Tentacle

Template:Infobox Boss Tentacle (触手, Shokushu) is an enemy in the Gradius series.

Background

The Tentacle is a standard enemy, created in the first Gradius game, and has also appeared in some other games since. It is a large purple ball, approximately twice as large as the Vic Viper. They have pale gray arms, with one yellow segment and claws on the end. The arms Tentacles deploy are similar to those of the Golem, and are used as normal enemies in games such as Gradius II.

In the first game, Tentacles act as the sub-boss to the stage they're in.

Attack patterns

These enemies generate arms, which can be destroyed by attacking a specially colored arm segment. They will attempt to fire many projectiles in the direction of the player, although they have very poor aim and it's fairly easy to sit in one spot and let them fire away at nothing. Their cores can be destroyed but can take a lot of punishment, slowly shrinking in size each time they're shot at until they explode. It's often worth just destroying the arms and letting the brains float away.

Anime

A pack of Tentacles appear in the second volume of Salamander. One Tentacle briefly appears in the third volume.

Gallery

Tentacle artwork (PCE)

Tentacle artwork (NES)

Goal

Tentacle in the Salamander anime

Tentacle from Gradius III

Trivia

• Legion (saint)'s core form from Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Legion's core from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow are apparently based on the this enemy, being that they're both floating spherical cores with three tentacles that end in claws from which they shoot lasers at the player.