Work with me here. Plenty of people don’t freaking understand how the timeline actually works and I don’t blame them; the games aren’t even fully consistent. I was going to make this a long form video but didn’t have the time, so you’re stuck with this mock-up graphic I made. Now, get ready for me to mumble about how this freaking works, because this is a long read.
 
Hundreds of years ago, seemingly from a shooting star from space, the Enchantress appears upon the Valley, seemingly some sort of extraterrestrial being. She wracked havoc in the valley until one individual used 6 gemstones known as the “stones of fate” to seal her deep underground.
 
Drill Knight and Scrap Knight make an alliance to find treasure, with Scrap Knight finding a map that would lead them to a secret weapon/treasure within the tower of fate. The problem is that they can’t access it conventionally, so Drill knight makes a plan. There are 6 gemstones apparently needed to access the vault, and they must be placed within points deep underground. They were able to get 6, but in order to go deeper they need the gems in place. He Recruits 4 other Knights, Spore Knight, Mole Knight, Tinker Knight and Hive Knight to join his new team: The Hexcavators. Some joined in for the promised cut, while Tinker Knight mainly did it to test his skills. 
 
Drill Knight is aware of Shovel Knight and even planned him to have the final gem they needed; however, the latter doesn’t actually know who Drill Knight is. Tinker Knight had apparently never met or heard of Shovel Knight until Dig, this being their canonical introduction to one another. The same applies to Spore Knight. Surprisingly, Shovel Knight and Scrap Knight are already aquatinted with one another, Shovel Knight asking why she is even here. We don’t know how these two met in the past.
 
Let’s clear this up: King of cards doesn’t take place before Specter of Torment: it takes place midway through it. The timeline has to go like this:
The Hexcavators are defeated by shovel Knight, with Shovel, Shield, Drill, Scrap, Tinker, Mole, Hive and Spore Knight all learning of the Enchantress and the Amulet. Shield Knight and Shovel Knight then bow to go and destroy the amulet so no one would be destroyed by that dark power like Drill Knight nearly was. Word & Rumours of the amulet spreads across the Valley, this being the first time it has been unearthed. 
Donovan and Luan both go after the Amulet to use its power to protect Luans son, Rieze, while Shield Knight and Shovel Knight are also there to destroy it. Shield Knight fights Donovan who is slowly becoming corrupted by the Amulet and desperately tries to retrieve it, even knocking away Luan. Both fall as the tower collapses, leaving Shield Knight to now be possessed by the amulet. Luan dies from his injuries and the fall while Donovan is on deaths door. The enchantress proceeds to give him an ultimatum to serve her to save him from certain death, and have him recruit 8 knights to serve her, in exchange for his full life. 
 
Spontaneously, Joustus gains a boon of popularity and things pick up from there.
 
What many confuse here is what happy after. Many think king of cards in its entirety takes place before Specter of torment, but that simply isn’t possible. In King of cards, as King Knight first encounters Specter Knight, Specter Knight attempts to guide King Knight in order to make him align with the enchantress later but ends up becoming so annoyed that he decides to trade blows. He uses the following Curios: Dread Talons, Bouncing Souls, Spider Scythe & Judgement rush. He is only able to gain access to these abilities after facing Black Knight, Plague Knight, Polar Knight and Propeller Knight. For these reasons, King of cards can’t possibly take place beforehand. This makes sense as alongside this, we see Propeller Knight working with the Enchantress to take down the glide wing and Plague Knight willingly destroy the houses of Joustus on orders of King Knight. In their second fight in the border bluffs, Specter Knight uses the throwing Sickles and the Skeleton Sentry, the latter he unlocks after fighting Phantom Striker. Since Phantom Striker exclaims to king knight that he caught “another ghost”, there is a chance he is referring to Specter Knight, meaning that he had fought Specter Knight before King Knight. At the credits of King of Cards, we see Tinker Knight, Mole Knight and Polar Knight all arriving to the tower of fate, meaning that Mole and Tinker Knight are recruited during King of cards. So, the timeline must go like this:
 
Specter Knight fights Black Knight & Terropin. Black Knight refuses to join the order.
 
Specter Knight fights Plague Knight
Plague Knight, surprisingly, joins the order (perhaps with ulterior motives in mind…) becoming the first Knight of the order
 
Specter Knight fights Polar Knight
Polar Knight Joins the order, acknowledging that Specter and the Enchantress are stronger than he is. He becomes the 2nd Knight.
 
Specter Knight fights Propeller Knight
Propeller Knight is strong armed into joining the order, becoming its 3rd Knight
 
King Knight fights Specter Knight
Specter Knight fights Phantom Striker
Phantom Striker refuses to join the order and flees.
 
King Knight fights Baz
King Knight fights Phantom Striker
King Knight fights King Pridemoor
King Knight fights Mole Knight
King Knight fights Treasure Knight
King Knight fights Percy and Plague Knight
King Knight fights Troupple King
King Knight fights Mr Hat
King Knight fights Tinker Knight (who is currently evicted from his tower)
King Knight fights Propeller Knight
King Knight fights Specter Knight again
Specter Knight fights Mole Knight
Mole Knight, originally unwilling to join, is forced to become a member of the order, becoming its 4th Knight
 
King Knight fights King Birder
King Knight fights Giga Cardia
Specter Knight fights Tinker Knight who just got his tower back. He is forced to follow Mole Knights example and join the order, becoming the 5th Knight
 
King Knight fights the enchantress and then The Grand Triumvirate. He then joins the Enchantress and becomes the 6th Knight of the Order of No Quarter.
 
Mr hat and his shop falls into pridemoor where many more people can see his wares.
 
In king of cards credits, it shows the dark Acolyte still being active during Specter Knights campaign at this point…?
 
Reize breaks into the Tower of fate, Specter Knight fights Dark Reize and he then replaces the Dark Acolyte.
 
Baz robs Mr hat of armour he has displayed in his shop.
 
Specter Fights Treasure Knight, who is actually completely willing to join the order, however, needs good enough proof that his money would be well protected and trusted in the Enchantress’s hands. After Specter Knights demonstration, he joins the order, becoming its 7th Knight.
 
Baz breaks into the tower to join their ranks, then is swiftly told to scram.
 
Specter Knight goes to pridemoor castle and fights King Knight, due to him being behind on schedule and lazing about in his knew castle.
 
Specter Knight learns the enchantress was actually Shield Knight and goes to take revenge. Dark Acolyte is freed.
 
He fights Black Knight and Terropin again, Terropin taking a bad him and being put of commission.
 
Before his final confrontation, Red, Dark Acolyte, Missy, Legion, Manny and Horace all decide to help Specter Knight depose the enchantress, by attempting to lock her in the mirror of Fate. This backfires horribly, causing many across to the land to be trapped into the mirror and temporarily splitting Shield Knight from the Enchantress and Reize from his dark Counterpart. It is noted that while Shield Knight is aware while she is the enchantress, Rieze is basically sleep and had no idea what was happening until he suddenly woke up in the mirror. Showdown takes place here. 
 
While at first thinking it is a dream as he has had multiple nightmares of trying and failing to save Shield Knight, Shovel Knight learns that Shield Knight is actually still alive thanks to the mirror splitting her from the Enchantress. 
 
A Liquid Samurai within the Enchantress’s ranks of many, learns of Plague Knights and Mona’s plans to gather essence for some sort of potion, retroactively explaining Plague Knights allegiance to the order and goes on to plan to inform the Enchantress.
 
Specter Knight has an aneurysm by being in the same vicinity of King Knight for more than 1 Millisecond.
 
The mirror of fate is broken by “insert individual here” at some point, freeing all who were captured… except for Shield Knight and Reize.
 
Specter Knight fights the Enchantress and Nightmares Reize. Specter Knight sacrifices his promise of life to save Reize, becoming the 8th Knight of the Enchantress’s order.
 
Despite having 8 Knights, the Enchantress is not satisfied and still wants 9, still wanting Black Knight to join the order.
 
Baz repays his dept to mr Hat for stealing the armour by mopping his floors and deciding he doesn’t need the stupid order.
 
Phantom Striker goes on to find a warrior who could stop the order, as his strength has waned due to his age.
 
Shovel Knight, now knowing that Shield Knight is alive, goes back to the valley to look for her, also learning of the Order of no Quarter who has seeped through the land. Simultaneously, Plague Knight enacts his plan to extract the essence of all of the order if no quarter + some other for his ultimate potion. Puzzle dungeon likely takes place after Polar knight is defeated by either Shovel Knight or Plague Knight, Prism Knight having her duplicates run across the Valley in order to get as many people into the Puzzle Dungeon as possible. Based on the treasure room Drill Knight’s first boss fight happens in having a frame of the Puzzle Dungeon, the Enchantress was well aware of its existence before the was sealed underground, implying that the Puzzle Dungeon is either nearly as old as her appearance in the Valley, or even older than that. Pocket Dungeon is finished, Shovel Knight fights Black Knight followed by Plague Knight, then somehow Plague Knight reaches the enchantress first, battles her, fights the plague of shadows & Corrupted essence, and then Shovel Knight frees Shield Knight, fights the remnant of fate, and then Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows both end at the tower of fate and its collapse.
 
Now let’s explain the issues normally.
Now honestly, the main reason people have so much trouble with the timeline is… the games contradict themselves. Dig is fairly easy to have before every other game; there is no reason to argue against its placement. Many people try to argue that because it realised after it, King of cards must be a prequel to Specter of Torment… except that makes literally no sense as Specter Knight uses multiple abilities he gains midway through Specter of Torment and multiple knights are seen going to the tower of fate due to being recruited. King of Cards doesn’t take place before it, it takes place right in the middle of it… and yet, it still has inconsistencies.  By the 5th knight Specter Knight chooses to fight, Reize breaks into the tower of fate and becomes Dark Reize, evoking the knew guardian of the mirror of fate and the Dark Acolyte is locked away in the dungeon.
 
Except… king of cards credits shows the Dark Acolyte free and well, hanging out with Missy. In order for them to even be compatible, the events of Dark Reize becoming a thing would have to be after 6/8 of the order has been recruited, excluding Treasure Knight who is the only member of the order with 0 evidence of being recruited into the order by the end of King of cards, unlike Polar Knight, Tinker Knight, Propeller Knight, Plague Knight and King Knight himself. (Luckily Baz breaking into the tower with his new fancy armour post king of cards is timeline accurate, lol).
 
Showdown is explicitly right after Specter Knight defeats Black Knight & Terrorpin. Its credits varied though, many taking place immediately after the mirror of fate is broken while others take place a bit after, some even taking place after Specter of torment itself. 
 
Shovel of hope & Plague of shadows have a different issue where we know that they take place simultaneously, but where their stories intimately overlap contradict the other’s recounting of events. It has been said that Plague Knight is a less reliable narrator in comparison to Shovel Knight, putting his entire campaign into question at that point. This especially becomes difficult in the order of no quarter gauntlet where you need to decide wether it makes sense for Specter Knights retelling to be true of Shovel Knights, as if you choose the latter, you’d have to explain why Plague Knight is completely chummy with the Order. If you do the former, you get the frankly slightly unsatisfying end result of Shovel Knight leaving the order to hang there.
 

I love these games, but compiling this plot cohesively isn’t easy, especially when seeing how many others are just as confused. Regardless thanks for reading through my… rant? Is this a rant? Well, thanks for reading my hyper-fixation of the month.

I started to play SK this spring and it turned out as one of the most amazing games I ever played! It hitted me so much that I deicided to platinum it and even though some achievements were a chore (or just very challenging) Developer's love and passion feels behind every sprite and it made me go further and further. Thank you Yacht Club for these great adventures and not less fantastic Mina (which I planning to complete next)

Will do the rest later

Hello there! I’m sorry in advance if it’s not alright to ask for recommendations here. But I’ve checked every result I can find about games similar to the Shovel Knight series, as I’m obsessed with that gameplay and already completed most of the games twice lol. But it seems that some people like different things from the series, so I thought, hey maybe it helps if I specify the elements I like the most about the SH main series and what I’m craving. Plus, it’s been a while since those posts, so maybe there’s some new indie games that I don’t know about! (crossing fingers)

Shovel Knight elements I’m looking for!
- Platforming Focus:
Like the SH series, I’m looking for a focus on platforming over combat, aka enemies being one more hazard you have to navigate through. Some suggestions I find have a focus on combat with underwhelming platforming.
- Level Design:
SH games have some of the most fun and varied level design, and I’m especially fond of the varied gimmicks new levels bring, that keeps evolving in clever ways, and interacting with your moveset!
- Character’s signature gimmick:
Be it the pogo, the bombs, the specter cut or the king’s bash, every character has their own unique main ‘gimmick’ that’s the base for their whole moveset, and interacts with the levels in interesting ways. Most other games will have usually not this kind of actions (an equivalent in another game is imo, for example, The Messenger’s cloudstep instead of the typical double jump). This, I know, is the most difficult thing to find, so it’s not a must, but figured I’d comment it.

Games that often come in recommendations I’ve already played:
- Bat Man: The closest it exists afaik. Great game.
- Gravity Circuit: Ik it’s closest to Mega Man but it certainly fits, it took me a while to make it click for some reason, but the level design was very good.
- Curse Crackers: Tbf I wouldn’t call it a SH-like at all, it’s its own thing, but it scratched the itch somehow. This game and Colograve’s upcoming Dawnthief had some great platforming and excellent signature gimmicks. The level design in most of CC was kinda boring though. The demo of Dawnthief was much better in that regard, and I’m looking forward to its release.

Recommendations I didn’t like:
- Mega Man series: I know MM is a big influence on Shovel Knight, but none of them that I’ve tried even come close for me. I didn’t dive too deep, just played one or two levels from several games (classic Mega Man 2+4, Mega Man X, Mega Man Z…). The older ones were the better ones, but even though there were some fun levels they were very basic compared to SH modern design, so it didn’t really scratch the itch. As for X and Z, I was really baffled that levels were more focused on random enemies jumping at you from outside the screen with barely time to react due to the enormous sprites, rather than on the platforming.
- Odallus: I’ve seen many times the Classicvanias (aka classic old-school Castlevanias) or games inspired by them, like Odallus, recommended as similar games to SH. While I’m looking forward to trying Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon when it’s on discount, I’ve tried Odallus and couldn’t get into it because of the lack of control when jumping and turning around, too clunky controls that imitate the old Castlevanias but that just doesn’t feel like good tight platforming.

Other games that seem somewhat related:
- Cathedral: It’s a metroidvania I know, but the tight controls, the retro style, the hazards and level design, and its challenge scratched the itch for a while.

EDIT:
I love Metroidvanias but I’d prefer the more focused linear levels style of Shovel Knight. I’m open to MVs if they play very similar though. But I’m looking for platformers that are as close as possible to Shovel Knight of course (not any action platformer in general 😅)

Peak story, peak game, peak level design

I was surprised that such a game would actually engage that much, albeit for the short time it was. However only 1/4 in treasure trove so I'm excited!

seems armor'ing through hits with Dread Talon+ doesn't count as dmg for the feat.

First off, the attack boost is 3x, which is stronger than I expected. But the main point isn't that—it's the unique "Armor Break" mechanic.

​Once you take damage, you lose the attack boost, and your HP is cut in half. This state can't be cured until you move on to the next stage. However, because this breakage happens instead of taking damage rather than on top of it, it can essentially be seen as an HP shield that absorbs any hit and refreshes every stage. Plus, this effect even works against instant-death attacks.

​That's why it's actually much tougher than you'd think.

So, long story short, I'm struggling to find an animatic of Shovel Knight that retold Donovan/Specter's story over For Forever from Dear Evan Hansen

Can someone please help me find it again?

Please, I really wanna watch it again, but I don't know what to do

Which one do you guys usually choose?

Personally, my HP is almost always on the edge because of Armor's effects and Knightmare's impact, so I prioritize Health—what do you all prioritize?

Knowing little about Shovel Knight, I recently bought Shovel of Hope on Nintendo Switch because I read it was the first campaign. After that, I realised Treasure Trove included all DLCs, which I would have prefered to get.

But, well, even though it would probably become more expensive I thought I could still buy the DLCs independently. But Plague of Shadows ain't on the eShop.

So, yo play Plague of Shadows I would have to buy Treasure Trove. And, not only it probably means that 14€ of Shovel of Hope went straight to the trash can, but also my Shovel of Hope file is probably useless.

Do you know if there is any way to just add all the DLCs without losing progress/wasting money?

Thanks.

Which game out of the 3 should i first buy and play ?( once im financially ready )

Did anyone buy from this website or have a photo of shovel knight merch to show me?

I now have like 70 hours on Treasure Trove and it’s the 4th most-played game on my switch that has over 80 games on it.

17 of those hours are on King of Cards

This is why you check the amount of pixels my guys.

(And no I don't have more plates)

IT'S SO BACK

(right after posting this I did it again trying to get my gold back)