Cuphead: Chef Saltbaker Boss Guide - A Dish to Die For Strategy

At the tail end of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, you'll be pitted against the very friendly fellow you were duped into thinking was the fix for Ms. Chalice's problems. In a fond farewell for the game, you have to fight four forms of the brilliant mind, and our Cuphead Chef Saltbaker boss guide should help get you through it.

Down below, you'll read all the hints and tips you'll hopefully need to punish the guy for his devious plays. We'll even list the loadout we used to do it. Be aware, though, that the strategy below will largely depend on that build, so your mileage may vary if you go in with another weapon, super, or charm.

For more Cuphead, check out our other guides. Even if you've cleared them, our Mortimer Freeze boss guide, Moonshine Mob boss guide, The Howling Aces boss guide, Esther Winchester boss guide, and, finally, our Glumstone the Giant boss guide could teach you a few tricks to get through the Extreme difficulty you'll unlock after this. Good luck.

Cuphead A Dish to Die For - Chef Saltbaker Boss Guide

Peashooter and Spread can get a lot of easy hits in here, but you're free to swap the first for Tracer if you want to make things quite a bit easier (but slower) if you're good with dodging projectiles for prolonged periods of time.

After that, saving Invincibility for the very last phase will really ease up the difficulty. It's not a hard phase, but given how long the overall fight is, there's little room for error there and fatigue might set in.

Phase One - The Chopping Board

Until you get the hang of things, the first phase of this fight will generally be the hardest. Chef Saltbaker stands at the back, leaning over you and sending anything from fruit to sugar cubes to get in your way.

You'll be able to anticipate what's coming by watching his animations, but it's not usually necessary.

He's a big target, so shooting in his general direction while watching for projectiles to hop over and duck under should be the way forward. It's a lengthy phase with a lot of HP, but it really just requires patience and a keen eye to get through unscathed.

Phase Two - Pepper Shakers

At this point, damage doesn't come from hitting Chef Saltbaker directly, but by dealing enough damage to the Pepper Shakers in each corner. You can focus on a single one, or, if you're fast enough, take them all down. Just don't take the place of one you take down to aim at another - they respawn pretty quickly.

The best approach is to stay in the center and use the Peashooter to hit each one. They do sneeze out projectiles occassionally, and you will have some falling mint leaves eating until your horizontal space, but if you clear the left and right-most shakers quickly enough, you shouldn't get overwhelmed.

They don't take much damage, and each one goes flying toward Chef Saltbaker, slowing whittling him down into the next, really easy, phase.

Phase Three - Marshmallow Dancin'

Phase three is quick and easy, but it can catch you off guard the first time. At the end of phase two, you need to watch where Chef Saltbaker calls in his spinning spawn.

A good way to do this is to stand on either side of the arena (away from the travelling saw blade). As soon as you see Chef Saltbaker throw his creation up from the background, it's destined to land where you stood at that time, so you can quickly move to the other side to avoid it.

At this point, it's just a matter of jumping between the monster and the saw blade as it bounces around the battlefield. It's large and fairly predctable, so while there's no real trick to avoiding it, it's something you'll naturally manage as muscle memory kicks in and you know where it will and won't end up.

Just keep your Spread gun firing as you move and you'll naturally take it down before long. It has a tiny health bar.

Phase Four - Heart of the Baker

Here's where things get a little tricky. This phase isn't necessarily hard, but you probably won't have a lot of HP left to make many mistakes.

As soon as the floor starts to break up, make an effort to climb the platforms. You'll need to keep doing this until you finally take out the boss; which, at this point, will just bounce off the walls and move up to catch you if you go too high.

This one really is an endurance challenge. You can actually parry the boss, but it's not really recommended unless you literally have no other way to evade it - the timing is too strict.

Instead, just focus on hopping over it, climbing, and firing down with the Spread gun until you need to move again. It's another relatively short phase, but you'll be really limited with your movements. Dashing is dangerous, so just focus on little hops and side-steps to get through it.

And, with that, you should clear the final main boss battle of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, unlocking an Extreme difficulty choice for every boss on the island. Congratulations, but you still have the parry-only boss fights up the ladder to do. More on those soon, but check out how to solve the Cuphead Graveyard puzzle if you want a truly challenging secret boss battle.