Blog talk:Shovel Knight/@comment-216.137.201.130-20150102000951/@comment-4511886-20150102004026

There is no difficulty option. There's DaS and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Otherwise, that is standard procedure. In the boss room, you have to run through a door to the left to get your weapon and shield. HP doesn't regenerate passively. The ring that says it does actually only boosts max HP. The boss probably kills you in two hits because you're either a Sorcerer or Deprived, which is understandable as both have little to no defensive value at the start.