Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course – How To Defeat Chef Saltbaker
Quick Links
- Recommended Loadout
- Phase 1 – How To Beat Chef Saltbaker And His Army Of Ingredients
- Phase 2 – How To Defeat Chef Saltbaker And His Pepper Shakers
- Phase 3 – How To Defeat The Salt Statue
- Phase 4 – How To Break Chef Saltbaker's Heart
- Beating Chef Saltbaker With Ms. Chalice
Well, you've done it. You have made it to the final boss fight in Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. But plot twist, our best friend Chef Saltbaker has turned on us (making him a top ten anime betrayals list contender in the future). And with his betrayal, he is going to throw everything including the kitchen sink at us. Whatever are we to do?
Well, buckle up, prepare to dodge limes, peppercorns, and wade through oh-so-much salt, because we have the tips and tricks you are going to need to blow through this dastardly dough roller.
Recommended Loadout
The first phase heavily relies on you maintaining an emphasis on dodging. There is a lot going on. At any given moment, there could be as many as a dozen projectiles on screen. So, you are going to want to bring a weapon that will allow you to actively dodge. This means the Chaser or the Crackshot. Personally, while we think the Chaser is great for this fight, the Crackshot is almost as good and has much better EX ability for this battle. However, either one will perform well for you.
As for your secondary, we very, very strongly recommend the Charge shot. It makes extremely quick work of the second phase of this battle. It is also useful for getting a few big hits in when the screen doesn't have much going on in the early portions of the first phase.
When it comes to charms, you are going to have to decide between the Heart Ring and the Smoke Bomb. There are a lot of easy-to-parry attacks throughout the phases of this encounter, but the invincibility of the Smoke Bomb is undeniably very helpful during that first phase. Obviously, if you are going for the S rank, the Smoke Bomb is a given (as you can't take a hit for a perfect run, so having extra hearts isn't helpful anyway).
Phase 1 – How To Beat Chef Saltbaker And His Army Of Ingredients
| Phase 1 Attacks |
|---|
| Rogue Flame | This flame hangs out at the top of the screen. It arcs down on the regular. It is pretty slow-moving, but if you are right underneath it, you could end up in a situation where you are surrounded by projectiles. You need to keep track of the flame so that you can avoid that type of situation. | |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar Cubes | These sugar cubes travel across the screen, bobbing up and down as they do. There will also be at least one parriable cube. | |
| Lime Wedges | The lime wedges will either enter the screen high or low. If they enter high once they get to the other end of the screen they will hook around and come back low. Naturally, the opposite is true for limes that enter the screen low. | |
| Strawberry Shower | These will rain down upon the playfield on a diagonal. | |
| Animal Crackers | These are bunched together and hop across the screen. They are the only projectiles you can actually take out with a shot of your weapon. If you are using the Crackshot or the Chaser, they should take care of these cookies for you. |
The first form of Chef Saltbaker is, by far, his most difficult form. What makes him so brutal is just the tremendous amount of projectiles he places on the screen at once. As mentioned in the loadout section, because of this you are going to want to have a weapon equipped that will allow you to give nearly all of your attention to dodging projectiles.
The key projectile you really want to focus on is the one that, initially, seems less potent: the slow-moving flame. This will stay on the top of the screen, occasionally arching down slowly. If you are too close to it, this flame will absolutely obstruct your path and ruin your day. So, keep an eye on it and make sure to be away from it at all times. Your dash will help you get some distance while dodging above obstacles.
The sugar cubes and animal crackers aren't a big deal; you will just weave in between them. Make sure to parry the pink cubes and try to destroy the animal crackers. The strawberries rain down on a diagonal, and if you are on the opposite end of the screen you can easily slip between them. The lime wedges will boomerang in and back again. None of these projectiles are a threat individually, but you will sometimes have to deal with three of them at a time, which is a lot.
One thing to keep in mind is that Chef Saltbaker will clearly indicate what attack is coming next, so keeping him in your periphery will help you prepare. So, here are your priorities…
- Keep away from the flame at the top of the screen.
- Keep an eye on Chef Saltbaker to know what attack is coming next.
- Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge all the projectiles flying in your direction.
Another thing to note is that there isn't a particularly good place to land your super attacks in this battle unless you are an absolute whiz with Super 3. So, you may want to lean more heavily on your EX attacks. We especially like the Crackshot's EX attack for this battle.
Phase 2 – How To Defeat Chef Saltbaker And His Pepper Shakers
| Phase 2 Attacks |
|---|
| Rogue Flame | The Rogue Flame is back for round two, but this time he is on the ground with you. Just run underneath them every time they hop at you. | |
|---|---|---|
| Peppercorn Projectile | The pepper shakers lining the corners of this battle will all fire peppercorns in your direction. These projectiles are slow-moving but can become an issue when paired with the other projectiles on the screen.
Some of these peppercorns will be parriable, but it is important to only parry them if it makes sense (and the screen isn't full of junk). |
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| Herb Leaves | These will float down from the top of the screen. At first the amount of space between each leaf will make them easy enough to deal with, but as the battle rages on there will be more of them and the space in between will shrink. |
In Chef Salt Baker's second phase, you will have to contend with four peppercorn shooting pepper shakers (one for each corner of the screen), the rogue flame (which is now on the floor instead of the ceiling), and the occasional garnish rain. You will not be shooting Chef Saltbaker himself; instead, you will be firing on the pepper shakers, which will blast off like rockets after a certain amount of hits and slam right into the nefarious baker.
For this phase, we strongly recommend switching to the charge shot. Since there is a pepper shaker to your left and to your right, there is no real aiming to be done. Also, one fully charged shot, followed by an uncharged shot, will send the pepper shaker rocketing toward Chef Saltbaker.
So, you will charge your shot, fire it at the peppershaker on your right, and immediately follow up with an uncharged shot; then turn and run under the flame as it jumps toward you, all the while charging your next shot. Once it is fully charged, let it rip and then follow up with another quick shot. Then back to the peppershaker on your right again, dodging under the flame as you run toward it. Back and forth, right to left, until you finish this phase of the fight.
You will also have to dodge peppercorns and falling leaves of garnish as well, but if you execute this strategy you will make pretty quick work of the second phase. One thing we advise you to not do is chase those pink peppercorns too aggressively. If they are easily in reach, go for the parry. Otherwise, let the peppercorn sail past you. The stage will be filled with obstacles, so sometimes being stuck in the parry hop isn't ideal.
Phase 3 – How To Defeat The Salt Statue
| Phase 3 Attacks |
|---|
| Dough Cutting Wheel | This wheel will travel left to right. Just hop over it. | |
|---|---|---|
| Salt Statue | This statue will bounce around. Once it lands, it does have a pretty decent range. So, just make sure you are a decent clip away from it so that you avoid any potential splash damage. |
This mini-phase is dead simple. At the beginning of the stage, Chef Saltbaker will form into a salt-based statue. He will then come crashing down on top of you. As you see the statute leave the background at the beginning of the battle, just be sure to keep moving in a single direction.
Once, the statue comes crashing down, perform a dodge to make sure you are fully out of the way. From here on out, the boss will just bounce around the arena. Pass under him and shoot him. It only takes about three fully charged shots to put him down.
Phase 4 – How To Break Chef Saltbaker's Heart
| Phase 4 Attacks |
|---|
| Chef Saltbaker's Heart | Saltbaker's heart will bounce around the arena. Moving upward and downward. It is parriable, so you can use it as a makeshift platform. |
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This is another really simple phase. You just need to climb and shoot as you do. Switch to your Chaser or your Crackshot. Keep climbing as you fire at it. You can also parry the heart in a pinch (or to help you make a more difficult jump). This form isn't a big deal at all. Just stay on top of the platforming, and you will be fine.
Beating Chef Saltbaker With Ms. Chalice
Quite simply, Ms. Chalice has every tool you could possibly need to handle this boss battle with ease. Her lower jump arc means that she is more capable of weaving over lime wedges, even while being bombarded by sugar cubes. She can also choose to just roll through them.
Her dash, acting as her parry, also makes parrying peppercorns a breeze in the second phase. Lastly, her enhanced mobility makes the platforming in the final phase a lot easier. If you are struggling with Chef Saltbaker, consider switching to Ms. Chalice. She definitely has a pretty notable advantage here.
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