Cuphead DLC: How to Turn On “Easy Mode” in All But Name

Cuphead’s DLC is fun. And glitchy. And weird. Indie Gamer Chick’s Cuphead: The Definitive Review – The Delicious Last Course is live, and if you want to know about Cuphead’s so-called “easy mode” that the DLC has, this is the guide of how to get it. For your $7.99, Ms. Chalice isn’t exactly that, but she’s close. If you don’t want to use Ms. Chalice, that’s fine, because the DLC also includes over-powered guns that significantly make the main quest easier (I beat it in under 100 lives, which is a marked improvement over the 713 I needed the first time). Here’s a guide on how to finally give you an edge over the game. Starting a new file, you just need to accumulate coins and give yourself access to Ms. Chalice and the DLC guns. It requires you to only defeat the easiest Run ‘n Gun level AND one Mausoleum. That’s it.

STEP ONE: GET THE TUTORIAL COIN

There’s a coin in the tutorial level inside Elder Kettle’s house. Grab that.

STEP TWO: GET THREE COINS FROM THE APPLE

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Just talking to the Apple will give you three more coins.

OPTIONALLY: At this point, if you have NO faith in your ability to beat Forest Follies with the pea shooter, you can buy a gun to help you. If you skip this, you’ll be able to fully load yourself faster.

STEP THREE: COMPLETE FOREST FOLLIES + GET ALL 5 COINS

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You need to be beat Mausoleum I to open the pathway to the DLC content, and you can’t do that unless you beat Forest Follies. This is the easiest level and the coins are a cinch to get, and you need at least 7 coins to buy the Heart Ring and one DLC gun. Make sure to get all five coins. If you’re confident in your ability to defeat Treetop Trouble, you can beat that and grab five coins there, but it’s a LOT harder, and this is supposed to be “easy mode access.” Wait until you have Chalice.

STEP FOUR: DEFEAT MAUSOLEUM I

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Not only is this required to open access to the DLC, but now you’ll have a Super Art when you start fighting bosses. This is a cinch. Just parry the enemies.

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You can now access the DLC. Talk to the ferryman and he’ll take you to the DLC island, but there’s two more coins (possibly five, depends on how your save file feels) that you can access. You’ll also immediately get the Ms. Chalice charm, the Astral Cookie. With Ms. Chalice, you can’t equip other charms. You won’t need them. She gives you one extra hit point and her double jump is overpowered.

STEP FIVE: GET THE COIN FROM MS. CHALICE’S TUTORIAL

Go to the food cart, which is Chalice’s tutorial, and grab that coin.

STEP SIX: GET THE HIDDEN COIN ON INKWELL IV

Follow the instructions on this tweet:

STEP SEVEN: BUY DLC GEAR AND YOU NOW HAVE “EASY MODE”

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The DLC guns and charms are only on Inkwell IV. Don’t buy from other shops.

Ms. Chalice is incredibly weak against Shmup battles (in my complete play-through with Ms. Chalice, 37 of my 98 deaths were against the Shmup bosses, with Cala Maria taking 13 of those alone), but the Heart Ring works for Cuphead in Shmups and gives you up to three extra hit points. The Heart Ring grants you an extra health for your first, third, and sixth parries at no penalty to your health. This IN THEORY should help you get perfect scores, but Studio MDHR only had five years to work on the game and it’s incredibly glitchy and sometimes you can finish a stage with 5 health and it still says you didn’t finish with the required three health.

The Converge has a really powerful, quick-to-shoot EX shot that I called the “FU BOLT” because, I mean, look at it!

The Crack Shot is my personal favorite of the new guns. It’s like a more powerful Chaser, AND, if you hit the shot before it breaks for the heat-seeking part, it causes almost twice the damage, so it’s versatile. The Converge is the second best, as it gives range, pierces all enemies and is quite powerful. If you hold the aim lock button down, it MIGHT focus the three bolts more narrowly (the game is insanely fickle about this working. It’s not consistent at all. The DLC is weirdly glitchy, but hey, they only had five years to work on this. You can’t expect it to work!). If you didn’t buy a gun for Forest Follies, you should be able to afford the Heart Ring, Crackshot, and Converge.

Cuphead should be a lot easier now, and you have a lot of flexibility to come up with strategies.

OPTIONAL: TAKE OUT THE PAWNS

If you’re feeling confident, you can keep going from here as long as it’ll let you go. The Knight that you fight after the Pawns is by far the hardest of the five Chess pieces, but you get coins for every victory after.

You can get two more coins by taking out the Pawns. Use Ms. Chalice for all the battles with the Chess pieces. You can tell they were made for her. You can also buy the Twist-Up, which has bosses it works really well against, but precision shooting is a lot harder. If it allows you, you can try your luck on the Knight too for even more coins, but he’s a lot harder. If you don’t want to use Ms. Chalice, the Crackshot and the Heart Ring should be enough to at least get your through Inkwell I and stock-up more coins to give you the secondary gun of your choice. Have fun now that you can enjoy the game a little more.