Cuphead – Floral Fury Boss Fight

The Cuphead Floral Fury flower boss is one of the hardest boss fights in Inkwell Isle One. This article covers how to beat the Floral Fury boss in Cuphead and earn a perfect grade in the process. Time in a factor if you want to score a perfect grade, but we’ll give you all of the information you need to increase your time and defeat the Floral Fury boss in Cuphead. We’ll also provide strategies that work with the default weapon and abilities configuration, just in case you don’t have any new abilities yet.

Defeat Cagney Carnation in Floral Fury

As with most of the boss battles in Cuphead, Floral Fury is broken up into phases. Each phase brings new and varied attacks from the boss, with clear transitions between phases.

Phase One

At the beginning of the fight the boss has a few basic attacks it uses. If it pulls its head back, a full screen attack is about to occur. Pay close attention to its vertical position on-screen to determine where the full screen attack will hit. If the head is above the hovering platforms, that means the attack will hit the middle of the screen. To avoid this you need to drop down below the platforms.

If the head pulls back near the bottom of the screen, that means the following attack will hit below the platforms. To avoid it you need to remain on the platforms. In both instances you can continue to shoot the boss while it’s fully extended across the screen. Just shoot up if the boss attacks the middle of the screen, and down if the boss attacks below the platforms.

When the boss turns its head into a machine gun, seedlings will rain down from the sky. You will see light blue, purple and pink seedlings. The light blue seedlings grow into small cup-eating plants that will slowly move toward your character. Purple seedlings grow into stationary piranha plants that remain on the ground. You have to crouch to get rid of these and you should do so quickly to make sure they don’t get in the way of your movement.

The pink seedlings can and should be parried whenever possible. If you don’t parry them, they sprout a pumpkin like flower that will hover in the air near the top of the screen. Occasionally this pumpkin will shoot pink bullets that can also be parried. While the additional super meter is welcome, the pumpkin and the bullets can make it very difficult to jump when you need to avoid other attacks. It’s best to simply parry the pink seedling before it can sprout, but if you can’t do that, watch for when it opens its petals to shoot the bullet. This is when you can take it down with a couple of shots. If you attack before this the petals act like armor making it very difficult to kill.

Occasionally the boss will put its leaves together for one of two different attacks. You will see the boss use either of these attacks up to three times in a row, so be prepared. The first is a blue boomerang that will shoot out just above the platforms, go off screen, then return along the bottom half of the screen. You can avoid this by staying on the platforms and simply jumping over the boomerang when it passes the first time, or you can drop below the platforms for the first pass and then jump back up to the platforms to avoid the second pass.

The second attack from the leaves is a trio of seeds. These seeds home in on your character and move at a decent speed. The best way to avoid them is to stay on the far left platform and wait for the first seed to get close to your character. At this point, jump and air dash to the middle or far right platform. You’ll avoid all three seeds and still have time to reposition yourself before the next attack comes.

Phase Two

When the boss pulls at its petals and seems to get angry, this marks the start of phase two. As soon as you see this, be sure you’re standing on the platforms. The boss plants its vines in the ground and roots move along the bottom of the screen. These will damage your character if you’ve standing on the ground.

Occasionally the vines will move up to one or two platforms, then sprout up through the platform after a short time. While this is happening you may also have to avoid pollen projectiles coming from the mouth of the Floral Fury. To make this phase as easy as possible, stay on the far left platform whenever possible. When you see the vines move under the far left platform, jump to the middle platform. At this point you will either be able to jump back to the far left platform after the vines go back down, or a second set of vines will sprout in one of the two remaining platforms. If the vines sprout under the middle platform, jump to the far right platform, then return to the far left platform when it’s safe.

The pollen that the boss spits out comes in two different flavors. The white pollen must be avoided, while the pink pollen can be parried if you’re so inclined. The boss can shoot out two back to back pollen projectiles, so be ready to deal with them both at once. Since you may need to avoid vines while also dodging the pollen, it’s best to wait until the pollen is close before you move.

Once again, stay on the far left platform as much as you can. This gives you plenty of time to see when the pollen is coming, what type of pollen it is, and where you are safe to move to so you can avoid the pollen. Due to how the pollen moves, it’s difficult to avoid it by simply jumping straight up into the air. It’s best to jump slightly forward (while remaining above the same platform), then move back while in the air to make sure you avoid the movement of the pollen.

You don’t need a lot of movement to avoid the pollen because you don’t want to be caught on the middle or right platforms when the vines come up. This makes it difficult to avoid the vines. You want to move just enough to avoid the pollen, while still staying above the far left platform. Of course, if a vine sprouts below the far left platform while pollen is coming, feel free to move to the middle platform to avoid both attacks. Just try to stay around the far left platform whenever possible.

Repeat these steps and the boss should go down without much trouble. For more boss battle breakdowns, be sure to check out our Cuphead game hub!