Cuphead Pacifist Rank Guide: Run and Gun Routes Without Kills

Most of Cuphead is about shooting everything that wobbles. The P rank flips that around: it only exists in the six Run 'n Gun platforming levels, and you earn it by finishing one without killing a single enemy. A turtle named Tully sits over on Inkwell Isle Three dropping cryptic hints about "shades of gray," and clearing all six levels his way unlocks a black-and-white filter for the whole game. The catch is that these stages were built assuming you'd fight back. Stuff swarms you, and a few big blockers look like they demand a shootout. They don't. Every single one has a way around, and half the fun is finding it.

Understanding Pacifist Rules

The rule is one line long: no enemy can die by your hand. That's it. You can shoot things, you can hurt things, you can bounce off faces - damage is legal. The run only breaks when you land the hit that finishes something off. So the safest habit is to keep your finger off the trigger around anything alive.

Pink is free, though. Anything pink can be parried, and parry-killing a pink enemy does not count against you. The wiki's own wording is that "parryable enemies are not counted." So slap every pink spore, beetle, and balloon you see. Each parry is another card of super meter, and that meter becomes your panic button later.

Deaths you didn't deal are also fine. The little walking bombs in Funhouse Frazzle blow themselves up. The mosquito platforms in Treetop Trouble get torched by dragonfly fireballs the moment you bounce off them. Neither of those touches your rank, so don't panic when the level starts killing its own guys.

Same deal for anything inanimate. Smashable scenery was never alive to begin with. The classic community pacifist guide on Steam calls out the faceless stump stack in Treetop Trouble as an example, and the giant walls in Funhouse Frazzle even crumble on their own after you slip through them. Not your problem.

So what does the P actually judge? One number: your kill count. Time doesn't matter. Taking hits doesn't matter. Coins don't matter. The grade card stamps a P where your letter grade would normally sit, so you can't stack an A+ on top of it in the same run - the letter grade stays the award for a fast, full-coin run where you did fight back.

Only six levels have this: Forest Follies and Treetop Trouble on Inkwell Isle One, Funfair Fever and Funhouse Frazzle on Isle Two, Rugged Ridge and Perilous Piers on Isle Three. There are no Run 'n Gun levels on Inkwell Isle Four or in Inkwell Hell, so DLC owners don't get extra homework.

One warning before the routes: the weakest enemies are the biggest threat to your run. Deadly Daisies have 1 HP, and so do the flying beetles inside the tree and the tiny rockets in the funhouse. One stray peashooter round ends them, and your P goes with it. Homing Chasers are extra risky here since they pick their own targets while you're watching your feet. If you're going to shoot anything at all, shoot the chunky stuff, and remember your EX moves and supers count as your damage too.

Movement and Smoke Bomb Choices

You get one charm slot, so this is a per-level decision rather than a loadout you set once. Two charms do almost all of the pacifist work.

Smoke Bomb

Three coins at Porkrind's Emporium, on sale from your first visit. While dashing you vanish into a puff of smoke and take no damage, which turns the dash into a short teleport through pretty much anything - balloons, cannonballs, a lobster. The wiki flat-out calls it a big help for pacifist ranks, "especially in Funfair Fever." Buy this one first. It's dirt cheap and it carries half the levels on its own.

Whetstone

Also three coins, with a catch: the base-game shop won't stock it until you've already bought three other charms. Realistically that means Heart plus Smoke Bomb plus one more charm before Whetstone appears, so plan on around 12 coins total for the full kit. (The Isle Four shop added with the DLC sells it after only two charm purchases.) Each Run 'n Gun level hides five coins, and there are more scattered around the overworld, so it's a couple of levels' worth of picking things up.

What does it do? Your first parry in the air doubles as a 16-damage axe swing, and it works on nearly any enemy, pink or not. For pacifist purposes the damage is beside the point - the bounce is what you want. Slap the Acorn Maker mid-jump and you pop up high enough to dash over the thing. It only works once per airtime, and every parry after that is a normal parry until you land.

Backup picks

Heart (3 coins) and Twin Heart (5 coins) add hit points, which matters for the damage-boost trick: take a hit on purpose, then use the invincibility frames to walk through whatever's blocking you. Coffee (3 coins) keeps your super meter filling on its own. P. Sugar (3 coins) makes your first parry automatic, a nice safety net when you're juggling gem parries on the back of an octopus.

The invincibility super

Super Art II: Invincibility is the reward for Mausoleum II on Inkwell Isle Two, the ghost-parry side level where you defend the urn without your gun. Five cards of meter buys a stretch of total invincibility, and it phases you straight through the couple of blockers that are genuinely too fat to dash past. Parries fill the meter a card at a time, which is one more reason to keep slapping pink things as you travel.

Ms. Chalice, if you have the DLC

The Astral Cookie turns you into Ms. Chalice: shorter base jump but a double jump, an invincible dodge roll, a dash that itself parries and resets in midair, and a bonus fourth hit point. The trade is brutal though. The cookie occupies your charm slot, so no Smoke Bomb and no Whetstone. She's great in Funhouse Frazzle, which needs no charm at all, and rough in Funfair Fever, which basically wants the Smoke Bomb. Your call per level.

Safe Routes Through Each Level

The routes below assume Smoke Bomb unless noted. The plan is the same shape every time: never stop for a fair fight, parry pink stuff for meter, and save the super for the one big thing standing in your way.

Forest Follies

The opening field is the tutorial for all of this. Daisies chase you in from off screen, mushrooms duck under their caps (invincible while hidden) and lob purple and pink spores, and tulips fire seeds that home slightly and pass through platforms. Don't fight any of it. Just keep moving right and parry the pink spores as you go. Deeper in, dead trees span pits with pink Spiky Bulbs floating up and down over them. They're parryable, but they hurt if you mistime, so treat them as optional stepping stones. Acorns start raining once you close on the machine at the end of that stretch. The last part runs lower, with slimes patrolling the platforms and Toothy Terrors lunging out of pits. Those plants can't be killed at all, so just don't linger over open pits. Then you hit the Acorn Maker, which gets its own entry below.

Treetop Trouble

A climb, a tree interior, then leaf-hopping. On the slope, Bouncin' Beetles roll down at you (the pink ones are parryable, and a coin up here can only be reached by parrying off a beetle) while a huge woodpecker slams down from the ceiling on a rhythm. Wait him out rather than rushing under him. Inside the tree you ride floating platforms past Stack O' Wood chunks firing spiky seeds, some of them pink, and Flying Beetles drifting down from above with just 1 HP each - mind any stray shots here. The final stretch is mosquitoes holding leaves: every landing summons a fireball that burns that mosquito for a few seconds. That death is on the dragonfly, not you, so keep bouncing forward without guilt. The Dragonfly himself guards the exit.

Funfair Fever

Five sections, the longest level of the six. Ringmasters teleport around lobbing slow magic rings, so side-step and move on. First tent: a living trampoline boosts you over the walls while balloons drift around (pink ones parryable, everything else Smoke Bomb fodder), and a parryable bell rides up and down a wall that you must parry to clear. Watch the clowns riding balls here and again in the later field - kill a clown and his ball starts rolling faster, so leaving them alive is actually the calm way through. Second tent: dunk platforms, robot monkeys in your way, and cannonballs (some parryable) smashing platforms down, with the three-cannon wall waiting at the back. After the field and the duck machine you get moving platforms with pretzels hopping in place. Time a jump over each one, then the Hot Dog ends the level.

Funhouse Frazzle

The one stage that needs no charm at all. The first hallway has two floors with pink playing cards floating between them: parry a card to flip floors, which is also how you dodge the toy cars, since those can't be destroyed anyway. The giant mama duck waddles through - crouch and slide under her, no damage to either of you, and one of her ducklings is pink if you want a parry. Then the wall, the surreal middle rooms (cannon stars firing in cross patterns, rockets that drift toward wherever you are, jack-in-the-boxes that telegraph with their eyeball, homing jacks with some pink ones, and one extremely loud tuba), the wall again, done. The little bombs in the back half blow up on their own, which costs you nothing.

Rugged Ridge

Goats on the cliffs throw boomerang pickaxes, and killing one just ropes a fresh goat down a moment later, so dodging them genuinely costs you nothing. Bait the throw, then jump the goat while the axe is away. Silver balance scales hang along the route as platforms on chains. A giant stone lion's roar pushes you back toward the ledge - hug the lion so the pickaxe chasing you stays out of reach, then jump-dash over it once the roar stops. The elevator ride down is survival only: dragons spit fireballs in rhythm, with a pink flame every other shot. Below, satyrs pop out of the dirt and skip along at about your walking speed, so a hop beats them. Wall faces spit oil, and both the face itself and one oil glob are parryable, so parry either to hop the wall. Then the Cyclops chase ends the level.

Perilous Piers

Clownfish drift in from the edges through the whole first stretch with pink ones mixed in, and that's your meter food, so parry as you go. Barnacles spit triple volleys of spiky plates that float down slowly. Urchins scurry along the platforms and the descending stairs. Then the fun part: the huge crabs with platforms on their backs can't be hurt, and you're meant to ride them across the long flat stretch while fish keep flying in. Kaptain Krustacean, the lobster, crashes the party midway (his own entry below). Parry the pink lights on top of the Buoy Boys to cross the gaps, climb the boat called The Zillian (a coin hides inside the cabin), and then it's the octopus ride. Driftwood platforms need a dash to reach and sink moments after you land, and they lead to a big octopus impaled by an anchor. Parry the pink gem on its head or it sinks - each parry makes it blast the next rock out of the way while an oyster lobs pearls at two heights and shrimp arc in at 45 degrees (the pink ones parryable). When it beaches, jump onto dry land and you're home.

Handling Mini Boss Obstacles

Every level gates on at least one big blocker, and they're the reason pacifist runs feel scary. Good news: not one of them has to die.

Acorn Maker (Forest Follies)

125 HP of machinery parked directly in your path. You cannot dash through it, Smoke Bomb over it, or plain jump it. Three answers, pick one. With the Whetstone, jump beside it and axe-parry the machine for the bounce, then dash over the top - 16 damage won't come close to finishing it. Without the Whetstone, coax a pink spore out of the mushrooms just before the drop and walk it down with you, then parry it beside the machine for the same height boost. Or burn the invincibility super and stroll through. Past it, only the pit plants and slimes stand between you and the exit sign.

The Dragonfly (Treetop Trouble)

From the rightmost mosquito leaf, jump as high toward him as you can and Smoke Bomb dash straight through. Whetstone works too - whack his face on the way up, then dash over. No charm and no meter? Walk in with at least 2 HP, take the hit, and cruise through on invincibility frames.

Cannon Wall (Funfair Fever)

Three cannons knocking your dunk platforms out from under you. Get to the middle platform, short-hop up between the top two cannons, then dash past the line. The wiki doesn't even list HP for these things. They're scenery with a fuse.

Shooting Range (Funfair Fever)

A 125 HP duck machine, too big to dash through. This is the one forced trade in the game: eat a single hit and walk through on the invincibility frames, or spend the invincibility super and take nothing. Its duck line keeps firing while you phase through, so commit to your direction and don't stall halfway.

Hot Dog (Funfair Fever)

Another 125 HP bruiser, spraying lines of ketchup, mustard, and relish. Dash through him slightly above his hands, where the body runs narrower, and you'll clear him clean. One platform jump later the level's over.

Two-Mouthed Wall (Funhouse Frazzle)

125 HP, fought twice, and both times the answer is the same: go through its mouth. The first one opens up and spits two toy cars at you, so jump-dash over the cars, dodge the flying kiss it sends out, and run in through the open mouth before it closes. The second one telegraphs with an "Uh-Oh!" sign, stabs its tongue out, and leaves the mouth hanging open for a beat after the tongue pulls back. Parry the pink cards to flip floors, then jump straight in. The wall breaks down as you pass, and that still doesn't count against you.

Kaptain Krustacean (Perilous Piers)

A 125 HP lobster who backstrokes at you and fires a lightning bolt at the spot you were just standing in. Jump over him or Smoke Bomb straight through. You can knock him out, but only for a while - he pops back up in the next stretch and doesn't leave for good until you reach The Zillian. So there's honestly no upside to fighting him.

The Cyclops (Rugged Ridge)

The only Run 'n Gun mini-boss that can't be hurt at all. The final stretch auto-scrolls through a ruined castle while she smashes the platforms behind you, so it's pure platforming with no fight, and she trips into a pit on her own at the end. The same don't-bother logic covers the 260 HP stone lion on the way up (hug it through the roar, jump-dash after) and the Pyro Heads circling platforms at a listed 9999 HP - nobody is killing those, so learn the loop and run through the gap.

Checking Your Rank

The grade card tells you right away. Finish the level and a P stamps in where the letter grade would sit. Any letter at all means something died by your hand, so work out what it was and go again.

The map tracks it too. Run 'n Gun levels show up as little target icons on each isle, and a normal clear plants a flag in the bullseye. A pacifist clear plants that flag with a P on it, so you can see at a glance which stages still owe you a clean run.

And then there's Tully, the sea turtle on the piers near Cala Maria's arena on Inkwell Isle Three. His dialogue works as a progress tracker: before any pacifist clear he needles you about your "multicolor mess," and once you've done even one he starts cheering ("I see you've managed to restrain yourselves here and there"). Get all six P flags and he unlocks the black-and-white visual filter plus a vintage audio mode, both waiting in the options menu afterward.

Keep in mind what the P does and doesn't measure. You can take hits, waste ten minutes, and skip every coin, and none of it voids the rank. Coins are still yours on a pacifist run if you grab them and finish, and if doing both at once feels like too much juggling, just run the level twice - once greedy for the five coins, once clean for the P. Six clean runs, one chat with a turtle, and the whole game turns into a 1936 short. Cheap ticket.