Fair. Act 1 is fairly tough but one can still go through the mist to skip last judge at least which is where most struggle.

Though that’s quite well hidden and very few people will find that without some Google help. I’d also argue that it’s probably harder to go through Sinner’s Road and Mist than fighting Last Judge, though YMMV.

It goes from 5 dmg --> 9 dmg --> 13 dmg.

That didn’t match my experience, I did a lot of tests after getting the first upgrade and it definitely didn’t cut down the hits by that much.

So I was looking into that and according to tests made by a redditor there’s some kind of “damage reduction” stat in place that negates some of that buff. Their page is a work-in-progress but they’re documenting the exact damage and # of hits to kill each enemy with each upgrade.

https://raiderking.com/hollow-knight-silksong-all-enemy-health-values-skill-and-needle-upgrade-damage-values/