Shovel Knight: Plauge/Shovel of Shadows/Hope - final - TVSVUEIO

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

raocow's having as much fun as I anticipated, and I'm glad he isn't missing many secrets from the first time through each stage.
His way through those gryphons is now my headcanon for Plague Knight;

he just skipped them so Shovel Knight had to deal with them a few minutes later.

King Knight is an introductory boss as always, and isn't too difficult at all.

As a side note, that animation of wiggling into that space is amazing. Never gets old.

[heycallmeZe]

Curious to see how raocow fares with that.

The same way he handles all customization: he'll find one combo he likes well enough early on and never change to anything else.

And from what I recall, that's not gonna work.

The tragedy of raocow.

But yeah, lob casing is cheap because it's really useful: It's a great way to throw upward. Useful against air enemies. Sentry casing, while useful at times, will bite you in the butt in the long run because its "range" is so short.

[Lockirby2]

I really like Lob Casing. Being able to throw upwards is a very nice option to have. I found the Sentry Fuse annoying because my bombs would stay onscreen if I missed, and not allow me to defend myself anymore. Float Burst is amazing for making the platforming easier, and on my first run I used it pretty much all the time (although it's a slow movement option). I didn't like Bullet Burst that much, but it's probably useful for a bunch of things.

[Willhart]

Here is a slowed down version of the door entering animation, since that looks pretty neat.

Also a bonus joke (safe for raocow to see):

[Blue]

Pauldrons are the bit that covers the shoulder and armpit.

Here's a handy diagram.

[Sebby19]

The powerup up that let's your bombs explode flames left and right seem most useful.

[Divemissile]

shovel knight again! personally, i find plague knight the most awkward to play of the 3 playable knights. something about how combat turns into mash the attack button until you win and the jumping being a little weird. i should play it again, but whatever. still a really good game imo

[Joseph Staleknight]

Because pyrite's other name is way too obvious.

King Knight may have been a joke in Shovel of Hope, but here he's an even bigger joke--especially when you get the Big Boom from Chester and some sentry bombs for the fool to run into. All that's really remarkable about him is how he might be handled in his own campaign, and that's not for another few months at best.

Speaking of Chester, you can simply ignore the side passages with the Relics and get to his blue chest. It's still a good idea to find them anyway. Otherwise, Chester will charge you a hefty sum for the Arcana since he's pretty sure you'll scam him with fake gold. Wouldn't be the first time an alchemist had swindled him, right?

As for that missing music sheet in the Village/Potionarium...

have you tried being a jerk to Oolong?

[Alice]

The same way he handles all customization: he'll find one combo he likes well enough early on and never change to anything else.

And avoid even trying an upgrade he bought simply because it sounds like it wouldn't be useful. Instead of, you know, doing the logical thing and giving it a try first to see how it works out in reality.

[Tenlade]

King Knight may have been a joke in Shovel of Hope, but here he's an even bigger joke--especially when you get the Big Boom from Chester and some sentry bombs for the fool to run into. All that's really remarkable about him is how he might be handled in his own campaign, and that's not for another few months at best.

To be fair, plague knight turns all bosses into a joke because its really easy to bomb enemies into a corner and get them caught in a loop (also none of these bosses were designed with the concept of you having infinite ranged attacks.)

also, finding a favorite type of bomb and sticking to it isnt so bad in this game. I pretty much spent the entire game equipped with component powder since its just really good for clearing out enemies.

[raekuul]

I'm going to be the weirdo here and say "my favorite combination is the starter set, yes even the basic burst."

I'm sure there's a way to chain float bursts, but I prefer having my bursts back over gently floating down.

[Lockirby2]

The Smoke Bomb also makes it really easy to trounce bosses. Its invincibility lingers for so long that you can basically just stand inside the boss and throw bombs at them for a while.

That being said, none of the bosses were really that hard with Shovel Knight either, IMO.

The starter set is really pretty good, and I use it a lot unless I see a good reason to switch. Although I don't use Basic Burst much unless it's all I have.

[ACesspoolofHatred]

remember raocow

two minutes

[raekuul]

Yay I finally got to see MILK take on the King Butt stage.

...Float Burst! Yeah!

I understand why people enjoy using the Float Burst, it's a really useful one (and from a utility standpoint is probably the best of the non-standard bursts). The problem is that it prevents you from charging another burst while you're floating down. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (particularly on a first run of the Plague Butt story), I'm just more a fan of chain bursting my way through basically everything.

In other news, I replayed this stage today and finally got the feat for beating an Order member using only burst damage ("Bomb Jump Blitz"). Which is odd because I thought I had that one already, but whatever.

[Grounder]

i think rao was a zombie while playing this time

[SAJewers]

raocow, you were starting to get at the start there, but from what I recall from watching LoadingReadyRun stream it, Plague Knight is largely designed around switching your Casing/Power/Fuse to suit your situation. You'll want to get used to that.

[raekuul]

And of course Spectre Butt's stage video is ready just as I post before. And the first thing that happens in Lich Yard is pretty much why I don't use the sentry fuse - there's a fair amount of trying to go down narrow tunnels in the game. It works better for Butt Butt, who can simply downstab, but the other Butts have to improvise. The good news is that a burst can break dirt blocks you're standing on.

Yeah, coins embedded in walls is just an indicator of "hey here's a new side section for Plague Butt," and the side paths loop back to the main path.

If you don't get the stage relic beforehand, you can still get the Arcana - you just have to pay for it.

The one dark screen with the cipher frog and music paper is really fun to try and chain burst through. You can burst your way up past the dark room with the spike floor death zone but NOT with the float burst (or if you can you need to be super precise with it). Arcana is like Stamina from the newer Zelda games - if you drain it dry it has to fully refill before you can Arcana again.

Spectre Butt is a really good boss to showcase the Lob Casing with. Sentry Fuse is probably a good fuse to use against this guy, now that I think about it.

@SAJewers:

What about with the Panda Cloak, where you can't control what you have to use? I love using that thing.

[ACesspoolofHatred]

oh no you forgot

my perfect troll job is ruined forever

[raocow]

I didn't know it was THEN.
I understand not wanting to spoil anything but...

[Zephyr_DragonLord]

...Because the other option would be way too obvious.

First of all, two tips for the cranky cow. You did decently on that stage, by the way. (It's a common quitting point for non-fans as well, including that one famous blogger...)

1.) Those ghosts do not have a hitbox when you hit them until they fully reform. This doesn't come up much more, but will make it easier to work around them and reposition yourself to dodge them.

2.) Your burst does damage to surrounding enemies with the initial blast. It's hardly reliable for damage, but it is real good as a get away from foes maneuver.

And yes, you get an achievement for staying up there for the full dance. Titled "Creep". ...I love this games' meta humor. I just love this game in general.

My general loadout, for the curious, was basic, except for the Float Burst, which is nearly as fast as the basic, but gives much more control. Very easy to do exactly what you want. There's another burst really late on that I loved too, but that one is also liable to kill Plague Knight in certain fashions. My advice regarding that is to watch for blocks in the future. You may just hit your only chance at survival away with the wrong setup...

[Lockirby2]

I stopped using the Float Burst eventually when I started learning Plague Knight's mechanics a bit more. The Float Burst is somewhat like training wheels for a bike; they help you at first, but eventually they just slow you down. I used it the entire first playthrough though (and I don't regret that decision), so I'm not advocating for raocow to switch just yet!

Plague of Shadows has fewer songs available at the bard/Oolong than Shovel of Hope. Therefore, not all of the original music sheets from Shovel of Hope are available as songs at Oolong. If a music sheet can be played by Oolong, Percy will say "it has musical notation on both sides!" and toss it away into Oolong's funnel thing. If a music sheet cannot be played by Oolong, Percy will use it as scrap paper and give you a "romance tip" as a reward alongside the 500 coin prize. That's why Percy's dialogue was different in this episode.

[Joseph Staleknight]

Kind of an apropriate episode,

considering Fios here smells like zombies right now

.

Anyway, I had some issues dodging Specty's scythe in my initial runs due to Plague's crap basic jumps, but once you get a good boss-eating combo going (Component Powder and Big Booms) it's not too difficult. The Lob Casing also helps since it reaches high to hit SK from the ground. Overall, not too shabby of a boss fight.

EDIT: Okay, finally got to watch the full episode now that my internet's back. Boy howdy, if only I knew how even more appropriate today's level was.

[Tenlade]

float kinda backfires after a while, because you cant do another explosion in midair so it can prevent you from recovering occasionally as today demonstrates.

As already mentioned, lob casing is great here, and basically anywhere else something is annoyingly above you. For extra fun combine Lob with Long fuse to have bombs that are functionally the castlevania axe( a shame there's no casings to have them phase through the floor )

[Bean]

Let's be honest with this naming series. Mega Man X weapons exist to be mostly ignored.

[raocow]

by making them the naming scheme of this series, I finally gave them purpose