When the Tinkerbats' former ruler, the Pirate Master, begins to revive and spread his evil curse, many of the Tinkerbats are affected by dark magic and are transformed into vicious Cacklebats. They don't do anything other than walk through the arena, and Shantae can defeat them for gems and hearts. The last time they appear is in the battle against the Tinkertub, coming out of huge cannonballs being shot by the cannon on the Tinkertub.

During this part of the game, they use scuba suits and harpoon guns. They also appear in the underwater side scrolling shooter portion. They first appear in the background of the hole in the roof operating a winch for the anchor Risky Boots uses to go in and out of the room to steal the Magic Lamp. It's unclear how Shantae coerced the creature into doing this. In the end credits a Tinkerbat can be seen repairing Shantae's lighthouse roof. Shantae is able to transform in a Tinkerbat in this game, provided the game is played on a Game Boy Advance and she has paid 500 gems to the Advanced Genies! guy in Bandit Town (or on a regular Game Boy Color while in Debug Mode). They appear again in the Tinkerbat Factory later in the game, operating various machinery and flying using steam-powered, winged jet-packs. In the second half of the battle they peer out of the three portholes and throw exploding barrels. Later at the pirate ship, the first half of the battle there is one loading and firing the cannon and some come out the door where the exploding barrel is kept. They also appear when they took the steam engine from Mimic and blew up his workshop. There are a few that are pounding away with a ram causing things to come in and out of the background wall to make impromptu floors for footing. Some are throwing torches, some come in pods and come out continuously until the pod is destroyed, some are walking about, some are hidden in barrels, and some come in small boats. They first appear attacking Scuttle Town. It is notable that they are completely silent, which may indicate that they don't have a mouth at all. In Half-Genie Hero, the teeth are absent. It is unclear whether they have a mouth or not: their sprites feature three protrusions resembling teeth, but their character portraits never feature them, instead showing their heads as uniformly circular. They have protruding spikes on their backs, presumably forming part of their vertebrae. The Tinkerbats are small, pitch-black, humanoid creatures with hands featuring four clawed fingers and feet featuring three similar clawed toes, yellow eyes, and always wear the same outfit: a red bandana and pants.

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