Just like The Legend of Zelda‘s Second Quest, Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight includes a series of secret codes that activate special conditions when they’re entered as your name at the New Game screen. So far, the developers have revealed four official codes, including perhaps the greatest code to ever grace any game ever: Butt Mode.
If you use “X&BUTT” as your name, several common words in the dialogue (Shovel, Knight, Health, Magic, and others) will be replaced by the word “butt.” So, for example, Shovel Knight becomes “Butt Butt.” Well played, Yacht Club. Other officially released codes include “J&2JMP!” (Super Jump), “J&!JSMP” (Moon Jump), and “IM&SGC14” (Iron Man of Gaming Mode, a timed version of Mole Knight’s stage created for the Iron Man of Gaming event).
But the developers also created the “Gimme the Dirt” tier for their Kickstarter campaign, so there are a lot more cheat codes out there. More than 300 backers pledged enough to receive an “exclusive” code and the Internet, naturally, is trying to brute force their way into figuring out what all of them do. A Google Doc has been created to compile every working code and a few of my favorites include:
- “ENTSSYSQ” – New Game+
- “QMPGLCRA” – Enemies Are 8 Times Stronger
- “KYRNMAPC” – Sudden Death Boss Battles
- “FCCKJOIQ” – Pogo Bounce (AKA DuckTales Mode)
Go on, try a few out yourself. With hundreds of combinations, Shovel Knight will have enough staying power to last you all Summer.
