Eyefestation is a black, malformed bull shark with numerous bright-green, glowing eyes of various sizes across the top of its snout and along its body. These eyes constantly produce rays of green light, which Eyefestation uses to hunt its prey.
Mechanics
Eyefestation has a chance to appear in rooms that have windows viewing the ocean outside, casting rays of green light from its eyes into the room. While the player is in view of Eyefestation's gaze, their camera will be drawn towards it, draining the player's health if eye contact is made. After the player opens the door to the next room, Eyefestation will swim away.
Notes
Occasionally, Eyefestation will try to telepathically communicate using HQ's voice to trick players into looking at it.
Shining a Flash Beacon towards Eyefestation will enrage it, turning its eyes red, and significantly increasing the pull and damage rate.
When enraged, Eyefestation will appear in every location possible for the player(s) who enraged it, this also applies for outraged Eyefestation.
Using a Flash Beacon on it again will outrage it, turning it purple, and further increasing the pull and damage rate.
It is usually not recommended to enrage (or outrage) Eyefestation, as the music played heavily impairs the player's ability to listen for Node Monsters, especially in The Ridge.
You can adjust the Enraged and Outraged OSTs in the settings menu as music, which is extremely recommended to do so.
If in an emergency, and the player is extremely low on health, they could consider flashing Eyefestation to quickly heal up to full health. However, they should consider whether the tradeoff is worth it, as the increased damage and encounter rate are likely to be detrimental to the success of the run.
Eyefestation spawns a couple of seconds after the door to its current room is opened, and will despawn after the next room's door is opened.
Eyefestation cannot spawn in rooms with sea mines outside the window.
Players will experience less camera pull in rooms containing a Keycard, in order to make it easier to search for it to open the next door.
In rooms with windows on multiple sides, Eyefestation may appear from two places at once.
In rooms with Good People doors, Eyefestation will trigger the Navi-AI panel, causing The p.AI.nter to send a message to the player through the panel using red text. This behavior is similar to when a Node Monster passes by the same type of door.
Eyefestation's behavior and mechanics do not deviate while in the ridge, appearing in rooms with ocean-view windows; however, due to the constant flickering light present in the Ridge, as well as potentially distracting players with its communication, an Eyefestation encounter in the ridge may leave players more vulnerable to an Angler or Pandemonium encounter.
The Gauntlet
Occasionally, the player may walk into a semi-long room, in which Z-779 will appear on the navi-path signs. After briefly teasing the player, it will begin The Gauntlet. Both doors to the room will be locked, and the player must survive an enraged Eyefestation for 15 seconds until the doors unlock. The player will hear a ticking sound and the navi-path of the next door becomes orange, displaying the remaining time. Once the timer is finished, the doors will unlock, the ticking sound will stop, and the player can proceed.
Hiding in lockers will pause the timer, with Z-779 beckoning the player to exit the locker.
The same applies when hiding out of Eyefestation's sight.
All players who are currently behind will be teleported into the room once The Gauntlet begins.
Eyefestation is immune to the Flash Beacon in gauntlet rooms but will remain outraged if you have used it in a previous room.
If Pandemonium or any other Node Monster is spawned in when a player opens a gauntlet room, the gauntlet will not start and the room can be continued through as normal.
While uncommon, it is possible for The Gauntlet to occur multiple times throughout the same run.
Strategy
In order to prevent one's life from being drained, the only way to combat Eyefestation's ability is to forcefully move one's cursor in the opposite direction of the pull, however, forcing your cursor excessively in the opposite direction will cause the direction of the pull to be switched. Lowering the in-game sensitivity of your mouse will help counter its strong pull.
Since Eyefestation's line of sight is done with raycasting, hiding in places that block its vision will cause the pull to stop until Eyefestation regains vision of the player. Hiding in hiding spots also works to avoid its gaze.
Using F9 to open the Developer Log can tell you if the room is a gauntlet, allowing for more time to prepare.
If you are unable to use F9, look at the general structure of the room. Gauntlet rooms are usually more empty than normal rooms.
If the room is unusually empty and the door doesn't close, it may be a Wall Dweller or a normal empty room.
Eyefestation was the first test subject of the B.U.P.W.M procedure to give humans the ability to kill via eye contact. Due to the experiment being unrefined, Eyefestation gained many excess eyes on its inside and outside as a side effect. The experiment also gave it the ability to attract ones eyes and telepathically speak to someone. During the breach, Sebastian Solace freed Eyefestation, although it instead stayed near the Blacksite, attempting to kill all operatives and EXR-P it encountered. After the lockdown ended, Eyefestation was killed by Urbanshade [Citation Needed].
Quotes
Trigger
Quote
Normal
"You may rest now."
"Please forgive me."
"Thank you."
"You deserve this."
"Pathetic."
"You are safe now."
"Try harder."
Trigger
Quote
Enraged
"THIS IS YOUR OWN FAULT"
"YOU'LL NEVER GET RID OF ME"
"YOU REALLY THOUGHT THAT WOULD WORK?"
"YOU MADE A BIG MISTAKE"
Trigger
Quote
Outraged
"YOU ARE A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT"
"YOU'LL NEVER GET RID OF ME"
"YOU REALLY THOUGHT THAT WOULD WORK?"
"WE BOTH DIE TONIGHT"
Trigger
Quote
Encounter
"You don't have a lot of time. You need to look into my eyes. All your friends, your family, loved ones, you'll get to see them again if you simply look into its eyes. I know you can hear me talking to you. Don't let them tell you otherwise. Don't believe what you've read. Look into my eyes. Look into my eyes. Look into my eyes. Why are you not looking? Do you not want to see them again? Do you not miss them? Do you hate them? You'll never get to see them unless you look into my eyes."
"New directive. Look into its eyes. Stop resisting and look into its eyes. Failure to look into my eyes will result in RDG detonation. Follow my orders. Failure t-to look into its eyes will result in execution. Follow my orders. Final warning. Failure to look into my eyes will result in immediate execution. Do you want to die? Do you want to fail? Look into my eyes. Failing to do so will result in immediate death. Are you this eager to die? Resistance is futile. Look into my eyes."
"Your primary objective is to let go. Look out the window. Look at the shark out the window. Look at the pretty creature. Observe its majestic form. Look at its eyes. Look at its many beautiful eyes. Look at its eyes. That is your primary directive. Look directly into its eyes. Look into its eyes. Look into my eyes. Why are you resisting? Why are you not looking at me? Do you not want to look at the majestic creature? Do you have no sense of beauty? Is your world so bleak that even when given the chance to see something beautiful, you resist it? Why don't you want to look at its majestic eyes? Do you hate me? I haven't done anything to you. I just want to show you something beautiful, and I want you to look into my eyes."
An early version of Eyefestation's model, depicting it as red. Its coloration predates its enraged mechanic.
An early version of red Eyefestation depicted in-game.
Ditto.
An early version of Eyefestation's model after having been changed to be green.
An early version of green Eyefestation depicted in-game.
Ditto.
Trivia
It is said that Eyefestation kills its victims by firing radiation through a person's optic nerve, effectively "melting" their brain. Sounds that generate when you look at its direction are the same as a Geiger Counter's.
This is because Eyefestation was an early experiment from the B.U.P.W.M program, a program designed to create procedures that allow humans to perform the same feat.
B.U.P.W.M is short for Blows Up Pancakes With Mind.[1]
Eyefestation can communicate telepathically with humans and presumably read their minds, replicating voices of those close to them to manipulate them into looking into its eyes.
Eyefestation was scheduled to be executed before the containment breach as it had outlived its usage to Urbanshade.[2]
It is said that Eyefestation's internal organs are also infested with moving eyes.
The badge given to the player upon flashing Eyefestation (+ENRAGED) is a direct reference to a style bonus from ULTRAKILL with the same name, also appearing when enraging an enemy.
When a gauntlet room spawns, Z-779 refers to Eyefestation as a "pissed off shark".
As of the 'Friendly Fire' update, Eyefestation, as well as Sebastian Solace, are the only monsters that react to the Flash Beacon aggressively.
Pink, blue, yellow and white stages of Eyefestation exist, although they are admin-exclusive.[4][5][6][7] Its pull strength and damage speed in these states are currently unknown, though these may possibly be cosmetic.
Eyefestation can rarely be found in Regretevator in a out of bounds area behind a rock wall in the main lobby.
An early description of Eyefestation mentioned it being able to destroy the lights in a room. It is unknown if this behavior was ever implemented at any stage in development.[8]