The Messenger

Forlorn Temple, first screen is your earliest opportunity to farm shards.

Jump on the 2 platforms on the right, jump across to the wall and climb up. Destroy the giant time shard. After destroying the Time Shard, jump back down, trigger the auto save at the shop door and return to the title screen. Load your save and go destroy it again. Rinse and repeat to farm shards to unlock most or all your available upgrades early on.




After destroying the Time Shard, you'll also receive Be Lootful and Multiply.

Quite obvious, just buy five different upgrades from the store with the orange Time Shards. I was going for the "No deaths before Queen of Quills" cheevo, so I tried to focus on health upgrades early on.