| “ | These mild-mannered rats follow their targets and stops intermittendly. | ” |
— Compendium entry, Shovel Knight Dig | ||
Propeller Rats are small, airborne enemies common in Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, and Shovel Knight Dig. They are brown rats with propellers strapped to their backs.
When Propeller Rats cluster together, they become known as a Rat King.
Official Bio[]
| “ | Squeak SQUEAK!!! With a miniature Propeller Pack strapped to its back, the Propeller Rat majestically hovers, spanning from the Valley of Dawn to the magenta skies of Pridemoor! It’d be wise not to underestimate these airborne adversaries. The inquisitive and intelligent mammals are capable of operating rudimentary tools like scissors, engines, and even light explosives. In their downtime, hardworking Propeller Rats can sometimes be seen patronizing Creech’s Juice Bar in the Tower of Fate. They occupy the airspace in games such as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, and Shovel Knight Dig.[1] | ” |
- Pros: Tiny, Loyal, Indifferent
- Cons: Peculiar Scent, Poor Manners, Shedding
Behavior and Tactics[]
Treasure Trove[]
Regular Propeller Rats in Treasure Trove possess one 
(1) point and deal 
1 damage point. They move around only by slowly hovering towards their target. In Shovel of Hope and Specter of Torment, they are often positioned in such a manner so that Shovel Knight or Specter Knight can Shovel Drop/Dash Slash into them to reach far-away places. When defeated, they fall off the screen while dropping a blue gem worth 5 gold.
Pocket Dungeon[]
Propeller Rats can fly upward on the board as long as there is space for them, then fall down and repeat. Because of that, they are not to easy chain up. They possess 
(3) health points and inflict 
1 damage point. They only appear in the Flying Machine and in King Knight's boss room set in Pridemoor Keep's style.
The Puzzler's Pack DLC introduced Bricks, a propeller-less sentient rat wearing a hard hat.
Shovel Knight Dig[]
Regular Propeller Rats in Shovel Knight Dig have 
(2) health points and deal 1 damage point. They act the same as in Treasure Trove. They reward 
5 gold upon defeat.
Variants[]
Scissors Propeller Rat[]
Scissors Propeller Rat are exclusive to the Xbox One and PC versions of Shovel of Hope, and can only be found in the Wookie Hole section of the Mysterious Area. They directly try to cut Shovel Knight's ropes when fighting Zitz, or to simply hurt him. Should they succeed in cutting the rope, it will result in an instant death.
These Propeller Rats are also the only enemies, besides the Beetos, that are able to be juggled. Doing so will progressively increase the value of treasure dropped, a reference to the original Battletoads video game, where enemies could be juggled for extra points.
Propeller Rat Domino Dropper[]
Propeller Rat Domino Droppers are also exclusive to the Xbox One and PC versions of Shovel of Hope. They appear in the Turbo Tunnel during the fight with Pimple, and carry small red domino-like walls to drop them at the end of the path Shovel Knight is driving on. The short walls can be difficult to avoid alongside tall walls, Birders, and ramps. They cannot be reached and hurt.
Rat[]
Several Propeller Rats without propellers can be seen in the Homestead in King of Cards, some running amok and some caged in King Knight's secret room. They cannot be interacted with.
Propeller Ratsploder[]
Propeller Ratsploders appear only in the Ratsploder Runway stage of King of Cards. They behave like Propeller Rats at first, but when attacked they lose their propellers and behave like normal Ratsploders after being hit.
Propeller Rat Bombardier[]
| “ | This Propeller Rat was given a bomb to hold. When defeated, they no longer are able to hold that bomb. | ” |
— Compendium entry, Shovel Knight Dig | ||
Propeller Rat Bombardiers only appear in Shovel Knight Dig. They appear as regular Propeller Rats carrying a bomb. They behave the same, but drop the lit bomb upon defeat. They appear in both the Mushroom Mines and the Smeltworks.
Propeller Rat Drill Dropper[]
| “ | A Propeller Rat carrying a drill. It's prone to clumsily dropping its weapon. | ” |
— Compendium entry, Shovel Knight Dig | ||
Propeller Rat Drill Droppers only appear in Shovel Knight Dig. They appear as regular Propeller Rats carrying a small drill. They behave the same, but drop the drill upon defeat, which falls slowly, attacking anything on its path and dealing 2 damage point per contact. They appear in both the Mushroom Mines and the Smeltworks.
Joustus Card[]
One of the Joustus cards in King of Cards is a Propeller Rat card which can push other cards up.
Trivia[]
- The sprite model of the first three Propeller Rat variants are named "Flying Rat", "Flying Rat scissors", and "Flying Rat Domino Dropper", respectively.
- Despite being rats, Propeller Rats are shown to possess a mildly high intelligence, as they are able to use scissors and can been seen attending Creech's bar in Specter of Torment.
- In King of Cards, once a fairy is chosen as The Fairy King in the Fairy Glade, all Propeller Rats will substitute their propeller backpacks with dainty fairy wings. This effect will go away after exiting to the title screen or relaunching the game.
- Eight Propeller Rats are seen carrying the end of level Rat Rope. The secret red ropes use appropriately colored red Propeller Rats, which are not seen as an enemy in-game.
- In Pocket Dungeon, a Propeller Rat icon is used to represent Level 2 CPU in VS Mode.
Gallery[]
Treasure Trove[]
Pocket Dungeon[]
Shovel Knight Dig[]
