Cuphead

Cuphead is a playable character and one of the two main protagonists of the 1930s cartoon-style game, *Cuphead*. He joined WhitneyGoLucky in 2017 after his game released. He is in the Thief Class in Miitopia.

## Appearance

As his name suggests, Cuphead's head is a wide cup with what seems to be some sort of milk inside, topped with a red and white striped bendy straw. His face consists eyes that are very close together and a small red nose. He always has a determined expression in the face of danger.

He wears a black, long sleeved shirt, white gloves, red shorts, and brown boots. As an anthropomorphic cup, his skin is gray and made of glass, so enough hits could break him into a ghost. His ghost still has the cup head and gloves, but his appearance is now a ghostly blue.

His shorts and legs are now replaced with a ghost tail, his bendy straw is now a halo, and expression seems to be depressed. In the center of Cuphead's ghost's chest, there is a pink heart which can be parried to resurrect him. When used as a Super Art, his ghost is muscular and his expression is determined.

If the answer "Yes" is chosen in the cut scene with the Devil before his battle, in the bad ending, he is seen with purple shorts, a broken purple bendy straw, a purple nose, evil-looking yellow eyes with black and red pupils, a maniacal smile, and sharp teeth.

Cuphead's appearance is reminiscent of character designs from classical 1930 cartoons, in which the game's art style is designed around.

## Personality

Cuphead is shown to be the more confident, fun-loving and slightly cheeky type (Kind in Miitopia), (in contrast to his twin brother) often taking quite the amount of risks. His personality type was mostly inspired by a common type of 1930's protagonist in the early cartoons, which is the "charming, yet trouble-making type".

According to the introduction, Cuphead seems to have a slightly greedy personality, where he's willing to risk anything to get them, causing the infamous bet which nearly cost the souls of him and his brother. Despite his flaws, however, he seems to be kindhearted and has good intentions overall, such as in the good ending where he and Mugman burn all the soul contracts, setting everyone free.

## Story

In Inkwell Isle, Cuphead and his younger twin brother, Mugman, lived happy and carefree under the watch of the Elder Kettle. One day, the boys wandered far from home and ended up in the Devil's Casino despite the Elder Kettle's warnings.

In the casino, Cuphead and Mugman were on a winning streak at the Craps table. When the Devil came to the table, (which was a surprise for the boys) he offered a bet: If the boys won, they get all the loot in the casino, but if they lose, the Devil will take their souls.

Cuphead, blinded by easy riches, rolled the dice and landed on Snake Eyes, losing the bet. Cuphead and Mugman begged for their lives, so the Devil sent them on a mission to collect his debtors' soul contracts by midnight, and he might spare them. Cuphead and Mugman ran back home as fast as they could in a panic to the Elder Kettle, who gave them a potion that gave them powerful abilities to aid them on their journey.

After some training, Cuphead and Mugman went to go to collect the soul contracts, using their powers to battle bosses, run through levels, and save the Legendary Chalice. When travelling from Inkwell Isle One to Inkwell Isle Two, the Elder Kettle informs the boys that their strength is growing thanks to the power of the soul contracts, and soon it will be enough to defeat King Dice and even the Devil in battle.

Once all of the soul contracts are collected, the boys meet up with King Dice, who forces them to play a "game" before they can see the Devil. After King Dice is defeated, Cuphead and Mugman meet up with the Devil, who was awaiting them in his office. What the pair does depends on the choice that the players decide. If the players decide to give the Devil the soul contracts, Cuphead and Mugman become his personal lackeys and are turned into demonic-cups, creating the "bad" ending. If the players decide to not give them the soul contracts, the Devil will become outraged and battle them.

When the Devil is defeated, the boys accept his surrender and burn all of the soul contracts, releasing the residents from their eternal servitude to the Devil. The boys then went home and told the residents that they are now free from their debt. They are praised for their bravery and an all-day celebration began. The boys promised to never get into trouble again and succeeded until the next time. Later, Cuphead and Mugman joined Whitney's Squad (Since the Devil and King Dice are banned from Whitney's Inn.).

## Abilities/Powers

**Finger Bullets** - Cuphead can create energy bullets by constantly snapping his fingers. He can also charge them up to preform an EX attack, which is usually a much larger bullet that hits multiple times. The type of bullets depend on what potion you buy:

* **Peashooter** - The blue default bullet. Can shoot non-stop with a long range.
	+ **EX Move: Mega Blast** - A huge fire ball that hits multiple times,

* **Spread** - Shoots red pyramid bullets the spread in 4 rows. Has a limited range.
	+ **EX Move: Eight Way** - Sends 8 large bullets all around Cuphead.
* **Chaser** - Shoots green homing bullets. Has below average damage.
	+ **EX Move:** **Chaos Orbit** - Sends multiple homing bullets that attack. More bullets orbit Cuphead and damages enemies that touch him.
* **Lobber** - Purple orbs that bounce twice before popping. Does a lot of damage but has delayed shooting.
	+ **EX Move: Kablooey** - A large orb that explodes on impact.
* **Charge** - An orange fiery horizontal spiral that can be charged to deal an above average amount of damage. Takes a long time to charge.
	+ **EX Move: Radical Barrage** - A large explosion that affects all around Cuphead.
* **Roundabout** - A light blue boomerang-like bullet that can come back if it didn't hit something.
	+ **EX Move: Jumbo Rebound** - Sends a large boomerang bullet that hits multiple times.

**Dashing** - Cuphead can dash a short distance in both mid-air and on the ground. With the Smoke Bomb ability, he can "teleport" while dashing and not take any damage.

**Parry Slap** - While in mid-air or flying his plane, Cuphead can attack pink objects by turning his straw into a hand and slapping it, whether its enemies, projectiles, or objects. Parry Sugar will automatically parry when Cuphead jumps towards. This helps fill up the Super Meter needed to pull a Super Art.

**Resurrection** - When Cuphead dies, he can be resurrected when his heart, which is in the center of his soul, is parried. As long as Mugman is with him and his soul is still on screen, he can return to fight.

**Flight** - While Cuphead cannot exactly fly himself, he is a master pilot and comes equipped with his own red fighter plane, complete with bullets

* **Rapid Fire Bullets** - The default bullets for the plane. Like the Peashooter bullets, Cuphead can shoot multiple bullets and they have a long range.
	+ **EX Move: Toothy Terror Missile** - Simply known as "Attack," Cuphead shoots a missile with a Toothy Terror mouth that does multiple damage.
* **Mini Bomb** - Shoots tiny nukes that do above average damage to the enemy but have a slow fire rate.
	+ **EX Move: Magnet** - Shoots multiple magnets that home in on the target.

* **Size Reduction** - In his plane, he can shrink himself to be part of the plane, making it easier to dodge attacks and increases speed. Cuphead can still use his bullets while in this shrunken stage, but they do less damage and have a limited range.
* **Super Bomb Transformation** - As a Super Art, Cuphead can transform into a giant bomb that explodes either on impact or the if duration timer runs out.

**Energy Beam** - The energy beam is the first Super Art to unlock. Using the liquid from his head, Cuphead spills it as a horizontal beam that damages enemies.

**Invincibility** - As the second Super Art, Cuphead crosses the astral plane by transforming into a large, eyeless version of his head that spits out a gold, sparkling, complete version of himself. This makes Cuphead invincible for a few seconds before returning to his normal state.

**Giant Ghost** - As the final Super Art, Cuphead sends his spirit out of his body. Unlike Cuphead's spirit when he dies, his spirit is now larger and muscular. The direction the ghost goes depends on how Cuphead is moving (i.e if Cuphead moves left, the ghost goes left). The ghost damages any enemies he is near. He does this for approximately 10 seconds before he disappears except for his heart, which goes slowly goes up. His heart can also be parried.

**Astral Projection** - With the last two Super Arts involve him going into the astral plane, it can be implied that Cuphead has the special ability to enter the astral plane and have out of body experiences.

### Weaknesses

* Made of ceramic: 3 hits can kill him. (4 while equipped with the Heart Charm and 5 while equipped with the Twin Heart Charm.)
* Can't be resurrected without the help of Mugman. (likewise Mugman can't be resurrected without Cuphead.)
* Can be easily blinded by easy riches, causing high-risk bets.

## Trivia

* In the beginning moments of a boss battle, Cuphead will hoist his pants, smiling, with determination on his face, the sole exception being in the fight with The Devil, where he seems to be terrified.
* According to an interview with Studio MDHR, the liquid inside Cuphead's head is the essence of his soul.[1]

* + However, people believe that Mugman drinking himself is evidence that the cups hold vodka and beer in their heads.
* Cuphead is based on old cartoon characters, most notably the cup from the cartoon "Evil Mickey attacks Japan (1936)",[2] as stated by a developer.
	+ He is also heavily based on Bimbo the Dog.[3]
	+ He is also likely to be based off Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.
	+ He may likewise have been influenced by the design of various sentient porcelain characters from the 1934 Silly Symphony *The China Shop*.
* Cuphead's shoes and gloves will change color depending on what screen he is on. In the title screen he is seen with white gloves and brown shoes, in the world map he is seen with white gloves and yellow shoes and in the results screen after defeating a boss he is displayed with yellow gloves and brown shoes. This color inconsistency was deliberately done by the developers as many cartoons in the 1930's had posters where the character's shoe or glove color would be slightly different from the original.
* In the E3 2015 trailer, Cuphead seems to pour a beverage labeled "XXX" into his head, though he is never seen doing this in the final version.
* According to Evan Skolnick, Cuphead is an adolescent.[4] However, in a Twitter response to a fan, the Studio MDHR describe Cuphead as a "kidult".[5]