Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

PER SOME NEW COMMENTS I DID SOME ADDITIONAL RESEARCH. THIS GAME RECEIVED A “SUMMER SUPRISE” update that was not present at the time of the solution. It released in late 2018. I cant find definitive notes on the patch but its possible the times were nerfed on this edition as well. At the time these times were tested thoroughly, but if you struggle to make these outlined see the comments for a plan B.

As per usual with Shantae games there are four unique win screens. You'll get one just for beating the game. You don't have to get all four in one playthrough. They carry over between save files as well. The four win screens are:

1. Game Complete (Just Beat the Game).

2. 100 % (Collect all Dream Squids) [3 per level])

3. 100 % FASTEST TIME (aka Speed Run) The cut off for this is 1 Hour 5 Minutes. I did it in 47:29 without a guide on my first run. I recommend learning where the Dream Squids are in each level, not saving, then reload and replaying it and doing it flawlessly. Then save. Any time you fail make sure to go to main menu to load and not continue. Continue will add your fail time onto your total.

4. FASTEST TIME (aka Speed Run, no Dream Squids needed) The cut off for this is 50 minutes. I did a 100% run in 47:29 without a guide on my first playthrough. I did probably have a few sections I could do a little faster, but this one has the most "wiggle" room than other modes.

TIPS:

Included in these spoiler tags are my 100% run of 47:29 breakdowns. So you can see if you're ahead or behind my 47:29 pace. You'll have an extra 2 Minutes 31 Seconds off my pace in order to do all 4 win screens in one run. After each time you save, you can back out to main menu and look at your save file to see your current run time rounded to nearest minute.



-For bosses in general you're going to want to make sure you have the 2nd or 3rd power up. This gives you a extra damage with your hair whip.

-Use the beach balls to take down the Mermaid in seconds. Combination of Beach Balls and Hair Whip for Ammo Baron. Snail, and Worm shouldn't give you any problems. Dual Barons was the hardest in my opinion. Save the beach balls for the end and try to get both their health is down at the same time. If you kill one the other immediately goes into rampage mode so ideally you'll want the 2nd one low health so you can spam beach balls to finish him off.

Risky boots shouldn't be too bad. She doesn't damage Shantae very much so I just chased her and spammed Hair Whip mostly. I would get hit a lot but she does minimal damage. 2nd stage of power up or 3rd can't hurt. The only bosses the power up won't matter are Stages 1 & 3.

-Skillful use of the Bubble will be the key to skipping over hard enemies and saving loads of time. Pressing will activate the bubble. You can then pop this bubble early by pressing . While falling often times you will have enough time to use another bubble.

-Also when going for speed runs skip all dialogue as fast as possible by mashing the . According to good Super man some scenes allow you to skip a series of dialogue with , so try that first and then if it doesn't skip mash that !!

-If you still struggle for 50 minutes time, I recommend you do a 100% playthrough Speed Run followed by a Speed Run where you skip the Dream Squids. Make sure to start a new save file as continuing a previous save file from the base game or first DLC will add to your total time.