Fiery Frolic

Grim Matchstick attacking Cuphead.

**Fiery Frolic** is a level in Inkwell Isle Two, where the fight with Grim Matchstick takes place. It is represented on the map by a tower with a dragon's tail spiraling around it.

## Location

There is a shortcut where you go behind the huge mountain above the Bird House where Wally Warbles is battled. In order to unlock Fiery Frolic, you must beat Carnival Kerfuffle or use the shortcut mentioned earlier. Once you beat Fiery Frolic, you unlock Mausoleum II, Porkrind's Emporium, and Lucien.

## Stage

The actual fight takes place in the clouds surrounding the tower, which rotates in the background. Once you reach the final phase of the fight the sky will darken as a thunderstorm begins.

## Strategy

### Useful Weapons

* Charge
* Lobber

### Battle

* Phase 1
* Phase 2
* Phase 3

"Don't m-m-m-misunderstand my flames -- I just meant fun and games."

—Grim Matchstick, Phase 1 Death Screen

Grim Matchstick introduces himself making a spooky gesture with his wings and face. In this phase, Grim mostly hangs out at the right side of the arena and damages the player(s) with these attacks:

* Grim shoots ripples from his eyes, which consists of 3 ring-like projectiles (4 after a damage threshold), at the players. The final ring of the beams can be parried.
* He can shoot fireballs that travel in a wave pattern. He sometimes shoots two at the same time that crisscross each other, but only does this when he reaches a damage threshold.
* He also uses his tail to attack by hiding it on the bottom screen before jabbing the player(s). This can be avoided if players pay attention to the bottom screen and the sound of the attack, which is the sound of his tail wiggling.

For this phase dodging his fireballs and parrying his eye ripples is the key. The eye ripples are the only projectiles in the level that can be parried. All the rest of the projectiles in the level cannot be parried. If you want to get all three parries, then use the eye ripples since they are your only chance to parry in the whole fight.

Using Charge is useful here since you require to dish a lot of damage as well as charging your shot while you dodge his projectiles and his tail. Remember to look below the screen for his tail to find out where it will rise and do not go near his mouth when he charges a waving fireball.

After taking enough damage, Grim will fly off screen. You will see him in the background, soaring past. He then goes to the left side of the screen, starting phase two.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to put you in the h-h-h-hot seat..."

—Grim Matchstick, Phase 2 Death Screen

In this phase, Grim will proceed to move on the left side of the screen and he will lean down, then open his mouth and sends out a parade of marching fireballs that travel across his tongue, which he stretches out as a platform. Some of the grinning fireballs will jump either directly towards the player or to the right side of the screen (no matter the location of the player(s)) in an arc trajectory, and try to damage the player(s).

Grim also shoots out smoke or fire from his nose to damage the player(s) if they run into it.

In this phase you still need platform maneuver and jump dodging is important against his jumping fireballs. Avoiding his nose is essential to prevent him damaging you as well as to keep yourself above the cloud platform to give you time to evade the jumping fireballs. Lobber is useful here since the shot falls down on his hitbox because if you are on the upper clouds you cannot actually hit him unless you hit him in a diagonal order preferably south-west.

After enough damage, Grim will look defeated, with his eyes bulging out, and him rolling his tongue back. But after this, he grows two more heads, and the fight continues.

In Simple Mode, the fight just ends with Grim's eyes bulging out.

"One..two..three! You'd b-b-b-etter flee!"

—Grim Matchstick, Phase 3 Death Screen

This phase isn't fought in Simple Mode.

In the final phase, Grim will grow out two more heads and moving his heads in a cycling manner. His other two heads will shoot out 6 to 9 cluster fireballs that slightly homes on the player(s), which can be destroyed but clustered into four directions in a plus formation.

Grim's middle head will sometimes morph into a flamethrower and fire a stream of flames two times in a three second charging time delay before returning to normal.

In this phase you need platform maneuver, dodging, and most importantly timing your attacks. Try to prevent attacking his cluster fireballs is important to prevent it from clustering. His flamethrower can be dodged easily since it only hits the slightly above the middle area of the screen. Using Charge is very useful since you have time to dodge his cluster fireballs as well as dish out huge damage on him. Lobber is even more effective as its arc means you can hit him over all the cluster fireballs.

After dealing enough damage, the fight will end. All three of Grim's heads will have cross eyes, and their tongues out.

## Gallery

*Overworld Sprite*Overworld Sprite from 2015 Demo