List of Weapons

**Weapons** have a regular fire and an EX attack, which can be used in exchange for one card from the super meter.

* Standard Weapons
* Plane Weapons
* Super Attacks
* Damage Values

* Peashooter
* Spread
* Chaser
* Lobber
* Charge
* Roundabout
* Crackshot
* Converge
* Twist-Up

## Peashooter

### EX Damage

8.33 (per hit)
25 (max)

### DPS

30

"Standard issue weapon. Long range with average damage."

—Description

**Peashooter** - An average damage weapon with unlimited range. It has a light blue color and looks like a laser beam. The standard issue weapon that is given to the player. It travels straightforward at a high velocity, for a boss that can give you a lot of horizontal distance to dodge, it is a good choice.

EX: Mega Blast - Fires a large, slow-moving blue fireball that deals considerable damage. It will hit a target three times before disappearing, it is a good burst of damage that can be aimed in the usual eight directions.

## Spread

### Damage

1.24 (per shot)
6.2 (all shots)

### EX Damage

4.3 (per shot)
34.4 (max)

### DPS

41.33 (all shots)

"Short range with great damage -- if you can keep close to your target."

—Description

**Spread** - A high damage spread gun that works best if you can get close to your target. Shots disappear after a short distance. It has a red color and looks like some small pyramids. Best used to deal high burst damage when the opportunity presents itself, especially when that boss is stationary. In the game's code, this weapon is called 'spreadshot'.

EX: Eight Way - Fires 8 large spikes that deal high damage, but move very slowly. It is best when using against background bosses like Chauncey Chantenay, Goopy's Tombstone and Beppi's Balloons and Carousel.

## Chaser

### EX Damage

7 (per shot)
28 (max)

### DPS

17.1

"Long range with below-average damage. No aiming required."

—Description

**Chaser** - Fires small, slow-moving projectiles that home in on the nearest target. Deals about half the damage compared to Peashooter. It has a lime color and looks like a star with a small tail. Best used when the concentration is better allocated to dodging.

EX: Chaos Orbit - Spawns a four slightly bigger projectiles that circle the player and protect them from incoming enemies. when there is one orbit already, using another EX will replace the original orbit and those will automatically home in on the closest hitbox. It is good when some bosses have minions like Baroness' jelly bean or Rumor's worker bees.

## Lobber

### DPS

33.14

"Medium range and good damage with a slower rate of fire."

—Description

**Lobber** - Fires a lobbed projectile that arcs upwards, and falls back down and bounces on the floor until it bounces three times and pops, deals great damage, but has limited range, each shot deals about three times more than Peashooter. It has a violet color and looks like a sphere. It is good against bosses that doesn't move a lot. It doesn't require a lot of aiming as it seems. It also has the property to set up some damage as it bounces on the ground. It is very effective against Grim Matchstick and Rumor Honeybottoms in all phases. In the game's code, this weapon is called 'bouncer'.

EX: Kablooey - Like a Lobber shot, but bigger and have an Area-of-Effect damage which deals the same damage in the area. It can easily take out groups of minions at a range but it is still affected by gravity and shooting it upward or the top corners may miss the target far away, it does not bounce like the normal version attack as well and goes through some platforms like clouds in Grim Matchstick fight and platforms in Rumor Honeybottoms fight.

## Charge

### Damage

6 (uncharged)
46 (charged)

### DPS

35.38

"Hold attack to increase damage. No rapid fire, so precision is key."

—Description

**Charge** - A high-damage, high-velocity shot that requires the player to hold down the firing button for maximum effectiveness. It has an orange color and looks like a wave for the uncharged projectile and two waves twirling each other for the charged projectile. Releasing the shoot button before the charge is complete will fire a small, light damage projectile. It needs a lot of precision to use and it it will do quick work to bosses if you master it.

EX: Radial Barrage - Releases a short-range, but a big Area-of-Effect burst of damage from the player, it is very good at the phase of the Phantom Express, especially in the last phase, that is The Head Of The Train.

## Roundabout

### EX Damage

5 (per hit)
40 (max)

### DPS

31.875

"Great coverage with average damage. Aim backward for maximum range."

—Description

**Roundabout** - Fires a boomerang-like projectile that moves in the direction it is fired for a moment, but proceeds backwards for a long distance at a much higher velocity. It has a turquoise color and looks like a slotted ring. Best used when firing backwards or fleeing obstacles and to set up damage, this is the another option to Chaser for bosses players want to focus on dodging as you still have to line with the boss most of the time, but it deals way more damage. In the game's code, this weapon is called 'boomerang'.

EX: Jumbo Rebound - Launches a larger, thicker and closed version of the standard shot that will try to go back to the player. You can dodge it and it will chase you until all seven hits are used up or it touches the player again, there is a glitch that one extra hit will be counted to start the count down so eight hits worth of damage can be dealt in total, It is very useful against multiple enemies like Ribby and Croaks & Tipsy Troop.

## Crackshot

### Damage

10.56 (uncracked)
6.7 (cracked)

### EX Damage

3.5 (turret projectile)
12 (turret before parrying)
14 (turret after parrying)

### DPS

~30 (uncracked)
~18 (cracked)

"Straight shot with good damage. Breaks into weaker aimed projectiles."

—Description

**Crackshot** - Fires a rhombus projectile that is shot straight forward for a short while, it then breaks apart and aims straight at the closest enemy hurtbox. The projectile deals more damage before it breaks down. It has a pink color and looks like a crystal, it breaks down into almost like an arrow. This is the another option to Chaser for bosses players want to focus on dodging but still have the versatility to deal high damage in close range.

EX: P. Turret - The P. Turret is a pink planet-shaped turret that can be parried, shoots out small projectile aiming at the closest enemy five times and disappears. The fifth time it fires, it will shoot 2 projectiles at nearly the same time. It can be parried and used as a maneuver option. Parrying it will add a small amount to the Super Meter but won't count towards your number of parries; it will immediately send it towards the enemy like a cannon, dealing massive damage. It can act as a projectile when it travels a short distance before stopping or the boss runs into the stationary turret. Using another P. Turret move will also automatically launch the existing one towards the enemy.

## Converge

### Damage

2.67 (per shot)
8.01 (all shots)

### DPS

~33

"Full-screen piercing 3-way shot. Hold lock button to narrow spread."

—Description

**Converge** - Fires three electricity bolt projectiles spread out. It has a yellow color and looks like a long lightning bolt. Locking on slowly decreases the spread. Best used when standing far away in a safer area to lock on and focus damage output, as it is possible to have all three projectiles hit an enemy at once.

EX: Electro-Bolt - Fires a large horizontal electric beam across the entire screen in the direction the character is facing, piercing all enemies it hits, if no direction is inputted. Inputting a direction will instead fire the beam in the direction held.

## Twist-Up

### Damage

2.33 (per shot)
6.99 (all shots)

### EX Damage

8 (per hit)
40 (max)

### DPS

~32

"Rapid-fire shot with arced pathway and average damage."

—Description

**Twist-Up** - Three tornado-like shots that arcs toward the direction of the finger gun's thumb. The projectiles have a light-blue color and look like small cyclones. Best used when firing at enemies that are above you. Aiming down left or right provide the best horizontal coverage; up left or right can hit airborne bosses across the screen.

EX: Cyclone Spiral - Fires a larger light-blue cyclone that spins in a circular pattern from the original firing location, increasing its radius over time. It will hit five times before disappearing.

* Plane Peashooter
* Mini-Bomb
* Ms. Chalice's Three Way
* Ms. Chalice's Mini-Bomb
* Shrink Fire

"Simple rapid fire weapon. It's tried and true, and something something."

—Description

Fires small bullets with high velocity that attacks straightforward.

**EX** - Fires a rocket with a chopper mouth which starts slow but picks up speed after a short distance, and chomps in regular intervals whatever it comes into contact with. It is best used when the boss has a big horizontal hitbox.

"Bombs away, matey!"

—Description

Lobs a small bomb from the plane in a downward arc. It has an Area-of-Effect damage and it can stack with the direct hit. It will best when you don't want to stay in a straight line horizontally from the boss.

**EX** - Fires a barrage of horseshoe magnets that home-in on nearby enemies and explode only visually. It is best used when there are too many minions on screen and you want to clear the screen.

Fires three small bullets with high velocity that spreads out, has a slower attack rate than Cuphead and Mugman's.

**EX** - Fires two w-shaped magnets in front that loops to that back, and aims straight at the closest hitbox. They can still do damage as they are looping back and are staggered a bit to deal even more damage when they are shot point blank.

Lobs a small bomb from the plane in a downward arc that does above average damage, it has a faster attack rate but has some variance on the arc. It has an Area-of-Effect damage and it can stack with the direct hit. It will best when you don't want to stay in a straight line horizontally from the boss.

**EX** - Similar to the normal Plane Peashooter's EX, except it arcs downwards. When the plane is in shrink form, they can still shoot a short range weapon, and they are weak, it is just to sneak in some chip damage when in mini form, or to complete the Bravo Zulu P-26 achievement .

Super attacks can only be activated once the player has filled their super meter with 5 cards through parrying objects or damaging enemies. There are only three, and they are each extremely powerful, and to be used carefully.

**Super Art I - Energy Beam** - After a brief pause, stalls the player in the air and fires a large stream of liquid from the head of the player. Fires exclusively horizontally, dealing massive damage. It stuns the boss slightly every time it hits.

**Super Art II - Invincibility** - After a short animation, the player is allowed 4.85 seconds of invincibility.

**Super Art III - Giant Ghost** - The player spawns a ghost counter-part of themselves which constantly spins, dealing high damage per hit. The ghost is controlled by the player without removing control from the player's original character. This can make it difficult to manage both characters on screen via a single controller. The ghost will disappear after 7 seconds and leave a heart for you to parry and fill the super meter. It also give the boss a short stun every time it damages them, giving more time for the player to react and to deal damage.

**Super - Super Bomb Morph** - Transforms the player into a giant nuke, slowing movement speed slightly. While all other attacks are temporarily disallowed, if the player hits the target, massive direct and Area-of-Effect damage is dealt. However, any object that comes in contact with the player will detonate the bomb. This can be used strategically to take a hit when you would take damage, it will still clear the screen and count damage the boss for quite a bit.

**Ms. Chalice's Super Art I - Spiral Pillar** - After a brief pause, stalls the player in the air and fires a large stream of liquid from the head of the player. Fires exclusively vertically, dealing massive damage. It stuns the boss slightly every time it hits.

**Ms. Chalice's Super Art II - Shield Pal** - Summons a flying golden shield with a heart printed onto it. This shield will hover around the player, staying until the player is damaged. If the player is to be hit with the Super activated, the shield will instead take the hit and no HP will be reduced.

**Ms. Chalice's Super Art III - Ghostly Barrage** - Unleashes a swarm of legendary porcelain ghosts who were displayed as statues in Rugged Ridge. Ms. Chalice returns to normal and her spear stays and turn pink for you to parry and fill the super meter.

**Ms. Chalice's Super - Super Bomb Morph** - Transforms Ms. Chalice into a missile, which is functionally the same but she cannot be controlled horizontally as she accelerates to the right.

## Gallery

1. *Peashooter**Mega Blast**Spread**Spread**Eight Way**Roundabout**Lobber**Jumbo Rebound**Kablooey**Uncharged Charge Shot**Charged Charge Shot**Radial Barrage**Crackshot**Cracked Crackshot**P. Turret**Converge**Eletro-Bolt**TwistUp**Cyclone Spiral**Plane Peashooter**Mini-Bombs**Chomper**Magnet**Ms Chalice's Three-Way**Ms. Chalice's Mini-Bomb**Ms Chalice's Chomper**Ms. Chalice's Magnet**Plane Mini-Peashooter**Super Art I: Energy Beam**Peashooter potion**Spread potion**Chaser potion**Roundabout potion**Lobber potion**Charge potion**Crackshot potion**Converge potion**Twist-Up potion*All Weapon Icons In Cuphead (Base Game + DLC)Placeholder sprite for unused Exploder weaponExploder sprite from first Cuphead trailerPresumably early weapon icon for SpreadZeppeling, Balloons and Wally's Heart's BulletsBullets when parriedToothy Terror flower's bulletUnused super art from the beta footageCuphead And Mugman Shooting Peashooter on Nintendo SwitchPlayer making a shot-a in the weapons shot-a sectionThe full eightway on cuphead

## Trivia

* Almost all the weapons mentioned here have different names on the Debug Mode.
	+ Peashooter = Peashot
	+ Spread = Spreadshot
	+ Chaser = Homing
	+ Roundabout = Boomerang
	+ Lobber = Bouncer
	+ Twist-Up = Upshot
	+ Converge = Wide Shot
* Most of the EX weapons are stronger than Super Arts in term of total damage of five EX compared to one super.
	+ However, using five EX attacks can take longer and leaves Cuphead more vulnerable to attacks, while Super I and the Aerial Super are less likely to miss and do leave Cuphead invulnerable. Super I, however, only does this during the duration of the attack.
	+ On topic, EX attacks cancel upon the player being hit.
* The mini-planes aren’t equipped with a secondary weapon, EX attack or the ability to use Super, as it is a tool to sacrifice damage in return for better control while being smaller, thus replacing the dash in normal gameplay.
* The mini-plane bullets were once going to be used as a standard weapon as seen in the E3 2014 trailer.
* There are 6 confirmed weapons that aren’t used in the game. Arc, Exploder, Wide Shot, Laser, Arcade Peashooter, and Star Gun.
	+ In the E3 2014 trailer, Cuphead shot the now unused Exploder.
	+ Wide Shot has been reworked into Converge in the DLC.
* Lobber, Kablooey, and the Mini-Bomb are affected by gravity.
* It takes a total of 160 damage dealt to enemies to fully charge one card, every 25 seconds using the Coffee charm, or around 20 seconds for Divine Relic.
* Plane Peashooter has slightly higher Damage per Second than the Mini-Bomb. This means that the plane Peashooter is generally better for sustained fire on a target, and the Mini-Bomb can be used to take out minions while damaging the boss at the same time (such as Cala Maria's eels).
	+ The respective EX are also relatively close base on damage output, three chomps from the missile deal the same amount of damage as missing one homing magnets, if the boss isn't wide enough for at least three Peashooter EX chomps, shooting Mini-Bomb EX is usually better, especially pointblank and when there isn't much minions.
* Unlike the EX attacks, the Super Arts are unaffected by the damage reduction when using either of the heart charms.
* Of all the DLC weapons, Crackshot is the only one to not consist of three projectiles, technically consisting of two (one for when it's initially shot, another for when it breaks). Conversely, P. Turret is the only DLC EX to consist of multiple projectiles, alongside it being the only parriable EX.

### Glitches and Exploits

* Plane Peashooter EX can hit a hitbox again with a small cooldown, however if it is moving away at just the right time, because the EX stun its movement for a bit each hit, it can hit a lot more time. Examples like Hilda Berg coming back to transform into a zodiac or Djimmi right after popping out from the sarcophagus when his hitbox is moving back at the right speed. While this is not a glitch, it is certainly an exploit of game mechanics.
	+ A more advance version require two hitbox and at least one needs to be constantly changing. This is a lot rarer but in Hilda's last phase with her UFOs moving diagonally upward and her own hitbox, the EX is only moves forward a little for each time the UFO hitbox position change while also staggered by it attacking different hitboxes, making it attacks Hilda very rapidly. For Dr. Kahl's Robot, the first part of first phase his chest and abdomen hitbox can line up perfectly to make the EX attack both and get completely stuck, trivializing them.
* It is possible to parry while using Super Art I, with the glitch of parrying and taking damage at the same time causes softlocks, this can create situations like the cup Brother keeps spinning in mid-air. It makes them intangible and the player can decide to keep firing until the boss is defeated or the weapon cannot hit the boss anymore.
* In single player mode, a bug of Jumbo Rebound allows it to deal 40 damage instead of the intended 35. Reason being the first hit start the damage counter to count to 35 instead of counting toward to the total by default.
	+ A similar bug is present when playing co-op, which causes Jumbo Rebound to disappear after dealing 10 damage, instead of 17.5(20 with the extra hit mentioned) damage. Reason being not only does the damage is halved, the counter erroneously divided the damage cap by four instead of two, making the cap 8.75. With four hits of the EX, it will disappear as it reaches the cap. With it being the hardest EX to use effectively, on average it hits two or three times only when you do not control it at all (which only net one more hits anyway), it becomes completely worthless for an EX, even overshadowed by Super Art I in terms of damage.
* Before Patch 1.2, Kablooey hitting the ground explodes twice, with it being an Area-of-Effect attack, this effectively doubles the damage for bosses having hitbox close to the ground. Hitting bosses directly does the same damage as the Area-of-Effect but both damage will not count twice like plane Mini-Bomb or plane Super Art, except with a lot of precision, Kablooey can hit the ground and the hitbox of the boss in the same frame, dealing triple the damage. Since the EX exploding twice on the ground has been patched since then, the precise version only deal twice the damage. This bug has been dubbed "Double/Triple Damage Lobber *EX*ploit" by speedrunners, generically called Lobber *EX*ploit. Some bosses that have segmented hitboxes like the serpent form of The Devil can be dealt an extraordinary amount of damage.
* In legacy version, parrying reset cooldown of every weapon because of a bug, not just Charge, because of the method Charge optimally deals damage, the effect of cooldown resetting becomes extremely pronounced, the issue is also exaggerated when trying to rapidly deal damage with Whetstone and shooting, especially with the glitch below where your attack rates matter.
* There is a bug in the legacy version when you switch weapons, the cooldown of the weapon continues to count down. Switch weapons back and forth basically means shooting both of your weapons at once, doubling you damage output potential. Each combination of weapons has a different rhythm of swapping, switching too fast while the cooldown of the other weapon is not off does nothing and you could be shooting the original weapon instead, too slow will lose out on damage as the bullet could be fired. On the level of Tool Assisted Superplay/Speedrun, if the cooldown of the weapon lines up to the frame, the weapon with the higher damage per shot is prioritized. This bug has been dubbed "Weapon Swap Glitch" by speedrunners, **WSG** for short.
	+ Lobbers and Roundabouts are ideal for speedrunner as they have long cooldown and each shot is powerful, about four to five times a second is ideal for shooting the most bullets. This combination also has the second and third best weapon with sustained damage per second, good EXes (especially with Lobber *EX*ploit) and the ability to set up huge amount of damage and a boost to card generation already on the field by shooting up because they bounce and boomerang back respectively.
	+ Another notable combination is weapon swap between the plane weapons. This example clearly demonstrated swapping as quickly as possible is not the best damage output because the glitch does not immediately fire a bullet after a swap. Since Mini-bomb have such a slow fire rate and Peashooter shoots constantly, the optimal swapping is a quick double tap of weapon swap to fire Mini-bomb every time it is off cooldown, just to fire Peashooter as much as possible. This is an edge case as plane only have two primary weapons and they have a drastically different cooldown period with comparable damage output, no pairs normal weapons are this extreme.
	+ Charge at first glance does not seem compatible with this glitch however the uncharged shot still has a cooldown if mashed. Specifically in Sally Stageplay's fight where Charge can hit her off-screen. With Lobber (or Spread) it can still be a compliment to the damage output, however this requires mashing attack and weapon swap alternatively while having to focus on other aspect of the game to finish the fight quickly, this strategy is difficult to pull off.
	+ Lobber and Spread is the best damage output pairing, it is not viable for human to optimally swapping between this pair. While Lobber is the slower fire rate part, it is still twice as fast plane Mini-Bomb, making double tapping swap a lot more frequent; Spread has a slower fire rate than plane Peashooter, meaning each burst has more impact to shoot as soon as possible and the rhythm is not as straight forward as Lobber/Roundabout. It is however the strategy used by Tool Assisted Speedrun for legacy version. With Kablooey in its arsenal and Eight Way being the second most powerful when damage-boosting inside of the boss hitbox or against bosses in the background, which are usually high up in the air where Lobber EXploit cannot reach, these weapon compliments each other extremely well.
* When swapping weapon during the start of an EX animation, it causes a bug that make the game confused which weapon you are using, it plays the animation but shots out nothing. This can easily happen when doing WSG and was dubbed "Nothing" by speedrunners.
	+ However, swapping weapon during EX is not all bad. Shooting EX forces the normal bullets to stop firing for a while, by swapping weapons it bypasses the force stop and you can start shooting again, switching back to the original weapon allows you to actually fire the EX without wasting it. However, there is another force stop applied after the EX is shot, another swap will resume the firing earlier, the need of swapping again depends on the which weapon should be used. There are multiple Swaps named after different speedrunners as they have discovered them.
	+ A specific swapping technical is found for plane EXes but it is frame perfect, it needs the EX button and swap button pressed in the same frame, shooting the original weapon EX and keep shooting the swapped weapon when the EX animation is playing. Spamming EX lines up with Mini-Bombs fire rate so it is still effective in versions without WSG; Constantly firing plane Peashooter when shooting Mini-Bomb EX pointblank is always a plus. This technique also works with plane Super, increasing the damage potential when it was suppose to be downtime for normal weapons.
	+ Crackshot EX adds 1 to the super meter score per projectile that hits, making it possible to get 6 super meter in a single use.
	+ Chalice's Super III adds 5 to the super meter score per ghost that hits, making it possible to get 6 super meter score in a single use.

### Inspirations and similarities

* Charge could be a reference to Mega Man's Mega Buster. As when both fired normally, they're weak. But when both charged, can deal massive damage.
	+ Charge could also be a reference to one of Mega Man X's obtainable boss weapons in *Mega Man X2*, "Speed Burner". As the charged shot of Charge and the normal shot of Speed Burner are visually identical.
* Chaser's EX Move could also be a *Mega Man* reference, this time to the Star Crash weapon from *Mega Man 5*. Both are circling barriers of stars, and both can be used as attacks.
* Chaser may also be a play on the word "Chaser," which means something added to a drink to make it stronger. This would be ironic since Cuphead and Mugman's head's contain drinks.
* Mega Blast, EX move for the Peashooter, and Ribby's fist attack are references to the *Street Fighter* series, where the iconic Hadoken special attack used by Ryu, Ken, and others, is depicted as either a pair of spectral hands surrounded by energy or just a ball of energy.
	+ The name of the "EX" is also a reference to *Street Fighter*. Using part of the super meter can strengthen a normal special attack instead of using the Super Combo, or in *Cuphead* case, strengthen the normal weapon instead of using Super Art.
		- Hadoken can be strengthened and become EX Hadoken - Shinku Hadoken, it can hit the opponent from 1 to 3 times, just like Mega Blast hitting enemies three times before it disappears, adding another layer of reference.
* Twist-Up is another reference to mega man's Air Shooter in *Mega Man 2*, which also fires three tornadoes that arc upwards.
* The Magnet weapon is possibly a reference to the Magnet Missile weapon from *Mega Man 3* as both weapons home in on enemies.