User:The Night Watch/sandbox

Shovel Knight is a 2D side-scrolling platform game with an 8-bit graphical style. In the base campaign retroactively titled Shovel of Hope, players control the eponymous adventurer as he goes on a journey to rescue his partner Shield Knight while fighting the Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter. Shovel Knight can attack with his shovel, dig through dirt blocks, unearth treasure, or use it to bounce upon enemies and objects. Levels are themed around each individual knight of the Order of No Quarter, feature several checkpoints, and end with a boss fight against one of the order's eight members. Each section of the world map contains three knights, and the player must defeat all of them before progressing to the next area. Aside from the main quest, players are encouraged to collect treasure inside levels to improve Shovel Knight's abilities.

By finding a salesman named Chester hidden inside levels, the player can purchase items called Relics with treasure. These Relics provide helpful effects and are powered a resource called magic, and include a magical locket that grants temporary invulnerability, or a wand that shoots fireballs. The player can also use treasure to buy useful upgrades for Shovel Knight's health, magic capacity, armor, or weapon at villages. For example, an upgrade for the shovel allows it to shoot out damaging projectiles whenever Shovel Knight is at maximum hit points. Some levels contain hidden music sheets that the player can trade to a non-player character called the bard; trading these sheets grants the player treasure and the ability to sound test each of the game's music tracks.

Dying in Shovel Knight will cause the player to a portion of their treasure at the location of death, and the player can return to this location to recover their lost gold. However, if the player dies again before recovering their treasure, it is lost forever. As an optional challenge, players can choose to destroy a level's checkpoints to be awarded treasure at the risk of being sent back to an earlier location in the level should they die. Completing the game unlocks a more difficult New Game Plus mode, which reduces the number of available checkpoints and increases the damage Shovel Knight takes.

Downloadable content

Free downloadable content (DLC) updates add new features to the game, including a "Challenge Mode" where the player can complete difficult tasks such as speedrunning or repeat battles with the game's bosses. A local cooperative multiplayer DLC allows for two players to complete the main campaign in tandem, and co-op on Nintendo platforms is compatible with a Shovel Knight amiibo, which allows for the player to create their own custom playable character or summon a cosmetic fairy. A body swap mode allows players to alter the genders or identifying pronouns of certain characters, though it is only available for Shovel of Hope.

Three additional single-player campaigns titled Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards each focus on different playable characters, each of them being a boss character in the Shovel of Hope campaign. Plague of Shadows casts players as Plague Knight, who uses bombs to attack enemies and can use both a double jump and a powerful "burst jump" to launch himself through the air. Specter of Torment is centered around Specter Knight, who can run up walls, jump off of them, and use his scythe to slash enemies and obstacles. King of Cards puts players in control of King Knight, who has a shoulder bash which turns into a spin attack upon colliding with enemies or objects. King Knight's campaign features a card battle mini-game called "Joustus", in which players place cards on a field to claim spaces marked with gems.

In addition to the DLC campaigns, Shovel Knight features a multiplayer fighting game called Shovel Knight Showdown, in which up to four players compete in various game modes using playable fighters based around characters in the Shovel Knight franchise. Showdown also includes single-player story mode which can be completed to unlock new fighters and playable stages. The game has several version-exclusive features such as unique boss battles; Kratos from God of War appears in the PlayStation ports, while Rare's Battletoads appear in the Xbox One and Windows versions.