The Paradox Pack[1] is the second DLC pack for Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Announced in October 18th, 2023, it was once again developed through open beta testing on Steam, before being eventually be officially released on August 13th, 2024.
Content[]
Preview #1[]
The pack features new playable characters, new uses for familiar NPCs, new Relics and Items, new stages and enemies, and the true final arrival of Mod Support for PC versions. Many more infos can be seen on the corresponding blog pages.[2][3]
- Mod Support and its downloaded mods, once enabled from the main menu, can be accessed through a portal in the main area of the Camp.
- For it has been shown the arrival of Chester and The Enchantress as playable knights (with also a white cat named Schmutz joining them). Both Chester and The Enchantress have 4 Quandaries each, allowing them to access to Refract abilities of their own, while Schmutz has only 2.
- The Enchantress has a special ability that lets her spend 2 HP in order to attack in all directions, and for now, she is unlocked after being defeated once in a regular run. While at the Camp or Castle Quandary, The Enchantress appears in her Cloaked Figure disguise.
- Her Refract Ability, Fireball Toss, lets her shoot fireballs that deal extra damage the farther they travel, but that costs one 1HP each to cast.
- Chester - Fares and Wares: not only can enter his signature chests while in a stage whenever he wants to, but also gets a huge discount when buying Relics; once the limit of buyable Relics is reached, the shop will sell Items instead. He must be found in a sideroom during a run in order to being unlocked: inside the sideroom, Chester offers a deal to split between himself and the playable knight, two relics (similar to the famous Fossil trade at Mount Moon in Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow). However, if the deal is broken and both relics are taken, Chester will begin a boss battle, after which, he'll join the camp as a playable knight. Chester's boss battle is repeatable, if he is met inside a sideroom again.
- His Refract Ability, Dual Dueler, lets him store two different Items, and find more Treasure Chests in each stage.
- Schmutz the cat has the ability to jump, moves two spaces at the time similar to the Spinwulf, and can attack three units in front. However, this cat has a reduced HP of 3. being as low as Tinker Knight. A new secret ribbon for the Guidebook is unlocked when Schmutz becomes available.
- The Enchantress has a special ability that lets her spend 2 HP in order to attack in all directions, and for now, she is unlocked after being defeated once in a regular run. While at the Camp or Castle Quandary, The Enchantress appears in her Cloaked Figure disguise.
- 10 new Feats, related to The Enchantress and Chester: their unlocking, victories, Abilities, Quandaries, and Refract Abilities.
- The return of the Explodatorium and Lost City as stages, with their respective signature enemies and obstacles, like Slimulacras, Kettlelegs, Plague Minions (siderooms and Legendary paths), Goo Blocks, regular red Hoppicleses, Birders (Legendary Paths), and Mole Minions. Furthermore, a new bar displaying the level order is added, as well as the options of add or remove levels in the options menu, and a "New Level order" option, which changes how the stages are selected during a run.
- Kettlelegs spawn puddles of Acid, which deal 2 damage when stepped on, like a more powerful standard Poison Puddle.
- New items like:
- Sploders (named after the Dig Enemy Sploder) - Version 1: explodes horizontally and vertically from your position. Version 2: explodes diagonally in both directions from your current position.
- Throwing Anchor - Throw an anchor that deals damage in a 3x3 area.
- Glitzmizer - +1 sword. Pay
500 to gain a random amount of durability. - Flip Wand - Flip units in a row or column upside-down.
- Morphy Wand - Your attacks get a random status effect.
- Copy Card - Transforms a chain of units into another type at random to form bigger combos.
- Super Spear - Spear attack deals 2 damage instead of 1.
- New siderooms:
- Tief's Shady Shop - A discounted shop run by the fraudster Tief, who mostly sells seemingly junk relics like wood Lumber in place of the genuine ones, although there are some real, but less potent ones mixed in. The Lumber pieces combined make Lumber Knight appear, a mannequin that chains with everything. Sometimes, Tief will show up with Adult Bean's moustache on himself, probably stolen.
- Lumber (body) - ...
- Lumber (arm) - ...
- Lumber (head) - ...
- Meal Coupon - +1HP
- Swift Stick - Extra damage on first hit. Doesn't chain.
- Toad Tadpole - Deals poison damage. Doesn't chain.
- Dubious Dust - Extra item damage, less durability.
- Cheaters Manual - Shorter stages, less chests.
- Apple - +5HP, loses 1HP after each level.
- Lumber Cube - Removes Lumber relics from your inventory.
- Scholar Sextant - Chests are found sooner.
- Painter Kit - Coats your armor with paint. Reduces damage received.
- Portal Tracker - Find more siderooms.
- Armorer's Shop - The Armorer trades items and/or upgrades the equipped item' durability starting at 500.
- Relic Sideroom - This sideroom contains a random Relic, but in order to claim it, one must defeat one of the following bosses, chosen at random:
- Reize - Noble and Naive
- Baz - Vengeful order Reject
- Phantom Striker - The Lone Warrior
- New “Survive” Siderooms
- New “puzzle” Siderooms
- New “themed” Siderooms
- Poison sideroom: Spawns units that deal poison and a free poison dagger.
- Miniboss sideroom: Spawns a big unit in the center with +2HP.
- Tief's Shady Shop - A discounted shop run by the fraudster Tief, who mostly sells seemingly junk relics like wood Lumber in place of the genuine ones, although there are some real, but less potent ones mixed in. The Lumber pieces combined make Lumber Knight appear, a mannequin that chains with everything. Sometimes, Tief will show up with Adult Bean's moustache on himself, probably stolen.
- New Relics, such as:
- the Wicked Whetstone - Attacking a block sharpens your next attack for +1 damage.
- the Pocket Portal - Can loop out of bounds.
- Hearty Wand - When at full HP, attacks shoot a short beam for 1 damage.
- Thorny Tambourine - Press Turbo to waste a turn to increase your next attack's power.
- Frosty Fauld - After being damaged 5 times, your next attack freezes units around you.
- the Explosive Jar - When hit by an explosive, repeats it 5 turns later with lower power. Bombs can't kill you.
- New Hats, that behave like some of the previously Quandary-exclusive effects:
- Quester's Hat - Levels behave as if on the selected character's Quandary Quest.
- Teleporter's Hat - magic floors will appear in each level.
- Shuffler's Hat - Worn hats, except for this one, will be randomly shuffled after each stage.
- Cornucopia Hat - Levels behave as if on the Trial of Offerings.
- Broken Heart Hat - Some foes will spawn with more or less HP than normal.
- Big Bohto replaces Chester as the Relics shop clerk when the latter is selected as a playable knight.
- Bricks now hides in several areas of Castle Quandary, fleeing if approached.
- Similarly to the situation with Puzzle Knight, the ability to face The Enchantress into a mirror match Boss battle.
- If Tief is approached by Puzzle Knight in his abode while the latter is wearing Adult Bean's mustache, Tief will not flee like usual.
- A new Save point system, making it possible to create a save mid-run.
- Random Knight and Shuffle Knight now showing in the VS battle intro.
- Some enemies that previously were not included in the Guidebook, such as The Big Creep, now are properly displayed.
- The playable knights with secret Quandaries, Random Knight, the Quandary Sage, the Spinwulf, and Schmutz, now have appropriate spaces in the Quandaries section of the Guidebook.
- The ability to lock the seed of a run.
- A Turbo button to skip turns.
- Various Bug and Balance fixes.