Cuphead

Cuphead is the protagonist of Cuphead . Cuphead is the irresponsible older twin brother of Mugman and, like the rest of his family, lives on Inkwell Isle. He is usually played by the first player, and as a result, was the default Player One character prior to the April 2019 update, after which the first player can choose whether to play as him or Mugman .

As his name suggests, Cuphead's head is a wide cup with his soul inside, topped with a red and white striped straw. His face consists of close-set eyes with pie-shaped black pupils and a small red nose. He always has a determined expression in the face of danger.

He is mostly seen wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, white gloves, red shorts, and brown shoes. To emulate the way characters were drawn around the time of the game, his coloring is inconsistent; he is sometimes depicted wearing red or yellow boots and/or yellow gloves. As an anthropomorphic mug, he is a light grey mug, and is made of ceramic or porcelain. Upon taking damage, Cuphead will split apart at the waist, and his straw will break 20% of the way from the bottom up, though both Cuphead and his straw will grow back together.

His ghost still has the cup-shaped head and gloves, but his appearance is now a ghostly blue. His shorts and legs are now replaced by a ghost tail, his straw is now a halo, and his expression is one of melancholy. In the center of Cuphead's ghost's chest, there is a pink heart that can be stopped 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 cutscene with the Devil before their battle, which triggers the evil ending, his appearance changes dramatically. As a Devil, his red colors change to violet and he now has a bitten straw and evil-looking yellow eyes with black and red pupils, a maniacal grin, and sharp teeth. In some artwork, he is also shown to have fire coming out of his head.

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

Cuphead is typically a good person and a "kid" along with his younger brother Mugman, who enjoys a good, quiet life, but is relentlessly optimistic. Though his confidence and adventurous drive can lead him to appear reckless or get him into trouble, deep down he is a kind-hearted soul who wants to do good, but has a tendency to leap before he looks.

Cuphead appears to be a daredevil. He is shown to be the more confident, fun-loving, and a bit brazen type. He (unlike his twin brother) often takes a lot of risks. His personality was mostly inspired by the "charming, but troublesome" character archetype, as seen in the protagonists of early cartoons.

As seen in the introduction, Cuphead appears to have a somewhat greedy personality, seemingly willing to risk anything to get what he wants, leading to the infamous bet that nearly cost them both their souls. Despite his flaws, however, he appears to have a good heart and good intentions overall, such as in the good ending where he and Mugman burn all of the soul contracts, freeing everyone.

Cuphead also seems to have a vengeful side. As seen after Chef Saltbaker laments the destruction of his bakery, Mugman and Chalice showed some sympathy for him, while Cuphead on the other hand angrily claims that he got what he deserved, as he was still upset that Ms. Chalice/Mugman/he was kidnapped by the Wonder Pie and tricked by Chef.

Cuphead loves his family and friends. He is very loyal to them, despite his flaws, and will do anything to protect them.

On Inkwell Isle, Cuphead and his younger brother, Mugman, lived happily and carefree under the watchful eye of Elder Kettle. One day, the boys wandered away from home and ended up at the Devil's Casino, despite Elder Kettle's warnings.

At the casino, Cuphead and Mugman were on a winning streak at the craps table. When the Devil arrived at the table (which was a surprise to the boys), he made a bet: if the boys won, they would take all the casino's loot, but if they lost, the Devil would take their souls.

Cuphead, blinded by the allure of 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 soul contracts from his debtors before midnight, saying he would consider sparing them. Panicked, Cuphead and Mugman raced home as fast as they could to Elder Kettle, who gave them a potion that granted them powerful abilities to aid them on their journey.

After some training, Cuphead and Mugman went to collect the Soul Contracts, using their powers to fight bosses, traverse levels, and save the Legendary Chalice. While traveling from Inkwell Isle One to Inkwell Isle Two, Elder Kettle informs the boys that their strength is growing thanks to the power of the Soul Contracts, and will soon be enough to defeat King Dice and even the Devil in battle.

Once all the soul contracts are collected, the kids encounter King Dice, who forces them to play a "game" before they can see the Devil. After King Dice is defeated, Cuphead and Mugman encounter the Devil, who has been waiting for them in his office. What the pair do depends on the choice the players decide upon. If the players decide to give the Devil the soul contracts, Cuphead and Mugman become his personal lackeys and turn into demonic goblets, resulting in a "bad" ending. If the players decide not to give them the soul contracts, the Devil will become outraged and fight them.

Following the Devil's defeat, the boys accept his surrender and burn all the soul contracts, freeing the residents from their eternal servitude to the Devil. The boys then returned home and told the residents that they were now free of their debts. They were praised for their bravery and a day-long celebration began. Following their success, the boys vowed to never get into trouble again, until next time.

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

Peashooter - Cuphead's main weapon, long light blue bullets that travel non-stop with average, long-range damage. EX Move: Mega Blast - A huge fireball that hits multiple times, Spread : Fires red pyramid bullets that spread out in 5 rows. Has a limited range. EX Move: Eight Directions - Sends out 8 large bullets around Cuphead. Chaser - Fires green homing bullets. Has below average damage. EX Move: Chaos Orbit - Sends out multiple homing bullets that attack. More bullets orbit Cuphead, damaging enemies that touch him. Lobber: Purple orbs that bounce twice before exploding. Does a lot of damage but has delayed firing. EX Move: Kablooey - A large orb that explodes on impact. Charge: A fiery orange horizontal spiral that can be charged to deal a large amount of damage. Takes a long time to charge. EX Move: Radical Barrage - A huge explosion that affects all of Cuphead. Roundabout - A light blue boomerang-like bullet that will return if it doesn't hit something after a short distance. EX Move: Jumbo Bounce - Sends out a large boomerang bullet that hits multiple times. Dashing: Cuphead can dash a short distance both in the air and on the ground. With the Smoke Bomb ability, he can "teleport" while dashing and not take any damage.

Parry Slap: While in the air or flying his plane, Cuphead can attack pink objects by turning his straw into a hand and smacking them, whether they are enemies, projectiles, or other objects. Parry Sugar allows Cuphead to automatically stop anything he jumps toward. This helps fill the Super Meter, which is needed to perform a Super Art.

Resurrection: When Cuphead dies, he can be resurrected when his heart, which is at the center of his spirit, is stopped. As long as Mugman is with him and his spirit remains on screen, he can fight again.

Flight: Although Cuphead cannot fly on his own, he is a master pilot and comes equipped with his own red fighter jet, complete with bullets.

Rapid Fire Bullets: The plane's default bullets. Similar to Peashooter bullets, Cuphead can fire multiple bullets and they have a long range. EX Move: Toothy Terror Missile: Known simply as "Attack", Cuphead fires a missile with a Toothy Terror mouth that causes multiple damage. Mini bomb: fires missiles in a downward arc that cause above-average damage to the enemy but have a slow rate of fire. EX Move: Magnet: Fires multiple magnets that head towards the target. Size Reduction: In his plane, he can shrink to become part of the aircraft, making it easier to dodge attacks and increasing his speed. Cuphead can still use his bullets while in this shrunken state, but they deal less damage and have a limited range.

Super Bomb Transformation - As a Super Art, Cuphead can transform into a giant bomb that explodes upon impact or if the duration timer runs out. Energy Beam - The Energy Beam is the first Super Art to be unlocked. Cuphead uses the liquid from his head and pours it out as a horizontal beam that damages enemies.

Invincibility: As a second Super Art, Cuphead crosses over into the Astral Plane by transforming into a large, eyeless version of his head that spits out a complete, glowing, golden version of himself. This makes Cuphead invincible for a few seconds before reverting back to his normal state.

Giant Ghost - As a Super Final Art, Cuphead sends his spirit out of his body. Unlike Cuphead's spirit when he dies, his spirit is now larger and more muscular. The direction the ghost goes depends on how Cuphead moves (i.e. if Cuphead moves left, the ghost moves left). The ghost damages enemies it is near. It does this for about 10 seconds before disappearing, except for its heart, which slowly rises. Its heart can also be stopped.

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

Made of Porcelain: 3 hits can kill him (4 while equipped with the Heart Charm, 5 while equipped with the Twin Heart Charm, and 6 with the Heart Ring Charm if Cuphead manages all 6 parries before getting hit). He cannot be resurrected without Mugman's help (similarly, Mugman cannot be resurrected without Cuphead). Easily manipulated, making a very high risk bet because he is blinded by riches.

According to the Moldenhauer brothers, the liquid inside Cuphead's head is his soul. The fact that his soul is white is to the white of his eyes, as seen in the television series. In the initial moments of a boss battle, Cuphead will pull up his pants, grinning with determination. The only exception is the fight with El Diablo, where he appears terrified, reusing Cuphead's sprites if he fails to stop The Spectre Syndicate from reaching the Legendary Chalice urn in the Mausoleum levels. After the update, he may occasionally flex his muscles with a more determined smile. Cuphead is based on old cartoon characters, in particular the cup from the cartoon "Omochabako series dai san wa: Ehon senkyûhyakusanjûroku nen (1936)" as stated by a developer. It is also heavily based on Bimbo the Dog. He may also have been influenced by the design of several sensitive porcelain characters from the 1934 Silly Symphony in The China Shop. Cuphead's shoes and gloves will change color depending on the screen he's on. The developers deliberately made this color inconsistency a feature of many cartoons from the 1930s, where the character's shoe or glove color was slightly different from the original. On the title screen and in boss battles, he is seen wearing white gloves and brown shoes. This design was also used for his cameo in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as both his costume and Spirit artwork feature it.

According to Evan Skolnick, Cuphead is a teenager. However, in a Twitter response to a fan, Studio MDHR jokingly described Cuphead as a "child." Despite this, Cuphead does go to elementary school, according to Carnival Chaos, Cuphead goes to Inkwell Elementary School. In the E3 2015 trailer, Cuphead appears to pour a drink labeled "XXX" over his head, though he's never seen doing this in the final version. This, coupled with Mugman drinking his soul in his intro animation, led to the infamous theory that his heads contained alcohol. Like the older characters, Cuphead can remove his head without dying and, as such, has no neck. However, Cuphead is seen swallowing with his neck in "Crisp Apples." In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Cuphead appears as a Gunner Mii Fighter costume, alongside Cagney Carnation's Floral Fury as a bonus music track. Cuphead also became one of the spirits in the "Ready? Strike!" event, alongside Mugman, King Dice, and The Devil. When Cuphead dies, his head disappears and he becomes a headless skeleton, but then the bones turn into a pile of ashes.