The Giant

The Giant is the fifth boss in Dead Cells, added in the Rise of the Giant update. His corpse rests in the The Prisoners' Quarters until the player beats The Hand of the King.

Once The Hand of the King is beaten, The Giant awakens from the starting cell and busts down the door found after the starting items, where the Cavern Key lies. If the player follows him, a small cutscene will play, then a key can be found to permanently unlock the Cavern entrance from the Graveyard. The Key must be used on the door for it to remain open.

His boss fight is found in the Guardian's Haven, reached from the Cavern or from a 2+ BSC door in the Forgotten Sepulcher.

Attacks

 * Punch
 * An arena-wide swing that’s much quicker than it seems. Deals high damage and pushes the player into the lava.


 * Energy orbs
 * The Giant opens a fist to fire a salvo of energy orbs across the arena. Can be reflected with a shield or deleted by any skill that destroys projectiles (e.g. Wave of Denial, Tornado).


 * Ground pound
 * A fist drop that hurts as it descends, and sends out shockwaves on impact.


 * Charge up & Flurry attack
 * Each fist may clench and gather energy, with its charge level visible on that shoulder’s pauldron. If the left fist charges up 3 times, it performs 3 ground pound attacks in rapid succession; if it's the right hand, the hand will blast out 4 waves of Energy Orbs.

When enraged
Once The Giant’s health drops below 50%, he roars and gains new attacks:


 * Double ground pound
 * The Giant puts his fists together and drops them both onto the ground, covering a wider area and producing overlapping shockwaves. This causes sharp crystals to drop from the ceiling for a long period of time, like the falling swords of The Time Keeper or the collapsing ceiling from Ground Shakers.

Eye lasers

The Giant shoots out two beams of lasers out of his eyesockets that sweep inward and restrict the player to the center of the arena. They deal damage on contact, can't be rolled through, and will repel the player if they roll or walk into them, trapping them in the center until they end.

Battle mechanics
The Giant’s fists each have their own health, everytime one of them are killed, they will regenerate to full health until the battle ends.

The player must first reduce a fist’s HP to 0 to actually deal damage, killing a fist will cause it to fall to the ground. Doing that, an eyeball will start to dangle out of The Giant’s skull. That eyeball needs to be damaged in order for the Giant to lose his actual HP. When the eyeball is out, the player can climb onto and stand on the downed fist for better aiming.

The eyeball will remain there for only 3 seconds, and there is no maximum amount of damage that can be caused during that time, but when the time passes, the eyeball retreats and the Giant goes back to attacking with his fists. The eyeball will only come out once one of the fists loses its health again. If you defeat one hand with a parry, it will regain full health instantly and the eye will not pop out.

Tips

 * Damage from the falling crystal shards can be reduced by Masochist.
 * Grenades and burst damage items are really useful for delivering huge amounts of damage for when the eyeball comes out, like the Powerful Grenade,
 * Killing a fist while the eye is out will reset the 3 second timer, but that is not recommended since it will require repositioning for damage dealing, for the previous fist will go back to regenerating and stop being a platform.
 * Using automatic skills like turrets like the Double Crossb-o-matic and the Heavy Turret allows for continuous damage to the fists even when attacking the eyeball, which will allow for more damage earlier. The Double Crossb-o-matic will shoot both of the Giant's hands at once.
 * The Parry Shield and Spite mutation work excellently to reflect the laser orbs, sometimes reducing a fist’s HP to 0 by parrying one salvo.
 * Ranged weapons are useful to attack the fists while they hover in the air.
 * Quick melee weapons that slow your descent when used are your best choice, slower weapons are not that useful. It is difficult to damage the fists with slow melee weapons, since they move a lot.
 * Traps other than the Barnacle tend not to be very useful, as most of The Giant’s attacks destroy them instantly. The Crusher also struggles to hit The Giant’s fists at all.
 * The Giant’s fists are immune to many statuses, such as being rooted to the ground.
 * Neither the fists or eyes have a back or front, making Assassin's Dagger and Vorpan ineffective choices.
 * The Giant will not attack while he is vulnerable, but crystals will still fall from the ceiling.
 * The falling crystals can be repelled with Wave of Denial.
 * Networking is very usefull versus the giant, since you easily kill the other hand while still attacking the eye. However, killing the Hand of the King after is difficult, because this setup is bad against him.

Lore
The Giant was in the Royal Guard, indicated by the huge painting in High Peak Castle depicting him under the King's banner. His duty was to guard the gates of the Castle. He has a negative opinion on the Hand of the King, who returns his dislike also with hatred. They both do agree that nobody likes the alchemist, however.

"The Giant didn't like the Hand of the King, and the Hand of the King didn't like the Giant. But they did agree on one point: nobody liked the Alchemist."

During the Malaise epidemic, the Giant warned the King that his methods would lead the island to its ruin. In response, the King had his men kill the Giant with a spear and dump his corpse in the Prisoners' Quarters, which explains the huge skeleton lying there. While the King gave instructions to make sure the Giant would never rise again, beating the Hand of the King for the first time reawakens The Giant.

When reaching The Giant for the first time, he reveals The Beheaded as the former King, his body lost to the Malaise. The Giant thinks poorly of the Beheaded, but still respects his title — The Giant is one of only two characters to call him "My King" (the other a small cutscene with the Hand of the King).

When defeated, The Giant again expresses his frustration and disappointment with the King's actions, then sinks in the lava while calling him "an incorrigible ass" and giving him the middle finger. The Beheaded returns the gesture.

When reaching The Giant with 4 BSC active, he wears a crystal on his forehead identical to the one on the King's chest. Defeating him triggers a different dialogue where The Giant admits that he was defeated fairly. He gives the 5th Boss Stem Cell to the player, noting that it might be of more use to him, then his head explodes before he can finish his sentence. This cutscene cannot be seen again once the 5th Boss Stem Cell is absorbed.

The Beheaded doesn't seem to be able to understand The Giant's speech as he is unaware that he is the king.

Trivia

 * The Giant is basically a skeleton wearing heavy armor. However, parts of his faces are animate for unknown reasons.