- For the animated characters, see The Root Pack/TCS.
The Root Pack is a group of four root vegetables residing on Inkwell Isle One, and the boss of the Botanic Panic! level.
Boss Theme
Description
How to beat
For weapons use peashooter and spread or roundabout and lobber, for charms use either coffee or twin heart
Unused characters
Betrese lutz and the peas
Appearance
Sal Spudder is a potato, Ollie Bulb is an onion with a big purple nose, and Chauncey Chantenay is a carrot with forehead creases that hide his third eye. All of these root vegetables are rather large compared to Cuphead and Mugman. The last member is Horace Radiche, a radish with tall leaves, purple nose and eyebrows, green sclera, sharp teeth, and brown arms.
Personality
Sal Spudder's personality is unknown, but he seems to enjoy consuming dirt and worms, based on his only attack. Based on his facial expressions, he seems to have a very grouchy personality. The only time we see him smiling is on his Death Screen.
In The Cuphead Show!, Sal Spudder acts like a gentleman, but then steals water and manure from Cuphead and Mugman. He is the leader of the Root Pack. Unlike his video game counterpart, he wears a brown bowler hat and a pair of tattered gloves.
Ollie Bulb gets upset quickly, so if he has to choose between violence and peace, he gladly chooses peace unless someone hurts him first. As most of the Inkwell Isle citizens are friends of Cuphead and Mugman, even in situations like the one presented in-game he does not jump straight to fighting them like every other boss.
In The Cuphead Show!, Ollie Bulb cries at the sad news, and when he cries, his skin peels and emits an odor, causing everybody to cry. Unlike his video game version, he wears a pair of tattered gloves.
Chauncey Chantenay is very skilled in psychic abilities and seems to be maniacal and insane. When he emerges from the ground, he makes a boasting gesture at the players, suggesting that he is proud of his powers.
In The Cuphead Show!, Chauncey Chantenay has a rather strange laugh and seems to use his psychic powers to somehow conduct an orchestra, as seen in the episode Root Packed. Unlike his video game version, his sclera is yellow.
Horace Radiche, as evident by his face, appears to be in a constant state of agitation and is very quick to combat his rivals.
Horace Radiche does not appear in The Cuphead Show!
Battle
Intro
Sal Spudder bursts out of the ground with an angry expression on his face, looking towards the player(s). He quickly resumes his idle animation as the fight commences. It was originally planned for Sal to have a voice when emerging, but the idea was later scrapped.
Phase 1
"Buttered, smashed, and mashed. It's over for you."
—Sal Spudder from the first battle, Death Screen
After his intro, Sal Spudder will begin an attack pattern involving him spitting out three dirtballs, and then a knotted worm that the player can parry. Sal will spit out his projectiles faster every round of his attack, eventually going back to the starting pace. In Simple mode, he spits two dirtballs instead of three before the worm. His projectiles are also slower, and they are fired at a slower rate. In Expert mode, the projectiles are fired at a faster rate and move much faster.
When defeated, he is shown to be heavily bruised, rubbing his cheeks and retreating underground. Hitpoints = 450/360/400
Phase 2
"Hey little guy, it's O.K. if you have to cry!"
—Ollie Bulb from the second battle, Death Screen
After Sal Spudder has retreated into the ground, Ollie Bulb will emerge out of the ground in the middle of the stage and look around. If the player attacks him, he starts to cry, with his tears coming down at different intervals. All the player has to do is dodge the tears by moving left and right. There may also be pink tears that can be parried. In Expert mode, the tears drop quicker and there will be more falling each time he cries. In Simple mode, Ollie is skipped after defeating Sal Spudder, and the fight goes straight to phase 3. If you do not shoot him, he will retreat to the ground but another mini-boss will appear in the next phase.
When defeated, some of his layers appear to be peeled as he rubs his cheeks and retreats underground. Hitpoints = 360/400/425
Phase 3
"I'm lean, mean and full of beta-carotene."
—Chauncey Chantenay from the third battle, Death Screen
After Ollie Bulb disappears, Chauncey Chantenay emerges into the background in a showy manner, and proceeds to rub his head to telepathically summon carrots from the background that home in on the player(s). These carrots can be destroyed (Hitpoints = 4/4/4). In Simple mode, there will be less homing carrots. The carrots will also be slower, less accurate in their homing, and have a longer wait time before starting to home in. In Expert mode, there will be more homing carrots. They will be faster, more accurate, and have a shorter wait time before starting to home in. Occasionally, Chauncey will open his third eye and fire three laser beams at the player(s). In Simple mode, the laser will be slower, and there will only be two beams. In Expert mode, the laser will be faster, but there will only be two beams. After he fires these beams, he resumes his regular attack of summoning homing carrots.
After taking enough damage, he pulls on his leaves in frustration. Hitpoints = 450/475/475
Secret Phase
If the player(s) chooses not to attack Ollie Bulb while he looks around, he will not cry to attack, but instead realizes you are not hurting him and leaves happily. As Ollie leaves, Horace Radiche jumps out with an angry expression and start to spin around shortly after his intro, chasing the player(s) around like Sally Stageplay's parasol. The player(s) would have to jump over him to dodge him. He pairs up with Chauncey Chantenay acting as another obstacle in the final phase. When he is defeated, he will be dazed and stop spinning and explode into pieces. In Expert Mode, Horace Radiche has a higher top speed and acceleration, he also jumps out quicker. Hitpoints = 230/260
If the player dies in the secret phase, the progress bar will be obscured, just like the secret phases that appear in other bosses.
Story
Before the Main Game
The Root Pack once confronted The Devil and became debtors of him, owing him all their souls, forcing them to flee from The Devil.
Main Game
The Root Pack are considered the first Boss of the Game, Cuphead and Mugman arrive to collect their Soul Contract, as the Cup Brothers have their Souls on the line of being taken away from The Devil, Sal and Chauncey try to protect their Contract while Ollie Bulb isn't worried about their Contract. After defeating The Root Pack, Cuphead and Mugman collect The Root Pack's soul contract.
Sound Effects
| Description | Audio |
| Overworld | |
| Sal Spudder pops out from the ground. | |
| Sal Spudder spitting out dirt. | |
| Sal Spudder spitting out a worm. | |
| Ollie Bulb sprouts up from the ground. | |
| Ollie Bulb crying. | |
| Ollie Bulb defeated. | |
| Chauncey Chantenay rises from the ground. | |
| Chauncey Chantenay using his psychic powers. | |
| Chauncey Chantenay shooting beams from his third eye. | |
| Chauncey Chantenay defeated. | |
| (Unused) A voice coming from Sal Spudder. |
Gallery
Unused Content
Some time in development, a beet character named "Beetrice Lutz" (original name: Betty Beet[1]) was part of The Root Pack, but she is currently unused. There are some prototypes of what she would have looked like. Some of these included legs, others had her planted in the ground like the current members. (Most early designs for the Root Pack members tend to have legs, being made before they settled on the theme of the Root Pack popping up from the ground and mostly staying stationary.) One prototype was very close to the colored concept art, and another has eyes and nose on the stem and her lips on her body.
The in-game prototype involved "Beet Babies," which would've made her the first boss to have children (Wally Warbles would be the second); these babies would be her only attack, involving her throwing them at the player(s). There is an in-game prototype and a refined version drawn on paper that is colored and has a similar style to the Root Pack in the game now.
- The in-game prototype version has Beetrice crying when she has to throw her babies from a grocery bag, with a few types of babies she can throw.
- The version that is drawn on paper is a lot more aggressive and she picks the babies up from the ground. She would throw them into her spinning leaves and slice them into pieces, the pieces will most likely go off-screen and fall back down as projectiles.
- She is introduced to Cuphead and Mugman in The Cuphead Show - Root Packed
Her in-game prototype personality and attack pattern was given to Ollie, as it fits an onion that made himself cry a lot more. Later in development, the developers decided to scrap her to streamline the intentionally easy tutorial fight.
The original vision for this fight would have had four phases, with peas as a fifth member of the Root Pack that would have acted as falling enemies.
 Unused Beet Boss in The Root Pack (Removed in Current Patch) A recreation of her in-game prototype |
In The Art of Cuphead, it is mentioned that the background has leaves of each of the three main members, including pea plants. Pea pods also exist in the code, but not much was known until the book shined some light on them. They are a set of enemies meant to be minions that drop in to the fight, but they never made it into the finished design.
Walkthrough
| Regular Mode | Expert Mode |
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Trivia
- As the name obviously implies, the Root Pack is a group of root vegetables that grow in the ground. It is possible that they also represent the beginning of the quest for the main heroes.
- While many believe the names of the Root Pack are "Moe Tato", "Weepy", and "Psycarrot", these are unofficial names created by fans. The official names were revealed by Studio MDHR in an email and later in The Art of Cuphead and The Cuphead Show!.
- In the 2017 demo, Chauncey Chantenay did not appear.
- Ollie Bulb's crying attack is a reference to how onions, when cut, release chemicals that irritate eyes. Likewise, Chauncey Chantenay's third eye, while being a reference to psychic powers and spirituality/mysticism in general, is also a reference to the myth (that does have some truth to it) that carrots are good for eyesight due to their high beta-carotene (referenced in his Death Card).
- This one of the two boss fights where a phase is skipped, but the final phase is still fought in Simple Difficulty. The other is The Howling Aces.
- In the good ending, none of the members of The Root Pack are shown.
- The music for this boss is one of the few tracks to come to a slow stop rather than ending with a bang.
- The Root Pack, Ribby and Croaks, Baroness Von Bon Bon, the Phantom Express, King Dice, Moonshine Mob and The Howling Aces are the only boss battles with a group of bosses rather than one main boss.
- Clip Joint Calamity was used as a placeholder theme during the 2016 demo.
- Chauncey Chantenay's eyes will flash blue when he is hit while performing his 3rd eye attack.
- Besides Horace Radiche, all members have the same naming scheme: a first name that vaguely relates to the last name or the character (Sal and Chauncey are alliterations and Ollie is similar to onion) and a last name that directly points out which vegetable they are (Spudder as in spud (potato) for Sal, onion Bulb for Ollie and Chantenay, a type of carrot, for Chauncey).
- For Horace Radiche, only his last name relates to what vegetable he is (Radiche as in radish) and his full name is a play-on-words of horseradish.
- For Beetrice Lutz, Beetrice is Beatrice with the "a" replaced with an 'e' to make beet, and Lutz Green Leaf is a type of beet. Her old name Betty Beet is an alliteration, and the last name Beet is exactly what she is.
- In legacy and version 1.1.X, Ollie would look around two more times if you did not attack him, a remnant of secret phase existing like the cupid decoration in the first phase of Sally. This also explains why attacking Ollie after the fourth back and forth (or six seconds) in the current version does not make him cry, as the flag of Horace coming out and him being spared is already set. This can be an optimization to generates cards for Super Meter to be used when fighting Chauncey.
- Sal Spudder's death screen describes 3 different ways to eat potatoes: mashed potatoes, potatoes with butter, and smashed potatoes.
- Sal Spudder is the first boss to not have a rhyming Game Over screen message, with his line saying, "Buttered, mashed, and smashed. It's all over for you!" Ollie Bulb is the first boss to have a rhyming Game Over screen message, with his line being, "Hey, little guy! It's okay if you have to cry!"
- Ollie Bulb did not appear in the 2015 demo, with the battle only consisting of Sal Spudder and Chauncey Chantenay
Inspirations and similarities
- The group's name is a reference to the Rat Pack, a 1950's group of entertainers, founded by famed noir actor Humphrey Bogart, comprising Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
- Their appearances may have been inspired by the Three Stooges, being the "Moe", "Curly", and "Larry" of the main bosses respectively.
- In the background of this fight, there is a bag labeled "ACME GROW" which is a reference to the constant uses of "Acme" products in old cartoons to avoid using real manufacturer names.
- The Root Pack may have been inspired by other anthropomorphic vegetables from cartoons such as The Tears of an Onion (1938) and The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939).
- There is an unused recording of Chauncey Chantenay vocalizing a short piece of unknown music, which seems to be a reference to the 1975 horror film Jaws.