Cuphead’s Cursed Relic challenge is a fun struggle

destructoid.com:

One of the tricky optional goals in Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is to “obtain great power,” and it’s tied to a mysterious Cursed Relic that puts a tough new spin on the boss-battling format. While I struggled a bunch with this challenge, in the end, it ended up being one of the highlights of the DLC, and really, the entire base game. It makes you work.

Before I go into too many specifics, it’s worth taking a broader approach for anyone who’s intrigued but will ultimately still want to figure things out on their own. I’ll ease you in.

With an item called the Cursed Relic, you’ll only have one HP when you enter a boss fight, and your weapons are randomized, so you have to be adaptable. Your goal is to beat a certain number of bosses — either from the DLC, the base game, or both — to upgrade the item into something with less… drawbacks. It’s a trip. A frustrating, satisfying trip.

Much like how Ms. Chalice is a fun (arguably overpowered) excuse to revisit the original Cuphead content, the Cursed Relic is a fittingly hard shake-up for seasoned players.

It’s one thing to return to Isle I and make a fool out of the Root Pack and Goopy Le Grande, and if you’ve earned S ranks in Cuphead before, you know that no-hit runs are within your reach. But when you can’t rely on your ideal loadout, the pressure is on — and it builds.

Despite having random weapons with the Cursed Relic, you’ll have some control — you can let go of the “fire” button to cycle through the list. So long as you keep shooting, your weapon will stay the same; but if you ever let go, for any reason, including a dash, the shot type will shift to something else. With this setup, I often frantically tapped the button until I landed on the homing Crackshot, my