Spiral Knights/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Base Breaker: You either think that soaring energy prices are isolating the Free-To-Play base and it needs to stabilize cheaply, or you'll accept that the crown prices are going to increase and that the developers deserve to get paid.
    • You're assuming the developers get paid more when crown prices for energy are higher. But since all energy enters the game through being bought with real money it makes absolutely no difference to them who buys it or how many crowns it goes for in game money. For every 750 energy consumed they get three dollars, regardless of whether it was auctioned for 4000 crowns or 8000. There's no reason for them to put in a cap, but no reason not to. As long as demand for energy stays the same it makes no difference to their earnings at all.
  • Colbert Bump: When Team Fortress 2 updated with a patch releasing an item related to Spiral Knights (which had been intergrated with Steam), there was an influx of new users, some enjoying the game, others asking how to get the new hat.
  • Demonic Spiders: Tier 2 and 3 mecha-knights, all varieties. They have more hitpoints than nearly every other common mob, use combo attacks and an AoE charge attack like players do, run as fast as players while charging, shield-block projectiles, and inflict elemental status effects based on type. Their drawback is they periodically Shock themselves, except it's not really a drawback since if you're next to them when they do it you get Shocked too. This would be bad enough if they weren't often accompanied by Gremlin Menders and guaranteed to appear in groups in every single Arena.
  • Epileptic Trees: Are jellies victims of a horrible plague? All the Earth-shaped ruins and yet no plausible inhabitants...
  • Goddamned Bats: Which enemies are considered this depends on who you ask. The more common targets of a player's hatred are Gun Puppies, Red Rovers, Wolvers, Gremlins, Tier 2 Retrodes, large groups of Devilites, and the Phantoms found in Graveyard floors.
    • A swarm of Greavers.
    • Red Rovers are a joke compared to Rocket Puppies, but Red Rovers were much worse then Rocket Puppies back when Fire was horribly broken and they used the bouncing flames they have at T3 in all tiers due to a bug.
    • Jellies get really annoying in groups. It isn't helped by the fact that they seem to resist flinching the deeper you go, causing mastery of shield cancelling to be almost mandatory.
  • Goddamned Boss: Royal Jelly is pretty easy to take out (especially after they nerfed him), but he can easily turn into an energy costly nightmare.
    • The Roarmulus Twins count as well. While they seem to be a straightforwardly easy Puzzle Boss at first, once you factor in the endlessly respawning Scuttlebots and having to coordinate your teammates, the entire thing becomes harder.
    • Lord Vanaduke. He doesn't heal or have any particular fancy tricks, but there's a lot going on and he does lots of damage with all his attacks.
  • Godwin's Law: Not the actual Godwin's Law, but something similar exists on the forums that causes a lot of the discussions to move towards the question whether or not the energy system is a good idea. It's so common, in fact, that veterans can't take them seriously anymore.
  • Good Bad Bug: There's a few, the most controversial being "Looping"- an exploit that lets you repeat levels (though it has since been patched).
  • I Am Not Shazam: It's the ROYAL JELLY. It lives in the Royal Jelly Palace. The items are called Royal Jelly Mail, Royal Jelly Helm, Royal Jelly Shield, and Royal Jelly Band. There is no "king" anywhere.
  • Most Annoying Sound: Enemies that can heal others do so with a cartoonish car horn sound effect. If there are multiple Mend-capable enemies in a single area, it gets old rather quickly. This may lead to possible Fridge Brilliance if you take the sound effect as a cue on who to kill first.
  • Play the Game, Skip the Story: A view held by some players, though the story is more All There in the Manual than Excuse Plot. And even the manual doesn't give away too much, not to mention that the manual happens to be the official wiki that can be modified by everyone.
  • That One Achievement: "Master Miner" (deposit 10000 minerals into a gate) and "Dauntless Delver" (go from 0-29 without dying). The latter is made easier if you have a buddy to take the hits for you and if you pick simpler levels, but still requires a considerable chunk of time and Crystal Energy (or an elevator pass). The former is simply tedious; assuming best conditions (4 maximum sized minerals on every level, and 4 players to carry them all up) which lets face it, isn't going to happen, it still takes a bare minimum of 625 levels to get.
  • That One Attack: The Roarmulus Twins possess a laser attack in their final phase. Unlike all other attacks in the game, the beam is a constant attack. And it can inflict Shock, a status that removes the player's Mercy Invincibility. These two factors combine to create an attack capable of a Total Party Kill in a split second.
  • That One Level: The Graveyards. Not only are they overrun with zombies, but you also have to fight ghosts of Spiral Knights, that regenerate mere minutes after being defeated and then chase after you again. And they don't even drop loot. The danger rooms (though optional) and any areas can count as those as well.
    • Candlestick Keep also tends to draw a lot of ire. Throughout the level, you have to stay within range of the candles' light, or else you'll be chased by the Grimalkins, whose attacks deal considerable damage and ignore your shield. What's more, some of the candles are only temporary, and will have to be relighted with fireballs. Combined with the fact that you'll often be dodging attacks from Howlitzers and Kats, some people choose to just wait for these levels to pass by.
    • For elemental stratums, enemy types can circulate unpredictably. Those who hate Wolvers, for example, may find themselves forced upon going to a Wolver Den. Some people may prefer to stick with the Graveyards.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The May 17 update. Hoo boy.
  • Difficult but Awesome Although not that difficult, using bombs. Anyone can just ran in, place a bomb, then get out. The difficult part is knowing where and when to place a bomb to hit most enemies while evading their attacks and not hindering teammates. (Common case of high-knockback Blast Bomb line or any bombs that hold enemies in place.) Bad bombers will get mauled at some point if they aren't careful with his/her bomb charge/fuse time. Good bombers will do most of the job for you, applying status effect en masse (Something swords and guns in this game can't do effectively), and blowing up anything that moves.
    • Try going full bomber. Most people would have a sword as backup for emergencies.
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