Cuphead Divine Relic: How To Solve The Riddle And Unlock The Secret Charm

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course takes players to Inkwell Isle IV, a brand-new little world filled with its own unique bosses. Inkwell Isle IV also contains a mysterious puzzle that players can solve. While it is an optional objective, it's certainly worth figuring out due to what happens after you solve it. If the mystery behind the Broken Relic, Climbing Contest, and graveyard is tripping you up, we've put together a guide that breaks down the logic for solving Cuphead's graveyard puzzle. You can eventually turn the Broken Relic into the Cursed Relic and then finally get the big prize: the Divine Relic.

Buy the Broken Relic

First, you need to make sure you buy the Broken Relic from Porkrind's Emporium (the shop). You can purchase it right at the beginning of the DLC, before you fight any bosses. It only costs one coin. Don't bother equipping it, as the Broken Relic charm doesn't do anything in battle.

Talk to the climbers

There's a podium right next to the shop. If you talk to one of them, they will tell you about the climbing contest. All three of the contestants will inform you how they fared in the race. I recommend taking screenshots of each dialogue bubble. I used my smartphone to take pictures. You'll need to reference these descriptions later.

How to solve graveyard puzzle

You can't get to the graveyard until you beat Glumstone the Giant and Mortimer Freeze. In the next section of Inkwell Isle IV, you'll see a graveyard with nine headstones. Feel free to talk the NPC standing to the right of the graveyard. He simply gives you a hint about what you need to solve the puzzle, which is the Broken Relic and the dialogue from the climbers.

The climbers were giving you hints in the form of a riddle. Unfortunately, you might not have the same clues or solution as we did. In fact, the two of us here at GameSpot who played the DLC ahead of its release had entirely different clues and solutions. You have to press the action button in front of a headstone to get a ghost to pop up. The center headstone isn't part of the puzzle, so you're left with eight possible choices. You have to call the ghosts in not just the right spots, but in the right order.

The logic for solving the puzzle is the same regardless of which clues you have. Pay attention to the directions mentioned in their summaries.

For example, here are the clues and the solution for the riddles in one of our playthroughs:

• 1st place: There's no way the others could have caught me! I left 'em in the dust!
• 2nd place: I left downtown in a hurry, and forgot my gear. I'll settle for second.
• 3rd place: Worse than last year! Down to third place.

Solutions:

• 1st place: Middle row, left marker
• 2nd place: Bottom row, left marker
• 3rd place: Bottom row, middle marker

Explanations:

• 1st place: You start in the middle, and the only direction mentioned is left. So you stay in the center row and choose the left headstone.
• 2nd place: We're working on the left side again, but this time we also have to go down. So the bottom left corner is where we want to be.
• 3rd place: The only clue we receive here is bottom, so that means we can stay in the middle and choose the center headstone on the bottom row.

Unlocking the Cursed Relic

After correctly inputting the solution, a glowing aura will funnel up from the center headstone. You will be asked if you want to take a nap, which kicks off a new boss fight.

You can only beat this challenge once. It's not replayable. That said, diehard Cuphead fans should complete it. Once you are victorious, the Broken Relic will turn into the Cursed Relic.

Unlocking the Divine Relic

The Cursed Relic is a unique charm. Every time you stop shooting, your weapon will change into another random weapon. So this means when you dash, parry, or pause for any reason, your projectiles will change. You have to be comfortable with all weapons to use the Cursed Relic efficiently. And you also have to think about your dashes and parries more carefully. The Cursed Relic has another pesky quirk: It drops your HP to 1 at the start of each battle.

But it's definitely worth getting used to the Cursed Relic, as you can turn it into the Divine Relic. To do this, you have to beat seven bosses on Regular or Expert difficulty with the Cursed Relic equipped. Any seven bosses. We recommend going back to Isle I to knock out some of the easier bosses first. After meeting the requirement, an Achievement/Trophy will pop and the Cursed Relic will become the Divine Relic.

The Divine Relic still switches your weapon when you stop shooting, but you'll have normal HP at the start of each boss battle.

Summon Djimmi for extra health

If you're having trouble beating seven bosses with the Cursed Relic, don't forget that you can summon Djimmi the Great an unlimited number of times if you've finished the campaign. While on the overworld map, spin in tight circles for a few seconds to summon the genie. After summoning him, you'll start each boss with one extra health point--even when using the Cursed Relic. Starting with 2HP gives you some wiggle room. Just remember that you'll have to summon the genie again after beating a boss to get the extra health point again for your next fight.

Editor's Note: Article updated on July 6, 2022