Background
Hat Kid, the main protagonist of A Hat in Time, is a human-like alien attempting to collect the scattered Time Pieces, the fuel for her spaceship, so she can return home.
Her real name is unknown, as it's never mentioned in-game, and in the instruction manual she is listed as "Me," due to it being written entirely in first person.
In all respects, Hat Kid looks like a small human child. The only possible difference between her alien species and normal humans is the presence of bones in her ponytail when the C.A.W Agents take an X-ray photograph of her. She dresses in a big, purple shirt with a bright yellow cape sporting a large zipper, as well as white pants and brown boots. She also wears a variety of hats, her favorite of which is a big, purple top hat with a yellow stripe, also known as the "Kid's Hat".
Hat Kid is shown to have an energetic and childlike personality. This is mainly shown through the innocent nature of her voice lines and idle animations. She is also shown to be rather mischievous, especially with the Mafia, such as when she knocks Mafia Goons off of ledges in Mafia Town, or when she stole the umbrella from the Mafia in Welcome to Mafia Town, or when she burned paintings containing the souls of trapped individuals in a fire in order to help a group of Fire Spirits commit suicide in Subcon Forest. Despite this, she is also rather friendly, as shown during Your Contract has Expired in Subcon Forest, when Hat Kid attempts to befriend The Snatcher. She can be shy at times, such as when Mustache Girl asks for her name, or during her idle animation where she stops playing with dolls because she thinks someone might be watching. In contrast, she is very frank and emotive in her diary entries, calling out many people and situations on her adventure as weird or unpleasant.
Ablities
While Hat Kid's move pool is relatively small compared to other platforming games, it is a highly versatile one that allows her to chain together many moves and reach most areas with relative ease and style!
Jumping
By pressing the jump button, Hat Kid will jump into the air. Pressing it again while airborne will perform a second jump. While this is a basic ability in most platformers, jumping and double jumping is the foundation to Hat Kid's impressive platforming skills.
Dive
By pressing the dive button, Hat Kid will dive in the direction she's facing. This briefly increases her speed and can be performed both on the ground and in the air. While diving, Hat Kid can change her direction very slowly. Dives can be canceled simply by jumping, which reverts her back to her walking speed.
Diving in the air will briefly slow Hat Kid's vertical speed and lunge her in the direction she faces, giving her more movement horizontally. Jumping to cancel a midair dive also briefly slows her vertical speed. This allows the player to control Hat Kid in the air on a wider horizontal plane and allows her to land more precisely on targets.
Additionally, if she dives on the ground, she will briefly slide forwards and remain on her belly until the player presses the jump button again. However, if the player presses jump just as Hat Kid hits the ground, she will immediately bounce back up and lunge forward into a front flip, increasing her speed further until she touches the ground. Doing this in rapid succession can outpace the Sprint Hat.
Wall Jump
By jumping towards a wall, Hat Kid will start to run up it, gaining some vertical distance. She can then jump off of it onto a platform or another wall, where she can gain some more height and jump again. If the walls are parallel, this can be repeated to gain as much height as possible. Hat Kid cannot run or jump off the same wall twice in a row. She must jump off of another wall or touch the ground to jump off of that wall again.
If Hat Kid performs a dive and hits a wall, she will bonk her head and fall to the ground. However, if the player has the "No Bonk" badge equipped or cancels the dive before hitting the wall, she will start a wall run instead.
Melee
Press the melee button to perform a melee attack. At the start of the game, Hat Kid will be unarmed, and hitting anything will cause her to hurt her hand and flinch in pain. This also does no damage. Fortunately, during the first act in Mafia Town, Hat Kid will acquire an umbrella as her primary weapon. Hat Kid can string together a maximum of 3 swings with the umbrella at once, with a brief waiting period until she can swing again.
Homing Attack
When airborne above enemies, a button prompt will appear over their heads to let the player know that Hat Kid can perform a homing attack. This allows her to quickly launch herself at the enemy to deal damage and bounce off of them. This is useful for both combat and platforming sections.
Equipment
Umbrella
After the first act, Hat Kid will always have her trusty umbrella, which she can whack baddies with. It doesn't do much else, but with certain badges equipped, it becomes a very handy tool.
Hats
The default hat Hat Kid wears can guide her to the nearest timepiece or goal (although it is not always accurate). Throughout the course of her adventure, Hat Kid stitches together other hats which give her several abilities:
- Sprint Hat - Allows running quickly,
- Time Stop Hat - Slows time down for a limited time,
- Brewing Hat - Involves throwing explosive potions,
- Ice Hat - Turns her into an icy statue to bounce off ice platforms and stuns enemies.
- Dweller Mask - Makes green see-through platforms tangible, and purple patterned surfaces intangible.
- Excluding the Sprint Hat, all of these abilities will need time to recharge after being used.
Badges
Hat Kid can find several badges on her quest that give her unique secondary abilities, such as saving herself from a great fall or lowering the recharge time on hat abilities. Most badges can be bought from the aptly named Badge Seller, but there are some special badges that must be found in the various worlds.
Customization
During each act, Hat Kid can collect Rift Tokens. These are used to unlock either new aesthetic designs for her hats, new color pallets for her clothing and certain hats, and new remixes of songs for the different acts. Rift Tokens can be spent at the end of each act that you collect them in, or at the Token Machine in Hat Kid's Spaceship.
Powers and Stats
Tier: At least 9-B, possibly High 6-C, Low 2-C with Time Pieces, up to Low 2-C with Accelerated Development. 2-B with Preparation
Name: Hat Kid, actual name unknown
Origin: A Hat in Time
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown, though consistently referred to as a kid
Classification: Alien, Hat Girl, Legally a Bird
Attack Potency: At least Wall level (Sent a Mafia grunt flying with this much energy. Can blow up crates and barrels. Can harm the Mafia, who broke the glass on her ship. Has been shown to even be physically superior to them in some cases. Punches apart a ball of them, can casually twist the handle of a giant faucet by hitting it, and casually pushes a large ball of mafia at fast enough speeds to harm Mustache Girl, smashes into a train car), possibly Large Island level (Can destroy the flowers, which upon their death cause a massive storm that restores the area back to normal, which is calculated at this), Macrocosmic 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), up to Macrocosmic level+ with Accelerated Development (Can fight the death wish variants of the bosses who are amped by the Death Wish Time Pieces which can create alternate realms with countless stars like the Twilight Bell which is meant to be the Twilight Realm, which is an alternate universe). Macroverse level with Preparation (Created a device that "collapse dimensions together" with a cosmology of this size)
Dimensionality: 3-D
Travel Speed: At least Relativistic+, higher with Sprint Hat (Can outpace electrical currents while on a tight rope. Ran to the end of a long train in under two minutes. Can cover large distances across a world in a short amount of time. Finished all of the worlds within a day, moved fast enough that she left a dust cloud of herself behind)
Combat Speed: MFTL+ (Can tag The Conductor, who attacks so fast with his knife he leaves several afterimages. Can tag Mafia Members who can fly up to space and tag Hat Kid's ship which was said to be flying at full speed. Can tag the likes of The Conductor, DJ Grooves, The Snatcher, who could all catch Hat Kid's ship before it could take off. Can tag enemies amped by Time Pieces which is the fuel for Hat Kid's ship and what allows it to move across space), higher with Time Stop Hat
Reaction Speed: MFTL+ (Could react to Mustache Girl with the time pieces who was making a realm move so fast the stars looked blurry. Able to pilot her own ship that travels across solar systems. Can easily avoid electric attacks, avoided a cat train at the last minute. Can easily avoid fire from a rocket launcher), higher with Time Stop Hat (Moves everything so slow that Mustache Girl's teleportation seems slow in this state)
Lifting Strength: Class 5 (Can freely lift a fully grown walrus with one arm)
Striking Strength: At least Wall Class, possibly Large Island Class, up to Macrocosmic+ with Accelerated Development
Durability: At least Wall level, possibly Large Island level (Can survive a blast from cherry bombs that can do this. Can tank hits from herself, no-sells falling down into the planet from space, can take hits from Mafia Goons, no-sells getting launched through a cannon, no-sells crashing into an iceberg), Macrocosmic level+ with shield (Mustache Girl used a forcefield that was created by the Time Pieces), up to Macrocosmic level+ with Accelerated Development (Repeatedly takes hits from Death Wish variant bosses), higher with Death Wish Time Piece shields
Stamina: Very High (Has long battles with The Conductor/DJ Grooves, Mustache Girl, and The Snatcher, even with her soul gone she didn't show any sign of fatigue)
Range: Extended Melee Range with Umbrella or Bat, Hundreds of Meters with Projectile Badge (Projectile badge has in some cases reached off the map and has hit areas far from Hat Kid. Though it has shown short range in the ship that is likely due to game mechanics as it's shown far higher range), Kilometers with Enhanced Senses (Can find the source of interest in Mafia Island even if it's on the other side of the island), Macrocosmic with Mirror Badge (Flips the entirety of space), Macrocosmic+ with Time Stop Hat and Time Pieces, Low Macroversal with Dweller Mask (Pulls in objects and enemies from other dimensions), Macroversal with Preparation (Collapses dimensions on top of each other)
Powers and Abilities:
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, can make hats with various different abilities with balls of yarn), 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), Preparation (With preparation can create a device that collapses dimensions on top of each other), Dimensional Storage (Able to store various scooter's and items within her pockets, could store 10 time pieces at once into her pocket), Accelerated Development (Passive. Physical Stats. Gets progressively stronger throughout the game fighting enemies amped by one time piece to fighting Mustache Girl who is amped by 40 to possibly hundreds of time pieces. Can keep up with The Snatcher even as he gets stronger and faster), 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 0 & 1. Unaffected by 50 versions of herself running around. Unaffected by Mustache Girl changing the past), 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), 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), Non-Physical Interaction & Soul Manipulation (Can physically interact with the subcon dwellers, who are dead spirits) 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 & Enhanced 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 Cosmic Radiations & Extreme Colds (Can be in the vaccum of space just fine), 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), 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), Poison Manipulation, Disease Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, & Corruption (Could resist the poisonous flowers of Alpine Skyline that affected Goats and Rumbi. All goats who inhaled the flower's spores transformed into sickly versions of themselves, they will actively rush after Hat Kid and attempt to hit her, any nearby goats under the flower's influence will get knocked out upon its defeat), Time Manipulation, Space-Time Manipulation, BFR, Reality Warping, Memory Manipulation, & Dream 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), 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"), 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 (Mustache Girl 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)
Standard Equipment:
*Umbrella: Hat Kid's trusty Umbrella, acting as a multipurpose item. Can be used as a weapon to fight the Mafia as she herself can't physically punch them. Can also be used to save herself from lethal falls, and she can equip a hookshot onto it.
- Key: Functions a lot like the Umbrella, and can unlock doors.
- Baseball Bat: Functions a lot like the Umbrella.
- Time Pieces: Pieces that can stop, rewind, and rewrite the timeline.
*Kid Hat: Her original hat, points her to the location of where he time pieces are or the location to go.
- Ice Hat: Turns Hat Kid into an ice statue allowing her to fling off of certain areas and makes her invulnerable to attacks.
- Brewing Hat: Has Hat Kid brew explosive flasks to throw.
- Sprint Hat: Allows Hat Kid's speed to be augmented having her run far faster.
- Dweller Mask: Makes intangible things tangible and vice-versa. Can affect enemies in another dimension.
- Time Stop Hat: Slows down time to the point where even teleportation seems slow.
*Projectile Badge:
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Hold and release your attack button for a beam attack!
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Hat Kid's melee attack now also has a beam attack that can be charged to three levels by holding down the attack button.
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Press [KEY] to take pictures of your journey!
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Takes pictures with a camera.
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Significantly reduce the cooldown when using hats!
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Hat Kid doesn't wait as long to re-use a hat's ability.
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Press and hold attack to swing from hooks!
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Hat Kid can hook to and swing from certain points.
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Automatically pull out your umbrella before deadly impact!
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If Hat Kid falls from a height that would damage her, umbrella pops out at the last moment to instantly slow down her falling speed and allow her to not take fall damage.
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Automatically attract nearby collectibles!
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Items such as Pons and Heart Gems will be drawn to Hat Kid.
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Plugs your ears, now you only hear vague mumbling!
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Changes all character speech to mumbles. (Note: Despite what the description says via it being a badge and all badges giving Hat Kid an ability this is assumed to just be a joke.)
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No more bonking against walls when diving!
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Hat Kid no longer rebounds when hitting a surface after diving, and instead begins a wall run.
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Shows a map towards nearby relics!
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A small red arrow appears when Hat Kid is near a relic.
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Upgrades your Sprint Hat to a scooter!
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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.
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You die in one hit. Only for the brave!
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Hat Kid's healthbar is always at one, meaning she'll die in one hit.
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Dnuora Gnihtyreve spilf
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Flips the screen resembling looking at a mirror.
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Everything is better when its worse!
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Reduces the graphical settings so low to make everything resemble a game on the N64.
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Experience Peace and Tranquility whenever you dance!
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Adds the same filter used on the Peace and Tranquility screen of Death Wish when using the dance action.
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Glorious 2-bit action!
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Adds a filter to the game that makes everything look like a game on the original GameBoy.
Adds a red filter that makes everything look like a game on the Virtual Boy.Intelligence: Supergenius (Trained explorer shown capable of piloting an entire ship across solar systems (and possibly time) by herself, has knowledge of the time pieces and how they work. Seems to have the most knowledge out of everyone refusing to use it for changing history. Built and fixed her Rumbi by herself with seemingly no instructions. Made her spaceship. Which include things like alternate dimensional transporters. Was able to escape all the cats in New Metro City trying to catch her with a one million dollar bounty, all the while avoiding rocket launcher shots from The Empress. Was capable of convincing Snatcher to give her soul back along with the last time piece of Subcon Forest. Infiltrated Dead Bird Studios with it's heavy security. Could easily tell the name and the fuel the Mafia Member was using for his rocket)
Standard Tactics: [The creator Jonas has stated that Hat Kid attacks from a distance, she also uses various hats such as the time slow hat which are thought based abilities.
Weaknesses: Has none of her hat abilities if her hats are removed. Though she's shown to fight through this. Snatcher's protection is only active when she's on a contract, so if she fulfills her contractual obligations he'll no longer revive her. Her current contractual obligation though is being "BFFs" with Snatcher so it's unlikely it'll be fulfilled anytime soon.
Feats: A Hat Kid respect thread can be found here.
Note: While there is a scene where she's initially affected by the time piece breaking it should be noted this is a one-off case asides from every other moment. It could be equally argued that this is just a trait of Reactive Evolution or Hat Kid being caught off guard.
Gallery
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Hat Kid using her sprint hat.
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Hat Kid using her Brewing Hat.
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Hat Kid using her Dweller's mask.
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Hat Kid making a snow angel in a pile of money.
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Others
Notable Victories:
Jotaro Kujo (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) - Jotaro's Profile (Both were at 9-B. Speed was equalized)
Kion (Lion Guard) - Kion's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Classic Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Classic Sonic's profile (Both were at Low 2-C, Classic was in Super, Hat Kid had the time pieces and speed was equalized)
Blixer (Just Shapes and Beats) - Blixer's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Olimar (Pikmin) - Olimar's profile (Speed was equalized)
Wendigo (Mythology) - Wendigo's profile (Both were at 9-B, fight took place in subcon forest, and speed was equalized)
Akazukin (Tokyo Akazukin) - Akazukin's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Moon Lord (Terraria) - Moon Lord's profile (Both were at Low 2-C, Moon Lord was in his first key and speed was equalized)
The Operator (Marble Hornets) - The Operator's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Paramount Sonic - Sonic's profile (Both were at 9-B, speed was equalized and the fight took place in Green Hills)
Serge (Radical Dreamers) - Serge's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Sora (Kingdom Hearts) - Sora's profile (Hat Kid was at 9-B, Sora was at 9-A and time pieces were disabled)
Siren Head (Trevor Henderson Mythos) - Siren Head's profile
Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes) - Travis' profile (Both were at Low 2-C and speed was equalized)
Link (Super Smash Bros.) - Link's profile (Speed was equalized and both were at Low 2-C)
Notable Losses:
Inconclusive Matches:
Fight-Bot (A Robot Named Fight) - Fight-Bot's profile (Both were at 9-B and speed was equalized)
Bow Kid (Hat in Time) - Bow Kid's profile
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