Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle: Broken & Cursed Relic

Cuphead The Delicious Last Course is the newest DLC of Cuphead, and it has brought a lot of new exciting locations and bosses. Among those new additions, there is a puzzle and an item that has all the players. We’re referring to the Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle and the Broken Relic. But worry not, as we’ll guide you through and show you exactly what you need to do to clear the puzzle and use the item!

How To Solve The Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle?

The Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle, also referred to as the Ghost Puzzle, can be found in the Howling Aces Region, the same place where the Doggone Dogfight is! In order to reach that region, you must defeat Glumstone the Giant and Mortimer Freeze or Moonshine Mob and Esther Winchester.

But when you get to the graveyard, you’ll notice a bunch of tombstones, 9 to be specific, laid out in a sort of column and row-like pattern. This will be useful for when you’re trying to solve it. You’ll also notice ghosts lurking about as well, which explains the name ghost puzzle.

The simple premise of the puzzle is that you need to interact with the tombstones in a specific order. Doing so will unlock a portal that leads to a secret boss fight! But before you can go about solving this tombstone puzzle! You’ll need to get a few things.

Getting The Broken Relic

The first item that you’re going to need is the Broken Relic charm. It can be purchased from Porkrind Emporium for one coin.

You can actually get a coin before you meet Porkrind. As you exit the bakery at the start of the game, you need to make your way over to the bridge by the paper boy. Talking to him will grant you three coins. And Porkrind’s shop can be found just over the bridge. But if you need another place to get coins, you can go behind Porkrind’s shop, where you’ll find a hidden coin.

After you’ve got the coin, head over to Porkrind and buy the “Broken Relic” from him, you will need this to be able to interact with the tombstones in the Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle.

Talking To The Climbers

Now that we have the Broken Relic, we can interact with the tombstones. But we still don’t know in which order we need to interact with them. That’s where the climbers come in.

If you cross the bridge from where the Porkrind Emporium is and just before the Glumstone The Giant’s entrance, you’ll find three climbers standing on podiums. These are contestants that took part in a climbing competition and secured the first three positions.

If you talk to these NPCs, they will discuss their ventures in the competition. But as they’re talking, they will actually have the solution to the Ghost Puzzle/Graveyard Puzzle hidden in their dialogue. These hints are going to be directions such as “top left” or “down right.” So that means you’ll have to interact with the top left tombstone or the down-right one.

You need to observe their dialogue and spot these directions. And then, the order that you’ll follow these directions in while interacting with the tombstones will depend on the climber’s position. Meaning, that your first interaction should be based on the instructions from the first-place climber, then the second, and then the third.

The catch here is that each player/save game has its own order and directions. That’s why we can’t tell you the exact order, allowing you to follow it as it is. Instead, we can only give you a general idea of how to crack the code.

But there is one tip that we can give you that will help you a lot. The climbers will sometimes try to throw you off by giving mixed directions. For example, one of the NPCs might say, “I left downtown in a hurry and forgot my gear.” You might think that the hint is “left,” but when you look at it closely, it’s actually left downtown. So, look out for such directions which might throw you off.

Using The Directions

When you have different directions, go to the graveyard. Your starting point should always be the center tombstone. So, if there the climber said “right,” you will need to interact with the right middle tombstone.

As you interact with each of the tombstones, ghosts will begin to pop up. After you get all three in the right order, the center tombstone will have a beam of light shining down on it, indicating the completion of the Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle.

You will get the option to take a little nap. If you press yes, you will unlock the secret boss fight, which we will discuss in the next section.

Cuphead Secret Boss Fight

You might’ve heard of the Cuphead cursed relic. But if you want to unlock it, you must first complete the graveyard puzzle that we discussed in the last section. Completing that will unlock a secret boss fight in the game.

When you get past the boss fight, you’ll be awarded the cursed relic. Therefore, let’s discuss that boss fight and what you need to do to get past it!

Shifting Enemy

As we mentioned earlier, to go into the secret fight, you need to nap near the tombstone with the beaming light. The first thing that you’ll notice as soon as you fall into the arena is that there are two characters lurking above your head. One is an angel, and the other is a devil.

Although we’ll get into the attacks in a bit, you primarily need to worry about the devil as the attacks from the angel cannot hurt you. But the catch here is that the position of the two characters can change, with the devil facing in the direction the same direction as where you’re looking.

So, for example, if you’re looking to the right, the devil will also be on the right side of the screen. But as soon as you look on the left, the devil will be on the left, and the angel will be on the right.

Shifting Projectile Attacks

Throughout the fight, both the angel and the devil will throw projectiles at you. But if you look closely, the “attacks” from the angel are going to be transparent and bubble-like. At the same time, the attacks from the devil will be blazing orange fireballs. Needless to say, the transparent attacks can’t hurt you, but the fireballs can.

As you change your direction, the attacks will also change. So, if you’re facing left and there are transparent attacks coming at you, looking to the right will turn them into fireballs. And vice versa for the fireballs.

This can be an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. You can either dodge an incoming fireball by simply changing directions, but you’ll also have to ensure that there isn’t a transparent attack coming from the other direction.

There will also be pink fireballs which you can parry. Both the angel and the devil can throw anywhere from 2-5 balls at a time. You can predict these projectiles based on their head movement.

Moving Beam

Another attack that you’ll have to worry about is a beam that can get sent out from the devil or the angel. It is a vertical beam that travels either from left to right of the screen or in the other direction.

Depending on who initialized the beam, it can either be initially transparent or a fiery beam. And just like with the projectiles, if you change your direction, the beam’s nature will also change. You can easily dodge the beam by changing your direction momentarily as it passes you.

The Floating Cloud

The final thing that you need to consider in the Cuphead secret boss fight is the floating cloud. It will always have lightning below it, and you need to either jump over or dash (with invulnerability) under the cloud.

However, your best option is actually to jump on top of the cloud. It sways from side to side around the arena, and you can use it to dodge many of the incoming projectiles. You will still need to jump around a bit to dodge some, but you can create a good enough distance using the cloud.

Furthermore, as the cloud creates distance from one of the sides, you can shift directions so that the devil is on the farther side from you. As you get closer using the cloud, you can shift again to create more distance.

General Tips

Although we discussed specific tips for the various attacks, there are some general tips and tricks that can make the secret boss fight a lot easier. First of all, consider using the auto-aim/tracking shot (the green one). Although it is one of the lowest damage-dealing shots, you can actually complete the fight with it quite quickly. And the fact that you’ll have to dodge through the various attacks will make not having to aim extremely convenient.

Speaking of dodging, you can equip the Smoke Dash charm with Cuphead or Mugman to dash through the projectiles and the beam in the battle. Additionally, you can use Ms. Chalice’s invincible ground roll as well. However, just keep in mind that the roll does not work in the air.

If you keep shooting at the devil and dodging all incoming attacks, you will eventually win the battle and unlock the Cuphead Cursed Relic!

The Cuphead Cursed Relic

After you complete the Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle using the broken relic, you can fight against the secret boss. And after you defeat the boss using the strategies in the previous section, your broken relic will turn into the Cursed Relic.

After you defeat the secret boss, you will be taken back to the area with the tombstones. The ghost behind the tree will have some dialogue in which it will mention that your broken relic has transformed into the cursed relic by saying, “with a great foe, more evil shall go.”

What Does The Cursed Relic Do?

The Cuphead Cursed Relic does exactly what it sounds like it’d do. It curses you. The description states that it is a “jinxed curio that inflicts various status ailments” and burdens the host.

Essentially, whenever you go into any fight, you will only have one heart throughout the entire fight. On top of that, each time you shoot your gun, it will be a different shot. It could either be the spread shot, the peashooter, the tri-shot, or the wrap-around bullets. They’ll be random, and there’s no way of predicting what you’ll get next.

But, if you’re able to beat all the bosses with the Cuphead Cursed Relic equipped, you’ll get the Paladin Trophy/Achievement. So, there is at least one reward for undergoing all that torture.

With that, you know everything about the Cuphead Graveyard Puzzle and how you can use the Broken Relic to complete it and unlock the secret boss. And after beating the boss, you’ll get the Cursed Relic that you can use to make the game more challenging than it already is and unlock an achievement!