A Hat in Time – Death Wish: Alpine Skyline 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
• Battle of the Birds Death Wishes
• Subcon Forest Death Wishes
• The Finale, Arctic Cruise, and Nyakuza Death Wishes (Done, Proofing)

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 can be done in most acts.

• Snatcher Coin 1 of 3: Located near the top of the hub island, it’s a little tricky to get to! No Bonk will help you immensely. The easiest though I feel is using the Twilight Bell zipline tree to walljump to the top of the tree and climb up that way, utilizing No Bonk for the rest of the way to the top.
• Snatcher Coin 2 of 3: Located at the Lava Cake 3rd floor, near the cannon on a pillar facing away from you.
• Snatcher Coin 3 of 3: Located at the Windmill. After you pass the unconcious mafia goon, keep going until you see a lone house on its own little mountain and jump to the top of it. You’ll see a balloon you should jump toward, then hop on the tree branch near where the other house is and time a good long jump to the next tree branch on the very long mountain, then wallclimb to the top for the coin.

• There are now a lot more birds (exploding eggs too)
• There are now hidden mafia across the level
• A bird dying for any reason means you take damage

• Defeat the 6 mafia goons hidden in the level
• Win with one-hit hero

Cannot stress it enough, be patient. Remember that any birds or eggs that spot you will continuously move toward you. Learn when an exploding egg gets triggered, and if one happens to do so, lure it away from any birds. This mission isnt terrible if you just want it out of the way but objectives make it rough.

Defeat the 6 mafia goons hidden in the level – Simple sounding yeah? Well, most are guarded by birds so you still need to be cautious. Thankfully, hats are usable in this mission so that’s no problem. My ultimate recommendation is dealing with them via Homing Attacks, and if you want to umbrella them because they are far away from birds, use the Time Stop hat to do so.

• 1. After the first exploding egg, head to the rightward downward path to the birdhouse to see one bullying a bunch of birds
• 2. After exiting the first big birdhouse with pushing crows, instead of taking the hookshot, go left with dwellers mask and scale the wall. One will be standing on a tiny platform with a bunch of crows. Use Homing Attacks, making sure to constantly rotate between the left and right side so that the crows and the mafia goon are always bunched together and you can easily safely land away from them after a Homing Attack.
• 3. After returning to the hookshot, release on the apex of your swing and land on the roof of the birdhouse, using a brewing hat to break the box (jump when you do it so you dont accidentally kill the bird). continue the path and do it again, and then swap to Time Stop hat to easily make it over. This Mafia is guarded by 2 Pushy Crows, so i recommend leading them away from him, and them destroying him with the duration of a Time Stop
• 4. Return to the birdhouse you went to via hookshot and continue on until you see an Ice platform. take it and you will be sent to 2 lone birdhouses. The Mafia is on the second one bullying a huge crowd of birds. I recommend landing on one of the fences on this house and moving into a corner to attract the birds to, and the moment they’re away from the mafia, time stop kill him.
• 5. Once you’ve climbed the giant ladder after the normal path, take the leftward path. Once you exit the tiny birdhouse, I’d advise double jumping and wall climbing birdhouse you just entered, kicking off the wall at the apex and grabbing the hookshot. Try not to swing too far, only move slightly left, then release at the apex of your backward swing and jump to the roof of the birdhouse. Alternatively, just Time Stop hat across the 3 nests if you have adequet health. The Mafia is at the top of the roof, just Time Stop hat kill him.
• 6. Continue straight from where you killed the mafia and follow the path, not going toward the Time Piece. The Mafia is at the very end of this platforming gauntlet, Time Stop will help against the pushy crows.

With One Hit Hero – Thanks to a new nerf in the recent DLC, this has become substantially easier. The biggest worry about this is the Exploding Eggs. Time Stop whenever you feel like you’re about to lose control and run into a bird, and especially a pushy crow.

• After the first exploding egg, take the leftmost hay sack and jump as far left as you can while still making it onto the roof so you avoid triggering the 2nd egg
• I recommend Time Stop once you get to the rectangular birdhouse past the hookshot, as it is easy for the pushy crows to knock you off, spawning an egg, and resulting in your health.
• When you’ve made it to the final set of 3 nest platforms before the Time Piece, I advise jumping on the leftward fence before the section, and long jumping as far as you can to avoid the nests and land on the birdhouse that the zipline is on. The Exploding Egg should spawn, with the Pushy Crow behind it. The Pushy Crow can bounce them around without triggering their explosion, so position yourself just right so that the pushy crow ends up knocking the egg into the void.

• You are now timed
• There are now many enemies across the level
• Everything is much faster now
• The platform between 2 rotating blocks after the “bird windmill” section is now on fire
• There are 3 giant fences at the part where you juggle between 2 tiny switches across the room
• After the unconcious mafia goon, there are exploding eggs littered across every single flat surface until you make it to the burning house….which is now burning (and so is the bridge near it.. littered with crows too)
• A blue platform is missing after you have passed the 2nd set of spiders in the final room

• Win in 4 minutes or less
• No Hat Abilities, One Hit Hero

Things move so fast, usually the best thing to do is to make your move toward them when they’re furthest away from you. Learn their timings!

When it comes to the spinning blocks, try to land on their center. They will change their rotation every few seconds, so this will keep you from being surprised as to where they move.

Take advantage of the power of momentum mechanics. Jumping during almost any of the fast moving platforms will ricochet you in whatever direction you were moving, which is useful for shaving some seconds.

Helpful Tips: For the timing of the 2 gears with various blue platforms on them near the top, do not overthink it. A simple jump at the apex of the gear rotation, following the pon trail, will ensure you land on the next blue platform.

Secondly, when you’re at the final challenge of a giant rotating windmill and you need to jump on the platforms behind it, the brown part where the arc supports are is not rotating and thus you can use it as a breather and to learn the frequency and placement of the platforms. Do not worry about mistiming though, it moves so fast that you wont, so just focus on jumping in the relative spot where one should be.

Win within 4 minutes – The ultimate test of your mastery of the level. Sprint Hat and Time Stop can save you much trouble, so utilize those for any tricky sections. You should comfortably know the structure of the level by now.

No Hat Abilities, One Hit Hero – First to note, that Pushy Crows do not damage you. If they hit you, you’ll just be knocked back…which could kill you depending on where you are so still be careful. If you arent stressing about the 4 minute one, this one is largely a test of patience. You should be adequetly familiar with the level design at this point. As such, I will help with any section I deem troubling:

• The first major obstacle is after the 2 button pressing platforms, where the platform is shuffling around very fast. You may have used Time Stop before, but now you cant.The hit detection of this is particularly bizarre, as it will not allow you to wall climb up it unless you hit the very center of the top square of the platform as seen in the image below. I recommend jumping toward it the moment it stops moving when it has made it to the right side, and you should with some practice land properly, and immediately wall climb.
• After the mafia goon, the platforms are litterd with exploding eggs.For the one just after the mafia goon, tiptoe to spawn the egg then hold back until it explodes (or jump over it), and the rest you will be fine just running past.
• For the first spider part, you will need to time a good umbrella swing on the rightward spider, pretty much when you’re just a hairlength from touching its hitbox or triggering its spinning attack
• The second spider part, I simply recommend jumping onto the platform once it reaches you, and using the moment to jump past the spiders entirely instead of attacking either, making sure you land on the platform again afterwards and quickly jumping off of it to the next.
  Video:

You are now timed

Clear the mission in 7:00, 6:30, or 6:00 or less

Sprint Hat will save you, as will knowing this mission by heart as the only difference is the timer. Utilize the fact that if you fall from one end of the island, you’ll spawn at the beginning, to cut travel time. Thus, suicide every time you kill a flower. There’s plenty of heart pons so it is fine!

My recommended path is Bird Sanctuary -> Windmill -> Lava Cake

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• Collect all Pages
• Collect all Rift Pons

A largely relaxing mission in the mountains! Nothing too tricky or gimmicky here. Have a nice break after all those mean Death Wishes!

• 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!
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 16 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 and 3 (Pons #1-11), and just zerging out to the time piece.

• Room 1 – No pons.
• Room 2 – (5 pons, 3 total to progress)
  • 1. Immediately shoot right, for the hookshot, and grab the pon
  • 2. Climb up the same mountain for the next pon
  • 3. Continue to the top of the mountain, run to the other side with the wooden plank sticking out, and make a long jump just as you’re at the end, aiming for the tree with the pon on it at the bottom
  • 4. Afterwards, jump onto the rope to the right of the tree, jump onto the next mountain, and immediately go left to the one with the cat sign on it for the one in the tree
  • 5. Make your way to the portal to the next level, grabbing the pon on the mountain you were just at along the way
• Room 3 – (6 pons, 4 total to progress)
  • 6. Directly in front of you when you begin the room
  • 7. Go straight up from the above pon and it will be laying on a birds nest
  • 8. From that pon, continue up to the hookshots, but don’t climb on the small pillar as it is a waste of time, just long jump toward it, swiming your hookshot to aim you at the pon above the burnt tree
  • 9. On the 3rd-lowest plank of woods just after this pon
  • 10. From the above pon, face the lavafall and do a really long jump to make it to the other side, picking up the pon at the lavafall
  • 11. Continue down the water and it is in the waterfall
• Room 4 – (5 pons, 4 total to progress)
  • 12. After entering, the moment you go on the bridge, do a sharp right downward to a small plank in front of a birdhouse under a waterfall for a pon
  • 13. Climb up the birdhouse in front of you from this pon, one is on a birdnest inside.
  • 14. Continue up the birdhouse, and once you make it out try to jump from the edge of the balcony to the white stone block on the northeast. Climb up the waterfall and the pon is at the end
  • 15. Return to the start of the waterfall but jump right to the top of the arcway for the next pon
  • 16. Located on a wooden plank in front of a birdhouse after the 2nd arcway.

  The Time Piece will take 4 hits to break free

  Video:

• Take a picture of 8 different enemies
• Take a picture of 6 different bosses
• Take a picture of 3 different enemies in 1 shot

Take a picture of 8 different enemies – This can be:

• Mafia – Mafia Town
• Rat – Down with the Mafia on the ceiling where Cooking Cat is
• Crow – Birdhouse or Mafia Town
• UFOs – Picture Perfect in Chapter 2 has one right in front of the fountain
• Pushy “Elvis” Crow – fulfilled by above objective, but The Birdhouse.
• Egg Bomb – The Birdhouse, 1st giant birdhouse.
• Spiders – Either Subcon Forest, Sleepy Subcon, or The Finale
• Burning Crow – The Lava Cake has some nearby, or The Finale has one right in front of you when you begin
• Express Owls – I think the one’s in Train Rush work, otherwise The Finale has them after the first Ice Platform
• Sleepy Raccoon – You can find them in either the Lava Cake, The Finale, Sleepy Subcon, or Mafia Town during “She Came from Outerspace.”
• Thief Cats – Either The Finale, Skyline’s Purple Rift, or the alternate route path to Birdhouse
• Octopus – Probably the one you forgot existed. They’re in either Sleepy Subcon, Deep Sea, or at the very end of the docks near the ship in “Bon Voyage.” In case you forgot, they’re the enemies with a bandage on their head that emit shockwaves.

Take a picture of 6 different bosses – These include, and can be done with them on any mission where they exist, including Death Wishes:

• Mafia Boss
• The Conductor
• DJ Grooves
• Toilet of Doom
• Snatcher
• One of the plants from “The Illness has Spread/Speedrun”
• Mustache GirlYes, DJ Grooves and The Conductor count as separate bosses and thus “Killing Two Birds” will easily give you 2 bosses. Otherwise, do remember the plants in The Illness count.

Take a picture of 3 different enemies in 1 shot –

The quickest way to get this shot for me was The Birdhouse. The very first birdhouse has a Crow, Egg, and Pushy Crow in the vicinity. I recommend zerging up the birdhouse to spawn the Egg and jump onto the nest to attract the Pushy Crow, and then jumping back to the lower nest but midair taking out the camera before the Egg explodes and positioning the camera to face downward until you see 3 rectangles for the 3 enemies, like so