Conjunctivius

"Some of the guards tell of throwing bodies down there to feed her. Perhaps she just wanted to play?"

Conjunctivius is a Boss in Dead Cells. She is found in the Insufferable Crypt.

Conjunctivius is shackled to the walls by three chains. Four platforms are arranged around the room.

Damage on a single hit is soft-capped at 5% of Conjunctivius's maximum health. The cap for tentacles is 25%.

Lore
A series of lore rooms scattered around the Toxic and Ancient Sewers explain how Conjunctivius came to be.

It all begins with a nameless, faceless corpse in the Sewers, most likely infected by the Malaise. The body is all bloated and one of its arms has mutated into a tentacle. A green goo came out of the body and made a trail towards a small hole in the wall. After this initial encounter, the Beheaded finds that same trail of green goo and an empty cocoon, next to a bigger hole in the wall, which was made by an adolescent Conjunctivius. Later, the Beheaded stumbles upon the trail of green goo close to a corpse. The trail of goo leads to the remains of a huge cocoon and a gigantic hole, which was carved by adult Conjunctivius as she escaped. Finally, a message left by soldiers evokes how difficult it was to chain Conjunctivius, which was likely an order of the King. This explains why Conjunctivius is found imprisoned in the Insufferable Crypt when the Beheaded arrives.
 * "The body is all bloated... One of his arms changed into a tentacle. It's as if the body had started to mutate! A viscous substance is oozing out of the body and across the floor... like a snail's trail."
 * "(...) This strange substance on the ground again. The trail leads to a sort of... giant cocoon. (...) The trail ends at this hole. And it's one hell of a big hole."
 * "Still this trail on the ground. Whatever this thing is, it's pretty obvious that it... grew. Or evolved. Or mutated."
 * The corpse doesn't seem infected and wears prisoner clothes, which could imply it's the prisoner who escaped from the Prisoners' Quarters. Why he is not infected despite being killed by Conjunctivius is unclear.
 *  Make sure you don't miss your guard duty outside the MONSTER's room. It wasn't easy to chain up. Wouldn't like to have to do it all over again! 

Primary Attacks
Conjunctivius moves around the room, connected to the walls by three (non-damaging) chains. She has three primary attacks:


 * Conjunctivius projects a beam of red light, then charges in that direction.
 * Conjunctivius shoots seven to eight poison shots from its eye that move outward in a sun pattern. After each tentacle phase, an extra set of shots is added.
 * A red circle flashes around Conjunctivius, then bursts into electricity.

After the second tentacle phase, Conjunctivius gains a new attack:
 * Conjunctivius deactivates the platforms and begin a rapid-fire spitting projectiles from its eye.

Tentacle Phases
After reaching 75%, 50%, and 25% health, Conjunctivius will break one of its shackles and summon tentacles. It deactivates all the platforms and moves to the center of the room, immune to all damage.

During the first phase it spawns three tentacles. An extra tentacle is spawned for each subsequent phase.

After destroying a tentacle, the other tentacles will increase in speed.


 * In the first phase, the tentacles will burrow underground and follow the player, popping up to deal damage.
 * In the second and third phase, the tentacles may also charge across the room, dealing damage if they make contact.


 * After all of the tentacles are destroyed, Conjunctivius resumes its primary attacks.

Primary Attacks

 * Both of the dash (red-line) and static shock (white flash) are both susceptible to shields and can be parried. Spiked Shields will apply extra damage and Blood Shields will apply bleeds.
 * The dash can also be roll-dodged, proper timing will allow you to escape damage (I-frames).
 * Melee weapons like whips and spears have some advantage, as well as weapons with faster successive swings.

Tentacles

 * Tentacles can be parried via shields. Underground you must move a little to the side and face where the tentacle will burst from the ground to get a proper parry. It is difficult to time but can be done.
 * The rushing tentacles in phase 2/3 can also be parried, giving you opportunity to deal damage while avoiding incoming damage. However, if they are not stunned(scenario that may happen when using the Punishment Shield), they will immediately go underground after the parry and successively burst from the ground. A skilled player would make sure that the tentacles will stay in place before starting to attack.

Weapons/Items

 * Most CC effects (freezing/slowing/etc.) will have very brief (if any) effect on the main body or the tentacles. But they can be bled, poisoned, and set on fire.
 * Since many attacks can be parried a shield is useful in parrying attacks and dealing damage.
 * Bloodthirsty Shield can apply AoE bleeds to both the main body and all tentacles, making it a little easier to apply DoTs.
 * Rampart can be useful in dealing with the Tentacle Phases as parries give you force fields to apply more damage to tentacles without needing to roll-dodge.
 * Cleaver is also useful for Tentacle phase as you can direct them onto the grinder and apply consistent DoTs.
 * Oil/oil grenades/torches perform well due to AoE DoTs.
 * Any low cooldown grenades can do better so long as you know how to throw them.
 * Turrets can be useful, but are less consistent due to Conjunctivius moving quickly out of the range of them. They can also double as a distraction to the boss and the tentacles from you while dealing damage undisturbed (enemies take priority on deployed turrets and friendly worms)
 * Barnacles can be particularly helpful thanks to their long range and ability to fire across wide angles. One placed on a mid-height platform will stay powered if you are on the ground below and be able to hit Conjunctivius during a significant portion of its movements.
 * This is not a fast fight, you must be patient and careful until you learn the fight well enough.

Design
Early concept art for Conjunctivius shows her spewing tentacles from her mouth. This was later scrapped.

Trivia

 * Prior to the Baguette Update, Conjunctivius was named "The Watcher". In the game files, she is called "Beholder".
 * Conjunctivius's name is a reference to conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the eye, also known as pink eye.