Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I recently did a low% playthrough of Hard Core mode in Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Ultimate Edition) on Switch. I finished with a completion rate of 28%. My upgrades were as follows:
Monkey
Crab
Elephant
Mouse
Harpy
Mermaid
Monkey Bullet
Crab Claw
Elephant Stomp
Mermaid Bubble
This video shows a few of the trickiest parts of a low% run. I've listed them below, along with the timestamp where each one starts.
Dual Barons (0:00):
I have the option of killing either of the barons first; the survivor will go berserk. If Squid Baron goes berserk, he will spend the rest of the battle doing a sped-up version of his attack where he jumps around and sends out shockwaves. It seems very difficult to fight him if this happens. On the other hand, berserk Hypno Baron is fairly easy to fight with Monkey Bullet. So, I kill Squid Baron first and let Hypno Baron go berserk.
Mermaid Tunnel (17:08):
The tunnel isn't very long, but there are many things that can kill me in one hit, including the mines and the Tinkerbats' harpoons. One technique that helps is to let myself be pushed off the screen by a wall. This only costs half a heart and warps me forward quite a way (one might say way forward). However, after I warp, I can't control my movement for a while, which can get me killed. Despite this drawback, I found a couple places where this screen scrolling technique is useful.
Risky Boots (19:09):
If I die during the sequence of three final boss fights, I'm sent back to the beginning of the whole sequence.
The Risky battle is long and most of her attacks (including merely touching me) kill me in one hit. But as long as I remain patient and focus on where she is in her very regular attack pattern, it's not too difficult. Every now and then I lose track of her pattern, so I simply retreat to the safety of the crab's shell and wait until I recognize the pattern again.
After beating Risky, I took a short break. I sped up this part of the video.
Tinkerbrain 1 (1:02:13):
This battle is trivial, but I included it because it's part of the sequence of final boss fights.
Tinkerbrain 2 (1:05:30):
While this battle is shorter than the Risky battle, it's quite a bit harder. Almost everything kills me in one hit; the only exception is that if I attack a genie's shield, I lose a quarter heart. Each genie has two attacks: she can send two black flames around the circle, or she can launch four sets of lightning balls. As far as I can tell, there's no pattern to the order in which the genies attack, which attacks they use, or which one lowers her shield; it all seems random. When one genie is partway through her attack, another genie will start hers. Thus, there is an overlap during which two genies are attacking. The crab's shell provides complete protection from the enemies, but I need to switch back to girl form in order to attack, which leaves me vulnerable. In order to gain some measure of safety, I like to wait until one enemy attack starts, then immediately switch to girl form. This gives me a little time before another genie attacks. The ideal scenario is that a faraway genie uses the lightning ball attack; not only is the lightning too far away to hit me, but the attack lasts a while, giving me some time before I need to turn back into a crab. However, as the battle progresses, the overlap between enemy attacks becomes larger, so I have less time to safely spend outside the crab's shell. This can necessitate some sketchy moves because the gaps between enemy attacks are simply not large enough for me to attack with perfect safety.
A genie's shield doesn't stay down very long, and if the genie is far from me, then I typically don't have time to safely reach her and attack before the shield reappears. So, I mostly just wait until a nearby genie lowers her shield, then try to make my way over to her. Once I've hit her five times, she turns into an energy ball, which I have to hit in order to send it toward Tinkerbrain. His rotating shield complicates things. It spins rapidly, then slows down and stops for a few seconds, then speeds up again. If I attempt to knock an energy ball forward while the shield is moving rapidly, then my chances of success seem low (although I didn't test this very much). So, I prefer to wait until the shield is moving slowly. But if I wait too long, the energy ball will turn back into a genie. For this reason, I like to land the final blow on a genie (turning her into an energy ball) either when the shield is stationary or when it's moving rapidly; in the latter case, the shield will stop before the energy ball disappears. However, even if there's an opening in Tinkerbrain's shield, there might not be a break in the genies' attacks, in which case I'll just have to remain in the crab's shell.
As I've described, landing even one hit on Tinkerbrain requires quite a few factors to line up in my favor. So, I need to be patient while waiting for the right moment to strike.
I recently did a low% playthrough of Hard Core mode in Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (Ultimate Edition) on Switch. I finished with a completion rate of 28%. My upgrades were as follows:
Monkey
Crab
Elephant
Mouse
Harpy
Mermaid
Monkey Bullet
Crab Claw
Elephant Stomp
Mermaid Bubble
This video shows a few of the trickiest parts of a low% run. I've listed them below, along with the timestamp where each one starts.
Dual Barons (0:00):
I have the option of killing either of the barons first; the survivor will go berserk. If Squid Baron goes berserk, he will spend the rest of the battle doing a sped-up version of his attack where he jumps around and sends out shockwaves. It seems very difficult to fight him if this happens. On the other hand, berserk Hypno Baron is fairly easy to fight with Monkey Bullet. So, I kill Squid Baron first and let Hypno Baron go berserk.
Mermaid Tunnel (17:08):
The tunnel isn't very long, but there are many things that can kill me in one hit, including the mines and the Tinkerbats' harpoons. One technique that helps is to let myself be pushed off the screen by a wall. This only costs half a heart and warps me forward quite a way (one might say way forward). However, after I warp, I can't control my movement for a while, which can get me killed. Despite this drawback, I found a couple places where this screen scrolling technique is useful.
Risky Boots (19:09):
If I die during the sequence of three final boss fights, I'm sent back to the beginning of the whole sequence.
The Risky battle is long and most of her attacks (including merely touching me) kill me in one hit. But as long as I remain patient and focus on where she is in her very regular attack pattern, it's not too difficult. Every now and then I lose track of her pattern, so I simply retreat to the safety of the crab's shell and wait until I recognize the pattern again.
After beating Risky, I took a short break. I sped up this part of the video.
Tinkerbrain 1 (1:02:13):
This battle is trivial, but I included it because it's part of the sequence of final boss fights.
Tinkerbrain 2 (1:05:30):
While this battle is shorter than the Risky battle, it's quite a bit harder. Almost everything kills me in one hit; the only exception is that if I attack a genie's shield, I lose a quarter heart. Each genie has two attacks: she can send two black flames around the circle, or she can launch four sets of lightning balls. As far as I can tell, there's no pattern to the order in which the genies attack, which attacks they use, or which one lowers her shield; it all seems random. When one genie is partway through her attack, another genie will start hers. Thus, there is an overlap during which two genies are attacking. The crab's shell provides complete protection from the enemies, but I need to switch back to girl form in order to attack, which leaves me vulnerable. In order to gain some measure of safety, I like to wait until one enemy attack starts, then immediately switch to girl form. This gives me a little time before another genie attacks. The ideal scenario is that a faraway genie uses the lightning ball attack; not only is the lightning too far away to hit me, but the attack lasts a while, giving me some time before I need to turn back into a crab. However, as the battle progresses, the overlap between enemy attacks becomes larger, so I have less time to safely spend outside the crab's shell. This can necessitate some sketchy moves because the gaps between enemy attacks are simply not large enough for me to attack with perfect safety.
A genie's shield doesn't stay down very long, and if the genie is far from me, then I typically don't have time to safely reach her and attack before the shield reappears. So, I mostly just wait until a nearby genie lowers her shield, then try to make my way over to her. Once I've hit her five times, she turns into an energy ball, which I have to hit in order to send it toward Tinkerbrain. His rotating shield complicates things. It spins rapidly, then slows down and stops for a few seconds, then speeds up again. If I attempt to knock an energy ball forward while the shield is moving rapidly, then my chances of success seem low (although I didn't test this very much). So, I prefer to wait until the shield is moving slowly. But if I wait too long, the energy ball will turn back into a genie. For this reason, I like to land the final blow on a genie (turning her into an energy ball) either when the shield is stationary or when it's moving rapidly; in the latter case, the shield will stop before the energy ball disappears. However, even if there's an opening in Tinkerbrain's shield, there might not be a break in the genies' attacks, in which case I'll just have to remain in the crab's shell.
As I've described, landing even one hit on Tinkerbrain requires quite a few factors to line up in my favor. So, I need to be patient while waiting for the right moment to strike.
