The Village is a location in Shovel Knight. It is one of the two "safe zones" where NPCs and services can be found; the other is the Armor Outpost. There are adventurers and other NPCs walking along the background on both the leftmost and the rightmost screen, and a plethora of other characters to interact with scattered across the level. Unbeknownst to most of its inhabitants, underneath the village lies a second base of the alchemist Plague Knight, the Potionarium.
Items/Upgrades Available
Within the village there are 3 purchasable Meal Tickets, 7 purchasable magic upgrades, and during New Game Plus players can switch/purchase armor upgrades.
There are 4 Music Sheets that can be obtained (other than the default 5 from talking to the Bard) scattered across the village.
Characters
Upon entering the village for the first time (forced after completing the Plains level) the guard Farrels stops you and comments on how there are no weapons allowed within the village. Upon seeing your Shovel Blade, he laughs and grants you access to everything the village has to offer. He also mentions that by pressing Up, you can interact with other characters in the village.
The Bard character resides on this first screen of the village. He offers to pay 500 gold for every Music Sheet you come across, and will play whatever song you select from his library until you leave the village.
There is also a woman on this screen that will occasionally whistle at Shovel Knight.
There is a sign above Molly advertising the Gastronomer and Magicist, picturing a heart and a magic drink. If you hit this sign, a magic drink will fall down. If you hit it 4 more times, 3 more magic drinks will fall down, followed by a large magic drink. If you hit it again, no more magic drinks will fall.
In the middle screen of the Village is a room with 3 (or 4 in New Game Plus) characters. The characters are as follows:
- Goatician, a goat who sells Meal Tickets.
- Gastronomer, a man who cooks Meal Tickets into health upgrades.
- Magicist, a woman who sells maximum magic upgrades.
- Goatarmorer, another goat. He appears in the village in New Game Plus and offers the same features as the Armorer from the Armor Outpost.
Below this middle screen is a tavern with three rooms. The characters within these rooms are:
- A dancer, who, after defeating Specter Knight, will dance around the room upon interaction, leaving behind Music Sheet #11 afterward.
- A King who has been dethroned by King Knight.
- Grandma Swamp offers you insight on some "useless" facts about your game. She tells you how many Dig Piles you've excavated, how much gold you've acquired, how many times you've died and the total time spent adventuring.
- In the room to the left (you need to break open the secret wall) is a girl named Mona . If you play her minigame, you will receive treasure. The amount you get is based on your score. If you score high enough, you will also receive Music Sheet #12.
In the room on the far right there are three characters:
- Croaker, who tells puns. If you listen to all of the puns you unlock the Pungent Feat.
- The Relic salesman, Chester. He will sell you some of the default relics, but also any relic from a level you've completed. However, if you do choose to buy these relics from him, you will pay double the price that the item originally cost if you found it within the level instead. Chester is found within the blue treasure chest in levels. This chest is featured in a mini-boss battle during the Iron Whale level.
- The Troupple Acolyte will sell Ichor Chalices to you for 1500 gold each. While talking to him you can inquire about the Troupple King and also choose the Hail option to read a quick word of praise about the Troupple King.
Back on the surface, on the rightmost screen remain a few characters:
- A Hoop Kid who follows a hoop around. Shovel Dropping on the hoop long enough earns a feat.
- A Hedge Farmer stands beside a Dig Pile and changes his dialogue once you excavate the dig pile. He has multiple dialogue paths depending on how you dig up the pile (for example, using the Trench Blade).
- A Water Carrier you can jump on in order to access the roofs around this part of the village.
- A Grizzled Seer who pays you one token of not-very-useful but still encouraging advice.
Finally, there are some characters that just only exist to flesh out the Village, they have no impact on the game other than talking to Shovel Knight:
Trivia
- There is a glitch that allows Plague Knight to enter the Village which was later patched in the 2.4 update. Plague Knight could proceed through the Village in the glitch until the next room with the Gastronomer.