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Overview
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is a paid DLC expansion developed and published by Studio MDHR, released on June 30, 2022. It drops Cuphead and Mugman onto a previously undiscovered Inkwell Isle, this time with Ms. Chalice as a fully playable third character. The central mission revolves around helping Chef Saltbaker complete a mysterious recipe tied to the Legendary Chalice's secret quest. The expansion runs on the same boss-rush structure as the base game, with no filler levels between encounters.
Ms. Chalice is the headline addition, and she earns that billing. Her moveset diverges meaningfully from Cuphead and Mugman: she has a double jump, a parry dash, and an invincibility roll that changes how players approach every single boss pattern. Unlocking her via a charm slot also makes her playable across the entire original game, which effectively doubles the replay value for anyone who wants to revisit old fights with fresh tools.
Gameplay and mechanics
The core loop of The Delicious Last Course will be immediately familiar to anyone who survived the base game. Players shoot, dodge, and parry their way through multi-phase boss encounters, collecting coins to spend on new weapons and charms between fights. The DLC introduces several new weapons alongside new charms, some of which interact specifically with Ms. Chalice's abilities. Key additions include:
- Ms. Chalice's parry dash and double jump
- New weapons with distinct firing patterns
- New charms that modify both offense and defense
- A set of entirely new boss encounters
- Full compatibility with the original Cuphead campaign
The new bosses are the main event. Studio MDHR designed them to be harder and more elaborate than anything in the base game, with screen-filling attack patterns and phase transitions that demand tight pattern recognition.
What makes the boss design stand out?
Every boss in The Delicious Last Course has a distinct visual identity and a multi-stage attack structure that ramps in complexity as health depletes. The design philosophy stays consistent with the original: each phase introduces new projectile patterns, movement requirements, and parry opportunities that reward memorization over reflexes alone. The encounters feel hand-crafted rather than procedurally scaled, which is why a single boss can take dozens of attempts without ever feeling random.
The difficulty sits above the base game's standard campaign, so players coming in expecting a gentle victory lap will be humbled quickly. That's by design. Studio MDHR treats challenge as the primary draw, and the DLC delivers on that without apology.
Visual and audio design
The hand-drawn 1930s rubber-hose animation style carries over with no visible drop in quality. Every frame of every boss is drawn and inked by hand, and the new Inkwell Isle environments hold up to the same standard set by the original game. The color palette on DLC Isle leans into warmer, food-themed tones that complement the Chef Saltbaker storyline without feeling forced.
The jazz and big band soundtrack expands the existing score with new compositions that match the tempo of each encounter. The audio design keeps the same punchy, exaggerated feel, where every hit and parry registers with a satisfying cartoon thwack that makes the feedback loop feel tight even during the most chaotic phases.
Impact and legacy
For a DLC that took four years to arrive after the base game's 2017 launch, The Delicious Last Course landed with a clear sense of purpose. Ms. Chalice as a playable character represents the most significant mechanical addition Studio MDHR has made to the Cuphead formula, and the new boss roster ranks among the best work the studio has produced. Players looking for a hand-drawn boss-rush platformer with genuine mechanical depth and uncompromising difficulty will find The Delicious Last Course delivers exactly what the base game promised, then pushes a little further.