Cuphead vs. Headdy (Cuphead) vs (Dynamite Headdy)

 Cuphead  vs. Headdy 

(Cuphead) vs (Dynamite Headdy)


Cuphead, the porcelain protagonist from Inkwell Isle.

Headdy, the self-piloting puppet from North Town.

Two run and gun protagonists inspired by the golden age of animation, one old and one new. Who both made a deals with a demons who only wanted absolute destruction and demolition of the worlds and absolved their sins by defeating said deities bringing peace and prosperity to the land.

Among these two cartoony figure, will Cuphead pull Headdy's strings or will Headdy break this bowl?

Before we begin...

 I'll be using material from the Cuphead game, DLC, the Netflix Show, the Comics, and the novels. For Dynamite Headdy, I'll be using the Japanese version to explain the context for the story. I'll include the English version for things that were added in it.

Background

Cuphead 

"That’s for you Jimmy! and you know what for…"

 Cuphead is the main protagonist of the game with the same name from 2017, he and his brother Mugman lived peacefully in Inkwell Isle until, they found a Casino. They gambled for a while until the Devil himself gave them an offer they couldn't refuse, all the money for the casino for one more win. Blinded, by the riches Cuphead throws the dice but lands Snake Eyes meaning the Devil will take his and Mugman's soul. Begging for their lives, they plead that there must be some alternative. The Devil complied, he spared them until midnight tomorrow to collect the soul contracts of the runaway debtors. He collected their contracts, but remembering Elder Kettle's words he did the right thing and pounded that Devil into dust freeing him and the runaway debtors from his evil clutches once and for all. A few years later, he was called by Ms. Chalice to help gather ingredients to make her alive again, only to find that the Wondertart required a soul to and if consumed will give the user power to control the entire astral plane, so he beat Saltbaker and Inkwell Isle was safe once again, now he lives his life chilling with his brother and Elder Kettle.

Headdy

"Yeah!" 

Headdy is a puppet in a play, and not just any puppet but the main character as well. He arrives in North Town to find that the evil puppet Dark Demon is in the midst of attacking the puppet town to select which of the peaceful toys should live and which should be converted into his evil minions. Headdy is captured and rejected by Dark Demon's forces, and is dropped into the dust cargo to be thrown into the incinerator. However, Headdy escapes the clutches of Dark Demon's minions and sets off to defeat the evil king. However, trouble is afoot. Not only is the puppet world filled with Dark Demon's minions, but to reach the evil overlord's castle Headdy must defeat Dark Demon's elite guard, the Keymasters. To make matters worse, Headdy is followed by Trouble Bruin, a puppet jealous of Headdy's success. Trouble Bruin wants to be the star instead of Headdy, and will stop at nothing to be rid of him.

Intelligence, Skill, and Experience

Cuphead 

Cuphead is officially referred to as a "Kidult" by the developers of Studio MDHR meaning he is rather childish and impulsive. He is not known for making the best decisions and is the less reserved one than his brother. The whole plot of the game revolves around him flying too close to the sun and his wings burning up. Despite this, he was able to best all the bosses in the game before "midnight tomorrow: according to the Devil's deadline. All the bosses in Cuphead possess unique projectiles, attacks, and phases meaning he was able to adapt quickly to the various patterns the bosses used in such quick time. He also handles a variety of charms and weapons well since they have different uses depending on if they are used on air on land, so he has great experience.

 Dynamite Headdy

The world of Dynamite Headdy is actually set in a play with stage props and everything meaning Headdy is actually an actor and an experienced at that to earn himself the role of the main character. He is also quite experienced with dealing with a variety of different heads he's given on the fly, some shoot stars, some vacuum enemies, and some can protect his entire body. He was able to triumph over the various Key Masters who each have their own unique attacks and patterns as well. He was also able to defeat Trouble Bruin and the Dark Demon who sought control of North Town.

Equipment

Cuphead 

 Alcohol 

Cuphead pours alcohol in his head in one of the trailers, according to the devs the liquid in his head is his soul, so interpret that as you will.

Potions

These potions grant Cuphead various different shots, these can be purchased with coins at Porkrind's emporium. The peashooter potion is given to you at the beginning by Elder Kettle.

Smoke Bomb

With this charm, Cuphead can dash through projectiles with a puff of smoke on land and in the air. A must have charm for both early and endgame.

 Heart

Gives Cuphead an additional heart point but weakens his attack by 5%.

Coffee

This charm automatically fills the Super Meter and speeds up if doing damage to targets.

P. Sugar

The first jump automatically parries, all you need to do is jump.

 Twin Heart

Cuphead gets 2 extra hearts but his attacks gets reduced by -10%.

Whetstone

The first parry doubles as an attack to harm non-pink enemies. Only works once before the player has to land. Speed-runners love this weapon.

Astral Cookie

A charm that was given by Saltbaker which allows him to swap places with Ms. Chalice by eating a cookie. Ms. Chalice has a variety of skills that separate her from Cuphead and Mugman.

Broken Relic/Cursed Relic/Divine Relic


A simple bauble of unknown origin. It starts to disadvantage the player reducing HP to one while giving random weapon shots but when fully upgraded ,the Divine Relic does not reduce a player's starting HP, leaving them with the normal 3 HP. However, the relic still randomizes weapons every time a player begins shooting. Along with this, the player receives the full benefits of Smoke Bomb, Whetstone, and Heart Ring, as well as charging 5.2% of their Super Meter every second

Heart Ring

Regenerates one HP at the first, third, and sixth parries.

Plane

Cuphead flies a plane in order to combat his aerial enemies. The planes have their very own weapons, EX, and Supers. The planes can also turn their wings into hands and eat astral cookie if the two brothers both equip it.

Weapons and Abilities

  • Rapid Fire Bullets - The default bullets for the plane. Like the Peashooter bullets, Cuphead can shoot multiple bullets and they have a long range.
    • EX Move: Toothy Terror Missile - Simply known as "Attack," Cuphead shoots a missile with a Toothy Terror mouth that does multiple damage depending on how long the boss is.
  • Mini Bomb - Shoots missles in a downward arc that do above average damage to the enemy but have a slow fire rate.
    • EX Move: Magnet - Shoots multiple magnets that home in on the target.
  • Size Reduction - In his plane, he can shrink himself to be part of the plane, making it easier to dodge attacks and increases speed. Cuphead can still use his bullets while in this shrunken stage, but they do less damage and have a limited range.
  • Super Bomb Transformation - As a Super Art, Cuphead can transform into a giant bomb that explodes either on impact or the if duration timer runs out.

Cannon

To paint this entire fence in one go, Cuphead put paint inside of one and blasted the fence with it.

Baseball Bat

It's a baseball bat, he uses it to play baseball.

Rolling Pin

A rolling pin, he uses this to hit people with it.

 Invisible Sweater

A sweater knitted by Mugman specifically to ward off the Devil to prevent his soul from being taken.

Swords


Cuphead and Mugman took swords from Briney Beard. They are very heavy and they can easily cut through the wooden ship.

 Fireworks


Cuphead has various amounts of fireworks. He used them in the intro to blow up an orchestra filled with instruments and he used them in Lost in the Woods to propel many items and Mugman into the sky.

Rope


He used it to pull a comically small moon. He failed to pull it all the way.

Homemade Jetpack



A poorly made Jetpack created by Cuphead himself, he made two in the episode Another Brother. It's not safe for your own transportation and it shattered Bowl Boy. He was fine though.

A Pen and Pencil



With some ink, Cuphead can write out letters with it and faces with it. And with the Pencil he can erase and draw things with it.

Porkrind Emporium's Patented Muscle B-Massive bottle


Turns your body from Dough Lump to Grade- A hunk of meat into seconds.

Devil Pitchfork


The Devil left his pitchfork on a tree in "The Devils Pitchfork" and Cuphead came across it, and as any kid would do, took it for himself. He gains access to a variety of powers when using it but it returned to the Devil after the episode making it nonstandard.

Powers he can potenially use are:

Headdy

 Airhead


It allows him to fly and rapid fire large round bullets in three directions. 

Bombhead


 On top of it's urgency of being used quickly! When used, our puppet hero drops his head-turned-bomb, which explodes after a few seconds, killing all the on-screen foes with a mighty explosion. If Headdy doesn't throw his head in time, he will instantly blow up and lose a life. 

Empty Head

With this head, he turns completely intangible, he can beat enemies but enemies can't beat him.

Feather Head

This head grants Headdy flight, as well as the ability to shoot tiny birds as ammo.

Head Trip

Provides Headdy with a comically oversized head with giant, cherry red lips, completely weighing him down (despite the lack of neck) and forcing him to crawl. The head's effects cannot be cancelled, leaving Headdy vulnerable until they expire.

 Liberty Head



 Is used to play minigames, turns Headdy into what resembles the Statue of Liberty. Noncombat applicable.

Tri-Head

This powerup makes you shoots three heads instead of one; These shots go in the direction you fire, with two branching out diagonally. 

Pig Head

The pig head grants Headdy the ability to shoot stars out of his newfound snout, describing a 8-shaped pattern whenever he isn't moving. These stars are able to track down the nearest enemies within a short range from his location.

Pinhead


 Thanks to his new minuscule size, Headdy is able to sneak into little passages, access areas he couldn't fit into before, and dodge attacks much easier than what was given. Cannot de-transform unless he gets another powerup.

Barrier Head


Our hero can still attack with his head, but with added help for extra damage; the ring of explosions damages enemies on contact, making for a fiery finisher.

Rocket Head


 This head grants our hero flight, as well as the ability to shoot piercing lasers.

Hammer Head


It makes Headdy deal more damage to the enemies his head comes in contact with, move obstacles much further and faster, as well as grant the puppet hero the ability to destroy certain blocks, indicated by the hammer picture on them.

Snooze Head


 Sleepy Head's ability is to restore health in the absence of any healing items. It does this by putting our hero to sleep for a quick- and probably well-needed -nap.

Spike Head

The Spike Head's ability allows Headdy to grapple onto walls and climb up them, much like when shooting at a Hangman. This isn't limited to just walls; the same tends to apply to any clingable surface!

Dash Head

The Dash Head makes Headdy run much faster, jump twice as high, and throw his head nearly three times the regular range given.

Ticker Head


 

Once Headdy acquires this head, all time is stopped for several seconds, allowing you to attack enemies without giving them a chance to counter (However, direct contact with enemies will still hurt Headdy).

Vacuum Head


 When used, the Vacuum Head swallows up every on-screen foe, on top of every nearby item, with one swift suction. However, with this particular head, Headdy can't attack or grab onto things, making him unable to use Hangmans or Headcases. 

War Head

The War Head will constantly radiate stars all around Headdy, hurting opponents on contact.
 

Banana

A health recovery item. When consumed it restores 6 health.

500


Gives 500 points towards your score.

Headdy

 Gives Headdy an extra life.

Boss Token


 Upon collecting ten (JPN) or thirteen (USA) of them, Beau will say "You got another try!" and an extra continue is awarded! You will need those to survive later in the game! 

Powers and Abilities

Cuphead 

Cartoon/ Cuphead Physiology 


 Cuphead is a cartoon character based off of 1930s cartoons, as such he follows many rules that are similar to characters made at the time with a few of his own. For Cuphead, he can pour and drink liquids from his head, take his head off of his neck, and can still function without it being on his head. He has three health at base. 

Magic

When Elder Kettle gave, Cuphead the Peashooter potion the powers are described as magical. He can shoot a variety of shots with this magic active.

Peashooter 


An average damage weapon with good range. It has a light blue color and looks like a laser beam. These beams travel straight forward at a high velocity which allows you to stand far away from your enemies. Its EX move is Mega Blast - Fires a huge, blue fireball that deals considerable damage. It will hit a target three times before disappearing.

Spread Shot


A close range weapon that shoots rapid fire red spikes. You will have to be more careful with this weapon as you need to stay near the enemy. Its Ex-Move is called: Eight Way - Fires 8 large spikes that deal high damage, but move very slowly. It is best when using against background bosses.

Chaser/Homing


It fires small, slow-moving projectiles that home in on the nearest target. Deals about half the damage compared to the Peashooter. EX: Chaos Orbit - Spawns a four slightly bigger projectiles that circle the player and protect them from incoming enemies. When there is one orbit already, using another EX will replace the original orbit and those will automatically home in on the closest target.

Lobber

Fires a lobbed, heavy projectile that slightly arcs upwards, then falls back down and bounces on the floor. The projectile remains until it bounces twice and will pop on the third contact of a floor. The weapon deals great damage, but has limited range, with each shot dealing about 2.5x more than the Peashooter. EX: Kablooey - Like a Lobber shot, but bigger and with an area-of-effect damage, dealing equal damage regardless of the area of impact, meaning the EX projectile has no falloff.

Charge/Explosion Manipulation


It is a high-damage, high-velocity shot that requires the player to hold down the firing button for maximum effectiveness. It has an orange color and looks like a wave for the uncharged projectile and two waves twirling each other for the charged projectile. EX: Radial Barrage - Releases a short-range, but a big Area-of-Effect burst of damage from the player.

Roundabout


It fires a boomerang-like projectile that moves in the direction it is fired for a moment, but proceeds backwards for a long distance at a much higher velocity. EX: Jumbo Rebound - Launches a larger, thicker and closed version of the standard shot that will try to go back to the player. You can dodge it and it will chase you until all seven hits are used up or it touches the player again.

Crackshot/Summoning


The best shot in the entire game. It fires a rhombus projectile that is shot straight forward for a short while, it then breaks apart and aims straight at the closest hitbox. EX: P. Turret - The P. Turret is a pink planet-shaped turret that can be parried, shoots out small projectile aiming at the closest enemy five times and disappears. It can be parried and used as a maneuver option. Parrying it will add a small amount to the Super Meter.

 Converge/ Electricity Manipulation


A three way electro bolt attack hat can pierce through many enemies at once. EX Move: Electro-Bolt - Fires a large horizontal electric beam across the screen to where the player is facing, piercing all enemies it hits. While the directional button is held, the beam will fire at that direction

Twistup

Twist-Up fires three tornadoes that arcs toward the direction of the finger gun's thumb. The projectiles have a light-blue color and look like small cyclones. Best used when firing at enemies that are above you. EX: Cyclone Spiral - Fires a larger light-blue cyclone that spins in a circular pattern from the original firing location, increasing its radius over time. It will hit five times before disappearing.

Super Art I/ Energy Beam

Fires a giant energy beam horizontally hitting all foes that get caught in the blast for massive damage.

Super Art II/Invincibility

Cuphead crosses the Astral Plane and gain invincibility for a short time. He can walk through enemies while shooting his gun in this form.

Super Art III/Giant Ghost

Creates a giant spinning ghost that deals 5 damage per punch and 127.5 if you land all your punches. When the ghost is done, he leaves a heart you can parry.

Bomb Morph

You can transform into a giant bomb that explodes either on impact or if the duration timer runs out. After exploding, you'll deal 152 damage and be invulnerable for 3 seconds.

 Elasticity

Cuphead can stretch his arms and legs to reach things he can't usually grab. 

Immersion

Cuphead has been able enter films and boardgames when diving into the film reel and board game respectively and not only that, he can actively interact with the characters and make them deviate from the pre-written plot.

Shrinking

Cuphead has some sort of ability to control his size. This was how he was able to fight Werner Werman. He can also shrink his plane to dodge projectiles.

Regeneration

Cuphead has shown to be can regenerate from tons of damage, from minor stuff like his nose being cut off, to even crazier stuff like casually taking off his head or even regenerating after it was shattered into pieces. The deaths in the Cuphead game seem to be since Quadratus seems to count how many times you died in boss battles and run and guns so he can regenerate from his body being destroyed and his spirit being destroyed but there's an unknown timeframe on how long that takes.

Versatility


He was able to create a plane out of junk, grow a squash to a very large size in a short tie, and was able to best the bosses with all unique attack patterns. He's known for using unconventional resources to his benefit.

Non Physical Interaction

Cuphead can parry pink ghosts, shoot living flames, and hurt the ghost of the phantom express. Mugman was also also grab Cuphead's soul and put it back in his body.

Parrying/Power Nullification


 Cuphead has the ability to parry pink objects. With this power, he can jump into a pink object by pressing the jump button twice to gain another jump. He can make most pink projectiles and enemies disappear doing this. He can get a card to charge his EX for each parry.

Statistics Amplification & Statistics Reduction 

Cuphead can increase his health at the cost of his attack power.

Healing


Cuphead can heal himself by parrying objects with the heart ring or the diving relic. He gets a heart at the first, third, and sixth parries. First, second, and fourth for the Divine Relic.

Teleportation


With smoke bomb he can teleport across short distances.

Headdy 

Puppet Physiology 

Headdy is a living puppet and has quite a few abilities unique to him that aren't of a real puppet. He doesn't have any strings attached to him and has no neck but has a floating head. He can throw this head many different directions, replace his head with new ones, and get a new head every time he finishes a power-up. He can have up to 16 health according to this guide and was calculated to be this tall 58 cm tall.

Flight


Through his plane, rocket, and feather heads, he can take flight. He also gains new rapid fire projectiles when doing this and can change facing left or right.

Explosion Manipulation


His head can turn into a bomb and can destroy and damage most enemies on screen. If the bomb is still on his head, he loses a life.

Intangibility/Invisibility


Headdy's body is replaced with white outlines and he can move through enemies and projectiles without getting hurt. He can still attack enemies while in this form.

Duplication 


With Tri-head, Headdy can shoot up to three heads at once. 

Homing attack

Through pig head he shoots homing stars.

Surface Scaling

Through Spike Head, he can cling to surfaces and climb walls with this.

Shrinking


 With Pinhead, he can become miniature. He returns to normal when he gains another powerup.

Forcefield Creation

He can have fireballs encircle him dealing damage to enemies who touch them.

Absorption/Durability Negation

Headdy can vacuum up weaker enemies and kill them in one hit.

Regeneration


 With Snooze Head, he can recover his health but it holds him in place for a time.

Statistics Amplification 

Hammer Head increases his damage that the normal head does.

Super Speed

With Dash Head, he becomes much faster, jumps higher, and hit faster.

Time Stop

Headdy can stop time temporarily and attack the enemies when doing so.

Animal Manipulation

Headdy can shoot birds out of his mouth that drop down to hit their foes.

Energy Projection


Rocket head can shoot lasers out of his nose that can pierce through enemies.

Support

Cuphead 

Ms. Chalice

She is a ghost who assisted Cuphead by giving him powerful Super Arts for rescuing her. In the DLC, she becomes a playable character when equipping the astral cookies which lets her swap from spiritual world to the real world with her own unique abilities. 
 Her abilities include:

  • Double Jump: Self explanatory
  • Extra Health: She has 4 health in total
  • Dodge Roll: She can activate invincibility by rolling on the ground
  • Parry Dash: Her dash parries pink objects
Plane Weapons:
  •  Her plane peashooter shoots with a slight spread of three bullets at a slower rate akin to the Converge weapon.
  • Her mini-bomb arcs downward akin to Cuphead and Mugman's, albeit shoots at a faster rate and has higher DPS (37.3 < ~42).
  • Her Super Art can only traverse up and down throughout the screen, as she only goes to the right.
  • Her Super Art also progressively gains speed, depending on the distance they used their super, to the right of the screen.
Super Arts:
  • Her Super Art I is a beam attack like Cuphead and Mugman's, however it goes vertically instead of horizontally. There are also yellow stripes in its appearance.
  • Her Super Art II gives her a shield pal that acts as an additional hit point. At full health, she can only deploy one at a time, and trying to summon another while one is alive will be treated as if no Super Art is equipped.
  • Her Super Art III unleashes a swarm of powerful porcelain ghosts and a pink spear would also be seen ascending into the air.

 Canteen Hughes

Canteen Hughes assists Cuphead in Doggone Dogfight to fight the howling aces. Depending on where the player is standing, the plane will move in that direction or stop if you're on the middle.

Djimmi

Through spinning around three times, Cuphead can summon Djimmi who will grant him double HP until the next victory. He used to only be able to do it three times but ever since he was freed from the Devil's contracts he can do it as infinitely. However, it prevents the player from getting higher than a B+ rank. 

Headdy

 Beau


 An angel friend you shows up to help Headdy when facing boss fights. He yells "Target!" to tell Headdy where the weak points of the boss are. He has been shown to susceptible to getting grabbed by Keymasters.

Heather/Fingy


 Heather is a character who collected the keys after defeating the Key Masters. When fighting the Gatekeeper, she throws keys into the Gatekeeper in order to reveal the Dark Demon's fortress. She also gets kidnapped by the boss soon after and Headdy has to save her and Beau.

Headcase

He is one of Headdy's friends who carries all of his powerups.

Hangman


 

He is a round, hanging creature found commonly in stages. One of Headdy's three friends, he is used to grapple and jump to higher platforms. Occasionally, whenever you pull on Hangman, he drops down with platforms. For reasons or another, there are multiple Hangmen.

 Resistances

Cuphead 

Headdy

 

  • Most Physical damage: As long as he has health he can bounce back from almost anything, he can just phase through them in his intangible form.
  • Decapitation: A new head will go onto Headdy's body when the power-up expires.
  • Bottomless Pits: If Headdy falls off, he will bounce back up which allows the player to put him back on a platform, though Headdy will still sustain some damage.

Weaknesses

 Cuphead

Headdy

  • Heavy Head: A useless power-up that reduces him to a crawl.
  • Tiny: The tiny size doesn't expire until he gets another power-up
  • Temporary Power-ups: They eventually expire and leave Headdy with just his normal attack.

Feats

Cuphead 

Accomplishments


  • Defeated all of the debtors in less than 2 days
  • Beat King Dice and his Henchmen
  • Beat the Devil at his own game and freed all the runaway debtors
  • Collected the ingredients for the Wondertart
  • Beat Saltbaker and got Ms.Chalice's soul back
  • Helped the relic achieve Divinity

Strength 

Speed

Durability

Feats

  • Is the main character of his play
  • Defeated the Keymasters
  • Defeated Trouble Bruin
  • Freed all of the puppets from mind control
  • Defeated the Dark Demon
  • Got a kiss from Heather

Strength 

  • Can defeat foes much larger than him
  • Can trade blows with Motor Hand (0.02047 Tons)
  • Can grab and push the starting UI with his head
  • Can still move under heavy head's infulence

Speed

Durability

Scaling

 Cuphead

The Bosses of Inkwell Isle 

DLC Bosses

The Devil 

The one who everyone owned their soul to at this point, Cuphead made him cry so he should upscale.

Headdy

Keymasters/Gatekeepers 

Heady had to fight them in order to fight the Dark Demon, so he should upscale

Dark Demon

The villain of Dynamite Headdy, he created the Keymasters and essentially upscales them

Before the Verdict

Moon Level and Up Cuphead


In the Cuphead Show, Cuphead displays a ridiculous feat of strength by pulling the moon in an attempt to make the sun rise faster. He almost succeed but he lost his footing at the last second and was hanging on by the rope of the moon. Many are skeptical of this feat because it's a comically small moon, however many similar cartoon characters preform alike feats such as Mickey grabbing the sun and Clarabelle cow shattering the moon so you can argue that its consistent with the type of cartoon The Cuphead Show is. Not only that but the Moon itself is still referred to as a celestial body in lore, so it should pass as the real thing. Though there is an argument that this is an outlier as Cuphead hadn't shown a similar feat of strength leaving the verse to scale to city to mountain level.

However, in ‘Cuphead Volume 3: Colourful Crack-Ups & Chaos’ , Mortimer Freeze sent out a storm so cold it covered the sun in snow and later on completely froze it. A feat like this can get the verse to small star level and not only that, its stated that the Devil is stronger than the bosses of the DLC meaning he'd upscale quite a bit.

Now, let's move onto the Djimmi the Great, his sarcophagus contains a great amount of stars. It sounds impressive at first, but we don' know how big this space is and could just be a portal to somewhere.  Next is Chef Saltbaker stating that with The Wondertart, he could take over the Astral Plane which contains many many stars. While this feat has the potential to be really high, it only has potential, As we never actually get to see what would happen if Saltbaker did make it, making it a little too vague to believe. 

And finally, let's talk about Hilda Berg. She has feats of summoning constellations and even absorbing stars which look pretty high, but these are most likely just in-game visual heads up for when an attack is coming, supported by the fact you can fly right through them as if they're not even there. But something that's not brought up much is the fact that when she gets angry in the middle section of the boss, a starry night sky begins to form in the background, supported by the fact that it's daytime when you take her on and after you beat her the stars disappear on the giant map. This is the best feat out of any of the ones here, but is a bit sketchy and you could argue it's an outlier. Although we do think this is a good high end if you wanna buy Cuphead at Multi Solar System..

In conclusion, Cuphead's moon and sun scaling is the most reasonable highball but everything from Djimmi, Hilda Berg, and Saltbaker is too vague to be considered valid.

Dark Demon conquering the world

According to Heather's dialogue, when Smiley was the Dark Demon he took over the whole world and in his boss battle, he ripped the fabric of the universe to have stars surround the background. It sounds impressive at first but remember that the events of Dynamite Headdy happen within a play meaning that the world and universe that was taken over and shredded would most likely be localized to that of a building at most. This is evidenced by the fact most of the backgrounds in the game are shown to be composed of wallpaper or paintings. So at most Headdy should scale to buildings

Tributes

 
Therewolf Media

 Verdict

 Stats

 For the first category, let's start with Strength. Both combatants have faced and defeated opponents much larger than them but Cuphead's opponents are quite more impressive. He defeated Glumstone who not only was the size of the mountain but becomes one during hibernation. He also can arguably go to moon or star level since he fought Hilda Berg who can create stars and Mortimer Freeze who froze one. Mountain level has the most reasonability but the moon and star feats aren't without merit.

In comparison with Dynamite Headdy, Motor Hand's rotating a building is much less impressive than the foes that Cuphead has fought. You can argue that given Dynamite Headdy's smaller height of 58 cm in comparison to Cuphead's height of 91.44 cm the enemies that he takes down would be more impressive but his foes still range from being a few feet to meters tall. With this in mind, I believe the point goes to Cuphead.

Let's move onto Speed. Cuphead usually runs at subsonic speed as he is comparable to Goopy Le Grande who could attack at Subsonic Speeds at 66.241608 m/s. He can also dodge cannon ball fire, lasers, and various missiles which can put him at Mach 4 but his most impressive feats while on ground is him dodging lightning based attacks which put him at Mach 1068-1868 speeds. His flight is also quite impressive going subsonic to super sonic at his minimum to peak.

Headdy can also run at subsonic speed as he can keep up with a plane and in base form and dodge lasers and missiles as well. Dash Head makes Headdy super fast so he can potentially be faster but we don't have much calcs to go off since he's never used it to out speed anyone. Point goes to Cuphead.

Now I'll discuss durability, Cuphead in his game has only 3 health but as long he has health he should be able to tank anything. He has shrugged off lasers, missiles, and other hard hitting objects that would kill a human being. In the show, he has been crushed, poisoned, frozen, transmutated, and broken and bounced back as new the next scene or episode. The peak of his durability is calculated to be around  1.35649 Megatons or 5.6755933 x 10^15 Joules for Small City level. However, he can be immediately killed if his soul is sucked out of his body.

For Headdy, he his health can go up to 16 in total but he at most his durability can go to building level with what we see from Motor Hand. Though he can definitely take more hits than Cuphead in gameplay. Cuphead's health caps at 9 health while Headdy's is in the double digits if he uses snooze head to get to that point. I'd have them tie for this category as while Cuphead has survived more damaging hits, Headdy can survive more hits in general. 

Arsenal and Abilities

Cuphead takes most of the stats but what truly defines the matchup is their powers and equipment. Let's start with powers, Cuphead has a variety of projectiles to shoot at his enemies for almost every scenario. He also has many charms to grant him teleportation, healing, and faster EX moves. Not only that, the Divine Relic can grant him all those powers at once with the debuff of shooting random projectiles every time you stop shooting. His Super-arts aren't anything to scoff at, he can deal great damage with Super Arts I and III and gain invincibility with two. The Astral Cookie can also have Ms. Chalice sub in and utilize abilities such as double jump, parry dash and dodge roll and new super arts as well.  

However, a couple disadvantages come with the Astral Cookie as they will lock Cuphead from using the divine relic's powers meaning chalice will be restricted from the heart ring, coffee, and smoke bomb's powers. Another disadvantage is that Cuphead's main way of getting Supers quickly and healing, is that Headdy doesn't have much pink projectiles with the exception of Pig Head. As far as we know, Cuphead doesn't have a power that causes opponents to spew pink projectiles so the other parable thing that can be used to recover health is when his giant ghost has finished his duration. He can parry Crackshot's EX to recover health but that would leave him with less cards to charge his Super arts. And while he can increase his health with the heart charms, they decrease his damage output slightly.

His toon-force is also quite weaker in comparison to other toons, elasticity is pretty cool but he rarely uses it offensively and can easily get tangled. His immersion is a cool power, but he's never used it to gain the upper advantage against a opponent nor use it to BFR someone.

In comparison to Headdy's powers, he's got quite a few that can give Cuphead trouble. Bombhead is a attack that takes some time to detonate but damages everything on screen and its presented as a normal power in comparison to a special that needs to be filled up. He's also got a time-stop and can still attack his enemies while they remain helpless. Snoozehead is also a great recovery tool that doesn't require other opponent's attacks and while he remains motionless for a bit, its quite short and gives a potent amount of health back. 

The main advantage that Headdy has with his powers is that they are very powerful and give little drawbacks. Some of Headdy's powers can be considered better than Cuphead's, for example Barrier Head's projectiles are a lot bigger than Chaos Orbit and Pighead's projectiles home in on enemies without reduced damage. The most devasting one would have to be Empty Head, not only it completely phases through Cuphead's projectiles but it lasts longer than Cuphead's invincibility, so he needs to play defensively until it expires. Not only that, he has better mobility due to powers like Spikehead, Pin Head, and Hammer Head as he is able to climb walls, fit through tiny places and break objects easily. Powers go to Headdy.

Let's talk about Arsenal, besides his guns and charms Cuphead has a plane, many rockets, a cannon, and even a pen and pencil that can write and erase people's faces on them. He is able to pull most of these out via hammer space and displays great proficiency with them. The highlight is his homemade jetpack, while not up to code it is capable of putting people into hospitals. It even shattered Bowl Boy, though he recovered quite shortly after. His plane is quite powerful as well, since it increases his speed by a lot pairs well with the Divine Relic having only two weapons to swap to. He can also turn into an invincible bomb that can cover a great distance.

Headdy's power-ups are basically his arsenal. Headdy can access the majority of his powers at all time even without Headcase present. The big advantage that Headdy's arsenal is better suited for more situations. With Warhead, he can attack while spewing stars to take down all enemies and then there's Vacuum head which sucks up all enemies around the screen and helpful items as well. Headdy's kit allows for all sorts of various attacks that can wipe the screen clean of enemies or can provide great mobility for traversing the terrain. Headdy takes arsenal due to its sheer versatility.

For the last main factors of this match-up, let's talk about invulnerability and regeneration. Cuphead can go invulnerable when he uses Super Art II and his plane turns him into a bomb in which he can run into enemies and projectiles and have some invincibility frames after. Cuphead's intangibility for Super Art II lasts only about 3 seconds. When Chalice is swapped in, her Super Art II gives her a heart shield that tanks the next hit and provides brief invincibility after getting hit. 

For Cuphead's regeneration, he can recover three hearts on the first, third, and sixth parry with the divine relic. With his toon force, he has recovered from being poisoned, frozen, crushed, transmutated, and shattered. In the game, the deaths seem to be canon as quadratus keeps track of how many times you got a game-over screen, so Cuphead can seemingly recover even when his body is destroyed and ascended to heaven. However, it's hard to tell how long the recovery takes to be combat applicable because Cuphead's body only returns after the retry or exit to map button is hit. Moreover, Cuphead has a limited amount of hearts he can recover and Cuphead's regeneration is inconsistent on how fast he recoveries. Sometimes, he can bounce back quickly and sometimes he's in a hospital bed.

For Headdy's invulnerability, Empty Head is a power that is readily available to Headdy at all times and lasts significantly longer lasting over ten seconds which is a massive advantage over Cuphead's Super Art as he needs to build up for it for a short burst of invincibility. This gives a great window of opportunity for Headdy to deal damage to Cuphead.

For his regeneration, Snooze Head is the power for that and just like Empty Head can be used just as much as the other heads, all he needs is to be stationary for a while. Another advantage is that there's no limit to how many times he can use it and can recover more health at a time as opposed to Cuphead only being able to recover one per the designated parry. Invulnerability and regeneration goes to Headdy.

Tertiary Factors

For this section: let's talk about intelligence first, Cuphead is a bit of a dumbhead. His greed and hubris set the game's plot into motion. In the Cuphead show, he exhibits much of the same deficiency of smarts as the episode in the woods had him launch important equipment into the sky with rockets. However, he does get smarter overtime and does outsmart and outplay his opponents that are much smarter than him. He was able to build an airplane out of scraps to evade Dr. Kahl and his robot and saved Ms. Chalice's soul by challenging the Devil to Rock Paper Scissors and won.

Headdy has a pretty average intelligence but he's not dumb by any means. He's the main character of the play that he's in which means he must have a great knowledge of acting and stage-play. However, very few of the enemies in Dynamite Headdy sport having a higher intelligence because the plot of the game happens due to Smiley (Dark Demon) misunderstanding that Headdy was supposed to be awarded the best puppet of the world and he was the medal that he was supposed to wear. He misunderstood this and became the Dark Demon who conquered the puppet world. Trouble Bruin also decided to play with Headdy instead of using his strongest form first and even then that form backfired on him. Intelligence goes to Cuphead.

Next let's talk about experience, Cuphead has faced a variety of opponents under 2 days ranging from living vegetables, genies, and other mythical creatures. Not only that he went on another journey to collect ingredients from mobsters, a snow cult, and even an angel and a demon to complete his quest.

Headdy's adventure is basically a play with 10 total acts which would equate to at least three hours in real time. Quite impressive to save the puppet world in a short amount of time but it also means that Headdy faced a lot less opponents than Cuphead and while they do vary, Cuphead's rouge gallery contains foes of both quantity and quality given that almost everyone of them has unique attacks and patterns. Point goes to Cuphead.

Conclusion

Cuphead 

 Advantages:

  • Much Stronger 
  • Much Faster
  • Can take more damaging hits (Quality)
  • Can use all weapons and charms at once with Divine Relic
  • Ms. Chalice can offer more versatility
  • More ranged abilities
  • Slightly more intelligent 
  • More experience
  • Can get higher with moon pull and scaling to Mortimer Freeze
  • Has more Toon Force like abilities such as Elasticity, Immersion, and Hammerspace
Disadvantages:
  • Less amount of maximum health
  • Less Invincibility time
  • Limited or inconsistent regeneration
  • Can scale less due to the Moon Pull and Mortimer Freeze being outliers
  • Needs to charge to use his Super and hampered by whether or not they have pink projectiles
  • Some weapons or charms do less damage
  • Chalice can't use other charms
  • Likely can't shrink or counter the Ticker Head

Headdy

Advantages:
  • Has a higher health pool
  • Can take more hits overall (Quantity)
  • Longer and more potent invincibility
  • More potent healing
  • The most powerful tools of his kit are easily accessible
  • Doesn't suffer from different weapons doing less damage
  • Matches in durability
  • Overall more versatile tool-kit (Duplication, shrinking, climbing walls)
  • Slightly more plane weapons
  • Can't be decapitated
Disadvantages:

  • Can only use one head at a time and can't combine their abilities
  • Overall Weaker
  • Slower but could potentially go faster wtih Dash Head
  • Less experience
  • Slightly less intelligence
  • Heavy Head/Liberty are useless
  • Needs to be stationary with Snooze Head to recover health
  • Less range

Arguments

This is quite a complex match-up than one would think. Where the battle could swing either way at high difficulty, so I'm going to present arguments for both characters winning.

Cuphead's Reasons for Winning

Cuphead is generally the stronger and faster fighter in this matchup. He’s faced towering, monstrous enemies far larger than himself and come out victorious time and time again. His experience is no joke—every stage in Cuphead introduces new enemies and projectile patterns to learn and overcome. Dynamite Headdy is just another test of reflexes in a long list of bullet-hell nightmares Cuphead has mastered.

Taking strength and speed gives Cuphead a distinct edge. He can land more impactful attacks at a faster rate, and if there’s one thing Cuphead excels at, it’s overwhelming his opponents with relentless firepower. With the Divine Relic, he has access to all bullet types and charms simultaneously, giving him unparalleled versatility in his arsenal. He can summon Crackshot’s EX for cover fire, Roundabout to hit Headdy from behind, and use Homing to keep pressure up while evading.

One of Headdy’s limitations is that he can’t stack his head powers. He can’t, for example, use Ticker Head to freeze time and then swap to Hammer Head to land a heavy blow. This single-use limitation is a key disadvantage—especially if their fight enters the air. While Cuphead’s aerial options are limited to two bullet types in plane mode, he retains charm effects like Smoke Bomb, Coffee, and Whetstone, giving him more passive advantages than Headdy’s three exclusive aerial heads.

Perhaps the most pressing threat is Headdy’s intangibility and regeneration. While it’s true Headdy can become intangible faster and for longer than Cuphead (via Empty Head), Cuphead has counters. With Smoke Bomb, he can phase out of danger and reposition, and given his experience dodging highly aggressive enemies, he’s more than capable of waiting out Headdy’s phasing windows and striking when they end.

Headdy’s regeneration is another issue—but one with a solution. To heal, Headdy must remain stationary for several seconds, which is a death sentence against someone as aggressive and fast as Cuphead. His multi-hit playstyle, supported by rapid EX meter gain and constant chip damage, allows him to keep the pressure on and outpace any healing Headdy attempts. While Cuphead doesn’t stagger enemies per se, he excels at death-by-a-thousand-cuts.

Additionally, Cuphead has one more option: the Astral Cookie, which allows Ms. Chalice to take his place. While this swap comes with trade-offs—Ms. Chalice doesn’t get access to the Divine Relic—she brings her own advantages. With her dodge roll, double jump, and parry dash, she’s just as slippery, and according to The Cuphead Show, she retains ghost powers even after breaking free from the Devil. She can phase through attacks and even possess Headdy, possibly netting her the win herself.

Headdy is called “Dynamite” for a reason—his versatility, regeneration, and agility gave Cuphead one of the toughest fights of his life. But in the end, superior firepower, speed, and adaptability carried Cuphead to victory.

Cuphead lit his fuse and Headdy died by his might

The winner is .... Cuphead.

Headdy's Reasons for Winning

Headdy is not a character known for his stats but he makes up for it with his vast abilities. For a platforming game character in 1994, he has a very powerful tool kit that not only makes him powerful in his world but in versus as well.

Having an advantage powers, arsenal, and versatility give Headdy a definite edge in this fight. He has duplicating, time stopping, and vacuuming powers many abilities Cuphead doesn't possess. Headdy has much less ranged attacks than Cuphead but his close-combat skill makes up for less lack of far-away weaponry. Cuphead has no counter to Ticker Head, while Cuphead does have superior speed he isn't fast enough to move in stopped time and it lasts for quite a while meaning Headdy can greatly damage Cuphead and potentially end the fight then and there.

Not to mention some of Headdy's powers can be considered better than Cuphead's, for example Barrier Head has a much bigger shield than Chaser's Chaos Orbit and the fireballs don't disappear when they collide with an enemy which can be devastating to Cuphead should they collide. Another example is Pighead, where his shoots can home onto Cuphead but don't reduce his normal attack power allowing him to deal full damage. Headdy can avoid Cuphead's Chaser but it deals lesser damage so it's not a big hinderance, Headdy's tracking projectiles are quite the opposite. 

While Headdy has less ranged options in his kit, he has many options to close the distance between him and Cuphead. Dash head is a useful tool that increases Headdy's speed that can help him dodge and catchup to Cuphead, it even increases his attack speed as well. Or he could use Vaccum Head to get rid of his projectile spam and bring him in closer. Cuphead does have a slight resistance to the pull of a vacuum if Ester Winchester is anything to go by but the projectiles that are getting sucked in from behind him will prove to be quite difficult to deal with.

While Headdy's regeneration does take some time to activate, he has more than enough mobility tools to ensure his healing proceeds, for example Spike Head allows him to climb walls to get to higher areas, hammer head can push and destroy the environment, and Pin Head to go in tiny areas where Cuphead can't reach. Cuphead can be mobile but he relies on parrying a pink object in order to get an extra jump. He can use his turret to do so but he'll be losing and EX card every time he wants to making him have to spend more time to build up for his Super Arts. The only pink part of Headdy is Pighead and even when parrying the head, he can get a new one quickly.

Emptyhead is a giant wincon as Cuphead's attacks will just phase through him and he can't parry to get rid of him. What's most damaging is that the power lasts way longer than Super Art II and doesn't need to be charged up to be used. Cuphead's only choice is to wait out until the invincibility runs out but with Headdy's superior mobility can easily catch up to him.

When dealing with Chalice, Headdy arguably has an easier time fighting against her since she is unable to use the effects of the Divine Relic. While she can go ghost and possess Headdy, he arguably has some possession resistance since he fought against Dark Demon and he couldn't control Headdy during his boss fight. Not only that but Headdy has had to wait for bosses to exit out of their invincibility phases and then strike. It's also worth mentioning that Chalice can't use her guns and ghost form at the same time so while go incorporeal, she doesn't automatically win and can still perish by Headdy's hand.

Cuphead is one son of a mug, his range, experience, and prowess made him the toughest foe Headdy has ever faced but Headdy's hax, mobility, and versatility ultimately prevailed.

Cuphead's soul is the liquid in his head, and Headdy poured him out.

The winner ... is Dynamite Headdy.

  Why Dynamitehead is the Perfect Cuphead MU

Cuphead is a tough character to match. Despite being one of the most beloved indie characters, he’s also one of the weaker ones stat-wise, and very few characters share deep or meaningful connections with him. While a matchup doesn’t need a laundry list of parallels, it should feel meaningful — a word many Cuphead matchups struggle with.

Bendy vs. Cuphead (aka "Bendyhead") often boils down to "two 1930s-inspired indie characters" — an overly simplistic take that does Bendy a disservice, stripping away his darker, more complex themes. Peacock vs. Cuphead fares a little better in style, but it clashes thematically; Peacock’s tragic backstory and darker tone don't mesh well with Cuphead's lighter, more straightforward narrative.

Dynamite Headdy, on the other hand, just works. It doesn't have an overwhelming number of connections, but the ones it has are potent. Both are:

  • Characters from run-and-gun platformers with bullet-hell gameplay.

  • Battling demonic or oppressive forces seeking control over their worlds.

  • Thematically steeped in throwbacks to older forms of entertainment.

  • And most uniquely, Headdy was a direct influence on Cuphead's design philosophy, making this not just a battle of equals — but of Inspiration vs. Aspiration.

And that elevates the matchup from "cartoony platformer characters" to something thematically rich and historically relevant.

Another area where this matchup thrives is in debatability. Many Cuphead matchups result in a one-sided stomp — either he’s obliterated, or he completely overwhelms the opponent. Bendy vs. Cuphead leans heavily toward Cuphead due to range, speed, and versatility. Cuphead vs. Mario or Mickey? Stomp in the other direction, unless it’s only Epic Mickey, which barely makes it debatable.

To me, debate matters. A great versus matchup should explore how each character’s tools, strengths, and weaknesses interact. That’s why I can’t get into fights like Miles vs. Deku or Aang vs. Traveler. The latter characters just hard-counter most of the former’s kit, making the battle feel predetermined. And when that happens, the fight loses tension and, often, animation potential.

Headdy doesn’t have that problem. Even though Cuphead likely has the edge in stats and experience, Headdy’s versatility, unpredictability, and unique mechanics give him a real shot. He has tools Cuphead has never interacted with. While I lean Cuphead because I personally like him more, I can see plausible win conditions for both. That’s the kind of matchup I live for.

  • Raw Power vs. Tactical Versatility.
  • Muscle vs. Modularity.
  • Can Cuphead outlast? Or will Headdy outplay?

From an animation standpoint, it’s perfection. You could fill the screen with projectiles, and both characters would thrive in that chaos. I imagine Vacuum Head sucking up Cuphead’s bullets — maybe even catching him off guard — only for Cuphead to warp behind him with Smoke Bomb and retaliate. Or a chase scene where Headdy uses his arsenal to climb, shrink, phase through obstacles — while Cuphead dashes, teleports, and parries off of enemies to keep up.

Add Cuphead’s jazzy big band music clashing beautifully with Headdy’s rock-arcade energy, and you have an audiovisual treat. Even Therewolf’s commissioned track proved how well their sounds complement each other.

The only drawback is that Headdy isn’t much of a talker compared to Cuphead. But honestly, that’s minor. Everything else about this fight — connections, gameplay parallels, theming, balance, animation potential, and music — is just too good to ignore.

It’s a shame that Bendy vs. Cuphead will likely happen first, due to its popularity and legacy status. I’ll be happy for the fans, and they deserve to enjoy it. But to me, it feels like a missed opportunity — especially since once that matchup happens, we probably won’t see either of them again for a long time.

Cuphead - 1 (u/makeachange54)

Dynamite Headdy - 0

Sources:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Super Brainz vs. Super Monkey (Plants vs. Zombies vs. Bloons Tower Defense)

Image
Super Brainz vs. Super Monkey  (Plants vs. Zombies vs. Bloons Tower Defense) Amateur Thumbnail made by me. Super Brainz, the first zombie hero. Super Monkey , the supreme Bloon annhilator. Two heroes from two different tower defense games symbols who represent the very best their kind can achieve at their peak very much like the original Big Blue. One defends lands from conquest and the other conquers them.  When these two heroes with clashing view take flight, will man or monkey be the only one in the sky.  Before We Begin... We'll be using all games and media from both of these respective franchises. This will include all PVZ tower defense games, shooters, Heroes, and comics. For Super Monkey, I will include all the tower defense games and spinoffs such as Super Monkey's own series of games.  Background Super Brainz  "I am... Super Brainz!" Super Brainz the very first Zombie SuperHero. He has many backstories, the first is that he was created in a lab by Zombo...
Read more