Captain Brineybeard is a pirate boss in Cuphead. He appears in the level Shootin N' Lootin, and resides in Inkwell Isle Three.
Boss Theme
Description
Appearance
Captain Brineybeard looks like a stereotypical cartoon pirate, with an eye patch, a red pirate bandana with a yellow line across it, and two wooden peg legs. His eye patch sometimes opens to reveal his intact second eye. He wears a slightly torn grey shirt with the sleeves seemingly stitched on and has yellow cuffs. He also wears a black belt with a golden, rectangular buckle, with deep red pants. Captain Brineybeard has a deep red nose, a short, but shaggy black beard, and a rotund body. He dons a golden ear piercing.
The Ship has a very simple design. He is just a red wooden ship with lips and a bowsprit. The overworld sprite shows it has a big sail on a mast with a crow's nest. After its transformation, it becomes similar to a narwhal and its bowsprit turns into its tusk, with a mouth full of sharp teeth, angry eyes (which have yellow irises), and an hanging uvula that has a face. The uvula's eyes become crosses upon draining the ship's health.
Personality
Captain Brineybeard seems to taunt his opponents before fighting them; this is hinted at the base part of the level as he laughs at both Cuphead and Mugman before they even begin to battle him. His speech is like a stereotypical pirate, with examples being not even conjugating the verb "be" and using the accusative "me" instead of the proper genitive "my" in the first person and "yer" in the second person. ("Your skills are like my buried treasure! Just a myth," from his death screen, for example, becomes "Yer skills be like me buried treasure! Just a myth!")
Battle
Intro
Captain Brineybeard laughs smugly at Cuphead and Mugman before the battle commences.
Phase 1
"Yer skills be like me buried treasure...just a myth!"
—Captain Brineybeard, Phase 1 Death Screen
At thestart of this phase, Brineybeard can only attack by pulling out a pink octopus to shoot projectiles at the player(s), all but one can be parried. In Simple mode, the bullet travels slower. In Expert mode, they travel faster and there will be two unparryable bullets.
Throughout the battle, an angry-looking Barrel moves back and forth across the screen and will crush the players if they are underneath it. After slamming onto the dock, it will have an innocent expression for a few seconds upon being hoisted up and returning to its usual state. In Simple mode, the Barrel moves slower and it will take longer to repeat its attack. In Expert mode, it moves faster and it will take less time to repeat its attack. Hitpoints = 300/312/320
After taking enough damage, he can summon one of three sea animals. He will still use the pink octopus to shoot projectiles at the player(s) as he did earlier, but only after a sea animal has finished its attack:
- Squid: The Squid unexpectedly shows up and flings ink blobs around sporadically. The player can shoot it to stop it from attacking. While the ink blobs and the Squid itself do not damage the players, the ink blobs will darken the screen if the players touch them. Hitpoints = 41-61/31-61/45-71
- Shark: The Shark arrives from the left side of the screen, which can be seen in the background accompanied by two sirens. The Shark will attempt to bite the players unexpectedly from the left side, covering the fifth plank after the first pole, and then scurry back to the ocean after it finishes its attack. Shooting the Shark will temporally increase its retreating speed by 30%. In Simple Mode, the Shark will only cover the third plank after the first pole and shooting it will increase its retreating speed by 42%. In Expert mode, the Shark will be covering up to the second pole (or the seventh plank after the first pole) and shooting it will increase its retreating speed by 18%.
- Dogfish: A group of four Dogfishes appear from the right side of the screen that can be noticed by the periscope that appears after the captain finishes his whistle. The Dogfishes will attempt to bite the player by jumping from the water to the dock and scurrying towards them, with their entry point being on the right. They can be easily disposed of by shooting them. In Simple mode, only two Dogfishes will come out simultaneously before the periscope sinks. In Expert mode, the Dogfishes will come out before the periscope sinks and at a faster rate. Hitpoints = 3/3/3
Hitpoints = 300/312/320
After taking enough damage, the ship will chew his mouth for a few seconds before spitting out a cannonball that flies across the dock. In Simple Mode, the cannonballs will be fired before Brineybeard uses the octopus attack. They will also fire later as usual, but only the Squid and octopus blob attacks will be used at that point. In Expert mode, the cannonballs will be spawned more frequently, and will start to fire after the first sea creature has been summoned.
Brineybeard will continue to use the pink octopus to shoot projectiles and summon sea animals to attack the player(s), while the Ship fires cannonballs at them.
When Captain Brineybeard has taken enough damage, the Ship will be seen groaning in pain before yelling and throwing Brineybeard off deck and battling the player(s) himself. In Simple Mode, the battle will end here with a disappointed Captain Brineybeard. Hitpoints = 400/312/352
Phase 2
- Main article: The Ship
"HAW-HAW-HAW-HAW-HAW!"
—The Ship, Phase 2 Death Screen
In the second and final phase, players battle the Ship with his exposed uvula as its weak point. The uvula has two known attacks:
- Its first attack involves shooting three looping fireballs that can be avoided by ducking. In Expert mode, the fireballs travel faster, but only two will be shot.
- After spitting out the fireballs, the Ship will close his mouth and charge up before firing a giant pink laser that goes across the screen. Players can avoid the attack by parrying continuously or simply ducking underneath it.
The Barrel from the previous phase still remains and repeats what it does in the previous phase: crushing the players if they are underneath it.
After taking enough hits, the Ship is defeated as he groans in pain while tilting side-to-side with his uvula. Hitpoints = 264/448
Sound Effects
| Description | Audio |
| Captain Brineybeard's introduction. | |
| The Barrel dropping itself down. | |
| Captain Brineybeard whistling for help. | |
| The Shark signals its arrival. | |
| The Dogfish signal their arrival. | |
| The Squid arrives. | |
| The Ship chewing and spitting out a cannonball. | |
| The Ship transforms. | |
| Captain Brineybeard screaming when defeated on Simple mode. | |
| The Ship fires a beam. |
Gallery
Walkthrough
| Regular Mode | Expert Mode |
|---|---|
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Trivia
- Originally, Captain Brineybeard was named Captain Silver in one of the 2013 trailers. The name Captain Silver is a reference to the infamous pirate captain, Long John Silver.
- Also, in early sketches shown in an interview, Captain Brineybeard was also going to be called "Paul the Pirate".
- A slowed down version of his track is heard in the good ending credits.
- In the 2015 Demo, Brineybeard's battle theme was the prototype version of Wally Warbles' theme, Aviary Action!.
- For one frame during the second phase transition, the ship overlaps Captain Brineybeard.
- Brineybeard's battle theme, Shootin N' Lootin, was the placeholder theme for Cagney Carnation's stage Floral Fury, as seen from footage from the 2016 Cuphead demo.
- The theme that plays during the fight is one of the few boss themes that is not used in Admission to Perdition or One Hell of a Time, the others being Murine Corps, Honeycomb Herald, and The Kings Court.
- The first part of his name, "Briney," is derived from the word "brine" which means either "water of an ocean or a sea" or "large body of salt water".
- Captain Brineybeard and Cala Maria are the only nautical bosses in the entire game.
- This is the only boss in the game who can't be hit with Whetstone at any point in the fight.
- The first phase of this battle has some similarities to the first boss battle with the Steam Powered Oceanic Tinker Tub in Shantae: Risky's Revenge such as both ships being sentient.
- He is one of the two human bosses in the game. (As in humans that do not transform.) The other is Sally Stageplay.
- Dr. Kahl does not count since only his robot does the actual fighting.
- He and Glumstone The Giant are the only characters to have five fingers on each hand.
- Captain Brineybeard is one of the few bosses to have a custom knockout animation in Simple mode. The others are Ribby and Croaks and Cala Maria.
- Brineybeard possibly has the most attacks out of any boss, including the Barrel, the Ship, and his calling for the Shark, Squid, and Dogfish.
- Captain Brineybeard appears in The Cuphead Show!. However, he is wearing brown boots instead of having peg legs. Though he did get his peg legs when after he was turned to stone by Cala Maria, Mugman accidentally broke his legs and replaced them with peg legs, seeing his legs drift off to see.
Inspirations and similarities
Captain Brineybeard is a direct reference to Bluto from Popeye, the Pirate from Felix the Cat's The Goose Who Laid the Golden Egg, and the pirate crew from Disney's King Neptune. The summoning whistle is a reference to Final Fight's Damnd, while his control of the sea creatures is a nod to Disney's King Neptune.[1] The Shark is a visual nod to Betty Boop's Life Guard and S.O.S. shorts. The Dogfish's death animation is an obscure reference to Sega's My Hero bulldog enemies.[2]
- Brineybeard bears a strong visual similarity to Bluto, the main antagonist of Popeye, in his depiction as Sindbad the Sailor in the 1936 cartoon Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor.
- Davy Jones from the 1934 Willie Whopper cartoon Davy Jones' Locker also bears features that seem to have made into Brineybeard's character design.
- The Shark bears a resemblance with the shark in the Disney Silly Symphony short, Peculiar Penguins.
- The Squid is an obvious reference to the Blooper from the Mario Kart series (and the Mario franchise overall), which darkens the screen with its ink so that the player cannot see what is going on.
- Brineybeard's name is a parody of the pirate known as Edward Teach, AKA, Blackbeard. It also doubles as a reference to the British Historical Parody film Yellowbeard, which features a similarly named pirate.
- The Barrel might be a reference to the Big John's laser claw from Metal Slug 4, as it can also dive down if the player stands under it. The bubble attacks also similar to the Congas' acid bubble from the same game.