Cephalopods

No description.

Nickname "**Cephalopods**" is a giant robot-like, spherical pod. It appears to be heavily damaged but still active. It has a laser cannon and only one remaining functional leg for support. It resides in large mounds of blue energy and is covered in it itself, both of which constantly pulsate. What appears to be eyes and a skull are among the more noticeable details of the blue energy that it's covered in. It serves as a replacement to the barricade as well as the final boss of location 8 and the game.

Cephalopods is the original source of the plague, and destroying it is the primary goal of DA:ZW.

Cephalopods has three phases:

* Phase 1 – 12,500 - 9,375 health (100 - 75% health left): Does nothing. Two Eggs are pre-placed. Swarms of Blue Runners, Undeads, Charged Zombies, and Energy Spheres constantly attack the bus throughout the entire fight. Warthog occasionally appears.
* Phase 2 – 9,375 - 6,250 health (75 - 50% health left): Upon its health going down by a quarter or less, it fires a big laser that damages the bus and destroys everything else, before dragging itself back to its original position. After that, it fires an incendiary bolt every 20 seconds or so.
* Phase 3 – 6,250 - 0 health (50 - 0% health left): When its health reaches to a half, it fires another big laser, after which a minute countdown begins. If Cephalopods survives this minute, it destroys the bus with another laser attack.

After Cephalopods is destroyed, players are shown a short ending cutscene with Bill getting off the bus, spitting once, then saying "So easy."

### Abilities

* Fires huge laser beams that destroy everything and deal some damage to the bus.
	+ Occasionally fires an incendiary lightning bolt (20s attack interval) to zap and destroy units/zombies caught in its area of effect, with a notable damage dropoff at range.
* All attacks ignore fire resistance.
* Sets off a minute timer at 50% health. If not defeated, it destroys the bus with a laser attack.
* Bullet resistance (90% damage reduction).
* Immune to fire.
* Immune to knockback.
* Cannot take critical damage.
* Immune to all types of stun.

## Trivia

* This is the fourth and last boss that has been added, others being Paramedic, Boss, and Marauder Vehicle.
* Although Cephalopods produce the same sound and visual effects that barricades make when hit while being unable to take critical damage, it merely simulates the behavior of one.
	+ It is capable of being attacked by all ranged units and take damage from explosions. However, both Builder and Saw's special abilities won't work on it. Because of this, it is treated more closely as an enemy rather than a barricade, unlike Marauder Vehicle.
* Cephalopods is the only enemy in the Zombipedia that technically lacks a proper entry, as all stats shown are incorrect and its description contains no information whatsoever.
* Similarly to Paramedic's special attack, Cephalopods' electrical bolt does fire damage, so units that are resistant or immune to fire are more likely to survive it. Its laser does not follow this, despite using the same animation.
* Cephalopods appears differently in-game than what is shown on its Zombiepedia page. The image appears to be of much lower quality and lacks many details that appear in actual gameplay, suggesting it may be a concept image.
* Cephalopods, along with Twins and Sapper, have the highest bullet resistance among enemies in the entire game.
* Cephalopods, along with Paramedic and EMT, are the only enemies to face left in the Zombiepedia.
* Currently, out of all the units in the game, only Willy and level 13 Soldier with his special unlocked are capable of surviving Cephalopods' laser beam attack, as the attack does nearly 10,000 damage, but does not ignore their shield points which can dismiss one attack.
* Throughout stage 7, broken objects that look similar to Cephalopods appear in the background. However, these versions of Cephalopods have a few tentacles-like attachments and appear to be deactivated.
* After defeating Cephalopods while some enemies are still present on the battlefield, they will be dealt 2,147,483,647 damage and die immediately. However, reviving enemies such as Undead will not be destroyed if they are currently lying on the ground, and remain unaffected even after the revive.
* Cephalopods' laser attack reuses assets from the Railgun in the original Dead Ahead.
* For some reason, during its transitional lasers it seemingly does 229 damage to something in front of it. It was assumed to be self damage but its HP doesn't change.
* Similar to most boss-type enemies, Cephalopods drops 50 rage, which is rather redundant since destroying this enemy ends the level, precluding any rage use.
* During the 2023 Reddit Q&A, it was said that Cephalopods is a collective image of extraterrestrial enemies from many popular culture works, taking bits of inspiration from many of them.
* Visually Cephalopods starts off inactive, but then quickly becomes active after Bill arrives. It has some "eggs" besides it that are active during the entire battle, but upon reaching the 2nd stage (50% HP) and after it fully fires its laser, the eggs on the side will play an agitated animation.
	+ The agitated animation on the eggs can be skipped entirely by killing it too quickly and not letting it play the animation fully.
	+ Prior to the 3.8.2 update, Cephalopods was not immune to stun from Willy's attacks, making him a rather useful counter.

## Gallery

Journal entry.One of the inactive Cephalopods-like machines in the background of a mission in stage 7.