The King’s Leap challenges in Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course offer challenges unique to the DLC’s otherwise typical boss fights. The second one that pits you against an armor-clad horse knight can be confounding, but if you know what to do and get the timing down it becomes a cinch.
Being that this is a King’s Leap challenge, you don’t have access to your weapons or charms. Instead you have to figure out how to complete the challenge using only your wits and reflexes.
Lanky, awkward, and cocky, the horse knight will shuffle back and forth before taunting, and eventually charging at you with varying delays in animation — if you play it safe and give him room. Occasionally, he will also do a brief stab upward.
This is a challenge where you’ll want to use Ms. Chalice, as you’ll need her invincibility roll to survive the horse knight’s charges and mid-air dash parry to hit his pink mane. I am unsure if it is possible to clear this King’s Leap with Cuphead or Mugman because of the height of the horse knight’s hitbox during charge attacks. Maybe there’s something I missed, but after several attempts, it seems like it is probably impossible.
Using Ms. Chalice, you’ll want to stay close to the horse knight in a sort of risky dance. You don’t want to be too close, but you do want to be close enough that he’ll use his two slashing attacks instead of endlessly taunting and charging.
The two slashing attacks the horse knight uses when you’re near him briefly cause him to tire out, which is your cue to do a mid-air dash parry into his mane.
The first, smaller slashing attack doesn’t require you to give him much room, but the second one does. The horse knight’s secondary slashing attack is indicated by him showing his crazed face, before launching into a wide-arching slash. The end is the same as the first attack, though: he slumps, panting and exhausted.
He’ll still charge at you when you must stick close as well, where you must use Ms. Chalice’s invincibility roll to bypass the attack. Unlike when you’re hanging out further away from him, his charge attack animation is a more stable speed when you stick close. It’s easier to dodge because it’s the intended method, with the longer or shorter durations of animation being punishment for staying far away.
You will also have an opportunity to do a mid-air dash parry into his mane after he charges. Don’t worry if it seems you’re a half-second too late on these ones; you’ll still get the hit in and come away free of damage even if he resumes standing as you parry.
Once you figure out how you’re meant to take on this challenge, it becomes a war of attrition. It takes several hits to take down the horse knight, more than you’ll probably expect. Luckily, the tells for all three attacks he’ll be doling out are easy to read, and there’s more than enough time to both dodge and hit using Ms. Chalice’s unique moveset.
With this information in mind, you should be able to take down the horse knight and complete the second King’s Leap challenge. Once you know what to do, the technique to take him down is far more simple than any of the actual boss fights found in Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. Check out our review of The Delicious Last Course if you haven’t already.
