Ribby and Croaks is Cuphead’s first fairly difficult fight. You unlock it after you defeat the Root Pack. Walk down the bridge that appears up to the river boat. Accept the mission to take the souls of these two weird frogs.

Phase 1: High and low

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In the first phase, Ribby and Croaks will each shoot projectiles at you.

The shorter, green one (Ribby) will shoot flaming fists your way. Dodge the blue ones by jumping in-between them (or ducking under them) and use your parry on the pink ones.

The tall, brown frog (Croaks) will spit out fireflies that try and dive bomb you. Shoot them before they get the chance.

Keep shooting the frogs until Ribby moves into a runner’s starter position. He will now begin rolling toward you, so jump in the air and dash past him. You will now be between the two frogs.

Phase 2: Wind and bombs

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This is where the fight starts to get a little weird.

Ribby will stand on the left and clap his hands together, creating bombs that bounce around the room until they exit the right side of the screen. Watch them as they slowly travel and predict their angles.

On their own, the bombs would be easy to dodge, but Croaks turns into a giant fan to make this fight tougher. He’ll begin blowing Cuphead toward Ribby, something that you don’t want happening. You must continuously push toward Croaks with the stick to stop yourself from getting pushed back too far.

Finding success in this phase is pretty difficult and takes a bit of practice. The goal here is to find equilibrium and stay in the middle of the screen. Allow your muscle memory to control the wind while your eyes focus on the bombs. After some practice, you will shoot him enough to make Ribby roll once again. However, instead of grouping back up with Croaks, Croaks will eat Ribby.

Then things get bizarre.

Phase 3: Slot machine

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Joined together as one weird, froggy slot machine, Ribby and Croaks will begin shooting coins at you. Stay toward the back of the room to dodge the coins. After a few coins, the lever on the slot will come down and glow pink. Jump up and parry the lever to spin the slots.

You can win a couple of different fights from the slot:

• Devil: The slot machine fires out discs that shoot pillars of fire up or down. Watch for where the initial flame is and jump or duck accordingly.
• Tiger: The slot machine fires out discs that slide across the floor, shooting balls up into the air as the go. Watch for a rhythm and jump between the disc and the ball at its highest point. It’s kind of like playing double dutch jump rope.
• Frog: The slot machine fires out many discs that slide across the floor very quickly. Jump on top of them safely and focus on jumping from one to the other.

The kicker during this phase is that you can only damage Ribby and Croaks when they are attacking you with the discs. Hold down the fire button and just focus on not getting killed by the discs. Once you get the rhythm down, this swampy duo will fall.