Cuphead – Carnival Kerfuffle Boss Fight

When you reach Inkwell Isle Two in Cuphead one of the first bosses you’ll encounter is Beppi the Clown in Carnival Kerfuffle. This is arguably the first difficult boss. Many of the bosses in Cuphead can be challenging if you’re not used to shooters, or if you’re trying to obtain a run without getting hit, but Beppi the Clown in Carnival Kerfuffle in Cuphead is one of the first difficult bosses to simply clear outright. This article covers how to beat Carnival Kerfuffle and defeat Beppi the Clown in Cuphead.

Defeat Beppi the Clown in Carnival Kerfuffle

Phase One

At the beginning of this fight, all you need to do is shoot Beppi the Clown while he’s in the bumper car, while avoiding his dashes and the ducks above. You’ll hear Beppi the Clown honk the horn a few seconds before he dashes to the other side of the screen. Wait for the honk, make sure all of the ducks are clear, then jump as soon as you see the car dash toward you. While you don’t have to dash in the air to jump over the car, if you do dash you’ll have a bit more leeway on your jump timing.

When it comes to the ducks, shoot them once and they’ll start spinning. You can then pass through them once they’re spinning and not take any damage. Some of the ducks will be holding a Molotov cocktail that explodes into a fire pillar when it hits the ground. Just make sure you’re not directly under the duck when this happens.

Keep in mind, you can parry the pink ducks instead of attacking them and increase your EX gauge. It’s best to shoot the ducks as soon as they appear to make sure they’re not blocking your jump path when you need to avoid the bumper car.

Phase Two

The second phase of the battle against Beppi the Clown has you fighting Beppi as a balloon, while the rollercoaster car passes by and dog-like enemies attack from the skies. First and foremost, you only need to avoid the front of the rollercoaster car and the passengers. You can walk off the back end of the rollercoaster car and not take any damage. This is helpful to know in case you’re surrounded by dog enemies and can’t safely jump. In addition, you can see the rollercoaster car on the track in the background a few seconds before it appears in the foreground. This will help you know when it’s about to appear again.

There’s also a pink nose on the front of the rollercoaster car. You can parry this just like any other pink object, but if you touch anywhere else on the front of the rollercoaster you will take a hit.

There are pipes running along the background during this phase. Follow the pipes to find four exit holes. These holes are where the dogs come from. Stay away from the these openings whenever possible so you don’t take a hit right as a dog spawns.

The dogs generally home in on your location when they spawn. If you’re having difficulty avoiding them, jump more often so they float above you, or stay on the ground more often so you can jump over them when they get close. Whichever method is easier for you is the one you should stick with. Don’t forget to use your dash or air dash when you get caught in a tight spot. It can help you squeeze between enemies.

When the rollercoaster car is not moving through the area, attack the balloon relentlessly. The faster you take down the balloon the quicker you can move on to the next stage. Although things don’t really get easier moving forward.

Phase Three

For the third phase, Beppi the Clown rides a horse and shoots horse shoes in two different patterns. Meanwhile, the rollercoaster car will still pass through the area periodically just like the last phase. When you see Beppi and the horse hover down into position, don’t jump and don’t get too close to the boss as it will fire off horse shoes almost immediately.

When the horse is yellow, the horse shoe pattern is a barrage of horse shoes fly out horizontally from the horse. These move very quickly, but are easily avoided if you don’t jump. After they fly off screen, they come back along the top of the screen, with one gap. Quickly move below the gap to avoid the horse shoes as they fall down to the ground.

The second pattern comes when the horse is green. For this pattern there are only two horse shoes floating up and down as they move across the screen at a moderate pace. If the rollercoaster car is not around, these are relatively easy to avoid so long as you’re not standing right under the horse’s mouth. They original from the mouth and can sometimes start with a downward angle that can hit you if you’re standing directly below the mouth of the horse. Stay near the middle of the screen and you’ll have plenty of time to see where the horse shoes are going, and avoid them.

It’s important to pay close attention to the rollercoaster car during this phase. You should learn the timing of the horse shoes pretty quickly, so you’ll know when some are about to shoot out. If the rollercoaster car appears right around this time, you need to make sure you have enough time to remain on the ground (in case it’s the yellow horse shoe pattern), or enough time to get to the middle of the screen (if it’s the green horse pattern). If you’re not paying attention you can easily get caught in a situation where you need to jump to avoid the front of the rollercoaster car, but the horse is spitting out the first pattern of horse shoes that will hit you if your jump.

Ideally, you want to stand near the middle of the screen, but close enough that you can angle your shots diagonally toward Beppi the Clown and the horse. Remember you can hold the Righer Bumper (RB) to remain stationary while you target your shots in any direction. Use this to stand in place while shooting diagonally up at Beppi the Clown and the horse. You can hit either enemy which means you can aim pretty high and still hit Beppi, even if you’re missing the horse.

Phase Four

The final phase sees Beppi the Clown summon a merry-go-round as the rollercoaster car continues to pester you. During this phase, several platforms will move across the top of the screen. You need to use these platforms to stay off the ground when the rollercoaster car passes. Instead of the slower speed of the last two phases, the car moves very fast and will cause damage if you’re on the ground when it passes through.

While the aerial platforms are continually moving, meaning you need to jump from platform to platform throughout this phase, that’s the least of your problems. Periodically, penguin baseball players roll out of Beppi’s mouth and move to the ground level. They will continually throw baseballs at you, that must be avoided. While you can defeat the baseball players, it takes quite a few shots to do so, making it very risky given how fast the rollercoaster car appears, and the fact that the rollercoaster clears them anyway.

Your best bet is to stay away from the baseball players, making sure you’re not standing directly above any of them. This makes it a little easier to avoid the balls, while still moving from platform to platform and not falling into the rollercoaster car. You can also drop down to the lower level immediately after the first baseballs are shot toward you. You can’t stay for long because the rollercoaster car is coming, but this will allow you to avoid the first set of balls and alter the trajectory of the second set of balls as well so when you jump back up to the platforms they’re much easier to dodge.

We won’t fool you by saying this part is easy, but do your best to avoid being right next to a baseball player so it’s a bit easier to avoid the balls. If you’re still having trouble, save your EX shots for the baseball players. You won’t be able to take them all out before the rollercoaster passes through, but you may be able to take out one or two depending on how many EX shots you have available.

All throughout this process you need to be shooting at the center post of the merry-go-round, which is the form Beppi the Clown has now taken. Shoot as often as possible to get through this section as quickly as you can. Once you’ve cleared this phase, the battle comes to an end!

For more boss battle strategies, be sure to check out our Cuphead game hub!