How does the shop of cuphead work?

Heading into cuphead, I heard that the shop works in a weird way.

I heard the shop works in branches, where if you buy item A1 you'll get A2 next, but if you buy B1 you get B2 next. So you must make sure to buy the right items to get the right endgame items.

I also heard that there's not enough coins in the game to buy everything, so if you want certain upgrades, you must buy the ones before or you might not have enough at the end to buy the upgrades you really want.

Is it really how the shop works? Also, if it is, what are the branches?


Solution 1:

There are two 'branches' in the shop, one for weapons and one for charms

When you purchase items in the shop, the new item that take the place of what you purchased depends on what type of item it was, and will always follow a set list. If every item of one type has been purchased, it will not pull the next item from the other branch.

Starting Items

  • Chaser (4C - weapon)
  • Heart (3C - charm)
  • Spread (4C - weapon)
  • Smokebomb (3C - charm)
  • Roundabout (4C - weapon)

Weapon Order

  1. Lobber (4C)
  2. Charge (4C)

Charm Order

  1. P. Sugar (3C)
  2. Coffee (3C)
  3. Whetstone (3C)
  4. Twin Heart (5C)

Solution 2:

I believe there are deterministic branching paths in the shop based on my two playthroughs, although I can't find a full mapping of it. I'll figure out the mapping on my own in a few days.

To the more important of your two questions, you absolutely can purchase everything in the shop using a combination of Run 'n Gun levels, hidden coins, and NPC interactions. There's even an achievement for it, Butter-and-Egg Man.

Solution 3:

There are charms and weapons. Every time you buy a weapon or charm, a new one appears In its place until there are no more. After buying a weapon it will let you buy lobber or charge. The other weapons are already there. For charms, there are two starting ther, heart and smoke bomb. After buying those it will then unlock -p sugar -coffee -whetstone -twin heart

About the coins, there is a way to get everything. There are hidden coins around the map, letting you get everything in the shop. Inkwell isle I there’s one in

  • the tutorial
  • 3 from the person on the bridge
  • after beating every boss, behind the razor man near the flower boss.

Inkwell isle II there’s some in

  • behind the green van after beating the roller coaster boss
  • talk to the juggling clown and doing his mission by parrying 4 times before hitting the ground
  • behind the birdhouse following the secret path and talking to the girl

Inkwell isle III there’s only one, and it’s behind a striped cart you can find behind the shop.

The final coin is at the final boss area, behind the left row of red dice at the entrance.

The rest of the coins are in each run and gun level.