When the Shovel Knight Kickstarter campaign propelled Yacht Club Games to early success a number of stretch goals were hit, and therefore committed the developer to key updates. The studio has stuck to its task of bringing out the Plague of Shadows content as a free update, and it's now available to download on Wii U and 3DS.
Activating the update should happen automatically when you boot up the game, and it brings a host of new options. In addition to the Plague of Shadows campaign - a heavily tweaked version of the core Shovel Knight game - there are a load of tough stages available in the Challenge Mode. Below is an excerpt of details from an email sent to Kickstarter backers.
Plague of Shadows Campaign:
- See your favorite game from a new point of view.
- Play through Shovel Knight's quest, but as the explosive trickster Plague Knight with new gameplay and story.
- Explode onto the scene as Plague Knight!
- Use explosives, bomb jumps, and alchemy to blast your way through the game in a whole new way!
- Combine casing, fuses, powders to create your favorite bomb. Customize your jump and arcana and discover all 9,720 attack combinations!
- Find new armors, secrets, collectibles, easter eggs, and more!
- Master Plague Knight's mobility to defeat new bosses!
- Discover brand new areas and new paths through the classic levels! Use your arcana in challenging new side areas!
- Learn more of the background story behind the beloved characters in the village and the villainous Order of No Quarter.
- Is your science up to snuff? Take on Plague Knight specific challenges with new Feats!
Challenge Mode
- 10 Shovel Knight Courses: timed challenges, puzzles, enemy survival, and intense platforming!
- 5 Plague Knight Challenges: Prove you're the master of Plague Knight's new bag of tricks!
- 32 Boss Challenges: Revisit the boss fights as Plague Knight and Shovel Knight under new conditions – low health, limited weapons, time limits, and higher stakes!
Both new modes certainly offer plenty of challenge, which should keep players with fast reactions busy for a while.
If you have Shovel Knight check out the update and let us know what you think.
Comments 31
I playing through the first couple of levels and Plague Knight definitely feels much different than Shovel. I'm still getting used to his jumping mechanic and am excited to see what concoctions I will be introduced to. The challenge levels are meh but any additional content on this title is just more icing on an already delicious cake. I can say for certainty that the writing for this add-on is fantastic. I encountered a few laugh inducing texts already.
Updated it and beaten the game, but didn't get the choice to play as Plague Knight unless you got to beat game +.
argh still havent played through the basic shovel knight. so little time and such a hard game
Loving the update but I'm having some trouble adjusting to Plague Knight's inventory setup.
This is important, there's a code to unlock Plague Knight's campaign, if you haven't already unlocked it by completing Shovel Knight's campaign.
@Undead_terror Are you sure you updated the game correctly? Since it should be as easy as starting a new file and picking plaque knight. You need to update the game through the eshop since the update is too big for the ingame update button somehow.
Great, more content for when I eventually pick up the game!! It's been on my radar for ages now so it has to be my next e shop purchase now.
Awesome. Haven't beat it on Wii U yet so I used code. 3DS I have though, but it's still updating.
@ShanaUnite Had it updated right, it don't matter now since @RupeeClock posted the code!
Jesus Christ, I'm two stages in and already MIGHTILY impressed. I'm loving the way they're tying the storyline to the original.
Ugh, fantastic timing for me to learn about this; I just got to work.
Has anyone had a problem downloading Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows Update? I tried a couple of times but nothing seem to happen.
What else was supposed to be included from the overall Kickstarter promise/stretch goal list?
Just curious... Not complaining about the update at all.
It's too bad I'm playing so much Mario Maker. Well I'll get burnt out of it eventually, and then I'll look forward to playing this!
@Zach777 Spectre Knight Campaign; gender swapped story (SK is female, final boss is male); and my personal favorite, a multiplayer battle royale featuring every knight in the game. There might be one or two more things, but those are the big three.
I haven't started yet...too busy with Mario Maker. But from what I heard, it looks like Spectre is next, wonder what his game will be like. lol
His moveset sure takes some getting used to but I'm close to figuring it out, I think. ^_^ I'm having lots of fun playing around with the different bombs as well, they're awesome and I've only bought/unlocked a few of the components so far.
God, I love this update, it really is like a totally different game!
Just curious: Who's the boss on Plague Knight's old level?
Awesome. If far too busy with Mario Maker recently, but will try to play some Shovel Knight this evening.
@Genesaur So what are you doing here ?
Updating as I type this. I've completed everything I could possibly complete in the original Shovel Knight release, so looking forward to trying the new content out~
@cbetarose try downloading it from the eshop, the in-game upload is too big.
Aw, yiss! It's the Kickstarter project that keeps on giving!
Erm...how do I get the update? Opened Shovel Knight but just goes to the main game and tried going in the eshop but can't see where to get the update!?!
I totally forgot about this update!!!!!! Awesome Friday!!!!!!!!
This is going to be a great weekend!
@BulbasaurusRex Shovel Knight, of course!
@Vader_MIB Checking Nintendo Life before going into work; what do you mean?
Now this is p̶o̶d̶r̶a̶c̶i̶n̶g how yo do DLC right
Still getting the hang of controlling him, jumping all over the place, and loving it all the way
So what the deal then if i buy this for my Wii U do i get to choose between the original Shove Knight and this Plague Knight ?
After completing the game with shovel knight, when you start a new game you can choose between shovel knight or plague knight
@RupeeClock Should have just been the Konami Code
Something about the update isn't quite right. It didn't detect I had cleared the campaign, despite the fact that my first file has a big orange CLEAR! on it. I had to run the "Secret Code" to unlock the new campaign. My guess is the code was actually cooked up as a quick workaround while the debug the issue with the supposed automatic unlocking after completion.
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