Glumstone The Giant
Glumstone The Giant is one of the new bosses in the DLC, fought in the level Gnome Way Out. He is the keeper of the Gnome Berries.
Description
Appearance
Glumstone is a giant that wears roughly-tailored clothes. His head has a few bruises with bald spots similar to the peaks of a mountain and his beard lays across the battlefield where the player(s) actually have to walk on. He has a big red nose and a few missing teeth, with pink puffy cheeks and thick eyebrows. Though not shown in-game, he wears open-toe sandals and a blue belt.
The gnomes are common stereotypical gnomes, with pointy hats and clothes that come in multiple colors such as blue, teal, pink, and red on the cover of Cuphead in A Mountain of Trouble. Unlike other characters in the game, they are depicted as having stick figure-like lines for limbs.
In his second phase, he rips off his beard, revealing a five o' clock shadow, and a bandage on the left side of his cheek. Glumstone then pulls out two hand puppets, both with buttons for eyes. One on his right hand as King Dice, and the other on his left as The Devil. King Dice is dressed as a jester, with a red and purple color scheme, and small bells on the end of his tassels, while The Devil is dressed as a king with a purple robe, a crown, and is coated with red fur instead of black. The two puppets continue to play catch with a large burlap sack, until phase three begins.
In the third phase, you enter Glumstone's stomach, where you encounter Glumstone's stomach ulcer, Who has long stringy white hair, yellow eyes, a long nose, and crooked gnarly teeth. he also has a large, bushy unibrow.
Personality
In Cuphead: Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities, he's shown to be somewhat troublesome while also easy to trick, as he is easily baited into emptying a lake he guarded from Cuphead. In A Mountain of Trouble, he's described as grumpy, although he has appeared to have mellowed out in recent times. According to him, he used to be very big on curses, cursing everything that slighted him. He is known to throw boulders at those who provoke him, such as yodelers who make his days miserable. In-game, he is shown to have a fun and innocent side, as he takes glee in performing his puppet show in the second phase.
As shown in A Mountain of Trouble, his gnomes are shown to speak in rhyme, and are easily offended when referred to as "small". They are shown to respect Glumstone and appear to have a symbiotic relationship with him. They are also sportsmanlike and fair, being the judges of the camp competitions. In-game, they are all shown constantly smiling, even as they get knocked off in the fight intro. They appear to enjoy puppet shows.
Battle
Intro
Glumstone starts out as a snowy mountain in which his mouth is a goldmine. A gnome smashes his pickaxe into a chunk of gold which is his golden tooth in an attempt to mine it while two other gnomes watched on. This cause Glumstone to awaken, crushes the wooden scaffolding and his stony mountain hide explodes into pieces blowing away the gnomes and beginning the fight.
Phase 1
"You thought you were bold, but I'm boulder."
—Glumstone The Giant, Phase 1 Death Screen
In the middle of the battlefield, there are five rock pillars that constantly moving up and down randomly, making player(s) evaluate where is safe to dodge harm's way. Two pillars will fully retract into the ground during this phase. In Simple Mode, only one lowers much later in the fight. In Expert mode, two immediately lower and a third one will lower later.
Periodically, Glumstone will do one of three attacks:
- He transforms his nose to a curly red whistle and blows it, while holding up a sign of “GEESE XING” (crossing) and holding the other hand up like he is stopping traffic. The top half of the battlefield will be filled with geese crossing, some wear a bow, some have blue or cyan gnomes riding them on a saddle. He looks proud of himself during this attack and some of his hair and beard are blown forward by all the geese. In Simple Mode, this attack lasts shorter. In Expert Mode, this attack lasts longer.
- After pulling both his hands out and closing one eye to focus on the players, he stretches open his mouth to reveal two gnomes brewing purple potion in a witch cauldron. The blue one pours potion from a round-bottom flask and the cyan one climbs on a stair and stirs the content. Purple and Pink gas clouds comes out of the cauldron and fly toward the player(s) position quickly. The pink clouds can be parried. In Simple Mode, the gas clouds spawn less often and they travels slower. In Expert Mode, the gas clouds travel faster.
- He can pick up a huge bear from below the mountain and slowly pulls it from the left side until it reaches the third pillar. At that point, he will appear bored and throw it off the cliff and down to the town below. In Simple Mode, Glumstone pulls it to the second pillar to the left. In Expert Mode, he pulls it to the fourth.
Blue gnomes are hidden in his beard along the floor. When walking on them their hats will be squished for while and then they will poke their hats up through the beard and will stay there for a while before lowering back down. Some that are right in the middle of each pillar may struggle to poke through the beard for a while then permanently stay on the beard. They dance in places and can be defeated. They periodically shoot a puff of yellow cloud by pulling on their beard, cycling between straight above, diagonal, above, and the other diagonal. In Simple Mode, they jump up less often and some puff is pink and can be parried. In Expert Mode, they jump up more often.
Cyan gnomes show up at the base of the pillars and them climb up the side with their hands and feet visible, after they reach the top of it, they wind up and strike twice at the top of the platform with a hammer. They can be defeated.
After taking enough damage, he starts pulling on his beard out of anger, as his face turns red and his irises radiate. He holds onto the platform and pushes it away, ripping his beard off in the process while writhing in pain, as his eyes revolve around each other. After he realizes his painful mistake, he screams and falls down into the background, ending the first phase. Hitpoints = 575/450/510
Phase 2
"Ah, such a delightful treat... I had a hand in your defeat!"
—Glumstone The Giant, Phase 2 Death Screen
Glumstone is ridden of his beard and left with stubble, has a bandage on his cheek and chin and also a black eye. All the stone pillars are flushed to the ground and he retreats to the background. He holds up two puppets which resemble King Dice as a jester and The Devil as a king. Two groups of gnome are lifted up in the foreground on the bottom corners to spectate.
The King Dice puppet is holding a bag of buttons which acts a like big rubber ball. The bag has to be avoided at all costs as the two puppets throw it at each other as if playing ball while attempting to cause damage to the player. The puppets are raised or lowered and it changes where the ball bounce.
The gnomes on the ground sometimes pop out and jump around. They can be defeated. Some of them wear pink and can be parried. In Simple Mode, they are spawned less often. In Expert Mode, they are spawned much more rapidly.
When this phase ends, the button bag explodes, King Dice and the Devil puppet shakes around, slightly teared up and they are lowered by Glumstone. The gnome spectators platform is also lowered. Shaking in anger, Glumstone grabs the platform and crushes it, eating the rocks and the player(s). With a look of satisfaction on his face, Glumstone burps while the scenery changes. When the scenery changes to Glumstone's stomach, his ulcer laughs smugly before the fight continues. In Simple Mode, the battle will simply end here with him shaking in anger and the puppets stays on the screen shaking. Hitpoints = 575/585/663
Phase 3
"Give up now is my suggestion, lest you give me indigestion."
—Glumstone's Ulcer, Phase 3 Death Screen
The fight continues inside Glumstone's stomach where the player has to stay standing on several crocodile skull heads that act as platforms in order to avoid falling into the stomach acid. The player must defeat Glumstone's sentient ulcer as it moves horizontally while spitting out chicken drumsticks or bones to the skull platforms. In Expert Mode, the ulcer moves around quicker. While the projectiles damage the player, the ulcer itself has no hurtbox.
If one of the skulls platforms eats a drumstick, it will submerge itself into the acid lake, preventing the player from jumping to that platform, only letting them fall into the acid, which can damage the player. However, If one receives a bone, the skull will not eat it and it will open its mouth in which its tongue will proceed to ring a cowbell. This signals the player to parry slap the bell, which will cause the skulls that had submerged to reemerge from the acid, allowing the players to jump from one to another. In Expert Mode, he can spit out two projectiles in quick succession.
On either side of the stomach acid lake, scuba diving gnomes will jump up and shoot a blow dart bird horizontally. The scuba diving gnomes can be defeated. Some blow dart birds can be parried. In Expert Mode, they jump out more often.
When Glumstone's ulcer is defeated, it will be in a daze and stick its tongue out. Hitpoints = 465/527
Gallery
Glumstone's intro
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
After entering the position,Ulcer is laughing
Ulcer attacking right
Ulcer attacking left
Ulcer is moderately attacking to the right
Ulcer is moderately attacking to the left
Glumstone knocked out
Overworld Icon
Unused Pink Chicken Projectile
Saltbaker working on his gnome berry farm in the epilogue.
Glumstone (far top right) at the end of the credits.
Glumstone's full body
Unused Content
The pink drumstick is used as a failsafe. If he shoots out two drumsticks rapidly when there are not enough platforms left, the player can parry it and wait for him to spit a bone.
| File:Cuphead - Unused Glumstone The Giant pattern |
The last phase used to be a bit different, the name used for this phase is "Gnome Leader" aside (which is not related to his stomach too much), there is an unused mechanic where you have to parry a thermometer to cool it down or some liquid (Glumstone's stomach acid or boiling water) gets too hot for the ground to stand on.
Walkthrough
| Regular Mode | Expert Mode |
|---|---|
| File:How To Beat Glumstone The Giant NO DAMAGE (A+ Rank) - Cuphead DLC | File:How To Beat Glumstone The Giant on EXPERT MODE (S-Rank) - Cuphead DLC |
Trivia
- He is the only boss whose official name was revealed before the Game Awards trailer with "Cuphead in A Mountain of Trouble".
- His gnomes also made their first appearance on said cover, albeit with red caps instead.
- Some of the frames of the hammer gnomes don't have feet.
- The bear that Glumstone picks up during his first phase resembles the Cookie Factory's security guard from In Charm's Way.
- There was a bug where Glumstone's hand disappear for a short while when using his GEESE XING attack. It is fixed in Patch 1.3.3 but a new bug appeared where his lower body turns into a black box sometimes. It is fixed in Patch 1.3.4.
Inspirations and similarities
- The boss's appearance bears a high resemblance to Old Man of the Mountain, a character from the 1933 Betty Boop cartoon of the same name.
- Files in the game's code refer to Glumstone as "omm", possibly standing for "Old Man (of the) Mountain."
- He also appears to take some visual cues from Gustav the Giant from the 1938 Mickey Mouse short The Brave Little Tailor.
- His clothing may be inspired by the clothing of the Giant from mobile game Clash Royale.
- Glumstone and the gnomes appears to have to taken some inspiration from The Nome King from the 1985 film Return to Oz. Both are bearded characters who are in charge of gnomes, both are large in size, and try to eat a main character while fighting the protagonist.
- Glumstone's red nose may have been inspired by the Giant in the 1933 ComiColor Cartoon short Jack and the Beanstalk.
- The way the gnomes have simple black sticks for limbs is very similar to the gnome-like elves in the Netflix cartoon, Hilda.
- Another similarity to Hilda is that the gnomes also look similar to the titular characters of the season 2 episode, The Yule Lads.
- The gnomes seen riding atop the crossing Canadian geese might be a subtle homage to the 1932 Silly Symphony short Babes in the Woods.
- The final phase where the main character is eaten by the villain and has to defeat it inside out is similar to the Prince Froggy fight in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
- The transition between the Phase 2 and the final phase is similar to Rotgut's first phase transition in The Binding of Isaac: Repentance and The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth. Both bosses swallow the player(s) whole from below, forcing them to battle the boss from within.
- Glumstone's ulcer bears resemblance to one of the ghosts in the moving barn in 1930's Swing You Sinners!
- The ulcer also bears resemblance to The Queen's Old Hag disguise from Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
- Similarly, the gnomes mining inside Glumstone at the start of the stage resembles the Seven Dwarfs and their jobs as miners as they dig for gold and valuable minerals within the giant's body; however their appearance is closer to the Seven Dwarfs in Snow-White, the Betty Boop take on the tale.
- The cauldron attack manipulated by two gnomes inside Glumstone's body is similar to the manipulation of the whirlpool by King Eidilleg and Doli from the 1985 Disney film The Black Cauldron.
- The second phase with Glumstone's puppets mocking both the Devil and King Dice is similar to the mocking puppets of Prince John and Sir Hiss during the musical number "The Phony King of England" from Disney's 1973 film Robin Hood.
- In a promotional art piece, Glumstone is seen playing skipping rope with telephone poles and wires. This shares similarities to the Gargantuars from the Plants vs. Zombies series, who are giant enemies typically seen wielding telephone poles.