| “ | The trajectory of a woman's heart is merely a matter of ballistic physics. Solve the equation! | ” |
— Percy, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows | ||
Sir Percival, often referred to as simply Percy or the Scholar, is a recurring character in Shovel Knight who studies mainly ballistics, often at the expense of those using his catapults. He is secretly helping Plague Knight in Plague of Shadows, in which he pays for collected Scrap Sheets and assist in the alchemist's arsenal development.
Appearance[]
Percy is an anthropomorphic horse much like the Adventurers. He wears a blue tunic with a matching feather hat.
Personality[]
Despite his profession and love for science, Percy is an airhead. His competences are as much hit and miss as he is oblivious of the situation surrounding him or the backhanded insults thrown at him. Despite this, the Scholar is competent enough to manipulate some of the Potionarium's mechanisms, fixing them or even completing Mona's bombs research.
He also imagines himself well-known in love matters. Ironically enough, the Magicist fell in love with him, proving the effectiveness of his love advice.
Story[]
At some time before Dig, Percy secretly joined Plague Knight's ranks while pursuing his scholarly research on ballistics. The alchemist would soon realize the aggravating incompetence of the scholar and start regretting recruiting him.
In Shovel Knight Dig, Percy is one of the curios bystanders who began to visit the Surface's camp that quickly formed around The Well's entrance; when talked to, he will try to deny his affiliation with Plague Knight's group and their secret experiments, doing however a poor job at hiding it. He will also strike a conversation with Duelist Di, the local Adventurers, as well as Tinker Knight and the Fan Boy.
In King Of Cards, Percy has been busy finding a hidden place to set Plague Knight's secret Potionarium in the Troupple Kingdom. The alchemist was doubting his minion's calculations and better judgement, when King Knight barged in through the lair's door left wide open by the scholar. Plague Knight leaves Percy to kick King Knight out before hiding himself in order to conceal his secret plans. When Percy fails to do so, Plague Knight jumps in to defeat King Knight himself while the horse man helps him as much as he can. Percy also has a unique collectible Joustus card in his likeness owned by Plague Knight.
In Shovel Knight Showdown, an illusion of Percy created by the Mirror of Fate is operating the mechanisms of the Targets stage in the Colosseum. He can be seen pulling levers, using a catapult to move around and even clinging to a large target, which takes several hits to destroy.
In Shovel of Hope, Percy, known only as the Scholar in this campaign, can be found in the Armor Outpost. He is testing a catapult on top of the Aerial Anvil which he aimed at the Village. His calculations are actually correct as his device hits its expected target, unlike his usual mishaps. Once the Armor Outpost has been reached, another catapult appears in the Village, aimed in reverse at the bastion. A third catapult can be found at the shortcut in the third quadrant and is aimed at the Village. In the ending, Percy joins Plague Knight's advanced potion class in the Explodatorium.
In Plague of Shadows, Percy is stationed at the new Potionarium to conducts his ballistics research, much to the Plague Knight's dismay. He is however short on paper to write his calculus and pays Plague Knight 
500 gold for each Scrap Sheet brought to him. He also rewards him with bad love advice.
Beside his work below the Village, Percy appears outside the Armor Outpost to test out his catapult. He claims to have calibrated it to reach an unguarded "faraway trove of treasure and armaments", but requires 50 Cipher Coins to order a torsion rod for the device. Once fixed, the device instead launches the alchemist right into the middle of the Armor Outpost, forcing him to fight his way out through an assaulting squadron of guard knights. The scholar still claims afterward to have fixed his calculations, although the catapult only launches Plague Knight to the Village.
At some point, Percy interrupts Mona's flirting of Plague Knight by fixing the power shortage in the Potionarium by himself. Later on, Percy takes Mona's role in the Potionarium after she left Plague Knight's side due to a misunderstanding regarding the Magicist. From that point onward, he both uses Mona's leftover research to develop the alchemist's bomb arsenal, eventually crafting the Pandemonium Chalice with all remaining Cipher Coins, and assists him in crafting the Ultimate Potion.
In the ending, Percy has entered a relationship with the Magicist. They join the Hedge Pupil in managing the Explodatorium, although the place soon becomes even more chaotic.At some unspecified point during the events of Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows, Percy was trapped, alongside Plague Knight, Mona, and a Plague Minion, inside the infamous Pocket Dungeon. Percy decided to aid the rest of the prisoners by setting up a fast travel system with his cannon, allowing to reach the deeper parts of the dungeon without needing to traverse its earlier levels. He also aided Mona in some ballistic testing.
In the Puzzler's Pack DLC, Percy's cannon has also another function as, together with Polar Knight's Refract ability, it can be used to unlock a secret playable character, a Spinwulf.
Eventually, Percy, together with his friends and the rest of the Pocket Dungeon's prisoners, were able to solve the mystery behind the puzzle box, and escape back into the outside world.Dialogue[]
Treasure Trove[]
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Spin-offs[]
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Trivia[]
- Like Mona, Percy has a less detailed sprite model in Shovel of Hope. He also only had two different sprites and was simply named "Scholar".[1] His sprite model was updated in Plague of Shadows to look closer to his original artwork, reused for the cover art of the campaign.
- He refers himself as Sir Percival while telling love tips.
- Percy is inconsistently portrayed between having either hands or hooves in official artwork.
- In dialogue, he refers to himself as having hooves. Additionally, all in-game sprites appear to show him having hooves.
- It was confirmed he is supposed to have hands.[2]
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove[]
Sprites[]
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove[]
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon[]
References[]
| Dig Characters | |
|---|---|
| Main Characters: | Shovel Knight • Shield Knight (Altius) • The Enchantress |
| The Hexcavators: | Drill Knight • Spore Knight • Hive Knight (Fleck) • Scrap Knight • Tinker Knight • Mole Knight |
| Surface Merchants: | Hoofman • Whisker • Armorer |
| The Well Merchants: | Master Argus • Tom Bola • Gastronomole • Fetcher |
| Surface/The Well Merchant: | Chester |
| Surface NPCs: | Walter • Master Argus • Big Bohto • Hoop Kid • Black Knight |
| Wandering/Campfire/Side-room NPCs: | Duelist Di • Cooper • Percy • Bag Fellow • Peacock Gent • Adventurer • Gastronomole • Hunter • Lamp Lighter • Meleeist • Oreman • Canary Scout • Guard • Fan Boy • Prospector • Student Mage • Caster • Farmsmith • Bow Lady • Spelunker • Forager • Clawed Miner |
| Final Boss: | Drill Knight |