Werner Werman

Werner Werman
Location:	Inkwell Isle Three
Level:	Murine Corps
Hitpoints:	1500/2000/2100
Gender:	Male
Role:	Rat Soldier/Mechanic
Designer(s):	Hanna Abi-Hanna
Phases:	3
Forms:	1
Moveset:	Cherry Bombs Catapult Charge Flamethrowers Bottle Caps Summoning Rat Wraiths (The Cat) Orb Toss (Rat Wraiths) Cat Scratch (The Cat)
Minions:	The Cat Rat Wraiths
Parry Objects:	Gum Spring Boards Ghostly Orbs

Werner Werman is a boss in Cuphead. He is encountered and fought in the level Murine Corps, which is located in Inkwell Isle Three.

Description

Appearance

Werner is a long-snouted brown rat who operates a dented tin soup can that bears 3 gold stars perched on a wooden cart that he uses as a battle tank. He wears white gloves, blue shoes, and light brown pants (with a tan stripe running down each side of the pants) held up by a single suspender strap. His most notable feature is his metal Pickelhaube helmet strapped to his head. He also smokes a cigar.

The Cat is a mechanical feline that has navy blue fur, light grayish-blue skin, yellow eyes, salmon paws and inner ears.

Personality

Werner Werman acts like a stereotypical German soldier from World War I, speaking in a thick and exaggerated German accent and making a salute whenever he charges forward to attack with his tank. He appears to be interested in the late 1700- early 1900 military as he is wearing a Prussian soldier helmet (Pickelhaube) and owns a Colonial British soldier figurine.

Werner is also an incredibly skilled technician, having the talent to create both a realistic mechanical cat and a tank with multiple uses out of wood and a soup can. He doesn't seem to mind boasting about his own technology, as evident by his 2nd phase's death screen. However, he becomes completely irrational in the face of failure, since instead of giving up in the 2nd phase when his tank is demolished, he chooses to continue fighting while screaming wildly.

The Cat has no real personality, being an automaton created by Werner, although it is capable of expressing emotion as evidenced by the territorial and angry meowing noises that the Cat makes, and by the final phase death screen.

Battle

Intro

As the battle commences, Werner has his cigar lit by a mechanical arm from the can's interior before going inside to pilot the tank.

Phase 1

"Zat vas easy as eins, zwei, drei!"
—Werner Werman, Phase 1 Death Screen

Werner launching a cherry bomb from inside his tank.

In this phase, Werner has two main attacks that he performs on either side of the arena while his tank moves back and forth: 

• Cherry Cannon - A cannon attached to a spring comes out of the can, shooting out five cherry bombs that will damage the player(s) if they come in contact with them or the explosion they create. If the bombs hit the floor, they will send shock waves of fire that travel along the ground in both horizontal directions upon exploding. In Simple mode, the cherry bombs are shot at a slower rate. In Expert mode, they are shot at a faster rate.
• Scrap Attack - A catapult appears and hurls a spread of projectiles at the player(s). These projectiles can be bottle caps, gems, nuts, bolts, coins and 2 pieces of gum (the gum can be parried). In Simple mode, there will be 3 pieces of gum.

After performing one of these two attacks, he will send out two springboards that land on random spots. He will then charge towards the player(s) to the other side of the arena. The player(s) must parry these springboards to gain extra height to jump over Werner, due to how big his tank is. Parrying the springboards doesn't count towards the parry total. The player(s) can also dash through his attack if they have the Smoke Bomb charm equipped.

Even if the player(s) manage(s) to dodge his attacks and his charge, it is still possible to unknowingly bump into his tank and accidentally get damaged in the process. In Simple mode, Werner's tank moves slower. In Expert mode, it moves faster.

After taking enough damage, Werner attempts to use what appears to be a bottle rocket in an effort to damage the player(s), but it backfires; the now-damaged mechanical arm is unable to handle the weight of the rocket, causing it to drop into the tank and explode. Upon exploding, the exterior of the can is destroyed with Werner moderately injured, as he yelps in surprise and alarm as this happens, but he continues to operate the tank. This commences the second phase of the fight.
Hitpoints = 750/540/567

Phase 2

Werner keeps attacking despite his injuries and his tank's condition.

"Zis tank iz ze ultimate veapon. You vill not vin!"
—Werner Werman, Phase 2 Death Screen

In this phase, Werner attacks the players by shooting fire streams on both sides from two flamethrowers mounted below his seat. This attack can be avoided by immediately moving to the area from which Werman moved, as Werner will cycle between moving up and down and firing the flamethrowers.

While that happens, two columns of bottle caps shaped like saw blades appear on both sides of the arena. These bottle caps will spin and extend in pairs (one from each column). Sometimes, however, an entire column might activate at once (if this happens, the sound of a buzzsaw can be heard). In Simple mode, the bottle caps will not attack, though players can still take damage if they accidentally touch them. Also, since the bottle caps do not attack in Simple mode, Werner can also move from left to right. In Expert mode, the bottle caps extend at a faster rate and the possibility of an entire column activating at once is higher.

After taking enough hits, Werner will start to panic and frantically shift his tank's control levers back and forth as the tank appears to have stopped working. All of a sudden, the Cat that had been occasionally peering behind the holes in the wall throughout the fight will break in and eat him, commencing the final phase. In Simple mode, the Cat won't eat Werner after this phase, instead, the battle ends with his tank sputtering.

Hitpoints = 750/720/756

Final Phase

The Cat with a Rat Wraith beside it.

"Hiss! Hiss! Me-e-e-e-ow!!"
—The Cat, Final Phase Death Screen

In this phase, the players battle the Cat as it attacks by opening its mouth, revealing a grate from which two spectral rats, clad in 1930s style prison scrubs emerge. These ghosts will conjure a pink crystal-like ball and throw it at the player. This ball will release two fire waves travelling along the ground upon exploding, but it's possible to prevent this from happening by parrying the ball, and the split ball will still be pink, so you still have a chance to parry them. In Expert mode, there will be four spectral rats and the ball might not be pink all the time (being blue instead) so you can't prevent it from splitting. The spectral rats can be disabled by shooting at them.

Hitpoints = 34/30

The Cat can also attack by smashing the floor with its paw. As it retracts its paw, wooden boards begin to fall down from above. They will damage the player if they hit. The boards fall from side-to-side, so it's best to keep moving to avoid getting hit. In Expert mode, the wooden boards fall faster.   After dealing enough damage, the Cat's face falls off and reveals Werner is still alive and well inside its head and was controlling the Cat, which is actually a machine presumably built by Werner.

Hitpoints = 740/777

Sounds

Description	Audio
Werner's introduction.
Werner acting snarky.
Werner "loading" ammo onto his catapult.
Werner charges valiantly across the floor.
The malfunction and explosion of Werner's tank.
Going up...
Going down...
Werner panicking as his tank refuses to operate.
The Cat appearing to swallow Werner whole.
The Cat after summoning Rat Wraiths.
The laughter of a Rat Wraith.

Gallery

Intro sprite

Phase 1 sprite

Werner in his tank

Werner about to charge

Werner charging forward

Spring board

Cherry bomb cannon

Cherry bombs, including the unused parryable bomb

Catapult

Roman Candle

Phase 2 sprite

Inkwell Soda

Casino Cola (Is Better)

Grape Spritzer

Devil Gingerale

King Kola (Famous)

King Kola

Bottlecap stick

The Cat peering through the wall

The Cat enters the scene

The Cat

The Cat summoning rat wraiths

The Cat’s arm

Rat Wraith

Rat wraith defeated

Ghostly orbs

Wooden board

Werner knocked out

Overworld sprite

A Concept Painting for Werner Werman's house (made by one of the Studio MDHR members)

Pencil test of The Cat entering the scene

Walkthrough

Regular Mode	Expert Mode
Rat	Cuphead - Werner Werman (0-Murine Corps Expert

Trivia

A beaten-up Werner giving his contract to Cuphead in the E3 2015 trailer.

• In the 2015 trailer, there is a short scene of Cuphead collecting a soul contract from Werner, it went unused in the final game, it's possible it might have been an early victory screen.
  • In the same trailer, Werner's dash attack had no springs to help dodge it.
• Werner appears to be German with his German-accented death lines, the helmet (Pickelhaube) he's wearing resembling those worn in World War I by German soldiers and his forename and surname (Werner and Werman, with the latter being an alternate to Wehrmann) both originating from Germany.
  • Werman, when pronounced with a German accent, can sound like vermin, a common term used when referring to animals classified as pests.
  • Taking into consideration that Cuphead is set in the 1930s, Werner Werman may be a World War I veteran.
  • When dying on the first phase, Werner mentions "eins, zwei, drei", which is German for "one, two, three".
• The name of the stage, "Murine Corps" is a pun on Murinae, the family of rodents such as mice and rats, and Marine Corps, though he is not implied to work around the sea.
• There is a Union Jack flag at the back of Werner's home. This could either hint that he was a traitor or rebel in war times or it serves as a trophy from combat.
• Werner Werman's theme is one of 4 boss themes that is not used in Admission to Perdition or One Hell of a Time. The others are Shootn, n' Lootin', The Kings Court, and Honeycomb Herald.
• Werner Werman keeping a dice in his house as well as his use of poker chips and bottle caps related to King Dice and The Devil for attacking may hint of him having a hidden history with the casino.
  • The bottle caps in Phase 2 bear the following titles:
    • Inkwell Soda
    • King Kola
    • King Famous Kola
    • Grape Spritzer
    • Devil Ginger Ale
    • Casino Cola (Is Better)
• The grate inside the Cat's mouth could be a projector that projects the ghost/hologram rat prisoners, considering the Cat turns out to be a machine.
  • There's also the possibility that these rats may be the spirits of prisoners or other war victims that were killed by Werner Werman himself.
• An animation error can be spotted in the third phase when the cat does his arm attack from the right side of the screen. This makes it seem as if his arm has been disconnected from his hand.
  • A similar error occurs in The Devil’s boss fight when he uses his ram attack.
• Werner Werman is the only boss to have a spoken word during the fight outside of Inkwell Hell. At first it may sound like he's screaming when he does his charge attack, he's actually shouting the word "Charge!"
• Depending on what side Werner is facing from before he fails to launch his firework, starting the second phase, his black eye would be either on his left or right eye.
• An unused pink version of the Cherry Bombs exists in the game's file, which implies that there would have been a chance that parryable ones would have appeared alongside the normal ones.
• Code exists for another attack during the first phase, called "Roman Candle", the attack would have homing properties and an AOE effect, though it currently goes unused.
  • Roman candles are a type of firework, and from the transition from phase 1 to phase 2, a big firework destroyed Werner's tank. It is, in fact, the roman candle for the unused attack.
• There is an unused shot for the second phase, the cannon has an animation for shooting a bullet on either side and sometimes it could be parried, the bullets are the same as Captain Brineybeard's Octopus gun and it may not be a placeholder as most uses Jareed.
• This is actually one of the few boss fights to not have slightly different sounding background music; it sounds exactly the same as in the soundtrack.
• In the second to last cutscene of the good ending, Werner is seen in his tank. This shows that he uses it for transportation as well as battling.

Inspirations and resemblances

• Due to the nature of the battle and inclusion of the Cat, Werner's boss fight is a reference to the iconic Tom and Jerry cartoons.
  • Werner's status as a German rodent refers to how in WWI, British and American soldiers would often give German soldiers the nickname "Jerries". British ones were also referred to as “Tommies”.
  • Werner's screaming--particularly when he panics after his tank stops working and he is seemingly swallowed whole by his mechanical cat--sounds similar to the iconic screams of Tom (particularly the one he let out after being socked in the eye by Jerry in the 1944 cartoon Mouse Trouble).
  • The mechanical cat greatly resembles Thomas "Tom" Cat, particularly his early incarnations as Jasper.
  • The war theme resembles the 1943 Oscar winning cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse.
• Werner's appearance resembles that of Mortimer Mouse from the 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Rival.
• The tank he operates is most likely a reference to the German Panzertruppen, which was a popular war machine in WWI, or the Panzer VIII Maus, a super-heavy tank constructed by Germany in WWII. Also, the "Maus" sounds like "Mouse", which is probably another reason why he is a rat.
• The soup can is very similar to Campbell's soup cans with the red on the upper half and white on the lower half.
• The final phase of the fight is most likely a reference to the Cheshire Cat boss fight from the Sega Genesis game The Adventures of Batman & Robin as they are both mechanical cats and their faces fall off at the end of the battle.
• Judging from the fact that the overworld sprite is a regular suburban house, this might mean that the place you fight Werner might actually be very small and the player was able to shink himself. If this is true, however, this might make Werner the smallest boss in the game.

Unused Content

Mouse roman candle

Mouse broken can shot