Subcon Forest

Background

Subcon Forest is the third Chapter of A Hat in Time, being a spooky stretch of woods that Hat Kid must traverse and brave through to collect her lost Time Pieces, all while trying to deal with The Snatcher, a mischievous and self-proclaimed owner of the forest whom has taken and held hostage Hat Kid's soul.

According to many sources throughout Subcon Forest, as well as the Storybooks provided by the both the Sleepy Subcon Time Rift and Seal the Deal DLC, it is said that the rulers of this place were a Prince and Princess who were in love with each other, they were in control of a small town home to many citizens.

But, one day the Princess walked in on the Prince with another lady, this made the Princess upset as she ran away, shortly after it is revealed the Prince was buying a bouquet for his lover. After trying to confront the Princess, the Prince was sent to the dungeon as what is thought to be darkness consumed the Princess. In the dungeon, the Prince starts to take the form of Snatcher.

After the confrontation and transformation of Queen Vanessa, the town is frozen over and the residents' lives taken. Their spirits would take on the form of the mask-wearing Dwellers, where some would remain this way. Others would be contracted with Snatcher after he had fully transformed, binding their souls into small stuffed dolls now known as Snatcher's Minions.

Subcon Forest is a large area, initially blocked off by the fiery walls of the Fire Spirits residing around the forest. For the most part, there are several key locations to be found, surrounded by large tracts of lands which house optional puzzles in order to collect more Yarn or Relics.

The Forest As its name implies, Subcon Forest dedicates a lot of its level to a large and sprawling forest, with many puzzles and paths to choose from, especially when platforming through the upper layer of trees wit various hook shot locations and leafy platforms.

Within the outskirts of the forest is also an abandoned village, which houses a Time Rift.

Augmented Behind Snatcher's home is a strange portion of the forest, having many oddities and anomalies held inside it that are not found anywhere else in the forest. Opened houses with frozen furniture, a massive hour glass which is stopped in time and its various pieces floating, and several objects expanded to large sizes. It can be presumed that this would be the area dedicated to a cut character, Moon Jumper.

Burning A large portion of the forest leftwards of Snatcher's home has been overtaken my ravenous flame, leaving the ground here blackened and the trees charred, with some of the fire still actively burning some of the vegetation. A large house is found near the center of this section of forest, itself burnt and holding a Relic at the top.

Swamp The swamp is rightwards of Snatcher's home, made up of a large boggy area which provides sparse platforming at the bottom layer and much more advanced platforms at the top. Inside here is a large well used to enter the Caves.

Snatcher's Home In the center of the forest, as well as near the start of Hat Kid's entree point, Snatcher's Home is a massive tree that he resides in, complete with some basic furniture like an empty closet, grandfather clock, a table and large chair with accompanying ottoman.

The house itself also provides a tricky platforming section, by following the Pons up the main spiky root from the bottom of the tree upward, the player can find a string of platforms, mushrooms and Snatcher's Minions to guide them further up the tree. The top ends with a massive cyan glowing mushroom that does not bounce, holding a reward and an achievement for getting on top of it.

After the player has completed Your Contract has Expired, Snatcher can be found in his home, sitting in the chair reading a book on how to kill kids, telling Hat Kid off for not following the guidelines in his contract to keep her out of the forest.

Village Subcon Village is the dwelling place of the spooky, mask-wearing Dwellers of Subcon Forest, populated by many of them and several other faceless creatures inside the tree-stump houses. A large river is found in the heart of the village, though it does not flow until Hat Kid unclogs the well in The Subcon Well, and will flow for every act onwards.

During the Toilet of Doom opening, the village is altered to have its Dweller inhabitants panicking, as several large pipes burst from the ground and unleash large streams of purple and yellow gases into the air, all caused presumably by the Toilet of Doom itself.

Caves Below the village is a series of caves, where glowing mushrooms and strange crystals grow. A network of pipes carries purple water through the caves. Giant white cherries can be found here, and can be activated and turned into bombs by bringing them near certain totems. The caves are also home to bats with glowing red patches on their bodies.

Manor Queen Vanessa lives in her spooky old manor. This building has three floors and a basement, which is flooded partially and in a state of disrepair. On the second floor, there is a picture that slowly fills in, first with Hat Kid's head without a face, and then with a creepy stitched face. The final floor is an attic in which the Time Piece is located with a Relic above. The attic also contains a mural on the back wall which resembles the Moon Jumper. Throughout the whole mansion, frozen creatures can be found, including Mafia Goons, Science Owls, Subcon Dwellers, and someone who looks like The Conductor from the Owl Express, alongside many cut character models which make cameos.

Arena At the back of the Village, there is a large chasm which can be traversed over with hookshot propellers which appear only in Act 3. After reaching the other side, a large circular arena is presented to the player, with some minor goodies outside the arena if searched for.

The arena houses two different boss battles depending on which Act is selected, either being the Toilet of Doom or Snatcher, where they will both battle Hat Kid in this arena.

In the center of the arena is a small pot of green ooze, which can damage Hat Kid if she steps in it. Above it is a hookshot spot, allowing Hat Kid to swing over it during the Toilet of Doom fight to pop bubbles or damage the Toilet outright.

Powers and Stats

Tier: 9-B, 2-C with Time Pieces

Civilization Type: Pre-Industrial Civilization

Name: Subcon Forest

Origin: A Hat in Time

Classification: Forest

Kardashev Level: Type 0

Age: Unknown (It is unknown how long the kingdom was around and how old The Snatcher and Queen Vanessa are)

Population: Unknown, likely around a hundred (The population is quite small as shown in the storybooks show a small amount of citizens along with Vanessa and The Snatcher, however during the Snatcher boss fight various Subcon citizens can be seen)

Territory: One Forest

Attack Potency: Wall level+ (Members such as The Snatcher in Seal the Deal shown to be capable of controlling all the past bosses and amping them, this includes even Mustache Girl with her time pieces. Other members can harm Hat Kid. Subcon Dwellers can help amplify Cherry Bombs to destroy objects Hat Kid herself could not), Universe level with Time Pieces (The time pieces can rewrite the timeline into an alternate reality. Mustache Girl with it's powers created a realm with stars and nebulae)

Power Source: Unknown

Industrial Capacity: Unknown (Likely most don’t need food due to their state of being)

Technology/Abilities:

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Small Size (Type 0), Undead Physiology, Immortality & Non-Corporeal (Type 7; Subcon Dwellers are souls of the original subcon citizens), Possession (Can possess objects to have a body or cherry bombs to create an explosion), possible Regeneration (Likely Low-Godly. Can seemingly reform themselves back into souls after self-destructing), Self-Destruction (Possessing cherry bombs allows them to self-destruct), Dimensional Travel (Dwellers can bring objects from other dimensions into the current dimension), BFR (Type 2; Negative Dwellwer bells have the opposite effect, removing objects from the current dimension to another dimension), Explosion Manipulation (Dwellers possessing cherry bombs can explode which can also negate forcefields created by 2-C objects)

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Enhanced Senses, Non-Corporeal (As a ghost), Large Size (Type 0), Burrowing & Vibration Manipulation (Burrows repeatedly in the ground during his boss fight. Causes Hat Kid to fall down upon coming back up messing with her movements and making it harder for her to dodge attacks), Self-Sustenance (Types 1, 2, & 3. Can breathe in space. Lacks the need of sustenance due to already being dead), Genius Intelligence & Social Influencing (The Snatcher is extremely manipulative, as this is his most deceiving and cunning trait. Before Hat Kid, Snatcher manipulated many others into signing his contracts, stealing their souls and doing his dirty work before inevitably killing them once their use runs out for him. Tricked Hat Kid into thinking he was defeated after their battle. Can convince Hat Kid into doing contracts for boss fights with him where he's grown far stronger), Reality Warping (Warps the entire background in his fight with Hat Kid), Energy Projection (Can project giant beacons of energy which extend into shockwaves), Precognition (Type 1; Is aware of future battles before they've even happened), Ectoplasm Manipulation (Emits a ghostly aura, which afterwards surrounds the battlefield), Pocket Reality Manipulation & BFR (After someone falls in one of his traps, he sends them to his dimension. Re-created the various places Hat Kid's been to in Seal the Deal. Sent Hat Kid to an area of darkness upon his defeat), Elemental Manipulation, Darkness Manipulation, (He has been depicted as a dark shadow. Can corrode the area with darkness prior to his fight, makes the area into a dark 2D area limiting Hat Kid's movements and upon his defeat sends Hat Kid to an area of darkness), Plant Manipulation (Can trap with people with purple, thorny plants) and Electricity Manipulation (Via this. Death Wish mode, his beacons of energy can spew out sparks of electricity), Death Manipulation (Inflicted death on Hat Kid, can even do this from far away), Undead Physiology, Immortality (Type 1 and 7. Is already dead, not even Hat Kid could kill him), Illusion Creation (Makes a fake version of himself along with the real version and locks Hat Kid's movement into a two-dimensional plane while doing this), Shapeshifting & Duplication (Can shapeshift and duplicate into numerous renditions of Hat Kid), Explosion Manipulation (Can detonate countless explosions with his explosive flasks, Can create explosive fruits which can negate forcefields created by 2-C objects), Creation (Contracts, a seat, explosive fruit, and buzz saws), Summoning (Can summon his minions and explosive flasks), Teleportation, Power Nullification & Non-Physical Interaction (His explosive flasks are able to make contact with him, as well as negating his own intangibility), Metaphysics Manipulation (Soul Manipulation; Removed the soul of Hat Kid. Stated in Mustache Girl's Castle that he has removed one hundred souls), Power Mimicry (Copies all of the abilities used in the other boss fights in Seal the Deal contract), Size Manipulation (As shown here), Curtain Fire (Can bombard the area with explosive flasks. This is massively enhanced in his Death Wish boss fight), Telekinesis (Telekinetically moved a flask), Flight, Intangibility (Can phase through solid objects, as seen with him coming up from and diving into the ground. Hat Kid is not capable of hitting him prior turning him blue with his own attack. Unlike other NPCs within the game, when he's defeated, Hat Kid can't hit him), Shockwave Creation, Fourth Wall Awareness(Was aware of the pause screen and added contracts onto the menu), Power Bestowal (Gives Hat Kid the ability to heal to make a death wish easier for her), Statistics Amplification (Amps his own strength in death wishes and the strength of others having him and others tank more hits, get new powers or stronger variations of their abilities, etc.), Statistics Reduction (Can reduce Hat Kid's health to one hit point for certain contracts), Law Manipulation (Creates contracts that have rules preventing Hat Kid from doing certain actions, some of those include banning cheats or she'll take damage/die), Pain Manipulation (Attempting to cheat will have you take damage until you die), Resistance Negation (Can make challenges where abilities that the opponent originally resisted affects them, like making bypassing Hat Kid's resistance to heat in "Beat the Heat"), Durability Negation, Acausality (Type 1; When Mustache Girl rewinded time, he was unaffected by it, remembering Hat Kid, and even calling it an alternate reality), Resistance to Death Manipulation (Due to already being dead), Acid Manipulation (Unaffected by the acid he sits in), Non-Physical Interaction (The Dweller's Mask doesn't affect him)

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Enhanced Senses (Can easily hear Hat Kid from her footsteps), Durability Negation, Ice Manipulation (Froze the entirety of a town including other people), Weather Manipulation (Created a never-ending snowstorm across her manor and the town), Darkness Manipulation (Is enveloped in darkness and naturally fumes it can make one fall into darkness, causes the area to naturally darken upon seeing Hat Kid), Corruption (Her darkened heart caused her to corrupt herself and others), Perception Manipulation (Warps the perceptions of her opponent making it harder for them to see), Telekinesis (Can telekinetically lift and control a key), Intangibility (Can phase herself and objects through solid objects such as doors)

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Genius Intelligence (Was the one that built her ship, including the dimensional transporter allowing alternate timeline versions of her to come onto her ship, built and fixed her own Rumbi, the Crime-Sovling Hat seems to increase her detective skills), Weapon Mastery (With Umbrella and Bat), Stealth Mastery (Crouching makes her naturally stealthy, successfully infiltrated Dead Bird Studios when security was heavily active and Queen Vanessa's manor), Self-Sustenance (Type 1; Can breathe in space), Non-Corporeal (Via Wireframe outfit, this outfit also augments Hat Kid's hats to also show up as a wireframe, superseding any flairs equipped to show the base hat's wireframe), Social Influencing (Got Snatcher to give her soul back and give her a time piece to sweeten the deal, including also causing her BFF contract to be official, indirectly caused all the previous enemies that tried to kill her throughout her journey to not want her to leave), Dimensional Storage (Able to store various scooter's and items within her pockets, could store 10 time pieces at once into her pocket), Divine Protection & Immortality (Type 4; Protected by The Snatcher. Will bring her back to life if she dies and will make a challenge easier for her), Time Paradox Immunity (Type 1; Unaffected by 50 versions of herself running around), Resurrection Negation (Can permanently kill enemies in the time rift, despite the time rift being stated to bring you back to life upon death), Acrobatics & Limited Physics Manipulation (Can double jump, wall jump, and do lots of acrobatic flips. Can stop fall damage via bringing out an umbrella with Hover Badge, can hook and swing with a hook via the Hookshot Badge), Vector Manipulation (Can physically propel herself foward with her hookshot at fast speeds to reach new areas through ziplines), Information Analysis (The Snatcher can inform her of various things telepathically), Time Travel (Is a time traveling explorer, further backed up by Jonas), Regeneration (Mid. Heals her body from lava burns, ice cold freezing, and being flattened in a short timeframe), Power Nullification (Can negate the mafia in a state where they go completely invulnerable. Seemingly drained Mustache Girl's powers), Homing Attack (Jumps in mid air and homes in on enemies, can even track enemies that are invisible), Dimensional Travel (Can travel to lower layers of a time rift with rift pons, made it so she can have alternate timeline versions of herself enter her timeline), Limited Body Control (Her ponytail contains a bone in it yet certain hats can remove her ponytail entirely), Acausality (Unaffected by the timeline being re-written), Possession (Her soul can possess objects such as outhouses which are seen as a big enough problem that The Snatcher needs to contract Hat Kid to beat it). With Badges and Hats she has: Extrasensory Perception (With Kid's hat, shows the way to the closest point of interest, and Relic Finder Badge, a small red arrow appears above Hat Kid's head to the nearest relic), Statistics Amplification (With Sprint Hat, an early game hat that grants you the ability to sprint. Can be combined with the Scooter Badge which changes the hats ability from sprinting to riding a scooter. It also changes the jump into a higher jump and removes double jump while sprinting), Explosion Manipulation (With Brewing Hat. an early-game hat that grants you the ability to throw explosive vials. The explosion deals damage to enemies and can also destroy various objects. Causes enemies to explode upon hitting them, caused the Mafia Boss to explode, hitting the Toilet of Doom caused massive explosions from it, can even make objects explode like money), Transmutation (Turns enemies into health pons), Transformation (With Ice Hat, a mid-game hat that grants the ability to temporarily transform Hat Kid into a frozen statue and perform a ground pound, and Time Stop Hat), Ice Manipulation (With Ice Hat, a mid-game hat that grants the ability to temporarily transform Hat Kid into a frozen statue and perform a ground pound the hat can be used for taking shortcuts or reaching hard-reaching areas by ground pounding on overhanging ledges), Vibration Manipulation (While the ground pound doesn't hurt enemies unless landed on, it will launch enemies into the air, giving Hat Kid an opening to counterattack), Invulnerability (Type 1; With Ice Hat, While in the statue Hat Kid is immune to most forms of damage. Fire, bosses and mad crows will knock her out of the statue [though she still takes no damage], which will increase the cool down time for hat abilities), Time Manipulation (Time Stop Hat, a late-game hat that allows you to temporarily slow down time), Time Stop (With Camera Badge, lets Hat Kid pause time and look around), Water Manipulation, Enhanced Senses, Summoning, Intangibility Negation & Non-Physical Interaction (Can turn enemies and blocks from another dimension into solid enemies. Via Dweller's Mask, a mid-game hat that grants you the ability to materialize objects that are from another dimension), Can affect the spirit world with the Dweller's Mask even without a soul, Possible Broadway Force (With Parade Hat, allows her to lead around the musicians), Magnetic Attraction (With Magnet Badge, items such as Pons and Heart Gems will be drawn to Hat Kid and collected as long as she's close enough to them), Energy Projection (With Projectile Badge, Hat Kid's melee attack now also has a beam attack that can be charged to three levels by holding down on it), Vehicular Mastery (With Scooter Badge, which changes the effect of the Sprint Hat, giving Hat Kid a scooter to ride around in. The scooter has excellent acceleration, turning, and can jump), Sound Manipulation (Via Mumble Badge, changes all character speech to mumbles), Spatial Manipulation (With Mirror Badge, flips everything as if you were looking into a mirror), Perception Manipulation (With Nostalgia Badge, reduces the graphical settings so low to make everything resemble a game on the N64. Peaceful Badge, adds the same filter used on the Peace and Tranquility screen of Death Wish when using the dance action. Retro Badge, adds a filter to the game that makes everything look like a game on the original GameBoy. REDtro VR Badge, adds a red filter that makes everything look like a game on the Virtual Boy), Can remove all paint or other substances off her body after running around for a bit, Resistance to Gravity Manipulation, Biological Manipulation & Cosmic Radiations (Can be in the vaccum of space just fine), Extreme Colds (Can move around Queen Vanessa's manor), Extreme Heats (Can journey around mafia town with lava just fine), Sealing (Incapable of being pulled into paintings in subcon forest which trap mafia members in there and seal them), Social Influencing (Snatcher couldn't influence her, DJ Grooves nor The Conductor could convince her to give them the time piece), Metaphysics Manipulation (Soul Manipulation; Had her soul taken by from Snatcher yet was still fine, can live without her soul, could beat down an outhouse that had her soul without feeling any adverse affects from it), Time Manipulation, Space-Time Manipulation, BFR, Reality Warping, & Memory Manipulation (Unaffected by the Time Pieces hitting her, only harming her rather then causing any of the effects it naturally causes upon hitting people), Law Manipulation (Can negate the rules of the time rift to permanently kill enemies in it), Buffering & Power Modification (Can significantly reduce the cooldown of using hats via Fast Hatter Badge)

Reality Warping, Teleportation (Mustache Girl showed to teleport around during her boss fight), Spatial Manipulation, Burrowing (Mustache Girl burrows underground during her boss fight), Time Manipulation (Can stop and reverse time), Time Travel (The Conductor states how he was going to use the time pieces to return back to the one year he lost a movie trophy and reclaim it), Energy Manipulation & Technological Manipulation (Time Pieces are the fuel for Hat Kid's ship, it also restores power to deactivated parts of the ship), Conceptual Manipulation, Memory Manipulation & Dream Manipulation (Can make time rifts based off the memories and backstory of characters, the Mafia Goon even notes it as a place of "thoughts and dreams". These time rifts are non-linear temporal disturbances, that represents the thoughts and dreams of entire species or groups, with it's complexity is based off the species (an example being Mafia being simple so the rift is extremely simple and Twilight Goats are afterlife, enlightened beings so the rift is far more complicated). In addition, it has sub-layers showing the entirety of the species history), Law Manipulation (Time Rifts made by time pieces have their own sets of rules), Pocket Reality Manipulation, Dimensional Travel (Can get out of the time rifts via the time piece), Space-Time Manipulation, & BFR (Time pieces can create rifts in space-time which are outside of the reality), Shockwave Generation (Creates shockwaves upon landing), Darkness Manipulation (Throws time pieces that cause black shadow lines), Explosion Manipulation, Power Bestowal, Forcefield Creation (Created a forcefield that made Hat Kid unable to harm her), Energy Projection (Shoots purple beams), Light Manipulation (The time piece completely lightened up Snatcher's dark realm)

Military Prowess: The Snatcher’s minions are the only seemingly combat readied men.

Notable Individuals: The Snatcher, Queen Vanessa, Hat Kid/Bow Kid (Formerly)

Weaknesses: The Snatcher’s flask makes him hittable, otherwise nothing notable.

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Discussion threads involving Subcon Forest