One of the Cuphead DLC bosses has a secret phase

destructoid.com:

Fans are flying through Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, and I don’t blame them — it’s been a long time coming, and the new bosses are an audio-visual treat, as expected. The urge to burn through the gauntlet and circle back around to improve the grades is high.

That said, it pays to take it slow and appreciate the finer details. One of them, a secret alternate boss phase in the Cuphead DLC, is low-key blowing my mind for a few reasons.

First off, it’s been a while; I forgot that alternate boss patterns were even on the menu for Cuphead. Naturally, Studio MDHR would carry it forward for The Delicious Last Course, right?

While I’m not sure what else is lurking out there (I’ve seen… some stuff, but I’m sure there’s more), players have discovered at least one neat secret that I never would’ve found on my own. Even if you know how to trigger it, it’s a little tricky to pull off.

**Spoilers below**

The boss in question is The Howling Aces in “Doggone Dogfight.”

Rather than pilot a plane (like in the shmup bosses), you fight on top of one.

Here’s how the boss fight normally goes:

As it turns out, there’s a secret third phase for this Cuphead DLC boss.

In the second phase, instead of unceremoniously gunning down the jetpack dogs, you can whittle down their health until they’re all nearly knocked out.

The trick is to shoot the dogs just enough so that their smoke trails turn from white to gray — but if you push it too far, they’ll spiral off the screen. I have a tip.

I’ve had the best results with the Charge shot. Try to fully power up your shots and hit each of the jetpack dogs once, then hit them all again with a single weaker, non-charged shot. That should do just enough damage to turn the smoke gray without overdoing it.