Pretty sure my that it was broken thanks to them tampering with the animation when you hit the fuzzy things in the third phase, that might have caused it to speed up some animations somehow. Or it was caused by them fixing the cagney freeze glitch. I don't know how they wouldn't have noticed this through play testing before haphazardly releasing the patch, but what can you do, I guess.

Side note, you can contact us (the moderators) in this thread: https://www.speedrun.com/cuphead/thread/po5ex/2

Both of these issues have been fixed - if you notice anymore please let us know, and we'll do our best to fix them.

If we are having this new poll in the speedrunners discord, would it also make sense to re-do the menuglitch poll there as well?

If you click the 'Time with loads' above the columns it puts people with loads in priority instead

I like the first 3 options the most, mainly being the mini-league.

1. godsblowjob#3084
2. I have pretty much no commitments - the entirety of a weekend and after school for like 6 hours is fine for me. AEST
3. As much time as needed, like probably 20 hours or something.
4. A speedrunning game stays active when the mods are active and runs are constantly getting verified - I've noticed that often the runs get backed up and become something that ends up costing the mods hours and hours to verify, meaning it becomes this huge looming task that they have to finish. I'd hate to see cuphead become dead so soon and have been longing for an opportunity to contribute to the board. I'd be willing to commit whatever free time I have to moderating this board. Also it's the end of the school year so I have a looooot of time to kill. Way too much time.

Excuse me for the terrible formatting - I'm working on it. Also I've only done the very first boss and difficulty to see how it would turn out. I can't preview this for some silly reason.

[section=Introduction] This document details the most consistent and quickest ways I’ve found on how to achieve the highest grade, for every difficulty, on every boss (Legacy only). This has come about from my quest to put my name on every single one of the boards, and along the way I’ve developed some pretty neat strategies.

For every boss, there is a link to the current WR run for it, with an explanation on each part of the run, where all the parries are located, the loadout you should have going into the fight, etc.

Each boss and it's difficulty will contain links to all of the 1st place runs for it, and if possible I will detail the strategy for each run.

[section=The Root Pack] Leaderboard [big][big]Simple[/big][/big] WR is 26s by knilmastere, Telek, and diggitydingdong

[big]Possible Parries[/big] All the parries in this fight can be found in the very first phase - the potato (123). The attack is a mudball, then another mudball, and then a pink worm. This needs to happen three times before the phase changes to get the 3 parries for the fight. The crux of this fight is to delay the phase change to have it happen just as the last worm gets shot out, which you can promptly parry. Different methods have been used to achieve the 26 second time, listed below:

[big]Telek's Strategy[/big] (as I interpreted it) Loadout: Lobber for weapon 1, roundabout for weapon 2, no super, coffee Continuously fire the lobber for the first two phases. After the first two parries, fire out a lobber EX. After you parry the second one, start doing WSG and the potato should die after the last parry gets shot out. In his run, Telek didn't swap weapons very fast; meaning if your swaps are much quicker you won't find much success with this strategy, unless you purposefully dial it back.

[big]Diggitydingdong's Strategy[/big] Loadout: No super, coffee Continuously shoot WSG and fire one EX until the potato dies. Note when this happens; this happens for me just before the potato fires the second shot. Now, when you make your actual attempts, replicate what you did for the first run (i.e continuously shooting WSG and fire a single EX) but stop just before the potato should die, all the while parrying the worms that come out. After that, switch to lobber and stand next to the potato. Dodge the mudballs and fire your EX just before the last parry gets shot out; if timed well, the shot should land after the worm comes out and you can parry it while the phase changes.

For the last phase, stand under the carrot and shoot up (with WSG). Use as many EX's as you can. Be sure to fire them as close to the ground as possible such that the lobber EX's still hit (you'll figure it out quickly) so that you get the most shots of any roundabout EX's and that you can fire the EX's off quickly (because you can only shoot one per jump, so you have less to travel before you hit the ground, meaning you can fire more faster).

After a while you should be able to get 27/28 seconds pretty consistently, 26 just comes with patience and good carrot RNG.

[big][big]Regular[/big][/big] N/A

[big][big]Expert[/big][/big] N/A

[section=Goopy Le Grande] Leaderboard [big][big]Simple[/big][/big] WR is 20s by knilmastere and Telek My PB is 21s (pff who cares amirite)

[big]Possible Parries[/big] All the parries are found above goopy's head in the first -> second phase transition, in the form of question marks (?).

[big]The Strategy[/big] Loadout: No super, coffee It's really simple to high grade this fight, all you have to do is follow goopy round with your shots as much as you can, landing as many of them as possible. This can either be done by following him closely with your character, by matching his jumps, or standing relatively still and using the Lock feature to trace him that way. Either way, you want goopy to stop early enough so that you can parry all three question marks and fire all your EX's, but late enough so that he doesn't start moving around in the second phase. Theoretically, you could still get a good time like this but it's harder.

There's really not too much to go into for this fight, so I'll just leave it here for now. Contact me or Telek (knilmastere is inactive, I think) on discord or in the forums if you want additional information.

[big][big]Regular[/big][/big] N/A

[big][big]Expert[/big][/big] N/A

[section=Hilda Berg] Leaderboard For this and all other plane levels, you'll need to know proper WSG timings for it. Instead of just spam it as much as you can, you need to do double taps every half a second or so to quickly fire a bomb and switch back to bullets, to refresh the bomb's refire rate. [big][big]Simple[/big][/big] WR is 46s by Telek My PB is 49s on the site, but 46s off-camera (ties the record, I'll upload the run later).

[big]Possible Parries[/big] All of the parries for this fight come out the little ships. For each phase, comes a different pattern. The following looping pattern was discovered by Telek:

"Plane #1 is every 2nd shot Bull phase is as follows: Black -> Green -> Pink -> Black -> Green -> Black -> Pink -> Green -> Black -> Repeat Plane #2 is every 3rd shot Gemini is every 3rd shot Plane #3 is every 4th shot"

Generally though, there are a few that are the quickest and most convenient to parry; that would be the second ship in the first phase, an early ship in the fourth phase, and an early ship in the last phase.

[big]Diggitydingdong's Strategy[/big] Loadout: Coffee With this strategy, I feel I could beat Telek's time, but I have yet to do so (cause RNG is rough). Essentially, it breaks down into the five phases: Phase 1) Get close to hilda, and start doing plane WSG and make sure to land every bomb on hilda, and most of the bullets. Count the planes that come out, and make sure not to destroy the second one (if it's in the way or you accidentally destroy it, retry). Get ready to parry the pink bullet that comes out of it. 3 planes will come out during this phase. Make sure to not get hit by Hilda as transitions to the second phase (when she moves to the left).

Phase 2) To maximise damage, when she moves right again you'll want to do the damage boost like you normally would, but without getting... hit. This is a bit more tricky to do but comes down to patience. First, practice predicting when she comes back on screen; too early and your EX misses. If you fire it off a bit late, that's fine because it will catch back up with Hilda after a little bit. To actually perform it, sit just above where her hitbox would appear, and when the time is right you'll want to quickly move down and fire the EX; this is just after her hitbox has passed you by. What you'll get is a whole bunch of damage done without actually getting hit.

For the actual phase though, sit near the bull without getting hit, and prepare for when it rams you; theoretically, you can sit just under where you'd get rammed and still hit the bull with your bullets (from a distance) but it's too risky. Note that the bull's entire hitbox moves forward when he rams, so make sure to move back when this happens.

Phase 3) Similar to phase 1, you'll want to just sit next to her without getting hit by her or the planes. Usually she won't fire a tornado, but be prepared just in case for that. All you're focusing on for this part is to just not get hit, cause you've gone through a lot to get here. Sometimes you can get a nuke, which you use; if you're lucky, you get one more card before the phase transition, allowing you to do the damage boost without getting hit thing again.

Phase 4) Gemini goes by really quick, usually. But the main trick is to not destroy the plane that contains the parry; at the moment, I'm not too sure on which one it is, but you'll figure it out after a while. Watch out for the bullet hell, too; you can get really unlucky in this phase and just get dominated straight away by the bullet stream, or you can get really good RNG.

Imagine a vertial line above and below the centre of the bullet hell circle. The bullet stream will pass through this line once, and then the next time it encounters it the attack stops. This will help you decide when you need to stop dodging the attack.

This phase dies quickly, but instantly transforms to phase 5:

Phase 5) Which again, is similar to 1 & 3. Again, watch out for the final parry in this phase, don't destroy the planes that could have it. Just don't freak out and you'll be fine.

[big][big]Regular[/big][/big] N/A

[big][big]Expert[/big][/big] N/A

[section=Cagney Carnation] Leaderboard [big][big]Simple[/big][/big] WR is 44s by diggitydingdong

[big]Possible Parries[/big] Throughout this adventure of trying to high grade every simple boss, you'll encounter one like Cagney, where, all the parries are contained in one phase and are RNG dependent. All three parries in this phase are found in the last phase, where one of the 5 bullets shot out are pink. This needs to happen a total of 3 times.

[big]The Strategy[/big] Loadout: No super, parry sugar/coffee For the first two phases, unload on cagney like you normally would. The goal here is to get him to his final phase and get the pink bullets to spawn. Once you get him to his last phase, you want to do a reasonable amount of damage that'll get him close to death. Once you've done that, switch to roundabout.

The blue bullets, when they touch the ground, will spawn a little seed which spawns the little pirahna plant flying thing. To counter-act this, start shooting roundabout all over the place to kill them before it gets out of control. During his mess, look out for the pink bullet. Once you spot the bullet, jump over to it and parry it. This is much easier with the parry sugar, which I used for the 44 second time. Once you parry the last bullet, unload on Cagney to finish him off. It's best for the last bullet to be near cagney, so you don't have to travel across the screen to kill him.

[big][big]Regular[/big][/big] N/A

[big][big]Expert[/big][/big] N/A

[section=Ribby and Croaks] Leaderboard [big][big]Simple[/big][/big] WR is 22s by diggitydingdong

[big]Possible Parries[/big] Each time the frogs shoot out the bullets, it will fire 5 bullets. Three of these will be pink. There are three patterns that this can happen in (P = pink/parry, B = blue): Pattern 1 ...............P............... .........B..........B.......... ...P.......................P...

Pattern 2 ...............P............... .........B...........P......... ...P.......................B...

Pattern 3 ...............P............... .........P...........B......... ...B.......................P...

Note that the middle shot is always pink. This is the only pattern that is impossible: ...............P............... .........P...........P......... ...B.......................B...

These bullets will be referred to as such:``` ...............3............... .........2...........4......... ...1.......................5...

In the second phase, the frog on the left can shoot out bullets, but they'll be dead long before then.

**[big]The Strategy[/big]**
Loadout: No super, coffee / parry sugar
In my WR run, I got flies -> bullets. This is optimal, bullets -> transition is okay. While they are spitting out flies, you are sitting on the foot getting double cards for those sweet double card boost. Make sure to stand on the foot and duck down for the best consistency. Unload all your ex's before the bullet phase starts.

For the bullet phase, there is a trick you can attempt to employ if you have the parry sugar. If you time your jumps such that you get a near miss with bullet 1, you can still auto-parry it if it's pink, and you won't get hit if it's blue; generally though, you'll just want to play the guessing game.

Weigh your options here. If you choose to guess it's bullet 1, you'll have a better chance of being right, but you'll still have to guess whether the last bullet is 4 or 5. If you chose bullet 2, you'll know exactly what the last bullet is (5). In my run, I guessed bullet 2.

When parrying bullet 2 (pattern 3), make sure to do a light tap. This way, you'll hit the ground faster, meaning you can jump back up to parry bullet 3 easier. After parrying that bullet, you have time to fire off an EX before falling and landing on bullet 5, which you can parry.

After parrying your 3 bullets, unload on the two toads and watch them die.

Theoretically, you could use the Super 2 invincibilty glitch used in the simple any% record by, you guessed it, [me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2cSsd7Us0g) (but discovered by TwoCplus) to get an even faster time, but it hasn't been tested yet.

[big][big]Regular[/big][/big]
N/A

[big][big]Expert[/big][/big]
N/A

[section=Baroness Von Bon Bon]
[Leaderboard](https://www.speedrun.com/cuphead/Baroness_Von_Bon_Bon#Highest_Grade)
[big][big]Simple[/big][/big]
WR is 39s by [diggitydingdong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkwkadFDM5c&t=5s)

**[big]Possible Parries[/big]**
All the parries in this fight come out in the form of little jellybeans that run across the stage. Most of the time, they are pink, but sometimes you get green ones which aren't too favorable. No beans come out in the first phase, and then for the rest of the fight they come out at regular-ish intervals. A jellybean won't spawn if the Baroness is popping her head out of the gate.

In phase 2, there is a possibility for two parrys to appear depending on the boss. In phase 3, one will appear. This is only because of how quick the fights go, it isn't a hard limit.

In the last phase, the baroness shoots out 3 clouds with her shotgun; one of these clouds is pink.

Balancing these with the minibosses can prove for a difficult challenge.

**[big]The Strategy[/big]**
Coming out of Isle 1, many bosses in the other Isles are heavily dependent on RNG. The baroness is not an exception, infact it is one of the most RNG dependent fights out there. There are a few combinations of minibosses that require a different tactic to tackle, and some where you just reset. For these fights, use EX's where appropriate (one on each miniboss is ok).

**Miniboss 1**
If you get the gumball machine, reset. You'll only be able to kill it after it turns around (i've only killed it before it turned around once), which means it has a long death animation of it travelling back. If I got gumball, I'd do any% attempts because I can damage boost to kill the gumball before it turns around easily, but to each their own.

If you get the jawbreaker, then it's usually fine if you can get the quick kill off. The quick kill involves shooting at the jawbreaker until the right moment where you jump and fire an EX below you (this means when you jump the jawbreaker has to be pretty close to you), so that the jawbreaker dies. The quick kill + the length of the death animation provide for an ok first boss. Not optimal though.

Candy Corn / Waffle are the best bosses to get first. They're quick kills most of the time, but most importantly; they move around a lot (especially the corn). Why is this important? Well, in the later two phases, you'll be trying to kill the boss, but also trying to preserve the pink beans until they reach you. The candy corn and waffle are very easy to miss shots on, meaning that they are best for the first phase. Waffle is easier, so if you had to pick waffle would be best. Both are fine though.

**Miniboss 2**
Any boss on this one is theoretically ok. But they each have their pros and cons.

If you get the gumball machine or the jawbreaker, their long death animation provide for an easy opportunity to spawn two beans for you to parry. This means you don't have to worry about them too much in the rest of the fight and can focus more on the bosses. However though, the long death animation is quite a time sink, so expect to have it to kick it up a gear in the later phases.

The candy corn and waffle are good in this fight because of their short death animations + quick kill. Unfortunately though, you run the risk of missing a shot and accidentally hitting a loose bean (this happens more often than you think). You'll also have to parry two more times in the run, which at this stage can be quite the challenge when given bad RNG.

**Miniboss 3**
Death animations don't really matter in this phase because the baroness can appear during it. This means gumball + jawbreaker are best here as their fights are easy to handle. Waffle is okay here too (it really is the best miniboss out of all of them). Candy corn is 'meh'. This phase isn't reliant on any specific boss like the first two.

**Baroness Herself**
Stand underneath her. Shoot up with WSG and spam your EX's. Do light jumps to reach her with your lobber attacks. Be really careful here, because the beans keep spawning and you won't be able to predict when they come out too efficiently. You won't be able to kill her before she pulls out her shotgun, so when she does that take a step back and go to the platform for safety.

The shotgun; stand on the platform and do little hops to make your shots hit. When the platform goes back, feel free to go to the floor and attack her how you wish. The damn shotgun's 'bullets' though can be a straight up pain in the ass to deal with. Don't underestimate them. You'll want to either move out of the way of them or shoot them all. You may find a sweet spot where you can be safe and also deal quite a bit of damage; take advantage of it.

If you missed a parry in the first phases, watch out for the beans even more now as this can be your chance to redeem yourself. If you see the shotgun bullets, take your chances and pray for the pink one so you can parry it. How you pick up all the parrys is really intuition at this point.

I believe optimal boss RNG is waffle -> jawbreaker -> gumball machine, although I'm not too sure. You'll develop your own playstyle, of course, and some bosses will stick out more to you than others.

Glad to see all has been cleared up now, was quite refreshing to see 70 notifications. Thanks for taking the time to do this, we all appreciate it.

What's happening with run verification? I've submitted a couple IL runs and it's been a few days since I've submitted them.