Your Contract has Expired
Though, it could use some more work.
We'll also need a couple pictures in the summary, as well as gallery.)
Your Contract has Expired is The Finale Subcon Forest. Here, The Snatcher will double-cross Hat Kid, and tries to kill her after she's finished all of his dirty Work.
Build-up
At this point, Hat Kid has done a lot of work for Snatcher. And after defeating the haunted outhouse, a Timepiece will appear. When Hat Kid is about to grab it however, she will be interrupted by The Snatcher. He will state that the old contractor of his didn't die out of coincidence, but was actually killed by him. And now that all of the inconvenience around his forest has been resolved by Hat Kid, she is no longer of use to him. He then asks Hat Kid if she thought he'd let her keep all the Timepieces, and says that they belong to him, because they fell into his forest. After that, the entire screen will be covered with purple/yellow magic, leaving only Snatcher's glowing face visible. Snatcher will then tell Hat Kid that he's going to kill her, and steals her hat.
The battle begins.
Final Battle
In the first phase of the battle, Snatcher will perform a series nine attacks: blasting four large lasers on the ground with indication, the first directly at Hat Kid's location and the final one right in front of her; summoning minions into the battleground, then circling them around, acting as hazard for Hat Kid to jump over; throwing five blue potions consecutively at Hat Kid's location; throwing 1000 blue potions in batches around Hat Kid; throwing one blue potion directly at Hat Kid; the minion circle attack, but with lasers blasted on the ground; and multiple shapeshifted copies of Hat Kid mocking her. After the first two attacks, Snatcher will pause for a moment, asking Hat Kid if she's expecting him to turn blue. But unfortunately, "blue doesn't suit him", so that means he is invincible. Despite this, he still looks very fashionable with the blue mailman hat in Act 5. After all nine attacks, Snatcher will repeat the minion circle and the 1000 potions attack, until Hat Kid picks up one potion and throwing it at him.
After Hat Kid cheats the system and turns him blue via his own potion vials, He will pause whatever attack he is performing, and turn to Hat Kid. "Did you just colour me blue with my own attack?", he says. He gets very confused, saying that this cannot count. He will start getting angry, which in turns starting the second phase of the battle.
In this phase, Snatcher will use five unique attacks: blasting sets of three lasers on the ground in a clockwise motion; Spinning four laser indicators around the arena, and blasting all four after a few seconds; blasting a lot of red lasers on the ground one after another, in a clockwise motion; Going into the ground and popping up at random spots, sending out a shockwave and stun-locking Hat Kid, with the final time being right behind Hat Kid; Darkening the entire screen and winking in a direction, then surrounding Hat Kid with him and a cardboard cutout of him in either sides, with the one in the side of his wink being him.
With complex, hard to predict and fast attacks, this fight is expected to be very long and challenging. However, after only five smacks, he will be defeated, making for a rather anticlimactic battle.
Aftermath
After defeating The Snatcher, Hat Kid will be sent to an empty, dark space, with Snatcher in the distance. When approaching him, he will say that he feels weak, and requests Hat Kid to spare him. When Hat Kid gets closer, he will stop the crocodile tears, and suddenly grow to a giant size. He tells Hat Kid to take a seat, a bench will then appear. Snatcher will then shrink back to his regular seven-Hat-Kids-tall size, saying that the Timepieces belong to him, because they fell in his forest. A contract will then appear in front of Hat Kid, detailing that she needs to leave the forest and never come back, with Snatcher saying the same. Due to Hat Kid not saying anything, Snatcher will stamp the contract, making the deal even easier for her. Hat Kid will sign the contract, but suddenly, she has an idea. Hat Kid then starts blacking out all the details, replacing them with positive ones, with the final one being "Be My BFF ♡". Snatcher will tell Hat Kid that is not how contracts work, but to no response. Snatcher, out of desperation, gives Hat Kid her soul back, stating that he'd be very disappointed if she came back, and a Timepiece, ending the story of Subcon Forest.
Collectibles
As opposed to most other acts, Your Contract Has Expired does not allow Hat Kid to collect the items around Subcon Foret, as she drops down right in front of the boss arena. Though, there is one single collectible available in the mission.
| Item | NO. | Image | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint Yarn | #1 | 
|
Inside a frozen chest behind the arena, near the pond. Jump into the Arena and go left up until a door, and go over it. |
Strategy
- The Battle Against Snatcher is arguably one of the hardest in the entire game. As his attacks are fast, relentless, and Hat Kid's hat is stolen.
- This means that you'll have to rely entirely on your dodging skills instead.
- Though, with a little patience and carefulness, this battle shouldn't take you too long. As Snatcher doesn't have many attacks, making memorizing them quite easy.
- In the attack where he blackens the screen and summons 2 copies of himself, he'll wink. The eye which he winks in determines which way Hat Kid should attack.
- In the same attack, Hat Kid can actually smack him many times if she's lucky.
- Stay calm, and do not panic! Take caution to where he's landing his attacks, as all of them have some form of indication.
Music
- Your Contract has Expired - An intense metal track, which is the theme of the Battle against the Snatcher.
- Many Leitmotifs belonging to Subcon Forest's previous tracks are present in this, those being Subcon Forest, Snatcher's Contractual Obligations and Toilet of Doom.
- Being a Boss theme of A Hat in Time, this track also contains the Boss Leitmotif.
- This track also borrows a melody from Toby Fox's Asgore.
- Asgore, being a theme of a king with a tragic backstory, would explain its inclusion in Your Contract has Expired, considering The Snatcher's backstory.
- Asgore is also the theme of a man with royal origins trying to murder an innocent child for their soul. Sounds familiar.
Diary Entry
After each mission, Hat Kid will express her thoughts into her diary, which can be found inside her pillow fort.
"THIS GUY!!!! I do his dumb jobs and then he tries to double-cross me???"
"I beat him up and now he just wants me to go away, but he also like, cant make me, so whatever."
Achievements
Below is the achievement related to this act, a guide to it can be found by clicking on its name.
Unique Achievements have a golden border around them.
| Image | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Subcon Forest - All Clear! | Collect all Time Pieces in Subcon Forest! |
Gallery
Trivia
- Originally, this mission was a direct follow-up of Toilet of Doom. Though, due to it being too long, the dev team decided to split it.
- Technically though, it still is a direct follow-up, as the Timepiece's location at the beginning is identical to that of Toilet of Doom.
- Despite being a Boss Mission, beating this act with the One-Hit Hero Badge will not award the achievement One Punch.
- This is because, technically, Hat Kid does not have any badges equipped during the battle, as her hat was stolen by The Snatcher.
- If Hat Kid reaches Time's End without having finished this mission, Snatcher's dialogue at the start will change a bit.
- The Titlecard for this mission is Jenna Brown's favourite artwork she's done for A Hat in Time.[1]
- The Snatcher comments on how much good fun it is to kill Hat Kid in Death Wish mode, perhaps showing he enjoys his interactions with Hat Kid after all.
References
ru:Твой контракт истёк