Reaching the true ending of Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is no small feat, but after beating the Enchantress, there’s still one more hurdle to overcome. The final boss is obviously a spoiler, so consider this your spoiler warning. More details follow after the screenshot below.
After defeating the wicked witch, the true villain of the puzzle cube will be revealed: the monstrous Master Mind will attach to Puzzle Knight and confront you for one last boss fight. This is the hardest challenge in the game, but we can give you a rundown of the fight.
The Master Mind has two attacks, and they’re powered-up versions of some of the Enchantress’ spells. It’ll summon one of those 3×3 magic balls, but instead of following you, it’ll split into four and move in four directions until they leave the map. It covers a large area and hurts a lot, but it always moves in the same pattern.
The second attack is a beam of either three rows or columns that fires across the entire grid. When you see those tiles glow, heed the warning and get clear. Finally, be prepared for all sorts of enemies like Boneclangs and Crabstals to trickle into the fight. You need lots of room to avoid the Master Mind’s spells, so don’t ignore the goons. Keep them clear and hit the boss as often as you can, healing whenever potions show up, and you’ll be able to defeat the bad brain and escape this puzzle world for good.
Beating the Master Mind doesn’t unlock it as a playable character, as cool as that would be. Instead, defeating it and seeing the game’s true ending unlocks Endless Mode. This follows the same pattern of stages as the regular adventure but in an endless loop that increases in difficulty with every new level.
