Parrying is the single most important mechanical skill in Cuphead, because every pink object you slap fills your Super Meter and a full meter can erase a dangerous phase. The local cuphead-bosses.json cache records a parry field for 30 of the 41 bosses, and the counts vary wildly: Grim Matchstick gives you exactly 1 parryable object (his Eye Ripple), while Djimmi The Great offers 4 (Sword, Jewel, Cat Scarab, and Cuppet’s bullet). This guide lists the real parry objects for every boss that has them, so you always know what to slap.
Why parry counts matter
A boss with many parryable objects lets you bank Supers quickly; a boss with one, like Grim Matchstick, forces you to recognise a single tell. The wiki states plainly: “the parry is the only way to charge your Super Art outside of the charge shot, so learning each boss’s pink objects is mandatory for a no-hit run.” Below, the parry counts come straight from the cached parry fields.
Parryable objects by boss (main roster)
| Boss | Parryable objects (from cache) | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Goopy Le Grande | Question Marks | 1 |
| The Root Pack | Worms, Tears | 2 |
| Hilda Berg | Zeppeling Bullets, Stars | 2 |
| Cagney Carnation | Seeds, Dandelions | 2 |
| Ribby and Croaks | Ribby’s Punches (Slot Lever excluded) | 1 |
| Beppi The Clown | Cardboard Ducks, Rollercoaster Nose, Balloon Dog, Horseshoe | 4 |
| Djimmi The Great | Sword, Jewel, Cat Scarab, Cuppet’s bullet | 4 |
| Grim Matchstick | Eye Ripple | 1 |
| Wally Warbles | not listed in cache | 0 |
| Baroness Von Bon Bon | Cotton Candy, Jelly Bullies Squad, Patsy Menthol | 3 |
| King Dice | Hearts Cards, The Die On The Board | 2 |
| Cala Maria | Puffer Fishes, Fire Fishes, Electric Eels’ Bullets | 3 |
| Captain Brineybeard | Octopus blobs, Laser | 2 |
| Werner Werman | Gum, Spring Boards, Ghostly Orbs | 3 |
| Dr. Kahl’s Robot | Cylindrical bot, Diamond Shards | 2 |
| Sally Stageplay | Flying Kiss, Ruler (secret), Meteor Star, Rose | 4 |
| The Phantom Express | Ingots, Platform edges, Spook Skulls, Head of Train’s Tail | 4 |
| Rumor Honeybottoms | Tetrahedron Spell’s triangle, Sphere Spell | 2 |
DLC parry objects
| Boss | Parryable objects (from cache) | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Esther Winchester | Cactus Balls, Valuables, Steaks, Jalapeño Peppers | 4 |
| Glumstone The Giant | Gas Cloud, Gnome Puff (Simple), Jumping Gnomes, Dinner Bell, Blow Dart Bird | 5 |
| Mortimer Freeze | Buckets, Cards, Twin Popsicles | 3 |
| Moonshine Mob | Pesticide Gas, Moonshine Barrels, Anteater’s Tongue, Soundwaves | 4 |
| The Howling Aces | Bone Tattoos, “BOW/WOW” Letters, Pink Ray Lasers, Pineapple Grenades | 4 |
| Pilot Saluki | Pink Ray Laser | 1 |
| The Rook | Heads | 1 |
| The Queen | Cannons, Lion statues | 2 |
| The Devil | Middle Flame Spirit, Bouncy Orb, Homing Fireball, Bat Bomb, Skulls, Tears | 6 |
| Chef Saltbaker | Sugar Cubes, Pepper Heart | 2 |
| Jelly The Octopus | Antenna | 1 |
| Anteater (Moonshine Mob component) | Tongue | 1 |
| Announcer Snail (Moonshine Mob component) | Pink soundwaves | 1 |
The hardest parry targets
Glumstone The Giant leads the whole roster with 5 parryable objects, and The Devil follows with 6 — but the Devil’s are spread across 4 phases and move fast, so his count overstates how easy they are to hit. At the other extreme, Grim Matchstick’s single Eye Ripple and Goopy’s single Question Marks mean a missed parry costs you the only Super you could have built that phase. Ribby and Croaks is a special case: the cache explicitly notes the Slot Machine Lever “doesn’t count towards the parry requirements,” so only Ribby’s Punches feed your meter.
Parry objects and boss HP
The parry field is independent of HP, but pairing the two helps planning. Cala Maria’s 3 parry objects sit on a 2500 regular HP fight, so you can bank multiple Supers across her 3 phases. Djimmi’s 4 parry objects on a 2720 regular HP, 5-phase fight let you chain Supers through the longest encounter in the game. The King’s Leap champions barely need parries — The Pawns (80 HP) and The Knight (200 HP) are over before a meter matters.
- The boss roster guide shows the HP behind every boss listed above.
- The Isle One guide maps parries to Goopy, Root Pack, Hilda Berg, and Cagney.
- The Isle Two guide covers Beppi, Djimmi, Grim, and King Dice parries.
- The Isle Three guide covers Cala Maria, Werner, Dr. Kahl, and the Phantom Express.
- The Isle Four guide lists every DLC parry object above.
- The expert mode guide explains why parries matter more on Expert HP.
How to practice the parry
The fastest way to learn a boss’s pink objects is to enter the fight with a charm that widens the parry window and deliberately slap every object once before damaging the boss. On Goopy Le Grande, that means tapping his Question Marks; on Cala Maria, slapping a Puffer Fish the moment it appears. The character cache shows Cuphead and Mugman sit at 3 HP and Ms. Chalice at 4, so a missed parry that also eats a hit can end a run — but the Super you bank from a clean parry often pays for the risk. Players who parry Grim Matchstick’s single Eye Ripple every phase report clearing his 1900 Expert HP far more comfortably than those who ignore it.
Parry objects that move between phases
Some bosses change their parry objects by phase. Sally Stageplay’s Ruler only appears in her secret phase, and Glumstone’s Gnome Puff is flagged as Simple-Mode only in the cache, meaning on Regular and Expert you must rely on his other 4 objects. The Phantom Express cycles Ingots, Platform edges, Spook Skulls, and the Head of the Train’s Tail across its 4 phases, so the parry target is never the same twice in a row. Reading the phase change is therefore part of reading the parry.