The Howling Aces

The Howling Aces is a boss fight you will have in Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course. You’ll need to finish some other bosses before unlocking this one in the DLC. In this guide, we’ll explain the boss’ moves and give you tips for the battle.

How to Defeat The Howling Aces in Cuphead - The Delicious Last Course DLC

Located in a plane near a graveyard and a hangar, The Howling Aces presents a trio of dog battles that are waiting for you up in the sky. You’ll be on your moving plane while fighting these enemies.

You can check the links below and jump right into any phase of the fight you want to see:

• The Howling Aces - First Phase
• The Howling Aces - Second Phase
• The Howling Aces - Third Phase
• The Howling Aces - Secret Third Phase

The Howling Aces - First Phase

The first one is a big dog that will be accompanied by a smaller ally. While standing on its plane, the big dog won’t do anything: it will descend to one of your sides before doing an attack. However, the smaller dog will throw three tennis balls in a row every few seconds.

Regarding its older partner's moves, the big dog will grab a cat and throw three balls from its mouth. They go in a straight line and in quick succession. You only need to crouch to avoid them. The other attack is the dog throwing three from its shoulder’s tattoo. You can avoid the first two by just standing in your place, and you’ll need to jump the last one. However, beware because they act as a boomerang: they’ll return to the dog. The good part is that one of the bones is always pink — in fact, there’s a rare chance of getting two pink ones.

The most complicated part of this fight might not be the big dog’s attacks, but the mix with the tennis balls and the fire hydrants that will appear from time to time from another vehicle in the background.

What you should do is destroy these fire hydrants as soon as possible (they are pretty weak), and move to avoid the tennis balls as soon as they are thrown. Then you’ll focus on the big dog attacks. If not, you’ll get hit by the other flying objects and you’ll realize when it’s too late.

The Howling Aces - Second Phase

When the older dog receives enough damage, its plane will explode and you’ll enter the second phase of the battle. Here your plane will move to the center of the screen and four puppies will be flying in circles with jetpacks.

Each of these little dogs will throw you a letter after a few seconds. They can be jumped or rolled down without much problem, but look out for all the amount of letters on screen and avoid falling from your plane.

To defeat this boss, you need to shoot each puppy individually until their jetpack explodes. They don’t have much help, and any long-distance weapon will get the job done.

The Howling Aces - Third Phase

After knocking out the four little dogs, the third and last phase will take place. During this one, you’ll face another dog that will be piloting a huge air vehicle.

This battle starts with three rounds of lasers. The placement and number of the machines in each round will be random, but the third one will always have two on the ground, shooting a pink laser that you can parry. Shoot the laser machines while you avoid the attacks.

The interesting part of this battle will happen after the pink laser. The vehicle will move your plane, putting it to the side. Here you’ll see the enemy, who you must shoot while avoiding the food plates that it will throw at you. The red ones go to the ground level and the yellow ones a little above you (at the height of a jump).

You can crouch the yellow ones and jump over the red plates. Also, if playing as Ms. Chalice, you can double jump the yellow ones and use the invincible roll for the others. But beware of the timing, they don’t always come at the same speed or distance.

However, the most important thing you need to know is that you’ll have inverse controls while on the side. To go down, you’ll have to go to the left, and vice versa. This will change when the enemy moves your plane again, to the top of the screen, and you’ll be upside-down but with regular controls.

The boss will continue to move you counterclockwise until you defeat it. It might be easier to just shoot the laser machines and avoid the dog plates when they come.

As a reward for defeating The Howling Aces, you’ll receive the Pineapple Mint.

The Howling Aces - Secret Third Phase

The Howling Aces has a secret third phase that you can unlock. This will completely change the battle and what you have to do during this phase.

To unlock it, you don't have to beat any of the puppies of the second phase. Instead, you have to damage them until the point that their jetpacks start sending grey smoke and they are near defeat. Leave the hurt enemy keep flying and repeat the process with the other three.

The big ship will come to rescue the puppies, and the last phase will begin. In this secret phase, you'll be facing the female dog and the puppies at the same time. Each one of them will appear from one of the six holes that are displayed on both sides of the screen.

You might think that because of the number of enemies, this will be a much harder phase than the regular one. However, there won't be any lasers or dog plates, and your plane won't be put upside-down. The only things you have to deal with are the homing fire hydrants and the pineapples the puppies will throw at you. Then, you'll have many more targets to shoot all the time — even if they constantly change their positions — than in the original third phase.

Like the fire hydrants, these pineapples have low health and they are easy to destroy, but you might want to avoid them instead. The thing is, the pineapples throw three little projectiles when exploded, which can be pretty difficult to avoid considering the limited (and moving) space you have.

If you finish this third phase, you'll complete the battle.