Keep your hat in three steps
Once you have the Top Hat, use the inventory to keep it away from the tree:
- Unequip the hat before walking past the tree that steals it.
- Walk past the tree without wearing the hat.
- Open the inventory again and equip the hat after you are safely past.
The developer gives this as the intended demo method and also says storing the hat in the inventory works on a first playthrough. You do not need the old menu exploit.
Why older videos use a different method
Some early videos use a tree-shaped menu button and a death or checkpoint respawn to keep the hat. The developer calls that behavior a bug and explicitly says it is unnecessary.
Use the inventory method instead of relying on that old exploit. Whether the exploit still works depends on the version; the developer’s proposed fix is not a promise that a particular patch has shipped.
Before you try it
Use this method after you have obtained the Top Hat. Menus and traps can differ between Steam and browser demo versions.
Need the inventory key? See controls and pause.