A beginner's guide to PVP: How it works and what it is

Bored of running the Clockworks? Or do you just need that Voltedge? This guide is for people who want to know more about the PvP modes in SK.

What is PvP for?

Spiral Knight's PvP modes come in two main flavours: Blast Network and Lockdown. They are to date the only competitive PvP modes in SK, excluding the Beta's Super Brawl which didn't make it as it was pretty unfair on people who weren't 5* with optimal gear. Anyways.

Playing in PvP gives tokens called Krogmo Coins, and crowns if you win. Krogmo Coins allow you to buy unique recipies - for example, the Shockburst Brandish to Voltedge line - and also to buy Enamorocks and Mod Calibrators to make trinkets to increase your health or damage/ASI/CTR on weapons, up to +6 bars of health or a Med CTR/ASI/Damage bonus.

It costs 200 crowns to enter a match, and you will gain the rewards of:
>280 crowns (more if one of your teammates left) and 2 Krogmo Coins if you win.
>1 Krogmo Coin if you lose.

In the lobby just before the match starts, you can Bribe King Krogmo - fill his bar up to 25 Energy (sadly, this is only Crystal Energy as older players knew it) and you will get an extra prize - up to 3 extra Krogmo Coins for the winner or all players, or even (rarely) Bombhead Masks. Mini Mist tanks do not exist any more - I do not yet know if they have been replaced with another item.

Before I launch into the guide proper, may I remind you to look at the comments on this guide - there's some good information there! Also, if you want to add your own tips and tricks, then leave a comment below.

Now, to the guide :

The Two Flavours of PvP

PvP in SK comes in two seperate types, as already explained. Below is information in detail on them: Blast Network (abbreviated to BN) or Lockdown (LD).

First, to enter a game of PvP, click on the 'Coliseum' button on the upper right tab and select what you want to play. It will cost 200 CR to enter it, and the action will be cancelled and your Crowns refunded if you go into any level outside of Haven, including any Training Hall. It will wait until a game is available (in BN, for your skill level if there are many players) and then put you in it - be expecting to wait a while.

In Lockdown and maybe in future PvP modes, you can change between loadouts. Save loadouts as PvP before you enlist and you can change between them in the match. Beware: You will be put into the same tier as your highest-tier saved loadout. Even though shields don't apply in LD, they still make your loadout a higher tier - be careful! It's often best to equip something like a Proto Shield or no shield at all for PvP matches. Trinkets also contribute to your LD grouping.

Your LD grouping is based off the highest-star piece of equipment - with one 4* weapon or armour, you will be in T3 LD. Be warned!

BN in detail

Blast Network is pretty much Bomberman in SK form. Generally speaking, people who play Bomberman have the knack and tend to do well, but this is not always so.

You will start in a space of about 3-4 squares in size. Blow up blocks by clicking to put bombs next to them. Bombs will explode in a cross-shaped pattern and do not need charging. You cannot walk through bombs.

As the game progresses, powerups will spawn in about 10-15 second intervals. Speed (green) powerups let you move faster to a total of 5, Count (blue) powerups let you place more bombs up to a total of 5, and Blast (yellow) powerups make your bomb explode further, to a massve maximum of 15 squares. Simply walk into a powerup to collect it.

When you die, 1 point is awarded to the other team (or all other players in Free-For-All, and 2 points to the person who killed you, also only in FFA).

Other players will try to kill you. Don't die - not dying is more important than killing, as the opposing team or players will also accidentally kill themselves, awarding you points in the meantime.

Try to anticipate simple traps - eg. patterns of blasts such as a blast up each of 3 or more coloumns - and avoid being killed by them.

Also, try to reach the bottom of the screen as soon as possible, as that way the camera lets you see further and dodge blasts or kill players you might not have otherwise seen.

The match ends when the timer runs out: the winning team gets 280 crowns and 2 Krogmo Coins (or the single highest-scoring FFA player, and second place gets a lesser prize); all other players get 1 Krogmo Coin. Bear in mind that Krogmo's Bribing feature allows you to gain prizes far greater than this - do you feel lucky?

LD in detail

Lockdown is, in short, a King of the Hill mode for Spiral Knights. You gain points by capturing 'Control Points' (CPs) by standing on them. The more players of one team on one CP, the faster it captures. Any player of the opposing team standing on the point will halt all progress on capturing the point, so kill them or knock them off!

In LD, your shield is replaced by a specialized module.
>The Guardian Shield is a conventional shield which will, after 1 second of being raised, put up a dome of your team colour's light which will shield and slowly heal any teammates inside it (including you!). It gives a large buff to health, a Bomb CTR Low, a Sword ASI Low and a Handgun ASD Low.

>The Recon Cloak allows you to become invisible. You become visible when your cloak runs out or when you are hit. You cannot attack while invisible, like all shields. It also has a large circular area around it which will Recon Mark enemies - marking them again will give them a Deathmark, which strips them of all their defence. It gives a universal CTR Med, an extra Bomb CTR Med (to a total of Bomb CTR Very High), a Handgun ASI Medium, and a Sword ASD Low, as well as a small health buff.

>The Striker Boost allows you to move very quickly for a burst. This is the typical, most often-used module in Lockdown. It gives a Sword Damage Med, another Sword ASI Med, and a Bomb CTI Very High, making it a terrible choice for bombers - if you can counteract that, however, it is a very powerful setup! It also gives a debuff to health.

You gain points every 5 seconds based on the number of CPs your team has. The game ends when either the timer runs out or when either team has enough points - 500 points for a 3-CP map, 900 points for a 5-CP map.

You can also change between saved PvP loadouts when in the spawn area of your team (or in the lobby), allowing you to react to different threats on the other team.

For beginners to LD, I'd recommend using the Guardian Shield as it gives a much-needed health buff and requires no adjustment from the Clockworks to use effectively; later, as you become used to the other classes, you can switch as you want.

On this note (thanks to Inferno Burner on Steam for this tip), if you're up against a Guardian, try what's called 'blitzing'. Its title says it all, really; rush in, keep hitting them to wear their shield down, and then they're hopeless. If you're a Guardian, watch out for these people; if you're against one, try it out and see if you can do it.

If you are new to Lockdown, stick with another person or two - they will help you survive and you can help to contribute without being swamped by enemies.

Final tip: Never bring ANY Autogun line to ANY Lockdown match. Cutters are not recommended either.

Rewards, Notes, and Changelog

With your Krogmo Coins, go to find Sullivan on the far-west side of the Haven Arcade, or in your Guildhall. He is a pink-coloured Pit Boss. He can sell you a variety of unique recipes, 2 unique materials for use in the Krogmo Crafting Machine beside him, and even some of the Bombhead Masks.

The recipes which he sell are unique and cannot be traded, but are often worth it - for example, the Voltedge is possibly the best Brandish line to own, and the Electron Vortex is one of the most fun and team-friendly (if used correctly, mind) bombs that exist. Stagger Storm is a good alternative to the Shivermist Buster in that it does not lock enemies in place and slows down their attack speed by a very large factor.

The materials he sells can be used in the alchemy machine near him, which does not need recipes. This allows you to craft Heart Pendants to increase your health, and extra Modules to boost your ASI, Damage or CTR on any weapon type of your choice. These need Enamorocks (10 Coins each) or Mod Calibrators (75 Coins each) to be made, but are often worth it.

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Thanks for reading! This is my first guide, so please don't be too harsh.

Changelog:
25/04/13 Updated it for the new UI.
16/05/13 Put in a note for people to look at the comments (in the introduction). Thanks, guys!
Also added the 'blitz' tip, credit to Inferno Burner, and corrected the Guardian Shield's description.
28/09/13 (Finally) updated this guide to deal with the removal of Mist Energy - hopefully it's all accurate now.
31/03/14 Tweaked numbers to fit updates, and mentioned Recon's slight health bonus.

[Mouki]

umm i just notice you said yellow has one of the power-ups in BN but its orange

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

OK, checked it. I think the health buff depends on tier. It's not as big as Guardian's.
I'll take your word for the number of points needed - haven't logged on in months.

[Beta]

You also might want to write down how the Recon module also gives you a large health boost, similar to the Guardian shield.

[Beta]

I noticed in your LD section, you said it was 800 points for large maps. It's actually 900, so you might want to change that. It's in the paragraph "You gain points every 5 seconds..."

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

Blitz CAN'T be a viable sidearm, if you mean 'sidearm' as 'second-slot weapon' as most people would. Also, if you'd noticed, this is a beginner's guide.

And yes, please, do remove your posts.

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

Continued (Steam doesn't let me write rageposts):
Even with CTR Max it takes a noticeable amount of time to charge the Blitz, and you basically have to pick someone, follow them around (with a charged weapon) and wait for them to reload or start charging a weapon. (The latter won't happen, EVER, if they can see someone.) Never mind that firing the weapon involves standing still next to the victim and firing in one direction, in which time they can either boost or shield out, or another person can kill you very quickly indeed.
In other words, by no means use a Blitz. It's never going to be truly worth it. Please, stop wasting my time by posting further patronizing comments, Lychee.

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

OK, so how often are you going to be able to take full advantage of the Blitz? Most gunners in LD don't reload - they usually switch-shoot or shoot-pause. People who already have charged weapons tend to use them against you. People being attacked while charging usually stop charging (as being hit reduces the charge on weapons) and, if they're not bombers, start attacking.
To use the Blitz to its full potential, you need to be very close to the victim, and people tend to notice when there's somebody on the other team standing next to them with a charged Blitz Needle.

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

Yes, I know what they are...

Do they really get removed while a Knight is holding a charged weapon? Or while attacking? To my knowledge, the only time when invinciframes get removed is when the Knight is spasming due to Shock, and some weapons (eg. the Rocket Hammer's dash) just ignore invinciframes as they don't trigger them and thus deal TOO MUCH damage.

So, if you manage to stalk somebody unseen and un-escaped-from while they're Shocked and you are holding a charged Blitz, and you think it's a good use of a weapon slot, then go ahead. I think it's only any use for finding newbie Recons (and even then, arguably, Pepperbox does better due to its fire status despite a range loss).

[Stalker]

Actually I did.Some Cybergame something.I'm already in there.

[Likes-Eating-Biscuits]

Eek. The best I can advise there, ????, is to stop playing PvP and find alternative weapons to whatever you're grinding tokens for. OOO will never have the resources to buy another server, so I doubt you could get past that.

That said, if you live in Asia, I think there's been an unofficial SK server set up for Asian players. I can't remember what it's called, but it's there if you're interested.

Ty for the support, Heart. I think.

Anyone else: If there's something I've missed out in the guide, please leave a comment! Steam regularly tells me about any comments left here, and if you drop a note here, I can get round to it within the week.

Cheers,
Biscuits.