History VideoGame / SpiralKnights

* [[spoiler:SealedEvilInACan: The Swarm has been revealed to be this. It's been shown that the Swarm doesn't originate from the Unknown Passages; it's sealed away in the Core.
** [[spoiler:LeakingCanOfEvil: However, the seal on the Core has evidently weakened, as the Swarm managed to leak out into Cradle, turning parts of the Clockworks into everdark shadowy domes, the Unknown Passage. One late-game mission has you reach a level of the Clockworks which is turning into one, right above an Unknown Passage. Then Herex opens up the Core, unleashing the full might of the Swarm into Cradle.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: Ever since [[spoiler Herex]] was introduced, the game has gradually gotten darker in terms of plot.

* RuleThirtyFour: Yes, it exists. [[FurryFandom For some reason]], gremlins are the biggest victims in this case. And of course, wolvers and the Snarbolax.

* NotCompletelyUseless: Poison in general is a very underwhelming status effect, lowering enemy attack power (when the best defense is to not get hit in the first place) and preventing them from being healed (when there are usually more attractive options for neutralizing healers). It is all but necessary, however, for dealing with the Royal Jelly, who heals rapidly and is easily capable of outhealing an unprepared party.

** Poisoned enemies also take more and deal less damage, making it only semi-useless.
*** Most useful aspect of poison is that on enemies it causes them to take damage when healed by other enemies. Keep a group inflicted with poison and their medic becomes one of your greatest allies.

** Some descriptions invert this such as the Punch Gun intended to be used in emergencies to blast open damaged drop pods and the Venom Veiler being used for destroying insects on crops (and can also apparently destroy the crops themselves).

* BulletHell: Branching spawn triggers in Arenas mean that you can sometimes have up to sixteen Gun Puppies at the same time. In T3 they fire 5 bullets every time they attack.

* BeatingADeadPlayer: Enemies don't intentionally do this, but all of the big-hitting mobs can launch corpses across the room if they hit them, and Greaver status clouds can cause effects on dead players.

** Averted for some enemies: Trojans, Rocket Puppies, Toxoils, and shocked Quicksilvers will all happily kill other monsters if you line it up just right. The Ice Cube and Blast Cube monsters effectively turn into bombs upon death. Played straight for the players (however, they can still hurt each other by shooting an explosive cube next to someone, or by pushing mobs into allies). Lumbers can also stun monsters, but won't deal any damage.

** Averted for some enemies: Trojans, Rocket Puppies, Toxoils, and shocked Quicksilvers will all happily kill other mobs if you line it up just right. The Ice Cube and Blast Cube monsters effectively turn into bombs upon death. Played straight for the players (however, they can still hurt each other by shooting an explosive cube next to someone, or by pushing mobs into allies). Lumbers can also stun mobs, but won't deal any damage.

** The difficulty of the "Shroud of the Apocrea" mission of the 2013 Dark Harvest is based entirely on the fact that the Harvester stalking you has high health and the ability to root you in place as they sap your health ''through your shield''. In addition, the graves containing Freed Souls also frequently release Bombies and Pale Scarabs (which are arguably the single most frustrating mini monster) and attacking them is futile because there can be ''dozens of them onscreen''. It's even worse for sword users because the Pale Scarabs can somehow damage you while still in their attack animation and colliding with a wall, where you'd expect them to be vulnerable. Throw in the game's trademark lag and you've got a mission that will eat your Sparks of Life.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Except replace "Slippy Slidey" with "Freezy still...y"

* SuicideAttack: Howlitzers. Once the base is destroyed, the skull attempts to charge someone before exploding.

** If a Devilite Pit Boss walks up to a normal Devilite and tells it that it has to work overtime, they start glowing and throw pitchforks that cause debuffs instead of office supplies, as well as gaining a close-range melee attack.
*** Alternatively, the Pit Bosses can turn other Devilites into Yes Men, who stand around the pit bosses and defend them. If a Pit Boss dies near a Yes Man, it TurnsRed and starts attacking you.

*** A more specific soloing example of this is the Vitasuit Deluxe, a 4-star armor. It has the second highest health bonus of any fully leveled armor (highest is the Ancient Plate Mail but it decreases your overall speed) but it only has normal defense so that health bonus is negated since most enemies in lower strata do more non-normal damage then normal, however it becomes AwesomeYetPractical when used for medicing purposes by someone not on the front lines when in a group. But with the July 29 update, it becomes AwesomeButImpractical, due to the removal of sharing health.

One of the most unique aspects of the game is that, to an extent, the players themselves construct dungeons. The "Arcade" lobby consists of several dungeons on the left, from which players can collect [[PowerCrystal colored minerals]], and several receptacles for those crystals on the right. Every two days or so, one of those receptacles will ''become'' a new dungeon, and the levels available in it are determined by how many crystals, and of which color(s), have been poured into it whilst it was still a receptacle.

** The Blitz Needle, Callahan, Radiant Sun Shards, Sudaruska, Dread Venom Striker, Rocket Hammer, and to a lesser extent piercing-type swords. All of them are difficult to aim/control, or leave you open for a fair bit (or both), but have very worthwhile effects and damage if you can control them effectively.

** Although not that difficult, using bombs. Anyone can just run in, place a bomb, then get out. The difficult part is knowing where and when to place a bomb to hit most enemies while evading their attacks and not hindering teammates. (Common case of high-knockback Blast Bomb line or any bombs that hold enemies in place.) Bad bombers will get mauled at some point if they aren't careful with his/her bomb charge/fuse time. Good bombers will do most of the job for you, applying status effect en masse (Something swords and guns in this game can't do effectively), and blowing up anything that moves.

* EldritchLocation: The Shadow Lairs [[spoiler:and the floor that comes after the boss]].

* EvolvingWeapon: Not just with weapons, almost all pieces of equipment (except Vitapods and Trinkets) evolve by gaining heat, which is gained primarily through killing the Clockworks enemies. All pieces of equipment start from level 1, and can reach a max of level 10. With each level, stats for each piece of equipment grow, and when some milestones (of levels) are attained, some bonus effects are added (e.g., decreased ChargeAttack time for weapons, more health bonus for armor).

* FlavorText: Every equip has this. Many of them invoke LemonyNarrator. Some of them are downright scary.

** Averted for some enemies: Lumbers, Trojans, Rocket Puppies, Toxioils, and shocked Quicksilvers will all happily kill other mobs if you line it up just right. The Ice Cube and Blast Cube monsters effectively turn into bombs upon death. Played straight for the players (however, they can still hurt each other by shooting an explosive cube next to someone, or by pushing mobs into allies).
** Partially averted for summoned Mecha Knights. While their normal attacks can't hurt players, they occasionally suffer from Shock and can spread it to nearby players.

** The Wolver set and Bristling Buckler is a mild example, having lower defense than other sets in exchange for increased sword damage.

** Most armors/helmets also give you health bonuses, as well as certain trinkets. However, as with other gear, these bonuses only become active past a certain depth of dungeon.

* HerdHittingAttack: Bombs. The Shock status effect also hits anything around the afflicted when it procs. And yes, there is a bomb capable of inflicting shock.

* {{Invisibility}}: The main power of Recons in Lockdown. The second ability that Maskeraith possesses is this.

* InvincibleMinorMinion: A few. Attacks just bounce right off Grimalkins, gold-colored Shankles and Wisps never expose their weak spots, and Phantoms just get back up whenever you knock them down.

* JackOfAllStats: The items you get from Missions (which seem to be standard-issue from their flavor text) are this. The defense items all provide health bonuses and defend against piercing damage, but none of the items have any elemental or status modifiers (good or bad), meaning equipping only them gives you high health and defense against a common damage type, but vanilla attack damage and no defense against status effects or elements.

** The Wild Hunting Blade embodies this. Each slash produces a phantasmal golden wolver head that bites the area in front of the knight using it. However, it's extremely rare to see any player use this weapon with any degree of seriousness, as the Vile/Dread Venom Striker series (a branching alchemy path) does the same amount of damage to 5/6 enemy types and carries a poison effect, and the extreme close-range style of the blade, lack of flinching, and useless charge attack render both inferior to many other swords of the same level. Most players just get it because it looks cool.

*** The Winmillion is also the only 4th tier sword to lack a 5th tier upgrade, so those who use this weapon without knowing it get a nasty surprise when they learn that they need to craft another sword, possibly starting from tier 2, to replace it.

* BigFancyCastle: Scarlet Fortress and the Royal Jelly Castle.

* BonusBoss: The Black Katastrophe event offers a very slim window for players to obtain a Book of Dark Rituals. When given to an NPC in Moorcroft Manor, this allows the user to fight a massive black kat named Margrel.

* BoringButPractical: The Calibur, Blaster, and Blast Bomb lines. They do normal damage with no extra effects (outside of Valiance's knockback ability at 5-Star). However, they do good damage without having to worry about resists or triggering any DemonicSpider abilities from the elemental slimes, have semi-unique abilities (Calibur's charge attack, Valiance's knockback, Blast Bomb's DPS), and you don't even need to bother with buying recipes because Missions will give you the recipes for free.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: Energy is the secondary currency of the game, usable for buying gear without having to gather any materials, opening energy gates, and buying keys to Shadow Lairs. Energy can be traded in blocks of 100 for crowns.
** Expansion Missions (the first one containing exclusive, untradable equipment) can only be purchased with real money, although with Steam it's possible to trade for it.

* StandardStatusEffects: Curse (take damage if you use marked weapons), Fire (drains HP), Freeze (can't move or turn), Poison (decreased attack, can't heal), Shock (damage and induces flinching), Sleep (can't do anything, but you regenerate), and Stun (decreased move and attack speed) are available. The player actually gets stronger variations of some effects, like Freeze inflicting damage if the enemy "thaws out".

* SuicideAttack: Howlitzers. Once the base is destroyed, the skull falls off and attempts to charge someone before exploding.

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: The three weapon types; swords do high single target damage at close range, guns do low single target at long range, and bombs do moderate damage in a circular area but only work after charging them. There's many weapons of each type, however, including a sword that works like a bomb, two guns that work like bombs in different ways, 2 swords that fire projectiles, and numerous other variations.

* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: By selecting the head with molded steel GirlishPigtails.

* TrojanHorse: A Trojan Knight is a living knight statue with a horse head. It's a type of enemy that can only be defeated by attacking its back. It may rarely drop a kind of material called the [[{{Pun}} Trojan Horseshoe]].
* TurnsRed: When its HP gets low, the Royal Jelly turns pink and starts spinning all over the arena, doing much more damage than before, and only stops for a few seconds at a time for you to attack it.

*** Alternatively, the Pit Bosses can turn other Devilites into Yes Men, who stand around the pit bosses and heal them. If a Pit Boss dies near a Yes Man, it TurnsRed and starts attacking you.

* {{Unwinnable}}: Sometimes, ghost blocks[[note]]When hit, these make the contiguous set of blocks touching it vanish[[/note]] appear with respawning unbreakable blocks. A careless knight (or party of knights) can get trapped [[http://oi54.tinypic.com/24d3nlc.jpg once the blocks respawn.]]

* YesMan: They are small and green guys who heal the Pit Bosses, only spawned in the first place when a Pit Boss compliments a Devilite. Normally they won't attack the players, but if their boss is killed they will turn into an Overtimer.

* ZergRush: There are a few enemies which are incredibly weak but tend to come in significantly sized groups. Representing the gremlins are knockers, constructs have scuttlebots, undead have bombies (which double as {{Action Bomb}}s), in the Royal Jelly Palace you'll find a few hordes of minigels, and for the beast family you have wolver packs. Fortunately they rarely ever get quite up to true ZergRush levels. Devilites can apply given the fact that at several points in their levels where you'll come across arenas full of them, but even on their own they tend to be GoddamnBats.
** Living up to this trope in full is the Mini-Monsters, a special type of weak monster that spawns infinitely and in large numbers. Especially tricky is that most of them tend to attack from offscreen, or just plain encircle you.

* SignatureStyle: Ian [=McConville=], who draws the webcomics ''MacHall'' and ''ThreePanelSoul'', works for ThreeRingsDesign and was the lead artist for this game. It shows.

** The difficulty of the "Shroud of the Apocrea" mission of the 2013 Dark Harvest is based entirely on the fact that the Harvester stalking you has high health and the ability to root you in place as they sap your health ''through your shield''. In addition, the graves containing Freed Souls also frequently release Bombies and Pale Scarabs (which are arguably the single most frustrating mini monster) and attacking them is futile because there can be ''dozens of them onscreen''. It's even worse for sword users because these enemies can somehow damage you while still in their attack animation. Throw in the game's trademark lag and you've got a mission that will eat your Sparks of Life.

* BigBadassWolf: Snarbolax, the (currently only) tier one boss. Alpha Wolvers (and Wolvers in general) also count.

* FlavorText: Every equip has this. Many of them invoke LemonyNarrarator. Some of them are downright scary.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Firestorm Citadel, a five-floor gauntlet that serves as Tier 3's only boss dungeon, is the closest thing there is to this trope. Presumably, the Core will be one, if it opens.

** The difficulty of the "Shroud of the Apocrea" mission of the 2013 Dark Harvest is based entirely on the fact that the Harvester stalking you has high health and the ability to root you in place as they sap your health ''through your shield''. In addition, the graves containing Freed Souls also frequently release Bombies and Pale Scarabs (which are arguably [[GoddamnedBats the single most frustrating mini monster]]) and attacking them is futile because there can be ''dozens of them onscreen''. It's even worse for sword users because these enemies can somehow damage you while still in their attack animation. Throw in the game's trademark lag and you've got a mission that will eat your Sparks of Life.

** The difficulty of the "Shroud of the Apocrea" mission of the 2013 Dark Harvest is based entirely on the fact that the Apocrea stalking you have high health and the ability to root you in place as they sap your health ''through your shield'', the graves containing Freed Souls also frequently release Bombies and Pale Scarabs, who are arguably the single most frustrating mini monster and attacking them is futile because there can be ''dozens of them onscreen'', and it's even worse for sword users because they can somehow damage you while still in their attack animation and colliding into a wall. Throw in the game's trademark lag and you've got a mission that will kill your Sparks of Life.

** The [[CosmeticAward Achievement]] for defeating the Snarbolax is [[LewisCarroll "O Frabjous Day!"]].
*** Pretty much everything mentioning the Snarbolax is a reference to a LewisCarroll story. In particular, Jabberwocky.