Shovel Knight (Shovel Knight) Discussion: Steel Thy Shovel!

Shovel Knight is a fairly recent indie-developed side-scroller that has gained immense popularity. It draws many elements from classic NES and SNES games (MegaMan, Mario, DuckTales, Castlevania, among others), and features beautiful, NES-reminiscent sprites and art. The titular character himself is a short blue knight who wields, rather than a sword, the powerful, multi-purpose Shovel Blade. Over the course of his adventure, Shovel Knight acquires multiple 'Relics', essentially sub-weapons, to use both in combat and in traversing the levels. The game is masterfully crafted, and a must-play for anyone who enjoys side-scrollers of almost any kind. It's even been significantly expanded upon, with new features for all versions, as well as new campaigns that are, essentially, entire new games.

Shovel Knight himself would be a superb addition to the Crusade roster, as he fits in aesthetically, has a unique moveset drawn directly from the game, is heavily inspired by Nintendo games, and actually appears on Nintendo consoles (3DS, Wii U, and Switch). He's incredibly popular, his game is phenomenal, and he deserves a place in official Smash, let alone Crusade.

Jab/Combo: Shovel Knight swings his Shovel Blade repeatedly; can be done continuously. Can also reflect projectiles.
Side Tilt: Shovel Knight holds the Flare Wand and shoots a short-range spray of fireballs from it.
Up Tilt: Shovel Knight lifts his Blade and, like Phantom Striker, a lightning bolt strikes it, releasing several small blasts of electricity. However unlike Pikachu's up smash, the lightning is just one small bolt that comes down too quickly for any opponents to be hit. However, the waves emitted from the blade deal considerable damage, and are released in all up-ward directions.
Down Tilt: Shovel Knight performs a dig-like motion with the Shovel Blade, creating the Drop Spark that runs forward along the ground, traveling through enemies.

Forward Smash: Shovel Knight charges his Shovel Blade until it flashes blue and performs a powerful slash. The longer the charge is held, the stronger the slash, and Shovel knight can move around, slowly, with the full charge, but the button has to be held down.
Up Smash: Shovel Knight tosses a Throwing Anchor with a chain flailing behind it into the air that flies in a sharp arc. At full charge, it becomes the Tow Anchor (from Custom Knight), and Shovel Knight is carried with it. He can't be dealt knockback, but he can be damaged. The Tow Anchor deals significantly more damage than the Throwing Anchor.
Down Smash: Shovel Knight holds the War Horn beneath him and blows into it, creating a short sound blast that spreads below and to either him. The longer it's charged, the longer he holds the blast.

Neutral Special: Shovel Knight digs up a small pile of rocks, revealing a gem. This gem damages opponents by touching them, and can be knocked around by Shovel Knight. There are three types of gems that can be dug up. The blue gem, the smallest, does the least damage but flies the furthest. The yellow gem is slightly larger, does a bit more damage, but goes a shorter distance when struck. The biggest, the red gem, does the most damage but flies the shortest distance. Only three gems can exist on the screen at once, and which gem is dug up is random. There is a small chance that a chest will appear rather than a gem. Shovel Knight immediately opens the chest, and a random Item comes out.
Side Special: Shovel Knight throws a green Chaos Sphere that bounces off of terrain and enemies for a few seconds. Only one can exist at once.
Down Special: Shovel Knight puts down a Mobile Gear that sits there until either he or any other fighter steps on it's platform, at which point it drives forward with it's gear and knocks back enemies it hits. Like the Chaos Sphere, only one can exist at once.
Up Special/Recovery: Shovel Knight flies straight up into the air with the Rising Dagger (from Custom Knight). He can reuse the Rising Dagger if the blade hits an opponent, but is left helpless as he falls.

Neutral Air: Shovel Knight swings his Shovel Blade forward. Able to reflect projectiles.
Forward Air: Shovel Knight dashes to the side with the Dust Knuckles, going through opponents and doing no knockback. He can keep doing this repeatedly, but falls a little after each punch.
Backward Air: Shovel Knight throws one of Reize's blue boomerangs, which travels a short distance before coming back to Shovel Knight.
Up Air: Shovel Knight flips an Alchemy Coin above him, carrying enemies it hits into the air and creating a visual coin effect like Mario's coin punch.
Down Air:  Shovel Knight thrusts his Shovel Blade beneath him, spade pointing down, to perform the iconic pogo-shovel bounce. If he bounces off of an enemy or item, he's launched considerably high, and does damage.
Grab Air: Shovel Knight swings forward Baz's whip, which sparks a little with electricity.

Grab: Shovel Knight casts his Fishing Rod to 'catch' an opponent, and reels them in.
Forward Throw: Shovel Knight swaps his Fishing Rod out with his Shovel Blade and smacks the enemy out of the air.
Backward Throw: Shovel Knight holds the enemy behind him and punches them away with the Dust Knuckles.
Down Throw: Shovel Knight holds the opponent down and blares the War Horn into them, bouncing them off of the ground.
Up Throw: Shovel Knight throws the enemy up with the Fishing Rod.
Pummel: Shovel Knight hits the enemy with the Shovel Blade repeatedly.

Dash: Shovel Knight lunges with the Propeller Dagger outstretched, carrying him forward and damaging enemies hit by the blade.

Taunt: Shovel Knight rummages in a golden chest for a moment before holding up a bright purple gem.

Dodge: Shovel Knight holds the Phase Locket in his hand and becomes immaterial as he slides to the side.

Crouch: Shovel Knight bends his knees just enough to duck a few centimeters, at most. Literally useless.

Final Smash: Catch Her The camera pans up to show Black Knight standing on a platform in a white sky, with Shield Knight unconscious beside him. Black Knight gives his signature laugh as he throws her off the platform. When the camera focuses on the fighters again, the stage has been replaced with the plain, white area from Shovel Knight's dreams. Shovel Knight's goal is to catch Shield Knight, while his opponents are trying to stop him. During this time, Shovel Knight does much more damage and is resistant to enemy's damage and knockback. Once Shield Knight appears, falling from the top of the screen, time slows down. If Shovel Knight catches her (by either jumping into her or being under her when she lands), a white light flashes from the pair, obscuring the screen and sending all foes flying. If Shovel Knight fails to catch her, the same light flashes, but with significantly less knockback and damage done. Either way, once the white fades, Shovel Knight is sitting slumped against his Shovel Blade and wakes up to continue fighting.


(This is a fan-made 16-Bit Shovel Knight sprite, showing his different armors. These could obviously be his alternate colors, alongside the green Player 2/Toad Armor, the red and white Armor of Chaos, and maybe some of the palettes accessible through cheat codes)

Support List (21):

I defiantly support Shovel Knight, though I'm not a fan of his neutral special.

How about this?

Jewel digging: Shovel Knight digs the ground with his shovel, causing a piece of jewel to appear. You can have only 3 of them on the stage and they can damage the opponent by appearing from the soil, being touched by the opponent, or flying forward by Shovel Knight attacking them.

There are three types of Jewels:
Small: weakest, flies the furthest
Medium: neutral, flies furthest than big, but lowest than small
Big: Strongest, flies the lowest

Not a bad idea, I like it. Good, unique move. Considering it's mild similarity to the Side Tilt, do you think the Flare Wand should replace that (the side tilt, that is)? I know the fireball isn't the most original or interesting move, bu I'd like to find a way to incorporate all the relics, if possible. That said, I won't insist if you think the current Side Tilt is significantly better than the Flare Wand.

In my opinion, I do believe that the flare wand would be the side-tilt. Though, the current side-tile is also good.

Edit: If you decide to keep the flare rod as a neutral special, At least make it that you can only shoot two until they are not on the screen, so I won't just be a bland projectile attack.

Added the Jewel attack as the Neutral Special and the Flare Wand as the Side Tilt in the OP.

I like the Jewel digging move. But how about creating a dirt pile instead? Similar to Villager's Timber, pressing B again will send a small jewel flying forward, digging once more will make a slightly bigger jewel appear and digging one final time makes the dirt pile disappear and a big gem bounces off, dealing massive damage.

Also, IMO the War Horn should be his Final Smash. The War anchor could be his up smash instead. Makes more sense to me.

Mellon wrote:

I like the Jewel digging move. But how about creating a dirt pile instead? Similar to Villager's Timber, pressing B again will send a small jewel flying forward, digging once more will make a slightly bigger jewel appear and digging one final time makes the dirt pile disappear and a big gem bounces off, dealing massive damage.

Also, IMO the War Horn should be his Final Smash. The War anchor could be his up smash instead. Makes more sense to me.

The War Horn as his final smash sounds really boring compared to what Naughty has right now. It looks cooler to see, and incorporates with Black Knight. The War Horn does not have these factors, all he does is blow on the horn and that's just it.

VultureDuck wrote:

Mellon wrote:

I like the Jewel digging move. But how about creating a dirt pile instead? Similar to Villager's Timber, pressing B again will send a small jewel flying forward, digging once more will make a slightly bigger jewel appear and digging one final time makes the dirt pile disappear and a big gem bounces off, dealing massive damage.

Also, IMO the War Horn should be his Final Smash. The War anchor could be his up smash instead. Makes more sense to me.

The War Horn as his final smash sounds really boring compared to what Naughty has right now. It looks cooler to see, and incorporates with Black Knight. The War Horn does not have these factors, all he does is blow on the horn and that's just it.

The war horn would be a logical final smash, as it's an actual strong move in the game, but you're right. It's pretty lame. All I have to say is...

Crash Kirby.

A popular idea I've seen, that I feel adds more to the character while essentially doing the same thing, is a recreation of Shovel Knight's nightmares that I call "-CATCH HER-".
Basically, activating the Final Smash causes the camera to roll up high to see Shield Knight falling from the night sky.
The camera returns to see Shovel Knight and his opponents in the same area his nightmares take place, Shovel Knight's main objective is to catch Shield Knight, whereas his opponents must prevent him from doing so. Shovel Knight is much more damage and knockback resistant during this dream, and his attacks do more knockback than usual too to keep his opponents at bay. Once Shield Knight appears on the screen time slowed and Shovel Knight must catch her. If he succeeds a white light flashes from the two of them, acting somewhat like an explosion of sorts, that sends foes flying. If he misses her, the same "explosion" occurs but it doesn't not do nearly as enough damage and knockback. Either way, once the move ends Shovel Knight appears slumped up against his Shovel Blade and awakens from his dream.

Wow, that's actually a superb Final Smash idea! Way better, in my opinion, than the Black Knight Final Smash I had, which is now replaced by Catch Her.

I support this fine Knight!

I really like Shovel Knight. Best game of 2014 to me. Though, a few comments:

- That down smash sounds good in theory, but it's pretty much identical to Villager's forward smash in SSB4... which doesn't make much sense as a down smash. The fishing rod is already present in his grab, so why not find something else? Not every move has to be taken directly from the game, so get creative. (Hell, speaking of Villager, his down smash involves a shovel too!) I'd actually be in favor of making the war horn his down smash (as players tend to use down smash to hit all sides) and finding something else for up smash, but whatever works.

- All 3 tilts are projectiles. I feel like we can be a bit more creative with these - we don't need to be exact. As an example, take a look at Mega Man's moves in SSB4 - Top Spin was only usable in the air, air shooter shot 3 projectiles that went forward, spark shock was a projectile, etc. Surely something can be done. As an idea, why can't Shovel Knight use some of the moves of his fellow knights? A dash attack from King Knight, an anchor on a chain from Treasure Knight, etc.

I really like that new final smash, but that brings up the issue of his up special also utilizing Shield Knight. Maybe we could swap that with Black Knight (with his wings). If for no other reason, just so we can hear his laugh.

Roy wrote:

I really like that new final smash, but that brings up the issue of his up special also utilizing Shield Knight. Maybe we could swap that with Black Knight (with his wings). If for no other reason, just so we can hear his laugh.

Propeller Dagger works as an easy replacement, but you'd have to "Sakurai" the move a bit.

AEM wrote:

Propeller Dagger works as an easy replacement, but you'd have to "Sakurai" the move a bit.

I assume by "Sakurai it", you mean "give it a functionality it didn't have at all in the actual game"? I won't rule out this as a potential replacement for the recovery, but I like the idea of Black Knight more. Maybe, instead of giving Shovel Knight a platform to jump off of, he could grab him and glide into the air with his wings, and Shovel Knight could jump up and off at any point.

I do agree that the War Horn is better off as the Down Smash. As for the Up Smash, what if one of the four wandering travelers (Reize, Baz, Mr. Hat, and Phantom Striker) appeared beside Shovel Knight and flew straight up till they were off the screen, knocking back enemies and leaving a streak of either blue, white, brown, or gold lightning(depending on the traveler) in their wake that deals damage but not knockback while it still remains.

The tilts, though, while I thought representing all the Relics would be good, you're probably right that drawing inspiration from the Order of No Quarter is a better way to go. But which knights do you think would be the best? It makes sense to me to make it the three that are going to be playable (King Knight, Plague Knight, and Specter Knight), and Specter Knight's spinning scythe-throw is something I'd love to include in the moveset in some way or another, but it seems a little too similar to a couple of Krystal's attacks. What do you think?

His Up smash could be throwing the War Anchor in an O-shaped arch, and the Dust Knuckles work perfectly as his dash attack IMO.

Naughty Ottsel wrote:

I assume by "Sakurai it", you mean "give it a functionality it didn't have at all in the actual game"? I won't rule out this as a potential replacement for the recovery, but I like the idea of Black Knight more. Maybe, instead of giving Shovel Knight a platform to jump off of, he could grab him and glide into the air with his wings, and Shovel Knight could jump up and off at any point.

I do agree that the War Horn is better off as the Down Smash. As for the Up Smash, what if one of the four wandering travelers (Reize, Baz, Mr. Hat, and Phantom Striker) appeared beside Shovel Knight and flew straight up till they were off the screen, knocking back enemies and leaving a streak of either blue, white, brown, or gold lightning(depending on the traveler) in their wake that deals damage but not knockback while it still remains.

The tilts, though, while I thought representing all the Relics would be good, you're probably right that drawing inspiration from the Order of No Quarter is a better way to go. But which knights do you think would be the best? It makes sense to me to make it the three that are going to be playable (King Knight, Plague Knight, and Specter Knight), and Specter Knight's spinning scythe-throw is something I'd love to include in the moveset in some way or another, but it seems a little too similar to a couple of Krystal's attacks. What do you think?

That's what I was thinking for the Black Knight, allowing him to jump away to continue his assault.

Hm... the wandering travelers could work into the moveset, but I don't like that generic 'something appears and flies up' just to fit in a cameo.

We can still represent all of the relics, we just gotta be more creative. For example, think of the fire wand less as a projectile and more as a fire wand. What's stopping him from holding it out as a flamethrower?

Mellon wrote:

His Up smash could be throwing the War Anchor in an O-shaped arch, and the Dust Knuckles work perfectly as his dash attack IMO.

I like this idea, we could put it on a chain so it represents both the anchor and Treasure Knight. That also frees up his up tilt, maybe it could be scythe related? Dust Knuckles being dash attack could work... probably better than as bair, but maybe there's a better option.

Roy wrote:

I like this idea, we could put it on a chain so it represents both the anchor and Treasure Knight. That also frees up his up tilt, maybe it could be scythe related? Dust Knuckles being dash attack could work... probably better than as bair, but maybe there's a better option.

I'll concede that the Dust Knuckles might be better suited for a dash (either that or the Propeller Dagger), though that would leave a F/B-Air empty. Perhaps in place of one of those, Shovel Knight could fire a cannon like the ones seen in Propeller Knight's stage that knocks him in the opposite direction and launches a fast-moving cannonball.

I really like the idea of the flamethrower Flare Wand, but if that were incorporated, do you think it should be a normal fire effect like Bowser's fire breath, or a short-ranged spray of fireballs? I suppose either would work essentially the same way. Another idea for the Flare Wand that I had, which you can take however you may, is that Shovel Knight could ignite a string of fire-spheres from the Flare Wand (think Contra boss arms) and swing it like a flame whip (a la Castlevania). The flamethrower idea is probably better, this is just something I think could be doe with it.

Also, are you suggesting the Throwing Anchor be connected to a chain, which is in turn held by Shovel Knight, and Shovel Knight stands in place until it comes back down to him, or would the chain just be a visual effect? If the chain is just flailing behind the Anchor, could it also damage enemies it happens to lash along the way?

For the Up Smash or Up Tilt, I was thinking it could be Shovel Knight knocking one of Plague Knight's potions up, which can then still be batted around until it hits an opponent or the stage itself, and occasionally it will be a multicolored potion that has a larger blast upon impact and sends out small shockwaves. Another idea I had for the up tilt would incorporate Phantom Striker's lightning attack with Shovel Knight lifting his Blade and a blot striking and releasing several small blasts of electricity. However unlike Pikachu's up smash, the lightning is just one small bolt that comes down too quickly for any opponents to be hit. Rather, the waves that are emitted do considerable damage, and are released in all up-ward directions above Shovel Knight. Which do you think is better, or what do you think the Up Smash or Up Tilt should be?

- Not sure I like the cannon idea. It's not like any of the knights ever used it as a weapon, and I feel like it would be too similar to Jr's neutral special. Dust Knuckles are already present in a throw, so I'm not sure it really needs to be represented elsewhere.

- Short range spray of fireballs sounds cooler. A flame whip could work, but I feel like that would be more suited to a Mega Man character.

- Basically that for the anchor, just a visual effect. If you've played as Mega Man in SSF2, think of his down smash (Knight Crush, the ball and chain).

- Hm... both of those ideas are pretty neat. The potion sounds more like a special, though... I'd be in favor of the small lightning for the up tilt.



This probably goes without saying, but his neutral A and neutral aerial attacks should be able to reflect projectiles.

I loved the game, but couldn't finish it, because it's too hard :(

I support this though. The character is awesome.

Okay, so I added the flamethrower functionality to the Flare Wand, made the Down Smash the War Horn, made the Up Smash the Throwing Anchor with chain, made the Up Tilt Phantom Striker's lightning attack, and clarified on the ability to reflect projectiles with the more basic attacks.

On the topic of replacing the dash, Propeller Dagger would work just as fine as the Dust Knuckles. That still would leave the question of the Forward Air, though. Propeller Knight did, in a way, use it as a weapon, by calling his airship to fire cannonballs at you during his fight. It's a bit of a stretch, I'll admit. But as for being too similar to one of Bowser Jr.'s moves, is he confrmed for Crusade or something?

He's not confirmed, but it is a stretch while not being that unique. If the Propeller Dagger is his dash attack, I'd suggest moving the dust knuckles to his forward air. That does leave the backwards air, but there's probably something good for it... what if he swung around a trouple? There is also the missing chalices.

Another note, can we make his aerial grab (the tether recovery since his normal grab is a tether) the whip from Kaz?

I don't think the chalices would work all that well as moves, considering they're all passive effects. As items, though, they'd be great.

What if, for the Backwards Air, Shovel Knight threw one of Reize's blue boomerangs? It could either travel a ways and then disappear, or actually fly back to him as he fell. It makes sense to represent Reize since the other two Wandering Travelers(not including Mr. Hat, if he even counts) are being represented.

Also, I added Baz's whip as the Aerial Grab. I actually forgot pressing the grab button in mid-air did anything until you said that.

That works, though it should be a fairly short distance (less than Villager's slingshot).

Okay, made the changes to the F-Air, B-Air and Dash.

Mellon wrote:

Plus, in Dark Pit's trophy, it says nothing about him saving the day in Uprising.

God dammit

Hm, didn't think about spoilers before, I kind of just assumed that Smash games don't care about spoilers so neither should we (if Black Knight wings are a spoiler, I think all of the relics are spoilers as well). However, that's a pretty good idea for his up special... not sure how well it would work in practice, though.

The down special would drop until it hits the ground, then stay stationary until someone gets on top of it. I wonder if a good Shovel Knight player would be able to deploy it and bounce off of it to recover?

I have an idea for an addition to the neutral special: why not have it so there's a rare chance of having a treasure chest appear? The chest itself could cause very high knockback, and can be opened for a random item.

Wow, that's an awesome idea, Mellon! Sorry for the spoiler. Like Roy, I didn't really consider that. But I like the idea of putting Black Knight in the Final Smash, having him give that lovely laugh of his while throwing Shield Knight to the ground. And the thought of having him stand on Master Hand is priceless! Genuine question, who all is in favor of actually having that?

Before I make the changes, what were you referring to with the "I-jump-drill-thing move" you suggested to be the Down Air?

Roy explained the mid-air Down Special better than I could. Kudos!

Pakeli: Not a bad idea! As long as it's a very small chance of occurring, then it won't make him potentially unbalanced, and I can see some great situations coming from the random item mechanic.

Naughty Ottsel wrote:

Wow, that's an awesome idea, Mellon! Sorry for the spoiler. Like Roy, I didn't really consider that. But I like the idea of putting Black Knight in the Final Smash, having him give that lovely laugh of his while throwing Shield Knight to the ground. And the thought of having him stand on Master Hand is priceless! Genuine question, who all is in favor of actually having that?

Before I make the changes, what were you referring to with the "I-jump-drill-thing move" you suggested to be the Down Air?

Roy explained the mid-air Down Special better than I could. Kudos!

This was the only footage I could find...it's at 15:08. (He also says Shovel Knight for Smash Bros. at the end :3) Black knight jumps up diagonally, like with the Bowser Bomb, and dives straight down, like Toon Link's Dair. When I said "/I", I was trying to recreate the attack arc in letters...guess it didn't go so well.

As for the mobile gear...it reminds me a bit of Pac-Man's Down B in SSB4. Will it deal damage on the way down like that move, too? Or will it fall slow enough to let Shovel Knight land on it?

Finally, I just thought of something. What if, when Classic mode is added again, Shovel Knight fights Master Hand...and when he uses his Final Smash, Master hand is suddenly up in the sky for some reason. How do we solve this? Crazy hand? Tabuu? PROPELLER KNIGHT!?