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 capped at 15% of Conjunctivius's maximum health. The damage cap for her tentacles is 25%.

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

It begins with a nameless, faceless corpse in the Sewers, likely infected by the Malaise. The body is bloated and one of its arms has mutated into a tentacle. Green goo trails from the body towards a small hole in the wall. After this 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 leads to the remains of a huge cocoon and a gigantic hole, which was carved by the adult Conjunctivius as she escaped. Finally, a message left by soldiers tells how difficult it was to chain Conjunctivius, likely an order of the King. This explains why Conjunctivius is 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 may imply it's the prisoner who escaped from the Prisoners' Quarters. Why he is uninfected 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, attached to the walls by three non-damaging chains. She has three primary attacks:


 * 1) Conjunctivius projects a beam of red light, then charges in that direction.
 * 2) Conjunctivius shoots 7 to 8 poison shots from her eye outward in a sun pattern. After each tentacle phase, another set of shots is added.
 * 3) A red circle flashes around Conjunctivius, then bursts into electricity.

After the second tentacle phase, Conjunctivius gains a new attack, where deactivates the platforms and rapid-fire spits projectiles from her 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 damage.

In the first phase it spawns 3 tentacles. Another tentacle is spawned for each subsequent phase.

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


 * In the first phase, the tentacles 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 destroying all of the tentacles, Conjunctivius resumes its primary attacks.

Primary Attacks

 * Both the dash (red-line) and static shock (white flash) attacks are both susceptible to shields and can be parried. Spiked Shields apply extra damage and Blood Shields apply bleed.
 * The dash can be roll-dodged. Proper timing will escape damage with invincibility frames.
 * Melee weapons like whips and spears have some advantage, as well as weapons with fast successive swings.

Tentacles

 * Tentacles can be parried. If they are underground, you must move a little to the side and face where the tentacle will erupt to parry. It is difficult to time, but doable.
 * The rushing tentacles in phases 2 and 3 can be parried. However, if they are not stunned (may happen when using the Punishment Shield), they will immediately submerge 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.
 * The Spider Rune can be used to climb the side walls and remain out of range of the tentacles indefinitely. This can be useful if time is needed to wait for cooldowns or to strategize. Turret traps will continue to fire and draw the tentacles' attention if placed directly below, and can completely eliminate all tentacles without any risk of injury.

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 to blunt attacks and deal damage.
 * The Bloodthirsty Shield can apply AoE bleeds to the main body and all tentacles, making it easier to apply damage-over-time.
 * The Rampart can be useful to deal with the Tentacle Phases, as its parries give you force fields to damage the tentacles without needing to roll-dodge.
 * The Cleaver is useful for Tentacle phase as you can lure them onto the grinder and apply consistent damage-over-time.
 * Oil, oil grenades, and torches perform well due to AoE DoTs.
 * Turrets are useful, but are less consistent due to Conjunctivius moving quickly out of their range. They can also distract to the boss and its tentacles from you while you deal damage undisturbed (enemies prioritize deployed turrets and friendly worms).
 * Barnacles can be particularly helpful thanks to their long range and wide angle of fire. One placed on a mid-height platform will stay powered if you are on the ground below and is 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 pinkeye.