I improved my time significantly by better movement and routing, frequently using Dash and Launch to speed myself up and picking up more things along the way during the initial visit to the area. I also used Flash to fight bosses instead of the upgraded bow. They seem to yield a similar damage output with the way I play, though Flash is more comfortable. Overall, I had just 11 deaths and none of them to bosses! Some quality-of-life improvements included avoiding the usage of Reckless shard in most platforming sections, and using Sticky and Triple Jump shards way more.

I'm using Sentry jumps for various shortcuts (including the Horned Beetle skip), Feeding Grounds skip to get an early Launch, exit to menu after many of cutscenes/levers/abilities (it's important to know where they won't work), Bow light in Mouldwood Depths. I'm not using out-of-bounds and spirit star skips.

3:36:30 is the loadless autosplitter time. The time with loads is 3:47:57, the time as reported by the game is 3:24:25.

Splits.io - https://splits.io/60ap Note, that some of mid- and late-game time wins/losses/golds are fake due to the route adjustments.