While not specifically paying attention to it, I noticed that most of the Punkin King lairs I've seen were on the path directly from the start, through the button, to the end elevator. This makes me curious if they actually don't have enough room to appear on the little offshoots that just end in prize boxes.
Can anyone disprove this? Sure, I could do it myself, but this means more data faster. Also, laziness.
I've been lucky enough to meet the Punkin King as soon as I enter the Level.
It's possible.
I have seen him first thing off of the elevator, twice.
"on the path directly from the start, through the button, to the end elevator"
"on the path directly from the start"
"directly from the start"
"the start"
He already knows they can appear directly from the beginning of the map.
The wording he chose to use was not entirely clear... if what he is asking is "is there room for PK to spawn from one of the offshoots" then the answer is probably "no".
As far as I can remember, he only spawns directly off the "main path".
I believe that I have seen him spawn on a path that doesn't go to elevator/start a couple of times.
I swear that there were treasure rooms AFTER the elevator path before.
It's not Punkin King, but it's probably possible.