La Danse Macabre

Second phase

**La Danse Macabre** (French: The Dance of Death) is the eighteenth extra level of *Just Shapes & Beats* and the forty-fourth level overall. It is unlocked in the Playlist by getting 1600 Beatpoints or by using the Shovel Knight amiibo figure. It is one of the four levels introduced at Update 1.3.

## Description

This boss level involves an encounter with a scythe-wielding boss, using attacks from its little specters, black holes and lasers, often pairing them with small circles. Later on, it summons scythes to attack the player, akin to the evil plant's head attacks in the beginning of Lycanthropy.

Like all of the levels featured in Update 1.3, *La Danse Macabre* features elements (of varying degree) from one the four protagonists/antagonists in *Shovel Knight*'s campaigns, with this level motif based on Specter Knight.

## Layout

First Phase
The level starts out by growing a small circle on the middle of the stage that fires twelve more circles in round formation. Not before long, a series of ten specters float to the middle circle, which forms the boss of this level. Like the circle before it, the boss fires 12 circles around nine times.
After so, the boss attacks the player with two big black holes which also fire twelve circles around it, in sequence. Then it teleports all across the stage after a warning circle, which it'll do it four times, before teleporting to the middle and firing a wave of circles in a circle clockwise. Then it repeats its aforementioned attacks, barring the last one. After that, it teleports back to the middle.
The boss then summons a scythe next to it, as it moves around. The boss summons five scythes before stopping them and teleporting back to the middle.

Second Phase
The boss summons six specters that float around in orbit as well as two horizontal circle walls that block the top and bottom of the stage. It fires twelve circles around six times before firing six beams that turn counterclockwise, before firing circles eight more times before using its teleport attack.

Third Phase
After its teleport attack, the boss teleports to the middle and fires five waves of circles clockwise before summoning one scythe that moves around. It then later summons seven duplicates of the boss ontop of the screen, for each one summoning a scythe and dropping it down to the stage. After this, it repeats its scythe attacks seven times. Before teleporting to the middle and fading away along with its scythes, with five specters taking its place as the level ends.

Hardcore Mode Changes
Teleport Attack* The warning black holes go in sequence instead of appearing simultaneously.
* Less warning time whenever the boss teleports.
* When the boss teleports to the middle, it fires two waves of circles instead of one.

First Phase* Instead of firing all twelve circles at once, it instead fires circles rapidly in a clockwise formation, and will continue to attack until the boss forms.
* After firing the first wave of circles, the boss fires circles rapidly, though this time, whenever it fires circles in a round formation, the direction it will shoot alternates between counterclockwise or clockwise.
* The circles that were fired in a round formation are bigger.
* In addition to scythe attacks, vertical beams will fire in random locations.

Second Phase* The boss fires circles in a round formation more frequently.
* Lasers that fire from the boss during its attack will turn faster.
* The two black holes fire twenty four circles instead of twelve.
* The rate that the boss fires the circles before its second scythe attack increases.

Third Phase* The wave of scythes will fall faster, pairing them with smaller vertical beam attacks.
* Less warning time when the boss appears with a scythe.
* Each time the boss summons a scythe, the boss will fire two waves of circles clockwise, including the end of the level.

## Gallery

* Beginning
* Teleport attack
* Scythe attack
* Third phase, one-off scythe attack
1/4

## Trivia

* This is the first boss to be added in an update, and the only boss to not be found in the Story.
	+ It is also the only boss level which can be unlocked via beatpoints.
* *La Danse Macabre* is the theme of The Lich Yard, in where Specter Knight is fought in the main campaign.
* The vertical beams that are added to phases 1 and 3 in Hardcore may be a reference to the Phantom Striker, the boss for the version of this stage found in the game's Specter of Torment campaign, in which he attacks with lightning that functions in a similar way
* *La Danse Macabre* is one of two bosses that seem to have no connection to the main antagonist. The other being Barracuda.
* The player could stay at the top-left corner to avoid all scythes during the scythe attack. This is no longer possible since Update 1.4.

## External links

* La Danse Macabre on the Shovel Knight wiki.