The 10 Hardest Cuphead Bosses

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Script written by Ty Richardson

“Cuphead” is known to be an incredibly difficult game and these are the bosses to thank for it! For this list we'll be looking at the most challenging foes the game has to offer. Our list includes Grim Matchstick, Cala Maria, Beppi the Clown, the Devil, and more! Have you beaten any of these bosses? Any of them make you rage? Share with us in the comments below!

Ribby & Croaks


These two are arguably the hardest of the Inkwell Isle bosses as you’re fighting two enemies at the same time. Most will find the first phase easy, and we have to agree. All you have to do is avoid the Hadoukens and parry on occasion. But when Croaks hops to the other side of the screen, it gets overwhelming. You got two big frogs firing off from both sides of the screen. However, the street fighting amphibians crank up the difficulty in their third phase where they morph into a giant slot machine. At this point, you’ll have to play their sick game and parry the crank as you anticipate what kind of attack they’re dishing out next.

Djimmi the Great


Of all the bosses that force us into airplane controls, Djimmi the Great is the one that is the most headache-inducing. Wally Warbles has given folks problems, too, but at least the bird only has three phases like most of “Cuphead’s” boss fights. Djimmi, on the other hand, has FIVE phases plus a secret phase you can access under certain conditions before Phase Four. Because of the chaos throughout the fight, it can feel like these five phases make the boss fight last an eternity compared to the length of the others. This will most likely add onto the stress inflicted by his guessing game-style attacks. Seriously, we’d shatter that damn chest of his if we could.

Beppi the Clown


Beppi is a frightening boss, and we aren’t just saying that because he’s a creepy clown, though he does put on a maniacal and disturbing appearance. No, Beppi is frightening in how he harrasses you throughout the fight. There are no funnel cakes or fried Twinkies here - only death. Lasting four phases, he’ll try to mow you down with bumper cars, carousel horses, roller coasters, and worst of all, deadly balloons of DEATH!! It all leads up to Beppi transforming into a chair swing of nightmares where he sends baseball fanatic penguins after you. If you’ve managed to no-damage run this clown, well, mad props to you.
Beppi The Clown | Cuphead Wiki | Fandom

The Phantom Express


Speaking of nightmares, the Phantom Express might chill you to the bone with its ghostly appearance. Much like the group of garden fools known as the Root Pack, the Phantom Express features a group of minibosses, each with their own bags of tricks to trip you up. The Blind Specter is a pain with its bouncing eyeballs while the Conductor will try to stop you in your tracks by crushing you with his bony palms. The Lollipop Ghouls might not give you too many problems, but once you reach the train itself, things get cumbersome. The only way to defeat the train is by attacking the core, which is protected by a grate that can only be opened with a parry to the tail. You’ll only have a short amount of time to attack before it closes and you’ll have to repeat the steps again. In other words, The Phantom Express will be a test of endurance.

Cala Maria


So, we can all agree that Cala Maria is a total babe, right? I mean, look at those thicc mermaid hips! Mmm! Well, the cute and sexy appearance doesn’t last long. This isn’t a mermaid - this is a gorgon, and she’s packed with all kinds of dirty tricks. Not that level of dirty either. Cala doesn’t give you a lot of room to breathe during her second and third phases. Her attacks will congest the screen with bullets and rays that will turn you to stone. She will try her damn hardest to overwhelm you, and whereas Djimmi has a phase where a portion of the screen has a safe space, Cala Maria does not.

King Dice


He’s Mr. King Dice, he’s the gamest in the land. He never plays nice. He’s the Devil’s right-hand man. He can’t let us pass, because he’s an absolute pain. We won’t bring those contracts since he keeps killing us over and over and over again! Admittedly, it’s not King Dice himself that’s the biggest challenge of his fight - it’s his game. Before facing the King himself, he’ll put you through a gauntlet of boss fights from the Tipsy Troupe and Hopus Pocus to Mr. Wheezy and Chips Bettigan. While some spaces will bump up your health by one, the hard part about this is doing all these fights under one health bar. You don’t recover HP after fights unless you hit a space with a heart on it. And lord have mercy on your soul if you somehow manage to land on the Start Over space.

The Devil


Of course the final boss is on the list, and while we wouldn’t say the Devil himself is the hardest in the game, he definitely deserves to be on here. The Devil basically takes you through a literal bullet hell kind of fight, littering the screen with more and more projectiles as the fight progresses. The second and third phases will most likely trip you up as you’ll have to watch for falling flaming chip tokens while the Devil and his cronies continue their assault. Doesn’t help that you lose platforms as the fight progresses.

Rumor Honeybottoms


If there’s one thing platforming fans can’t stand, it’s auto-scrolling levels. So imagine the rage and resentment that festered after playing Honeycomb Herald. Players will have to keep up with falling platforms while the Security Bee and eventually Rumor Honeybottoms herself launch their attacks. She also spends quite a bit of time offscreen after casting her spells, which only extends the length of the fight. We’re just glad that the rising honey is absent from the third phase, otherwise we may never have seen “Cuphead” all the way through.

Grim Matchstick


Grim Matchstick has been known to be the most notorious of the bosses (save for one other section of the game). Given how the boss is based on the Mecha Dragon from “Mega Man 2”, we honestly weren’t expecting a cakewalk to begin with. Just like his inspiration, Grim Matchstick doesn’t give you much room to avoid his attacks between the few cloudy platforms and oversized fireballs. And just like Honeybottoms, his fight is an auto-scroller. It’s a symphony of torment for even veteran players, but somehow, he’s not as bad compared to our final entry.

The Tutorial


No, we here at MojoPlays play the video games we cover. So, this was no problem for us.

Dr. Kahl’s Robot


Again, we have a boss fight heavily inspired by a “Mega Man” character. You know how Dr. Wily was intentionally made to be insanely hard in “Mega Man 7”? Well, Dr. Kahl and his robot are pretty much the same level of nonsense. For starters, the first phase sees you attacking the robot in three segments, and as those segments are destroyed, new attacks are enforced. The second phase is a bit calmer as the robot only sends homing missiles at you. However, the third and final phase reveals Dr. Kahl himself, and he’ll unleash waves of projectiles at you with his knockoff Chaos Emeralds while electrified barriers emerge from the top and bottom of the screen. He is harassment incarnate, and he is by far, the hardest “Cuphead” boss. God save us if the Delicious Last Course resurrects him or introduces a similar boss.

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