Shovel Knight VS Dig Dug
"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground"
-Theodore Roosevelt
Old or new, there have been many heroes throughout our time that have braved through dangerous lands, battled deadly foes and saved others - though these two unassuming warriors don't need a prophecy, great power, a weapon handed down from legends or even very many pixels to do so. All they need is rudimentary digging equipment to help them fight their battles! But when Shovel Knight and Dig Dug go shovel to pump, who will live, and who will stay underground in a DEATH BATTLE?
Before we start…
With Shovel Knight, our focus will be given to all his games: Treasure of Trove (which contains Shovel of Hope, Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, King of Cards and Showdown), Pocket Dungeon and DIG. Considering the last 2 games are a rogue-like genre, it is only fair to go with semi-composite and give Shovel Knight everything in his theoretical peak.
For Dig Dug, we will be using a composite based on all Dig Dug centric, or at least heavily tied to media, including the Mr. Driller game series and related media to come off of it. We will also be including media from the ShiftyLook subsidiary of Namco properties and its series of Dig Dug webcomics. They are all officially licensed by Namco, making them fair game.
Background
Shovel Knight
Long ago, the lands were untamed, and roamed by legendary adventurers! The valley had plenty of knights each having their own sort of story to share and each having their own kind of style in life. There are such knights as King Knight who delusionally wishes for the title of the King, or Tinker Knight, small yet possessing a genius intelligence in terms of engineering, Plague Knight a master of explosions and Propeller Knight, knight known for his high fleet. But out of all knights in the valley there was no knight as heroic and dangerous despite carrying a title you may deem silly at first - The Shovel Knight! This knight in particular along with his close partner Shield Knight, went through a lot of adventures, a good chunk of which we may not know of and have not seen yet, where they got treasures or fought evil, or both essentially. One of his earliest adventures we know of was a fight against a thief group called “Hexcavators” led by another knight with no honor - Drill Knight. This accidental journey let the ancient evil come back from its long imprisonment ready to take over the world. Shovel Knight and Shield Knight were not pleased with this information and decided to go to the Tower of Fate and destroy the amulet containing the evil for good.
Unfortunately however this journey didn’t end well and an accident left Shield Knight missing somewhere within the walls of the Tower. Assuming the worst, the grieving Shovel Knight retired to a solitary farming life beyond the Valley's Plains, exacerbating his rivalry with Black Knight, who came to see him as a coward who was unable to protect their common friend. Long story short, said amulet possessed Shield Knight turning her into The Enchantress. Enchantress happened to have a plan to collect knights across the valley and make the Order of No Quarter, containing multiple knights within an alliance to be an unstoppable force slowly but surely taking control of the entire valley. As soon as this alliance was about to form, the Mirror of Fate let Shovel Knight see his comrade Shield Knight again, as well as see how corrupt some of his comrades, like Polar Knight became. All of this made Shovel Knight realize, certain his comrade is still there, alive in need of his help, he shall no longer sit in one place in grief of the past, he shall face all obstacles, defeat the corruption formed by Enchantress in a time of his retirement and save the day. And so he did, in a tough journey and even more tough fights, Shovel Knight managed to finally free the world, as well as Shield Knight, from the evil no man and no knight has managed to defeat. Barely surviving, sitting near the campfire while having his best friend nearby, he can be sure that things are going good as they were, and that he can finally give himself a rest.
Dig Dug
"Come on everybody, take a chance! We're going underground to do the Dig Dug dance!"
The year was 2382. Ferocious dragons and tomatoes with goggles were terrorizing the underground in what became known as the Dig Dug incident, and only one man with nothing but a drill and an air pump could take these monsters down and put an end to the terror, Taizo Hori, AKA Dig Dug!
Dig Dug will drill into the ground and take the fight to Fygars and Pookas, crushing them under rocks or inflating them with air until they combust. This would not be his only adventure, as he'd find himself battling enemies in many other places, such as tropical islands, the moon, and alien planets. Eventually, Taizo would retire his hero status and have a kid who would go on to become a famous hero in his own right, Mr. Driller. Unfortunately, his legacy would eventually fade into obscurity, and his marriage would end, leaving him a sad, middle aged has-been who is past his prime from the 80s. However, on occasion, Taizo Hori has been known to come out of retirement to reclaim his former glory and be of service - such as today, where he will be returning to the fray in order to battle a worthy opponent…
Equipment (and some abilities)
Shovel Knight
Shovel Blade
Shovel Knight's signature and ever-trusting weapon; it is a solid and versatile tool used for digging as well as attacking. Don’t be fooled by it not being some piercing sword or giant hammer or an axe and whatever you expect for your average knight to wield, since those who wield the Shovel Blade carry an enormous skill of combat and follow an honorable moral code known as the Code of Shovelry. Worth to note that only in the hands of a master such as Shovel Knight, this blade turns into a deadly weapon. In ordinary hands, this will be just a usual shovel (directly according to Yacht Club themselves).
Shovel Blade Techniques
As a matter of fact, Shovel Knight's mastery of Shovel Blade is so good that either by himself or through some trials of Master Argus (the guy you see above) he managed to learn a big variety of techniques to implement in battles:
Dig Slash
Shovel Knight’s most common move, where he uses his Shovel Blade to, well, slash his enemies. This move can also be used to flip enemies, reflect projectiles back and most obvious one - digging.
Drop Spark
With this upgrade to Shovel Knight’s Shovel Blade, Shovel Knight can cause a ground based projectile to appear while performing a Dig Slash with the Shovel Blade while he is on the ground and at full health. The spark generated will travel as long as the terrain extends, so it’s potentially one of the longest Shovel Knight’s attacks range wise.
Shovel Drop
Shovel Knight’s most basic and most famous technique. When performed, he holds his Shovel Blade below himself while in midair, allowing him to bounce off most enemies and breakable objects. A move heavily inspired by…Link's sword drop from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Oh and Scrooge McDuck’s pogo jump as well yeah.
Glide Cloud Drop
Thanks to this technique, during Shovel Drop, Shovel Knight can glide in the air, heavily slowing down his falling speed, allowing to reach places too far away to get to with average jump. Or in case if below us some kind of pit or spikes and etc.
Super Shovel Drop
A lot more powerful version of the original Shovel Drop. Thanks to this technique during the Shovel Drop, Shovel Knight can burst down at high speeds while setting his Shovel Blade on fire, increasing damage and digging through dirt during the move, basically quite the opposite of Glide Cloud Drop, and instead of horizontal mobility is used for vertical downwards travel and offense.
Gravity Shovel Drop
The weirdest technique of Shovel Drop really. Remember Super Mario Wonder? It just came out today so you might not know yet, but remember how there’s a mode that turns Mario kind of 2D into Zelda kind of 2D and now you’re running on walls? This is exactly the same situation but instead of from Mario 2D to Zelda 2D, Shovel Knight’s Shovel Drop makes his gravity perspective change from Zelda 2D into Mario 2D. What’s more is that the more of these Shovel Drops Shovel Knight does, the higher his damage becomes.
Charge Slash
Another Shovel Blade technique Shovel Knight mastered is to increase the strength of his slashes by charging his Dig Slash. It has longer range and far more strength that can knock foes further away.
Charge Boomerang
This Shovel Blade technique requires Shovel Knight to also charge an attack but instead of slashing with further range, he throws his Shovel Blade really hard, making it fly further and then back to Shovel Knight. Useful projectile option. The only downside is quite obvious, that after throwing Shovel Blade, Shovel Knight doesn’t have it on his hand so he can be left open to attack. Quite a minor downside, considering Shovel Blade comes back to him in seconds, but a notable one.
Cyclone Slash
Cyclone Slash works pretty much akin to Shovel Knight’s Dig Slash, but instead of hitting in one direction, Shovel Knight swings his Shovel Blade and hits on both sides. Technique especially useful upon being surrounded
Whip Slash
Whip Slash technique turns Shovel Blade into a literal whip with a chain, further increasing the range of Shovel Knight’s Dig Slash. Useful to keep a middle distance against your opponent.
Spiral Air Slash
This technique Shovel Knight uses when being on air. Upon jumping, Shovel Knight instead of doing regular Dig Slash on air, spins himself 360 degrees with Shovel Blade. Technique allows Shovel Knight to hit targets whether they are above or below him.
Hover Air Slash
This technique Shovel Knight also uses when being on air. Attack wise it is similar to Dig Slash, but mobility wise when doing Dig Slash on air, Shovel Knight starts to hover for a few seconds. In other words, technique is quite useful in momentum when you’re close to the platform and you need just a few more seconds to glide on air to reach it.
Diagonal Drop
Similar to Shovel Drop but instead, now descends at an angle.
Flare Razer
With this technique Shovel Knight can crash to the ground and spread flames across himself. Damaging everything and everyone nearby.
Burrow Bomber
During that technique Shovel Knight charges while spinning himself as if he were burrowing in air. Useful option to dash at an opponent with an attack whether on ground or mid-air.
Armors
Shovel Knight wouldn’t be a knight without armor. While most armors act as protection, for Shovel Knight they are also capable of bestowing special bonuses. Throughout his adventure Shovel Knight got a large variety of armors:
Stalwart Plate
Shovel Knight’s original iconic blue armor. Simple but sturdy.
Final Guard
This red armor allows Shovel Knight to lose far less money upon death. Useful for newbies in the game but no practical usage if you are already good at it.
Conjurer's Coat
This armor gives far more magic supply for Shovel Knight. On the contrary it also sacrifices some of the protection, so it’s better to be a lot more careful with it.
Dynamo Mail
After just two consecutive Shovel Drops, Shovel Knight gains a charged Dig Slash similar to the one the Charge Handle enables but without its movement penalties. After a certain amount of time without using the Charge Slash or performing more Shovel Drops, the charge runs out and more Shovel Drops must be performed to gain a new Charge Slash. Even just bouncing on enemies will do the trick and give Shovel Knight more power.
Mail of Momentum
This armor considerably reduces knock back when struck by enemies but also lowers Shovel Knight's traction meaning he doesn't stop immediately. Which means Shovel Knight is less likely to get knocked into pits or onto spikes by knockback but the reduced traction makes one more likely to fall into pits or onto spikes in the first place.
Ornate Plate
Flashy! Acrobatic! Absolutely Useless!
Armor of Chaos
After defeating Kratos, Shovel Knight gained Grave Digger's Shovel, which he later managed to upgrade into the Armor of Chaos. Shovel Knight's regular Dig Slashes become a multi-hit combo with a fiery extended reach, reminiscent of Kratos' own attacks. While performing a Shovel Drop, it not only would work more like Black Knight's quicker Shovel Dive, but also give it a fiery aura and the ability to dig piles in one single motion. Food and magic jars dropped by enemies transform in their corresponding equivalent in the God of War game series, namely Green Orbs and Blue Orbs that home in on Shovel Knight. As well as in a fight Shovel Knight can also get Red Orbs shoot a small, armor-piercing wave of fire across the screen, doing one hit of damage to any enemies it comes into contact with. Overall this armor turns Shovel Knight into Greek Kratos gameplay wise.
Toad Gear
After defeating all 3 Battletoads at once, Zitz gave Shovel Knight this Toad Gear. Shovel Knight’s regular Dig Slashes become a three-hit thrusting combo; these hits do not inflict damage but they will stun their target, unless the enemy is shielding itself. If the combo connects, the third hit will transform the Shovel Blade into either a huge version of itself or a boot with which Shovel Knight will perform a kick motion. Both of these attacks deal twice the normal damage. While performing a Shovel Drop, the Shovel Blade becomes huge; in this state it digs through Dirt Blocks in one single motion without bouncing on it. While equipped the Toad Gear also enables speed amplification, during which Shovel Knight can do a Shoulder Bash-like attack. Overall this armor turns Shovel Knight into Battletoads gameplay wise.
Streamline Mail
This armor allows Shovel Knight to earn a free accessory every stage! But without side rooms, you can't visit all the areas in one run. What are accessories you may ask? See soon below
Scrounger's Suit
Vastly increases luck with getting items, shops become way cheaper but you start at lower health. High risk high reward you know.
Ballistic Armor
Thanks to this armor, Shovel Knight by jumping in the air can turn into a more mobile ball form, similar to your good ol' Sonic/Stitch/Samus kind of ball. This ball form increases mobility within ground and let's to dig everything by movement alone.
Brash Bracers
Slashes are powered up but the moment Shovel Knight is hit, his max health will be reduced until entering the next stage.
Combo Cuirass
With this armor, the more dirt Shovel Knight digs and the more enemies Shovel Knight kills, the more money he gets as a result. If you think you can keep that combo meter through an entire level, it is definitely for you.
Baron Set
A much bulkier armor set with a larger Shovel Blade. While it doesn’t have any notable abilities it does look far more badass. This kind of look can be given to Shovel Knight with other aforementioned armors.
Pandemonium Plate
An ever changing armor capable of changing itself into any armor Shovel Knight got at his disposal.
Relics/Items
Besides Shovel Blade, throughout his numerous adventures Shovel Knight got a large amount of relics to carry around. All of them have a versatile amount of powers to use in combat, whether it is wands, gauntlets, daggers, etc.
Despite having the need of mana to use, thanks to his spin offs (Pocket Dungeon and DIG), Shovel Knight is capable of stacking nearly all relics, being capable of using them a lot more than usual.
Flare Wand
One of the first and perhaps most popular relics of Shovel Knight is the Flare Wand. This wand is capable of shooting fireballs in a straight horizontal direction into the enemy. Not much to say about it, a useful item for ranged attacks. Although it looks like your average fire, it may be hotter than you think, as it is capable of hurting even Mole Knight, who can casually withstand Lava Temperatures.
Fizzle Wand
A broken version of Flare Wand, instead of shooting fireballs, The Fizzle Wand creates a trail of fire after taking a step, with each square remaining lit for some time.
Flameo Wand
This wand works similarly to Flare Wand but unlike the previous one, instead of being horizontally straight fireball, this wand shoots fireballs horizontally bouncing, as if it was a bouncy ball, it can also attack multiple times without exploding unlike Flare Wand’s fireballs but the downside is, fireballs from this wand can evaporate in contact with water.
Gusteo Wand
This wand instead of using fire, uses wind to do damage. It shoots a ball of wind tornado that goes straight and is capable of crawling walls, ceilings and other obstacles with no trouble. Especially helpful to do damage in closed areas.
Blizzeo Wand
Wand shoots ice projectiles which freezes enemies on the spot. No matter if you're a small slime or large dragon, all share the same result. After being frozen enemies completely shatter upon being hit and there's nothing left of them.
Zap Wand
This wand uses electricity for damage. No any kinds of balls or small projectiles this time, instead it shoots in a straight beam. Going through any object that stands in its way.
Phase Locket
One of the more popular relics of Shovel Knight, as the name implies thanks to it Shovel Knight becomes practically untouchable, capable of phasing through any attack his opponent may throw at him. With usage of this relic Shovel Knight can even casually walk on spikes.
Dust Knuckles
With these knuckles, Shovel Knight can do consecutive hits on dirt blocks or targets. Pretty basic, but cool to use as a method of combo.
Throwing Anchor
You know your good ol axe from Castlevania? This throwing anchor works in the same principle. The Throwing Anchor allows Shovel Knight to throw anchors in an upwards arch to damage enemies. It is very useful for damaging enemies floating above Shovel Knight or below if being precise enough.
Alchemy Coin
Alchemy Coin is lightly tossed and moves along the ground, turning small enemies such as Ratsploders and Blorbs into gold. The coin bounces off of armored or stronger enemies, and will bounce back when struck with the Shovel Blade.
Mobile Gear
The Mobile Gear is used to safely traverse over spikes and small pits and can also be used to kill small enemies and damage larger ones. When used, Shovel Knight tosses out a small box onto the ground that turns into a device consisting of two gears. One of the gears is standing up vertically and the other is laying down horizontally on top of the standing gear. The device will move in the direction Shovel Knight is facing once he jumps onto it, including over spikes. If the device encounters a pit, it will hop a small distance into the air, clearing short pits. If the device hits a wall while in midair it sticks to the wall and can be used as a platform.
War Horn
The War Horn can be used to destroy enemies and other objects in a small area around Shovel Knight. It is one of the most powerful Relics as it immediately destroys most enemies that are in its range.
Propeller Dagger
The Propeller Dagger allows Shovel Knight to fly horizontally through the air over a short distance. It can also be used to ram into enemies. Pretty simple concept but quite complex in execution.
Fishing Rod
The Fishing Rod is one of the first Relics available. It allows the player to fish in any pit or pool. Shall the enemy be below Shovel Knight they’ll be hit by the Anchor at the end of the rod.
Chaos Sphere
The Chaos Sphere allows Shovel Knight to launch up to two green balls that bounce around the screen, damaging any enemy they come in contact with. Before new ones can be launched, at least one of the previous spheres must have disappeared. When used correctly, the Chaos Sphere can potentially be one of the most devastating weapons in Shovel Knight's arsenal, as any ground-bound enemy will receive a constant supply of damage as long as any of their weak points is in contact with it. Mechanic quite similar to aforementioned Flameo Wand but with no weakness to water, or any element in particular.
Spear
The Spear mostly works like your average spear, extending the reach of the attacks dealt, making it possible to damage otherwise unreachable foes. Furthermore, even if a foe happens to be protected by the shield, The Spear straight up pierces them, making it possible to damage them even from angles where they normally would be invulnerable.
Shield
The Shield blocks damage from the trading of blows, lessening the overall damage received and in some cases completely negating it. It works no matter from what point the attack goes, giving Shovel Knight full protection.
Wood Blade
Who would’ve thought. Shovel Knight can in fact use swords if he needs to. Like this wooden blade that increases his power by +1 point of damage dealt with any attack. Pretty strong and useful one of the AMPs to Shovel Knight’s power if strength is equal.
Steel Blade
Similarly to Wood Blade Steel Blade uses a sword made of steel in a fight. But unlike wood blade The Steel Blade adds +2 points of damage dealt with any attack.
Hero Blade
Final and strongest sword, The Hero Blade. All the same stuff as with previous 2 but this time power increases by 3 points of damage.
Flame Axe
The Flame Axe adds a burning effect to the enemies it hits, dealing extra damage for a limited time, by setting them on fire.
Ice Axe
The Ice Axe adds a freezing effect to the enemies it hits, stopping them on their tracks for a limited time. That’s right the moment that thing hits you, you are completely, fully from toes to head frozen and open for other attacks. The more times Shovel Knight collects Ice Axes the more times he can do that to you by simply hitting.
Chronos Coin
Perhaps one of Shovel Knight’s potentially greatest items. Once activated, Chronos Coin temporarily stops time for about 5-10 seconds, giving ample time for Shovel Knight to reposition himself, as well as attacking foes without taking any damage in return.
Wildcard
The Wildcard is capable of destroying every single copy of one particular obstacle currently present on the screen. For example, if a Beeto is chosen as its target, then all Beetos currently present will be destroyed. While its description does specifically mention foes, the Wildcard also works for any other object, such as Potions, Keys, Blocks and so forth. Do not be confused by the word “copy” here, even if there's a singular enemy/object on screen Wildcard would still destroy it, no matter how much HP they have.
Smoke Bomb
Phase Locket isn’t the only item Shovel Knight can use for phasing. Plague Knight’s Smoke Bomb also appears to be possible for Shovel Knight to use. When being thrown it bursts into a cloud of smoke. The bomb and cloud slowly move in the direction Shovel Knight activates it. While standing within the cloud and for a couple seconds after leaving the cloud, Shovel Knight is rendered invincible to all hazards.
Bomb Cannon
Literally what its name implies, it is a cannon that shoots bombs at you.
Flood Fish
The Flood Fish also does what its name implies, spews such a large amount of water that the entire dungeon can be filled with it, making it harder for opponents to move.
Monster Potion
Upon use, the Monster Potion transforms the opponent into a randomly selected enemy. Specifically enemies from Shovel Knight, such as slime or beeto or frog or skeleton etc. This may limit the movement speed or the offensive capabilities of the adversary.
Shuffle Top
Upon use, the Shuffle Top causes the dungeon to shuffle itself, which leads to mixed up enemies and blocks and disrupted chains, making it harder for the opponent to maneuver around.
Reverse Exa
So, remember Throwing Anchor and its origin Axe of Simon Belmont? So this is basically the same kind of Axe but instead of going up and then down, it does the opposite and goes down first and then up. Hence the name is “Exa” which is “Axe” backwards, get it?
Throwing Trowel
This relic is basically a small trowel Shovel Knight can throw around, it ricochets when being in contact with any object and when in contact with dirt and all stuff Shovel Knight can normally dig it also digs that stuff.
Rising Dagger
Remember the Propeller Dagger? Same thing but instead of going horizontally straight, it goes vertically up. All pretty simple just requires good momentum to use.
Morph Lance
This relic is basically a Lance which Shovel Knight can use to extend his melee range, but it isn’t where it ends, the more Shovel Knight hits the enemy, the more powerful hits of the lance become, the maximum level being 5. Hits must be precise, if a single of those misses it all goes to level 1 again.
Mobile Gear Drill
Remember Mobile Gear? This is practically the same thing but with an additional bonus. When there’s dirt below or in front of it and there’s nowhere to go, this Mobile Gear’s moving gear can transform into a drill, drilling down or forward until reaching a surface that can’t be drilled so easily and then continuing moving.
Coffer of Safekeeping
This Coffer is quite a unique relic by itself. Instead of relying on mobility or offense, this one offers a great defense. Shovel Knight when puts himself within that Coffer cannot be harmed by any means of damage at all. Obvious downside is that Shovel Knight himself cannot attack in this state either unless he willingly gets out of the coffer, he can however move slightly. Useful moves if you’re in a situation where you just cannot avoid getting hit or if you need to cover yourself from the ongoing chaos.
Bubble Frog
A relic which we previously have seen to be used by King Knight during his King of Cards adventure. Upon activating this relic, Shovel Knight uses a blue toad to encase himself inside a bubble. This allows him to float in the air for a short while as well as defend from some attacks. He can break out of the bubble by moving or performing an attack or jumping from it which later on allows Shovel Knight to use Shovel Drop on the bubble. These factors make the Bubble Frog very useful for platforming, as it can help with hard jumps or save Shovel Knight from falling into a pit or spikes. Or if needed go up by using Shovel Drop.
Shadow Locket
This locket, unlike Phase Locket, makes Shovel Knight summon a green ghost version of himself, being capable of phasing through walls and damaging enemies who go through him for a few seconds. The moment time ends, Shovel Knight teleports into the position Shadow Locket’s ghost was in. A move great for mobility in places with lots of walls.
Amiibo Relics and Powers
Some of the aforementioned stuff was already taken from Shovel Knight’s Amiibo toolkit, so those who were paying attention should notice that we’re also giving Shovel Knight's pool of arsenal and abilities he gets thanks to Amiibo on Nintendo Consoles versions such as Wii U or Nintendo 3DS.
Bait Bomb
Another relic you probably have seen the Plague Knight to use. When thrown, the Bait Bomb rushes along the ground until it either falls into a pit or it hits an object/enemy and explodes. If it falls into a pit it detonates, sending up whatever was at the bottom of the pit. The Bait Bomb is primarily an offensive option, helpful if you need to explode stuff.
Flareo Rod
When activated, Shovel Knight takes out the wand and unleashes a massive explosion right in front of them, highly damaging any enemies in close proximity.
Infinidagger
So, you’ve seen Propeller Dagger, you’ve seen Rising Dagger, now behold, the Infinidagger. This dagger works essentially like a Propeller Dagger but instead of moving some short distance until stopping, this dagger can move endlessly until you hit the wall or someone/something. This makes this Relic extremely useful in crossing big gaps, sometimes bypassing platforming altogether
Tow Anchor
The Tow Anchor allows Shovel Knight to throw anchors in an upwards arch to damage enemies, similar to the Throwing Anchor. The difference here is that Shovel Knight grabs onto the anchor and travels with it, though it cannot go through walls like Throwing Anchor does. It can be also used to increase the height of jumps if used at the end of the jump. Most importantly though is the massive damage it causes when landing on the enemy.
Ghost Glove
While the Ghost Glove is similar to the Dust Knuckles in appearance, the function is more akin to the Flare Wand, as it shoots out ghost projections of the gloves as projectiles. The Ghost Glove's projectiles differ from the Flare Wand's by having shorter range but shooting at faster rate.
Buzzsaw Boomerang
The Buzzsaw Boomerang allows Shovel Knight to throw a projectile that goes straight ahead, then curve upward until it comes back to its origin. If thrown while in the air, the pattern of Buzzsaw Boomerang swaps trajectory, going upwards for then curve forward until it comes back to its origin.
Fleet Flask
Another equipment you have seen only Plague Knight to use. Shovel Knight in the Amiibo version got practically the same version of this relic. Once Shovel Knight has taken a drink of the Fleet Flask, he charges forward until he collides with a solid object (except for dirt blocks that break upon being hit), or turns around. In this state, he can still jump in order to avoid obstacles and pits.
Shadow Knight
The Shadow Knight allows Shovel Knight to release a purple copy of themselves that drains Magic constantly and remains a fixed distance in front of Shovel Knight. The Shadow jumps and Shovel Drops when Shovel Knight does but Shovel Knight does not attack regularly, only the shadow does when this Relic is in use. The shadow also does not take damage and is not affected by gravity.
Double Jump
Shovel Knight double jumps. I mean, what else is there to expect?
Bounce Bomb
Not only did Shovel Knight take Plague Knight’s relics, he now also uses Plague Knight’s bombs. These bombs explode in contact with the enemy.
Bomb Burst
And yet another Plague Knight ability at Shovel Knight’s hands. Something fishy is going on here… Anyway with this ability Shovel Knight lets loose a damaging burst to launch himself into the air. A very fast mobility tool.
Dash Boots
Allows Shovel Knight to sprint and run at a faster rate. That’s basically it.
Blink Dash
Shovel Knight holds an attack and releases it to dash through danger without taking damage! Quite a useful thing if you don’t want to rely on Phase Locket or Smoke Bomb.
Coin Capture
This charge technique allows Shovel Knight to absorb nearby money for himself.
Feign Death
Shovel Knight pretends that he fainted/died. Allows the enemy to leave open into thinking their opponent is dead.
DIG Accessories and Pocket Dungeon Relics
Another upgrade Shovel Knight gets through his new rogue-like games are accessories from Shovel Knight DIG and “Relics” from Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Both work as passive bonuses Shovel Knight gets throughout his adventures. Shovel Knight can use all of these accessories/relics at once in a battle, and he got a lot of them to bring into the table.
Diamond Dust
The Diamond Dust permanently raises the maximum damage and durability of the collected items by 1 for all of the remainder of the run. In other words, ammunition of all relics rises even further.
Obsidian Drill
The Obsidian Drill permanently raises the damage done to all types of blocks for all of the remainder of the run. In other words Shovel Knight can drill through all blocks and dirt with it.
Shockproof Socks
The Shockproof Socks provide protection from the electrical attacks. Additionally, for every 10 steps taken, the damage of the following attack is raised by 1. Once ready to discharge their electricity, sparks start appearing on the Shovel Knight.
Bomb Seed Bag
The Bomb Seed Bag increases the spawn rate for bombs. It also provides full protection from any bomb blast, that’s right, any bomb blast no matter what kind, how large or how strong it is.
Too Big Bomb
The Too Big Bomb changes all Bombs (now appearing red with a fleur-de-lis-like pattern) spawning on the board and doubles the size of their blast, damaging more enemies and blocks in the process… at that point are we sure this isn’t Bomberman vs Dig Dug 2?
Nimbus Balloon
The Nimbus Balloon lifts Shovel Knight off the ground, making him avoid any effect caused by floor hazards (Poison and Lava Puddles, Ice Patches, Spikes, pits, water), but not lifting him high enough to fly away into the sky. Perfect balance.
Chronos Glass
So, you’ve seen Shovel Knight getting Chronos Coin that stops time with all that Shovel Knight needs to do is to activate it. This Chrono Glass though is a whole nother deal. The Chronos Glass stops time every time Shovel Knight enters stage/begins the fight or when the territory he fights in is nearly full. All of that is happening passively, meaning the moment you start the fight with Shovel Knight time has already stopped. This… is probably one of the most insane items in Shovel Knight’s equipment.
Toad Totem
The Toad Totem adds a poison effect to all attacks, which turns enemies green and deals an extra damage the next turn. It also makes Shovel Knight immune to poisonous attacks.
Super Skeleton Key
Thanks to this key, Shovel Knight now can open any, literally any key. And unlike usual keys it can be used as much as you like. Keys themselves explode when bumped into, damaging enemies in a blast radius of two spaces from the key.
Meal Ticket
Usually you’re familiar with a Meal Ticket as a ticket which you give the chef to cook yourself a food to increase max health in Shovel of Hope. In Pocket Dungeon however this Meal Ticket by itself, pretty much permanently increases Shovel Knight’s Max Health by 2.
Premium Meal Ticket
Same thing as a normal Meal Ticket but instead of increasing maximum health by 2 HP, it increases by 3.
Dynamallet
The Dynamallet makes chains (as in, line of the same monsters) explode. It charges up when opening any chest. After building a charge, a lit fuse appears as a tail behind the playable character to indicate that the Relic is ready to use.
Desperation Talon
When the player only has 1 HP left, the Desperation Talon heals 2 HP for any fatal blow to an enemy. When that happens, white luminous bubbles appear around Shovel Knight.
Gold Leaf Clover
The Gold Leaf Clover gives better chances to get "high level items'' from Treasure Chests (for example Hero Blades instead of Wood Blades and Steel Blades). A large gold leaf clover manifests itself over chests after opening them. The Gold Leaf Clover also affects the odds of finding non-enemy side rooms, winning relics from Glitzem (with an increase of 10%), and spawning cake blocks with the Conjuring Cupcake. Finally, this Relic also increases the odds of an additional damage point dealt or blocked respectively by the Coin of Carnage and Coin of Cover Relics. In summary this relic heavily increases Shovel Knight’s luck.
Conjuring Cupcake
The Conjuring Cupcake turns some blocks spawning on the board into cake. Each hit on a cake block heals 1 HP. The affected block types are Dirt, Stone, Steel, Snow and Bomb Blocks. They retain the same resistance, with Steel Block healing the most (up to 5 HP). As such, this Relic is pretty useful to heal in stages where Stone and Steel Blocks exist.
Coin of Cover
The Coin of Cover nullifies damage dealt from an enemy when a selected knight attacks it, randomly without the knight's input. It is mostly luck based but from time to time it can help in getting a deadly blow. Especially with the help of the aforementioned Gold Leaf Clover.
Chester’s Chart
Chester's Map increases the amount of chests spawned in the stage. More opportunities to get new items.
Various Attack AMPs
Enchanted Slamvil
Now that we’ve gone through all the useful Pocket Dungeon relics, let’s go with DIG’s accessories. Starting with, Enchanted Slamvil. Basically whenever Shovel Knight encounters an enemy this Slamvil will fall right into a person's head like in some Looney Toons cartoon, weakening them before the fight even starts. That’s right, the moment you are about to fight with Shovel Knight you’d be already hit by a slamvil.
Suave Salve
This accessory makes Shovel Knight more attractive. Specifically to get better deals at shops but, he can use it elsewhere as well. In other words with this accessory Shovel Knight increases his rizz, cool.
Burrow Horns
If you haven’t thought that Shovel Knight can weaponize his horns on helmet, well now you can. Thanks to this accessory Shovel Knight has sharpened his horns to headbutt dirt or enemies above.
Comet Collar
Thanks to this amplification, Shovel Blade now can knock enemies way further. High knockback is especially useful if you want to keep distance between the opponent or push them in disadvantageous situations.
Berserker Bauble
Thanks to this bauble the moment Shovel Knight’s health becomes low, his strength increases and he does double damage.
Inverse Repeller
Thanks to this magnet, Shovel Knight can passively attract gold, gems and other valuables to himself, like a magnet as the looks of this accessory may suggest. It can even attract them through dirt.
Lucky U-shaped Charm
By carrying this charm Shovel Knight increases his luck even further and allows him to find more valuables, whether it be items, or just more pricey gems.
Spikeproof Sabatons
While wearing these boots, Shovel Knight has not to worry at all about spikes being under himself, as he can just walk through them. Guess this one image of him having trouble with that is no more accurate.
Scoot Boots
And thanks to these shoes, Shovel Knight can be twice as fast in terms of running speed. As if one speed increase boots weren’t enough.
Leaping Plume
With this accessory Shovel Knight can now jump higher. So if relics weren’t enough he can now be more mobile on his own.
Book of Bomb
With this book, the moment Shovel Knight defeats his foes, they can drop a bomb from time to tim- OH COME ON!
Looking Glass
With this accessory Shovel Knight can find and point out secrets for himself. Useful tool during treasure hunting.
Platter Charm
With this charm, Shovel Knight’s chances of having food from defeated foes or chests vastly increases. As if Shovel Knight wasn’t already lucky enough with other aforementioned stuff.
Boom Rock Trigger
With this accessory some rocks around Shovel Knight can become explosive so Shovel Knight can throw them against his opponent.
Flameo Ring
With this ring, Shovel Knight can resist any fire damage being thrown at him. Though resist isn’t exactly the correct statement here, more like, completely ignore any fire damage. Since whenever Shovel Knight would be hit with a fire attack he’ll be protected by a forcefield which nullifies damage from fire. After protection there’s a cooldown of a few seconds leaving Shovel Knight open to fire attacks but considering how small the cooldown is, consider all your fire attacks against him as useless.
Bolteo Ring
This ring allows the Shovel Knight to nullify all electric damage. Pretty much the same mechanics as with Flameo Ring. Though not like you’d hit Shovel Knight during cooldown of recovery either since Shockproof Socks still exist.
Blast Ring
Blast Ring allows Shovel Knight to, well resist any explosive damage, just like with Bolteo Ring, not like bypassing cooldown will do much since Bomb Seed Bag is also still there as a bonus protection from explosives.
Blizzeo Ring
At that point you probably already get the gist, with this ring Shovel Knight completely nullifies all ice/freeze attacks, just like other rings, has a cooldown but a very small one.
Gusteo Ring
And last ring, the Gusteo Ring, as you may have guessed, this ring nullifies all air/wind damage. Protecting from all sorts of air attacks that may hit him from the outside.
Lucky Magic Vial
With this accessory Shovel Knight has a chance to spawn a magic jar upon using a relic, giving him even more opportunities to use relics. And as some aforementioned items show, Shovel Knight is one hell of a lucky person here.
Tome of Relic Thrift
But that’s not all, thanks to this Tome of Relic Thrift, all of Shovel Knight’s relics have twice as many uses. Imagine combining that with other aforementioned stuff that allows Shovel Knight to use magic of relics more frequently.
Fenix Feather
With this feather Shovel Knight can revive from death, but only once. After that the feather becomes pretty useless, though there are plenty of them really.
Shovel Blade Flint
With this accessory Shovel Knight can increase the melee range of his Shovel Blade via a small blade spark. Not much but hey, still useful in keeping distance.
Dynamo Greaves
Alright so we have 2 boots that further increase Shovel Knight speed, now what? This accessory can boost Shovel Knight’s speed even further after doing 2 consecutive Shovel Drops. At that point Shovel Knight’s movement can be so fast it’s insane.
Dynamo Gauntlets
Just like Shovel Knight’s Dynamo Mail, but this time with no armor needed, 2 consecutive Shovel Drops and Shovel Knight can perform a powerful Charge Slash.
Dirtwrecker Curse
And last but not least, Dirtwrecker Curse which allows Shovel Knight to literally dig dirt by simply walking through it or jumping into it. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Hats
(This is you reading this blog and unaware what in the actual **** will you see right now)
In adventures throughout Pocket Dungeon, Shovel Knight and other knights also got access to Mr. Hat’s Hat shop. In it, Mr. Hat was selling lots of hats, in the shop there are 92 hats available and Shovel Knight can wear all of them at once. That’s right, every, single, one of them. Not all of them are useful for Shovel Knight, some of them even rather add up the challenge or do minor stuff, but with a good amount of them being used they can turn the entire fight into chaos for both sides. I mean seriously look at this (if you have free 30 minutes obviously).
Here are all of the hats that can add more into the battle:
Underwater Breathing
One of the notable capabilities Shovel Knight carries on his own is breathing under the water. No matter how long Shovel Knight is under the water, he can casually breathe in it. How? Is he holding his breath for an insanely long period of time? Can he just take in water into his body or is it because of….
Fish Head Physiology(?)
(This will surely affect Shovel Knight in vs)
Perhaps the reason for being capable of underwater breathing could be Shovel Knight being actually a fish in armor. A good amount of times Shovel Knight seemed to be hinted to may having a fish head. Official Shovel Knight statue and Rivals of Aether do carry similar kinds of implications as well. Or it's just a gag at this point, who knows.
Eggs/Pets
Another thing Shovel Knight got through his DIG adventure are eggs. On their own Eggs don’t really do much except for following Shovel Knight himself. They’re susceptible to being easily broken by something spikey or if Shovel Knight gets too many hits. But if these eggs reach a specific nest, they turn into various pets which Shovel Knight can have to help himself in a fight. Considering all of the below mentioned pets can be in theory stacked as much as you like, Shovel Knight can practically make himself an army of pets.
Slimes
These bouncing blorbs will try to jump onto enemies. They do have to be on the same platform as you in order to attack an enemy. They also move slowly so keep your distance if you want this pet to attack. In case of being pushed too far or being too far away from Shovel Knight they always can teleport back. In addition these and all other pets only get damage when Shovel Knight gets hit as well.
Fairies
These flying pets are actually very useful for dealing damage. They can fly all around the screen, through platforms, and will just fly towards enemies to take a bite out of them. You don't need to have line of sight or anything for these pets to hurt your foes! They all will just hunt them down.
Griffoths
The griffin is a rare pet but they're very handy. They'll stay closer to you at all times and shoot fireballs at other monsters. Give yourself 5 or more and you’ll feel as if you’re protected by flying turrets.
Troupples
These floating pets don’t exactly do damage. Instead, upon losing health they will heal Shovel Knight by kissing him. Pretty cute, but not forever, shall they kiss Shovel Knight 3 times they’ll disappear.
Consumables
Throughout Shovel Knight history there were lots of consumables. Shovel Knight was always able to buy himself food that increases a pool of magic he can use on relics, or the most obvious, heal from damage or even further increase his max health. Though besides those there are also some consumables that are extremely useful for Shovel Knight to use before or during combat. Pretty much the last thing to talk about on Shovel Knight’s equipment but don’t be fooled, you’re in for some pretty interesting stuff.
Troupple Chalices
Starting with a pretty simple item first. The Troupple Chalice is a mythical item used to store Ichors that are granted by either the Troupple King himself or one of the different Troupples that are found throughout the land. It is by using exactly these troupples Shovel Knight can get himself some neat consumables.
Ichor of Renewal
This Ichor of Renewal allows Shovel Knight to fully restore all HP and magic upon use. It can only be used once before the need to fill it up again with a Troupple Chalice.
Ichor of Boldness
The Ichor of Boldness grants Shovel Knight invincibility from all hits for 10 seconds. It can only be used once before the need to fill it up again with a Troupple Chalice as well.
Ichor of Fortune
The Ichor of Fortune attracts all nearby Treasures to Shovel Knight for 60 seconds. Just like all others, can only be used once before the need to fill it up again with a Troupple Chalice. Perhaps the most useless considering some other items like Inverse Repeller do that permanently.
The Red Chalice
Coming right from Pocket Dungeon, this Red Chalice allows Shovel Knight to increase his max HP by 5, until battle ends.
The Blue Chalice
This meanwhile gives Shovel Knight regeneration, being able to restore 1 HP to Shovel Knight after a few seconds until fight ends.
Fortified Roast
This one may look like just overcooked bird, but it is more useful than you might think, since consuming this, not only Shovel Knight’s HP fully restores but in addition Shovel Knight gets 3 shield HPs to defend from any kinds of damage. What’s more is that it is possible to stack these shields.
Overstuffin' Muffin
This Muffin is also a big deal for Shovel Knight, since after consuming it, Shovel Knight can increase his max health by literally eating everything. In other words Shovel Knight can eat as much as he likes and his HP would be becoming bigger and bigger.
Magic Borscht
As you can see this is quite a unique borscht. People who have eaten actual borscht can already tell, since you probably never saw a borscht of blue color. Upon consuming this borscht, whenever Shovel Knight is being hit a magical jar will be dropped, converting his taken damage into a mana for his relics.
Blinding Hot Curry
Blinding Hot Curry doubles the total amount of health currently possessed but at the cost of only showing health at the stage selection room and the room prior to boss fights.
Other miscellaneous food
Tears of Mercy
Ending on a high note, in a culmination of all consumables this is what makes all of them worth it. After consuming Tears of Mercy, Shovel Knight now can’t die after losing all his health. Instead upon death his Max health will be dropped by 1 HP. Meaning you need to kill Shovel Knight lots, LOTS of times before he’ll be unable to fight back, especially with large amounts of stackable HP increasings Shovel Knight can have. This makes Shovel Knight’s survivability straight up insane as not even stuff that one shots Shovel Knight can bypass this consumable’s power.
Dig Dug
Air Pump
Possibly the most unconventional whilst simultaneously brutal weapon in video games, Taizo's primary weapon of choice in combat is his iconic air pump. Once he strikes it into something, his opponent will be immediately immobilized, where he can then pump them full of air until they combust from the inside-out, and he can do this to multiple enemies at once. This even manages to work against robots and ghosts while they are intangible, apparently. Not only is he able to pump pookas and fygars while they are turned into intangible ghosts, but he can also pump the ghosts from Pac-Man. Dig Dug can also swing it around as a whip, like Simon Belmont.
Drill
(Art by cyril002)
Dig Dug's primary method of movement is his drill, a tool that he uses to traverse the underground, even being able to bust through solid rock as if he were walking through it. This drill can also be used directly in combat - he can, of course, drill underneath rocks to crush foes, but he can also use it to literally drill apart large chunks of an island, leaving his unfortunate opponents to drown in the water below. He can also use his drill to directly attack his enemies, and he can even use it to break the sky.
Harpoon
In a few of the ShiftyLook webcomics, Dig Dug can use a harpoon to throw at his enemies, as opposed to a direct pump. How he then pumps enemies with a disconnected harpoon… idk.
Ray Gun
Did you know that Dig Dug has a gun? In Dig Dug Arrangement, one of his best power ups is the ray gun, allowing him to shoot foes with deadly blasts of energy. In boss battles, his ray gun will have infinite ammunition, and he can use it to destroy gigantic robot enemies.
Hourglass
Using an hourglass, Dig Dug can completely stop time, immobilizing all of his foes at once. In addition to this, it has the added effect of instantly inflating every enemy on screen, no pumping required. All Taizo needs to do is touch them and they will die. Dig Dug himself also seems to be immune to the effects of the hourglass, as if it were to be activated by a second player and not himself, he will be completely unaffected. Note that the players can kill and hit each other through other weapons and means, but they are specifically immune to the hourglass effect.
Meteor Scepter
With this scepter, Dig Dug can summon a swarm of several meteors at once, effectively wiping out everything on the surface and affecting the terrain to be more… Dig Dug-like.
Speed Boost
With this power up, Dig Dug can increase his running speed, accelerating himself and allowing him to more easily move around his terrain.
Pump Boost
In Dig Dug Arrangement (both Arrangements) and Dig Dug Deeper, Taizo can use certain enhancements to make his air pump faster or have much longer reach than it otherwise would have, allowing it to zigzag across tunnels and catch enemies without having to directly encounter them.
Spaceship
In order to travel across different planets, Dig Dug has his own spaceship he can use to venture into the depths of space.
Boxing Glove
Taizo is able to produce a giant boxing glove in front of himself that will fly off in his direction, pushing back enemies if he needs to gain a distance.
Stone
Usually, Dig Dug would need to dig beneath a boulder in order to crush opponents underneath it. However, with this power up, Taizo can simply create a boulder in front of him to drop on enemies below, wherever he wants.
Lightning
With this power up, Dig Dug is surrounded in a barrier of electricity which will paralyze any opponent who comes near him.
Bubble
This power up will grant a bubble around Taizo, giving him an additional layer of protection against attacks.
Snorkel
If he needs to go under water, the snorkel will significantly aid him while completely submerged in the water, allowing him to deplete his oxygen much slower. Yes, you are correct, that is not how snorkels work.
S. Flag
It is that one item Namco loves to add into every game for no particular reason. By collecting S. Flags, Dig Dug can gain an additional life to use after he falls in battle, immediately reviving. In the Mr. Driller series, we actually see this depicted as Taizo's soul leaving before he is immediately revived in the same location he died, and in one of the ShiftyLook webcomics, he is able to revive from death even after losing all of his lives. Additional ShiftyLook webcomics imply that when he gets a game over, time will reset back to the beginning for him to try again.
Jetpack
Dig Dug is known for digging underground, but did you know that he also flies through space? With his jetpack, Taizo can fly across entire planets, potentially even solar systems, in seconds. In doing so however, he needs to be careful to catch onto another planet's gravitational pull, or else he might careen into the dark void of space.
S.T.A.R. Net
The S.T.A.R. Net is an incredibly powerful invention, intended to capture stranded aliens. Taizo can connect a line between three locations, and in doing so, an energy net will capture anyone inside of it in bubbles that can be moved through space. The S.T.A.R. Net has such a long range that it can be activated across different planets.
Feats
Shovel Knight
Overall
Went on hundreds adventures with Shield Knight even before the events of games
Saved the valley twice from the evil Enchantress
Defeated the Hexcavators and Order of No Quarter
Has gone deep down to the core of the Earth
Freed himself from Mirror of Fate's imprisonment
Solved the unsolvable Pocket Dungeon puzzle
Saved his friend Shield Knight
Did in fact defeat Kratos and the Battletoads
Became the icon of indie games
Has so many cameos/crossovers that he can compete with Ryu in that department.
Power
Capable of casually destroying solid rocks and steel walls (see above) in a single strike.
His Blizzeo Wand is powerful enough to freeze Giant Dragons and Giant Bees in one shot.
Defeated King Knight who:
Can chop cannonballs in half with a single slash of his Scythe.
By simply leaping off materials such as stone blocks he damages and destroys them.
The Meteors in question are a part of his power, NOT empowerment from The Enchantress as some may assume, since he used them way before Shovel of Hope near end events like in Shovel Knight DIG and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon.
Destroyed Tower of Fate with his Ultimate Potion by using several essences of each Knight (Shovel Knight’s included)
Is a more powerful mage than the hedge farmer whose magic could grow a bean stalk at high speeds (8.79 - 16.71 Kilotons of TNT)
Has moved Tower of Fate from the core of the planet to the surface at high speeds (1.3 Gigatons of TNT)
Is considered as the most powerful and dangerous foe in the Shovel Knight universe, making her stronger than Drill Knight’s Castle which is capable of causing a powerful earthquake across the entire valley (4.341-137 Teratons of TNT)
Is presumably a more powerful entity than Mirror of Fate.
Has destroyed the transformed Mirror of Fate which seemed to contain a pocket dimension within itself (4 Petatons of TNT).
Speed
Can run and move (see above) just as fast as cannonballs (300-360 m/s)
And with various speed AMPs can even run faster.
Defeated Phantom Striker who is capable of catching lightning and using it in combat.
Digged down to the core of The Earth in a short period of time.
The Enchantress also managed to move the entire Tower of Fate up from the core of the earth (Mach 309.57)
Defeated King Knight who:
Durability
Took no damage from being launched by a Catapult and Cannons
As durable as his comrade Shield Knight who survived the destruction of the Tower of Fate
Survived the destruction of Mirror of Fate’s world after destroying the Mirror itself (see above)
Survived the destruction of Pocket Dungeon, which is a large pocket dimension.
Dig Dug
Overall
Resolved the Dig Dug incident by himself
Has gone on many additional adventures, including going to the moon and alien planets
Defeated several giant robots and monsters
Really really likes camels, for some reason
Was married to a woman who’s like Samus Aran before Samus Aran even existed
Power
With his drill, is able to sink entire islands by ripping them apart
Can ram into interstellar barriers that are as large as planets and destroy them (107 Zettatons of TNT)
Speed
Can dodge the Fygar's fire breath
Avoids a giant fygar while seeming to jump across the panels of his comic
Like Mr. Driller, he can drill through thousands of meters in seconds
Sent his drill towards the sky, shattering it in a short timeframe
Is able to pilot his ship moving across planets, potentially solar systems
With his jetpack, can fly across planets in a quick time frame (750c)
Comparable to Mr. Driller, who drilled 500 "astral meters" to reach an exoplanet (780K c - 78 Million c - 161 Million c)
Durability
Presumably capable of surviving inside of a planet sized black hole
Gets killed by walking tomatoes with ey- wait…
Weaknesses
Shovel Knight
(Why did they even go so brutal with Duck Tales and Shovel Knight in the first place?)
Unfortunately even the greatest heroes had their biggest downfalls. Shovel Knight is no exception. Being the most honorable fighter in his universe, he's heavily bound by his Code of Shovelry, usually tending to fight more fair to and square against his opponents. Additionally mana of his relics can eventually end, though due to his recent games allowing stacking, it’s now insanely hard to reach that point.
Dig Dug
Taizo Hori is very capable, but he's not without his flaws. He's a middle aged, and sometimes somewhat dimwitted man whose overconfidence and brashness can get him into serious trouble. Not to mention, without power ups he is slightly slower while digging as opposed to running, and he is often vulnerable while he is pumping an enemy. If he's not careful, he can end up injuring himself while flying or digging, and he has a limited amount of oxygen if he were to dig too deep or enter space.
Summary
Shovel Knight
“Prepare to taste Justice! Shovel Justice!”
Advantages:
Far more versatile
Could counter some of Dig Dug's power ups like Lightning or Bubble
Fenix Feather and Tears of Mercy (combined with multiple Meal Tickets, Overstuffin' Muffin and other items or consumables that increase max HP) can make it insanely hard to kill him
Possibly more experienced
Hats with a big amount of environment control and enemy summon, can make the fight go extremely chaotic for Dig Dug…
Pets can do number advantage on Shovel Knight's side
Can possibly ignore Dig Dug's durability with Wildcard and especially with Monster Potion's transmutation
Disadvantages:
Weaker and less durable
Way too slow even with some debatable Light speed arguments taken into account
Dig Dug can counter some of Shovel Knight's really useful abilities like Chronos Coin's and Chronos Glass' time stops, Phasing Locket's phasing, etc.
...but the pure chaos of hats can backfire Shovel Knight as well
Dig Dug can counter numbers disadvantage with Hourglass and S.T.A.R. Net
No direct counter to Dig Dug reviving
Dig Dug
Advantages:
Stronger and more durable
Far faster
Can attain battlefield control by taking the fight underground
Can counter the phase locket with his ability to hit intangible ghosts
Can resist Shovel Knight's methods of time stop
Much greater maneuverability, able to dig or fly away from the majority of Shovel Knight's arsenal
S.T.A.R. Net and Hourglass can counter Shovel Knight's numbers advantage
Has better revives than Shovel Knight
Disadvantages:
Far less versatile
Has no resistance to transmutation
Can be put at a numbers disadvantage
Obligatory "Dig Dug is actually the bad guy" joke
Obligatory DeviantArt joke
Obligatory divorced dad joke
Obligatory Bomberman joke
Obligatory blue skin joke
Before the Verdicts
(placeholders of some topics which worth the discussion, meanwhile look at these funny SiIvaGunner rips)
Amiibo Relics/"Custom Knight" and their usability
(What a cool Amiibo, would be very inconvenient if I couldn't be able to use it at all)
Starting with a bit of a minor but relevant topic whether Shovel Knight should get relics and powers that he got from his Amiibo on the Nintendo console version. At one point it’s a quite specific way of getting equipment as Shovel Knight gets named as “Custom Knight” at some point, there’s more to it than meets the eye though. First of all don’t be so confused with “Custom Knight” as a name, it is rather a name of a feature rather than a separate knight. Second of all, lots of Amiibo abilities either existed before or presented later in other Shovel Knight games, for instance Shadow Knight appeared a bit later in form of Shadow Mirror in Spectre of Torment, Rising Dagger appeared in other Shovel Knight game - Shovel Knight DIG, Glide Cloud which previously was a thing only in Amiibo version Shovel Knight got it again, in Shovel Knight DIG, Ghost Glove and Tow Anchor were used by Shovel Knight in his Rivals of Aether appearance, not as strong evidence since it is a guest appearance but it makes relics and powers from Amiibo moveset be acknowledged in other ways than through Amiibo. Additionally Amiibo also granted Shovel Knight some powers that he technically already had through both his Xbox/PC versions (Toad Gear’s run feature) and Playstation versions (Armor of Chaos’ Shovel Drop feature) both of which are also canonical according to Yacht Club Games. So it shouldn’t be really problematic to use stuff from Amiibo as well, even though they don’t heavily affect the verdict.
Actually hold up, hold up, Shovel Knight can STACK his relics?!?!
Ah yes 2 topics that are so common together: Shovel Knight and Math. But back on the topic, one of the most common weaknesses in Shovel Knight’s versatility was a limited supply of mana with his peak being 130 in Shovel of Hope. Throughout the entirety of Treasure Trove Shovel Knight was commonly believed to have that little supply of magic with relics being somewhat like equipment working entirely on Shovel Knight’s own magic, giving his opponents opportunity to outlast.
This was until Rogue-likes came into light. Now, in 2 recent Rogue-likes: Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon and Shovel Knight DIG, relics are no longer a singular equipment working entirely on Shovel Knight’s own mana. Now they’re like power ups in Mario games or guns in shooter games, each having their own amount of mana supply. And just like guns, to each relic you can stack more of the ammunition of relics, further increasing their ammunition. Don’t believe me? Well here’s Blizzeo Wand, it has an initial usage of 10 + 2 x magic level meaning normally you can use it about 10-12 times depending on your Magic level at the beginning. Now here’s what me stacking led to:
By getting more and more Blizzeo Wands I already could use it over 90 times. Nearly 10 times more than the average usage. How? It was probably cheating wasn’t it? Not true at all, it’s all been recorded, here is how it went step by step:
Bought Tome of Relic Thrift, increasing the amount of relic usage twice. Now the amount of usages for Blizzeo Wand is 28 (additionally evident by getting Coffer of Safekeeping while still keeping Tome, increasing it from average 4 + Magic Level, in this situation 6 since Magic Level was 2, to 12, in other words (4+Magic Level)x2)
Got another Blizzeo Wand which increased amount of usages up to 48 ( 20+(10+(2*2))*2 =48. This means that all relics that were gotten later on was multiplied by Tome and Magic level as well)
Got yet ANOTHER Blizzeo Wand, this time directly from Chester increasing the amount of usages up to 76 (48+28).
And after some usage of Blizzeo Wand decreasing it to 65, I’ve got…that’s right, another Blizzeo Wand increasing the amount of usages up to 97 (65+32, since this time my magic level was 3).
And there’s no explicit limit in this stacking, Shovel Knight can just get more and more and more and more furthering himself far far away from any limit in magic usage whatsoever. Meaning at his peak, Shovel Knight now can straight up use relics hundreds of times really (if not far more). And the same thing applies with Pocket Dungeon where it’s just possible to get more of the same relics and use them more frequently.
Mana for Shovel Knight isn’t what it used to be anymore really, Shovel Knight still has a limit, but to reach it, you’re gonna be as good at outlasting, as trying to do it with a character with no limit in their mana.
Shovel Knight timeline and canon
Now before going to verdicts and thoughts about the feats and powers of Shovel Knight, it is crucial to clarify how events go in Shovel Knight and the canonicity of stuff. Shortly saying, yeah all SK games and events that happened in them are in fact canon. And this timeline you see above is official Shovel Knight chronology made by Yacht Club Games themselves. Where events of games go like this:
DIG - - -> Specter of Torment Flashbacks - - -> King of Cards - - -> Specter of Torment - - -= Showdown - - -> Plague of Shadows - - = Shovel of Hope - - = Pocket Dungeon.
The events of the last 3 games were approximately simultaneous, and gaps between all games events is seemingly small, since right after King of Cards we see events of Specter of Torment happening and right after Showdown ending, we see Specter of Torment nearing its end while Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows being close to its beginning (as you can notice Shovel Knight right after gets a glimpse of hope and does the pose he did in the intro and Plague Knight starts his essence plan). Keeping that in mind, it’s safe to say that all events are canonical, all together happening in a timeframe of…about a month, 2 or 3 at most, yeah the events of Shovel Knight's games are somewhat really quick and the gaps between game's events are nearly nonexistent if you think about it (not as small gap as in the Psychonauts with second game happening 3 days after first one, but still, seemingly quick). This is a bit important considering how people usually perceive Pocket Dungeon and Showdown as either contradictory to the story when in actuality it all does add up, or as non canonical when as the official timeline shows, it actually is.
Shovel Knight DIG, Dug for us an earthquake feat
I am a very funny individual as you may have noticed.
Anyway, here we’re about to discuss Shovel Knight’s earthquake feat which razed Tower of Fate to the ground…no the talk isn’t about Tower of Fate collapsing during the end of Shovel of Hope (which we know was caused by Plague Knight’s potion), we are talking about something that you may notice above. An earthquake powerful enough to shake and demolish trees across the whole valley, all to literally sink the Tower of Fate beneath the earth (down to the core of the planet). So uh, as you may have seen in calc above, feat is worth minimum 4.341 Teratons of TNT, 137 Teratons maximum, the possible question here is how did it happen and is it possible for Shovel Knight to scale?
We aren't told directly what exactly caused the earthquake, only that Drill Knight and Hexcavators are responsible for this. Keeping that in mind we can come to the conclusion that the cause of earthquake can either be:
Gems which were used as keys to The Enchantress later on. Reasoning behind that is one of the statements that considers the possibility of gems being used as a power source.
Tower of Fate itself, which was damaged in some examples throughout the story, especially by Plague Knight's potion.
Drill Knight's/Tinker Knight's machinery such as drill machine, omega saw or Drill Knight’s Castle.
The likeliest choice here perhaps is between Drill Knight’s Castle and Gemstones, the latter for reasons mentioned above, and with the former, if you look in the background of Drill Knight’s Castle you’ll notice how it burrows down the earth which is also described in game. But is it possible to scale Shovel Knight to the entire castle? Yeah. After all, no matter which of these three options used, The Enchantress herself and/or the amulet containing her is viewed as one of the most powerful things in the Shovel Knight universe. If Drill Knight, while having an entire castle capable of causing large scale earthquakes, considered the amulet as basically the most valuable treasure (by his own words “the real treasure” after getting to the amulet in a core that is below room full of treasures he considered as the most legendary of all time for which he was doing expedition in the first place), it’s fairly possible for Enchantress to be just, way more powerful than Hexcavators and all of their stuff, including the castle. Heck, the first time she appears after coming back from the seal, she straight up terrified Hexcavators and most of its members, while this entire expedition, during which earthquakes were caused, was required to release her. If someone sealed Enchantress that far, requiring you to literally cause a massive scale disaster to release her (which btw, could also just straight up collapse all of the Valley underfoot), it's more than clear of the very high threat she can cause. Gemstones are even a lot simpler to argue for, if with their power to cause earthquakes of such a big scale, they serve as a mere key to The Enchantress, it’s fair to say how much of a big threat The Enchantress poses in comparison.
Oh god, there’s another one?!?!?!
Another Tower of Fate related feat wow, ok so. As you could see, there's also a feat where Enchantress moved the Tower of Fate from the core of the Earth to the surface in a short timeframe. The result of the feat gets to 1.3 Gigatons of TNT. So let's dive into it quickly and try to answer some possible questions such as:
How do we know it started from the core of the planet?
How can we assure it was Enchantress' magic causing the Tower to move?
How can we assume a short timeframe?
Let's answer those questions step by step. Starting with question number 1: There are at least 2 pieces of evidence that lean to the fact that it started at the planet's core. First of all is the level's name being "Crystal Core". Core can mean a lot in various contexts, but here the context is a game about Shovel Knight traveling deep down and with each level getting deeper and deeper. In context of that synopsis it's more than fair to say Shovel Knight reached the Core of the planet at this point. Another piece of evidence is lower gravity of final level, after all, gravity at the core of Earth lowers down. As well as one of the descriptions of level describes it as the "Centre of the planet".
Question number 2: There is simply no other power source that could do so. The best we can assume is that if it wasn't The Enchantress moving Tower of Fate, it was Tower of Fate using Enchantress as source of power. Simply put, no other magic or machinery was responsible for the tower's movement, and as a matter of fact, Enchantress planned for the Tower to go back to the surface implying her relation to the tower's travel. Additionally Tower of Fate comes back to its place only in the true ending of DIG. Under the circumstances we don't bring Enchantress back from sealing Tower of Fate simply stays below ground.
Question number 3: While estimates of the size and timeframe may not be exactly perfect (heck to determine the size of the Tower of Fate we probably would've needed to measure it a lot more deeply throughout levels' footage, which is quite long and tiring process), rest assured it couldn't take long to come back. After all, the Well itself was practically collapsing and they needed to come back to the surface as soon as possible.
Taking all that into account, The Enchantress' magic moving the Tower of Fate from the core of the earth in a short timeframe is the only logical conclusion to this, both Enchantress and the Knights had to act quickly, escaping the collapse, multiple pieces of evidence suggest the starting point to be the core of the planet and Enchantress is the only visible source.
Cardia…just Cardia
Perhaps when looking at Shovel Knight’s argument for light speed or higher, Cardia is one of the first things that comes to mind. A little explanation, in King of Cards we see her visit King Knight’s adventure around the same time when we visit our first House of Joustus, a house where people play…you guessed it, Joustus. What is Joustus? It is a card game in Shovel Knight’s universe which has its own set of rules, its own variety of deck, etc. Practically saying Cardia was searching for a Joustus champion to save her own planet. And when she thought she had found a hero in King Knight, she traveled with him to a separate plane. We don’t know where she and King Knight traveled to exactly, Shovel Knight Showdown seems to just call it a “celestial plane”:
Some may assume that she traveled directly to her planet in a short period of time. While distance itself can be light years since that’s how far she’s been traveling in search for a hero:
Assuming so, considering the short timeframe and large distance results can get up to millions times of FTL. But here’s the trick, we have to assume we got exactly near Cardia’s planet. And the only thing that is close to that assumption is interpreting her changing form to what she looks like in her planet:
But that’s practically only one piece of evidence to rely on. We don’t really have anything else to back this assumption up. In fact, if it wasn’t so long for Cardia to take King Knight near her planet, she probably would’ve traveled with King Knight directly into it.
Another thing to point out is Cardia’s reasons for searching - Joustus. King of Cards’ plot is partially about Joustus tournament hosted by 3 judges. And Cardia so happened to search for Joustus champion despite living on a whole nother planet. That brings a question of, shouldn’t Cardia get in here relatively quick, since Joustus existed only in King of Cards? Not exactly. True, King of Cards started with the Joustus tournament, and Cardia joins us in the beginning of King of Cards, true, The Enchantress herself is responsible for that tournament, what’s worth pointing out is that only the tournament started at about similar time as King of Cards. Joustus itself actually existed even before Enchantress was released, which Shovel Knight DIG directly confirms:
Remember the aforementioned timeline: DIG started even before the Specter of Torment flashbacks, not just King of Cards, which means Joustus itself existed for way longer than days prior to Cardia’s visit or The Enchantress getting freedom. But probably the biggest problem to note is we can’t directly say Cardia traveled by flight. As we can see at the end of her boss fight she also can teleport from place to place. Taking that into account it’s possible that she performed her interstellar travel through teleportation rather than flight. Overall Cardia’s feat has potential but we simply don’t have the right evidence for the feat to be solid.
Kratos Scaling (also Battletoads yeah)
(It insists upon itself)
On a serious note, let's actually talk about Shovel Knight's fights against Kratos and Battletoads. Starting with the reasons it is either considered by one group of people as an actual workable scaling chain or by another as a pain in the ass. But why though? What made this fight so special when people normally don't do crossover scaling at all, unless it doesn’t necessarily hurts people to add or they're bored and add Smash moveset to characters like with Captain Falcon or Little Mac because they have so little on their own (Ness also gets that treatment, but that's a bad thing!!! >:( ). Well to be precise it is the fact that multiple sources seem to claim the fight to be canon. No jokes, both Yacht Club and God of War writers/developers claim the fight as canonical, no, Kratos wasn't weakened during the fight, Shovel Knight was just "that good". Hell it's funny but GoW writers even mention the fight and claim it as canonical when they weren't even asked the question making it seem less as pushed by people who may want to make Shovel Knight look stronger, GoW writers do that by themselves.
But there has to be some sort of problem, doesn't there? When the Shovel Knight devs added Kratos to the game, they were not trying to be concerned with keeping it as part of a coherent place in the GoW timeline. If you are adding a guest character like Kratos to a video game, would you make him around trying to fit in the GoW setting, or the video game he is being added to? The latter, of course, so in his fight they tried to make a holistic interpretation of Kratos that incorporates his most well known moveset at the time, and didn't make him fit in with the GoW chronology or any canon material.
Yacht Club Games and Cory Balrog both said the event is canon, but the "canon" in the sense of like, "why not make it canon". If Kratos was moving to Scandinavia during his fight with Shovel Knight, then a lot of aspects about the fight and dialogue are immensely incongruent and don't make very much sense, which leads us to believe that the Shovel Knight developers did not have that in mind when making him and just wanted to make a cool Kratos fight - it is their own entirely separate interpretation of Kratos that, while technically canon, is inconsistent with his storyline and abilities. Kind of like Akuma in Tekken: canon and story relevant, just not the same Akuma as his Street Fighter counterpart. Naturally a similar establishment goes to Battletoads, those being an entirely separate interpretation of them attempting to fit in to Shovel Knight’s world. Not really the first time it’s being done in the Shovel Knight world, since it has 2 other guest characters who are separate versions of characters which already existed before. Those being Reize and Baz. Reize originally is a character from Valdis Story, who in Shovel Knight lacks any mentions of that game, heck you probably just found out that Reize is a guest character. And Baz…well Baz didn’t have an original game in the first place, but by technicality he is a scrapped character from Street Fighter and appeared as a guest in other games or shows (Fun Fact: He once defeated Asura), while Baz practically is moreso a joke character, his appearance also doesn’t contain much of the stuff of his other appearances, heck in Shovel Knight he’s named Baz while normally he’s Zubaz. Same kind of thing can happen with Kratos and Battletoads, where yes they’re indeed Kratos and Battletoads, just not the same as the original.
In the eyes of a powerscaler, the fight just has been demonstrated to be heavily inconsistent with what we know about GoW and directly contradicts the statements that do make it canon, and on top of that like, come on lol. We are scaling Shovel Knight to tiers in ap and speed that far outscale anything in his own series by orders of magnitude based on this self-inconsistent instance to give him feats from an entirely different franchise. At best, it is an outlier, and at worst it is a wholly ridiculous scene that shouldn't be used to seriously gauge Shovel Knight's abilities.
And well, if we’re going that far, Dig Dug scales to Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck through the Namco High dating simulator who’s 100% Outer, trust.
Mirror of Fate and Pocket Dungeon
Now this is where our attention must come with Shovel Knight’s high feats not involving crossover scaling. The plot and functionality behind either Pocket Dungeon or Mirror of Fate is pretty identical. Both send our hero to pocket worlds, both worlds contain lots of space within and at the end of adventure, these places are being destroyed and Shovel Knight along with other knights and characters survive that destruction. This brings to various questions in regards to these 2 feats:
Are those canon to the story?
Weren’t the Mirror of Fate events dream?
How does Shovel Knight scale exactly?
How high should this feat get in the first place?
Starting with the first question - yes they are canon. As you may notice, both Pocket Dungeon and Showdown safely exist in Shovel Knight’s timeline as a part of the story. They don’t have contradictions and if anything, they support and add in more details of the Shovel Knight lore, like what exactly motivated Shovel Knight to actually go into the journey (acknowledging that Shield Knight is actually alive) or what motivated Plague Knight to start his essence plan (experiment with liquid samurai).
Second question - yes and no. For some endings they seemed to wake up which made it seem like all of it was a dream. And when original entities that are possessed (Reize and Shield Knight) free themselves from Mirror of Fate imprisonment, they come back to being possessed. But it isn’t fully like that. First of all it’s worth to mention it isn’t a single person who experiences a “dream”, multiple characters interact with each other and remember their actions within it, like Baz and Mr Hat, Propeller Knight and Tinker Knight, or Liquid Samurai and Plague Knight (former situation was remembered by both, and later, Baz did had to repay the debt, Propeller and Tinker Knight also specifically after their conflict in Mirror of Fate had interacted later on experiment with new flight invention and latter is how Order of No Quarter found out about Plague Knight’s essence plan in the first place). What’s more is that there is an actual physical interaction with characters. For study purposes Mona got Liquid Samurai directly from the Mirror of Fate’s dimension and later used it in the aforementioned Essence experiment. And a final note is…well the fact that the idea of Pocket Dimensions is frequently used in the Shovel Knight universe. For instance, Scrap Knight’s Bag has a decently sized dimension within a not so big bag, Shovel Knight’s Drifting Glass is basically an equivalent of a snow globe also moving him and Shield Knight to a pocket dimension, and obviously, Pocket Dungeon itself, a dimension within a cube created by Puzzle Knight, contains a pocket version of the entire valley, and it didn’t showcase implications of it being a dream. Especially since in the ending of Pocket Dungeon, Shovel Knight and others escape from it physically, not mentally. Why is Pocket Dungeon being brought up as well? Mainly 2 reasons:
Shovel Knight and other knights survive the destruction of Pocket Dungeon as well, similarly to how they did with Mirror of Fate.
Mirror of Fate and Pocket Dungeon were stated to share properties by the Yacht Club developers. This can be especially noted by the fact that PD contains Shield Knight within itself while not being a dream.
Third question is pretty simple:
Shovel Knight and other knights directly survive Mirror of Fate and Pocket Dungeon worlds being destroyed
Shovel Knight and other knights directly destroy transformed Mirror of Fate which at the end caused the feat to happen in the first place
The Enchantress…again. Since her magic presumably is responsible for Mirror of Fate's existence.
And at last… 4th question, well you saw the answer for yourself, it gets up to 4 Petatons, Continental level of power. Could it get higher though? We do see starry backgrounds in some places of Mirror of Fate like the aforementioned Celestial Plane, don’t we. These dimensions can have physical aspects to them while still also being a mental area of sorts. If there exists physical matter, then you can take it in and out of the dimension, however, that does not mean that everything within it, such as the starry background is physical matter. This is especially notable since Pocket Dungeon which has properties similar to Mirror of Fate as mentioned above, has its own boundaries which do not extend beyond Shovel Knight’s planet:
Additionally, Mirror of Fate was forcing characters of the Shovel Knight universe to fight. This was numerously established at least in Shovel Knight’s and Plague Knight’s stories. And as much as there were warriors from the Valley, there weren't any warriors from other worlds other than Shovel Knight's planet, this is important because recreation of worlds other than the valley means that it could attract beings that exist in other worlds. Among established ones being Kratos and Battletoads, but even aside from guest characters, Cardia herself, who as we know exists on a whole nother planet, light years away from Shovel Knight’s homeland and yet, we see no life of other planets involved despite it existing in.the Shovel Knight universe Taking that into account we can’t directly say that stars within Mirror of Fate were fully physical, and it’s a lot safer to stick to just the valley which we know for sure was fully materialistic, and is more consistent with a lot of pre-established Shovel Knight feats and scaling.
Dig Dug timeline and canon
(...yes, that's an actual thing…)
Okay, so let's break this down.
The USGF is a common name for a galactic federation that appears in several different Namco properties, and in 2011 Namco released an official timeline confirming the exact canon of this universe - included in it, very notably, are Dig Dug, Baraduke, Mr. Driller and Star Trigon, which are all very well tied together in their lore. Taizo Hori marries Masuyo Tobi from Baraduke games, got busy, and their child Mr. Driller would have his own adventures which Taizo would regularly take part in. This is the "main" canon for Dig Dug that most people probably know about, but it is also a pretty limiting view of Dig Dug as a franchise, which we will get into. Oh and before you ask, no, you can't cross-scale Dig Dug to anything outside of the Mr. Driller and Star Trigon games in this timeline as they never do anything to warrant scaling to anyone else, and that includes Masuyo and Baraduke, who take a very minor role in the Mr. Driller series.
It would be a lot more holistic to view Dig Dug as a property than as a singular timeline of events. Let's try to make this simple here:
The only real media that can be considered to be "core" Dig Dug are the first two arcade video games for him that were released in the 80s, Dig Dug and Dig Dug 2: Trouble in Paradise. These are the original games that are never questioned or contradicted, and effectively every version of Dig Dug follows up on these events.
The second most prominent form of media for Dig Dug would be the base USGF timeline seen above, or more accurately, the "Mr. Driller" cycle of media. When Mr. Driller was developed and released in the late 90s, it was intended to be the third mainline entry in the Dig Dug series. However, Mr. Driller would go on to have a lot more media and video games developed, effectively splintering off into a franchise of its own. Taizo Hori is a major character in the Mr. Driller storylines, and the last mainline Dig Dug game as of this blog, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, is obviously meant to take place in the Mr. Driller world, as it centers around the two. There should be zero issues with using this.
The next thing I want to bring up however, are the other Dig Dug entries unrelated to Mr. Driller. Dig Dug Arrangement for the arcade, Arrangement for the PSP (they are two entirely different games), and Dig Dug Deeper. Dig Dug Arrangement for the arcades came out in 1996 before Mr. Driller, and while it follows the basic gameplay premise and mechanics of the original game, it adds a lot of additional content to it such as new locations, mechanics, enemies, power ups and even boss battles. Arrangement for the PSP is similarly a redux of the original Dig Dug with power ups, boss battles and new enemies, but it is entirely different from the arcade version in about every other way. Dig Dug Deeper is… I don't know if I can really explain its existence.
This is a game published by an Atari subsidiary and I don't really know how or why it came to be. In it, Dig Dug flies across planets to eliminate the monsters from their underground in 3D, and he has a really big chin. Of course, it is never brought up again.
Perhaps with the exception of the latter, both Arrangement games are fine to use. They do not follow the prime Mr. Driller flow that the series went into and are mostly lost to time, but they also don't contradict anything and are perfectly fine entries by themselves. Oh yeah, almost forgot, did you know that there was a Dig Dug MMO? It doesn't really have anything important, but it would probably fall under that.
To clear this up real quick, Dig Dug had a totally badass design in Namco x Capcom, but it's also about as tertiary and minor as you can get. Pooka, Fygar and Mr. Driller are playable in Pac-Man World Rally, but it would be ridiculous to grant Taizo off hand scaling to a racing game for an entirely different and incongruent world. Namco High is certainly a thing that happened, but the G1^2 commandments forbid the use of Homestuck.
Speaking of Namco High, this is finally the part where we talk about ShiftyLook, and all those weird webcomics you saw in this blog. ShiftyLook is a now defunct subsidiary of Namco which focused on creating content based on old Namco properties in the form of webcomics, games and webshows. In particular, they have a series of Dig Dug webcomics which are made by multiple different authors which was made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dig Dug. In them, uh, a lot happens, and to put it simply they definitely are not canon to any larger timeline related to the games, and are often pretty contradictory. They usually consist of one off joke comics with a single panel, maybe with a few more that take a very early 2010s humor approach with the property. Despite this, they are still technically licensed by Bandai Namco, and are official material. As such, we decided to include them in our composite of Dig Dug.
WTF are those Dig Dug stats?????
So, this was a bit of a surprise going in, but Dig Dug actually has consistent cosmic level scaling. The reason? Star Trigon.
In 2002, Namco released a game about saving space aliens called Star Trigon, which was a spin-off of Mr. Driller, technically making it a spin-off of a spin-off. In the original version you can play as two new characters, but also Mr. Driller as well, however in the later iOS and PC updated releases they added Dig Dug as a playable character, as well as a whole story mode which involved him.
In the game, you literally fly around planets, making planet wide energy nets, so obviously overanalyzing them meant some stats were going to get nutty. In particular, flying across planets obviously yields very good mftl results, but you can actually bounce off of these large barriers around the planets, destroying them in the process. We know that they should be at least comparable in size to the planets that they contain, so we used that as a reference along with their gravitational potential energy to get a result. Technically, as the barriers contain multiple planets with how far apart planets typically are, it's likely that these barriers are even larger than we measured them as.
In addition to this, in some missions you can fail them, yet still progress in the story. This is important, because it implies that the characters do not die from being sucked into black holes, as you can fall into them yet still continue the story without having to redo the level. Taking this literally, you can get really good results, as these black holes are the size of whole planets. However, due to the nature of the "feat", it should probably just be treated as a high end, if anything at all. It's not important to this fight in particular, so it won't be mentioned. It was just interesting enough to mention.
Perhaps the biggest boon as a result of Star Trigon for Dig Dug, comes from a game entirely separate from Star Trigon. In Mr. Driller: Drill Land, the cast of Mr. Driller essentially go through an amusement park with several different missions themed off of an event or reference from Mr. Driller. One of these is a level based off of Star Trigon, where Mr. Driller literally has to drill to an alien exoplanet. The dialogue confirms that he is actually moving into space, and the fact that the level calls spaces "astral meters" instead of "meters" as they usually do also support the idea that he is moving interstellar distances. In addition to this, you pass by stars in the background while Mr. Driller is drilling, suggesting that he is moving very far distances.
Verdicts
The Monster King
I'm honestly a little surprised that we managed to finish this blog so fast, given how much content we managed to cram in here, Oleggator is a total machine. I wonder what that says about the other blogs. Anyways, I really love both Shovel Knight and Dig Dug, they are really awesome games. But what would happen if we made them fight to the death?
Shovel Knight has a lot of tools. Dig Dug has a little bit more than people give him credit for too to be fair, but holy hell man, Shovel Knight has a lot. What Taizo lacks in quantity however, he more than makes up for in the quality of his gadgets and abilities. He has a time stop that instantly inflates every enemy on screen, protection bubbles, a scepter that summons meteors, protection bubbles, revives, a jetpack that lets him fly across planets, and an energy net that can immobilize and move targets through space. Ah, not to mention of course, his air pump which can even pump ghosts and robots, and his drill which he has used to do quite a lot of crazy things.
To contrast, Shovel Knight has… Man it's honestly really hard to summarize what Shovel Knight has at this point lol. He has a lot of different weapons for direct damage, he can phase through objects, erase anything he wants, stop time, transmute matter, revive himself, use poison, flood the area and has a ton of different physical abilities and armors. That isn't even mentioning the pets and hats and whatever tf Showdown is doing. Point is, he has a lot, and definitely has a versatility edge in this fight. Buuut, this doesn't mean Dig Dug can't keep up.
Dig Dug is a difficult opponent for anyone to beat, not for brute strength but maneuverability. But like, unironically. The dude can fly across planets at speeds far faster than light and dig to Australia, added that with his many methods of battlefield control such as the S.T.A.R. Net, the meteor scepter or the hourglass and Taizo has really good methods for controlling the flow of the fight despite the stark difference in arsenal.
Dig Dug also has direct counters to a lot of things that SK can use too. Shovel Knight can attain a numbers advantage, but Dig Dug has crowd control options. Shovel Knight can stop time, but Dig Dug resists time stop and has his own version of it that inflates every enemy on screen. Shovel Knight has methods of phasing, but Dig Dug has literally countered phasing since his first game. Shovel Knight can flood the area, Dig Dug has ways to breathe underwater. Shovel Knight can erase objects with the Wildcard, Dig Dug survived the Kill Screen which erased the code of the game. Shovel Knight can revive with the Fenix Feather, Dig Dug can revive potentially indefinitely until he wins.
Shovel Knight is a lot more resourceful now than he once was, but Dig Dug can keep drilling for 27 hours straight, and even 30 years, so it is totally possible that Dig Dug can outlast Shovel Knight's reserves, leaving him vulnerable to Taizo's less resource dependent options of attack. Well, that is if Dig Dug doesn't just kill him before that happens. He has a few insta-win options of his own, but he could also probably insta-win by like, hitting him. Scaling to the barriers in Star Trigon which Taizo can destroy grants him way more power than anything Shovel Knight has had to deal with before, even giving him the biggest benefits of the doubt and stacking on in-game multipliers, the Dug is just too tough.
His much higher durability also means that Shovel Knight's methods of a victory are severely cut down to a few niche options in his belt, which isn't even to mention the possibility of Dig Dug reviving. Simply put, Shovel Knight is not strong nor fast enough to capitalize on his arsenal advantage over Dig Dug, who actually has answers to a lot of his weapons and abilities, and then some. Even if Shovel Knight were as powerful or even stronger than Dig Dug, he can't exactly deal with things like the S.T.A.R. Net or the Hourglass so easily, so Dig Dug is going to be in a better position on the grander scheme of things. It's basically like putting a Swiss army knife against a jet fighter.
To his credit, Shovel Knight is also more experienced, and is likely smarter than the rather rash and hot headed Taizo Hori. He also has a few counters to some of Dig Dug's abilities of his own, and his hats and summons and what have you can certainly bring a lot to the table. It's just ultimately not enough to overcome Dig Dug's much more tangible and meaningful advantages.
But hey, I know what you MUST be thinking. Shovel Knight and all the other knights fight Mole Knight all the time, and they have no problem dealing with him. Why was Dig Dug any different? Well, simply put, every iteration of Mole Knight pales in comparison. He has no feats of digging that come even close to Taizo and frankly, he's an idiot. Especially when you compare Dig Dug to his son, Mr. Driller, who can drill across STAR SYSTEMS.
In the end, Dig Dug just has too many advantages here to not win. I think this would be a cool death battle, but it is a shame that Shovel Knight loses again since I really like him, but I love Dig Dug a lot so it cancels out for me. I'd hope Shovel Knight gets a dignified death, but given who he's fighting, that's unfortunately not very likely. Shovel Knight DIG DUG!!!ged his grave… The winner is Dig Dug.
Oleggator
Hello hello hello, as you may have noticed you're basically near the end of this blog. Where the only thing that is left are verdicts. Ohhhh, honestly thoughts just overflow my head here. So much stuff discussed in about, like, a few weeks. Not even sure where to start, well, let’s just say.
I FUCKING LOVE SHOVEL KNIGHT.
I WANT TO TALK ABOUT ALL BS HE GOT THROUGHOUT 6 YEARS WHICH HAS BEEN IGNORED BY US.
Let me tell you, one of the reasons we all love Death Battle as a show and lots of people go around this community is finding something new, never before seen. And I don’t mean just “Wow this character is so strong!” or “He can do that?!” kind of new. I’m talking about sharing with each other new media, new pieces of work to discover. I’m sure by finding Match Ups for some character we adore we also tend to discover something new to look up for whenever in search for said Matchups. Or said Matchups when being a Death Battle episode can open the gates to discover something you’ve never seen before. Why am I bringing this up? Well back in the days where I wasn’t full of all vs stuff, Death Battle managed to introduce me to this something new, something never before seen, something outstanding and unordinary through something I knew of before. And as you may notice about who the blog is, there are only 2 answers…Scrooge vs Shovel Knight as much as it did heavily mischaracterized Shovel Knight in retrospective, still did a good thing, introducing me to Shovel Knight in the first place! I’ve played Shovel of Hope lots of times after the episode and I can assure, it was nothing but fun. At that point probably one of my favorite game and indie game franchises.
And later the more I played Shovel Knight games, the more fun they were, and after looking back to Scrooge vs Shovel Knight, I can say with confidence, Shovel Knight needs to come back to the show, not just the franchise but the character himself. And gladly, all new games just made it even more fun to research all lore and might of the dig warrior in a steady armor. And this blog is an exactly perfect opportunity to compile all the research I’ve done! Dig Dug is a pretty unexpected opponent for Shovel Knight to have in his big spread, but hey can’t complain, it’s pretty specific, it got good retro aesthetics and DIG definitely gave a ground to imagine the dynamic you can do with lots of stuff in Shovel Knight’s arsenal.
As you can see there is A LOT of stuff to talk about Shovel Knight and considering how the franchise is still alive, we are bound to have more. As a matter of fact…DIG is announced to get a new DLC, A LITERAL DAY AFTER ME AND TMK STARTED TO WORK ON THIS BLOG WTF!!! But what’s more, is that Pocket Dungeon also announced to get a new DLC, A LITERAL DAYS BEFORE ME AND TMK ARE FINISHING WORK ON THIS BLOG, WE’RE BEING HIT BY A DB CURSE!!! Though additions are probably minor, I’m sure I’ll cover them when I’ll be doing the Shovel Knight vs Cadence blog (after like, Rift of the Necrodancer will also come out, obviously)!
But enough of my story sharing, let’s talk about who wins! Well, let’s start with the most obvious here: Stats. And well, yeah despite Shovel Knight still getting a good buff up to Continental, which is a really big progress after being in Town hell if you ask me, it’s still not exactly enough to match with Dig Dug’s planetary scale stuff. Sure you probably would’ve expected Mirror of Fate or Pocket Dungeon to make Shovel Knight uni, but realistically speaking as mentioned beforehand, they have own boundaries and weren’t directly called a universe either, so not a solid ground to work with high stuff, buuuuuut hey it still gets incredibly high. And DIG’s events just solidified that rating, with the massive earthquake Hexcavators were doing across the entire valley. And multipliers just help Shovel Knight to increase that rating.
Hero Blade - +3
Shockproof Socks - +1
Power Pail - +1
Swift Dagger - +1
Third Amulet - +1
Single Glove - +1
Five String - +1
Fury Horns - +1
Underdog Collar - +1
Coin of Carnage - +1
Ram Rod - +1
Berserker Bauble - x2
Charge Slash - +1(?)
4x14 = 56 Petatons of TNT (Multi-Continental)
And with Berserker Bauble at low health - 56 x 2 = 112 Petatons of TNT (Multi-Continental)
Some of them are a bit more environment dependent but Shovel Knight basically gets around those Multi-Continental levels. All of that and combined though still not enough to hit Dig Dug with his planetary feat. Speed here is a bit worse. Shovel Knight has still some light timing arguments to work around, thanks to King Knight dodging lasers or moving as fast as light orbs, but even with them taken into account, Dig Dug is still just, too damn fast. Millions of times faster than light and millions of times stronger than the highest we can argue for Shovel Knight in all departments. But it isn’t the only thing either can work around, after all it wouldn’t have been as near as long if either of them was just a stat brick.
Arsenal and a bit ability wise, Shovel Knight has a little bit of edge, he can counter some power ups Dig Dug carries and just has so much stuff on his hands. Doesn’t help to Dig Dug that relics now are absolutely stackable and Shovel Knight can use them an insane amount of times before ever running out of mana, and lots of methods do heavily prolong Shovel Knight from running out of it to the point that Shovel Knight can use them hundreds of times over if not more before going to just his techniques of Shovel Blade.
Dig Dug on the other hand carries a decent amount of counters to some of the Shovel Knight’s best relics. Phasing through a locket, Smoke Bomb or Blink Dash? Dig Dug already managed to consistently beat intangible beings so he might as well counter that. Passive and Active Time stops? Dig Dug shown to resist it in the Dig Dug arrangement. Most of the projectile stuff for Shovel Knight is also just too slow to hit Dig Dug or can be countered by Dig Dug simply going underground. Flood Fish could fill in tunnels with water, but Dig Dug has snorkel to magically breathe in it. Not how you see snorkels to work, but good for Dig Dug I guess.
This where naturally we have now not as much but still important stuff to discuss about. That being Shovel Knight’s hats, Shovel Knight’s consumables and at last but not least, Shovel Knight’s potential win conditions despite the stat disadvantage. Let’s start with the most random chaotic one:
Mr hat, practically opened the gates to start a pure chaos with what we can do, there is no other explanation really. Just pure chaos, hats all of which Shovel Knight can wear at once make the entire environment full of obstacles, enemies and hazards. One can cause an avalanche, the other makes various puddles, the third one fills with enemies and the fourth one occasionally flips the position of everything around. Overall hats simply chaotically control the situation. Can Dig Dug go around that? Well yeah he does have some ways, digging and flying are 2 particular ones, Shovel Knight may have control over the environment but mostly hats allow to control the surface, not air or underground where Dig Dug can operate. The chaos of hats can backfire Shovel Knight as well, but something like Coffer of Safekeeping can just keep Shovel Knight fully protected from anything.
On note of underground though, before getting to other stuff, let’s do minor comparison in their skill, experience and digging. First 2 categories probably go to Shovel Knight, he and Shield Knight even before the games went through hundreds adventures, Shovel Knight himself is good at using all sorts of weapons and the opponents he has faced are a lot more versatile than what Dig Dug has to work with. Someone like Dig Dug won’t be exactly new for Shovel Knight either, not only because he fought other users of shovel like Black Knight and Polar Knight, but also fought beings that do use underground environments for combat, that being Mole Knight and Drill Knight. In digging itself they are technically equal, both managed to go deep down to the core of the earth, both can be maneuverable and quick in the ground, as a matter of fact, both can dig ground simply by walking straight. The only difference is Dig Dug can also climb and dig up, while Shovel Knight can do that rather through sharpening his horns and using something like Rising Dagger and Bubble Frog. That being said though the situation Dig Dug has to go through is also not exactly new, he has been in moments when he’s surrounded and outnumbered, that’s essentially how his first game goes, where he must maneuver underground to keep the pace and beat all monsters. You can tell how much harder they get in progress.
Now the second and third one are most important, as they deliver Shovel Knight a potential to win through hax. You know, it’s always interesting when there’s a way to win despite being weaker, gotta wish more MUs on DB had that. In this case there are 2 things Shovel Knight can do to possibly kill Dig Dug.
Monster Potion’s transmutation
Wildcard’s either existence erasure or death manipulation.
Okok let’s wrap it up real quick. There isn’t much explanation on how Wildcard destroys its enemies, but as far as visuals go, they just destroy them.
It doesn't matter how durable the opponent is, Wildcard immediately kills them. With only exceptions being bosses but only since they are, you know, bosses, obviously it’d make fights against them more boring. Especially since beings as durable as bosses actually do die to Wildcard on the level so Wildcard not working on bosses is likely a game mechanic.
Monster Potion, while is one of the items that comes from a vs mode, isn’t essentially problematic to use either. It’s also pretty simple in usage and can turn the opponent into various Shovel Knight monsters, with their stats respectfully.
Now the real question is if it’s possible for Shovel Knight to employ all that and if it’ll work on Dig Dug in the first place.To answer the first question, let's go to Shovel Knight’s consumables.
There are lots of them, and all of them give Shovel Knight all sorts of benefits. Besides the consumables that increase Shovel Knight’s maximum help, there are those that give him bonus defenses and lots of other items that can give even more HP. Such as Sruffin’ Muffin that allows Shovel Knight to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat.
You basically get the idea, Shovel Knight can just increase his maximum HP really far thanks to a large amount of items and consumables. To just put into perspective let me go with the absolute minimum.
1 HP = 1 Red Bubble we see visually in games for the record
Starting with Shovel of Hope, we start with 4 HP and can increase it up to 10.
Now with DIG at minimum we can use all consumables that increase max hp by 1 at least once, which makes overall 7 HP and plus 1-2 (or more) using average max health upgrade. Overstuffin' Muffin also allows to increase Max HP by 1 after eating food when we are already at max HP 4 times and at minimum not counting food that drops from enemies, we can have +6 HP. So plus 15 more HP at worst.
Now Pocket Dungeon, we can use each Meal Ticket 2 times thanks to one of the hats, which also gives +1 HP. One meal ticket increases by 2 HP the other by 3 HP so that makes plus 10 HP. Also red chalice can increase max HP by 5 and troupple crown also gives Shovel Knight gain +5 HP Which makes overall +21 HP.
10+15+21 = 46, not bad huh.
But wait, there's more, these 2 right here can double the amount of hp you currently have:
Putting Red Chalice out of equation since this one increases max HP temporarily
41x2x2 = 164 HP
Adding Red Chalice here and we have 169 HP at the absolute worst.
I remind you, Shovel Knight can simply eat a lot, A LOT more. But how would that matter in a grand scheme of things, if Shovel Knight is still being one shot. To which I answer:
If you were paying attention during the blog, you should already understand what exactly I’m leaning to. Tears of Mercy…are quite an insane thing. And practically a thing that makes Shovel Knight nearly as unkillable as Hellsing Alucard. These Tears of Mercy turn Shovel Knight’s minimum 169 HP into 169 defenses from getting one shotted (additionally there’s also a Fenix Feather that directly saves from death). Having that in hand surely can mean Shovel Knight eventually either using a Wildcard or Monster Potion…
One potential problem in Shovel Knight’s Tears of Mercy is a similar kind of problem you may see in Makima’s regen on Gojokima debates, as in, as much as they make harder to kill Shovel Knight we can’t make sure it will recover from some sort of full body destruction methods. Now I give you 1 attempt to guess Dig Dug’s main killing method. Yeah unfortunately if an attack instead of one shotting one will be, well absolutely destructive one, we can’t make sure Tears of Mercy will help to recover Shovel Knight’s body here. But if we could, it leads to a solid possibility of Shovel Knight using one of his haxes.
Now the trick is, Dig Dug is that one bastard who also is just as insanely hard to kill if not harder. Thanks to his Mr Driller stories and Shifty Look variations, Dig Dug pretty much has own method of revival, dare I say revival better than Mario’s because when all his lives end and game reaches its game over, Dig Dug still can straight up revive. Wildcard can perform erasure on Dig Dug, there’s a chance he can resist it thanks to the PAC-MAN’s level 256 that breaks and erases the game, which Dug on the other hand seems to survive. The Monster Potion has the potential to turn Dig Dug into some SK monster and then after killing him in that state, not being able to come back. But if we are generous with Tears of Mercy on recovering Shovel Knight’s body from inflation then, there’s no trouble with doing a similar kind of thing with Dig Dug who also technically can come back after being transmuted. Additionally Dig Dug has good stamina to keep fighting and eventually make Shovel Knight run out of his HP and the stackable mana, while Shovel Knight in an equal approach can’t simply put down Taizo for good.
With that being said, it’s surprisingly quite a complex Match to tackle, but overall Dig Dug has good hax, stamina and stats to unearth himself a victory. As sad as it may be. But hey, can’t be more glad than seeing Shovel Knight to become far more than he was over the course of time. Both as a growing franchise and in a sense of vs. The battle of Shovel Knight vs Dig Dug may be lost, but Shovel Knight’s story is called “Shovel of Hope” for a reason, and these hopes are slowly but surely paying off. May the steady warrior give himself a rest, as this battle reached its core, but there are a lot more left.
The Winner is Dig Dug.
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i can't believe dig dug vs bomberman might actually be right now, this is...surreal
ReplyDeletegreat blog btw
I think bomberman is universal
DeleteHave fun killing mr "can come back from literal existence erasure".
Delete