The Root Pack

**The Root Pack** are three bosses in one. They are located on Inkwell Isle I.

Chauncey Chantenay

### Date of death

When they reach at 450/360/400 (Sal Spudder)400/425 (Ollie Bulb)400/475/475 (Chauncey Chantenay)

## Description

### Appearance

Sal Spudder is a potato, Ollie Bulb is an onion with a big purple nose, and Chauncey Chantenay is a carrot with forehead creases that hide his third eye. All of these root vegetables are rather large compared to Cuphead and Mugman.

### Personality

Sal Spudder's personality is unknown, but he seems to enjoy consuming dirt and worms, based on his only attack. Based on his facial expressions, he seems to have a very grouchy personality. The only time we see him smiling is on his Death Screen.

Ollie Bulb gets upset quickly, so if he has to choose between violence and peace, he gladly chooses peace unless someone hurts him first. As most of the Inkwell Isle citizens are friends of Cuphead and Mugman, even in situations like the one presented in game, he doesn't jump straight to fighting them like every other boss.

Chauncey Chantenay is very skilled in psychic abilities and seems to be maniacal and insane. When he pops out of the ground, he makes a boasting gesture at the players, suggesting that he is a show-off. He is also the presumed leader of the group.

Horace Radiche, as evident by his face, appears to be in a constant state of agitation, and is very quick to combat his rivals.

## Battle

### Intro

Sal Spudder bursts out of the ground with an angry expression on his face, looking towards the player(s). He quickly resumes his idle animation as the fight commences. It was originally planned for Sal to have a voice when popping out, but the idea was later scrapped.

### Phase 1

*"Buttered, smashed, and mashed. It's over for you."*

—**Sal Spudder**, Death screen

After his intro, Sal Spudder will begin an attack pattern involving him spitting out three dirtballs, and then a knotted worm that the player can parry. Sal will spit out his projectiles faster every round of his attack, eventually slowing them back to the starting pace. In Simple mode, he spits two dirtballs instead of three before the worm. His projectiles are also slower, and they're fired at a slower rate. In Expert mode, the projectiles are fired at a faster rate and move much faster.

When defeated, he is shown to be heavily bruised, rubbing his cheeks and retreating underground. Hitpoints = 450/360/400

### Phase 2

*"Hey little guy, it's O.K. if you have to cry."*

—**Ollie Bulb**, Death screen

After Sal Spudder has retreated into the ground, Ollie Bulb will pop out of the ground in the middle of the stage and look around. Sensing danger, he starts to cry, with his tears coming down at different intervals. All the player has to do is dodge the tears by moving left and right. There may also be pink tears that can be parried. In Expert mode, the tears drop quicker and there will be more falling down each time he cries. In Simple mode, Ollie is skipped after defeating Sal Spudder, and the fight goes straight to phase 3.

When defeated, some of his layers appear to be peeled as he rubs his cheeks and retreats underground. Hitpoints = 360/400/425

### Phase 3

*"I'm lean, mean and full of beta-carotene!"*

—**Chauncey Chantenay**, Death screen

After Ollie Bulb disappears, Chauncey Chantenay pops into the background in a showy manner, and proceeds to rub his head to telepathically summon carrots from the background that home in on the player(s). These carrots can be destroyed (Hitpoints = 4/4/4). In Simple mode, there will be less homing carrots. The carrots will also be slower, less accurate in their homing, and have a longer wait time before starting to home in. In Expert mode, there will be more homing carrots. They will be faster, more accurate, and have a shorter wait time before starting to home in. Occasionally, Chauncey will open his third eye and fire three laser beams at the player(s). In Simple mode, the laser will be slower, and there will only be two beams. In Expert mode, the laser will be faster, but there will only be two beams. After he fires these beams, he resumes his regular attack of summoning homing carrots.

After taking enough damage, he will begin to rage and yell while pulling on his leaves in frustration. Hitpoints = 450/475/475

## Unused Content

Some time in development, a beet character named "Beetrice Lutz" (original name: Betty Beet) was part of The Root Pack, but she is currently unused. There are some prototypes of what she would have looked like. Some of these included legs, others had her planted in the ground like the current members. (Most early designs for the Root Pack members tend to have legs, being made before they settled on the theme of the Root Pack popping up from the ground and mostly staying stationary.) One prototype was very close to the colored concept art, and another has eyes and nose on the stem and her lips on her body.

The in-game prototype involved "Beet Babies," which would've made her the first boss to have children (Wally Warbles would be the second); these babies would be her only attack, involving her throwing them at the player(s). There is an in-game prototype and a refined version drawn on paper that is colored and has a similar style to the Root Pack in the game now.

* The in-game prototype version has Beetrice crying when she has to throw her babies from a grocery bag, with a few types of babies she can throw.
* The version that is drawn on paper is a lot more aggressive and she picks the babies up from the ground. She would throw them into her spinning leaves and slice them into pieces, the pieces will most likely go off-screen and fall back down as projectiles.

Her in-game prototype personality and attack pattern was given to Ollie, as it fits an onion that made himself cry a lot more. Later in development, the developers decided to scrap her to streamline the intentionally easy tutorial fight.

The original vision for this fight would have had five phases. It is unknown which root vegetable will be the fifth member of the Root Pack.

In The Art of Cuphead, it is mentioned that the background has leaves of each of the three main members, including pea plants. Pea pods also exist in the code, but not much was known until the book shined some light on them. They are a set of enemies meant to be minions that drop in to the fight, but they never made it into the finished design.

## Trivia

* As the name obviously implies, the Root Pack is a group of root vegetables that grow in the ground. It's possible that they also represent the beginning of the quest for the main heroes.
* In the 2017 demo, Chauncey Chantenay did not appear.
* Ollie Bulb's crying attack is a reference to how onions, when cut, release chemicals that irritate eyes. Likewise, Chauncey Chantenay's third eye, while being a reference to psychic powers and spirituality/mysticism in general, is also a reference to the myth that carrots are good for eyesight due to their high beta-carotene.
* This is the only boss fight where a phase is skipped, but the final phase is still fought in Simple Difficulty.
* In the good ending, none of the members of The Root Pack are shown.
* The music for this boss is one of the few tracks to come to a slow stop rather than ending with a bang.
* The Root Pack, Ribby and Croaks, Baroness Von Bon Bon, the Phantom Express, and King Dice are the only boss battles with a group of bosses rather than one main boss.
* Clip Joint Calamity was used as a placeholder theme during the 2016 demo.
* Chauncey Chantenay's eyes will flash blue when he is hit while performing his 3rd eye attack.
* While many believe the names of the Root Pack are "Moe Tato", "Weepy", and "Psycarrot", these are unofficial names created by fans. The official names were revealed by Studio MDHR in an email and later in The Art of Cuphead.
* Besides Horace Radiche, all members have the same naming scheme: a first name that vaguely relates to the last name or the character (Sal and Chauncey are alliterations and Ollie is similar to onion) and a last name that directly points out which vegetable they are (**Spudder** as in spud (potato) for Sal, onion **Bulb** for Ollie and **Chantenay**, a type of carrot, for Chauncey).
	+ For Horace Radiche, only his last name relates to what vegetable he is (**Radiche** as in radish) and his full name is a play-on-words of horseradish.
	+ For Beetrice Lutz, Beetrice is Beatrice with the "a" replaced with an 'e' to make beet, and **Lutz** Green Leaf is a type of beet. Her old name Betty Beet is an alliteration, and the last name **Beet** is exactly what she is.
* In legacy and version 1.1.X, Ollie would look around two more times if you didn't attack him, a remnant of secret phase existing like the cupid decoration in the first phase of Sally. This also explains why attacking Ollie after the fourth back and forth in the current version does not make him cry, as the flag of Horace coming out and him being spared is already set. This is an optimization to generates cards for EXes, although this only works if you put it in something.
* Sal Spudder's death screen describes 3 different ways to eat potatoes: mashed potatoes, potatoes with butter, and smashed potatoes.

### Inspirations and similarities

* The group's name is a reference to the Rat Pack, a 1950's group of entertainers, founded by famed noir actor Humphrey Bogart, comprising Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
* Their appearances may have been inspired by the Three Stooges, being the "Moe", "Curly", and "Larry" of the main bosses respectively.
* In the background of this fight, there is a bag labeled "ACME GROW" which is a reference to the constant uses of "Acme" products in old cartoons to avoid using real manufacturer names.
* The Root Pack may have been inspired by other anthropomorphic vegetables from cartoons such as *The Tears of an Onion* (1938) and *The Fresh Vegetable Mystery* (1939).
* There is an unused recording of Chauncey Chantenay vocalizing a short piece of unknown music, which seems to be a reference to the 1975 horror film *Jaws*.
* Their name makes the synonym name of The Fluffy Bunch in The Powerpuff girls. Also it is a vegetable version of the Aqua Teens from ATHF.

## References

1. ↑ https://cuphead.fandom.com/wiki/The\_Root\_Pack