Menderbug, a wiry programmer with goggles pushed to his forehead, stared at the terminal window on his vintage Mac OS X machine. The machine, a silver PowerMac G5, hummed like a drowsing Stalking Devout. On screen, the command line awaited.
For weeks, he had been trying to port a fan-made expansion for Hollow Knight—the fabled "1031" build, rumored to contain cut content: the Palace of the Broken Quill, the Weaver's Loom, a boss called the Sibilant King. The source code was a labyrinth of corrupted sprites and broken hitboxes.
But tonight, something was different.
He typed: ./hollowknight1031 --force-opengl --no-sandbox
The terminal didn't just execute. It screamed. A single line of error text, then nothing. The hard drive chattered like a crystal hunter’s mandibles. The screen flickered, and the dock vanished.
When the display returned, the desktop was gone. In its place: a dim, 2D cavern. Moss-creep adorned the Finder’s former location. The trash can had become a jagged pit.
Menderbug wasn’t at his desk anymore. He was in the system.
He looked down. His hands were white, porcelain shells. His body was a tiny, cloaked vessel. A nail—crafted from a bent SATA cable—hung at his side. In the corner of his vision, a tiny HUD displayed: Void given form: 9 masks | Geo: 0 | Save: Quit to Finder (Y/N)?
He pressed ‘N’. Curiosity was his shade.
The world was a corrupted Hollownest: folders became platforms, permissions formed gates that required "root keys," and every background process spawned a vengefly. He walked left, past a crashed iTunes visualizer (its shimmering colors now a toxic pool), and entered the Kernel Caverns.
There, hunched over a console, was a figure he recognized.
The Hollow Knight itself. But this version was translucent, flickering, and its armor was stitched with lines of code: kern_task: PID 1031 | memory leak | core dump imminent.
The Knight turned its masked face. A text bubble appeared: >_ The King's bind... is a kernel panic. hollow knight 1031 mac os x
Menderbug realized what "1031" really was. Not a patch. An error. A memory address where a forgotten development build had crashed during the game's original Mac port, years ago. And its ghost—the Sibilant King—had been running as a background daemon ever since, consuming cycles, corrupting saves.
The boss battle was not of nail and spell, but of command and signal.
Menderbug raised his SATA-nail. The Hollow Knight (PID 1031) lunged. Each of its strikes triggered a segfault in the air. Menderbug parried, and in the parry’s spark, typed: sudo kill -9 1031
The Knight staggered. But it split into three processes—fork() errors—each crying in silent shell scripts.
He had to enter the Root Temple. The final chamber was a sparse directory: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/Hollow Knight/1031/
A single file glowed: pale_king.core.
Menderbug sheathed his nail. He knew what to do. He knelt, placed his vessel’s hand on the file, and whispered the incantation every old Mac user knows:
chmod 000 pale_king.core
The Hollow Knight froze mid-swing. Its flickering stopped. The three forked processes merged back into one. And then, slowly, it bowed. Its mask cracked, and from the fissure spilled not infection—but a single, clean line of text:
Process 1031 terminated. Exit code: 0.
The caverns faded. The desktop reappeared. The trash can was just a trash can. And on Menderbug's terminal, a new line blinked:
[Game saved. Hallownest restored. Achievements unlocked: "Root Access," "The Unbound."] The Ghost in the Kernel Menderbug, a wiry
He saved the log. Then he quit the terminal, ejected the G5’s hard drive, and placed it on a shelf next to a little ghost figurine.
From that day on, whenever Hallownest’s music glitched or a save file stuttered, Menderbug would tap the case and whisper: “No cost too great. No process left un-killed.”
This report covers Hollow Knight version 1.0.3.1, specifically focusing on technical performance and updates for macOS (tested on macOS 10.13.1 High Sierra). Overview of Version 1.0.3.1
Released in May 2017, patch 1.0.3.1 was a critical stability update that moved the game from a public beta phase to a more stable live build for all players. Key Technical Improvements
Soft-Lock Fixes: Resolved a major issue where striking a Warrior Dream with the Dream Nail during their defeat animation could freeze the game. Visual Optimization:
Fixed missing "white flames" on enemy corpses when killed by spells.
Small optimizations to enemy damage effects and object fader code. Gameplay Adjustments: Fury of the Fallen: Increased damage multiplier.
Cyclone Slash: Increased size and reduced knockback/recovery time.
Hatchlings/Flukes: Increased damage for Glowing Womb and Flukenest charms.
macOS Specifics: While this older version relied on Intel architecture (requiring Rosetta 2 for modern M-series Macs), it fixed a persistent bug where landing in water would freeze the Knight in place. System & Troubleshooting
If you are experiencing issues on macOS with this or newer builds:
Crash Handling: Memory leaks identified in some macOS environments (PID 1031) may trigger core dumps; restarting the game or switching to a stable branch is recommended. Preventing Error 1031 in the Future
Save File Location: macOS save files are typically found at ~/Library/Application Support/unity.Team-Cherry.Hollow Knight/.
Recent Updates: Note that as of February 2026, newer builds of Hollow Knight have added native Apple Silicon support, significantly improving performance and controller compatibility on M1/M2/M3/M4 Macs.
For detailed changelogs, you can refer to the official Steam community update notes or the community-maintained Hollow Knight Changelog.
Are you looking to troubleshoot a specific crash or are you interested in modding this particular version on your Mac? Help - Hollow Knight: Silksong
~/Library/Application Support/Team Cherry – it corrupts preferences.unity.Team Cherry plist file before the first launch post-update.If you have an older Apple machine, this is your golden ticket. Here are the exact requirements for this version:
| Component | Minimum Requirement | Recommended | |-----------|--------------------|--------------| | OS | OS X 10.9 Mavericks | OS X 10.12 Sierra – 10.14 Mojave | | CPU | 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo | 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 | | RAM | 2 GB | 4 GB | | GPU | Intel HD Graphics 4000 (256 MB VRAM) | Intel Iris or NVIDIA GeForce 650M | | Storage | 9 GB | 9 GB (SSD preferred) | | Architecture | 32-bit or 64-bit (runs in 32-bit mode) | 64-bit macOS (but with 32-bit libs) |
Important: This version will not run on macOS Catalina (10.15) or newer unless you create a separate Mojave partition or use a virtual machine (not recommended due to input lag).
First, let’s decode the number. Version 1.0.3.1 (commonly shortened to 1031) was a critical patch released in early 2018. It followed the major "Hidden Dreams" and "The Grimm Troupe" content updates but preceded the massive "Lifeblood" and "Godmaster" expansions.
For Mac OS X users, 1031 represents the last stable, fully native, 32-bit build of the game that ran flawlessly on older Mac hardware without performance stutters or compatibility layers. Later versions (1.4 and up) introduced heavy graphical effects that older MacBooks (pre-2015) struggled with, or they required Metal API, leaving High Sierra and Mojave users behind.
Published by: The Indie Gamer’s Chronicle
Reading time: 7 minutes
If you are a fan of Metroidvania games, you have almost certainly heard of Hollow Knight. Dubbed the "Dark Souls of 2D platformers," this masterpiece from Team Cherry has haunted and delighted players since its 2017 release. But for Mac users, the journey has been a bit more... fragile. Between Apple’s shift to 64-bit architecture and the deprecation of OpenGL, a specific version has become legendary among macOS gamers: Hollow Knight 1031 for Mac OS X.
This article dives deep into what makes version 1031 special, why Mac users are hunting for it, how to get it running on modern and legacy systems, and a complete breakdown of its features.