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This is an article about an upcoming game
The information on this article will be expanded and changed upon the game's release. |
Shovel Knight Dig is a platforming game developed by Nitrome and Yacht Club Games and slated for release in 2022[1]. The player plays as Shovel Knight trying to get his loot back that has been stolen by Drill Knight[2].
Gameplay
In Shovel Knight Dig, the player traverses downwards through a cavern set across different environments that are divided up into levels[3][4]. Each level is made up of randomly selected pre-made level segments that are stitched together to create the level[3]. As the player advances through the cavern, they can encounter shops that sell positive enhancement items[4]. At the end of each level, the player is presented with the option of continuing on to the next level or playing a previously completed level[5].
If the player dies, they will lose all collected gems and power-ups and be taken back to outside the top of the cavern and have to restart their traversal through the cavern[6][7]. Upon re-entering, the player can regain half[5] their lost gems by touching flying bags scattered throughout the cavern[6].
Story
The story of Shovel Knight Dig starts with Shovel Knight having his loot stolen by Drill Knight and The Hexcavators[3] As the story progresses, the motives behind the heist are revealed[8].
Themes
All themes have dirt that Shovel Knight can dig through and are situated underground.
- Mushroom Mines[4] - A previously collapsed underground mine that has been opened by Spore Knight's mushroom stents[9]. It is interspersed with mushroom-related game components. Spore Knight is fought here[4].
- Garden - A garden situated inside an area with the architecture and design of a medieval castle[4][10].
- Refinery - A metal refinery[11].
- The Grub Pit[8] - Hive Knight is encountered here[8].
- Magic Landfill[1] - An underground landfill made up of magic items, knight armor, and buildings[1]. Scrap Knight is fought here[1].
Enemies
| Enemy | Behaviour |
|---|---|
 Fly |
Flies around. Can dig through dirt[11]. |
 Boneclang[12] |
Attacks with a sword slash. Can be killed with three slashes from Shovel Knight's shovel. Can be encountered stationary[11]. |
 Walking mushroom |
Is initially stationary and will walk towards the player when they are near[4]. Shovel Dropping on its mushroom cap will not harm it and instead bounce the player upward[13]. When killed it will drop its cap, which when hit by the player's shovel will bounce in the direction hit and bounce off platforms[4]. |
 Flying beetle |
These enemies fly and can dig through dirt[11]. |
 Spore creature |
A stationary enemy that shoots several small spore-shaped projectiles that move through platforms. After firing them, they wait before firing again[11]. |
 Blorb[12] |
Bounce towards the player[14]. |
 Blazorb[10][15] |
Behaviour unknown. |
 Pink blorb |
Hops towards the player[14]. |
 Beeto[12] |
Walks horizontally[11]. |
  Propeller Rats[12] |
Can fly[11]. Variants can be encountered holding bombs[10] and drills[8]. |
 Floating mushroom |
Can float in the air. When Shovel Knight touches one, it will turn him into small Shovel Knight[11]. |
 Blitzsteed[12] |
Moves horizontally and can drill through dirt with its drill[11]. |
 Moler[10][12] |
Behaviour unknown. |
 Mole thief[2] |
Can steal unspecified objects[16]. |
 Tadvolt[10][12] |
Behaviour unknown. |
 Crab[10] |
Behaviour unknown. Can be encountered on platforms and clinging to the sides of platforms[10]. |
 Charflounder[12] |
Jumps out of lava. Its head is impervious to Shovel Knight's Shovel Drop[17]. |
 Armoured beetle |
Walks horizontally. Its armoured shell can be broken by Shovel Knight's Shovel Drop, revealing a red inner bulb that when hit again by the same attack kills it[17]. |
 Birder[12] |
Moves diagonally and bounces off platforms[17]. |
 Goldarmor[12] |
Moves strategically, attacks with a sword slash, and can shield upwards[17]. |
 Tunneling creature |
Appears in Magic Landfill[1]. Its behaviour is unknown, but it can appear on walls[1]. |
- Worm - Its body starts at a certain spot and extends as it moves[18]. It will home in on Shovel Knight[18] and can move through dirt[11]. Can be damaged by attacking its head[11]. Once killed, its body will break up but leave its skeleton behind at wherever it was located[11].
- Dozedrake[10][12] - Behaviour unknown.
Interactive objects
- Dirt - Can be dug through and stood on[11].
- Volcanic dirt - Appears to be made of rock and appears in the refinery theme[8]. It is uncertain whether it behaves differently from normal dirt.
- Destructible blocks - Can be walked on. They can be destroyed by Shovel Knight's Shovel Drop and may contain yellow gems[11].
- Treasure chests - Contains gems[4].
- Revolving wall - A wall that has an outline of Shovel Knight[11]. When Shovel Knight orients himself with it, it will spin and take him to another room[19].
- Stone blocks - Can be destroyed by small drills and come in a 1x1 form.
- Explosive triggers - When hit, they will blow up a line of blocks on a solid platform, revealing a path through it[11]. The blown up area may contain food or a bomb[14]. The triggers can be encountered in the form of:
- Mushrooms - Bounce the player up. Encountered facing upwards, and in this position comes in small or large forms, and diagonally[4].
- Spinning platforms - A set of spinning platforms that are attached to a beam in the background. When one is touched, it will move horizontally until it hits a wall or another platform if one of the platforms does not have another platform in front of it[17].
- Flying treasure chest - Flies horizontally[8]. When hit by a Shovel Drop from above it releases whatever it has[8].
- Magical effect - Appears for a few seconds over a column of blocks during the volcanic dirt refinery part of the February 1st, 2022 Yacht Club Games Presents[8]. It is uncertain what it does.
Hazards
- Spikes - Harm the player on contact[4]. A variant instantly kills the player regardless of how much health they have[21].
- Spiked wheel - This hazard is always present in the level and follows Shovel Knight from afar, but can catch up with him if he progresses too slowly. It will instantly kill him on contact[18][22].
- Small drills - Attached to platforms. Can harm the player[4], enemies and destroy dirt and stone blocks[11].
- Big drills - Move horizontally and can destroy dirt, destructible blocks, and enemies[4].
- Saws - Can destroy dirt. Can be encountered stationary or attached to a moving stake[11].
- Bombs - Explode after a few seconds[14] and can kill enemies[13].
- Drill blocks - Blocks with drills on them. They are initially stationary, but when the player becomes parallel with them, they will move forward. They come in 1x1 and 2x2 block sizes[4].
- Mines - They are encountered embedded in dirt and will explode shortly after the player enters their proximity[4].
- Rotating flames - Consists of four nozzles pointing in each direction that shoot a large line of fire that passes through dirt[17].
Obstacles
- Gates - Will block Shovel Knight's exit from a room until all enemies are killed, then it will open[13].
Other
- Bubbles - Occur in the underground garden area and can be empty or contain liquid[10].
- Medium sized drills - Held on a horizontally moving belt and can be released from it by Shovel Knight's Shovel Drop, whereupon they will fall. Their drill can destroy destructible blocks[17].
- Lava - In one video, lava can be seen located at the bottom of one room located in the refinery area. It temporarily rises upward and Charflounders jump out of it[17].
- Magical fields - Appear in Magic Landfill and appear as a straight line of blue or pink magical energy. Their placement in one preview image suggests they may be teleporters.
Pick-ups
- Gems - Can be collected[11]. The following types of gems exist:
- Gold gears - Three are placed in each level segment they appear in, and when all three are collected the player can access the utility drill at the end of the level[4].
- Potions[11] - The reveal trailer shows one being dropped upon killing a flying beetle[11].
- Food - Restores health[4] and can be encountered inside a plate with a dome lid, which has to be smashed to be opened. The following food can be encountered:
- Jewels - A single jewel appears in the background of each Hexcavator boss fight. In the PAX demo, Spore Knight's jewel can be obtained after defeating Spore Knight and is worth 1000 gems[4]. Spore Knight's jewel is pink, Hive Knight's jewel is lime green[8], and Scrap Knight's jewel is red[1].
Shops
Overworld
- Hoofman[8] - Operates a shop that sells power-ups located to the right of the hole leading into the cavern[4][21]. To talk to him, Shovel Knight has to enter and hit a bell[4]. In the PAX demo, the player cannot buy power-ups until they encounter the shop and have gems, which they can do upon initially beating Spore Knight[21].
- Chester - Operates a shop called "Chester's Unlocks" that sells permanent items[8].
In-game
The following shops can be accessed in rooms located at the side of each level and are usually denoted by a blue lamp, as seen in the PAX demos.
- Chester[24] - Resides in an ornate treasure chest with blue colouring that opens when hit. He sells upgrades and weapons[4].
- Gastronomole[25] - Has a shop stall and sells food[4]. The food he sells varies based on the theme he is in[25].
- Tombola[26] - Resides on a barrel and runs a roulette game[26]. For 250 gems, his barrel will cycle through five items and will give Shovel Knight one at random[26]. The barrel will normally stop spinning on its own[8], but can also be stopped by a shovel slash[26].
- Shovel warrior - Sells character upgrades[27].
Items
Temporary items
- Relic key[8] - Opens a relic room lock. Costs 350 gems[8].
- Potion item - Costs 2000 gems[8]. It is not known whether it is a temporary or permanent item.
Permanent items
These items are not lost upon dying[3][28]. Permanent items can be bought from Chester's Unlocks and Hoofman's Shop in the overworld[8].
- Comet collar[8] - Knocks enemies hit with a shovel slash further. Costs 1500 gems[8].
- Leaping plume[8] - Allows the player to jump higher. Costs 2000 gems[8].
- Blizzeo ring[8] - Increases resistance to ice damage. Costs 2000 gems[8].
- Boots - Unknown. Costs 2500 gems[8].
- Health upgrade[8] - Increases maximum health. Costs 3000 gems[8].
- Follow slot upgrade[8] - Allows one more item to follow behind Shovel Knight. Costs 1500 gems[8]. The item following feature has not been revealed yet.
Food items
These can be purchased from Gastronomole[4] and Tombola[26].
- Fortified roast[4] - Allows the player to sustain three hits without losing any health. Costs 160 gems[4].
- Clean plate[4] - Gives the player an empty extra health bubble. Costs 200 gems[4].
- Prodigious fungi[18] - Allows health bubbles to withstand three hits before being depleted as opposed to two[18]. It costs 600 gems[18] and is exclusive to Mushroom Mines[25].
- Mutton - Restores health[26].
- Applis Lazuli[29] - Increases health by one bubble and refills all health[29]. Costs 750 gems[29].
- Can - Unknown[8].
- Armoured chicken - Unknown[8].
- Donut - Unknown[8].
- Cotton candy - Unknown[8].
- Cave cheese[8] - Refills 2 health points (a whole bubble)[26].
The following food items restore the player's health. Prices are indicated in parenthesis and are denominated in gems.
| Health bubbles restored | Items |
|---|---|
| All | Roasted chicken (500)[13] |
| 2 | Bi-tip steak (300)[18] |
| 1 | Mushroom (lactofermented) (80)[13], Coated apple (150)[18] |
| ½ | Buttered carrot (60)[4], Shiitake skewer (50)[13] |
Upgrades
Temporary upgrades
Temporary upgrades positively affect the player and can be purchased from Chester, randomly obtained from the utility drill if the "?" option is selected[4], and given by non-playable characters[25]. Temporary upgrades are lost upon death, whereas permanent upgrades are not[3][28].
- Boot[4] - Unknown.
- Blorbsbane flask[4] - Blorbs and Blazorbs will avoid the player[4].
- Charm spell[4] - The shop description describes this upgrade as allowing the player to "Get better deals at shops" and also having another undisclosed effect. Costs 150 gems[4].
- Catalyst[18] - Causes some rocks to become explosive. Costs 150 gems[18].
- Magnet - Attracts nearby gems to the player[30]. Costs 150 gems[18].
- Spin attack[22].
- Reduced damage from spikes[22].
- Scroll[31]
- Hungry charm[13] - Increases the chance of enemies dropping food and treasure chests having food. Costs 400 gems[13].
- Looking glass[13] - The shop description for this item is "Looks for secrets and points them out." Costs 300 gems[13].
- U-shaped charm[32] - The description for this is "More riches may appear if you carry this."[32] Costs 500 gems[32].
- Inverse repeller[32] - Attracts gems to Shovel Knight, even through dirt[32]. Costs 150 gems[32].
- Propeller sword - Unknown[8].
Ability upgrades
These are sold by the shovel warrior.
- Head Butt Dirt[27] - Shovel Knight's head can break dirt[27]. Costs 200 gems[27].
- Heavy Shovel Drop[27] - Description is "Gather your strength to plummet down through dirt and foes."[27] Costs 200 gems[27].
- Glide Slash[27] - Slows Shovel Knight's falling when he slashes with his shovel[27]. Costs 250 gems[27].
Relics
Relics[24] can be purchased from Chester or obtained via relic rooms[8]. Some relic rooms are protected by a relic lock and can only be entered through use of a Relic key[8].
- Fire rod[14] - Shoots a fireball[11]. Can be purchased from Chester for 500 gems[14].
- Blue slime - Can be thrown by Shovel Knight[11].
- War Horn - Creates a loud sound that inflicts damage within a large circular area around the player[11]. Can be purchased from Chester for 650 gems[4].
- Trowel[14] - Can be thrown and passes through dirt[14]. Can be purchased from Chester for 450 gems[14].
Bosses
- Spore Knight[10] - Fought in Mushroom Mines[33].
- Hive Knight[34] - Fought in The Grub Pit[8] and accompanied by a Beeto called Fleck[34]. Hive Knight can attack with a forward slash of his net[8]. Fleck flies around[8].
- Scrap Knight[1] - Fought in Magic Landfill[1]. Can throw a sword[1]. She has 20 HP[1].
- Drill Knight[10]
Other characters
- Shovel Knight Dig will also feature other characters from past Shovel Knight games[3].
Events
Events can happen at the end of level acts[8]. It is currently not known how they are triggered, although they might be scripted given how they resemble the cutscenes at the end of Shovel Knight levels.
- Shovel Knight comes across a big of magic items and reaching out to touch it, when suddenly a crystal ball rises up out of it, which causes a strong magical effect[8].
- Shield Knight holding an incapacitated Shovel Knight[8].
Platforms
When initially announced, Shovel Knight Dig was confirmed to be coming to Nintendo Switch[35] and PlayStation 4[36] and at PAX West was playable on Nintendo Switch. The confirmed platforms though ended up changing, as in early 2022, Nitrome shared that they were not confirming any platforms for the game at that time and would cover this information at a later date[37].
While a PC release is yet to be confirmed, the Yacht Club Games Presents held on February 1st, 2022, had UI graphics for keyboard buttons[8].
PAX demo
A demo for Shovel Knight Dig was available at PAX West 2019 and PAX East 2020[38][39][40]. It covered three segments of Mushroom Mines and the Spore Knight boss battle[4].
Shovel Knight Dig PAX demo
Gameplay
Footage of the demo was captured by the following websites:
Spore Knight battle
Shovel Knight will drop into a room that can have the following configurations (all may not be listed) which always has a rock shaped like horns holding a pink jewel in the background[4]:
- Largely flat room with moving platforms on either end[4].
- Room with raised corners that has two upward-facing large mushrooms in the middle[14].
- Completely flat room with interspersed mounds of dirt that can be dug in to[13].
- A room with raised corners that has a platform placed above the middle of the room[18].
- A largely flat room filled mostly with dirt[30].
- A completely flat room with spikes at the sides, initially covered by 2x2 destructible blocks[41].
He will then converse with Spore Knight about her intentions before the battle begins[4]. There are two possible sets of dialogue, and they are listed here. The music during the battle also changes to a boss battle theme[4].
Spore Knight has ten health and her body can be damaged with shovel slashes, but her head cannot be damaged by Shovel Drops[4]. She starts off the battle jumping around, and upon being damaged or upon not being damaged for a short period of time, she will dig into the ground then jump up somewhere else and execute one of the following attacks[4]. She generally jumps up at the edges or middle of the main area with this digging attack and tries to do this away from the player[4]. She has the following attacks:
- Jumping around in an arc. While doing this, she can, pass through large bouncy mushrooms[4].
- Jump up and throw spores[42] around her out of her bag[13]. Prior to executing this attack, she may jump around[18].
- Throwing her mushroom cap horizontally[4]. If she does not harm the player, she may jump around[30].
- Creating a line of small upward-facing mushrooms that go across all surfaces and soon disappear, then jumping around in an arc and after some jumps trying to jump and move towards the player. The initial moving spell that creates the mushrooms can harm the player on contact[4].
- Popping her mushroom cap off her head, which bounces diagonally around the room[14].
At some point during the battle, white spores will start falling[18]. They fall in waves and can be destroyed by shovel slashes[18]. Upon being defeated, the floor will explode and both knights will fall on to a path selection platform where Spore Knight will bounce around and fall down the left path to the next area (the right path is also possible[18]) and Shovel Knight will obtain the pink jewel shown in the background[4].
After this, the screen will turn black and read "SPORE KNIGHT DEFEATED! WELL DONE" and prompt the player to enter three letters to represent their name, which will be submitted to a leaderboard showing the players with the 10 highest gem scores[13].
Development
Development of Shovel Knight Dig started when Yacht Club Games contacted Nitrome about making a small arcade-like Shovel Knight game built around digging downwards[25][5]. Development of the game was primarily handled by Nitrome[25]. The game was announced on August 28th, 2019, during a video presentation given by Yacht Club Games[43]. The game had been worked on for more than a year at this point and was in early development[44]. At this stage, the story had not been completed[6]. Yacht Club announced during its Yacht Club Games Presents presentation on February 26th, 2020, that the game would be released in 2021[17]. By February 27th, 2020, Nitrome had finalized a list of themes and bosses that were going to appear in the game[25].
While a preview about the game was shared in late April 2020[34], no new information about the game posted until November 2021, where Yacht Club Games announced the game would be released in 2022[1]. By early March 2022, Nitrome was close to finishing development of the game[45].
Shovel Knight Dig was developed in Unity[27].
Beta elements
When the game was first announced in 2020, the HUD was different. The gem counter gem was larger, it had a white line connected to it that descended down from the gem, and the health bar was vertically oriented next to the gem counter. Connected to the item slot was a visual indicator of how many acts there were until the boss, how far the player was through it, and where loot dropped from a previous run was. The potion counter also had its own icon and was placed beneath the item slot, and below it was the gold gear counter, which had its own icon and numerically indicated how many gears had been collected instead of visually.
Another difference from around this time was that Shovel Knight's health did not flash red when it was at 1 HP, as seen in the PAX demo[30].
The PAX demo also showed that the interior of Hoofman's shop was different and that Hoofman was female[46].
Other pre-release content included the following differences:
Announcements
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Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info. |
- February 10th, 2021 - Jon Annal on Twitter posts a short preview of the Spore Knight boss fight.
Trivia
- Shovel Knight Dig was influenced by several other games, such as Downwell, Spelunky, Boulder Dash, Super Mario Bros. 2, Mr. Driller, and SteamWorld Dig[48].
References
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| v • d • eConsole games | |
|---|---|
| Tower Fortress • Bomb Chicken • Gunbrick: Reloaded • Super Leap Day • Shovel Knight Dig | |
