Nine Sols is not a short game. It’s also not a 60-hour behemoth. If you’re trying to figure out whether you have time for it between work, sleep, and whatever else life keeps throwing at you, here’s the honest answer from someone who got through it without speedrunning or skipping the dialogue.
The Short Answer
Most players finish the main story in about 20 hours. If you poke around, do the side content, and die a reasonable amount to the harder bosses, you’re closer to 25 hours. A full 100% run with every ending and all the Jin collection stuff lands around 30 to 35 hours.
That’s the whole range. Everything else in this post is just context on what actually fills those hours and whether they’re worth it if you only get to play a few evenings a week.
What Counts in Those Hours?
Nine Sols is a 2D action platformer with deflect-based combat and a metroidvania map. The clock runs while you’re:
- Exploring the map and unlocking new areas
- Dying to bosses (this is a real category, more on that below)
- Watching the story unfold (it’s good, don’t skip)
- Grinding a bit for Jin to upgrade your gear
- Doing the NPC quests in Tien Shou Village
What doesn’t eat time: there’s no open-world padding, no filler crafting loops, and the map is dense rather than huge. If you’re the type who hates games that waste your time, Nine Sols respects you pretty well.
Main Route: About 20 Hours
If you play straight through, deflect your way past most fights, and only do the sidequests the game puts right in your path, you’ll finish the main story in the 18 to 22 hour range.
Where that time actually goes: maybe 12 to 14 hours of exploration and platforming, 4 to 6 hours stuck on the harder bosses (Goumang, Ji, and the final act will eat runs), and the rest on cutscenes, menus, and backtracking when you unlock new traversal abilities.
If you’re a confident platformer player coming off Hollow Knight or Sekiro, shave a few hours off that. If combat’s not your usual genre, add a few.
Side Content Adds About 5 Hours
The sidequests in Tien Shou Village are worth doing. They flesh out the cast, unlock a couple of late-game options, and change the ending you get. None of them are fetch-quest busywork.
There are also optional bosses tucked behind the map that drop meaningful upgrades. Some are genuinely harder than anything on the main path. Budget 4 to 6 extra hours if you’re doing all of this.
100% Completion: 30 to 35 Hours
To hit true 100% you need every ending (which means multiple playthroughs, or one NG+ cycle using the game’s chapter select), every Jin Coin, every upgrade node, and the secret bosses. The ending variations are actually narratively different, not just a different cutscene, so it’s worth doing at least the true ending run.
If you’re not a completionist, you’re not missing critical content. The true ending adds a meaningful coda but the “good” ending is still a complete story.
How Nine Sols Compares to Hollow Knight and Silksong
Nine Sols is shorter and more focused than Hollow Knight (40 to 60 hours for most players) and closer in length to Silksong (20 to 30 hours for the main path).
- vs. Hollow Knight: Roughly half the length. Smaller, denser map. More story, less wandering. Combat is deflect-based instead of dodge-and-stab.
- vs. Silksong: Similar length. Nine Sols has a stronger narrative pull and a more specific setting. Silksong has more traversal variety and a larger world.
- vs. Sekiro: If deflect combat is what sold you on Sekiro, Nine Sols scratches that exact itch in 2D for about a third of the playtime.
For busy adults, Nine Sols hits a sweet spot: long enough to feel like a real metroidvania investment, short enough that you can actually finish it in a few weeks of evening sessions.
Is It Worth the Time If You Only Get a Few Hours a Week?
Yes, with one caveat. Nine Sols handles drop-in gameplay well. You can save anywhere at a Root Node (the game’s equivalent of a bonfire), and picking it back up after a week away isn’t too hard because the map is readable and you’ve usually got a clear next objective.
The caveat: the harder bosses punish inconsistent practice. If you’re stuck on Ji or the final boss and you only play 90 minutes on a Tuesday, expect a couple of sessions of pure frustration before your deflect timing clicks back in. That’s not unique to Nine Sols, but it’s worth knowing before you start.
If you want a similar aesthetic with less commitment, our piece on when to drop Nine Sols covers the mental side of this honestly. And if you’re trying to figure out which short metroidvania is worth your limited hours, our short games guide has a few picks.
The Fast Answer
About 20 hours for the main story, 25 with side content, 30 to 35 for 100%. Drop-in friendly except during boss walls. One of the better time-to-payoff ratios in the genre. Worth it.
