Plague Knight wraps up his quest this week, so we move on to the scariest of all knights, Specter Knight
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
What is the plot? Spector Knight fancies himself a free agent, but he is in the thrall of the Enchantress. He has been tasked with gathering a collection of eight knights to do her bidding, and, once that duty is complete, he will be free (and, incidentally, less undead). Unfortunately, his past pops up along the way, and the final sacrifice of Specter Knight may be his own (un)life.
How does it play? The only knight with a recognized weapon! Which makes digging up treasure with it weird! Spector Knight slashes at foes with his scythe, and apparently inherited ninja abilities from his past life. So get ready to run up walls and perform a flying slash that slices through all manner of enemies and objects. It is a really empowering moveset! The only issue is that you will occasionally unintentionally “stick” to a wall, and that can be deadly.
How does he get around the world? This is the most Mega Man that Shovel Knight has ever been: all stages are selectable from the start via a magic mirror. There is also only one “town”, no overworld map, no access to traditional areas like the Troupple Pound, or the usual collection of wandering opponents. There is just as much content as any other campaign here (citation needed), but it feels much more sparse. Give or take the occasional Final Fantasy 6 flashback, of course…
What is money good for? Money buys incidentals like Curio upgrades or armor options, and it is only ever used in the Tower of Fate safe zone. Appropriately enough for a guy that eats apple cores and chicken bones, money does not mean much to Specter Knight.
What do you collect? There are ten red skulls and one will or darkness wisp upgrade per stage. This feels like a reasonable number of collectibles after Plague Knight’s craptillion coins. Red skulls become a kind of currency to exchange for Curios, but you do not have to worry about dropping those after a death. There is also one red skull that you absolutely must collect…
Care to dance? Red the Skeleton provides all Curios, and if you find his lover’s skull, Red and Scarlet will perform a lovely dance sequence for Specter Knight. And if you need Specter Knight to get down a little more, a dancer will stop by the Tower of Fate to teach you how to give her the cold shoulder.
Best Curio? Expend the darkness found in defeating enemies to utilize a host of abilities that mostly revolve around cutting down more enemies. For my money (skulls), I’ll take the Spider Scythe, which rapidly spins along surfaces, and can collect my money. A lot of upgraded Curios offer that ability, but the Spider Scythe seems to use it the most effectively.
Best Movement Curio? Let’s be real here: Specter Knight can fly all through his boss battles in two out of three campaigns (and he does eventually get flight in that third), so it is disappointing that he got so terrestrial when he became playable. However, you can use the Hover Plume to fly for short periods. That is at least a compromise.
Anything else? With new boss patterns/abilities, original basic enemies, extended stage layouts, modified graphics, and stuff like Baz being immediately escorted away from the spotlight, Specter of Torment feels something like a (professional) rom hack or modern reimagining of a classic property. Plague of Shadows can be boiled down to just a new character; this is practically a whole new game vaguely inspired by something familiar. Specter Knight being more ninja than grim reaper is disappointing, but everything else about this campaign shines like treasured jewelry.
Let’s Play Shovel Knight Treasure Trove
Night 4
January 27, 2026
Random Notes:
- Nothing is fine and nothing will ever be fine. So enjoy watching some Plague of Shadows with BEAT, Chromes, Caithness, Trynant, fanboymaster, Cassandralyn, and Ample Vigour.
- To kick things off, Ample Vigour reveals the possibly porn-related origins of his name.
Please share your “I bet if this 7-Eleven got robbed, here is what I would do” fantasies.- Do not play Rise of the Robots or Tongue of the Fat Man. Ever.
- “Don’t get mad at Alberto.” “Alberto is baby girl.”
- Sorry, terrible Disney Plus advertising may interrupt the finale of Plague Knight.
- As we start Specter of Torment, we briefly address Fighter’s History. This is mostly thanks to our favorite fat man, Karnov.
- Ample Vigour notes that it has been some time since we had Abby Denton as a guest. Obviously, we need to play more good games…
- Chromes starred in Into the Woods Jr. back in a school production. Let’s learn true facts about wolf costumes in Into the Wood Sr.!
- For anyone unfamiliar with musicals, Into the Woods Jr. is the equivalent of making a Robocop cartoon.
- What is the worst radio edit out there?
- Let’s talk about Resident Evil Lore! Are you attracted to Nemesis?
- Caliscrub joins just to agree that Gator Land is great.
- Yacht Club Games should not be confused with Bored Ape Yacht Club or anything involving Seth Green.
Zombie movie discussion leads us to acknowledging Zack Snyder makes interesting, albeit fascist, movies.- Please enjoy our advice on how to touch the true heart of the poster.
- Final Fantasy 7 Remake 3… do we still not have a title on that? Really?
- And we close with the evergreen moral that It is rude to have the best weather on the conference call.
Next trowel on Shovel Knight: An epic clash for the fate of a child. Also: card games!