Economics 101
An intro to Shovel Knight's gems and relic shop #beginner Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight’s passive ability allows him to create collectable gems on hitting an opponent. This amount will always be 17 times the amount of damage that is dealt, with the gems that spawn randomly selected to make up the sum of this value. The gems are collectable for 240-260 frames each, with larger value gems fading away later than smaller valued gems.
Chester’s Shop Copied to clipboard
Once you amass enough gems you’ll be able to spend it using Shovel Knight’s taunt, summoning Chester and allowing you to browse the various relics and armors he has on offer. The relics will replace your Neutral Special with a new attack and the armors grant you new abilities or stats.
A significant feature of the shop is that you are able to quickly purchase relics and armors using the right stick!
- Left will purchase the War Horn
- Up will purchase the Mobile Gear
- Down will purchase Dynamo Mail
- Right will purchase Mail of Momentum
If you would like to quick-buy Ghost Gloves, simply press A upon entering Chester’s shop, as the cursor always begins on them.
Value and Cost Copied to clipboard
Since this currency system is such an important part of Shovel Knight’s playstyle, with the relics and armours greatly impacting how you will play each game, it’s important to understand the values of each gem and item. The below image shows the value of each gem and item, as well as the values for an Up Strong Rock, Down Special’s Treasure Pile, and the Golden Troupple Fish.
There is one more source of gems however…
On dying, Shovel Knight will lose 25% of his total savings, with this amount being split between three different valued bags. One bag will always contain half of this amount, a second bag will contain a third and the final bag will contain only a sixth of the total spawned on death. These bags are collectable for a total of 600 frames, however after 300 frames they can be nabbed up by your opponent, so make sure to recover your lost goods before they’re snatched up! As there are three different sized bags that can spawn, prioritize those larger bags and start saving towards your next big purchase!
That’s all for today, class dismissed!