Inhumane Inputs- Obscure Speedruns: ‘Cuphead’ One Gun
by Jude Locke
Cuphead is a 2D boss-rush game stylized and designed after cartoons of the early 20th century like Steamboat Willie and Felix the Cat. In this game you traverse several islands as the titular Cuphead, or his brother Mugman, and initiate battle with the characters you come across in an attempt to gain their souls so you can pay back your debt to the devil. Yeah it’s a lot.
To help you on your way you can use coins you earn to purchase powerups and different weapons.
In the One Gun speedrun, players aim to gain all soul contracts and beat the devil using only 1 gun. Variants for this exist that cover each individual gun, each individual difficulty level, and single player vs co-op. You can even run this challenge with only the DLC, or both the DLC and the base game.
Regardless of whether you intend to run with the DLC, it seems worth the additional purchase. Not only does it open up extra power ups and gun choices, it also allows you to play as an additional character, Ms. Chalice, who comes with her own set of unique challenges and perks.
With 9 guns, 3 difficulty levels, 3 combinations of DLC and base game completion, and multiplayer options, there are 162 different run types in this single category.
The most common version of this run is ‘Peashooter’ gun on regular difficulty covering only the base game as a single-player. The Peashooter is your default weapon upon starting a clean file. This gun does average damage at an average pace in a single direction. This offers players a decent challenge as the game progresses and boss movement becomes more erratic, harder to telegraph, and difficult to position hits. The top place for this run is held by BlackTower finishing in 31:57
With 162 different combinations, there’s plenty of awards to go around. Even you, someone who has perhaps never even heard of Cuphead, can hold first place. For example, a single-player base game expert 1-gun playthrough using the ‘Twist-up’ – a gun which shoots cyclones in an upward pattern each of which has just over half the damage of the peashooter shot – has never been done! It’s yours to claim!
Cuphead is a fun, tough but fair, versatile game well worth the time to explore its intricacies.
Cuphead is available on PC, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation
