History VideoGame / SpiralKnights

** Poisoned enemies also take more and deal less damage, making it only semi-useless. But 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. This is especially true for Gremlin Menders and their AoE healing abilities.

* DropTheHammer: Gremlins tend to try to smash you with hammers made out of their wrenches. Warmaster Seerus wields a rocket hammer that can be obtained by the player.

* EquipmentBasedProgression: The players don't gain experience themselves, instead, you can craft different pieces of armor and weapons, each one with it's own [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elemental bonuses and weaknesses]], and each item requires Experience points (or "Heat") separately, and usually has an additional bonus when they reach its level cap. They (and the levels' difficulty) are also divided on tiers. In order to be allowed to go deeper on the clockworks, you also need to craft better equipment(usually using a level capped item of a lower tier).
* EquipmentHidingFashion: While no equipment dedicated to this function but one is allowed to use an additional piece of in-game armour just for aesthetics.

* BonusBoss: The Kataclysmic Confrontation 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.

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

** ''They even pulled it off in an advertisement.'' Take a look at [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SpiralKnights_ShoutOut_TheLegendOfZelda_7607.JPG this]] and don't even ''dare'' to say you didn't get [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda such a blatant reference.]]

Available [[http://www.spiralknights.com/ here]]. On June 14, 2011, it became available on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} as one of its first free-to-play games.

-->''Punch and Vise wanted me to state for the record that they did not 'blow up' Vatel's recipe shop, but rather that it 'exploded while they were inside it.'''

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Royal Jelly, Lord Vanaduke, Warmaster Seerus, and [[spoiler: Herex]].

* BigFancyCastle: Scarlet Fortress and the Royal Jelly Palace.

* BossArenaIdiocy: The Snarbolax's boss room contains one of those bells you've seen throughout the dungeon. Obviously, hitting him with the bell's stun effect is the only way to knock his invincibility effect out. Bonus points for the fact that Snarby does a couple of hit-and-runs during the previous levels, including one in an InescapableAmbush room ''with no bell''. Also a TacticalSuicideBoss, because he's only vulnerable to bell-stun whilst using his bite combo (unless you use a vortex to drag him to the bell), and the fight would be much harder if he just spammed ground thorns and spikes from the corners.
** Justified- it turns out the recon teams that first explored the place set up the bells to help you.
** A less justified instance is the Roarmulus Twins. The gremlins have designed two massive missile-bomb-laser-firing war machines, and put them in a room together, pointing at each other.
*** To be fair, there's walls blocking their shots. If the knights didn't hit switches with careful timing, they WOULD be invincible.

* TheCorruption: The Swarm.

* CuteKitten: The Seraphynx and Mewkats.
* CuteMachines: Love Puppies. Especially when you read the description for the True Love Locket they drop.

* [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Dangerous Forbidden Sword]]: The [[MeaningfulName Faust and Gran Faust]] swords have some of the highest stats of any weapon in the game, but conversely have a chance to Curse the user when using the charge attack, which damages them if they use certain weapons. Similarly the Fang of Vog has a chance of setting the player on Fire.

* [[DieChairDie Die Bush Die]]: Bushes (and similar decoration objects) may drop money or hearts. Obstacle boxes drop nothing, but they may be hiding buttons for unlocking doors. To top it off, the solid blocks that take three hits to break will sometimes actually be rock jellies, only revealing themselves after being hit..

** The Apocrean Harvester BREATHES this trope. As does Margrel.
* EldritchLocation: The Shadow Lairs [[spoiler:and the floor that comes after the boss]]. As well as the Shadows of the Apocrea mission.

* EnergyEconomy

* EternalEngine: The ''entire'' planet can be considered one.

* [[ExplodingBarrels Exploding Cubes]]

* FireballEyeballs: Devilite Overtimers have them.

* GirlishPigtails: The Spiral Tailed Helm and its derivatives have these attached to it.

* GunTwirling: How you [[UnorthodoxReload reload]] most of the guns.

* KnightOfCerebus: [[spoiler: Herex, which introduced the Swarm into the plot.]]

* NoOntologicalInertia: The Royal Jelly's death also causes every other enemy in the room to splat.

* 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 [[ShootTHeMedicFirst 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.

* SchizoTech

** Also The "Nameless Poncho" is a shout-out to the Film/DollarsTrilogy. The creators seem to love those movies.

** The Bolted Vee Fin accessory is mounted on the forehead of your knight's helmet. Upon doing so it resembles the Gundam type units from Anime/MobileSuitGundam.

** The Voltedge's charge attack delivers a [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatt]] shock.

* CameraScrew: See FakeDifficulty. This is especially evident during the fight with Lord Vanaduke -- both his strongest minions and many of his attacks have high damage but long start up times before they attack, and if you can't see them then the attack will probably hit you without you having any time to do anything about it.
** This mainly becomes a problem when enemies approach from the south (bottom) of the screen.

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: The ChargeAttack of the Calibur, its upgrades and the Fang of Vog is a 360° spin that can hit multiple times. The Spur and its upgrades are mechanized swords with built-in motors that are constantly spinning.
** The Dark Retribution line bombs from the Crimson Hammer mission cause damaging orbs to spin around the bomb. They still appear, though much smaller, when the bomb is merely being held.

* SpinAttack: The Calibur series of swords has this as their charged attack. The Royal Jelly also goes invulnerable, TurnsRed, and spins around the area when it has been weakened enough.
** The Fang of Vog adds an IncendiaryExponent to the Calibur charge, allowing it to set both user and enemy on fire.

** The [[AnAxeToGrind Hatchet]] and its upgraded variety, the Heavy Hatchet could also count, despite the fact that they're extremely low-level.

* DifficultySpike: The game becomes much more difficult every tier.

* BalefulPolymorph: Gorgos are former devilites that didn't put any effort into their jobs and were transformed into fat flying blobs.

* OneWingedAngel: Lord Vanaduke does a variation of this. Although he starts out already big and monstrous, he takes the trope UpToEleven in his final form. Upon significant damage, he will lose his mask and reveal his shadowed face, commencing the transformation. Fire and lava burst from cracks in his armor, he begins to glow as if possessed, and orbs of cursed flame spin around him, forming a halo as if he has become a god. In addition, he is surrounded by corrupted [[FlunkyBoss Slag Guards]].

* ArcVillain: Schemer Razwog is the gremlin boss attempting to steal the Artifact and hindering you from crossing into Haven at the beginning of the game. Additionally, each boss can serve as this: Snarbolax for the Gloaming Wildwoods, Royal Jelly for the Royal Jelly Palace, the Roarmulus Twins for the Iron Munitions Factory, and Lord Vanaduke for Firestorm Citadel [[spoiler: although Herex briefly moves in after Vanaduke is killed]]. However, they are all eclipsed by OverarchingVillain King Tinkinzar [[spoiler: and Herex, the Whispering Venom]].

* StunGuns: You have the actual Stun Guns which are low tier weapons that can stun, and then you have the Magnus, which are essentially more powerful two-shot punch guns with a chance of stun.