* {{Adorkable}}:
** The eponymous Shovel Knight. Small, brightly-colored, incredibly dedicated to knightly speech and behavior, and loves him some bad puns.
** Plague Knight's interactions with Mona once their feelings become more overt. If you try to dance in front of her after learning how to from the Troupple King, he does ShyFingerTwiddling instead. After beating the second set of stages, Mona, looking for an excuse to get their hands together, tries to get Plague to help her with a "stuck" lever, and he's only capable of moving towards her a few steps at a time (punctuated by the two notes that play each time he moves).
** Mona. During the end of ''Specter of Torment'', he and Mona are seen tearing down their lab to set it up below town for ''Plague of Shadows''. A chain they're both tugging on gets loose and pulls him up to her eye level, faces barely inches from one another, looking each other in the eyes. Both of their reactions are to immediately turn away from each other and shyly fidget. In ''Plague of Shadows'', Plague Knight unexpectedly drops in on Mona after the first set of stages, and finds out that she likes to turn on some tunes and dance the day away when she's alone. In her flustered state after being found out, she admits that she does this ''all the time''.
** Surprisingly, Specter Knight has his moments too. Despite his edgy demeanor, he plays ball with the Memmec (along with petting it, but not before looking around to see if anyone is watching), attempts to look imposing with his "Cold Shoulder" stance, and, in ''King of Cards'', says Joustus is a game for children... and follows that by saying he knows absolutely everything about it.
** King Knight gets plenty of moments that makes it even harder to take him seriously. From sometimes face planting when entering a level and playing it off like [[IMeantToDoThat he meant to do that]], to pretending to pilot an inactive flying machine, to breaking into a graceful ice skate whenever he goes on ice. Even his fighting style is much goofier than the other knights, as he bounces into an elegant spin after shoulder bashing enemies.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Specter Knight is shown to get easily annoyed with King Knight, or even outright ''despises'' him, which could easily just be reaffirming that [[TheFriendNobodyLikes nobody in the Order really likes King Knight]], [[spoiler:but given Specter Knight heavily values loyalty to his friends and family, he could also hate King Knight for betraying his friends and mother at the end of ''King of Cards''.]]
** King Pridemoor [[spoiler:makes King Knight scrub the floors of his castle after becoming king again, which is a surprisingly light punishment considering that ''King of Cards'' revealed that he not only personally betrayed him, but the entire kingdom. Is it poetic justice considering King Knight made him do the same in his ending in ''Specter of Torment'', or could he still see some good in King Knight? Perhaps Pridemoor still harbors feelings for King Knight's mother, choosing to lighten her son's punishment for her peace of mind? Maybe even try to redeem him and take him on as a son if he proves himself?]]
** King Knight himself, oh so very much. [[spoiler:Did he actually consider saving his crew when they were hanging off the Tower of Fate only to betray them when King Pridemoor pushed his BerserkButton, or is he irredeemably selfish, just betraying them without a single thought? As well as this, did he actually come to regret his actions and is just trying to convince himself his dream's come true in the epilogue of his campaign or is he just pontificating about the luxuries of his reign and doesn't realize what he's lost?]]
* AwesomeEgo: Some have said that they enjoy King Knight as a character because of this, due to being an arrogant but fancy, as well as hilarious asshole, who is among the more powerful knights in the land as of ''King Of Cards''.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[AwesomeMusic/ShovelKnight See here]].
* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** King Knight. Either hilarious with a fun design or the most boring and underdeveloped of the Order, with some people wishing someone else got third place in the "Dig The Vote" Ballot.
** The {{Guest Fighter}}s, on multiple levels. Some find them to be great inclusions (especially for Creator/{{Rare}} fans who see the VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}' inclusion as a PetTheDog moment from Microsoft). Nintendo fans are upset that not only are they devoid of such a privilege, but that a previously Nintendo-only game now has nothing that puts it above its competitors in terms of content, other than amiibo-related features (which all require additional expense, while the other platforms get their additional content for free) and the [=StreetPass=] Arena in the [=3DS=] version (which doesn't really offer much besides gold). Sony fans feel that [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos']] inclusion is wildly out of place compared to the rest of the game (not to mention people tired of seeing Kratos' WolverinePublicity), and the developers' original idea of using [[VideoGame/MediEvil Sir Daniel Fortesque]] would've been much better suited.
** Gall, some think he's charming due to his appearance, manner of speaking, and of course, the "Kiss of Death," while others hate him due to the Kiss of Death being [[NauseaFuel all sorts of gross]], and only serving the purpose [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin of]] [[OneHitKill killing]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice you]].
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
** The girl with the broccoli hair at the inn bar invites you to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cboHEq9c5xk watch her dance]]. Completely pointless to the game, but well animated and amusing to watch nonetheless (and it's a fun ShoutOut to similar [=NPCs=] in the early ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' games).
** The Troupple King's Dance is also pretty hilarious and thankfully optional after the first time he gives you an ichor.
** If you wait long enough in Armor Outpost you'll find a [=NPC=] with the same armor of Shovel Knight walking around, except he has a ''fish head''.
** ''King of Cards'' has the fairy garden EasterEgg. After [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext being suplexed into a pit by a horse]] with a healing Troupple active, King Knight wakes up in a garden full of fairies tended to by Madame Meeber, who tells him to pick his favorite fairy from the ones in the garden, who consist of fairy versions of each major character and several others. When you do so, Meeber describes the selected fairy and crowns them as the "Fairy King" in a ceremony, all while King Knight complains that ''he'' wants to be the Fairy King. (He can't even get his own ''fairy'' crowned king -- that's the only one Madame Meeber will reject, saying it "doesn't seem too kingly"!) As the ceremony goes on, the screen fades to white, and then King Knight wakes up in his bed at home, still complaining. All this sequence does is give all Propeller Rats fairy wings, and add a "Favorite Fairy" to the credits, showing whoever you selected as the Fairy King.
* BrokenBase:
** People are torn about the [[spoiler:romantic bent of the main plot]] in the ''Plague of Shadows'' expansion. Some people find it very charming, and feel it does a lot to humanize the otherwise-[[ForTheEvulz rather stock]] characterization of Plague Knight, while others found it a cliche and anticlimactic way to take the story, especially since Plague Knight's "Dig The Vote" section mentioned that the player would learn about his past, which wasn't alluded to at all. Some just TakeAThirdOption and consider it an ExcusePlot, deciding to judge the game based on the new gameplay mechanics and not the story.
** Another widely discussed addition from ''Plague of Shadows'' is the actual gameplay of Plague Knight himself. Some find his slow movement, complicated jumping mechanics and reliance on projectiles a pain, while others find his frantic yet fairly customizable skillset to be very entertaining to tinker with, adding more to the ''Shovel Knight'' formula.
* BreatherBoss:
** Mole Knight is an easier fight than the other Order members in the second level set. While Plague Knight and Treasure Knight are very reactive to Shovel Knight's movements and are hard to hit and avoid, Mole Knight is a pattern-based fight focusing on breakable blocks and digging gimmicks, and while he's less vulnerable to relics and being spam-attacked, he's much more predictable in movement than most of the game's bosses. He's a lot harder as Plague Knight, who can't attack or move as fast and has a tougher time hitting and dodging Mole Knight.
** After how difficult his level can be, Tinker Knight is the easier Order member of the third set and one of the easiest overall. This isn't with regard to the first part which is a deliberate joke fight, but the second part with the [[HumongousMecha Tinker Tank]]. It's easy to get onto the tank's lance and start attacking Tinker Knight repeatedly with Shovel Drops, only having to dodge an occasional missile. You can stay on top of the tank for the entire fight if you avoid getting hit or falling off during its charge attack, meaning its toughest attack (the bouncing bombs) will never be seen. Plague Knight can just boost himself onto the lance whenever he wants, and his default bombs, when thrown from the shoulder of the Tinker Tank, will almost always land right on Tinker Knight, turning the fight into a complete joke.
** Because King Knight and Specter Knight don't gain any new moves during the BossRush (whereas the player has likely obtained every helpful item and upgrade by that point), they're relatively simple compared to the other members of the Order who were fought later on. Additionally, Propeller Knight lacks his BottomlessPits, removing a lot of what made him threatening in his own stage.
* CaptainObviousReveal: Before the game had come out, many had already figured out that The Enchantress [[spoiler:was a possessed Shield Knight]], due to the placement of her beauty mark, and [[spoiler:the two being the only major female characters in the game advertised]] at that point. Given the [[{{Retraux}} general design of the game]], this might have been deliberate.
* CommonKnowledge: Did you know the shovel jumping mechanic is based off of Scrooge's cane jumping from the ''VideoGame/DuckTales'' video game? Except it was actually based on the downward sword thrust from [[VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink the second]] ''Zelda'' game. In fact, everyone involved with the game watched a playthrough of ''Zelda II'' to get a better idea for designing the game.
* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad The Enchantress]], in the ''Specter of Torment'' prequel {{DLC}}, blackmails Specter Knight into working for her; turns [[spoiler:Reize]] BrainwashedAndCrazy to replace an exposition mook; forces the Order of No Quarter to work for her under threat of death; later on transforms [[spoiler:Reize]] into an EldritchAbomination phantom form in which he is clearly in great pain; and actively kills civilians and innocent people to depopulate a village. All she wishes for is to TakeOverTheWorld, starting with the Valley and expanding her rule, using the Order and her minions as tools in a machine, and in the main game using [[spoiler:Shield Knight]] as a vessel.
* CrazyIsCool: Plague Knight. Hyper, erratic, and psychotic, this guy will make you feel like an all-powerful psycho while playing as him in ''Plague of Shadows''.
* CreepyCute: Plague Knight, in spite of being an explosive nutjob, is found by players to be oddly cute, due to being a short little plague doctor with a mask modified to be cuter as of ''Plague of Shadows'', as well as adorable interactions with Mona helping this case.
* CrossesTheLineTwice: Butt Mode replaces certain words (specifically Shovel, Knight, Health and Magic) with the word butt. While already funny on its own, this means characters like Black Knight will say things like:
--> '''Black Butt:''' Steel thy butt!
* DemonicSpiders:
** The Green Propeller mooks (appropriately named Hover Meanies) introduced in Propeller Knight's stage. They LOVE to push you into BottomlessPits every time they appear and these enemies are rather fast and difficult to deal with since you'll have to watch your footing while dealing with them. As if that's not enough, they might even push you back far enough that once you do kill them, you'll advance and find they've just respawned again. They '''will''' make you rage in the Tower of Fate.
** While Goldarmors can be annoying to deal with due to having more health than most enemies, their many {{Palette Swap}}s descend into this territory very easily due to the various abilities they have. Of particular note are the green and silver Goldarmor variants, who can leap into the air and perform a downward thrust from above with little to no warning. Good luck getting past in NewGamePlus mode.
** Birders are this game's love letter to the all-too-common classic LedgeBats, being fast, erratic-moving flying enemies which take multiple hits to kill and most often show up in parts of levels with extremely precise "hit this or you're dead" platforming, making them extremely stressful to fight unless you can quickly take care of them at range.
* DifficultySpike: The game tells you the gloves are off on the second tier of bosses by ramping up the BottomlessPits and instant death opportunities. The first stage of the Tower of Fate kicks the difficulty up ''even more'' by mixing all elements from previous stages in very cruel ways.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Among the bosses that didn't get campaigns, Treasure Knight is well-liked, due to his resemblance to the [[{{VideoGame/Bioshock}} Big Daddies]]. Their [[GenderFlip Body Swap]] design is also the most popular of the various Swap designs, for how classy it is.
** Reize, due to his StupidGood tendencies and [[spoiler:his role in ''Specter of Torment'']]. Compared to his [[VideoGame/ValdisStoryAbyssalCity other roles]], his presence in ''Shovel Knight'' is his most known.
** Mr. Hat, due to his fun gimmick, personality, and boss fight.
** When King Knight's mother was revealed leading up to the ''King of Cards'' release, people were attached to her adorable design and sweet personality.
* FanficFuel:
** What ''would'' be dug into in the other Order Knights' campaigns?
** The backstories of each knight tend to be ripe for {{Fanon}} interpretation.
** [[spoiler:Donovan and Luan's relationship prior to ''Specter of Torment'' has been a source of interest in the fandom.]]
* FanNickname:
** "Banana Knight" for Specter Knight before he was revealed.
** [[VideoGame/BioShock "Big Daddy]] Knight" for Treasure Knight.
** The speedrun community refers to the Propeller Meanies and Hover Meanies as [[Franchise/StarWars Jawas]].
* FauxSymbolism: King Knight can stun Shovel Knight with one of his attacks which will make him kneel, what he does next? Bash him with his scepter. He's "{{Knighting}}" him.
* FriendlyFandoms:
** Due to its Website/{{Kickstarter}} origins, it isn't uncommon to find Shovel Knight backers also backing other video game kickstarters, such as ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}: Half-Genie Hero'', ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'', ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' and ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight''. These are the five more successful ones, as the Blue Burrower also finds his way onto other projects in some way, such as being an NPC in Yooka-Laylee where he's embarked on an adventure so large, ''he ended up in the wrong game.''
** With ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' fans, as its 16 bit little sister. Both are indie-developed {{Retraux}} games funded on Kickstarter that came out within a month of each other, are throwbacks to the golden age of platformers, and have detailed pixel art and excellent gameplay.
* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/ShovelKnight Has its own page]].
* SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming: The ''Plague of Shadows'' update brings about a significant amount of optimization on the 3DS version, enough to ''decrease'' the filesize significantly, [[https://twitter.com/YachtClubGames/status/644230342472142850 according to Yacht Club Games.]]
* GoddamnedBats:
** The Goldarmors. While not horribly difficult to handle under normal circumstances, they have more health than most enemies and are generally placed in segments that makes them either difficult to fight or avoid altogether without resorting to a relic. They descend into DemonicSpiders territory quite easily on NewGamePlus.
** Tadvolts. While easy to avoid if you encounter them sleeping, their erratic jump pattern makes them a pain to hit, and even if you're in perfect position to land a strike they might electrify themselves, which not only makes them almost invincible but damages you as well.
** The Fairies are one of the most hated enemies in the game and for a good reason. They usually appear in areas where it's impossible to hit them until they're very close to you, at which point they will spam their biting attack to knock you into whatever pit you're near by or simply chew your life as you're frantically trying to land a hit on the ugly thing.
** Ratsploders, which are definitely the most difficult rat-type enemy you'll encounter in the game. Not only they explode as their name imply, which in certain situations can be lethal if you're standing in a breakable platform or near a pit where the explosion can knock you into, but they also ''jump'' at you in the very last moment with a very thin margin of error to shove them away from you. Expect a lot of RageQuit in [[ThatOneLevel The Explodatorium]].
** The Sine Daggers in Clockwork Tower. They constantly spawn and fly across three screens. Their damage is minimal, but they also knock you back [[LedgeBats in rooms where a small knock back can drop you onto spikes or into a pit]]. The ladder in the [[AutoScrollingLevel auto-scrolling screen]] is particularly annoying as you have no time to try again if one knocks you back and usually three Sine Daggers pass over it while you climb.
* GoodBadBugs: One of the cheat codes, "[=IM&SGC14=]", was used to hold a challenge at SGC 2014, where you begin at the first checkpoint of the Lost City as Shovel Knight. Selecting King Knight as your character and entering this code makes you start at the first checkpoint of ''Specter Knight's'' version of the Lost City as the gilded goon (equipped with the Vestments of Vigor and the Wealth Whirl, while carrying all 10 Heirlooms), bypassing the game's disallowing of playing levels from one character's campaign as a different character. Behavior in this level is odd, such as regular Lanterns not making you spin when bashed while Goo Lanterns do, and Red Skulls giving you money but counting towards your Merit Medal count. Beating it takes you to King Knight's world map with only the very first level unlocked, but entering it crashes the game.
* GrowingTheBeard: A self-contained example, as each new DLC campaign has tried to improve upon the last.
** Story-wise, ''Shovel of Hope'' was a simple but effective tale of good vs evil with a lot of classical "knights and wizards" themes. ''Plague of Shadows'' later went to great lengths to humanize one of its minor villains while adding in a romance subplot. ''Specter of Torment'' then played out like a Shakespearean Tragedy, taking itself much more seriously while still retaining a sense of humor. Despite its DenserAndWackier looks, ''King of Cards'' takes it even further with a story who becomes darker as the game progresses and a particularly tragic ending who gives a new perspective on the franchise's most goofy character.
** Gameplay-wise, while ''Plague of Shadows'' was seen as something of a ContestedSequel (see BrokenBase above), ''Specter of Torment'' went to great lengths to redesign every stage of the game to suit its new movement mechanics (which themselves were better received), as opposed to simply tweaking the levels and calling it a day. ''King of Cards'' changes the Megaman-like formula and uses the map in a Super Mario Bros. style (a lot of shorter levels and boss stages). It also incorporates Joustus, a card game within the game that requires an adaptive strategy. By this point, the main character has mechanics that work very well with the level design. The fairly useful collectible items may never see much use due to how solid the base control scheme is.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** Plague Knight's comment about "might makes right" being the Order of No Quarter's motto became this once ''Specter of Torment'' was unveiled. The only reason the Order exists at all is because Specter Knight strong-armed the knights (save himself and King Knight) into joining it.
** At the end of the {{Boss Rush}} in the original campaign Specter Knight tells Shovel Knight he has no chance of defeating the Enchantress. Before ''Specter of Torment'' this sounded a lot like him simply being confident in his master but afterwards his dismissively brooding remark is much sadder; Specter Knight already tried to defeat the Enchantress himself...[[ForegoneConclusion and he failed.]]
** King Knight is [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating unanimously]] hated among the populace, and even the Order can't seem to stand him. ''King of Cards'' would show [[spoiler:that he betrayed ''all'' of the friends he made over the course of the story because the Enchantress offered to make him a king when the land needed her to be stopped]], making it abundantly clear why everyone hates him.
** Remember that funny scene at the end of ''Plague of Shadows'' where Specter Knight gets mad when he finds his locket stolen by Plague Knight? [[spoiler:It was the locket he used to resurrect Reize at the cost of his own life, Luan's gift to him before his demise, and the reason he's stuck as the Enchantress's eternal slave. ]]
** Baz's only appearance in ''Specter of Torment'' is to break into the Tower of Fate out of nowhere to join the Order only to be kicked out by Specter Knight. [[spoiler:Given that Phantom Striker rejects his "offer" and Specter Knight is trapped serving the Enchantress as her eighth knight by the end of the story, it may have been better for him if he just said yes.]]
** In ''Shovel of Hope'', you spend a fee to get into the Hall of Champions, and after clearing it of ghosts, the [[JerkAss snobbish]] ticketer gives back 50 gold after you spent 5000 to get in, saying that Shovel Knight probably should have learned what he was paying for before going in, with the word "paying" in green, a fairly funny nod to the Kickstarter origins of the game. In light of other Kickstarter projects, several of them games, ending up criticized due to factors such as poor budget management, the project being cancelled with no compensation to the backers, or the project outright being meant to con people out of their money, the joke loses a lot of its humor.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** Depending on the version you have, Shovel Knight can fight either one of two console-exclusive GuestFighter {{OptionalBoss}}es: [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] or the VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}. A year later, Shovel Knight becomes exactly that by being an Toys/{{amiibo}}-exclusive boss in the sequel to ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt''.
** Shovel Knight encounters [[Characters/GodOfWarSeriesKratos Kratos]] in the [=PS4=] version traveling somewhere on a quest and wishes him well on his endeavor. Given that ''Shovel of Hope'' came out in the period of time between the release of ''VideoGame/GodOfWarIII'' and ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', perhaps Kratos was fleeing a destroyed Olympus and on his way to Midgard!
* HoYay:
** Gall seems a bit too eager to practice his "Kiss of Death" on Specter Knight.
** [[spoiler:In the ending of ''Specter of Torment,'' the way Luan talks to Donovan about how he would want him to be part of his family combined with the fact that he says this after giving him the locket can be read like he's proposing to him.]]
** In Body Swap mode, dialogue is largely untouched save for several gender-related words. This means that several female [=NPCs=] will still comment on how attractive the likes of female Shovel Knight and female Propeller Knight are, while the latter [[spoiler: will still be fawned over by multiple women (plus one man) in her ending]].
* IKnewIt:
** Due to their similar outfits, quite a few fans predicted [[spoiler:that Reize was Luan's son]] as soon as the trailer for ''Specter of Torment'' hit.
** Due to one of the silhouettes not matching up with the Phantom Striker in the ''Yacht Club Presents'' in September 2019, and indications of a cape and energy blade, fans had guessed that Dark Reize was going to be a playable character in ''Shovel Knight Showdown''. Dark Reize was confirmed on December 5th, 2019.
* ItsShortSoItSucks: One of the few complaints leveled at the game at launch was its relatively short run time, only about 3-4 hours. This lessened as additional campaigns were added (albeit they were eventually treated as separate games, and priced accordingly).
* JerkassWoobie:
** [[spoiler:Specter Knight, as shown in ''Specter of Torment''. He's a greedy, obsessive thief who is partially responsible for freeing the Enchantress to possess Shield Knight, but he genuinely didn't know the amulet was cursed and he ends up being yanked around by the very demon he accidentally freed for the entire campaign.]]
** [[spoiler:Black Knight in general. Sure, he's a major dick to both Shovel Knight and Plague Knight, but it's only because he's afraid that they'll kill Shield Knight if they fight the Enchantress. Not to mention that he admits to lacking the courage to fight The Enchantress himself out of the fear of her magic.]]
* MagnificentBastard: [[AffablyEvil Propeller Knight]] is an affable and [[LargeHam performative]] knight of the [[Characters/ShovelKnightOrderOfNoQuarter Order of No Quarter]] with a fondness for witty banter. The head of a technological marvel known as the Flying Machine, an airship populated by countless security measures, traps, and minions, Propeller Knight is willing to duel any foe with creative tactics such as destroying their arena with his airship's cannons or blowing holes through it, even going so far as to [[BlowYouAway use his propeller against his opponents]]. When defeated, Propeller Knight always takes it with [[GracefulLoser complete dignity]], between offering to adventure with his adversaries, [[IGaveMyWord paying them promised treasure]], playing friendly card games with them, or even serving as their waiter.
* MainstreamObscurity: The series is an icon of indie gaming, being one of the most acclaimed retro-games out there, and yet a lot of its characters, mechanics and levels are really only discussed in the fandom itself. Shovel Knight himself, his pogo jump, the Plains of Passage theme and maybe the protagonists of the other campaigns if you're feeling generous are really only the well-known aspects of the series; good luck finding non-fans discussing the campaigns that aren't ''Shovel of Hope''.
* MemeticMutation:
** Due to the final campaign being called ''King of Cards'', and features a card-based minigame, jokes about ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' are relatively common.
** SKATE OR DIE[[labelnote:Explanation]] The undead Specter Knight, whenever he encounters a rail or while wearing the Rail Mail, grinds on his scythe like a skateboard, bringing this meme to the fandom's mind.[[/labelnote]]
** Shovel Knight's habit of making cameo appearances in a large number of other indie titles has become one in itself. To the point where fans will immediately predict him appearing in any indie title that gets announced or funded regardless of how fitting or appropriate it may be.
* MoralEventHorizon:
** In ''Specter of Torment'', [[spoiler:The Enchantress manipulates Specter Knight into joining the Order by threatening to turn Reize, who she'd already brainwashed, into her eighth Knight, unless Specter Knight gives up and joins her. It's clear she didn't even ''need'' Specter Knight anymore at that point; she just wanted to take ''everything'' away from him.]]
** King Knight's fall into the Enchantress' grasp falls here. [[spoiler:After defeating the Grand Triumvirate and freeing the Three Kings, they (among others on the Glidewing) are left hanging in a similar fashion to how the Order (including King Knight) hang on after their defeat. The Enchantress butters him up with her words, promising him a throne and the title of King of Pridemoor. King Knight takes the opportunity by joining the Enchantress willingly, and sends his friends falling down. He has gotten everything he wanted, but at the cost of not only the respect and friendship of everyone close to him (including his own mother), but also the freedom of the Valley and its denizens.]]
* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
** The little jingle that plays whenever Shovel Knight scrapes a chest empty or find a music sheet.
** [[spoiler:The *shing* sound made by Shield Knight when she's offering her help to attack The Enchantress or to protect you from her all-screen attack]].
* ScrappyMechanic:
** A rather minor gripe all things considered, but on the console ports of the ''Plague of Shadows'' expansion, players need to stop gameplay to open the item menu every single time they wish to change their bombs or abilities, which can grow extremely tiresome after awhile. Yacht Club seems to have become aware of this, with one of the quality-of-life features of the ''King of Cards'' expansion adding two quick select menus, one for Arcana and one for Bomb components and Tonics, removing the need to use the main item menu.
** In the NewGamePlus of ''Specter of Torment'', Darkness and Will are fused into one bar, but it naturally drains down, and using Curios still drains it. Combine that with less checkpoints and the Will Skull being outright deactivated, and life just got a whole lot harder.
** A few reviews have faulted the card-based strategy game Joustus in the ''King of Cards'' expansion, which can feel luck-based, and represents a sudden GenreShift in a game otherwise defined by PlatformGame mechanics. While the card games are optional unless you're going for OneHundredPercentCompletion, a fair amount of the ''King of Cards'' expansion's lore and ancillary material requires playing it.
** While partially circumvented by many of the cards being common (generally due to many of them being random enemies), most of the unique cards in ''King of Cards'' have to be bought through Chester's shop, which can be rather annoying due to the cards bought being [[LuckBasedMission randomized]], which means the player can get ''duplicates'' of cards they already own, and leaves it very likely the player will waste a bunch of gold trying to complete their collection.
** The NewGamePlus for ''King of Cards'' fixes your health at 4 hearts and has your Heirlooms cost treasure to use, regardless of upgrades. Not only that, but taking damage causes treasure to fly out of you a la Sonic the Hedgehog, bouncing around the area. Even with a saving grace that enemies drop health hearts more often, and those hearts even automatically heal you without touching them, this mode proves to be just as difficult as the previous New Game+ modes, if not harder.
* ShipsThatPassInTheNight:
** Propeller/Specter Knight has a minor following despite only two real conversations shown between them.
** Generally, any No Quarter ship applies to this due to knowing little to no details about their dynamic with one another.
** Propeller Knight/Phantom Striker has ''no'' canonical backing or evidence whatsoever, but it's gaining a growing fandom.
* SophomoreSlump: ''Plague of Shadows'', while very far from being low-quality, is typically seen as weaker than ''Shovel of Hope'' due to Plague Knight's gameplay being less tight and most of its content being recycled from the base game. ''Specter of Torment'' got more time in development (roughly two years instead of ''Plague of Shadows''' one year) to fine-tune Specter Knight's gameplay and create stages and bosses built around it, and it's considered to be on par with or even better than ''Shovel of Hope''. ''King of Cards'' has an entirely new structure, with more stages than any previous campaign but those stages being much shorter overall, with at most two checkpoints per level and some stages even having secret exits, as well as an exclusive card game minigame called Joustus.
* {{Squick}}: The [[spoiler:Tower of Joustus]] in ''King of Cards'' shows how Joustus cards are manufactured. The player can see the cards being printed, cut, and stored, which all seems normal at first glance. However, sharp eye reveals just what they're being printed on--[[spoiler:turns out the reason the cards are red is because they're made of ''crushed and flattened red skulls'' taken from Red's collection]].
* SpiritualAdaptation: ''King of Cards'' may be [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative the greatest puzzle-platformer adaptation]] of ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' that exists. King Knight shares a lot of [=DNA=] with Ignatius Reilly, both of them being {{Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist}}s mooching off their doting mothers' goodwill and antagonizing everyone they come across but [[AchievementsInIgnorance still managing to find success]] before becoming a HatedByAll KarmaHoudini at the end of their stories (though in King Knight's case, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty it comes with a warranty in the form of Shovel Knight]]).
* ThatOneAchievement:
** ''Perfect Platformer'' and ''Impossible''. The first requires you not fall even once in a BottomlessPit, the later not to die once. Thankfully the game doesn't record your deaths if you simply leave the stage to the world map.
** ''Hurry Up!'' which requires the player to finish the game within ''1h 30m''. Screw up a few times and you might as well restart the entire game again. Even returning to the map can become problematic since every time you do so the game will add few seconds to the total time which will accumulate if you restart one too many times. Some of the stress can be reduced with liberal abuse of the save game copy tool.
** ''Dirt Poor''. It requires you to get absolutely no gold during a run through a member of the Order of No Quarter level, which is harder than it sounds. You may inadvertently pick anything worth a single gold after breaking blocks of dirt or killing an enemy and there are several stages where getting this feat is impossible as there are gold and gems right in places where you must pass.
** ''True Shovelry''. To earn it you must beat all levels not getting any relic at all, which means absolutely ''no recovery'' other than food, no cheesing out victories with the Phase Locket and no sequence breaking with the Propeller Dagger.
** ''Penny Pincher'' is even worse. It requires you to spend ''no money at all''. This means, in addition to the hardships from ''True Shovelry'', you can't buy armor or shovel upgrades, and you can never have more than seven hearts of health. Luckily in NewGamePlus, if you bought virtually everything in the original file, you can complete it again without these issues present.
* ThatOneBoss:
** Specter Knight is one of the harder bosses in the game due to his fast movement, hard to avoid attacks and InterfaceScrew. Good luck on NewGamePlus. The second fight with him in ''King of Cards'' also falls into this; since he takes a cue from the Shovel Knight fight in ''Plague of Shadows'' (see below) and not only uses the curios from ''Specter of Torment'' but also adapts and fights like a player would... then he restores his health and fights as in ''Shovel of Hope'', only the InterfaceScrew is much ''worse'' because of the background.
** Plague Knight can easily become this on NewGamePlus. Since you take double damage and he just doesn't stop throwing bombs it's quite likely that you'll either need full health or some Ichor of Renewal to beat him if you didn't learn his attack pattern or don't have reflexes to dodge his bombs. ''Specter of Torment'' amps up the difficulty with potion clones, and ''King of Cards'' pits you against [[spoiler:Percy]] beforehand with no opportunity to recover.
** Not only is Polar Knight able to block your bouncing move, move around quickly for a big dude, and is hard to hit, but he is one of 3 bosses who can insta-kill you (in his case, spikes). This makes him '''especially''' aggravating since [[spoiler:he's one of the bosses who wasn't toned down to compensate in the BossRush]]. He is, however, easier to fight if you're playing as Plague Knight, since he can't trap you with the spikes (you can blast-jump AND use a rechargeable Smoke Bomb, which is basically a Phase Locket) and doesn't block your bombs. His incarnation in ''Specter of Torment'' is also rather hard to fight, due to the fact that one of Specter Knight's greatest advantages (his great air mobility) is negated due to how Polar Knight is largely unchanged (staying almost always planted on the ground), except for even more attacks that add spikes to the larger arena.
** Regardless of who you play as, Propeller Knight can be a pain. Similar to Polar Knight, his (normal) boss battle has InstantKill traps (in this case: BottomlessPits). Even worse, he blows you around, and can even instant kill you by ''pushing you off the arena'', since there's a 1-block gap between the edges of the screen and the edges of each edge of the arena. Oh, and also like Polar Knight, he can counter your pogo bounce, moves extremely fast, and stays high up most of the time so you need the Anchors to hit him. If you're playing as Plague Knight, hitting Propeller Knight at all is difficult due to having to deal with many bomb casings being worthless if he's flying. It's especially frustrating on a MinimalistRun necessary for an achievement, since you're stuck with the basic casing.
** Treasure Knight isn't that bad normally. In Challenge Mode, however, he becomes one of the harder bosses due to [[TimedMission the time limit imposed on most bosses]], especially as Shovel Knight himself. You only have 35 seconds to defeat him, no Relics, and ''three health points,'' which means you'll only be able to take six hits maximum - and Treasure Knight has attacks that can hit you for a full health point, so that's being generous. Furthermore, due to his erratic movement and [[GetBackHereBoss tendency to move away from you]], he can be hard to even hit in the first place, and if he gets to use his whirlpool chest, then you'll lose precious time because you have to spend your time running away from the chest. And if you get sucked in? You might as well just reset right there because of how much time it takes up. This boss fight has very little margin for error, as you can't play carelessly due to your lack of health yet have to play at least decently aggressively due to the short time limit and Treasure Knight's movements.
** [[spoiler:Shovel Knight]] in ''Plague of Shadows''. He can deflect your bombs, adapts to your strategy so you can't spam the same attacks, and technically has one and a half times as much health as the rest of the bosses. He's even worse in the BossRush where he's ''always'' the last boss. If you die to him there, you have to do the entire boss rush ''all over again!''
** [[spoiler:Shield Knight]] in ''Specter of Torment''. This boss will absolutely murder players that think they can throw attacks mindlessly to win and requires some patience and calm to hit the boss when they lower their guard.
** Surprisingly, Tinker Knight in ''Specter of Torment'' and ''King of Cards''. He's packing the mobile gear this time around, giving him greatly increased mobility and more attacks. [[spoiler:He still calls in the Tinker Tank when you beat him]], only this time the arena constantly scrolls to the right, and he now fights independently of it by using the mobile gear to fly around out of striking range. The [[spoiler:Tinker Tank]] moves erratically, frequently sending you to the ground where there is no way to hit Tinker Knight, and you must navigate around bottomless pits while he [[spoiler:and his tank]] bombard you with attacks.
** The final Joustus Judge from ''King of Cards'', [[spoiler:[[ClimaxBoss King Birder]]]]. Besides having the movement patterns of [[spoiler:the mook Birders - already GoddamnedBats -]] he also fires reflecting lasers, creates platforms to squash you (and any health hearts) against the walls of the arena, shoots water bombs that create a column of pain that can severely hamper how much room you have to work with, and teleports occasionally. Periodically throughout the fight, he'll cause the walls to close in, shrinking the arena and making it more difficult to avoid his attacks. And when he does this, he HEALS. It gets especially aggravating when he heals just as you're one hit away from defeating him.
** As for Joustus itself, Mona can be fairly difficult at any point due to her ability, Transmute. She can turn any card, even a card in your hand, into a red version of any other card in play, making her a threat no matter what kind of deck you have.
** The Xbox One and PC exclusive fight against the Battletoads. Specifically the portion where you fight Pimple as you must simultaneously fight him and survive a trip through the infamous Turbo Tunnel. Sure, its a much simpler version of the tunnel, but it still managed to retain some of the NintendoHard elements. All while you're trying to avoid both the instant death traps and Pimple's attacks as well.
* ThatOneLevel:
** The Explodatorium, Plague Knight's stage, mostly in New Game+ mode. So many enemies in this stage can heavily damage Shovel Knight if unprepared, and the stage also contains one the most difficult knight variants - the green ones. Expect to heavily abuse the Phase Locket, and if you are trying for the no relic achievement, then good luck. In ''Plague of Shadows'' on New Game+, the first checkpoint isn't until [[CheckpointStarvation after the miniboss]] ''halfway though the level'', making a normally challenging level seem brutal.
** Clockwork Tower, Tinker Knight's stage. The final segment of the stage will auto scroll upwards meaning it will constantly create [[BottomlessPit Bottomless Pits]], one mishap with the jump and it's back to the last checkpoint with a hit in your wallet.
** Flying Machine, Propeller Knight's stage. Chock full of {{Bottomless Pit}}s, has DemonicSpiders in several parts of the stage and wind physics that screw with your jumps in others. The level is ''much'' harder in ''Plague of Shadows'' due to Plague Knight's lower jumps and difficulty dealing with a majority of enemies in the stage.
** Tower of Fate: Entrance has many spots with difficult jumps, is filled with {{Demonic Spider}}s and ends in a very [[ThatOneBoss difficult boss]]. This stage is regarded as one of the most difficult by players for a reason. Trying to finish it without relics is almost self flagellation.
** Tower of Fate: Ascent. It has a segment where you must push a statue to create bridges all over a huge BottomlessPit. The catch? Enemies positioned specifically to throw you off said statue and two green mooks from Propeller Knight's stage to downright blow you into the BottomlessPit. It also has an auto scrolling section like Tinker Knight's stage, now with blocks moving around to crush you as well. It gets worse in New Game+, as the ONLY checkpoint in the level is the one right before the BossRush. Said boss rush is now even more difficult, as you take ''double'' damage and full health turkeys come only after every OTHER fight. Though it so happens that the aforementioned statue section can actually be skipped entirely by getting the statue above the obstacles and just jumping above them (requires usage of the Propeller Dagger to clear some of the jumps, though).
** [[GenreThrowback For obvious reasons]], [[VideoGame/{{Battletoads}} Mysterious Area]] in the Xbox One and PC version. It has you in modified versions of Wookie Hole and Turbo Tunnel, fighting Zitz and Pimple in those areas respectively, and then fighting the whole Battletoads Team in a boss fight. The Wookie Hole is especially nasty as you undergo CheckpointStarvation for the whole thing. Definitely hits the NintendoHard fans of Battletoads have been looking for.
** For ''Plague of Shadows'', The Iron Whale on New Game+. The first checkpoint isn't until '''after''' the angler fish miniboss, so you'll end up playing through a number of tricky platforming sections that will punish you if you abuse your charge jump too much. Combine that with the narrow platforms and relentlessly spawning mooks, and you're likely to just make it to the fight before being knocked off a platform into a bottomless pit. Getting past that wall leaves the rest of the level ''relatively'' easier, as long as you continue retrying.
** ''Specter of Torment'' is already more difficult than the previous two campaigns, but Tower of Fate: Entrance takes it up to eleven, with numerous bottomless pits, crushers, and sections that require mastery of the Dash Slash. And then there's the rematch with the [[ThatOneBoss Black Knight]]. God help you if you're playing on NewGamePlus.
** The Break the Targets stage in ''Showdown'' has frustrated a lot of people, since the game doesn't explain its mechanics very well. It often feels like a LuckBasedMission whether you can earn enough points or not. What's worse is that, unlike the minigames in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' that inspired it, clearing this minigame is required to advance in the story - if you fail you lose a continue and have to try the stage again.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: One cannot help but feel at least a little miffed once they consider that ''each'' of the members of No Quarter might have HiddenDepths that could have been dug into in their proposed campaign. Polar Knight applies to this the most [[spoiler:due to his implied relationship to Black Knight, and possibly Shield and Shovel Knight as well.]]
* UnderusedGameMechanic: It's commonly lamented that the Body Swap function is only usable in ''Shovel of Hope'', with none of the other campaigns having this functionality despite largely using the same assets for the characters, and that the only character who can switch to said design in ''Showdown'' is Shovel Knight.
* UnexpectedCharacter:
** The guest characters in general, due to [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Kratos]] being from [[DemographicDissonantCrossover a much darker game series]], and the ''{{VideoGame/Battletoads}}'' having become relatively niche. The reaction to the latter increased when it turned out they were [[http://yachtclubgames.com/2017/08/shovel-knight-on-windows-store-battletoads-encounter-coming-to-pc/ announced]] to be coming to ''all'' PC versions in October 2017 after having been exclusive to the Xbox One version for two years.
** ''Shovel Knight Showdown'' features, among the expected cast of playable characters, a [[{{Mook}} Goldarmor]], but even more surprising was Mona, who hadn't shown any sort of combat ability in the main game or ''Plague of Shadows'' proper.
** Madame Meeber, the character who gives fairies to the player upon scanning an Toys/{{amiibo}} on Nintendo consoles, shows up in ''King of Cards'' through an EasterEgg regardless of what version of you're playing, albeit without the amiibo-colored wings and [[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS "a"]] on her chest.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: Gall's "Kiss of Death", along with his design being rather androgynous, left people thinking he was female until WordOfGod clarified Gall was male.
* {{Woolseyism}}: In the Japanese release, the Alchemy Coin was changed from a golden coin with Japanese text on it to a form of Japanese coin (one with a hole in the middle).