DLC difficulty compared to base game?

[arsenicBumpnip]

Me & my SO enjoyed playing the first couple of the main game's areas together, but I ended up playing most of the third area by myself, as I'm much more a fan of this genre than them, so they weren't having fun with the higher difficulty bosses of the late game.

Because of that, I'm wondering what everyone's opinions are on the difficulty of the DLC as compared to the main game, as it's hard to gauge from footage alone whether we might enjoy co-oping it or if I should just play it solo.

I'm also wondering how prevalent RNG-platform bosses like the bee queen and the dragon are, as well as run-&-gun levels, as those were ultimately what ruined the co-op experience for us.

[Unit731]

the first boss with the flies and the cow one gave me ***** but i think that was because I haven't played in forever once I remembered my flow It was surprisingly easy

[E-102 Gamma]

There's a charm that gives you up to 3 health for parrying attacks, or you can use Chalice's level 2 super. Those should help you squeeze through harder fights.
Also, no run n gun levels.

[ToxicXelta]

The bosses are scaled up to be on-par, if not harder than the hardest bosses in the main game. Don't expect it to be a fair building up challenge like the main game was, it's pretty brutal difficulty wise from the start.

[AshenCue]

I struggled way more on Isle III. I remember I had to repeat Phantom Express on regular 50 times until I beat him. His 3rd phase was giving me problems. However, The DLC is pretty easy on regular if you beat the main game before. It's pretty short too. I never really had to retry a boss more than 10 times. I beat Chef Saltbaker after my 5th try...

[MAT]

Originally posted by SonicBoomNFA:

Originally posted by MAT:

I feel that I need to start the game from the beginning to regain the skills lost in time.

You don't; trust me. Try doing all of The King's Leap challenges—they involve completing some special bosses without any shooting. That alone should quickly bring back your aptitude (not to mention that Ms. Chalice has new movements, so you would have to learn how to play as her and not Cuphead anyway).

I managed to clear the first one. Second one (horse knight): no idea, I can’t jump high enough to parry and not get hit.

[mellamoger]

Originally posted by Whiskra:

If we judge the bosses based on how difficult they are to S-rank, I'd say the DLC bosses are appropriately harder than almost anything in the base game. Saltbaker, Esther Winchester, Howling Aces and Mortimer Freeze all felt equal to or more difficult than Wally Warbles or Dr Kahl's Robot. Moonshine Mob was about equal to Rumor Honeybottoms. Glumstone the Giant was the easiest one but had a pretty hectic first phase, so he is probably about equal with the rest of Isle 3.

I mildly disagree here. True that Esther Winchester and Mortimer Freeze can be a pain to S, but every other boss here is not that hard, including The Chef which has a first infuriating phase but once you manage that the rest of the fight it's not difficult to not get hit.

I'd say that couple of bosses are on level with the 3rd isle; the rest are more on par with 2nd isle.

My bet is that most people don't remember the pain that some bosses were to S in the base game (damned Frolic, damned Robot and that f*cking Carrousel). Those were definetively much harder to me than any of the DLC.

Furthermore, DLC is much more forviging as with Chalice you can get one hit and still get that sweet S.

Ninja and final edit (this time for real): I also think that so many people are not playing with Chalice, and just with a quick look one can realize these bosses are designed to be played with her. The doble jump is a must with most of them. Maybe that's why so many are feeling the difficulty scaling up, when in fact it has been a little bit toned down.

[bronze_aged]

At first I thought this was way harder than base game, or at least at the level of the tough bosses in Hell and world 3. Then I started playing as Ms Chalice and using the new weapons...holy crap it's like turning on easy mode. So... your mileage may vary based on how you play.

[E3kHatena]

I would say that while the new bosses are about on-par with the back half of Inkwell Isle III, Miss Chalice and the new Crackshot firing mode mean that fighting the bosses is made notably easier.