There have been very few glitches throughout the Shantae games, however what glitches are there are very random, and happen for seemingly no reason. Here is a list of Shantae games and their respective glitches.
In the 3DS e-Shop version, the game will sometimes crash when collecting a baby warp squid, and will occasionally even corrupt your save file, resulting in the game deleting it! The cause is currently unknown.
You can earn more than 999 gems by earning gems through certain mini-games such as the Rottytops race. Doing this will result in the counter displaying odd characters. The cause of this glitch is that the gem cap is not accounted for when gems are obtained from certain mini-games (possibly an overlook by the developers).
If you activate the Spy Scope without talking to Mimic about it first, the game will glitch up, resulting in garbled text, and exits/entrance destinations being temporarily mixed up. The cause appears to be incorrect loading of data due to activating events that aren't expected to be activated yet, however this glitch doesn't always work, as the Spy Scope does have special dialog for this circumstance that it will use. It is unclear what the real trigger is.
During the final boss with Risky Boots, if you pause the game and unpause, it will sometimes cause the colors for Shantae's sprite to be messed up. Shantae's skin will flash red and purple, her hair will be either a light brown or dark orange, and her clothes will either be a lime green or yellow. The cause is currently unknown as well as the method of triggering the glitch, however it appears it might have something to do with pausing/unpausing at the right time during invincibility frames (possibly at the exact moment you come out of invincibility, although there has been no successful test that proves this).
If you play the Dance mini game in the Dance Parlor and earn 0 gems the game will be stuck on the mini game screen after Shantae falls off, nothing can solve this except for resetting the game or loading a save state (unsure if this happens on the Game Boy version but it definitely happens on the 3DS e-Shop version).
If you jump in the water as another transformation in the area left of Water Town, and when you end up back at the start, while the screen is still while, press select to turn back into Shantae, and everything will turn white. One way to fix this is to enter another area. Other methods are unknown. It is unknown if this works with other transformations besides monkey Shantae.
In the Mens Desert and Ladies Desert areas, Shantae can become permanently invincible by utilizing a collision glitch. If her health is reduced to half a heart, and she uses her normal whip attack at the exact frame she loses her invincibility frames, the death sound will play but Shantae will have no reaction, nor will she react to any enemy attack for the duration of the game. She can still die to pits, lava and spikes, and picking up a heart, using a healing item or using a hot spring will return her to normal. While this glitch can be done with more health, Shantae will only be invincible to the object that damaged her, and only while their sprites are touching. This is easiest to perform in the 3DS version, but can be done in all versions of the game.
There is a placement glitch that can be triggered consistently without fail. When you crawl out of either the save room or the gift room in scuttle town, the game will place you outside in the floor, causing Shantae to fall below the screen into unseen water, in which she apparently sinks in, and falls into a bottomless pit at the bottom. The cause is due to the placement of Shantae becoming off due to her being in a crouch the moment she comes out of the doorway (which could possibly be a result from those two specific doorways being a few pixels lower than they should be, although there is no confirmation that they actually are lower than they should be).
This glitch happens during the final boss with Nega-Shantae. It has been observed to happen in the 3DS e-Shop version, the Director's Cut Steam version, and the iOS version when you rush Nega-Shantae with attacks while using the Pike Ball. Nega-Shantae will be instantly defeated as if your attack did 400 damage all at once, she will explode without moving to the center of the battlefield like normal, and the final boss music will play until the credits start. The cause of this glitch is currently unknown, although it is suspected that Nega-Shantae is simply taking damage in quick succession without stun frames activating. The reason for why that would happen, though, is also unknown. This will not give you the "Potions Smotions" achievement.
It is possible to glitch out of bounds in caves, and then find exits to caves elsewhere in the game. This can be used to warp to just before the final boss. To perform this, be crouched in an area that is too small to stand up fully. Then attack, and backdash while the attack animation is playing. This will cause Shantae to shoot to the right. The camera won't follow you out of bounds, and you will have to navigate blindly.
A glitch occurs on Frostbite Island where the music suddenly stops and now Shantae can't hit enemies nor can they hit her. It is unknown why this happens. It remains like this until a new part of the level is loaded.
A glitch occurs where Shantae's sprite suddenly stops moving. This can be noticed in Sky'scharacter Spotlight at 0:34 seconds.
A glitch occurs randomly on Frostbite island, when Shantae is hit while sliding down a slope, causing her to launch up to the top of the screen and out of sight -- the player can still move back and forth on the level and sounds of Shantae's jump and attacks are still audible, however there is no way to come down or load a new part of the level. As the glitch cannot be fixed, the game needs to be reloaded from a recent save point.
A glitch occurs when transiting from Frostbite island to Propeller Town. If jump rapidly while pressing UP during screen transition you may see Shantae sliding down the rope and then on the next screen the rope disappears and Shantae is nowhere to be found. As with previous glitch the game must be reloaded.
A glitch occurs when using the pirate flare on a specific frame of Shantae's walk cycle, which will cause the animation to persist while the game still asks if you would like use the flare.
By performing the Jug dance transformation in Tassel Town's slopes the player will fall through the map[1]
After watching the credits from the options menu before creating a save file, it will display your play time as 2023406815:00:15 and item collection as -1%. You will also gain hero mode.
If you perform the Dryad transformation and get blown next to a wall by a sandstorm, you can revert back to Shantae and go through the wall to the left. While inside a wall, you can transform into a monkey then climb out of bounds.
Within the Ammo Baron's ship in the third section, there is an entrance leading to a room where you have to use the Monkey Bullet to get through. However, you don't want to enter the Monkey Bullet room. Instead, you need to transform into Shantae's harpy transformation. Fly along the ceiling and towards the entrance and you won't enter the Monkey Bullet room. Rather, you'll fly into a gap between the third section and what appears to be an unused room in Ammo Baron's ship. The gap itself is off-camera and can only be seen by shifting between both the third section of Ammo Baron's ship and the "unused room." You can get out of the gap by flying to the up and left and the game can be continued as normal.
In Hypno Baron's Castle, it is possible to get caught by one of the pink slimes while also simultaneously killing it, this will cause Shantae to be stuck where she was standing before for a few moments and then fall through the stage, using the whistle can fix this, this glitch has only been observed while the player is airborne.
Having the Gemjug and Blobfish dances in the dance menu before starting a new game, makes them permanently unavailable, As the game still thinks you have them, resulting in being asked to trade the Gemjug for the Warp, or the Blobfish for the Obliterate dance. However the trade can't be done due to not having the said dances, leaving them unobtainable for that file.
Before entering the Risky Boots boss battle, pressing the subscreen button may cause the game screen to go black, but still allow the player full control of Shantae while the fight continues in the background.
In the first section of Cape Crustacean, using the harpy transformation and falling directly before the magic carpet needed to reach the next level will softlock the game.
