Hey, it’s a lot less confusing than the Zelda timeline(s).

Shovel Knight Excavation It’s out this weekend, and just in time, Yacht Club Games has swooped in to give this spin-off a bit of context. Well, prequel, actually!

Speaking to Nintendo Life, Yacht Club Games Marketing Director Celia Schilling confirmed that Dig in fact, it takes place before the events of each game/DLC:

“As for the story, Shovel Knight Excavation It is the first game in shovel knight Serie. That makes it a prequel that takes place even before specter of torment! You may remember the opening line of the first shovel knight game – ‘Long ago, the lands were untamed and roamed by legendary adventurers.’ Good, Dig takes you back to these good old days, when Shovel Knight and Shield Knight were searching together, fighting bad guys and looking for treasure. We hope that fans will be interested in playing through the events leading up to the original saga.”

Technically, it goes shovel Knight Digging, so he specter of torment flashbacks, then king Of Cards, after specter of torment, Shovel Knight Showdown, Shadow Plague, Shovel of Hope (the main original version), then pocket dungeon is officially a sequel and the last game in the series at present.

Schilling even goes into detail about the Hexcavators (the new crew/rogues gallery group of bad guys), and why their leader (Drill Knight) wouldn’t want to join the All-Out Order – he’d see it as a demotion. Also at this time, Specter Knight is still in his non-Order Donovan form, and other characters are doing other things before meeting up for the events of shovel of hope.

It’s great to see that after eight years and counting, Yacht Club cares enough about this series to dive into the minutiae of character-specific lore. It’s a big reason why I enjoyed Shovel Knight Excavation as much as that hell The focus on slowly discovering more about the game world was so obviously present.