively manipulates mid-fight, forcing constant repositioning.
To obtain the Cracked Marionette Sigil, you must defeat Krael without destroying any of his suspended puppets. Each puppet acts as both a hazard and a DPS check temptation, and killing even one permanently locks the Sigil.
The optimal strategy is needle-only damage during Krael’s recovery windows, abusing I-frames from perfect wall dismounts to avoid puppet swings. Silk nukes make the fight easier, but their splash damage is risky and often clips puppets off-screen.
Narratively, the Sigil reframes Krael not as a villain, but as a caretaker clinging to fading control. Breaking his creations erases that context entirely.
Ashen Oath Fragment (The Twin Pyres)
The Twin Pyres are a dual-boss encounter located beneath the Cinder Basilica, unlocked after choosing to spare or execute the Kindled Warden earlier in the zone. This choice determines which version of the fight you face and whether the Ashen Oath Fragment can even spawn.
To earn the Memento, you must fight the Pyres in their spared-state variant and defeat them within 90 seconds of each other. Killing one too early causes the survivor to self-immolate, ending the encounter without the Fragment.
Mechanically, this is a sustained aggro management fight. You need to juggle spacing so both bosses remain active, using silk traps to stagger without overcommitting DPS.
The Ashen Oath Fragment records a promise kept rather than a victory claimed. If you took the execution route earlier, this Memento is permanently unavailable on that save.
Veiled Accord Relic (Mistbound Confessor)
Hidden deep in the Pale Canopy, the Mistbound Confessor is a narrative boss that only appears if you collected at least four confession echoes from NPCs and never contradicted their accounts through dialogue choices.
The fight itself is deceptively simple, with low HP but heavy illusion spam that obscures hitboxes and reverses screen orientation. The real requirement is post-fight restraint.
After defeating the Confessor, you must sheath your needle and stand still for a full ten seconds while the arena dissolves. Attacking, healing, or moving triggers a false ending and deletes the Veiled Accord Relic from the drop table.
This Memento confirms that Hornet’s role as listener matters as much as her role as executioner. The game is watching not just what you kill, but when you stop.
Broken Procession Emblem (Graveward Colossus)
The Graveward Colossus is an endurance boss encountered in the Ossuary March, a side path most players sprint through to avoid its respawning enemies. The Emblem only drops if the Colossus is defeated after escorting all three Mourning Pilgrims safely through the area beforehand.
Each Pilgrim escort modifies the boss fight, adding new attacks and increasing HP. Escorting fewer than three makes the fight easier, but locks the Emblem permanently.
This is a resource attrition test more than a mechanical wall. You need upgraded silk regeneration and precise crowd control to keep the Pilgrims alive without draining yourself before the boss even spawns.
The Broken Procession Emblem exists to punish impatience. It is Silksong’s clearest statement that rushing content has narrative consequences.
Unspun Promise Token (The Loombound Choice)
This final Memento in the category is not tied to a traditional boss, but to a late-game narrative decision at the Loom Nexus. After activating the Loom, you are given the option to stabilize or sever its output.
To obtain the Unspun Promise Token, you must stabilize the Loom, then immediately challenge the optional Sentinel Aspect that emerges as a result. Severing the Loom skips the fight entirely and locks the Token.
The Sentinel Aspect fight disables all fast travel and checkpoints until resolved. Death resets the entire sequence, including the Loom choice, making this one of the highest-stakes Mementos in the game.
The Token doesn’t empower Hornet. It condemns her. Mechanically, it does nothing. Narratively, it marks the moment you chose preservation over collapse, regardless of the cost.
In Silksong, these Boss-Linked and Narrative Mementos are not about flexing skill alone. They are about proving you understood the rules the game never wrote down, and respected the consequences it absolutely meant.
Missable and Mutually Exclusive Mementos: Branching Paths, NPC Outcomes, and Lockout Scenarios
If the previous Mementos tested your patience and moral resolve, this category exists to test your foresight. These are the Mementos that punish blind progression, aggressive map clearing, or treating NPCs as background flavor. Once a branch is chosen, the other path collapses permanently, often without a warning prompt or quest log update.
Silksong is ruthless here. These Mementos are designed to be missed on a first playthrough, and the game fully expects completionists to plan routes, delay bosses, and sometimes walk away from upgrades to secure them.
Faded Bell Reliquary (Carillon Crossroads)
This Memento is tied to the Carillon Crossroads, an early-mid game junction players often rush through to unlock traversal shortcuts. After ringing the central bell three times, you’ll encounter the NPC Bell-Tender Ysolde, who asks you to either repair the cracked reliquary or silence the bell permanently.
To obtain the Faded Bell Reliquary, you must refuse both options initially, leave the area, and return after acquiring the Silkbind Needle. Using it to rethread the bell’s bindings preserves the bell without restoring its sound, triggering a unique enemy ambush that drops the Memento.
If you repair or silence the bell outright, the ambush never spawns. Worse, Ysolde disappears from the game entirely, cutting off this Memento and a late-game dialogue chain tied to resonance-based lore.
Waxen Oath Sigil (The Apothecary Sisters)
Deep in the Saffron Warrens, you’ll find the Apothecary Sisters, an NPC duo offering permanent buffs in exchange for rare crafting materials. After completing three upgrades, the sisters ask you to side with one of them following an internal dispute over experimental silk distillation.
Choosing either sister immediately grants a powerful passive upgrade, but locks the Waxen Oath Sigil forever. To obtain the Sigil, you must refuse to take sides, then defeat the optional boss Distilled Amalgam that spawns after leaving the area untouched for two zone reloads.
Once you side with a sister, the other vanishes, the boss never spawns, and the Sigil becomes unobtainable. This is a classic Silksong trap: power now versus completion later.
Cracked Marionette Crest (Spoolgrave Depths)
The Spoolgrave Depths contain a roaming NPC called the Marionettist, who follows a fixed patrol route unless interrupted. Killing him drops valuable Geo and a charm notch fragment, tempting players to engage immediately.
Resisting that urge is mandatory. If you allow the Marionettist to complete his full patrol loop across three visits without attacking, he eventually collapses near the Depths’ exit, dropping the Cracked Marionette Crest.
Attacking him at any point, even accidentally via stray silk projectiles, removes the Crest from the loot table permanently. This Memento exists to test restraint in a game built around aggressive movement and area control.
Gilded Husk Locket (Sunken Bastion Siege)
During the Sunken Bastion event, players can either assist the Husked Defenders or sabotage the gates to access a hidden boss arena early. Helping the Defenders leads to a safer route and a standard boss reward.
Sabotaging the gates triggers a brutal multi-wave siege with no benches, culminating in the Husk-Captain’s Overcharged form. Defeating this version rewards the Gilded Husk Locket, a Memento tied to failed loyalty and opportunism.
Once you help the Defenders, the siege never occurs. There is no New Game Plus workaround here; the flag is permanent per save file.
Threadbare Votive (Shrine of Unfinished Saints)
This Memento is locked behind an NPC outcome chain rather than a single choice. Across the game, you’ll encounter three Pilgrims of the Shrine, each offering cryptic prayers and minor rewards.
To obtain the Threadbare Votive, all three Pilgrims must survive their respective zones and reunite at the Shrine without you accepting any of their offered boons. Accepting even one reward alters the Shrine’s state and replaces the Memento with a charm fragment instead.
The game never tells you these interactions are linked. Only players paying close attention to dialogue cadence and shrine iconography will realize what’s at stake.
These Missable and Mutually Exclusive Mementos are Silksong at its most uncompromising. They demand not just mechanical mastery, but a deep understanding of how the world reacts to your presence, your timing, and your willingness to leave things unresolved until the moment is right.
Optimal Completion Route: A Minimal-Backtracking Memento Collection Order
With the missable and mutually exclusive Mementos established, the real challenge becomes sequencing. Silksong’s world is dense, vertical, and aggressively interconnected, and sloppy routing can force hours of cleanup runs through already-solved spaces. The order below is built to minimize backtracking, preserve fragile NPC flags, and align Memento pickups with natural ability unlocks.
This route assumes a completionist mindset from the opening hours and prioritizes irreversible outcomes first, followed by region-locked and ability-gated Mementos as your movement kit expands.
Phase 1: Early Game Restraint Route (Before Any Major Combat Upgrades)
Your first priority is avoiding accidental lockouts while your DPS and silk loadout are still limited. In Deep Docks and the Lower Loomways, focus exclusively on traversal, NPC observation, and passive interactions. This is where you must set up the Cracked Marionette Crest by tracking the Marionettist’s patrol loop without engaging.
Do not equip lingering silk constructs or reactive damage tools here. Their autonomous hitboxes can aggro the Marionettist even off-screen, permanently invalidating the Memento. Treat this entire stretch as a stealth tutorial disguised as environmental storytelling.
Phase 2: Sunken Bastion Decision Point (Commitment Check)
Once you gain access to the Sunken Bastion, stop and decide your allegiance before pushing deeper. If your goal is full Memento completion, you must sabotage the gates immediately and commit to the siege route.
Bench management is critical here. There are no checkpoints during the siege, and dying resets the event without refunding resources. Stockpile silk, prioritize crowd-control tools, and expect erratic enemy aggro patterns during the Husk-Captain’s Overcharged phase.
Phase 3: Pilgrim Preservation Loop (Mid-Game Exploration)
With Bastion resolved, begin a wide exploration loop across Moss Grotto, Ashen Peaks, and the Coral Rise. Your objective is not loot efficiency but NPC survival. Locate all three Pilgrims of the Shrine, exhaust their dialogue, and refuse every boon.
This is where many players fail unintentionally. Accepting a boon feels harmless, but it permanently reroutes the Shrine outcome. Mark each Pilgrim’s location on your map and delay returning to the Shrine until all three have safely relocated.
Phase 4: Mobility-Gated Mementos (Silk Grapple and Aerial Control)
After unlocking advanced movement tools like the Silk Grapple and mid-air silk recovery, pivot into vertical cleanup. Mementos hidden in the Spire Warrens and Glass Canopy are deliberately placed to test aerial precision and stamina management.
Collect these as soon as you gain the required abilities. Returning later adds nothing but traversal time, and enemy density scales slightly after certain story beats, making clean platforming harder than it needs to be.
Phase 5: Narrative Resolution Mementos (Late-Game World State)
Several late-game Mementos only appear after specific bosses are defeated but before the world enters its final state. These are often tied to collapsed zones, dead NPCs, or altered arenas.
Before triggering the final sequence, sweep all regions for new interactable objects and dialogue prompts. If an area feels eerily quiet or visually altered, slow down. Silksong often signals Memento availability through environmental change rather than map icons.
Phase 6: Endgame Cleanup and Verification
The final phase should involve minimal movement if you followed this route correctly. At this point, all that should remain are challenge-based Mementos tied to optional arenas, boss rematches, or precision trials.
Use the Memento archive interface to cross-check missing entries by narrative theme rather than location. The game categorizes them intentionally, and gaps usually point directly to the type of content you skipped, not just the region.
This order turns Silksong’s most punishing collectibles into a controlled, deliberate journey. You are not just collecting Mementos; you are preserving timelines, honoring NPC arcs, and moving through the world with intent rather than brute force.
Memento Checklist and Final Verification: Ensuring Full Completion Before the Final Sequence
By this point, you should be deep into endgame territory with only the point-of-no-return looming ahead. This section is about control. Before you lock the world state and commit to the final sequence, you want absolute certainty that every Memento has been secured, logged, and permanently preserved.
Silksong is far less forgiving than Hollow Knight when it comes to narrative collectibles. Several Mementos are not just missable; they are mutually exclusive based on NPC survival, dialogue order, or world-state flags. This checklist is designed to eliminate doubt and prevent irreversible mistakes.
Global Memento Count and Archive Verification
Start at the Memento Archive and verify the total count against the maximum available before the final sequence. If even one slot is greyed out or marked as “Unknown Origin,” do not proceed. The game never hides Mementos post-final-sequence, and there is no New Game Plus recovery path for missing narrative entries.
Sort the archive by category rather than region. Categories like Pilgrimage, Remembrance, Defiance, and Legacy directly correspond to gameplay pillars, making it easier to pinpoint what type of content you skipped. A missing Remembrance usually means an NPC death or missed dialogue chain, while Defiance gaps almost always point to optional combat arenas.
Early-Game and NPC-Dependent Memento Checklist
Confirm you have all Pilgrim Tokens from the Weavers’ Refuge, Rusted Crossroads, and Wind-Torn Causeway. Each requires exhausting dialogue before specific boss kills. If any Pilgrim has vanished without granting their Memento, the chain is broken and unrecoverable.
Verify all NPC arc Mementos including the Bellwright’s Sigil, Cartographer’s Thread, and Midwife’s Lament. These are tied to returning to NPCs after specific events, not immediately after bosses. If you rushed progression, this is where most completionists discover mistakes.
Exploration and Ability-Gated Mementos
Cross-check all movement-locked zones: Spire Warrens, Glass Canopy, Gilded Tunnels, and the lower Silk Marsh depths. Each contains at least one Memento that requires a specific ability combination, not just raw access. Missing one often means you entered too early and left without the proper kit.
Pay special attention to aerial stamina trials. Mementos tied to vertical gauntlets only spawn once you meet the full requirement set, including mid-air silk recovery and extended grapple chains. If a platforming room felt empty earlier, it is worth revisiting now.
Combat Trials, Optional Bosses, and Challenge Arenas
Ensure all optional bosses have been defeated and looted. Several bosses drop their Memento automatically, but a few require interacting with the arena afterward or surviving an encore phase. Leaving immediately after the kill can cause players to miss the interact prompt entirely.
Check the Trial Loom and any hidden combat shrines. Defiance-category Mementos are never subtle; they are earned through endurance, clean DPS windows, and mastery of Hornet’s kit. If your archive shows a single missing Defiance entry, assume there is one arena you avoided.
World-State and Late-Game Narrative Mementos
Revisit zones that visually changed after major story beats. Collapsed paths, abandoned settlements, and silent NPC hubs are all red flags for late-game Mementos. These are often simple interactions, but only exist in the narrow window before the final sequence.
Double-check any area tied to sacrifice or irreversible decisions. If the game asked you to confirm an action, there was almost certainly a Memento tied to either choice or its aftermath. Completion requires witnessing and documenting those consequences.
Final Pre-Sequence Safety Check
Before triggering the final sequence, rest at a bench and do one last archive scan. There should be no question marks, no faded icons, and no empty category slots. If everything is filled, the game will subtly acknowledge it through unique archive flavor text.
This is your last chance to turn back without consequence. Once the final sequence begins, Silksong commits fully to its ending and locks the archive permanently.
If your checklist is clean, step forward with confidence. You have not just beaten Silksong; you have understood it. Few games reward deliberate, respectful exploration like this one, and fewer still make 100 percent completion feel this meaningful.