A Hat in Time – Death Wish: Battle of the Birds Guide

Welcome to my guide, thank you for checking it out. It’s my first one, so please do not hesitate to comment suggestions or the like below.

I know there’s several out there already, but I feel like I could be able to give my own little spin on things (plus I could always use an excuse to ramble about Death Wish).. This series of guides will house all 38 + 2 secret Death Wishes, I hope to get at least one done per week.

Each Death Wish will be grouped by chapters (so Mafia Town, Dead Bird Studios, etc) and will feature information of:

• Alterations from the vanilla game mission
• The 3 objectives that must be completed
• General advice of what to keep in mind before you start, and recommended loadout… If a boss mission, then the boss attack patterns, tells, and HP
• The nitty gritty explanations of how to win each objective
• A video from my YouTube channel that showcases the mission for the visual learner

Looking for another chapter of Death Wishes?

• Mafia Town Death Wishes
• Subcon Forest Death Wishes
• Alpine Skyline Death Wishes (Done, Proofing)
• The Finale, Arctic Cruise, and Nyakuza Death Wishes (Done, Proofing)
• Candles + Secret Death Wishes (Soon)

Note that this guide assumes you are NOT using Peace and Tranquility mode. You are free to if you wish, as it will make the death wish easier.

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Aquire 3 Snatcher Coins

The Compass Badge sold by the Mafia Boss inside Chapter 2’s shiproom will tell you where the coins are with a purple arrow. This mission has to be done on 3 separate acts.

• Snatcher Coin 1 of 3: Located in Act 1, Dead Bird Studios, you can find it on top of the fake school house. Simply walk into it and take left following the trail of pons,jump onto the schoolhouse, and then jump on top of its “clock”
• Snatcher Coin 2 of 3: Located in Train Rush, once you are at the section where you’re on the outside where you have to climb a rock and 2 hookshot hot air balloons, you want to use the first hookshot to land on top of the silvery handle on the 2nd hookshot hot air balloon, then jump back to the silvery handle on the 1st for the coin.
• Snatcher Coin 3 of 3: Located in Picture Perfect, immediately head left from DJ Groove’s stand and go to the building tops. Head to the small red building and it is located behind the sign that is hanging off it

• There are more cameras and penguins/owls to find you, in different locations and more patterns
• Missles will show up during the 4th, long ride of the machine

• Do not accrue a debt of 200,000 pons
• Do not get noticed (fulfills above)

The most important thing to note is that it does not count against you if a penguin or owl simply howls and has a yellow light. They have to actually stop you from moving and damage you to count against you. This goes for both objectives, which makes them a lot easier.

Cameras can be stepped on top of without triggeing them

The two objectives go hand-and-hand so I will list the troublesome areas:

• First area: I advice heading right toward the cameras, jumping on them, and then jumping to the staircase. No major movements of enemies besides the 1st patroller
• After the 1st machine: The pipe is no longer safe, but the stands above it are. Beware afterwards, as an owl will be facing the school house with another one periodically changing from facing the set to facing your path. Jump on the clothes rack and then double jump dash toward the school the moment the rotating owl faces the set.
• Schoolhouse: The entire floor is littered with owls. Jump on the clothing racks and immediately dash toward the lever. Learn the timing of the owl rotating and hit the switch the moment before he rotates and jump onto the machine asap.
• DJ Grooves Set: After the sandbags, missles will start launching themselves toward you. Once the owls are not covering the switch, hit it and immediately hide again. Once the coast is clear again, hit the switch again and immediately double jump and dash into the machine as it will move very fast.
• DJ Grooves Set 2: Beware when jumping on the initial platform after eexiting the machine, as the penguin will get suspicious of you if you’re even a little in the air. Stand still until he rotates then quickly jump onto the platform, and double jump air dash toward the power circuits and complete that section.
• Final Vehicle Ride: Missles will constantly launch themselves at you, and will persist this assault until you make it to the red velvet room. Tthere are 4 guards to be spotted by during the trip with the machine. To avoid the missles, simply shimmy to the side just before they make contact, and try your best to stay to the left of thee machine so that you have wiggle room to avoid any guards that begin facing you.
  Video:

• A lot more owls will follow behind you. a LOT
• Health Pons no longer spawn
• There are much more frequent hazards that will spawn as the parade progresses. If you need a reminder, this includes missiles, and buildings constantly being lit by fireworks. Buildings will have a movie-reel style countdown from 3 to showcase this.

• Do not get hit by the Express Band
• Do not let any DJ Grooves tokens expire

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of DLC2, this Death Wish has been nerfed. you no longer need to hit switches 3 times on the first phase, simply press 3 buttons.

This is essentially just a more aggressive version of The Big Parade, with the same general rules. Simply do not stop moving, and if you need to clear the way from the Band for some objectives, I advise you find a big open space and just walk (like half-tilt/press your movement key, the Band’s speed matches yours) across the top, making minimal variations in horizontal movement when you want to make a new row. This will cluster the Express Band into one area for a time, giving you the opportunity to hunt down objectives and tokens.

The first objective will have you pushing buttons across rooftops, with the second having you push buttons across moving platforms that shoot missles. Recall that there is a wait period between objectives where you must deal with the hazards introduced in that objective phase, and they persist until you win the mission. Plan how you move the Band to line up with an objective, do not run across a 2nd objective switch when you’re about to activate the 2nd objective, for example

I advise prioritizing tokens over objectives, as the former is timed with 30 seconds to get it upon appearing whereas the latter is not timed.

One of my favorites

• The timer is set to 10 seconds
• Bombs more aggressively shoot out, especially in the final room
• Gates will appear to obstruct your path in the 2nd room, as well as there will be additional light-up platforms after you touch the initial 3.
• More saws appear in the 3rd room, and the carts near the end of the room will wildly move
• The platforms in the 4th open-air room will have spinning fire turrets
• The light-up platform minigame will have missles constantly rain down on you
• The hookshop in the final room is gone, you must weave through the fire.
• There is now a gate in front of the 3rd light-up platform puzzle so you cannot jump behind.
• Most light-up platform puzzles in the final room will have lava pillars rotating around.
• You somehow lost sanity.exe

• Collect all 9 Conductor Tokens
• No Hat Abilities, One-Hit Hero Badge.

You must know the position of and collect EVERY single +20 second timer scattered across the level. I’d advise not using any hats while learning this, but the Sprint Hat and Time Stop hats will come in great handy if you do not care or want an easier time learning. You are going to die a lot, so take your first attempts to memorize the location of and the pattern of the new hazards and obstructions. Bombs will spawn fairly commonly and explode a second or two later, so be on the lookout. I’d advise a major shortcut in the 4th open-air room to jump directly from the broken train tracks into the first platform, ignoring the hookshots, and then jumping from that to the 3rd platform where the ring of fire is.

• Collect all 9 Conductor Coins: There’s no beating around the bush, you simply must memorize their location and be able to grab them while still on the move. Time Stop hat will make this task much easier as you can take your time collecting while slowing a majority of the hazards and obstacles down. All but the last 3 are generally out of the way of any hazards, though.
  • 1. 1st room after you begin the timer, on top of a suitcase on the left.
  • 2. 2nd room, after you pass the first gate and land on the left falling platform, immediately go right to find it on the right falling platform. Watch out for the platform falling!
  • 3. 2nd room, after you pass the 3rd gate and land on the right wooden box, immediately go left to find it on the left wooden box. Watch out for the shooting eggs!
  • 4. 3rd room, on top of the crates after the Piano to the left. I’d advise immediately jumping to the balloons after picking it up.
  • 5. 4th open-air room, on top of the piano at the peak of the rocks.
  • 6. 4th open-air room, to the left of the 2nd fire-shooting machine on the 2nd platform after the 2 hookshots
  • 7+8. Final Room, located at the very end of the car on the left and right before you enter the room where the conductor is. I’d strongly advise Time Stop hat as there are 2 pillars of flame constantly rotating around them.
  • 9. you get this automatically at the end by pressing the button.
• No Hats, One Hit Hero: This is why I advise learning without the aid of a hat. If you are ignoring tokens, the No Hat part becomes relatively trivial. However, you have to essentially master the course if you are to do it without taking hits. I will advise the toughest sections:
  • 3rd room, double jump over the sawblades
  • 4th open-air room, simply NEVER STOP MOVING and shimmy away from missles as they get close to you. Because they lock on to your location, if you move just before they make contact you will likely avoid the explosion.
  • Final Room, hop on the very left elevated side of the first bridge and make constant use of airdashing to avoid the explosions of the bombs.
  • 2nd light up puzzle, I advise rotating around the 5 switches, hitting the corners first, to minimize taking damage from weaving through the lava pillars.
  • 3rd light up puzzle, beware that a bomb will show up after you hit either the far left or far right eyeball platform, so move quickly but carefully.
  • Final light up puzzle, keep your calm. You’re almost there.I’d recommend hugging the very right edge of the leftward platforms, either edges of the middle platform, and the very left edge of the rightward platforms, as the cannons cannot hit you with this. Then time yourself to jump through the fire pillars.
    Videos:

• Both DJ and the Conductor will attack you at once, but they share a health pool
• They attack much more aggressively, with altered attacks
• The fight does not end until both are defeated

• Win with the timer having at least 100 seconds remaining.
• Only ever attack one director before attacking the other.

The fight immediately begins with both bosses jumping to the ceiling and slamming down on you, so look out! Both also attack independently, so just because one is doing something does not mean you can ignore the other!! The bosses share a health pool, so say Phase 1 has 5 HP. You can do this by either hitting DJ 5 times, or by hitting DJ 2 times and the Conductor 3 times. Timestop hat will save you a lot of pain when things get tricky, so keep it close at hand. I recommend attacking solely via Homing Attacks as you are invincible during them.

Helpful Tip – You can sometimes damage a bird even if they’ve hit the threshold for the phase. So if you hit them 5 times in Phase 1 and squeeze in a 6th hit before Phase 2 starts, Phase 2 will only be 4 HP, use this to your advantage to save time and earn the timed objective.

Phase 1 (5 HP) –

• Ceiling Slam Lv.1 – The boss will jump to the left corner ceiling (Conductor) or the right corner ceiling (DJ Grooves) and after a pause slam into your location. Jump when they do this to avoid them, and you can follow it up with an attack., if you fail to punish them, they will immediately zip back to the ceiling and repeat the attack a 2nd time, and a final time if still left unpunished.
• Raining Lights Lv.1 – Either boss will step onto the stage and whistle, causing a small amount of theatre lights to rain into your current position. Keep moving.
• Belly Slammo! – Either boss will charge at your position and belly flop, causing damage if hit. Keep moving. They will do this 2-3 times and then are open to an attack
• Disco Bash Lv.1 – Either boss will zoom up to the ceiling and come down with a Disco ball. They will within a few seconds crash down that will trip you if you’re on the ground, and release a shockwave that can damage you, so be sure you are jumping before it hits the ground.They are vulnerable for a few seconds afterwards.

Phase 2 (5 HP) –

• Scissor Throw Lv.1 – Either boss will hop on stage and then bring out a knife and fall down. The lights will turn off and they will rapid-fire 6 knives at you. you should dodge this via jump and dashing. they are vulnerable after the final knife and I recommend Time Stopping for this. The other boss will still attack even during this!!
• Scissor Ora – Occasionally after using Scissor Throw, the boss will hop to the front and then grumble for a second before then pulling out their knife and zooming toward you while ORA ORA ORAing the scissors in front of them. They are vulnerable during this attack with a Homing Attack
• Disco Bash Lv.2 – This time they will pause and pretend to fall only to stop midway, and then crash down a moment later. They are vulnerable after they land.

Phase 3 (5 HP) –

• Car Crash – Unique to this phase. Either boss will head to the stage and whistle, dragging you to the center of the area and summoning a mountain of cars to crash into you. The safest way to counter this is to double-jump and dash into either the back-left or back-right corner and wait it out, which also makes it easier to handle whatever attack the other boss does in the meantime.
• Disco Bash Lv.3 – This time they will spawn 2 clones to slam down with them, one at a time with the boss slamming last. They are vulnerable after they land. This upgrades to 4 clones after a few hits and remains this way the rest of the fight
• Scissor Throw lv.2 – Same for Disco Bash Lv.3, they will spawn 2 clones this time, each throwing 2 knives one at a time at you. They are vulnerable after the last knife throw. This upgrades to 4 clones after a few hits and remains this way the rest of the fight

Phase 4 (10 HP) – This is where the timer comes in, starting at 200 seconds.

• Running Away – Either boss will simply run around. You can hit them during this. They will usually give a quip about how slow you’re being when they do this.
• Ceiling Slam Lv.2 – This time they will throw 3 sets of saws rapidly toward you. Jump out of the way and you should be fine. They are vulnerable after this, though will repeat the attack until punished or they’ve done it 3 times.
• Raining Lights Lv.2 – This time the tell isnt as obvious. Just be ready when one jumps to the stage.
• Floor Saw Throw – Either boss will jump near the stage, yell (pushing you back), and begin throwing out 3 sets of saws. They are vulnerable to a Homing Attack. If you do not punish them by the 3rd set, they will jump to a new position and repeat the attack.

Phase 5 (8 HP, 4 each) – Phase 5 is identical to Phase 1 with the addition of Sword ORA and the below:

• Express Band EX – For the rest of the fight, a large Express Band will follow you, attempting to attack you. Do not stop moving.
• Raining Lights Lv.3 – This time, the lights will fall in an orderly fashion.

Win with 100 seconds or more left on the clock – Learning the precise moments in which they become vulnerable to attack is a must, so study the above and practice with your own fights as this is a narrow window even if you know what you are doing.

Only ever attack one director before attacking the other – The hardest part about this is simply the fact it makes the fight much longer (almost doubles it). Choose whichever you want, as they have the same aggression and moves. I recommend making use of time stop hat whenever you can, so that you can clutch in an attack (cuz this fight is long enough as it is) and possibly prevent yourself from accidentally hitting the other director. Once you’ve made it to Phase 5 and defeat the director after 4 hits, you are free to attack the other one a few times and end the fight.

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• Collect all Pages
• Collect all Rift Pons

The entire rift is set to a jazzy rhythm. You will notice there are blue and pink blocks that constantly take turns being solid and intangible. This occurs about every second, just listen to the beats and you’ll learn quickly. Have fun, there’s nothing stressful here! If you need help with pages/pons, refer to the video

• The rift is mirrored
• You are preciously timed
• You have 3 lives. If you lose them all, you are locked out for 5 minutes.

• Escape with 30 seconds remaining
• Collect all Rift Pons

Always have the Sprint Hat and Magnet Badge equipped!!! Learn the layout of the rift and pon positions!
There are many more patrolling guards in the final room than before, so be careful.
It is tight to do both challenges at once, so unless you want the extra challenge I would recommend going for one at a time, preferably the “All Pons” one first so that you then know what you may be able to cut down on. There are 15 pons in the rift but only 11 are required. .

(the order I list them is the recommended grab order):
If you are to skip out on pons for the 30 seconds remaining objective, I recommend a full clear of Room 2 (Pons #1-5), only 2 from Room 3 (Pons #7 and 8), and 4 pons from Room 4 (Pons #11-14)

• Room 1 – No pons.
• Room 2 – (5 pons, 3 total to progress)
  • 1. Immediately after entering, jump on the boxes on your right and double jump dash to the uppr right platform for a pon.
  • 2. From there, immediately climb the broken wall in front of you and make a sharp left, jumping to the pon on the grate
  • 3. After that pon, turn right and drop down to another pon that is in front of a broken wall
  • 4. Turn southwest and grab the pon on the pipes
  • 5. Dash to the other end of the bridge and use the ropes to jump all the way up to the pon
• Room 3 – (5 pons, 4 total to progress)
  • 6. Head straight, taking the path that is slightly left when moving straight. Go all the way to the ice platform and grab the pon on the pipe to the left of that.
  • 7. Run back away from the Ice platform and straight run onto the red platform where you see 3 pons on the side on the wall. Wall jump to the top then immediately turn around and double jump dash into the pon in the distance.
  • 8. Face away from the wall where the pon was and dash jump to the platform in front of you. Jump to the next then drop down to the right of the platform with the green tarp and footprints for the pon.
  • 9. Return to and climb up the green tarp’d platform and hookshot dash-jump to the other platform after the sandbags. Jump onto the crate closest to the pon at the platform with 2 cameras, and then use it to jump to the pon.
  • 10. Locate but continue past the portal to the next level, there a pon on the corner of the level past it.

  Room 4 – (5 pons, 4 total to progress)

  • 11. Immediately go left and grab the pon at the end
  • 12. Immediately turn right from that pon and dash over the pon in the hole, magnet will pick it up
  • 13. Run right into the middle platform, if you’re fast the owls wont spot you. Climb to the platform with 2 tarps covering 2 sides and use your dash jump to make it to the platform with 2 rotating owl guards. The pon is at the end of this.
  • 14. This pon is located inside the partly-open shutter door that you jump to
  • 15. When at the portal to the next level, do not take it. A pon is at the end of the support beam.

  The Time Piece orb takes 4 hits to break.

  Video:

Written by Midouri ミリ