| “ | Right. And while you're doing that, I'll keep researching ways to get more.. bang for our buck. Know what they say... the bigger the explosion... | ” |
— Mona, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows | ||
Mona is a recurring character in the Shovel Knight series. She is an alchemist who works alongside Plague Knight.
Overview[]
Mona is a woman wearing an elaborate black and purple dress complete with gloves and a cape. She has a puffy short hair and a somewhat greenish skin complexion. She appears to be of a somewhat apathetic and melancholic temperament around other people. However, she shows her true colors when practicing alchemy with Plague Knight, being more enthusiastic and caring. She often indirectly flirts with him, although he usually doesn't notice or acts embarrassed.
Story[]
King of Cards[]
Mona appears in Shovel Knight: King of Cards as the champion of the Cavern of Joustus; she can only be challenged after beating the other three players in the house. During the Joustus match against her, Mona is able to use a special ability called Transmutation, which allows her to steal the essence of one of King Knight's cards and use it to transform one of her own cards into a copy of it. After beating her, she joins him on the Glidewing, and Plague Knight's dialogue when spoken to in there will change.
In the credits, she can be seen blowing up the Cavern of Joustus alongside Plague Knight and the Hedge Pupil.
Specter of Torment[]
In the credits sequence of Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, Mona is briefly seen with Plague Knight, building the giant vat to host the essences of the Order of No Quarter for Plague Knight's plan to brew the Ultimate Potion. She pulls some kind of mechanism coming face to face with him, causing the both of them to move apart, embarrassed.
Showdown[]
In Shovel Knight Showdown, Mona is one of the unfortunate souls that was kidnapped by the Mirror of Fate gone haywire. In her story, upon awakening inside the Mirror of Fate, she encounters a Liquid Samurai, which she battles and eventually captures and stores in a jar. During Plague Knight's story, she encounters and works with him until the end, where they fight to make the Mirror of Fate appear and escape. After that, it is shown that the Liquid Samurai's Essence was used to make the Dynamo Decanter work.
Shovel of Hope[]
In Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, Mona can be found behind a breakable wall in the Village's juice bar. Shovel Knight can speak to her and play her minigame for 
100 gold.
Depending on his performance, the reward is some gold, but if the score is over 150 points he also wins the Juggler Feat and the Music Sheet Spin Ye Bottle.
In the ending, she appears in the Lich Yard, playing her game with Specter Knight, with Grandma Swamp and a Super Skeleton watching his performance.
Plague of Shadows[]
In Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Mona plays a much bigger role. It's revealed her room and services in the village are just facades for her true motives: secretly studying alchemy. Behind the scenes, she aids Plague Knight in his quest to brew the Ultimate Potion, housing the Potionarium under her room and using her Dynamo Decanter to store the Essences. She also has a shop in which he can buy modifications for his casing, powder and fuse. To increase the upgrades on sale, Plague Knight can also give Cipher Coins to her.
Mona has different dialogue for when Plague Knight returns from a stage. After the second Essence is collected, Plague Knight, upon entering the Potionarium, accidentally interrupts Mona who reveals she dances alone occasionally. Standing on the Torque Lift and watching Mona's entire dance instead of going down unlocks the Creep feat. After the fifth Essence is collected, Mona can be found struggling to pull the lever, and asks for Plague Knight to put his hands over hers and help. Before he can do that, however, the power goes out for a second and back on when Percy appears, who says he has fixed it. Mona then complains about how the moment is ruined.
During Black Knight's wondering encounter, he convinces Mona that Plague Knight is only brewing the Ultimate Potion to "beguile the Magicist", causing her to leave Plague Knight. Mona only comes back at the very end, once the Enchantress has been defeated and her Essence added to the potion. She tells Plague Knight that he was already good enough for her, but they learn it was too late and the fight against the Plague of Shadows and the Corrupted Essence starts. After they have been both beaten, the potion stabilizes and Plague Knight, now knowing he didn't need all of that power to be with Mona, decides to blow up the Tower of Fate. At the end, the two can be seen dancing together in the Potionarium.
Pocket Dungeon[]
In Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, Mona is among the victims kidnapped by the Pocket Dungeon, where she hosts her "reflex test" minigame in a secret room to the left of the Camp's Bohto Wagon, which costs 
25 gems to play, and rewards more Gems the higher is the score achieved. Getting 100 points in it unlocks the feat Whack-A-Mole.
While the game is for the most part the same for everyone, it does to some extent take in consideration the knights special abilities; for example, Propeller Knight will progressively face clusters of enemies instead of single foes, Potions are considered obstacles for Specter Knight, and so on. Furthermore, the effects of most Hats, with only a few exceptions, are ignored. Any of the playable knights can record a personal record in the minigame, with knights that have alternate abilities, being able to record separate records for each one; also, both Random Knight and Shuffle Knight will receive different effects during the minigame if they enter the game's room while wearing their respective special hats: if Random Knight enters the room with the Almond hat, they will be able to register a personal record, as normally, their highest score is treated as the score of the target of their transformations, while if Shuffle Knight enters while wearing the Souffle hat, then they will face off against weaker versions of the other playable knights instead of regular enemies.
Furthermore, in the Puzzler's Pack DLC, Mona gets to be a playable knight. To unlock her, first at least 100 points in her minigame must have had been achieved with any of the other playable knights; after that, Mona will disappear and a Plague Minion will take her place as the minigame host. Meanwhile, Mona will now randomly appear in a sideroom portal in the Pridemoor Keep stage; she is there with Percy doing some ballistic tests with a cannon. Shortly after a brief banter between the two of them, the room will then be bombarded with Bombs, Big bombs and Ratsploders for several rounds. Surviving long enough will lead to Mona appearing and saying that she had her fun; at that point, Mona can be found back at the Camp, next to Plague Knight leaning onto his table in the lowest room, or alternatively in one of the rooms of Castle Quandary's statues garden.
Abilities[]
Showdown moveset[]
Mona has one regular jump, a weakness alleviated by her Burst Bomb, a mechanic similar to Plague Knight's own Bomb Burst. It leaves behind a levitating bomb lasting about one second, damaging pursuing opponents. Ideal for running away!
Of course, maintaining proper distance is critical, as Mona boasts impressive ranged abilities: her special lets her summon potions in front of her and above, falling on unsuspecting opponents. She can even influence the projectiles' direction slightly. Pressing the special key repeatedly will summon up to three projectiles at once. She can jump in-between each individual projectile summon, allowing her to jump multiple times in the air and quickly reach great heights, where she can continue raining projectiles from above.
Alternatively, holding the special key lets her empower the single potion summoned, causing it to explode on hitting something. Holding briefly summons a Cluster Potion, which causes repeated explosions in a small area around itself, whereas holding for longer summons a Hazardous Potions, which emits four projectiles in cardinal directions on exploding.
Her basic attack, Cipher Slash, strikes directly in front of her on the ground. In the air, it strikes diagonally instead, halting her fall. Since Cipher Slash may be repeated often, it allows for greater mobility than Mona may be suspected of. Cipher Slash can also hit her own potions, sending them in a different direction than her target would expect.
All in all, Mona is a decent fighter with impressive area denial. She does best on larger stages, where she may rain projectiles on her enemies from greater heights, letting her mobility shine.
Pocket Dungeon[]
As a playable knight, Mona's main ability makes her able to detonate any Potions located in the horizontal and vertical rows she is in. Exploding a Potion right next to her will however, lead to her to take two units of damage. Her explosions can also get bigger if the Too Big Bomb Relic is currently equipped.
Her second, Refract Ability, Juxtapotion, allows her to store up to 10 Potions, which either can be thrown at enemies to deal 2 base damage (which can also be increased by making potions more efficient in healing) by activating her ability and then pressing left, right or down, or used to heal her. The Potion heals like any other normal potion, 2 points of health, but as potion efficiency is increased with certain Relics, so will be the effects of Mona's potions. Storing Turkeys instead of Potions, results in the Potion HUD besides her portrait turning into a round turkey rather than a green potion. Throwing a "Turkey-Potion" will deal a higher base damage of 5 and can also be increased with items that increase normal damage or better potion efficiency. Only one "Turkey-Potion" can be stored, the others turning into regular potions as soon as a new Turkey is collected.
Joustus deck[]
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| Mona | Plague Knight | Whippicles | Macawbe |
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| Serprize | Memmec | Grapps | Charflounder |
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| Plague Minion | Plague Minion | Plague Minion | Blazorb |
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| Kettleleg | Ratsploder King | Ratsploder King | The Alchemeister |
Dialogue[]
See: Mona/Dialogue
Trivia[]
- Her full name in her original concept art is "Mona Mopes", as seen in the official artbook.
- The official artbook also states that she is left handed.
- The developers changed Mona's hairstyle for Plague of Shadows. This is visible in her sprites where she sits at her desk, in the gallery below.
- Like the Magicist, Mona only gained her own portrait for dialogues in Plague of Shadows.
- Additionally, they are the only two to have portraits exclusive to the Japanese edition that went unused.
- The developers designed a Body Swap version for Mona, although only the main cast of Shovel of Hope had one added to the campaign.
- Even after beating the Plague of Shadows, Percy will still be at the Potionarium in Mona's stead.
- Despite this, it is possible to return all the Cipher Coins to her instead of Percy. This can be done by starting a New Game Plus file before turning in the last of them at the Potionarium.
- Trying to dance as Plague Knight while in the same room as Mona results in him instead awkwardly twiddling his fingers together.
- Mona is the only playable character in Showdown to not be playable or fought in Treasure Trove.
- Plague Knight has different dialogue if Mona is aboard the Glidewing.
- Mona's name used to be colored dark green in Shovel of Hope. It was changed to a mint-green color in version 4.0A.
- Since Mona is leaning on Plague Knight at the Pocket Dungeon's Camp, if Plague Knight is selected as a playable knight, Mona will humorously fall on her face due to the sudden disappearance of her support.
Gallery[]
See: Mona/Gallery