Death Wish
Death Wish is a challenge mode that is part of the Seal the Deal DLC, released on September 13th, 2018. It features 37 difficult challenges (38 with Nyakuza Metro) and gives many different customization rewards. These include new dyes, costumes, hat flairs, and camera filters.
To unlock Death Wish you must beat Your Contract has Expired and obtain a total of 
x27 Time Pieces.
Overview
Snatcher has a list of 37 challenges resulting in a total of 111 
stamps for Hat Kid to take on (38 challenges and 114 stamps with Nyakuza Metro installed). At first only one challenge will be available, but more will unlock as you complete more challenges, each challenge has three objectives, the main one and 2 bonus goals, for each one you beat you get a Death Wish Stamp.
Some challenges will have a silhouette in the left corner, indicating that there is a reward for beating it. To get the reward you only have to beat the main challenge, and do not need to complete the bonus challenges. To collect the reward talk to the Snatcher again and select the completed mission on the Death Wish list.
There is no reward for obtaining every single Death Wish stamp (outside of the rewards for the challenges themselves), besides - as Snatcher puts it - "the feeling you achieved something", as well as the satisfaction of humbling him.
Peace And Tranquility
Once you (usually) die 3 times attempting a Death Wish challenge[1], you will be asked to enable Peace And Tranquility Mode, this request will continue appearing after every death, some appearing as "larger" text or as "silly" text until you accumulate a total of 50 deaths which stops you giving you the prompt to enable "Peace and Tranquility" from inside the contract, when this happens you can only enable it from the Death Wish select menu.
Upon paying a fee of 
x77 Pons, the difficulty of the challenge will be lowered and Death Wish Difficulty modifiers are disabled.
For example, enabling Peace and Tranquility on 10 Seconds Until Self-Destruct would start the timer at 30 seconds instead, along with making the clocks that add 40 seconds to the timer instead of the usual 20. Viewing the contract in your start menu would change the contract from a "Death Wish" into a "Nice Wish". In Peace and Tranquility mode, you get a stamp of a "Winky Hat Kid" on the map, but this can be remedied by tearing up the contract and doing the challenges normally, the tearing sound is replaced with "Awesome!" instead of "NOOOOO!". You can use the developer console on Peace and Tranquility mode (and on every candle except Zero Jumps) and you only have to complete the main objective to full clear a challenge (except Community Rifts). Completing the challenges in Peace and Tranquility mode does count toward the achievements but not the bonus objectives as they are disabled.
Peace and Tranquility Mode is not available for Live Game Events, although the events' challenges are considerably less difficult than the standard Death Wish challenges in being more celebratory.
Assist Mode Influence
If Assist Mode is enabled through your Game Settings, it will automatically switch to Peace and Tranquility without warning. The only way to circumvent this is to turn off Assist Mode as it will cause the game to becoming easier for players. Additionally Assist Mode provides passive health regeneration during Death Wish Bosses, where the less health you have the more frequently you will get health restored back:
Where:
In other words:
- Health regeneration timer is paused when your health is full.
- Timer can take between 5.4 to 28.57 seconds depending on your health state. This value can change dynamically as you lose and gain health.
- When you are only missing 1 health, it will take ~28.57 seconds.
- When only have 1 health out of 8 it will take ~5.4 seconds.
- Once the timer restores health, it will reset back to 0.
- If health reaches max, timer is forcefully set back to 0.
You can still claim every reward related to each Death Wish but achievements such as Punished Kid (50 stamps) and I Refuse to Die! (full clear) are unobtainable as both require bonus objectives to be achieved to reach it.
Standard Challenges
Stage Remixes
| Image | Challenge Name | Objectives | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Beat the Heat |
*It's much hotter than usual, cool yourself off!
|
 Virtual Kid Costume |
|
So You're Back From Outer Space |
*Mafia saw spaceship!!
|
None |
|
|
Mafia's Jumps |
|
None |
|
Collect-a-thon |
*Your progress drains over time
|
None |
|
|
She Speedran from Outerspace |
|
None |
|
Vault Codes in the Wind |
*You have only 30 seconds to collect each Vault Code
|
 Raincoat Costume |
|
Encore! Encore! |
*He's all charged up!
|
 Hat Flair for Brewing Hat |
|
Security Breach |
*Security has been upped, significantly
|
None |
|
10 Seconds Until Self-Destruct |
*The Owl Express is way behind schedule
|
None |
|
The Great Big Hootenanny |
*It looks like you've gained quite a following
|
None |
|
Killing Two Birds |
*This next project is a collaboration...
|
 Parade Outfit |
|
Speedrun Well |
|
None |
|
Boss Rush |
*No healing between fights! *You can retry from last checkpoint 3 times
|
 Nani?! Camera Filter
|
|
Quality Time with Snatcher |
*This time, no blue potions!
|
None |
|
Breaching the Contract |
*I'm even more handsome than usual!
|
 Witch costume |
|
Bird Sanctuary |
*Hurting birds is not allowed!
|
None |
|
|
Wound-Up Windmill |
*The Windmill is operating at "peak" performance
|
None |
|
|
The Illness Has Speedrun |
|
 Transcendent |
|
The Mustache Gauntlet |
*You have 3 chances
|
 Hat Flair for Ice Hat |
|
|
No More Bad Guys |
*She stole a bunch of those weird Time Pieces
|
 24 Karat Kid costume |
|
Cruisin' for a Bruisin' |
*There's no end in sight
|
 Hat Flair for Sprint Hat |
|
|
Seal the Deal |
*Good luck! *You have 3 chances
|
 Shadow Puppet |
Rift Collapse
| Image | Challenge Name | Objectives | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Rift Collapse: Mafia of Cooks |
*The Time Rift has become unstable!
|
 Hat Flair for Sprint Hat |
|
|
Rift Collapse: Dead Bird Studio |
*The Time Rift has become unstable!
|
 Metallic |
|
|
Rift Collapse: Sleepy Subcon |
*The Time Rift has become unstable!
|
None |
|
|
Rift Collapse: Alpine Skyline |
*The Time Rift has become unstable!
|
None |
|
|
Rift Collapse: Deep Sea |
*The Time Rift has become unstable!
|
 Mirror Badge |
Community Maps
| Image | Challenge Name | Objectives | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Community Map: Rhythm Jump Studio |
*Contributed by Lane "FlameLFH" Haskins
|
None |
|
|
Community Map: Twilight Travels |
*Contributed by Eric "Jak" Ridge
|
None |
|
|
Community Map: The Mountain Rift |
*Contributed by Devan "Mr. Brawls" Miller
|
None |
Candles
Unlike the other challenges, these goals are completed outside of Death Wish. They still count towards the Death Wish challenge total.
*The Camera Tourist Challenge is not available in the Switch version, bringing down the total amount of stamps to 108 (111 with Nyakuza Metro (DLC)).
| Challenge Name | Objectives | Reward | Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snatcher's Hit List |
*They've got you all figured out!
|
None | Complete Beat the Heat |
| Snatcher Coins in Mafia Town |
|
 Cardboard Dye |
Complete So You're Back From Outer Space |
| Snatcher Coins in Battle of the Birds |
|
 Detective Outfit |
Complete The Great Big Hootenanny |
| Zero Jumps |
*You jump, you die!
|
 Nostalgia Badge |
Complete Rift Collapse: Dead Bird Studio |
| Snatcher Coins in Subcon Forest |
|
 The Queen's Dress Costume |
Complete Rift Collapse: Sleepy Subcon |
| Snatcher Coins in Alpine Skyline |
|
 Hiking Shorts Costume |
Complete Bird Sanctuary |
| Camera Tourist* |
|
Movie Poster Camera Filter |
Complete Rift Collapse: Alpine Skyline |
| Snatcher Coins in Nyakuza Metro |
Included with Nyakuza Metro (DLC) |
None | Complete Killing Two Birds
Earn 30 Death Wish stamps |
Live Game Events Challenges
This section describes content only available in the Steam release of A Hat in Time.
Other versions may have it with limited functionality or may lack it entirely.
A separate Death Wish map featuring time-exclusive challenges was first introduced in the 2023 Winter Event, and has returned for numerous events since then. These challenges started as only candles, but since the 2024 Summer Event, a majority of the challenges are based on community-made maps, and include exclusive rewards such as stickers, weapons or dye.
During Live Game Events, there can be new limited-time challenges added to Death Wish with exclusive rewards on separate maps. In the Winter Event, 5 more Candle challenges were added, rewarding players stickers upon completing each one. In the Summer Event (2023), 17 new challenges were added, rewarding players with 2 weapons, a sticker, a dye, and 4 community-made hat flairs, along with other items from the specific mods downloaded from doing the challenges.
A new Death Wish map during the Winter Event.
A new Death Wish map during the Summer Event.
Achievements
Three achievements can be earned through Death Wish.
|
Prepare to DieMedium Clear All Objectives In a Single Death Wish!
| |||
|
Punished KidHard Obtain 50 Death Wish Stamps!
| |||
|
I Refuse To Die!Extreme Obtain All Death Wish Stamps!
| |||
Gallery
The Snatcher in Hat Kid's room
A hat flair for the Ice Hat is one of the rewards in Death Wish mode
An image of the map, taken from the trailer.
A stamp after completing a challenge in Peace and Tranquility mode.
The "raincoat" costume.
The "parade marshal" costume.
The "detective" costume.
Trivia
- Compared to the normal title cards, the altered versions in Death Wish usually have at least one of three things in common: heavy purple undertones, Snatcher featured in some way, or Hat Kid being visibly distressed.
- The Snatcher has an idle dialogue line where he indirectly speaks about Queen Vanessa, saying she was "like dynamite with a laser beam" back in the day. This is a reference to the Queen song Killer Queen.
- Rift Collapses may be inspired by Wario Land 4.
- If the player dies more than 12 times on a single Death Wish, then their death count starts displaying the number of times died next to a single soul, as opposed to several souls in a line.
- The Peace and Tranquility menu is a reference to a meme created after an error message that appears in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the message being "No one's around to help.".
- Sometimes, when asking if the player wants to activate Peace and Tranquility, the message instead offers "Piece of Tranquility", "Trees and Pranquility", "Please and Thanksility", "Peck and Trainquility", "Peas in the Trees", "P34C3 and TR4NQU171TY", "Nice Wish", "to see Hat Kid dance", or "EZ modo ???" The final one is a reference to the Touhou Project fan song "Lunatic Udongein OVERDRIVE".
- In one of the Snatcher's idle lines, he says that you can "unlock a Luigi" after beating every Death Wish on the first try. This is a reference to the Super Mario 64 "L is real 2401" rumor, where people would make up many different ways you could possibly unlock Luigi in the game. None of these were actually possible, and Luigi is not in the game at all.
- In the cutscene where Snatcher tells Hat Kid about Death Wish mode, he says "These aren't your average everyday contracts. These are... Advanced Contracts." This is likely a reference to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Rock Bottom."
References
- ↑ By default you must attempt and die 3 times except for the following two Contracts: Beat the Heat and Collect-a-thon which both only require 2 attempts.
Contracts
Candles