Cuphead has a cute reward for clearing every boss as Ms. Chalice

The things we’ll do for an alternate skin

After a few tense nights of battling bosses, I’m satisfied with the quantity and quality of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. While the all-new fights are the main attraction, Studio MDHR has given us a reason to revisit the entire game with a distinct-feeling new playable character. Ms. Chalice is nimble yet powerful, and some of the new weapons — Crackshot is my new ride or die, followed closely by Converge — are just ridiculous.

If you’ve gotten straight As (or didn’t stop until you hit the DLC’s 100% completion rate with all S ranks), there might still be a lingering quest to mop up. Have you chatted with the cactus girl in a while? I was so preoccupied with the trophies, I almost forgot.

The goal: to beat every boss in Cuphead, including the base game and DLC, as Ms. Chalice.

You might not want to face every boss “in order” — at least, I sure didn’t. And that’s fine. You can hop around randomly and save your personal brick walls for last, if needed.

When you talk to the cactus girl again, she’ll give you a (sometimes blatant) clue about your next target. In the screenshot above, the “tale of how the bird got his wings clipped” is a reference to the feather-flinging Wally Warbles. Just keep checking them off your list.

It’s worth noting that you can get the “beat every boss as Ms. Chalice” reward while playing on Simple mode whenever that’s available. That said, the beefier bosses like King Dice and the Devil only let you choose Regular and Expert difficulty. On the plus side, the marching cards are not as stringent as they look (in terms of Ms. Chalice’s horizontal parry compared to Cuphead’s), and her invincible roll can dominate the Devil’s first phase.

After you’ve beaten every boss in the base game and DLC island as Ms. Chalice, return to the cactus character and you’ll unlock a “spiffy new look” for your effort.

To activate the costume, pause Cuphead and look for the Filter option in the menus — one of them is called “Chalice.” Unlike the original game’s Black & White and 2-Strip filters (which impact the whole screen), this DLC filter gives Ms. Chalice a new gold skin.

Is it worth the trouble? Well, I had an inherently fun time replaying everything as Ms. Chalice (and even prefer her playstyle). But yes, the reward itself looks great.

I mean just look at this!

Do it for her.