Shantae Any% (Pirate) Routing Notes: Do Tutorial (I mean opening sequence) -Recommend learning how to effectively Risky Charge and Cannoning through screens to keep speed. Can run into running soldiers for possible RNG drops like Pike Balls. During bridge sequence, save time by using a Pike Ball before entering the room and using saber to fall and cause the explosives to go off (Stick to right wall). After Baron Fight, take down Cacklebat as fast as possible, learning best strategy to minimize flights and getting hits in with cannon jumps if needed is recommended for best time.
Talk to Sky to get Library Card and do mandatory save before attempting to leave town. (Note: you can save time here by also buying a Pirate Flare before doing save if you have the spare gems, but realize that will require a bit more gems in sewers to make up for it. 1 Flare is 30 gems, so if you have after opening sequence, consider buying) Do a Risky Shuffle/Charge through Lilac Fields, hitting scarecrow for potential RNG drops and building charge to run right through wall without slowdown. Maintain charge to speak to Squid Baron then enter sewers.
Saber bouncing off of Snakes in narrow areas allows some item duplication for food drops. You need 3 just to talk to Bolo for the key, but the rest will be used for food floats throughout the run.
Gather pots in sewers in Third screen (Risky Charge into right wall at bottom and shoot the two pots. Again in 4th screen on right behind snake, purple blocks.
Continue to get Flesh Pops throughout all of sewers as you get Brochure. Give Pops to Bolo For Key and then charge to give Brochure to Squid Baron for the Squid Oil. Open palace door and get map. (If you bought a flare, use immediately upon leaving the palace. To skip Risky’s dialogue in town, just press and hold jump and the right directional during the Flare animation and you’ll jump away from her before you get caught) (If you did not buy a flare, just charge back left all the way through Lilac Fields and back to down, using cannon jumps to get up to Sky’s door.)
Return Library Card to Sky for 100 gems and then go shopping. Shopping 1: (Have to have 155 gems) • Potion x4 • Pirate Flare x3 • SPB x1
Charge over to Risky after shopping to be sent off to next island
Saliva Island: Charge and cannon jump/glide through first screen and use secret tunnel behind visible mermaid on the cliff (Hold down and press jump to enter) Go to right and do potion drop to sequence break into Spittle Maze -Skip is done by doing a Risky Shuffle and charge left. Use potion in loading zone, a couple of strong cannon jumps up to avoid the loading zone before gliding right with hat and then Saber dropping in (About where old man is standing)
In room after first save guy, do another Risky Shuffle left into loading zone and initiate a potion drop. This skip requires some practice and timing. The best way to execute is to do the drop, holding right as Shantae falls, getting clear of the loading zone, then timing two cannon jumps to clear the snakes that fall while continuing right. This should thread the needle and you can glide over to the loading zone on the left with the hat. (Note: Taking a hit from a snake here will result in a soft lock. If you miss the loading zone for whatever reason, and haven’t taken damage you can grab the chain below the door and this will reset your cannon shots, allowing you to boost back up to the loading zone and trying again, but watch out for any snakes that have come right and into the alcove above the chain as they will hit you)
In next room just cannon jump your way up, recommending you grab the pots by the door for needed gems in next shopping, and continue off to the left. After fire statue room, cannon up to upper left and recommend taking one bit of damage before you leave this room to allow you to attempt what is probably the most difficult trick in the speedrun.
The next room is a gauntlet that would normally force you to fight two wet men. Early runners will not attempt to skip this as you are likely to take damage and get soflocked in the attempt, thus killing the run, so early on recommend just skipping taking the damage coming in and fighting them with cannon shots and saber bounces.
For the advanced, take the damage on the way in and attempt the Wet Man Skip. Having damage allows the auto potion to be used. You have a couple of frames as you are entering the room where the potion will trigger and she will be considered in the loading zone where she will drop through the floor. When triggered one immediate cannon jump should get you over the first spawning Wet Man, avoiding his hit box and while holding left, two more cannon shots should get you to the other side. Would recommend a late hat deployment to ensure you don’t miss the loading zone on the left. If done too soon, the Wet Men will activate and they will be harder to avoid since they will charge that left wall.
In the next room just cannon up making sure to shoot the pot at the top left and sucking in the gems before continuing then go right to fight the boss
Cyclops Plant: Fight is very simple when done right. First phase only requires a few steps to the side and then cannoning up to the ceiling being close enough to avoid damage but still being able to deploy the Saber and bouncing between it and the ceiling. This will take practice. Phase 2, is a little trickier, but same premise. Just wait out the eye to come at you and as it comes up, try to have saber deployed with Shantae up against the ceiling to have it deal out a lot of damage before it shoots off. With four good rounds of this, as it comes in finally a cannon shot or two on it will finish. (Watch any Speedrun Video of this for a visual and remember it’ll likely take some practice for both Phases).
After getting map, just immediately flare to get back to Risky and head off the Spiderweb Island
SpiderWeb Island: The island itself is pretty straightforward. Other than a mound here and there to stop a charge you can easily rush through this, but ensure that you stop to get the first chest you see underground (3rd screen in) to get the Fossil. Continue on through island and to Run Run Rottytops
Run Run Rottytops….. Yeah. (Nuff said)
After Run Run go down and right to return her to Abner and exit, Risky Charging back to left and through wall in next screen to speak to Poe and give him Squid Oil and take the offered carriage ride to earn your reward….. Shriveled Thing (It still smells)
From Poe, just leave right and go up and back left to take the Shriveled Thing to the Dungeon door and enter Cackle Tower.
Enter Cackle Tower and just charge left and drop through next room, setting up charge for the next room back right. If lucky, get a Super Pike drop from a large skeleton you hit. In room past save guy, drop to the bottom and do Risky Shuffle, using food in the loading zone and pressing jump to do a food float. This room can be tricky to avoid loading zones, so figure your comfort zone on how to hit the loading zone at the very top without either soft locking or going into a room that you don’t want to enter. (To slow your ascent, if you wish, you can jump, cannon, then shoot the pistol which will allow you to deploy the hat. For some reason, this slows Shantae so you can better aim for the loading zone you want)
In the ascending room with the updraft, spikes and statues, you have the option of doing a food float from right hand loading zone to get to the loading zone at top right, but only if you can spare the food, otherwise, just do as intended or land on the statues and cannon up before taking the updraft. Continue up and take on Empress Spider.
Empress Spider: Recommend you handle at your comfort level. You bought the SPB earlier for this fight, so use immediately. If you got some sort of Monster Milk, you have the option to use it here rather than later, but you’d want some RNG on your favor for later bosses. Again, runner’s choice. The fight is pretty simple. The idea is to get damage into her fast to minimize movement and cycles. Advanced strat is to stick Shantae into the monster’s hitbox where you can whip, cannon it, and be able to trigger a midair damage jump to reset your cannon and keep you in the air with the pike ball also helping. Early runs would recommend cannoning up to whip it in the face and have the SPB help damage as well as when it drops to the floor, saving help to avoid potential death until you get more familiar with the boss and Shantae’s movement in air.
After boss, get map and Pirate Flare out to be taken to Tan Line Island
Tan Line Island: Immediately, charge right upon arrival. You want to hit the cactus for possible Bubble Shield/Monster Milk drops, saving you gem need and a shopping trip late. Keep charging even through the big wall in screen two, stopping to suck in the gems from the pots you break while in the wall and keep charging right to get the Enchanted Blade. Also, hope for Super Pike Ball drops from the skeletons both coming in and on the way out on the crumbling bridge. Return to the giant wall you ran through and get the pots again then go up through loading zone up and right past Scorp Gal (Optional, kill Scorp Gal for possible drop as they have a 25% chance of dropping either a Super Monster Milk or Super Pike Ball, but this can waste time in a run) Continue right to talk to Squid Baron for X-Ray Specs and go right to perform Tan Line Temple Skip This skip can be done in a couple of ways. Fastest way: In the screen after Squid Baron, do a Risky Shuffle/potion drop into the left loading zone. Hold right to have Shantae come back away from the loading zone and do a few jump/whip hovers to get her back above ground and use cannon a couple of times to increase her horizontal speed and more altitude then hat hover to the right, to reach the purple block past the wall. The third cannon shot can be used as well, if needed, but reserved as a safety net to ensure the block is reached. Missing the loading zone beneath the block results in a softlock and the wall you clip through can sometimes halt Shantae’s progress with a wrong timed cannon shot. Slightly slower, safer way: In the screen where Squid Baron gives you the X-Ray Specs, you can do a charge and potion drop into the right hand loading zone that would lead you to the workers where the faster skip would occur. Doing a full jump and three cannon blasts straight up then hat hovering back left and dropping into the floor where the large block left of the slope is will give you the loading zone into where a Cacklebat is hiding. You can Risky Charge out of that room and traverse the pit room beyond to bring you to where the purple block is.
Defeat the Final Boss of the game (Purple Block): This used to be a jump/pistol mash fest, but TKY has discovered that when you get into that block from doing the skip, you press left and then tap right and then jump and shoot the pistol will generally break the block instantly allowing you to be free.
Continue through the next few screens all the way to the right. When you reach the screen with the Scorp Gal just before the right exit, you have the option to farm the Scorp Gal here by killing her and going back out and in the adjacent screen. Ideally, you’d like to have enough Super Pike Balls and Super Monster Milks for each of the remaining bosses (4 of each in total) if you don’t trust your ability to take on the bosses under buffed. There is some shopping you can do to mitigate some of that RNG with a shortish gem grind session during the route as well, if need be. Again, runner’s choice but fastest to rely on skill/RNG than take the time to farm the Scorp Gal.
Keep proceeding right to Catacombs.
Once in the catacombs, just go immediately right and drop down to the middle entrance (where the cactus monster walks off the ledge) and kill it again for Bubble/Milk possible drop. Set up Risky Charge and go through the right entrance, breaking blocks and killing cactus monsters. As you hit the far right loading zone here, do a potion drop and time coming out to the left to avoid the spikes so you can trigger the loading zone (Believe a hat deployment will slow you to do this easier, but you cannot see Shantae as she’ll be in the wall, so will take practice). Alternatively, just use Saber/Cannon to bust your way down this room.
The next room is a gauntlet room. Using a Risky Shuffle once monsters spawn is quick way to handle the first wave. The mantis can take another, but you need to immediately jump cannon to finish it off with three more shots. The last wave is two Scorp Gals that 6 cannon shots each will take down. You can hope on some RNG drops on the Cactus (Monster Milk) and Scorp Gals (Super Monster Milks/Pike Balls), if you’re feeling luck.
Next room is the crusher room. This can be charged under for a one-cycle and has a relatively consistent set up. As you enter the room, immediately just push down to make Shantae crouch. Count 4 butt wiggles then start your set up for the Risky charge by walking to the last vertical line you see in the floor before the crusher, than back to the first, then head back right. If done right, Shantae will light up just as you pass the second line in the floor, but wait to launch the charge just a tad longer to ensure she runs under the ascending crusher. (Video of one-cycle set-up: )
With proper timing you will run all the way through without stopping. If you bonk the charge or start it too late and miss it going, you can do the room normal, busting purple blocks to avoid getting crushed or exiting the room and going back in to reset the crusher and trying the one-cycle again. Once passed, time to take on Squid Baron!
Squid Baron has similar patterns in each of his phases. Consider your available buffs available on how you want to handle this boss. Would at least recommend using a Super Pike Ball to help control his cycles and still output good DPS, but adding a regular Monster Milk if you have one available, can help take him down relatively fast. Squid Baron will always start with a charge at Shantae which you should mix Saber bounces and maybe cannon shots on his head as he goes back and forth. He will cross the room at you, back and at you again before stopping on the left side where you can use the pike ball and whipping to put out the best damage. Then he starts jumping, based on RNG to either the left, middle or right side of the room. When he lands, jump over the resulting wave while using the pike ball and whipping. He will repeat his charge attack at Shantae and ideally, you will beat his first phase as that charge comes to an end. This will manipulate his opening move in phase 2. If not, he will go into an eating/healing phase where you can keep hitting him and then start over with charging after that phase. Baron 2.0 will start with him putting on armor after moving to the center of the room. You can buffer your jump during his animation to get over him and do a Saber bounce to remove the armor. If you beat Squid Baron at the end of his second charge in round 1, he will go into a healing phase where he eats and you can dish out the damage on him for the duration. If he ate in Phase 1, then he will start charging after the armor break instead. The charge works the same way as in phase 1 and hopefully you beat him during this. If not, then he will do a jumping phase where he will do three slams from either left, middle and right in turn (based on RNG, so you have to jump over all three waves while putting damage on him). If he is still up after this, he will put armor on again and repeat these cycles.
Once defeated, you’ll get the next map from him and you can immediately flare out to get back to Risky. (NOTE: Mandatory Flare as you can’t leave the screen with the Wall without crashing)
Before going to Mud Bog, need to make a quick pit stop back in Scuttle town. Going right on the world map is faster to reach it. Charge to the shop and stock up on the following at least:
Shopping 2: (130 gems) • Potion x2 • Pirate Flare x4 • OPTIONAL: Buy a Monster Milk here if you didn’t farm for them or don’t have the drops from RNG (Add 50 gems – 180 total for trip)
Get Death Mask from Bolo (In Mimic’s Workshop) before leaving and then head back to Mud Bog Island
Mud Bog Island: Learning how to effectively charge through this island will save you a lot of grief. Practice the blitz of Mud Bog to make things smooth. If you get caught or hung up on anything, the run can be killed pretty quickly as monsters mass on you. This is something that comes with practice and hard to explain in a write up, so watch any Any% run for a good feel of how it works with cannon shots and hat floats. Show the Hexxer the Death Mask and you get entry to the Village of Lost Souls. Just charging with timed hat deployment will keep you movement smooth all the way through the gamer room to the right and then down to get the Blue coin then charging back out and charging into the wall to make gems drop to be sucked up then cannon back up through the Reaper room to get the Green Coin through the hole in the ceiling. Drop back down to head back into the village of Lost Souls Timing the Risky Shuffle to charge as you enter the loading zone where the Gamers and HealthyTops is and then triggering the charge in the new screen will give you the charge through that room. If you trigger before you go in, an invisible wall of sorts stops the charge and you just need to recharge the shuffle and run out of the bottom left and then cannon/hat/run your way to the far lower left. Saber down the ghost room, potentially picking up the gems in the lowest floor by shooting the pistol through the floor (3 pots exist in the wall, so 3 shots). Charge off to the right and note that you can charge through the protruding floor pieces, though it’s faster to have a well-timed jump to not get caught and charge through this room. Running into far right wall of the room with the Red Coin will cause more gems to fall you will want to collect. Jump up and whip open the chest and suck in the gems while waiting for the key to become collectable and then head back to the left, either charging through the protruding rock or jumping over at least one of them. Again, consider pausing to shoot three times through the floor in the vertical room for the pots if you need to buy anything for endgame. You can use this as a gem farming spot to really mitigate your RNG if you need to buy a Bubble Shield and buffs for Steel Maggot and Pirate Master (See Shopping 3 list for price of these to determine how many you want to get). Ascend and return back to the Gamers for the most rousing RNG game of the game. Heads or Tails. This is a horrible RNG moment, but not super terrible. Menu to always pick heads. Perfect RNG would get Heads on all three Gamers first cycle. Likely, you won’t get this, but after 3 fails, you’ll get an automatic win on your 4th cycle, so just menu heads until win. Get the Locket and give to Healthy Tops who was watching you play silly games this whole time. She will give you the flame and just head out through the upper right and cannon up through the hole in the ceiling and give the fire to the pit to the right. Get the manly musk and drop through the hole again and down to the bottom of the room and go right to open up the Oubliette of Suffering.
In Any% This dungeon is very short. Immediately charge right, learning how to manage your cannon and hat properly to keep your charge going with minimal monster contact until you reach the next room. Go past the save guy and drop down and launch another Risky Charge and platform across the next room with the large lava pool. Saber down below the raised platform to open a hole and drop into next room.
Go into the cage on the right and hit the switch with your hair and charge up your Risky Shuffle while the cage moves to the middle platform and launch so you charge through the grey block. While in charge, a jump, one cannon shot and hat floating should get you through this room without issue and get you to the other side. Once there, prepare to fight Dagron: Destroyer of Runs
Dagron seems to have a penchant for coming to where Shantae is, however it’s not always the case, so you have to be ready to react for a quick kill. Ideally, you again want to have a Super Pike and Super Milk for this fight, but chose what you want to use on what you have and what you’ll have left to do. (Remember you can shop before the next boss as well, so keep in mind based on your gem grind).
Dagron will immediately ascend off screen at the start of the battle and will charge in from the left, so you need to stage yourself on the right to start. Ideally, stand and wait for him where the furthest right pillar is so you avoid a hit and be in the best place to hit him. You will hear a “Swooshing” sound before he comes on screen, so you get an audio queue of sorts to prepare for him coming in. Cannon up to get to head height and whip him to knock him to the ground and whip him as much as you can with the pike ball also hitting. You can also ascend with him whipping him a few more times before he leaves screen, then prepare for him to come from the right. Lining up on the left most pillar to do the same. Just repeat this until he goes down. Keep in mind that his speed increases with damage dealt, so he will get faster as the fight goes on meaning you have less time to set up between rounds.
Once down, get the map and charge left from the dungeon after getting the Soul and cannon up and through the village room and on left. Flare when you get out to where the Hexxer is and head off to Frostbite Island.
Frostbite 1: Immediately just charge right. Ice slopes will slow you so mixing cannon and hat will get you across these screens fast. Take practice to avoid and stopping points and will help learn the places to recharge your cannon. Just use cannon and chain to get up the large vertical screen, though you could food float to the top if you have the food to spare. Runner’s choice.
In Propeller Town, just go past the save guy and through the next screen through top right exit. In next screen, perform a food float and fly to the top most left loading zone (Not first platform, but second.) Missing that loading zone will result in a soft lock unless you have a spare potion to drop you back down, so remember the slower ascent method if you want to employ it until you get the timing down for the fast version.
Charge the next screen or take it normal, and skip over as much of the conveyer room to avoid the bots and get the Targeting Module from Bolo. Immediately Flare out, talk to Risky and go back to Spider Web Island. Charge right (avoiding stopping points) to speak to Poe and take the carriage. Charge right again and go talk to Abner and Rotty. Talking to Abner again will also get you a Pirate Flare by giving the Death Mask, if you need one. Flare out and talk to Risky and go back to Scuttle Town. Charge and do what should be your final shopping of the run. Shopping 3: Make up for lack in item need • 1 Potion (10 gems) • 1 Flare (30 gems) • 1 Bubble (25 gems) – If you didn’t get one during the course of the run • Total of 65 gems needed for this, but… Consider if you have the spare money: • Optional Items to mitigate RNG, buffs for last 2 fights o Monster Milk 50 gems (or 3 for 130) o Super Monster Milk 75 gems (or 3 for 200) o Pike Ball 20 gems (or 3 for 50) o Super Pike Ball 40 gems (or 3 for 100) Though grinding for gems is slow in any route, just things to consider for your own runs. In the current WR run, two Monster Milks were bought optionally to have the extra damage output for the final two bosses.
Charge off to the right to get back to the Sequin Land Palace and talk to Bran-son (Big dude in pink shirt) to give the Enchanted Blade. Flare out after sequence (SWAG Points for the flare launching into his package. AKA: Nutbuster). Return to Sky’s to give the soul to the statue and revive Joe. Exit and speak to Ammo Baron to give Target Module and talk to Ammo Baron again to trigger sequence. After cutscene return to Risky and go back to Frostbite Island. Frostbite 2: Charge again to the right, avoiding all you can in the first screen and charge into the newly opened hole and do Abandoned Factory. Again, this is a pretty short dungeon thanks to a couple of skips, but they aren’t free. Inside of Abandoned Factory, drop and charge right in first room. A single jump and one cannon shot with hat gliding will get you across the room. Go past the save and then execute a Risky Shuffle back into the left loading zone to the save guy and do a potion drop. This will take timing as she falls fast and you need to hit the next loading zone down to the left. In a falling state, Shantae can jump like she is on ground once so you should trigger the drop, hold right to get her back in sight and as the key door appears, jump and move left to hit the loading zone. If you miss, you have three cannon shots you can use to attempt to get her into it, so don’t panic completely if you miss. (Again… Practice).
In the next room, again Risky Shuffle back to the right and perform a food float. When you trigger the float, whip Shantae’s hair once then hold left. This will cause Shantae to “Walk” moving her faster to the left. Keep holding left until you hear the “Twink” of the Risky Charge and trigger the charge to have her run left. Keep running until you see the end of the platform in the middle of the screen (end of the closer back wall where you can see more in the distance. Use a potion and keep holding left again until you hear the Risky Charge “Twink” and launch the charge to keep her running left. Items will respawn on the screen like chains and stuff as Shantae gets closer to the draw zone, so be ready. As Shantae reappears on screen, you can again do a normal jump to get her through the zone, but recommend early on to stop her charge (tap to the right) and use her cannon and hat to float her into the loading zone on the left until you get more familiar with the timing of the skip.
This food float has a few iterations, but the fastest was detailed here. A couple of backups are linked below in provided YouTube Links based on what you might have available or other ways you can try this out. Alternate Method 1: Alternate Method 2:
Take on Steel Maggot. (AKA: RNG… The Boss) Maggot has a simple enough gimmick. The buttons on the top should be shot with a cannon blast to trigger. The sequence changes every run, so it is never really the same. You have to find the right order to hit them to turn them all green where his vulnerable spot will appear from his back side for attacking him. Wrong button presses will result in a spread fire from him that can be ducked under on the ground behind him to avoid damage. Would wait to employ any buffs (Milks/Pike Balls) until you’re about to expose his weak spot to maximize your damage and not use multiples as this fight can drag on if the patterns don’t cooperate.
Once taken down, Flare out to get back to Risky (or, if out of Flares, just Risky Charge back to the beginning as it’s only a screen and a half distance that is pretty quick).
Talking to Risky will take you to the Lonely Grave. Just run into the next screen, watch the cutscene and return to TinkerTub and take him back to Scuttle Town for the final showdown with the Pirate Master.
ScuttleTown Return: Everything’s dark and ominous. The monsters in Lilac Fields have changed. This is your last chance to buy anything you will need for the Pirate Master (Bubble, Milks or Balls) if you have any gems, but since collection was minimal, you’ll likely skip this. Charge off to the right and make your way to the Palace, remembering that you can charge through the large wall near the end instead of going over it. If you need any food at all at this point for performing the final Food Float of the game, just run all the way into the sewers and get one from a snake, as a last resort.
Enter the palace and charge through the first hallway to the next room.
Note, this room is one of two in the entire game where you can just walk back into the loading zone and still be able to do the food float rather than Risky Shuffle charging in (We don’t know why this is, but it is). So, think about ending your charge at the end of the first room and walking in then turning right back around and doing the food float. Fly all the way up, immediately holding right when you trigger the float but not to the point of getting to the other wall until it turns fleshy. Having Shantae halfway into the sprite of the wall makes hitting the loading zone at the top easier, but again you can do the pistol and hat deployment to slow her ascent if you’re not feeling confident. Just remember it’s a very long ascent.
Once in at the top, go past the save guy and charge right through the candles until you reach the Pirate Master.
In Any% you only have his first phase to deal with. As soon as the fight starts launch whatever buffs you have left (Bubble is definitely needed, and any Milks/Pike Balls you have) and fight him. You want to whip and get Pike Ball hits on him as much as possible during this phase. He will teleport either to the left, right or center based on RNG and you can add an additional hit or two in by jumping while whipping (no cannon shots). Just follow him around and avoid any damage if you can as each hit you take is 4 points of damage. The Bubble will protect you from his projectiles, so don’t worry about them. After a bit, he will teleport between the two spine platforms that appear. You can stand on the edge of a platform and get some good hits in, but it’s tight and you risk taking a physical hit in this case, so consider jump whipping if you’re more in control of Shantae here. Lastly, he will teleport to either the left or right and start charging up lasers. These lasers will one-shot Shantae and you can tell their firing line by the lines that appear in the reticles. Ideally, you will take him down before these go off, but if you can’t you can find a safe spot between them to avoid and PM will start over again with the original pattern of attacks.
Once you take him down, the music will stop and that’s your final split. GG! You can mash through or read text at your leisure and enjoy your completed run.
