Hollow Knight: Silksong player discovers Hornet's taunt does damage, proceeds to spend hours trying to beat every boss with it: 'This is like watching Sisyphus push the boulder and win'

I was about halfway through Hollow Knight: Silksong before I realized it even had a taunt button. Press it and Hornet will widen her stance and yell "Garama!" to call enemies toward her. It can be surprisingly useful if you need to bring an enemy close enough to jump on them.

Today I learned that it also does damage, and someone is currently trying to beat the entire game with it, because of course they are.

YouTube user Bloblumordthe3rd calls the playthrough "Garama%" and releases a new video every week or so showing off their progress. They are by no means racing through the game with an ability that can only be barely described as lethal: Every fight takes ages as they patiently wait for the best moment to Garama! It took two hours of attempts to defeat the final boss of act 1, for example.

The comments on Bloblumordthe3rd's videos are full of people surprised the taunt even does damage and that anyone would dare to actually use it in combat.

"This is like watching Sisyphus push the boulder and win," ParrotingCrow wrote.

"Silksanity will truly never end," LetsGetAwesome711 added.

Another commenter described this method as "ragebaiting" bosses to death, which is pretty accurate if you watch Bloblumordthe3rd take down the Cogwork Dancers. It's as if Hornet is far from impressed by their well-choreographed, synchronized moves and is yelling at them to see if they'll mess up.

According to Bloblumordthe3rd, Hornet's garama does a total of six damage with the Hunter's Crest on. For reference: The Needle, you know, Hornet's actual weapon, does five damage at the start of the game and 21 when fully upgraded. Apart from the emotional damage you deal by yelling at bugs until they die, garamaing your way through Silksong is probably one of the least effective ways to finish it. But I'm glad someone out there is determined enough to prove it can be done.

As of last week, Bloblumordthe3rd is still yelling their way through act 2. They ran into a fight against several waves of enemies that can't be done without recruiting the help of an NPC. The taunt can't quite reach the flying enemies, which is a problem that I suspect might come up again in the later parts of the game.

I'll be cheering them on whether or not they manage to actually finish the entire thing. It's not like anything else is going on until the Silksong DLC is here anyway.