Tips on enjoying Plague Knight!

[ErsatzDragon]

Because the DLC seems to be rubbing a lot of people the wrong way, I've come up with a few tips to help orient anyone who hasn't yet tried out Plague Knight's quest, or who did and (no pun intended) bounced off it.

First, Consider this an "item mode" game - Shovel Knight starts the game with one highly versatile and always available weapon that provides offense, defense, and mobility all at once, one that can truly last you clear to the conclusion. Plague Knight, in a word, doesn't: you'll be relying a lot more on the wide variety powers and abilities you collect throughout the game, each of which will seem both more powerful AND more situational than the swiss army weapon that is the shovel.

This means a slow start... It's an item run, and you're starting without items. Like vanilla Mega Man, this puts you at a tangible disadvantage for the first level or two of the game.

...but a strong finish. By the end of the game, you'll always have a trump card, something in your arsenal that is the perfect fit, or perfect counter, for whatever foe or situation you're facing.

It also means every one of your powers is situational, so don't be afraid of the item menu! You're an alchemist, experiment! Swap things around all the time, try things out, see what works! At worst you've gotta recollect a few coin bags, and this quickly becomes trivial to do.

You have less control... Plague Knight's boost jump dedicates you to a fast, wide arc. You have just enough control to recover from disaster, and not at all enough to undo or reverse course. His knockback when hit is also more severe, forcing a real reaction from you. This is intentional!

...but more mobility. With great responsibility comes great power! The boost WITH the flap WITH the hover from throwing potions WITH the powers in your arsenal will soon having you traversing formerly intimidating challenges with ease and recovering from mishaps that would be guaranteed deaths in the prior mode. Seriously, Perfect Platforming is actually easier for Plague Knight than Shovel Knight. You just have to let yourself get used to it.

On that note, Don't call it a "double jump"! - I kid, mostly, but the extra jump you think you have really isn't what it is in other games. Think of this small bump (flap?) as more of a "course correcter", one you'll need as you launch yourself across the screen with powerful explosions. Expecting it to be a "true" double jump can lead to frustration.

And lastly, When in doubt, throw! In any other platformer the verb would be "jump", but in this case hitting the throw button (even if you've got the max number of potions on the screen) gives you just a hint of lift, just a hint of forward motion, and (if you do have a poition to throw) just fast enough to smack whatever is nearly on top of you. While it's not always a complete answer, it's rarely a wrong one. When it comes to that button, trust your instincts!

I can honestly say I LOVED playing through Plague Knight's quest, from the astonishing and emotive animations all around to the cool new soundtracks and the way each and every level seemed brand new. Don't hate it for being different! Different is GOOD, plus you're missing out on yet another simple yet resonant and finely crafted tale.

[Sandz890]

This is DLC for exceeding KickStarter goals, it's free and there's more to come. It sucks that you don't like it but there isn't much to be done about stopping it.

[thebiomage]

I would recommend anyone who has trouble controlling plague knight to use the float burst and vat arcana. Especially float burst gives you precision control and a lot of time to land your jumps correctly. You can easily grab coins that are above bottomless pits by float bursting and gently descending on them, then casting vat and float bursting out of there.

On my playthrough of the DLC I had float burst active pretty much all the time, only occasionally switching it to the screwattack move (can't remember what it was called) for certain bosses. Playing the challenge mode levels afterwards and not having float burst available definitely made the character harder to control.

[h.arle]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

I haven't tried it yet and I wouldn't mind the change. The problem is this dlc and it's achievements were forced upon us. I enjoyed Shovel Knight and thus went for all the achievements despite hurry up, no die, etc being really annoying.

Now I see I have to do them all over again. That satisfying 45 out of 45 is now gone. Stop it Yacht Club. Your game is good but it isn't god send. Give us Battletoads DLC not pelican beak knight.

You're annoyed because they added new achievements with the DLC and you're not 100% anymore...? Most games that add DLC add new achievements (Skyrim, Europa Universalis, TowerFall, etc. etc. etc.), so if you're into achievement gathering I'd get used to it

[h.arle]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

^ You're wrong on two counts: Unless DLC is made side by side simultaneously with the main game and released shortly after, many games do not attach achievements to DLC.

And #2, I had no say over the matter. My game auto updated and attached this penguin bastard on. Had I the option, I would have never downloaded him nor his lame achievements.

Achievements are added regardless of whether you have the DLC, be it free or bought. Skyrim's DLC was released more than a year after it came out and had achievements. Every Paradox game that has DLC released for it - in CK2's case, they have DLC releasing for it three years later - comes with achievements. Most games attach achievements to DLC because it's the norm nowadays, you'd be hardpressed to find the opposite, truth be told.

As a matter of fact, if you go to the forums of any game that has no achievements one of the major points people seem to care about and bring up is that lack of achievements. I'm sorry, but you're really in the minority because while I've seen a plethora of people complaint that a game or expansion doesn't have achievements I've never, until now, seen the opposite, so I can't really say 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' to the developers on their decision to give achievements for their DLC because it really seems to be the preference of the majority of players. It'd make more sense if the complaint were because a paid DLC had achievements, and even so.. the fact is achievements are part of Steam, of a meta-overlay, not the game proper - their presence or absence doesn't fix or break a game.

[h.arle]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

Regardless of our perspectives, no company should ever add additional DLC achievements to a game should I decide not to purchase / download it's DLC.

Furthermore, no company should ever auto update it's software with DLC. It's called DLC for a reason!

You're seriously complaining you got free content because it messed up your achievements? You'd rather have a 100% image on your profile or w.e. than an extra character and quest? Sorry, I hope developers don't base their decisions on that.

[ErsatzDragon]

Vaguely amused at, "Regardless of our perspectives, [my perspective]."

So, y'know, let's just do what he asks and disregard that perspective too.

[h.arle]

Originally posted by ErsatzDragon:

Vaguely amused at, "Regardless of our perspectives, [my perspective]."

So, y'know, let's just do what he asks and disregard that perspective too.

And we completely derailed your thread. Sorry.

I actually like the tips, I'm playing the Plague Knight campaign now and while I felt I was doing well with Shovel Knight by the second boss, with Plague Knight it feels like there's so much still to learn. I'm loving the added mobility, even if it's still a bit chaotic - after you get that arcana that allows you to strike upwards you can do some even crazier things.

[ErsatzDragon]

Bah, it's all right. Far from the worst that can happen on the internet. ;)

And yeah, it's absolutely the best kind of "second quest" where there's tangibly more to learn, more skill to acquire and more reward for doing so. I made the guide because I did feel frustrated by it (to the point of quitting out and coming back later) after reaching the end of just that first intro level, but after giving myself permission to fail and just trying to play with what it offered, it just kept getting better. :)

[ErsatzDragon]

Let's enjoy what comes in life, and not get caught up in ourselves. The next cupcake won't have dreaded sprinkles. Life will go on, and wonderful and terrible things await. For now...

...I mean, eesh, look at yourself dude. The problem isn't with the DLC. It could have been done differently, you would have preferred that, it wasn't, you were irritated by it, but now you're -here-, in a random thread unrelated to all that, and complaining that the game made you feel irritated, as though that's either the game's problem or ours.

You could have started a thread "Hey devs, could you make the DLC optional?", but you didn't. You could have started a thread "Forced DLC really bugs me, as I made an effort to get all the achievements and now it no longer says 100%", but you didn't. You could have started a thread "WHO HATES WHEN DEVS CHANGE THEIR GAMES ON US? WHO'S WITH ME?!", but you didn't. Instead, much like you were irritated that someone came in and messed with "your" game, now folks are irritated you came in and messed with "my" thread. Point being, dude, it doesn't bug me, but if you're wondering why people that didn't share your opinion are even less sympathetic after reading what you wrote, well...

...just look at yourself, dude.

[koolaid]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

I haven't tried it yet and I wouldn't mind the change. The problem is this dlc and it's achievements were forced upon us. I enjoyed Shovel Knight and thus went for all the achievements despite hurry up, no die, etc being really annoying.

Now I see I have to do them all over again. That satisfying 45 out of 45 is now gone. Stop it Yacht Club. Your game is good but it isn't god send. Give us Battletoads DLC not pelican beak knight.

are you seriously crying over acheivement progression? Give me a break.

[YinYin]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

Any other witty musings you'd like to share with us?

Does the way steam work actually allow having achievements only added to a game if you chose to update it? I doubt that.

If you wanted to prevent this you should've gotten the drm free version and cut the net access rights of it to prevent updates. It's been announced often enough to what extend the game will be updated (not technically dlc you can opt in for). It will happen a few more times. Get ready for your achievement completion to drop down further next year.

[mrrogers]

People still care about achievements? I never saw the point they dont even do anything. I think plague knight just takes getting used to, but he is harder to control than shovel knight.

[ErsatzDragon]

Dude, there is seriously nothing courteous about your comments. I am not Yacht Club, the other folks reading this thread are not Yacht Club, and the thread is not related to your complaint about Yacht Club's game. If you would like to complain to Yacht Club about their game, this is not a way to do so: you are not complaining to Yacht Club right now. You're complaining at us, and we're getting tired of listening to you.

[h.arle]

Man, just chill... even if they had added a "Free DLC" button on the store page, you'd still have PK's achievements and would not be 100% anymore, like any game that -does- have the free dlc button because achievements, due to STEAM, not Yacht Club, are tracked by game, not piece-by-piece of DLC. You're not only barking at the wrong tree, you're complaining that we don't complaint about a company's decision. Guess what: different from you, I think it was nice of them to make the DLC free to everyone.

[The Fool]

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

Lets force something down someone's throat and not give them the option to simply say yes or no? Right?

I'm curious - do you feel the same way about patches that rebalance things? Or for that matter, even fix bugs? Should you have the option to say (and therefore have to say) yes or no for every patch to a game that comes down the line? What if I liked having a particular bug around?

Originally posted by seventwentyone21:

How about they create an add on button on their store page like everyone else? I, the PAYING CUSTOMER, am not going to alter my habits to cater to the massive & imposing ego of Yacht Club & their 15 minutes.

FWIW, I had never seen free DLC in the steam store before I went looking for it after you mentioned it. My experience has always been that free new content is automatically added, and I would actually be kinda annoyed if I had to go to the steam store to install stuff when there's (usually) no reason to not automatically download it. I'd say that would be the polite thing to do from their side. Still, it wouldn't be that big a deal.

Anyway, as others have mentioned, this likely isn't even an issue for YCG, it's an issue for Steam; as far as I've experienced, there's no way to have achievements show up conditionally for a game based on whether you get a DLC or not. If the achievements exist, they show up, regardless of anything you have or haven't bought.

Also, you say that creating your own thread for this issue isn't justified, but this thread is titled "Tips on enjoying plague knight!" and everything but part of the first paragraph is clearly referring to gameplay issues (and it is implicitly referring to gameplay issues by the context of the rest of the post). Your issues have nothing to do with plague knight's controls, and nothing to do with the tips that were listed out in the first post. I'd say that you would be perfectly justified in creating a new thread; given that your problems with the update are so different than pretty much everyone else's, I'd suggest doing so in order to create greater visibility for your unique issue.