Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment

Warning: Once you complete the game for the first time, the next time you select your save file (it will be marked with the word "Clear!"), you will be given the option to start New Game +. Once you start New Game +, it overwrites your save and you cannot go back to the standard version of the game on that file. As such, it is best to do any last-minute clean-up on your "Clear!" file before starting New Game + or you can simply use the "Copy" feature from the Profile Select to duplicate your file first so as not to lose access to the end game "Clear!" save.


It is highly recommended that you have collected everything in your first playthrough as there are some changes to the game in NG+:

• There are a lot fewer checkpoints. Usually only 2 for the entire stage.
• Damage from all sources has been increased.
• Your Will and Darkness are combined into a single bar that slowly depletes over time so whenever you use a curio, you are also consuming your health. It can be refilled by grabbing Darkness pickups and food.
• All food platters in the game have had their contents switched with bombs (as well as any food that would be dropped by an enemy), with the exception of the platter you get during the Tinker Knight boss fight.
• Any food buried in piles of dirt is still there, though. Unfortunately, food restores very little of your Will/Darkness bar.
• Activating a checkpoint will also fully refill your Will/Darkness.
• The Will Skull curio is disabled in NG+.
• Your Will/Darkness bar will never completely drain on its own. It will stop when you have just a sliver left, meaning that not only do you not have enough energy to use any curios but a single hit from anything will kill you. If you move fast enough this normally isn't much of an issue, unless you get stuck in a drawn out boss fight.

Now, there is something that can either help or hurt you and that thing is the Raiment of Risk cloak (see Spec'd Out). Although using its power will reduce your Will/Darkness bar to 4 units, its ability to regenerate your Darkness will overpower the degeneration. It's a very dangerous proposal as having such a low max health is very risky but in the end, it's up to you if you want to risk it or not. Do note though, that this power is not always available as you need to destroy a checkpoint to activate it and sometimes there are none to be found.