Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon Guide – TOP 5 Beginner Tips & Tricks

by Yannis Vatis / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 03 Jan 2022

The Shovel Knight franchise has explored the broader gamut of genres, and with Pocket Dungeon, it’s entering the adventure puzzle space. This crazy, action-packed mashup will test your on-the-fly decision-making and problem-solving skills by bringing some interesting new mechanics into the puzzle landscape.

If you’ve barely started your journey through Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, we’ve got the best 5 beginner tips and tricks to help you get started.

Focus on Unlocking Characters

The game has the Shovel Knight moniker but has a whole slew of characters to unlock from the franchise’s vast roster. You start off as the titular character, and by progressing through Adventure mode, you open up new playable characters. So, even if the shovel-wielding protagonist isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll surely unlock a character that’s more your speed down the line. Experiment with each new friendly face you unlock until you find the one that lets you enjoy the game the most.

Tweak the Difficulty

Shovel Knight may be a puzzle adventure, but at its core, it’s also a roguelite. This fact means that the game is quite challenging, especially early on when you don’t have as many features opened up. Therefore, there’s no shame in tweaking some of the game’s difficulty settings when starting out. Adjusting options such as the game’s speed, the number of stocks you have, and the level order will go a long way towards helping you get to grips with this insane puzzler.

Take Important Items

As you clear each level, you’ll come across shops that sell you various items and upgrades. As you might expect, these are essential as they will help you progress to higher levels and eventually clear a run. However, determining which are the best items to get might be overwhelming. For starters, we recommend almost always taking HP upgrades. It’s like an unspoken rule in roguelites to have as high health as possible to maximize survivability, and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is no different. Also, two incredibly useful items to save for are Chronos Glass and Chronos Coin. The Glass is a relic that freezes an entire room once you enter, granting you a running start to clearing enemies. The Coin is a consumable item that has a similar effect, but you can do it on command.

Earning Gems Fast

Gems are your currency for doing all sorts of things, from buying items to unlocking features. Thanks to the game’s difficulty settings, we can tune Pocket Dungeon to help us earn Gems fast. Use the following setup to make enemies a lot easier to kill and clearing levels less thought-intensive:

Stock: Infinite

Levels: In Order

Bosses: On

Speed: Off

HP: +5

Attack Damage: 5

Items: On

Relics: On

Then, all you need to do is just clear levels as quickly as you can and rack up those Gems.

Plan Your Challenge Room Routes

Challenge Rooms occasionally appear during Adventure mode and have a lot of cool rewards on offer when you clear them. You enter them by way of a portal, and each of these rooms has an optimal route to follow in order to clear them successfully. Once you enter them, it’s best to take your time to plan out how you’ll go through them before you start bashing stuff mindlessly. Aim for high chains in order to maximize your chances of getting all the HP items.

Yannis Vatis

Yannis is a veteran gamer with over 30 years of experience playing a wide spectrum of video games. When not writing about games, he's playing them, and if he's not playing them, then he's definitely thinking about them.
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