While cursed, Hornet loses access to all silk abilities—no healing, no special attacks—and is forced into an unfamiliar moveset (and, if memory serves, without usable tools). The design intentionally weakens you; there’s even a unique outcome if you manage to defeat the Act 2 boss while cursed.
Because the intention is to remove the curse quickly, being stranded in late-game areas like Act 3 makes the situation especially punishing—made worse if the characters meant to nudge you toward a cure are silent.
I tried everything I could think of. After an attempt led me into a locked encounter with powered-up Act 3 enemies that shredded my cursed Hornet, I finally gave up and looked up what to do.
I suspected a bug when the Bellhart shopkeeper told me to talk to another character who then offered no helpful dialogue—and, as it turned out, those Bellhart NPCs should have directed me to the cure.
At one point I seriously considered rolling back my save, but a quick check showed I would have forfeited roughly three hours of late-game progress, including difficult boss victories and unlocks. That made the decision easy—though it does raise questions about auto-save granularity.
As a side note, the official Silksong help page documents an even more severe earlier bug: the item required to complete this quest and lift the curse could become unobtainable in late-game states, making the curse permanent.
If you somehow reach Silksong’s Citadel or Act 3 without purchasing the Map Quill from Shakra, Team Cherry rewards you with a hidden cosmetic that has no gameplay effect.
Source: gamesradar.com
