Shovel Knight

Copilot

Edit history:

Copilot: 2014-07-15 09:26:02 pm

Copilot: 2014-07-07 10:27:20 pm

Copilot: 2014-07-07 10:25:36 pm

Copilot: 2014-07-01 11:04:42 am

Copilot: 2014-07-01 11:04:39 am

2014-06-25 11:24:08 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Yo, game came out today for backers. Started playing it, not too far, since it came out, like, 2 hours ago, but almost done.

Shovel Knight's a platformer, a big throwback to old platformers like Mega Man and Castlevania, except your primary weapon is a shovel, which you can swing to attack and also pogo onto your foes. Fun game, go pick it up. It's available on 3DS, Wii U, and Steam.

Anyway, moral of the story is that I'll probably be learning to speedrun it, I'll post videos whenever I get around to doing that. Post here with any tricks, glitches, and any other interesting things you might find for speedrunning if you find it.

One trick I've found is that you can use the Phasing Locket to cancel your downward momentum in the air, allowing you to go slightly further than you should be able. Found this useful for getting the music sheet in the Armor Outpost, could be applicable elsewhere.

Final comment, would anyone happen to know if there are any differences in the versions of this game? If not, might be good to find out. If I had to guess, I'd say loading times might be different.

Anyway, happy shoveling, hope more people find an interest in this game.

Alright, update on what's been going on, which I should have done a long time ago. This is the document to go to. Every trick and skip that's been discovered is on here. If you think you've found something, refer to this document before you post it, and if it's not on there, post it, and add it to the document.

As well, information for the IRC channel is on here. Yeah, we have a lot of posts on the thread here, and major things will be added onto here, but most of the discussion for this game happens on the IRC. If you want to be kept up with all of the latest in what's going on, come here. Everyone's really cool and friendly, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you want to go watch runs and streams of this or something, a lot of people stream their runs, or post them on Youtube, so just go ahead and ask and someone will direct you to somewhere where you can check out all the latest stuff. And when you connect to the IRC, make sure you read the text that comes up as you enter, it's got some more important links. If you don't know how to connect to an IRC server, watch either this or this video, depending on which IRC client you use (I personally recommend the latter, which is HexChat, but you can use whatever you want).

Finally, everybody is using the website http://www.pbtracker.net/ to save their times. I highly encourage you, if you start running this game, to use this site to record you PBs. The more organized this is, the better. We want to be a nice community where anybody can very easily go tell who's got the good times. So please please please go post any time you get on this site, no matter how bad you might think it is.

Another update, we now have weekly any% races on the SRL IRC every Sunday at 5:00 PM EST. If you want to set up a smaller race in the time before that, feel free to ask around on the #shovelknight channel, but the weekly one on Sunday is the biggest (and any%, remember that)

So I just started up a series of videos that are tutorials for any%. The route I'm using is CapnDrake's WR route, but if the route ever gets changed, I will change the videos to accommodate. But yeah, if you're new to speedrunning this game and want to know all the tiny details of every screen of every stage, as well as the route in general, come watch the videos in the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5QCcAGcp7lBegEVmqPGfaPULI4cI-bU4

Alright that's all for that. Keep up the good work, y'all. For Shovelry!

Thread title:

Yo, game came out today for backers. Started playing it, not too far, since it came out, like, 2 hours ago, but almost done.

Shovel Knight's a platformer, a big throwback to old platformers like Mega Man and Castlevania, except your primary weapon is a shovel, which you can swing to attack and also pogo onto your foes. Fun game, go pick it up. It's available on 3DS, Wii U, and Steam.

Anyway, moral of the story is that I'll probably be learning to speedrun it, I'll post videos whenever I get around to doing that. Post here with any tricks, glitches, and any other interesting things you might find for speedrunning if you find it.

One trick I've found is that you can use the Phasing Locket to cancel your downward momentum in the air, allowing you to go slightly further than you should be able. Found this useful for getting the music sheet in the Armor Outpost, could be applicable elsewhere.

Final comment, would anyone happen to know if there are any differences in the versions of this game? If not, might be good to find out. If I had to guess, I'd say loading times might be different.

Anyway, happy shoveling, hope more people find an interest in this game.

Alright, update on what's been going on, which I should have done a long time ago. [url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SEo9Y-JM3acLQmMjifzWHbUr8ze0Lz_VXiXDq2LoVZU/edit]This[/url] is the document to go to. Every trick and skip that's been discovered is on here. If you think you've found something, refer to this document before you post it, and if it's not on there, post it, and add it to the document.

As well, information for the IRC channel is on here. Yeah, we have a lot of posts on the thread here, and major things will be added onto here, but most of the discussion for this game happens on the IRC. If you want to be kept up with all of the latest in what's going on, come here. Everyone's really cool and friendly, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you want to go watch runs and streams of this or something, a lot of people stream their runs, or post them on Youtube, so just go ahead and ask and someone will direct you to somewhere where you can check out all the latest stuff. And when you connect to the IRC, make sure you read the text that comes up as you enter, it's got some more important links. If you don't know how to connect to an IRC server, watch either [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxTBHia1wak]this[/url] or [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72JZgmErL7w]this[/url] video, depending on which IRC client you use (I personally recommend the latter, which is HexChat, but you can use whatever you want).

Finally, everybody is using the website [url]http://www.pbtracker.net/[/url] to save their times. I highly encourage you, if you start running this game, to use this site to record you PBs. The more organized this is, the better. We want to be a nice community where anybody can very easily go tell who's got the good times. So please please please go post any time you get on this site, no matter how bad you might think it is.

Another update, we now have weekly any% races on the SRL IRC every Sunday at 5:00 PM EST. If you want to set up a smaller race in the time before that, feel free to ask around on the #shovelknight channel, but the weekly one on Sunday is the biggest (and any%, remember that)

So I just started up a series of videos that are tutorials for any%. The route I'm using is CapnDrake's WR route, but if the route ever gets changed, I will change the videos to accommodate. But yeah, if you're new to speedrunning this game and want to know all the tiny details of every screen of every stage, as well as the route in general, come watch the videos in the link below.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5QCcAGcp7lBegEVmqPGfaPULI4cI-bU4[/url]

Alright that's all for that. Keep up the good work, y'all. For Shovelry!

EightBitNacho

2014-06-26 01:54:12 am

Cheese It

I asked the developers via Twitter about version differences and they said that as far as the main game goes, there are no differences, even with loading times.
I planned on running this as well, but because the developers decided that only America is important enough to get the Nintendo releases at this time, I have to wait. I'll see how I feel once it finally comes out. Good luck to you and anyone else who has it now, though. I can't wait to see how quickly we bring this game down.

Copilot

2014-06-26 02:41:37 am

Ruling the cosmos!

Quote:

I can't wait to see how quickly we bring this game down.

Word up.

barinelg

2014-06-26 04:40:28 am

I trip over my own feet in game.

Just started playing this. I'll help where I can on routes and all.

Jaguar King

2014-06-26 05:08:18 am

I got my hands on a review copy few days ago for PC, I discoverd some intresting stuff and strats you can do in this game

I'm out of town for the moment, I will share some of my findings with videos when I get back.

count me on

Copilot

2014-06-26 12:03:36 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

So the Flying Dagger, seems to be the most broken thing in approximately the everything. Might be worth it to pick up, could end up with a lot of skips with it. I did find that in the Polar Knight's stage, you could skip over some of the parts with the platforms that you have to hit that makes the rainbows, which I think could save upwards of 30 seconds just there.

barinelg

2014-06-26 01:32:57 pm

I trip over my own feet in game.

I've only beaten 4 bosses so far, but have found that some areas with large enemies blocking the way (giant skeleton, dragon, griffon) you can take a hit and get to the next screen via the invincibility frames, skipping the enemy altogether.

Copilot

2014-06-26 01:34:11 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

It seemed like you could skip some of the mini bosses. Well that's real good to know.

Copilot

2014-06-26 01:52:03 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

So I just finished the game. I would assume we would stop timing on the final hit of the second phase of The Enchantress, since after that is just text boxes and no other input.

It also seems that a lot of the boss fights might end up being extremely hard with only the 3 or 4 life you start out with, so it might be worthwhile to actually get at least 1 or 2 health upgrades, and maybe some troupple chalices for restoring health. The one problem with the chalice is that the troupple king's ritual dance is really long, but we might or might not be able to avoid watching that by fishing troupples up in the spots that allow it in the stages, and conveniently, the fishing rod is right next to the troupple chalice. But just speculation, might not be worth it, but getting the health upgrades is something to consider.

Other things to consider, the charge slash in the Armor Outpost could be good. It can help you reach enemies further away, even through blocks sometimes, and the fact that it does double damage means it kills most normal enemies. As well, if you time it properly, you could probably kill bosses extremely quickly by alternating normal slashes and charge slashes, since the charge slash does charge up pretty quickly. Another thing in the Armor Outpost to consider is the armor. The one I used through my run was the one that gives you a free charge slash if you pogo twice in a row, which could end up outputting a lot of damage in the end, so that's something to consider. As well, the armor that gives you more Magic to use but lowers your protection could be considered, since if we decide to get the Flying Dagger, it could let us use it a lot more, which would speed up a lot of the levels very significantly. Though since we have a loss of protection with that, especially considering how little health we'd have in a run, it might just end up killing us more than helping us.

And then for relics. The only ones to really consider would be the Flying Dagger, since it can let you move faster and skip a lot of platforming section. The Fiery Wand, since it allows you to get a lot more hits off on bosses, since you can hit them from a distance, and mash is along with your normal attacks if you have to. Then the Throwing Anchor, which is extremely useful in both the Propellor Knight fights and the Tinker Knight fights, and it speeds up one room in (I believe) the Tinker Knight stage, in which the intended method is extremely slow, though we may be able to find another way to do it (for reference, the room I'm referring to is the one with the three ladders that each have enemies throwing wrenches on them, where you only have access to one half of the room at a time, you have to go up, then back down to bounce off of a dragon on the other half of the room). The Troupple Chalices are worth considering, as I mentioned before, along with the Fishing Rod. And finally, maybe the Phasing Locket, since, as I stated previously, that also has the potential to make some interesting skips, though in the end the Flying Dagger can probably outclass that in every way, but we could still see some skips from the using the item as intended.

So that's all I got. Anything else, anyone?

So I just finished the game. I would assume we would stop timing on the final hit of the second phase of The Enchantress, since after that is just text boxes and no other input.

It also seems that a lot of the boss fights might end up being extremely hard with only the 3 or 4 life you start out with, so it might be worthwhile to actually get at least 1 or 2 health upgrades, and maybe some troupple chalices for restoring health. The one problem with the chalice is that the troupple king's ritual dance is really long, but we might or might not be able to avoid watching that by fishing troupples up in the spots that allow it in the stages, and conveniently, the fishing rod is right next to the troupple chalice. But just speculation, might not be worth it, but getting the health upgrades is something to consider.

Other things to consider, the charge slash in the Armor Outpost could be good. It can help you reach enemies further away, even through blocks sometimes, and the fact that it does double damage means it kills most normal enemies. As well, if you time it properly, you could probably kill bosses extremely quickly by alternating normal slashes and charge slashes, since the charge slash does charge up pretty quickly. Another thing in the Armor Outpost to consider is the armor. The one I used through my run was the one that gives you a free charge slash if you pogo twice in a row, which could end up outputting a lot of damage in the end, so that's something to consider. As well, the armor that gives you more Magic to use but lowers your protection could be considered, since if we decide to get the Flying Dagger, it could let us use it a lot more, which would speed up a lot of the levels very significantly. Though since we have a loss of protection with that, especially considering how little health we'd have in a run, it might just end up killing us more than helping us.

And then for relics. The only ones to really consider would be the Flying Dagger, since it can let you move faster and skip a lot of platforming section. The Fiery Wand, since it allows you to get a lot more hits off on bosses, since you can hit them from a distance, and mash is along with your normal attacks if you have to. Then the Throwing Anchor, which is extremely useful in both the Propellor Knight fights and the Tinker Knight fights, and it speeds up one room in (I believe) the Tinker Knight stage, in which the intended method is extremely slow, though we may be able to find another way to do it (for reference, the room I'm referring to is the one with the three ladders that each have enemies throwing wrenches on them, where you only have access to one half of the room at a time, you have to go up, then back down to bounce off of a dragon on the other half of the room). The Troupple Chalices are worth considering, as I mentioned before, along with the Fishing Rod. And finally, maybe the Phasing Locket, since, as I stated previously, that also has the potential to make some interesting skips, though in the end the Flying Dagger can probably outclass that in every way, but we could still see some skips from the using the item as intended.

So that's all I got. Anything else, anyone?

Copilot

2014-06-26 01:53:50 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

New information has been found in the one minute since that last post. When you collide with a wall with the Flying Dagger, you gain a little bit of height. Could be helpful.

barinelg

2014-06-26 01:56:04 pm

I trip over my own feet in game.

So far I'll say using the fishing rod over the king's ritual is the best way to go. That thing, though silly, is soooo long.

Copilot

2014-06-26 02:07:47 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

The only problem with that is that there aren't very many of the fishing spots that give you troupples, and they only give you a specific ichor, you don't get to choose, so if we did that, we'd really only have one or two ichors to use during the run.

NME

2014-06-26 02:08:07 pm

Copilot, how long did it take for your casual play through and on what platform are you playing it?

I'm hoping I get into the game enough to want to speed run it. Seems up my alley with so much inspiration drawn from Mega Man.

barinelg

2014-06-26 02:13:28 pm

I trip over my own feet in game.

Just found in the lava level with the green slime, if you knock the slime on a horizontally moving platform, instead of letting it drop to the lava, pogo off of it to get over the vertical block. Hard to describe with words but will try to hook up my recording stuff soon.

Copilot

2014-06-26 02:30:32 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

I know what you're talking about, brainelg, I'll check that out. NME, I'm playing the game on Steam (using a Dualshock 3 controller, if you care), and my first casual run took about four hours, I'd say.

Also, charge slashes hit slightly behind you, which might be noteworthy.

Mr. K

2014-06-26 02:58:59 pm

Yes

I've created a few spreadsheets to help keep track of the info we will be using for routing:

Gold routing:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WpafFmbcKB8FTL8RCQUCMVujTqF6ZOMg9WBeyRlcFMw/edit?usp=sharing

Upgrade Cost List:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18-eFLGvsa2zt71--M3eT3TANxAQQjg-6hGitudgatLQ/edit?usp=sharing

Detours for relics and magic upgrades will definitely be faster than going straight through the game, but which ones and when is they key to routing any %. As people add new information, I'll be keeping track of everything here:
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Shovel_Knight

barinelg

2014-06-26 03:05:19 pm

I trip over my own feet in game.

As an aside, digging up the campfire is another way to get some gold.

Copilot

2014-06-26 03:54:32 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Mr. K, you are the best person, those spreadsheets are the greatest thing ever, thank you so much. I'd also like to add to the KB page, I think another category we could use is 46 scrolls, where the goal is obviously to get all 46 music scrolls within the run. That run could be fun because you do have to get most of the relics to get some of the scrolls, so it's kind of a pseudo 100% sort of category. I could also think of low%, where you just don't get any relics or health and magic upgrades. And then the only other thing I could think of would maybe be 100%, where you get all of the achievements, though that could be really boring and long, since you have to get stuff like never dying, never taking damage, and also not getting any relics, and you have to beat the game at least twice, and it'd be really grindy, so 46 scrolls could just take the place of that, again, as a pseudo 100%.

Copilot

2014-06-26 03:57:41 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Also, since you get a free meal ticket after every dream sequence, we can probably get away with just using those and the first one from the Goatician. Any one after that is far too expensive.

Copilot

2014-06-26 04:09:30 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Oh, to add to the gold spreadsheet, there might be some music scrolls that we can get to get more gold, since the Bard gives you 500 gold for each one.

Mr. K

2014-06-26 04:22:55 pm

Yes

Here's a video for the trick barinelg mentioned:

And here's a new one:

Also, the dust knuckles are a lot more useful than you might think. When they punch through something you move forward more quickly than when you walk and you also get invincibility that lasts long enough to chain it

(Sorry, YT is hating my encodes)

The game does track item collection rates, so we could have a 100% completion category. As far as the song scroll sheets I think I'll just add another sheet to the gold page since most of the song scrolls are going to end up being a detour.

Mr. K

2014-06-26 04:29:52 pm

Yes

Forgot to add. Sort of like Batman for NES, enemies can't hurt you during their invincibility frames so you can also chain attacks together. I've done it on Mole Knight, but it works against other enemies.

Attachment:

VulnerabilityAbuse.gif

Copilot

2014-06-26 04:47:55 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Yeah, I've noticed something sorta like that, I guess, how you can pogo on an enemy if you hit down soon enough when coming from underneath them

Copilot

2014-06-26 05:35:17 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Oh hey, just watched the video for that Tower of Fate skip. I wish I figured that out earlier, I struggled so much on that part. But yeah, that's great.

Copilot

2014-06-26 05:39:51 pm

Ruling the cosmos!

Also, the dust knuckles thing is a really good point, getting hit by minibosses like that can be really painful, so that's a good way to get past that. Also, I still feel like getting the Dynamo armor and the Charge Slash could be good investments, the damage on the charge does so much damage that it can probably speed up boss fights quite a bit, especially if you charge it up and release it quickly enough. Well, maybe not so much on the Dynamo armor, given pogoing bosses tends to be a lot slower in general, especially since a lot of them protect from pogos, but we'll see later, it might prove to be worthwhile.