Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course — Esther Winchester tips guide

The heat goes up with Esther Winchester, the only airplane boss fight of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. If you haven’t learned how to dodge properly in the DLC yet, then this is where you learn. And it’s going to hurt. But don’t worry, I came up with a quick guide with some helpful tips on how to send Esther to the meat grinder.

This is an airplane boss, which means your weaponry is limited. You can swap between bullets and bombs, but you may end up using the former over the latter. It’s tough to draw close to Esther during the fight. Projectiles are going to be your greatest enemy, so you should focus more on dodging while holding down the fire button.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course — Esther Winchester tips guide

Phase 1

The first phase of the Esther Winchester boss fight has you dodging flying snake oil while the boss rides along in a saloon wagon. There are several key things to keep in mind during phase one: her snake oil guns loop backward, dodging one projectile doesn’t mean you’re clear, and damage can come from the left side of the screen. In all phases, you can use the plane transformation to give you a brief window of invincibility. It may help you survive.

• Her snake oil shots are easy to avoid, since they don’t travel far. Stay on the left half of the flight area. Straying too close may mean getting hit from the shot as it loops back.
• Watch for the oil snakes that come in on the right.
• It’s easy to get hit by the small, flying horses. You may not even spot them, since they blend in well with the brown colors all around. Kill the horses before they get to the left part of the screen, or they’ll fire a projectile at you.
• A buzzard will appear in the background before flying in from the upper left. It drops a bundle of dynamite you need to dodge. After that, the bundle explodes into dynamite sticks that fly upward and deal damage. Don’t just dodge the bundle! Keep an eye on where the sticks go. The first explosion releases three sticks, and the second one follows with two.
• When Esther pulls out a rope, she’s about to lasso a huge cactus that fills the upper or lower part of the arena. If it’s on the lower part, get in close and switch to your bombs for more damage.

Phase 2

The second phase begins when Esther Winchester breaks out of the saloon with a vacuum on her back. She begins sucking in cash, ranging from money bags to coins. The items come in from the left side, which makes them tough to predict.

• When projectiles are getting too close, transform into the smaller and more agile plane to get around them. You don’t need to do this, but it does increase your speed, making it easier to dodge.
• Esther will stop to fire safes into the air, which fall back down from the sky. When they hit the ground, they burst into coins, gold bars, or wads of cash, all if which you need to dodge. At times, pink coins or cash will appear for you to parry.

Phase 3

Esther got sucked into her own vacuum cleaner! Oh, the hubris. Anyway, she’s now made of sausages, because this is cartoon logic. Completing this phase doesn’t require many tricks. You simply have to dodge the flying cans of beans and the steaks. When Esther is on the ground, get above her and use the bombs. Once she takes to the air, switch back to the default guns. Every so often, she will throw a pink steak you can parry.

Phase 4

The final phase of the Esther Winchester boss fight is a doozy, friends. Mimicking a bullet hell shooter, Esther becomes a can of Prairie Dogs that sends out two strings of sausages connected by threads. You can pass through the threads safely as the strings of dogs move up and down. Esther will also send out a wave of for or five chilis — one of which may be pink for you to parry. You best bet is to go into Ultra Instinct and dodge while firing, occasionally using your super attack. Best of luck.

Hell.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is available on PC.