Final Post

Here is how I would reword in the main category rules since some of them are a bit sloppy or not precise enough.

Any%: Beat the game from a new file. Time starts upon selecting "Yes" after choosing a file and ends once the last boss is defeated. If you play on PC you must have vertical sync enabled and your monitor must be set at a refresh rate of 60Hz. No cheat codes are allowed unless they only alter the players color palette.

Low%: Beat the game from a new file with the lowest % completion possible which is specified below depending on character. Time starts upon selecting "Yes" after choosing a file and ends once the last boss is defeated. If you play on PC you must have vertical sync enabled and your monitor must be set at a refresh rate of 60Hz. No cheat codes are allowed unless they only alter the players color palette. While not required, showing the game file and % completion after the end of the run will make the verification process easier.

Note: The file tracks things that are not reflected in the final % counter at the end of the credits, for example if you beat the game with plague knight while only collecting 1 coin and end counter will show 1%. This is why additional precisions are made the character rules

Shovel Knight lowest file completion requirement: 0% (this requirement is not retroactive if your % counter is higher only due to collecting music sheets)

Plague Knight lowest file completion requirement: 1% and no cipher coins, no music sheets,no buying bomb parts, burst types or magic upgrades, no arcana.

Specter Knight lowest file completion requirement: 0%

NG+: Beat the game in NG+ mode. You may use the cheat code "BJLHZXED" which removes map encounters. Time starts upon selecting "Yes" after choosing a file and ends once the last boss is defeated. If you play on PC you must have vertical sync enabled and your monitor must be set at a refresh rate of 60Hz. No cheat codes are allowed unless they only alter the players color palette.

100%: Beat the game from a new file and reach 100% file completion. Time starts upon selecting "Yes" after choosing a file and ends once the last boss is defeated after reaching 100% or when the textbox for the last item needed for 100% appears after beating the game. If you play on PC you must have vertical sync enabled and your monitor must be set at a refresh rate of 60Hz. You may not quit out of the game. No cheat codes are allowed unless they only alter the players color palette. While not required, showing the game file and % completion after the end of the run will make the verification process easier.

Note: Exclusive Shovel Knight armor from Battletoads and Kratos do not contribute to %

Category Extension Board:
All Music Sheets and Challenge Mode are the types of runs that I think are a good fit for miscellaneous since in the case of AMS it can't be a main category since you can only do it with 2 characters and is a partial completion category and challenge mode isn't part of the main game but it is still a game mode. In both of these cases these are pretty well defined categories and are not too outside the box. Things like the horace tower categories should not belong here since they are not a game mode or a full game run of some kind and are also silly because of the seemingly arbitrary number of completion for the run. This is the kind of thing that belongs on a category extension board which has already been requested, updates on that if the board gets created. This would be a place you could submit whatever you want as long as there some consistent rules. This would mainly be a board with cheat code runs and whatever other oddball run people can come up with.

NG+ Cheat Code:
Another thing that bothers me are the use of cheat codes NG+ for Shovel and Plague Knight being the default for the category, yes I know map encounters can be really annoying but having this category be the only exception to the "no cheats" rule is really silly. The worst part about this is that literally removes an unskipable encounter for plague. At the very least, I would like to see a separation between a run with cheats and without.

Plague Challenge Mode:
Currently the fastest run was played on an older patch were there were 5 less challenges that there are now, I would personally like to remove that run but I could see maybe separating them? You would still be able to run the older category on a patch with all the challenges just doing he 1st 5 challenges and doing the rest of the boss challenges, although this would be slower due to more menuing.

Shovel Knight Exclusive Challenge Modes: Depending on what platform you are playing on you will have exclusive challenges either Battletoads or Kratos. I suggest that these be separated but still having the option of running challenge mode without the extra challenges on a platform that have them.

Co-op Challenge Mode: I have currently added this to the Co-op section since it was not there previously.

All Bosses: This is a category that I would to add because I think it would be a better middle ground between any% and 100%. This would also be a nice category to showcase the exclusive bosses. This would be a category that only Shovel and Plague could do. For shovel you could have the option of not beating the exclusive bosses if you are running a platform with them.

All Feats: I think this would be another neat category, pretty simple, complete all feats with the current character using 1 file only.

I would like to gather as much feedback as possible from everybody and see if there can be any sort of consensus within 1 week. Feel free to also add anything that bothers you about the current way the leader boards are set up that is not mentioned in this post