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, found in the Insufferable Crypt.

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

Damage of a single hit is capped at 15% of Conjunctivius' maximum health. The damage cap for her tentacles is 25%.

Primary Attacks
Conjunctivius moves around the room, attached 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 7 to 8 poison shots out from her eye in a sun pattern. After each tentacle phase, another set of shots is added.
 * A red circle flashes around Conjunctivius, then bursts into electricity, similar to the Shocker.

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

Tentacle Phases
After reaching 75%, 50%, and 25% health (clarification needed), Conjunctivius will break a shackle and summons tentacles. All the platforms are deactivated and she moves to the center of the room, gaining damage immunity as well as a force field.

She spawns 3 tentacles in the first phase. An additional tentacle is spawned for each subsequent phase.

After destroying a tentacle, all enemy activity briefly ceases as she takes some damage instantly before firing harmless lightning bolts to the tentacles. The remaining tentacles will increase in speed and change their color.


 * In the first phase, the tentacles burrow underground and follow the player, popping up to deal damage.
 * In the second and third phase, a tentacle may also charge across the room, dealing damage on contact.
 * After destroying all of the tentacles, Conjunctivius resumes her primary attacks.

Primary Attacks

 * Both the red-line dash and static shock (flashing circle) attacks can be shielded and parried. Spiked Shield deals extra damage and the Bloodthirsty Shield applies bleed.
 * The dash can be roll-dodged. Proper timing will escape damage with invincibility frames.
 * Long-range 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 then burst from the ground. A skilled player would make sure that the tentacles will stay in place before starting to attack.

Weapons/Items

 * Most crowd-control effects (freezing/slowing/etc.) will have very brief (if any) effect on the main body or the tentacles. But they are affected by bleed, poison and fire damage.
 * However, the Wolf Trap is an exception as it can disable a rapid-moving tentacle when it's charging, allowing the player to easily defeat it. It can also be used to briefly trap the boss.
 * 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 phases, 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 ' tentacles coming out of her mouth. This was later scrapped.

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."'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.'"After this encounter, the Beheaded finds that same trail of green goo and an empty cocoon next to a bigger hole in the wall, made by an adolescent Conjunctivius ."'(...) 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.'"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."'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. 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." 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! "

Trivia

 * Prior to the v0.7, the Baguette Update, Conjunctivius was named The Watcher. In the game files, she is called Beholder.
 * Conjunctivius used to be named Conjonctivius.
 * Conjunctivius's name is a reference to conjunctivitis, an inflammation of the eye commonly known as pink eye..
 * When defeated, her eye will cycle through various colors before she explodes.
 * Conjuctivius makes an appearance at the end of the Dead Cells' animated release trailer.
 * She is somehow still able to move around even without the chains.