Dead Cells The Time Keeper Boss Guide | Kill The Clock

The Time Keeper is the first tier 2 boss that you’ll face in Dead Cells. As such, it’s the first major encounter that you’ll have with a boss that could easily end your run. The Concierge is a boss that most players master very quickly, but this is the wall that can make or break most runs for players in the future. In this Dead Cells The Time Keeper boss guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about this boss. Including strategies to work around all of its attacks and defenses.

What is The Time Keeper?

The Time Keeper is a colossal enemy with two swords. You’ll face her in the Clock Room, an area that comes at the end of your first tier 2 segment. She has the ability to move extremely fast and can pause or speed up time in small areas. This makes her a foe to be reckoned with.

Attacks and Strategies

Here, we’re going to go through all of the attacks and defenses that this boss might throw at you. Sometimes you’ll see them all. Others, you’ll see a few and then get the boss to die before she can do anything else. It all depends on the equipment you’ve managed to pick up when you face her. Your skills and attack will also play a huge part in your ability to destroy her.

Phase 1

The following attacks are all part of the first phase of this boss fight.

Sword Slash

The boss will move quickly towards you and slash with her swords. This is fast, but if you’re quick you can block, parry, or dodge out of the way. It’s hard to know when this attack will be used though.

Shuriken

This attack sees the boss throw a single shuriken at you. It’s a projectile that will deal damage if it hits you. It can’t be blocked, but you can dodge or parry the attack. If you manage to parry it, you’ll send the projectile hurling back at the boss. It should deal a little damage if you get it right.

Hook and Slash

This attack sees The Time Keeper throw out a hook at the player. If it connects, it’ll draw you in towards her and then stick you in place. After that, the boss will hit you with a massive attack that deals a tonne of damage. Luckily, you can parry, block, or dodge that initial hook, so you don’t have to get caught if you’re quick. If you get hooked, you can then block the melee attack if you time things right. Just watch for when it’s about to land.

Teleport

This move will make The Time Keeper teleport to the opposite side of the arena. This usually happens right before the Hook and Slash or Shuriken move is used.

Shuriken Shield

This move occurs when the boss hits about 70% health. It also signals the beginning of the second phase of the fight. The boss will create a shield shape of shurikens around her that then fly outwards to hit the player. These can all be blocked, parried, or dodged through, but you’ll have to be persistent to avoid taking damage. any parries that you do make will send shurikens flying back at the boss and dealing damage to her.

Phase 2

All of the following moves are what the boss adds to her arsenal at about 70% health.

Two-Hit Slash Combination

The boss moves forward twice, often in two directions. She’ll slash with each move she makes. If you dodge the first hit and get to the other side of her, keep moving because she can come after you and hit you. you can still dodge, parry, or block these attacks.

Shuriken Combination

This move is the same as the initial shuriken attack, but now the boss will throw out three shurikens. They can still be blocked or dodged, and parrying them sends them back at the boss. If you jump to avoid the projectiles, the boss will track your movement and target you in the air as well.

Lightspeed

This move is an incredibly fast slash that the boss will make across the entire arena. It will damage you if you’re hit while the boss is doing it. While you can’t block, dodge, or parry this attack, you can jump over it to avoid taking any damage at all.

Shuriken Shield

This move is similar to the first Shuriken Shield. The only difference is that the boss will teleport away and you’ll then enter a cutscene. The boss will then perform the move and say, “let’s finish this.” The main difference here is that you might be far enough away that you can jump between the gaps between two shurikens. This will only happen if the boss teleports very far away from you though. This move occurs at 50% health for The Time Keeper and signals the beginning of the third and final phase of the fight.

Phase 3

All of the following moves are only used after the boss hits 50% health.

Sword Rain

Swords begin to fall randomly all over the arena, damaging you if you’re hit by them. This attack can’t be parried, but it can be blocked. If you’re careful though, you can dodge almost every single sword as it falls. That’s a difficult strategy to pull off though.

Three-Hit Slash Combination

Much like the two Slash attacks above, this one is a three-hit combo that the boss will pull out. As with the attack in phase 2, she will move with every hit and can change direction to match where you are.

Extreme Shuriken Combination

This is the same as the multiple shurikens attack in phase 2, but now the boss throws five of them at you.

Lightspeed Combination

The boss moves quickly across the arena, hitting you every time she does. She will do this three times in phase 3, but you can jump over her every time if you’re good at movement.

Best Strategy

As with The Concierge, the best tactic when taking this boss on is to have a lot of traps and turrets. These can deal damage over time and hold the boss in place. There is a dramatic difference to the difficulty in this fight when you trap the boss in place. You should have enough time between phases that you can drop a trap every time the boss breaks out of one. Having a trap that also does frost damage will help even more since this will slow the boss down and any attacks she does make.

Swords and shields that have detrimental effects on the boss will go a long way to taking down the time it takes to kill her. However, you’ll need to maintain a close distance, otherwise, those items will lose their effectiveness. This is why having a trap combination to use as well can be a real game-changer for any player.

The one attack that you really need to look out for is Lightspeed in any of the phases. This attack is pretty much unavoidable. The boss moves so fast that she’s guaranteed to hit you at least once. Dropping a trap right as she teleports away can help you avoid her incoming hits though. She’ll still move and slash, but she won’t get anywhere near as close to you.

Dead Cells The Time Keeper Lore

As part of this Dead Cells The Time Keeper guide, we want you to know everything there is to know about this boss. AS such, we’ve included all lore and facts about her that are known.

A letter left by this boss indicates that she’s actually just reliving the same day over and over again. She keeps track of every person and infected that she has killed, but marks every diary entry as “Day 1.” It’s implied that her tasks exhaust her because she seems to perform fewer executions as the diary entries go on. It’s said that she requested that the King build the Clock Tower, but no one knows why she asked for it.

This boss was first added to the game with the Brutal Update. Before that, she was named The Assassin. There’s actually a smaller enemy that’s present in later areas of the game called the Automaton, and it replicates her three-hit slash attack.

Interestingly, you can end the boss fight before the boss enters the second or third phase of the fight. If you have the weapons to deal colossal amounts of damage, then you can end it all within the first phase of the fight and never have to worry about the others.

The Time Keeper is the first female boss players encounter in Dead Cells. Every time she is defeated, she teleports to the middle of the room before dying. Players believe that this indicates that she remembers every death in every run before the current one. She actually teleports away after being defeated, which means that she is one of only two bosses that can’t technically be killed in the game.

Source: https://thecenturionreport.com/dead-cells-the-time-keeper-boss-guide-kill-the-clock/