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Cuphead's DLC features a bunch of new iconic cartoon bosses to shoot at, and one that's been shown off since The Delicious Last Course was announced is Mortimer Freeze. He's a weird old wizard who's seemingly obsessed with ice, snow, and everything cold.
Much like the rest of Cuphead's boss fights, this one is a multi-stage affair that can be rather difficult to survive. So that's why we put ourselves through bullet hell to show you how to beat this frosty freak.
Phase 1: Mortimer The Wizard
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Phase 1 Attacks |
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Living Icicles
Mortimer will open his cape to reveal four living icicle projectiles which will slowly fall to the ground and get stuck in the snow. They'll then pop out and begin moving around.
There's space in between the icicles when they fall, so stand in a spot where they won't land on top of you. You can't shoot them while they're in the air, but when they pop out of the snow and begin walking about, shoot them to get rid of them.
Tarot Cards
Mortimer will pull out a table with a crystal ball on it and begin firing tarot cards at you.
These cards are big and slow, so you should be able to dodge them by just getting out of their way. One of these cards will occasionally be pink, so make sure to parry that one.
Whale Slam
Mortimer will swing a giant orange whale and slam it into the ground. The whale is big enough that it covers half of the stage, but Mortimer's swing is pretty well telegraphed and he makes a distinct sound just before he does this attack.
When he rears back with the whale, move to the side to avoid being crushed. If this whale slam happens to hit any of the icicle enemies it'll send them flying off the stage.
This first phase of the boss fight is the easiest one to get through. Most of Mortimer's attacks are easy to read, so you have plenty of time to dodge them once you see them coming. Shoot the icicles, parry the pink tarot cards, and be ready to move when Mortimer goes for the giant whale slam.
Phase 2: The Abominable Snowman
Once Mortimer has taken enough damage, he'll ring a bell and a snowman body will be lowered from the ceiling. It will encase Mortimer and he will now have become an abominable snowman, which begins Phase 2.
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Phase 2 Attacks |
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Ice Cubes
This snowman will transform into a refrigerator and open its door to fire ice cubes at you. These cubes will fall down to the ground in an arc and when they land they'll split into two additional tiny ice cubes. Sometimes one of these cubes will be larger than the others. This big ice cube will split into two normal-sized cubes and then four small cubes.
Move out of the way of the cube when it lands. When it splits into small cubes, you can move into the middle of the smaller cubes to avoid taking damage.
Flying Popsicles
While in fridge form, the snowman will open its top compartment to unleash a horde of flying popsicles. These will fly off-screen and then swoop in during the fight as annoying projectiles.
These can be shot, so you should take them out or they may hit you while you're distracted by other attacks. Some popsicles will be pink, so watch out for and parry those.
Rolling And Jumping
The snowman will turn into a giant snowball and roll towards you. He'll also jump in an arc over you while in ball form. He'll chain these movements together at times, which means he may roll twice, roll and then jump, or roll twice and jump.
He'll rear back before he rolls, while his jump is telegraphed by him stretching his limbs and curling upwards like a cat.
Jump over him when he rolls and stay on the ground when he jumps. You need to watch his movements beforehand as it's easy to mistake a jump for a roll and accidentally jump right into him in the air.
Sword Slam
The snowman will angrily slam his fists into the ground. This will cause little fissures to appear and four swords will pop out of the snow in a row towards you.
There's a small space between each of the swords. Jump over the swords or move into that safe space, and you should be able to avoid them.
This second phase can be tricky because of those dang flying popsicles. While you're trying to keep track of the other attacks, it's all too easy to not notice that a popsicle is flying right at you. Shoot them whenever you get the chance to take them out of the equation.
The ice cubes are fairly easy to avoid since you can just stand in the space between when they split in two or four. Same with the swords, move into the small space between them. The snowman's ball form movements can catch you off guard, but if you watch what he's doing before he moves, you can tell whether he's about to roll or jump.
Phase 3: Mortimer The Snowflake
You'll know that the third phase is coming when the snowman holds his stomach. The top half of him will explode leaving behind his lower half, which will quickly walk off-screen.
Snowy platforms leading upwards will then appear. You need to jump onto these platforms quickly as the snowman's legs can still damage you if they touch you. The stage will start to scroll vertically, so if you don't reach the next area in time you can take what is essentially fall damage.
The final phase of this fight has Mortimer transform into a giant snowflake. You'll now be in a lovely open area with aurora borealis in the background. There will be no ground, so you need to stay on and move around five platforms that will rotate in a circle.
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Phase 3 Attacks |
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Ice Cream Cones
Four ice cream cones will materialize and come at you diagonally in an X-pattern.
Stay out of the middle of the cones, move around the platforms, and let these projectiles pass by.
Eyeball Beam
Mortimer will pop out one of his eyeballs which will fly around the stage firing a vertical beam from the top and bottom. It'll fire this beam three times before going back into Mortimer via his mouth. The beam typically fires when the eyeball initially pops out, then when it's close to the furthest platform, and the last blast comes when the eyeball is in the middle of the platforms.
Just get away from the eyeball and avoid being caught in the beam.
Buckets/Crescent Moons
Mortimer will open a small door at the base of his snowflake form where his arms will pop out and fire buckets at you. These buckets will fly forward, hit the edge of the screen, and then split into 3 crescent moon-shaped projectiles that will come back at you.
Dodge the buckets, watch the trajectory of the moons, then dodge those too. One of the buckets will be pink, so parry that one to reduce the number of moons,
The hard part of this final phase is staying on the rotating platforms. You'll need to constantly move around while avoiding eyeballs, ice cream cones, buckets, and moons. Be careful if you use a Super during this phase as depending on what Super you have equipped, you could get caught in the air without a platform to land on. However, there are only three main attacks you need to learn, so once you know their timing all you have to worry about is keeping your footing on the platforms.
The Best Loadout To Take Down Mortimer Freeze
The biggest challenge in this fight is dodging around all the crap that's flying at you on the screen. While many of Mortimer's attacks are easy enough to memorize, all it takes is one annoying icicle, popsicle, or crescent moon to throw you off your game while you're trying to evade.
For your weapons, Crackshot will useful in helping you deal with the icicles and popsicle enemies when they appear while also doing solid damage to Mortimer. If you haven't unlocked Crackshot, then Chaser will do fine. His second and third phases aren't too hard to hit as they're large targets, so Charge can be very useful in quickly whittling away his health. For your Super, Super 1 is likely your best bet as you should be able to wallop Mortimer with that. Just be careful if you use in the final phase of this fight.
As for charms, this is one fight where the Heart Ring may not be worth equipping as there aren't as many parryable pink projectiles as there are in some of the other boss fights. You'll get the odd tarot card, popsicle, or bucket here and there, but it won't be enough to get your health back consistently. Instead, equip Smoke Bomb as that will allow you to safely dash through Mortimer's attacks.
If you're planning on playing as Ms. Chalice, her dodge roll should be useful for the first two phases. However, once you get to phase 3, it'll be a lot harder to use without falling off the platforms and taking damage. But her double jump should make up for that as it'll be handy in jumping over the snowball's rolling attacks and moving around the platforms. Her Super will be effective in the first phase but might be more difficult to utilize in the second and third phases.