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Astral Ascent: The Dead Cells Rendezvous Update

Welcome Prisoners...


After 6 months of undercover work, we are so glad to say the Dead Cells update for Astral Ascent is now live! Jump into the latest update with 5 brand new weapons, 15 new passives, and a dual weapon system! [previewyoutube=HiapflgmtbY;full][/previewyoutube]

What to expect?


5 unique weapons from Dead Cells
  • Nutcracker for Kiran
  • Throwing Knives for Ayla
  • Wrenching Whip for Octave
  • Scythe Claw for Calie
  • Symmetrical Lance for Yamat
Another huge thanks and congrats to the team at Hibernian Workshop! It's been a blast seeing this update come to life!

Astral Ascent


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1280930/Astral_Ascent/

Astral Ascent & Dead Cells Bundle


https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46767/Dead_Cells__Astral_Ascent_Duo/

And if this awesome crossover wasn't enough, you can now find Dead Cells in the brand-new Ultimate Action Packed Bundle... Bundle! Which includes:


  • Dead Cells
  • Astral Ascent
  • One Step From Eden
  • Ember Knights
  • Nine Sols

Check it out!


https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/47308


[ 2024-11-27 18:01:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dead Cells The Rogue-Lite Board Game is Out Now!

Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game is now available in stores!


In this novel take on the Dead Cells formula, up to four players can each play as one of the four Beheaded and leap into a co-operative rogue-lite experience. Players will explore a sprawling island, starting with the Prisoners Quarters, and slash their way through the malaise-infected horde of enemies all the way up to the High Peak Castle to defy the infamous Hand of the King... or die trying. The board game invites players to rediscover iconic biomes, monsters, and weapons like never before, with completely reimagined visuals. In this unique board game adaptation, each run takes you further as every death makes you stronger. Unlock hundreds of weapons, mutations, and skills in a game as rich and rewarding as the video game. Explore. Kill. Die. Mutate. Repeat. For more information and to purchase, head to https://deadcellstheboardgame.com [previewyoutube=Rya_0pB2vVY;full][/previewyoutube]


[ 2024-11-08 15:08:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dead Cells: Immortalis Episode 1 English Dub

It's finally time...


Dead Cells: Immortalis Episode 1 is now available with English dubbing!


[previewyoutube=B3gdVvAu0fo;full][/previewyoutube]


[ 2024-10-07 22:10:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to, La Motion Week!

Hey everyone!


We have A LOT of stuff going on over the coming days and weeks, so we wanted to bring all of that together in one nice package! So without further ado, welcome to La Motion Week!

Windblown launches on October 24th with a demo available even sooner on October 14th!


Windblown launches in Early Access on Steam on October 24, 2024.


Playable in both single-player and up to three players in co-operative online multiplayer, you wont have to wait long to dive into this original world where build synergy and fast reflexes are key to success. [previewyoutube=Zu_UoCzDu3Q;full][/previewyoutube]

Try the Single Player Demo on October 14th during Steam Next Fest


The single-player demo will be released during this years Steam Next Fest, running October 14th through October 21st with your progression carrying over into the game on October 24th. Additionally, players who try out the demo will unlock an exclusive Guinea Pig skin for their character in the Early Access release.

Dead Cells and its DLCs get a special price from October 3rd, for 1 week!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/588650/Dead_Cells/

Dead Cells: The Rogue-lite Board Game is hitting stores near you November 8th


After an exceptional Kickstarter campaign, Dead Cells the board game is coming to stores near you!


In this novel take on the Dead Cells formula, play with up to four players as one of the four Beheaded and leap into a co-operative rogue-lite experience. [previewyoutube=RIUxPDFDKJk;full][/previewyoutube] Rediscover iconic biomes, monsters, and weapons like never before, with completely reimagined visuals. Each run takes you further as every death makes you stronger. Unlock hundreds of weapons, mutations, and skills in a game as rich and rewarding as the video game.

Dead Cells Immortalis: The Animated Series, English version live on October 8th


Action and comedy in a not-so-glorious quest to save the Kingdom.


The show takes place on (surprise, surprise) a cursed island that has been racked by a strange plague. After the islands foolish king develops a remedy that ends up turning the population into monstrous creatures, prophecies depicting a flame-headed hero who will kill the crazy King begin to appear. As it so happens, this beheaded hero is real, but saving a kingdom isnt on his schedule and he just wants to be left alone. Well, guess who isn't going to be left alone...

The Beheaded is finally coming to you with an English voice!


Made of course by Bobbypills, the French studio behind our animated trailers and Co-produced by the also French anime streaming service Animation Digital Network (ADN). And in collaboration with Motion Twin and Evil Empire, the 10, roughly seven-minute long episodes, are initially exclusive to France before being made available worldwide. But we are happy to share that the English VO version of Dead Cells: Immortalis will broadcast its first episode on October 8 right here


[ 2024-10-03 17:01:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 35: The End is Near is now live!

Hey everyone! It took us a longer time than usual to prepare, but better late than never: the 35th updated The End is Near is here! In this update, we are stuffing in new mobs, weapons, mutations and biome effects all expanding on the curse mechanic, 40+ new head skins, almost 20 new legendary affixes, extra accessibility options and more! TLDR:

  • New additions based on one of our most iconic mechanics, Curse: 3 new mobs, 3 new weapons, 3 new mutations and a new biome effect for you to choose whether you are gonna take the risk for more rewards or not.
  • New legendary affixes.
  • 40+ new heads for customization options.
  • New routing: you can now go to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one run.
  • More accessibility options.

New Curse Additions:


3 new mobs:
  • Sore Loser: a cutie who cant hurt you but is super clingy and annoying, always trying to be close to you and dash through you. When you kill it, you get cursed.
  • Doom Bringer: every melee attack from it wont cause damage, but will apply 2 stacks of curse and stun you, and you will instantly die if you have already got 50 stacks of curse. Sounds pretty fair right?
  • Curser: it launches a slow homing projectile that can go through the walls. If you accidentally get caught by this projectile, you take damage and 5 stacks of curse. One more surprise! If you get close to it, it will bonk you with its staff.
Please note that cursed mobs wont spawn randomly in your run! (yeah, we know mobs giving curses sounds a bit scary and even annoying) There is a new biome effect, Cursed Biomes, which features the new cursed mobs in exchange for extra rewards. You can choose to go into it with its rewards, or go to the other biomes that dont have any scary cursed mobs.

Here is more info about how Cursed Biome works in your run:
  • Cursed biomes only spawn in runs with a Boss Cell level 2 or higher (boss fight biomes wont be cursed).
  • Just like biome incentives, there will be a specific icon above the exit to a cursed biome, so that you can have the choice of taking this challenge or just going to the other normal biomes.
  • A cursed biome always contains 9 (+/-2) cursed mobs randomly selected from Curser, Sore Loser and Doom Bringer.
  • There is, of course, a reward for that risk: all the items dropped in a cursed biome will drop 1 gear level higher, regardless of their source (shop, loots, etc.). The spawn chance of cursed chests also increases by 10% in such biomes.
  • There is a cap to the number of cursed biomes that you can go through on your route, depending on the BC level, set as follows: from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (i.e. in 5BC, there is no cap).
  • This cap only limits the number of Cursed Biomes that you can go to in a run, it doesnt mean that you must go through that many Cursed Biomes to finish your run.
  • Once you have hit the cap, no more cursed biomes will appear in that run. Until you have hit the cap, cursed biomes will continue to appear.
  • As long as you havent reached the cap, biomes always have a 25% chance of being cursed. There will always be at least 1 biome without cursed mobs at any point in your run, no exceptions.
With new infested monsters, we of course prepared more powerful weapons and mutations for you: 3 new weapons:
  • Anathema: rip a Mushroom Bois heart out to fire a heavy indirect projectile dealing AOE damage. However, there is a price for being an utter savage - you will get cursed if your attack hits anything. Yep, you only get cursed if you hit something. Whoever is creating these curses doesn't care how many mushrooms you tear apart, just if you hit anything afterwards. Makes you think...
  • Indulgence: Calls down a ray of vengeful light on the nearest enemy dealing critical damage if you are not cursed. Targets killed by the ray purge you of 3 stacks of curse instead of 1. Fires 1 additional ray per 5 stacks of curse you have (max: 5 per cast).
  • Misericorde: inflicts crits if the victim has less than 50% HP. Curses you if the crit doesn't kill its target.
3 new mutations (all colorless):
  • Cursed Flask: your health flask has infinite charges but also curses you 20 times each time you use it. But can you survive from those 20 stacks of curse? TAKE CARE, my friends
  • Damned Vigor: upon being dealt fatal damage, you stay alive at 1 HP for 2 seconds. If you kill any enemy while under this effect, you will be saved. Otherwise, when the effect disappears or you get hit while under it, you instantly die without any sort of protection applicable.
  • Demonic Strength: Damage increases by 30% if you are cursed. This bonus is increased by 2% per curse stack you have. Cursed Sword counts as 1 stack for this effect (no special bonus for it, but you can still stack curses on top of it).
Also, after digesting a bunch of suggestions from you guys, weve done a bunch of reworking and rebalancing on the legendary weapons that needed it.

New legendary affixes:


  • Flawless: NEW Almost Perfect: Killing an enemy within one second after getting hit allows you continue causing crits.
  • Gold Digger: NEW Filthy Rich: Crit multiplier increases with your gold.
  • Punishment: NEW Punish Combo: Recasts the AOE effect if it kills at least one target.
  • Rampart: NEW Mirror Coating: Reflects damage of attacks received while under the effect of the shield's force field. This damage scales with the attack received (i.e., the stronger the attack is, the more damage the shield reflects).
  • Cocoon: NEW Parry Streak: Each consecutive parry reduces Cocoon's cooldown the next time it starts.
  • Emergency Door: NEW Armoured Door: The door can't be destroyed by enemies (except for bosses).
  • Bone: NEW Whirlwind: Increases the last attack's whirlwind duration by 2 sec with every enemy it kills.
  • Wrenching Whip: NEW Retiarus: The first attack throws 3 crow's feet in front of you (with the same internal cooldown as the grenade affix).
  • Explosive Decoy: NEW Foolproof: The cooldown of the item is instantly reset if its explosion doesn't hit at least one target.
  • Barrel Launcher: Triple Bullet (i.e. not a new affix, but we changed the one it had before).
  • Leghugger: NEW Mitosis: Summons 2 Leghuggers instead of 1.
  • Assault Shield: NEW Charged Dash: Holding the shield button will charge a stronger version of the dash, which can then be used by releasing the button.
  • Ice Shards: NEW Bouncy: Projectiles bounce on the ground twice before disappearing.
  • Quick Bow: NEW Sharpshooter: Critical hits will refill one ammo.
  • Bladed Tonfas: NEW Lacerator: Only uses the first attack of the combo.
  • Grappling Hook: NEW Octavio: Also fires a chain behind you.
  • Tesla Coil: NEW Double Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.
  • Lightning Rods: NEW Double Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.

Some notable balances:


  • The Bank is slightly easier in 2, 4 and 5BC. Yeah, SLIGHTLY...
  • The Throw Master's bone projectile deals less damage in Return to Castlevania DLC.
  • Alienation rework: Instead of healing the player per curse reduced, it will now heal the player when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health recovered based on the max amount of curses you had (for that curse instance). The effect only starts triggering when the player had more than 5 curses, and requires 35 stacks of curse to fully heal you.

New head customization:


What do we have in the Tailors Daughters secret stash?
  • Flame heads based on various appearances of the Beheaded along the years to make sure you are always in a suit and tie.
  • Bosses heads such as the Queen, the Time keeper, etc. As if you could become as badass as those bosses with their smart brain.

  • And lots of strange and secret heads, such as the Cell Head, are waiting for you!

New routing


  • We've also changed the connections between biomes:
  • Added an exit to Master's Keep in High Peak Castle.
  • Added exits to Corrupted Prison and Ossuary in Castle's Outskirts.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (early) in Corrupted Prison and Toxic Sewers.
  • Added an exit to Black Bridge in Dracula's Castle (early).
  • Added an exit to Defiled Necropolis in Ossuary.
  • Replaced the exit to Fractured Shrines in Defiled Necropolis by an exit to Graveyard.
  • Added a light source in the Mimic Hint lore room, when it spawns in Forgotten Sepulcher.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (late) in Mausoleum, Guardian's Haven and Clock Room.
Yes, this does mean that you can now go to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one run...

More accessibility options:


  • Added two new sets of control icons and an option to select them. You can select either "Legacy" (current icons), "New" (a new, cleaner set) or "Big" (accessibiliy focused, easier to read).
  • Changed the Daily Challenge's boss arrow opacity, for better visibility.
  • Added new input options for the "going through platform" action.
  • Added options to change the controller triggers' deadzone.
  • Reworked the Auto-hit assist mode option. It will no longer force the use of a melee weapon in the first slot.
  • Added an option to add a background to most texts in the game. The background's color and opacity can be adjusted.
  • The left stick can now be used to scroll through item descriptions in the pause menu.
  • Added options to fully invert the player and camera movement.
  • Added a bunch of options to tweak the camera's behavior. The influence of the player's movement, combat, or points of interest can be customized.
  • Split the "controller sticks deadzone" into two options, one for each stick.
  • Added an outline option for spikes.
  • Added a button to center the minimap on the player.

And thats all!


To the players - Thank you for everything. Thank you for all of your dedication, passion, and feedback. Dead Cells wouldn't be what it is today without all of you. And a huge thanks to everyone who worked on the game, from previous Motion Twin members to everyone at Evil Empire. If you want to stay up to date on what the two teams are doing next, you can check out Windblown and The Rogue Prince of Persia below:

Evil Empire


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2717880/The_Rogue_Prince_of_Persia/

Motion Twin


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911610/Windblown/ Cheers, EE & MT


[ 2024-08-19 06:16:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Return to Castlevania 1st Anniversary!

If you somehow missed it the first time, you're in for a treat!


It's been a whole year since you stormed Dracula's Castle on a new quest, met famous heroes, fought classic monsters with iconic weapons and confronted Death & Dracula in epic boss battles, all backed by original and re-imagined tunes! And to celebrate this joyous occasion, we've dropped the price on the base game and all DLC, including Return to Castlevania! There's no better time to storm the castle and take the fight to old Dracula himself.
[previewyoutube=56n3spvD2M0;full][/previewyoutube]

What you can expect...


Castle Outskirts


Before you can enter Dracula's Castle, you'll need to venture through the gardens, across the moat and up the ramparts while avoiding traps and fighting off countless evil minions. Don't get distracted by the view and keep your eyes peeled for hidden pathways, secret rooms and a certain energetic feline...

Dracula's Castle


Moonlight streaming through stained glass windows. Ornate pillars holding up ceilings of magnificent halls. Towering spires pushing into the night sky over fortified battlements. The beauty of Dracula's Castle hides a dark heart, as undead creatures wait to pounce from every direction. Make your way from the entrance hall to the top of the castle and find the lair of the most powerful vampire of them all...

Boss Fights


This DLC comes with not 1, but 3 new bosses! Death and Dracula take no prisoners and you are no exception. Be prepared for epic battles against majestic backdrops where the winner takes it all... If you manage to beat these two creatures then prepare yourself for our most ambitious boss showdown yet!

Weapons


14 new weapons can be won in this DLC, like the Vampire Killer, Throwing Axe & Holy Water. Each classic Castlevania item has been translated into the fast-paced combat of Dead Cells while keeping their original essence. Wield whips, crosses and holy powers to carve your way through hordes of the undead and tame the evil powers of the night.

Richter Mode


Hidden somewhere in the castle is a bizarre room that turns you into the indomitable vampire hunter, Richter Belmont! Unlocking a moveset inspired by his appearance in Symphony of the Night, you'll storm through a section of the castle finding vania moves and classic weapons that will push all the nostalgia buttons.

Soundtrack


We're giving you access to an alternative soundtrack made of 51 of the original Castlevania tunes, that can be heard across the entire game. On top of this, we've taken the 12 most iconic tracks, such as Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Simon Belmont's Theme, and reimagined them in the style of Dead Cells as a soundtrack for this DLC, while preserving the Castlevania ambiance of course.

Outfits


Unlock 20 outfits as you progress through the castle, letting you roleplay as all your favourite characters like Alucard, Richter Belmont, Simon Belmont, Maria Renard, Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, or even Dracula!

We'll see you at the Castle Gates, Beheaded...


https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/30317/Dead_Cells_Medley_of_Pain_Bundle/


[ 2024-02-29 18:25:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

A super-late (we know) update on Dead Cells


Hello Dead Cells players,


We're reaching out with some important updates on Update 34 "Clean Cut" on mobile, Update 35 "The End is Near" on PC/Consoles, and an important announcement regarding Dead Cells' future. First off, Update 34 is set to arrive on mobile later this year - sorry about the wait. Our initial plan was to release it alongside Update 35, but as things unfolded, we had to adjust our timeline to get everything where we wanted it to be. Speaking of Update 35, your patience and enthusiasm since its alpha release have been awesome. We really wanted to bring this update to you quickly, but it turns out we can't release it just yet. We are all hands on deck trying to figure this out, so please look out for more updates in the future. Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game. After an incredible 5-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells' live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can't wait to see what they come up next. This comes after much reflection, especially following the awesome success of the "Return to Castlevania" DLC last year. Our commitment to avoiding the "more of the same" trap and keeping Dead Cells fresh and original has led us to this point; as we've seen with other long-running series, it's crucial not to overextend and risk diminishing the unique charm that makes Dead Cells special to us all. This change explains the recent quiet period on updates, as concluding such a partnership required careful planning to ensure a smooth process for everyone, including the community. As always, we will of course continue to find solutions to make sure that all quality of life issues and bugs are properly fixed across all platforms to provide a worthy experience to all of you. With all that said, we are committed to continuing the journey in this amazing world with some really cool new stuff outside of the original game, so that more and more people can enjoy Dead Cells in totally new ways. Stay tuned for more updates about the Animated Series, the Board Game and the Beheaded appearing in another world?! In closing, we are wishing the best to Evil Empire on their upcoming projects and want to express our deepest gratitude to you, the players, for your unwavering support and passion for Dead Cells. Your enthusiasm fuels our commitment, and we're eager to embark on the next chapter of this journey together. Cheers, ~ MT


[ 2024-02-09 12:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Brace yourselves, something NEW is coming.

Dearest Dead Cells Veterans, We have long been wondering what we should do next... 'Why not make a sequel to Dead Cells? we asked ourselves. We tried a whole lot of... brilliant ideas:

  • 'Dead Cells: The Cooking Showdown' with the Beheaded as a master chef.
  • Dead Cells: Love in the Dungeon', a dating sim where you can romance the Bosses
  • 'Dead Cells: The Musical' - self-explanatory... and still considering that one, to be honest.
Whilst we were musing on this, we got VERY distracted by this superfast controller we were toying with... and so we made something else instead. Whoops! Meet Windblown! [previewyoutube=shPyfu6aP58;full][/previewyoutube] OK, so, imagine DC downed like 312 energy drinks, and then slammed its fist into a 3D button. We then thought what if we made a game that was... absolutely absurdly fast. Almost silly levels of fast. And we loved it tbh. Then weve thrown in a bunch of those shiny clouds and some floating islands that are just SoOooooo eye-popping! Ah, and who are you in this? You are a Leaper; one of our heroes who are on a mission to defend the Ark from a very aggro Vortex, hell-bent on destroying EVERYTHING in its path. On your journey youll be able to absorb memories of fallen warriors, and then put them to good use by infusing their skills into your weapons. You can become a killing MACHINE! And guess what? This time, you're not just dodging death alone; you can bring up to 2 friends with you to share in the 'fun' of dying repeatedly! Together! Yey! Your feedback has been instrumental in crafting DC into what it is today, and we would LOVE to bring you experts in once more to help us shape this little Windblown bad-boy too. Leap into Early Access, give us your unfiltered thoughts, and let's make this game another wild ride. And hey, while you're here, we're stoked to hear what you think of the Windblown trailer and feel free to smash that wishlist button ;) Get ready to dash, die, and repeat... again! See ya soon! ~ MT !!!!Windblown on Steam!!!! Follow Windblown on Social X: WindblownGame Instagram: WindblownGame TikTok: WindblownGame Facebook: Windblowngame


[ 2023-12-08 01:29:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

A New Patch released for current Beta for Update 35!

Hey everyone, We've just pushed a new patch for the beta test of Update 35, including some Balancing works, adjustments on Graphics & UI as well as Music & Sfx, and Bug Fixes of course! * This patch only affects the current beta test, if you are not participating in the beta, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing beta, just check out here for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Balancing:

  • Misericorde now applies curses only if the attack doesn't crit.
Graphics & UI:
  • Added a Minimap icon when a biome is incentivized.
Music & Sfx:
  • Updated a bunch of sounds for the new mobs.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed World Map displaying deprecated paths.
  • Fixed a bunch of translation problems.
  • Fixed Cursed and Incentivized biomes not reloading properly with the "Multiple lives" assist option on.
  • Fixed a crash when using the Emergency Door against Conjunctivius.
  • Fixed some projectiles not displaying outlines when the options was on.
  • Fixed some heads unlocking in the Training Room.
  • Fixed some visual and music bugs when killing Dracula in Training Room.
  • Fixed Richter not being able to jump down platform.
  • Fixed the number of cursed biomes always being 0 in some seeds.
That's all and thanks for taking part! Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-10-02 15:23:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

The End is Near Update is now in Beta phase!

Hey everyone! The upcoming update The End is Near is now in Beta! In case you missed the alpha post, in this update we are stuffing in new mobs, weapons, mutations and biome effects all expanding on the curse mechanic, 40+ new head skins, almost 20 new legendary affixes, extra accessibility options and more! Before we go through the updated list of new content for the update, a quick note here for the players who didn't like the idea of Cursed mobs and mightve missed our patches in the Alpha phase. Instead of making cursed mobs spawn randomly in your run , we have introduced a new effect on biomes, Cursed Biomes, to make sure that players can choose to have cursed mobs in their run or not. Also, the players who choose to take the risk will now get rewards for taking on that risk. We are gonna elaborate more on this mechanic below! Now, lets get to the full list of new content:

New Curse additions:


3 new mobs:
  • Sore Loser: a cutie who cant hurt you but is super clingy and annoying, always trying to be close to you and dash through you. When you kill it, you get cursed.
  • Doom Bringer: every melee attack from it wont cause damage, but will apply 2 stack of curse and stun you, and you will instantly die if you have already got 50 stacks of curse. Sounds pretty fair right?
  • Curser: it launches a slow homing projectile that can go through the walls. If you accidentally get caught by this projectile, you take damage and 5 stacks of curse. One more surprise! If you get close to it, it will bonk you with its staff.
New Cursed Biome system:

  • Cursed biomes only spawn in runs with a Boss Cell level 2 or higher (boss fight biomes wont be cursed).
  • Just like biome incentives, there will be a specific icon above the exit to a cursed biome, so that you can have the choice of taking this challenge or just going to the other normal biomes.
  • A cursed biome always contains 9 (+/-2) cursed mobs randomly selected from Curser, Sore Loser and Doom Bringer.
  • There is, of course, a reward for that risk: all the items dropped in a cursed biome will drop 1 gear level higher, regardless of their source (shop, loots, etc.). The spawn chance of cursed chests also increases by 10% in such biomes.
  • There is a cap to the number of cursed biomes that you can go through on your route, depending on the BC level, set as follows: from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (i.e. in 5BC, there is no cap).
  • This cap only limits the number of Cursed Biomes that you can go to in a run, it doesnt mean that you must go through that many Cursed Biomes to finish your run.
  • Once you have hit the cap, no more cursed biomes will appear in that run. Until you have hit the cap, cursed biomes will continue to appear.
  • As long as you havent reached the cap, biomes always have a 25% chance of being cursed. There will always be at least 1 biomes without cursed mobs at any point in your run, no exceptions.
3 new weapons:
  • Anathema: rip a Mushroom Bois heart out to fire a heavy indirect projectile dealing AOE damage. However, there is a price for being an utter savage - you will get cursed if your attack hits anything.
  • Indulgence: Calls down a ray of vengeful light on the nearest enemy dealing critical damage if you are not cursed. Targets killed by the ray purge you of 3 stacks of curse instead of 1. Fires 1 additional ray per 5 stacks of curse you have (max: 5 per cast).
  • Misericorde: inflicts crits if the victim has less than 50% HP. Curses you if the attack doesn't kill its target.
3 new mutations (all colorless):
  • Cursed Flask: your health flask has infinite charges but also curses you 20 times each time you use it.
  • Damned Vigor: upon being dealt fatal damage, you stay alive at 1 HP for 2 seconds. If you kill any enemy while under this effect, you will be saved. Otherwise, when the effect disappears or you get hit while under it, you instantly die without any sort of protection applicable.
  • Demonic Strength: Damage increases by 30% if you are cursed. This bonus is increased by 2% per curse stack you have. Cursed Sword counts as 1 stack for this effect (no special bonus for it, but you can still stack curses on top of it).

New legendary affixes:


  • Flawless: NEW Almost Perfect: Killing an enemy within one second after getting hit allows you continue causing crits.
  • Gold Digger: NEW Filthy Rich: Crit multiplier increases with your gold.
  • Punishment: NEW Punish Combo: Recasts the AOE effect if it kills at least one target.
  • Rampart: NEW Mirror Coating: Reflects damage of attacks received while under the effect of the shield's force field. This damage scales with the attack received (i.e., the stronger the attack is, the more damage the shield reflects).
  • Cocoon: NEW Parry Streak: Each consecutive parry reduces Cocoon's cooldown the next time it starts.
  • Emergency Door: NEW Armored Door: The door can't be destroyed by enemies (except for bosses).
  • Bone: NEW Whirlwind: Increases the last attack's whirlwind duration by 2 sec with every enemy it kills.
  • Wrenching Whip: NEW Retiarus: The first attack throws 3 crow's feet in front of you (with the same internal cooldown as the grenade affix).
  • Explosive Decoy: NEW Foolproof: The cooldown of the item is instantly reset if its explosion doesn't hit at least one target.
  • Barrel Launcher: Triple Bullet (i.e. not a new affix, but we changed the one it had before).
  • Leghugger: NEW Mitosis: Summons 2 Leghuggers instead of 1.
  • Assault Shield: NEW Charged Dash: Holding the shield button will charge a stronger version of the dash, which can then be used by releasing the button.
  • Ice Shards: NEW Bouncy: Projectiles bounce on the ground twice before disappearing.
  • Quick Bow: NEW Sharpshooter: Critical hits will refill one ammo.
  • Bladed Tonfas: NEW Lacerator: Only uses the first attack of the combo.
  • Grappling Hook: NEW Octavio: Also fires a chain behind you.
  • Tesla Coil: NEW Double Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.
  • Lightning Rods: NEW Double Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.

Some notable balances:


  • The Bank is slightly easier in 2, 4 and 5BC. Yeah, SLIGHTLY...
  • The Throw Master's bone projectile deals less damage in Return to Castlevania DLC.
  • Alienation rework: Instead of healing the player per curse reduced, it will now heal the player when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health recovered based on the max amount of curses you had (for that curse instance). The effect only starts triggering when the player had more than 5 curses, and requires 35 stacks of curse to fully heal you.

New head customisation:


What do we have in the Tailors Daughters secret stash?

  • Flame heads based on various appearances of the Beheaded along the years.
  • Bosses heads such as the Scarecrow Hat.
  • And lots of strange and secret heads, such as the Cell Head, are waiting for you!

New routing


We've also changed the connections between biomes:
  • Added an exit to Master's Keep in High Peak Castle.
  • Added exits to Corrupted Prison and Ossuary in Castle's Outskirts.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (early) in Corrupted Prison and Toxic Sewers.
  • Added an exit to Black Bridge in Dracula's Castle (early).
  • Added an exit to Defiled Necropolis in Ossuary.
  • Replaced the exit to Fractured Shrines in Defiled Necropolis by an exit to Graveyard.
  • Added a light source in the Mimic Hint lore room, when it spawns in Forgotten Sepulcher.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (late) in Mausoleum, Guardian's Haven and Clock Room.
Yes, this does mean that you can now go to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one run...

More accessibility options


  • Added two new sets of control icons and an option to select them. You can select either "Legacy" (current icons), "New" (a new, cleaner set) or "Big" (accessibiliy focused, easier to read).
  • Changed the Daily Challenge's boss arrow opacity, for better visibility.
  • Added new input options for the "going through platform" action.
  • Added options to change the controller triggers' deadzone.
  • Reworked the Auto-hit assist mode option. It will no longer force the use of a melee weapon in the first slot.
  • Added an option to add a background to most texts in the game. The background's color and opacity can be adjusted.
  • The left stick can now be used to scroll through item descriptions in the pause menu.
  • Added options to fully invert the player and camera movement.
  • Added a bunch of options to tweak the camera's behavior. The influence of the player's movement, combat, or points of interest can be customized.
  • Split the "controller sticks deadzone" into two options, one for each stick.
  • Added an outline option for spikes.
  • Added a button to center the minimap on the player.

We have also done some tweaks and fixed some bugs with this build:


Graphics & UI:
  • Added Latin-American Spanish and Polish as language options.
Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed Death Outfits being able to equip custom heads.
  • Fixed Spoiler Level's Lightning Walls being able to kill entities immune to lava.
  • Fixed Legendary Hook cooldown resetting when only one of the hooks missed.
  • Fixed a crash when loading a save with speedrun data.
If you wanna take part in this Beta test, please follow the instructions below:
  • Go to your Steam game library.
  • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
  • Select the tab "Betas".
  • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
  • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
  • Start playing.
Bug reports can be sent to us with the following form to help us collect all information on bugs and crashes in one place, this helps us to fix them quicker! Bugs & Crashes Report For feedback and suggestions, just leave them here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called update35-beta-discussion and update35-beta-feedback. Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-09-25 13:07:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

A New Patch released for current alpha for Update 35... again!

Hey everyone, We've just pushed the fifth patch for the alpha test of Update 35, including some Balancing works and Bug Fixes. * This patch only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out here for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Balancing:

  • Curser can now detect the player and shoot its projectile through walls.
  • Fixed Mimic despawning when trying to jump a very long distance.
  • Reduced Doom Bringer's speech frequency.
  • Increased Doom Bringer's walking speed when targeting a player.
  • Doom Bringer's stun attack radius was increased, and it can now hit through walls.
  • Doom Bringer's attack now gives two curses instead of one.
  • Alienation's minimum curse was reduced to 5.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed Death's instant death attack sending the player back to Prison when in Training Mode or Boss Rush.
  • Fixed heads' particle effects sometimes not playing.
  • Fixed some lore rooms still spawning in Dilapidated Arboretum with the "Disable Lore Rooms" option enabled.
  • Fixed a crash when Dracula's Castle tries to generate a Cursed Chest.
  • Fixed Giant sometimes getting stuck during the double fist slam attack animation.
  • Fixed some ranged multi-hit weapons (Scarecrow's Sickles, Cross, Bible, etc.) not dealing any damage after hitting an unbreakable door.
  • Fixed head unlock notification not replacing text variables with the right number.
  • Ygdar Orus Li Ox can no longer be removed from the inventory by resetting mutations.
  • Fixed Glitch head not unlock retro-actively.
  • Fixed Boss Rush Servants just standing there when skipping the fight.
That's all and thanks for taking part! Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-09-20 12:43:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Patch released for current alpha for Update 35!

Hey everyone, We've just pushed the fourth patch for the alpha test of Update 35 yesterday, including some Balancing works and Bug Fixes. * This patch only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out here for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Balancing:

  • Reduced Cursed Biomes chance and increased the number of Cursed Mobs in a Cursed Biome.
  • Buffed Alienation's healing by reducing the curse threshold for a max heal.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed mob animations not being the right speed, when the mob was taunted or slowed.
  • Fixed Smoke Bomb damage buff not affecting projectiles.
  • Fixed Cursed Mobs replacing normal mobs instead of adding themselves to the list.
  • Prevent Boss Rush modified Concierge from jumping when the other instance is also jumping or throwing a fire wave.
  • Fixed not being able to roll in the other direction while holding the Morning Star.
That's all and thanks for taking part! Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-09-14 08:36:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 35 alpha - New system for Cursed mobs i.e the Cursed Biome effect

Hey everyone! During the past few weeks we've seen a bunch of different opinions on the new curse additions, especially the cursed mobs We fully understand the pushback on mobs that give curses, as curse and its instadeath effect has always been an optional experience that gave extra rewards if you chose to add some spicy danger in your run. In this update so far, the cursed mobs were unavoidable at 2BC+, even with a low chance of them spawning, and they didn't give any reward for the risk. So the choice was removed. For people who want to consciously avoid instadeath no bueno. Well, we like to trumpet that we work with the community when we add updates so, 'toot toot', we've listened to you, we've had lots of discussions and have come up with a new solution. New 'Cursed Biome' system The previous system where, from 2BC+, cursed mobs could randomly spawn in a random biome is gone. Instead, we have introduced a new type of biome, Cursed Biome, which features the new cursed mobs in exchange for extra rewards. NOTE: This is not a new biome, it is a new effect on biomes. And of course, you can choose to go into the cursed biome with its rewards, or go to the other biomes that don't have any scary cursed mobs.
How Cursed Biome works:

  • Cursed biomes only spawn in runs with a Boss Cell level 2 or higher.
  • Just like biome incentives, there will be a specific icon above the exit to a cursed biome, so that you can have the choice of taking this challenge or just going to the other normal biomes.
  • A cursed biome always contains 6 cursed mobs randomly selected from Curser, Sore Loser and Doom Bringer. This number might change based on alpha/beta feedback.
  • There is, of course, a reward for that risk: all the items dropped in a cursed biome will drop 1 gear level higher, regardless of their source (shop, loots, etc.). The spawn chance of cursed chests also increases by 10% in such biomes.
  • There is a cap to the number of cursed biomes that you can go through on your route, depending on the BC level, set as follows: from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (i.e. in 5BC, there is no cap). This cap only limits the number of Cursed Biomes that you can go to in a run, it doesnt mean that you must go through that many Cursed Biomes to finish your run. Once you have hit the cap, no more cursed biomes will appear in that run. Until you have hit the cap, cursed biomes will continue to appear.
  • As long as you havent reached the cap, there can be only up to 2 exits to cursed biomes at once. There will always be at least 1 biome without cursed mobs at any point in your run, no exceptions.
This system has been implemented in-game with a new patch, you just need to update the game now to have it in your run. We believe that this is a good solution that respects the feedback players gave us, while also honouring our vision for the update, but we are still in Alpha phase so we still need feedback on this new system. The numbers are easily adjustable, so if this new setup works on a basic level then we can tweak chances, percentages, ratios afterwards - if it's mathematical, we can rebuild it, we have the technology. We also made other changes! Balancing
  • Alienation rework. Instead of healing the player per curse reduced, it will now heal the player when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health recovered based on the max amount of curses they had (for that curse instance). The effect only starts triggering when the player had more than 10 curses.
  • Slightly nerfed Anathema's damage.
  • Reduced Dracula's Castle (late) scroll fragments count, to match other biomes at the same depth.
  • Added a small cooldown to Emergency Triage forcefield.
Graphics & UI
  • Tweaked the update banner to improve readability.
Quality of life
  • Added a tooltip for Cursed Mobs in the Boss Cell Selection UI.
  • The Tailor's Daughter will now create notifications for any head you might unlock when talking to her.
  • Removed the "Leave the Body" prompt of the throne fountain, when at 5BC.
You can leave feedback in the comments here, or on our official Discord there are two channels called update35-alpha-discussion and update35-alpha-feedback specifically for these conversations, so please use them! As always, this patch only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out here for instructions on how to access. Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-09-12 14:39:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

The second Patch released for current alpha for Update 35!

Hey everyone, We've just pushed the second patch for the alpha test of Update 35 yesterday, including some Balancing works and Bug Fixes. * This patch only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out here for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Balancing:

  • Reduced the chance of having Cursed Mobs in a run to 40%.
  • Increased maximum number of levels where Cursed Mobs can appear.
  • Increased the spawning chance and the max number of Cursed Mobs per biome.
  • Removed some affixes from Anathema's pool: Pierce, Super Pierce and Fire Bullet.
  • Greatly increased Anathema's damage.
  • Anathema now only applies one curse when hitting an enemy.
  • Changed Anathema's legendary affix to Global Shield on Use.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed Servant Head not unlocking properly. It now unlocks after having killed all the servants at least 15 times.
  • Fixed Katana's dash attack not doing any damage if it hits a door.
  • Fixed Doom Bringer not dealing any damage when the player has more than 50 curses.
  • Fixed text backgrounds appearing in undiscovered parts of the minimap.
  • Fixed Deep Pockets not working with arrow or grenade affixes.
  • Fixed Blue Hole head not unlocking properly
  • Fixed custom heads' animation stopping in some situations.
  • Fixed Sewer's Tentacle movement particles not being played enough and being the wrong color.
  • Fixed a bunch of custom heads' horizontal and vertical offsets.
  • Fixed Boss Cell head not unlocking retroactively.
  • Fixed Anathema dealing melee damage.
  • Fixed Anathema's AoE damage not scaling to player and weapon stats.
  • Fixed a crash sometimes happening when reloading the game when the Owl was active.
  • Fixed Damned Vigor not letting the player resurrect when killing a boss.
  • Fixed heads having a downwards offset in the head selection UI.
  • Fixed Collector's menu flickering when opening it.
  • Fixed being able to use the flask at full health, when equipped with both Tainted Flask and Cursed Flask.
That's all and thanks for taking part! Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-09-06 08:37:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch released for current alpha for Update 35 & details on cursed mob spawns

Hey everyone, We've just pushed a new patch for the alpha test of Update 35, including some Balancing works, Graphics & UI change and Bug Fixes. * This patch only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out the post yesterday for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Balancing:

  • Increased Anathema's damage.
  • Added a cap to the number of levels that can have cursed monsters. This cap is different per difficulty.
  • Added a 50% chance for a run to not have cursed monsters.
  • Dead Inside no longer lets you use the Health Flask.
Graphics & UI:
  • Removed the crit display for Anathema.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed custom head animations not being updated after door transitions.
  • Fixed exit doors sometimes facing the wrong way.
  • Fixed Damned Vigor not working in training room.
  • Fixed Sore Loser not dropping the Indulgence blueprint.
  • Fixed the cooldown display of Decoy and Maria's Cat.
  • Fixed a crash when exiting the game while Medusa was performing her Petrification attack.
  • Fixed a crash sometimes happening when using the Leghugger or Serenade.

Cursed mob spawns


We also wanted to give more detail on the system that manages the way the new mobs spawn. It wasn't finished in time for the initial open alpha patch, but the new one released today contains a first implementation of the system. Here is how it works in any given biome:
  • We start by checking if the run will have "cursed" mobs or not. This will be a 40% chance of happening (50% in the build you're playing on), meaning that in 60% of 2+BC runs, there won't be any cursed mobs at all.
  • If your run contains cursed mobs, we then check to see in how many biomes you have encountered them up until now. If this value is equal to the cap, you won't see any new cursed mobs in the rest of the run. The cap depends on the BC level and is set as follows, from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (i.e. in 5BC, there is no cap).
  • Then, if you are both in a "cursed mobs" run AND you haven't reached the cap, we roll to see if any of the three mobs spawn. In the next alpha update, the probability of a mob spawning will be 60% (50% in the current build) and up to 2 of each mob can spawn in the biome. All of these are SEPARATE: I can very well roll and get no cursed mobs at all, or 1 Curser, 2 Sore Losers and no Doom Bringer. These values are the same across the board and do not vary between biomes.
As a reminder, please note that the cursed mobs start spawning in 2BC and never earlier. They start spawning after the first boss in 2BC, and then spread to the rest of the game as you progress towards 5BC, in which they can spawn anywhere. That's all and thanks for taking part! Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-08-30 13:12:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 35 "The End is Near" is in alpha stage!

Hey everyone! Looooong time no see, I am XYZ, the new marketing dudette of Dead Cells, who will be the main contact with you guys in the future. And for those who might be concerned about Matt, he is doing good, still keeping an eye on Dead Cells, but also taking more responsibility related to a new project! Anyway, let's get to the point: this time, we are back with something fresh and it's actually video game related! The 35th free update of Dead Cells "The End is Near" has an alpha available to test right now! Just be aware that the Alpha and Beta phases might take a bit longer than usual this time, so if the official release comes later than usual, just be cool, it's on the way! In this update, weve expanded on one of the most iconic mechanics of Dead Cells, the dreaded Curse, with 3 new weapons, 3 new mobs and of course, 3 new mutations coming into the game! We know that curses and the insta-death that comes with them is scary and sometimes even annoying, so a whole update based around them might be too much. But put down the pitchforks because we think that these new additions make the mechanic more fun, add variety and just make the game more interesting. Plus, this is an alpha so we will be taking any community suggestions seriously! Also, after digesting a bunch of suggestions from you guys, weve done a bunch of reworking and rebalancing on the legendary weapons that needed it. Plus, several new balances and new accessibility features are available too! As well as these hardcore additions, the Tailors daughter has also learned some new hairstyles to add some variety & fun to your costumes!

New Curse additions:


3 new weapons:
  • Anathema: rip a Mushroom Bois heart out to fire a heavy indirect projectile dealing AOE damage. However, there is a price for being an utter savage - you will get cursed if your attack hits anything. Yep, you only get cursed if you hit something. Whoever is creating these curses doesn't care how many mushrooms you tear apart, just if you hit anything afterwards. Makes you think...
  • Indulgence: Calls down a ray of vengeful light on the nearest enemy dealing critical damage if you are not cursed. Targets killed by the ray purge you of 3 stacks of curse instead of 1. Fires 1 additional ray per 5 stacks of curse you have (max: 5 per cast).
  • Misericorde: inflicts crits if the victim has less than 50% HP. Curses you if the attack doesn't kill its target.

3 new mobs:
  • Sore Loser: a cutie who cant hurt you but is super clingy and annoying, always trying to be close to you and dash through you. When you kill it, you get cursed 3 times.
  • Doom Bringer: every melee attack from it wont cause damage, but will apply 1 stack of curse and stun you, and you will instantly die if you have already got 50 stacks of curse. Sounds pretty fair right?
  • Curser: it launches a slow homing projectile that can go through the walls. If you accidentally get caught by this projectile, you take damage and 5 stacks of curse. One more surprise! If you get close to it, it will bonk you with its staff.

These mobs don't have specific biomes where they spawn, instead they have a small chance of appearing in any biome from 2BC+. For the moment, these 3 new mobs are tuned specifically for the alpha to have a guaranteed spawn in Prisoner's Quarters on BC4+ for testing purposes, but that will change in Beta test! 3 new mutations (all colorless):
  • Cursed Flask: your health flask has infinite charges but also curses you 20 times each time you use it.
  • Damned Vigor: upon being dealt fatal damage, you stay alive at 1 HP for 2 seconds. If you kill any enemy while under this effect, you will be saved. Otherwise, when the effect disappears or you get hit while under it, you instantly die without any sort of protection applicable.
  • Demonic Strength: Damage increases by 30% if you are cursed. This bonus is increased by 1% per curse stack you have. Cursed Sword counts as 1 stack for this effect (no special bonus for it, but you can still stack curses on top of it).

New legendary affixes:


  • Flawless: NEW Almost Perfect: Killing an enemy within one second after getting hit allows you continue causing crits.
  • Gold Digger: NEW Filthy Rich: Crit multiplier increases with your gold.
  • Punishment: NEW Punish Combo: Recasts the AOE effect if it kills at least one target.
  • Rampart: NEW Mirror Coating: Reflects damage of attacks received while under the effect of the shield's force field. This damage scales with the attack received (i.e. the stronger the attack is, the more damage the shield reflects).
  • Cocoon: NEW Parry Streak: Each consecutive parry reduces Cocoon's cooldown the next time it starts.
  • Emergency Door: NEW Armored Door: The door can't be destroyed by enemies (except for bosses).
  • Bone: NEW Whirlwind: Increases the last attack's whirlwind duration by 2 sec with every enemy it kills.
  • Wrenching Whip: NEW Retiarus: The first attack throws 3 crow's feet in front of you (with the same internal cooldown as the grenade affix).
  • Explosive Decoy: NEW Foolproof: The cooldown of the item is instantly reset if its explosion doesn't hit at least one target.
  • Barrel Launcher: Triple Bullet (i.e. not a new affix, but we changed the one it had before).

Some notable balances:


  • The Bank is slightly easier in 2, 4 and 5BC. Yeah, SLIGHTLY...
  • The Throw Master's bone projectile deals less damage in Return to Castlevania DLC.

New head customisation:


And last, what do we have in the Tailors Daughters secret stash?
  • Flame heads based on various appearances of the Beheaded along the years.
  • Bosses heads such as the Scarecrow Hat.
  • And lots of strange and secret heads, such as the Cell Head, are waiting for you!


New routing


We've also changed the connections between biomes:
  • Added an exit to Master's Keep in High Peak Castle.
  • Added exits to Corrupted Prison and Ossuary in Castle's Outskirts.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (early) in Corrupted Prison and Toxic Sewers.
  • Added an exit to Black Bridge in Dracula's Castle (early).
  • Added an exit to Defiled Necropolis in Ossuary.
  • Replaced the exit to Fractured Shrines in Defiled Necropolis by an exit to Graveyard.
  • Added a light source in the Mimic Hint lore room, when it spawns in Forgotten Sepulcher.
  • Added an exit to Dracula's Castle (late) in Mausoleum, Guardian's Haven and Clock Room.
Yes, this does mean that you can now go to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one run...

More accessibility options


  • Added two new sets of control icons and an option to select them. You can select either "Legacy" (current icons), "New" (a new, cleaner set) or "Big" (accessibiliy focused, easier to read).
  • Changed the Daily Challenge's boss arrow opacity, for better visibility.
  • Added new input options for the "going through platform" action.
  • Added options to change the controller triggers' deadzone.
  • Reworked the Auto-hit assist mode option. It will no longer force the use of a melee weapon in the first slot.
  • Added an option to add a background to most texts in the game. The background's color and opacity can be adjusted.
  • The left stick can now be used to scroll through item descriptions in the pause menu.
  • Added options to fully invert the player and camera movement.
  • Added a bunch of options to tweak the camera's behavior. The influence of the player's movement, combat, or points of interest can be customized.
  • Split the "controller sticks deadzone" into two options, one for each stick.
  • Added an outline option for spikes.
  • Added a button to center the minimap on the player.
And thats all!

How to access the alpha:


Back up your save first. The alpha shouldn't affect your saves but better to be safe than sorry. If the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/588650/announcements/detail/1696100248017690442 Then follow these instructions to access the alpha:
  • Go to your Steam game library.
  • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
  • Select the tab "Betas".
  • In the first dropdown box select "public alpha".
  • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
  • Start playing.
Just bear in mind that we are just in the alpha, bugs and even crashes can happen, and some tweaks will be implemented before its official release. And your feedback is more than welcome regarding our future tweaks of course! You can leave them in the comments here, or on our official Discord (Link at the bottom of the post) there are two channels called update35-alpha-discussion and update35-alpha-feedback specifically for these conversations, so please use them! Bug reports can be sent to us with the following form to help us collect all information on bugs and crashes in one place, this helps us to fix them quicker! Bugs & Crashes Report Cheers, XYZ, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-08-28 12:25:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Soundtrack available now on Steam!

Hey everyone, Just a quick post to let you all know that the Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania soundtrack is available to buy for $7.99 or equivalent as MP3 and lossless files on Steam! Revisit the DLC and download the full list of reimagined Castlevania tunes in the Dead Cells style, including Bloody Tears and Vampire Killer, to listen to at your leisure in high quality goodness: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2502260/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania_Soundtrack We'll be back soon with more news! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-07-21 14:59:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Something Dead Cells is coming in 2024...

Hey everyone, So last time we posted here, we said that the next post would be back to video game related news. That might not have exactly been true... [previewyoutube=LMVH49-VUOc;full][/previewyoutube] You've been asking for years and now it's here! Well almost... We are stoked to announce that an animated Dead Cells series IS DROPPING IN 2024!
Made of course by Bobbypills, the French studio behind our animated trailers, the show takes place on (surprise, surprise) a cursed island that has been racked by a strange plague. After the islands foolish king develops a remedy that ends up turning the population into monstrous creatures, prophecies depicting a flame-headed hero who will kill the crazy King begin to appear. As it so happens, this beheaded hero is real, but saving a kingdom isnt on his schedule and he just wants to be left alone. Well, guess who isn't going to be left alone...
Co-produced by the also French anime streaming service Animation Digital Network (ADN), the 10, roughly seven-minute long episodes will initially be exclusive to France before being made available worldwide.
Bobbypills will be discussing the series on Twitch IN FRENCH at 17h CET today (14th June) - https://www.twitch.tv/adnanime They will be putting up a version with English subtitles in the near future, so look out for that if you can't speak the language of cheese, baguettes and wine. One more time, Dead Cells the video game has not been forgotten! We will be back with more news on that soon :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-06-14 14:01:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last 24 hours to back the Dead Cells board game Kickstarter!

Hey everyone, Little reminder that if you're interested in backing the upcoming Dead Cells board game, you have less than 24 hours to get involved! If you back the Collector's Edition you get some exclusive content like the Bobby Character, the Legendary Panchaku card, foil effects and more...

Here's a couple of other bits that were revealed to be in the base game during the campaign that might tickle your fancy:

If you're interested in backing the project or just checking it out more, you can follow this link - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scorpionmasque/dead-cells-the-rogue-lite-board-game Thanks and we'll be back soon with more video game related news! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-06-01 10:21:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Dead Cells board game Kickstarter is live!

Hi everyone, Quick announcement that the Kickstarter campaign for the Dead Cells co-operative roguelite board game is live! Check out stretch goals, daily reveals, how to play, artwork, exclusive figurines and more here - https://kickstarter.com/projects/scorpionmasque/dead-cells-the-rogue-lite-board-game Hope you're all enjoying the Clean Cut update, peace! Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-05-16 15:11:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hotfix for Clean Cut update + legendary affixes for Sewing Scissors & Giant Comb

Hey everyone! We've just released a hotfix to address some bugs we missed in the Clean Cut update, so this will be a short post. It's also late on a hot Thursday afternoon, so my energy levels aren't high enough for a long one... There are now legendary affixes for both new weapons that we introduced: Giant Comb: Also deals critical damage while you are airborne. Deals additional damage if both you and the target are airborne. Sewing Scissors: Enemies killed by the special effect of this weapon count three times for your kill streak. We also identified a critical bug where by fixing it has removed unlocks that were incorrectly awarded to players. So some of you might notice some slight rollbacks on features related to biome visits that you didn't unlock (for example, having access to bosses in Boss Rush that you hadn't actually encountered before). But you shouldn't have had access in the first place, so just be happy for the time you had together the usual place! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-05-04 15:17:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our 34th Dead Cells update, "Clean Cut" is live!

Hello! The "Clean Cut" update is here! 'Tailored' (wink wink) to improve the whole Dead Cells experience with a bunch of trims and cuts for every part of the game, as well as adding some new toys to play with! TLDR

  • 2 new weapons
  • Change your head to Bobby with most outfits
  • Speedrun mode
  • Boss Rush now has customisation options and Return to Castlevania bosses (including upgraded versions)
  • Training Room has a ton of new customisation

New items


First up we have the two new weapons, the Sewing Scissors and Giant Comb, both indispensable tools for a clean cut. Head to the Tailor's room to discover them both. Sewing Scissors: a huge pair of scissors that scale with Survival. Will instakill all enemies that it hits, if one of the enemies is killed by the attack's standard damage. Gotta target those rats. Giant Comb: a Brutality weapon that launches enemies upwards on the first hit and deals critical damage to enemies that are not on the ground.

New NPC


Turns out, the Tailor was hiding a daughter all along, and by some coincidental massive stroke of fortune, she has just the skills to replace your head with the flame "Bobby version" on most skins. Crazy world...

New Speedrun mode


Finally, we have the brand new Speedrun Mode with in-game time tracking for speedrunners, or anyone else who wants to know how much time they've spent trying to make it to Hand of the King and failing. Activate this mode to track and display the completion time of each biome and track your previous best times. On top of all that weve also done a ton of upgrading, reworking and rebalancing...

Upgrades


  • We've added a new DIY mode in Boss Rush. With this mode, you can choose whichever bosses you want to face in a run.
  • The 3 bosses from Return to Castlevania have also been added to Boss Rush and Training Room.
  • Enhanced bosses have been tweaked in the Boss Rush.
  • Training Room has multiple new options for you to practice your skills: - New UIs to spawn a specific weapon with a set Level, Quality and Legendary-ness. - New UI to choose a certain number of scrolls - New UI to choose the overall scaling level of the Training Room, based on the values of a selected biome. - Added the mini-bosses to the mob spawners - Added a bunch of different traps to the mob rooms. - Added the Return to Castlevania Bosses. - Bosses aren't scaled down to level 1 anymore! (no more 20 minutes fights) - Changed the UI to select mobs to a grid-based one. - Added a Training Dummy for DPS calculation.
There are now no excuses left to not get good.

Reworks


Mutations:
  • Combo: there is a true combo meter now! The mutation has been changed to enable a damage increase with every melee hit in a 2.5 sec window (of course the window refreshes after every hit). It scales exponentially, go crazy with it!
  • Tainted Flask: it can recharge even if your flask is not totally empty. We also added 1 more elite into every biome when the mutation is equipped.
  • Networking: you can just mark enemies with ranged attacks now, there doesn't need to be an actual projectile stuck in the mob's body.
  • Berserker: it now stacks and renders you immune to stuns.
  • Necromancy: It scales with the max health of the mobs you kill, which means you can get more healing by killing a stronger enemy. The cap of up to a maximum 50% HP is eliminated, but healing power is less effective as you get closer to max health.
  • Frostbite: now stacks with slow effects and acts as a full stack on frozen targets.
  • Dead Inside: now doubles your life but prevents ALL healing sources except healing with recovery.
  • Disengagement: there is no longer a cooldown but can only trigger once per biome. (I know, I know)
Other:
  • Slow effect stacks up to 5 times. Each stack has a greater slowing effect, then the affected enemy is frozen at the fifth stack.
  • The Mimic can now appear randomly in shops outside of the Bank biome. Mwahahaaaa
  • Switched the Dracula Castle (Hard) Cursed Chest chance to 10%.
  • Added a new Petrification affect icon (when you're frozen by Medusa).

Rebalancing


Return to Castlevania Weapons:
  • Whip Sword: whip form now passes shields.
  • Whip Sword's transformation attack hitbox tended to bug, it should now be consistent with its visual FX, which means it wont only hit one single target anymore.
  • The ghosts gathered by Death Scythe's have a slightly smaller explosion radius.
  • Bible is a heavy weapon.
  • Throwing Axe can no longer roll Fire Bullet affix.
  • Alucard's Shield has better parry windows, and the whole combo instead of the next hit crits.
  • Rebound Stone: it deals slightly more damage and has a smaller but longer window before being able to "catch it" (i.e., trigger the crit). Its cooldown now starts upon its destruction.
  • Holy Water has a bigger vertical hitbox and deals damage in a more logical way. By logical, we mean the flame itself can cause damage now.
  • Medusa Head deals more damage and bumps further.
  • We added some security measures to prevent the Cat from being targeted by enemies. There is also a long cooldown when the Cat is killed by the Queen.
Mobs:
  • Medusa's flurry attacks should now have a small pause after the end of the attack.
  • Haunted Armor (the one with an axe) should now activate at a slightly longer range.
  • Elite Merman should now fire 2 big fireballs instead of a big one and a normal one.
Bosses:
  • Dracula (Humanoid)'s fire pillars are now slightly easier to avoid (in terms of intervals) but are not rollable anymore.
  • Dracula (Demon) is now a beast, along with Buer, Werewolves and Medusa (Crowbar wise).
And loads of bug fixes! For all of these check out the full patchnotes here.

Boardgame Kickstarter coming soon


The Kickstarter for the upcoming 1-4 player roguelite Dead Cells boardgame is going live on 16 May! It just so happens that we received a prototype at the office literally 2 hours ago so we have some sneaky photos to share below. Bear in mind that this is a prototype so nothing you see in the photos is definite!

If you want to follow the Kickstarter campaign to support it or just to get more information, follow this link. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-04-27 12:47:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 34 into beta phase plus incompatible version issues with save files fixed

Hey everyone, Hope you're all doing alright! First things first, we just published a fix to resolve incompatible version issues with save files for Mac, Linux, and Windows. Let us know if stuff's still breaking with our bug report form. Fingers crossed that that link will stay un-clicked... Anyway, the upcoming Clean Cut update is now in beta, one step closer to arriving for all the wary players avoiding the testing phase. Here's a recap of everything coming, you can skip to the end if you already know what we've stuffed into this one. New Survival Weapon: Sewing Scissors. Instakills all enemies it hits, as long as at least one of them dies to the weapon's standard damage. New Brutality Weapon: Giant Comb. Throws your enemies upwards, and deals critical damage to airborne mobs! New NPC: Tailor's Daughter. Find her in the Tailor's Room, and talk to her to freely change the look of your head. New Speedrun Mode option: Activate it to track and display the completion time of each biome. Also tracks your previous bests and compares them! New Boss Rush DIY Mode: Lets you choose whichever bosses you want to face in a run. The 3 Bosses from Return to Castlevania are also now accessible in Boss Rush. Training Room reworks: We added a bunch of options to streamline the experimentation process, such as:

  • New UIs to spawn a specific weapon with a set Level, Quality and Legendary-ness.
  • New UI to choose a certain number of scrolls
  • New UI to choose the overall scaling level of the Training Room, based on the values of a selected biome.
  • Added the mini-bosses to the mob spawners
  • Added a bunch of different traps to the mob rooms.
  • Added the Return to Castlevania Bosses.
  • Bosses aren't scaled down to level 1 anymore! (no more 20 minute fights)
  • Changed the UI to select mobs to a grid-based one.
  • Added a Training Dummy for DPS calculation.
Balancing
  • Slow effects now stack up to 5 times. Each stack has a greater slowing effect, then the affected enemy is frozen at the fifth stack.
Mutation reworks:
  • Berserker: Can now stack, and renders you immune to stuns.
  • Combo: Enable a damage increase with every melee hit in a 2.5 sec window (of course the window refreshes after every hit). It scales exponentially, go crazy with it!
  • Dead Inside: Doubles your life but prevents ALL healing sources.
  • Disengagement: No more cooldown!.. but can only trigger once per biome.
  • Frostbite: Now stacks with slow effects and acts as a full stack on frozen targets.
  • Necromancy: Also now grants recovery instead of healing. It scales with the max health of the mobs you kill, which means you can get more recovery by killing a stronger enemy. The cap has been removed, but its less effective as you get closer to max health.
  • Networking: Marks enemies with ranged attacks now, there doesn't need to be an actual projectile stuck in the mob's body anymore.
  • Tainted Flask: Can recharge even if your flask is not totally empty. It also adds 1 more elite into every biome when equipped.
  • What Doesn't Kill You: Now grants recovery instead of healing.
Return to Castlevania balancing:
  • Dracula (Demon), Buer, Werewolves and Medusa are now considered to be Beasts (crits with the Crowbar).
  • Dracula (Humanoid)'s fire pillars are now slightly easier to avoid (in terms of intervals) but are not rollable anymore.
  • Elite Mermans should now fire 2 big fireballs instead of a big one and a normal one.
  • Haunted Armor (the one with an axe) should now activate at a slightly longer range.
  • Medusa's flurry attacks should now have a small pause after the end of the attack.
  • Holy Water has a bigger vertical hitbox, and the flame now deals damage.
  • Bible is now considered to be a heavy weapon.
  • Medusa Head deals more damage and bumps further.
  • Throwing Axe can no longer roll the Fire Bullet affix.
  • Rebound Stone now deals slightly more damage, and has a smaller but longer window before being able to "catch it" (i.e., trigger the crit). Its cooldown now starts upon its destruction.
  • Whip Sword - Whip Form now passes through shields.
  • Whip Sword's transformation attack hitbox tended to bug, it should now be consistent with its visual FX, which means it wont only hit one single target anymore.
  • Added a long cooldown when the Cat is killed by the Queen.
  • Alucard's Shield has better parry windows, and the whole combo will now crit after a parry.
  • The ghosts gathered by Death's Scythe now have a slightly smaller explosion radius.
Graphics & UI:
  • Added a new Petrification effect icon.
Level design:
  • Switched the Dooku Castle (Hard) Cursed Chest chance to 10%.
  • The Mimic can now appear randomly in shops outside of the Bank.
Bug fixes:
  • Fixed Agitated Pickpocket being able to hit through Global Shields.
  • Fixed Bible's projectile disappearing after a cutscene.
  • Fixed Bobby Head's disappearing in the Tailor's Room.
  • Fixed Cursed Sword not disabling other inventory items when switched slots.
  • Fixed Diverse Deck - Foresight tagging the blocked attacks as if they were blocked by a shield.
  • Fixed Gold Plating not protecting against Dracula - Final Form's grab.
  • Fixed Heal Flask glow effect also affecting the player's glow effect.
  • Fixed Morning Star's chain detaching itself from the base.
  • Fixed Pets' behavior being broken in Dracula's opening cutscene.
  • Fixed Serenade destroying deployables when activated.
  • Fixed a crash in Shipwreck, when a platform is destroyed at the same time as Mushroom Boi is spawned.
  • Fixed a crash when an Automaton falls off a platform while using its Dash Attack.
  • Fixed a crash when saving a reloading while a Petrified enemy is on screen.
  • Fixed a crash when using the Emergency Door during the Queen boss fight.
  • Fixed a softlock when falling off the map during_ Dracula - Final Form_, while all platforms were destroyed.
  • Fixed being able to duplicate Turrets using the Emergency Door.
  • Fixed the Shop Mimic's hitboxes being too big compared to the visual.
  • Fixed weapons' crit indicator sometimes not displaying.
That's the lot, if you're interested in playing the beta read the warning and instructions below!

How to access the beta:


NOTE: Playing the beta will lock your chosen save slot to update 34. You won't be able to go back to update 33 with this save slot during the entire duration of the beta. However, your progress in the beta will be automatically merged into the main game when we release update 34 officially. If you want to try out the beta and don't know how, first BACKUP YOUR SAVE FILE, then follow these instructions:
  • Go to your Steam game library.
  • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
  • Select the tab "Betas".
  • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
  • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
  • Start playing.
You can leave any feedback here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called update34-beta-discussion and update34-beta-feedback. We also have a bug report form for issues and bugs. Next time we'll be back with the official update announcement and hopefully some extra bits of news! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-04-17 14:36:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch released for current alpha for Update 34

Hello everyone, We've just pushed a new alpha patch focused on fixing lots of small bugs and visual changes. This only affects the current alpha test, if you are not participating in the alpha, this does not affect you. If you want to take part in the ongoing alpha, just check out our previous posts for instructions on how to access. Here's everything we changed: Training Room - Fixed missing texts for various new UIs in Training Room - Fixed a crash when restarting in Training Room - Fixed training room dummy being destroyed when going through the door - Updated sprite for the training difficulty picker interaction - Fixed a crash when spawning colorless legendary item - Fixed legendary items always being level 1 in Training Room - Fixed Death not being in Training Room - Fixed Dracula's Final Form not loading in Training Room - Camera no longer tracks Tick in Training Room Bosses & Boss Rush - Fixed Dracula Final Form's meteors spawning too low during the interphase (aka Genkidama) - Fixed Dracula's exit in Boss Rush looking rough - Removed Modified Humanoid Dracula's speed bonus during his last phase - In Boss Rush, Modified Humanoid Dracula's big fireballs have been recolored to better signal their difference from the normal version of the fight - Fixed Death's AI breaking after being interrupted during its combo attack - Fixed Humanoid Dracula's hitbox on melee attack (the first hit had no hitbox) - Increased cooldown to Modified Humanoid Dracula after shooting fireballs to make it easier to catch Mutations - Armadillopack can't parry unparryable projectiles anymore (was problematic on Boss Rush Dracula) - Necromancy nerf (lower base heal) - Combo mutation damage bonus now scales more slowly with the number of stacks - Buff to slow diminishing factor (i.e. it decreases less quickly and thus should be more efficient) Other - Late game Dracula's Castle's Cursed Chest now has 10% chance of spawning - Shop Mimic no longer spawns behind Z-doors (mostly BC doors) (when outside of the Bank) - Fixed an issue with Tailor's Daughter menu (you could open multiple instance of it) - Fixed a crash happening with the Tailor upon unlocking the Scissors Thanks for taking part! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-04-12 15:16:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 34 "Clean Cut" is in alpha stage!

Hello! We're back for a new alpha test! The "Clean Cut" update is designed to improve the whole Dead Cells experience with a bunch of trims and cuts for every part of the game, and now we just need to make some tweaks before we officially release it. So what's in store?

New items


Firstly, we have two new weapons, the Sewing Scissors and Giant Comb, both indispensable tools for a clean cut. Sewing Scissors: a huge pair of scissors that scale with Survival. Will instakill all enemies that it hits, if one of the enemies is killed by the attack's standard damage. Giant Comb: a Brutality weapon that deals critical damage to enemies that are not on the ground.

New NPC


Turns out, the Tailor was hiding a daughter all along, and by some coincidental massive stroke of fortune, she has just the skills to replace your head with the flame "Bobby version" on all skins. Crazy world...

New mode


Finally, we have the brand new Speedrun Mode with in-game time tracking for speedrunners, or anyone else who wants to know how much time they've spent trying to make it to Hand of the King and failing. Weve also done a ton of upgrading, reworking and rebalancing.

Upgrades


  • We've added a new DIY mode in Boss Rush. With this mode, you can choose whichever bosses you want to face in a run.
  • The 3 bosses from Return to Castlevania have also been added to Boss Rush and Training Room.
  • Enhanced bosses have been tweaked in the Boss Rush.
  • Training Room has multiple new options for you to practice your skills now. Too much to list here, just go check it out and have a nice surprise :)

Reworks


Mutations:
  • Combo: there is a true combo meter now! The mutation has been changed to enable a damage increase with every melee hit in a 2.5 sec window (of course the window refreshes after every hit). It scales exponentially, go crazy with it!
  • Tainted Flask: it can recharge even if your flask is not totally empty. We also added 1 more elite into every biome. Its kinda experimental, we might revert it at the end, and its all up to you the reaction and feedback we get.
  • Networking: you can just mark enemies with ranged attacks now, there doesn't need to be an actual projectile stuck in the mob's body.
  • Berserker: it now stacks (it caps at 90%) and renders you immune to stuns.
  • What doesn't kill you: now grants recovery instead of healing. You have to earn your healing now.
  • Necromancy: also now grants recovery instead of healing. It scales with the max health of the mobs you kill, which means you can get more recovery by killing a stronger enemy. The cap of up to a maximum 50% HP is eliminated, but its less effective as you get closer to max health.
  • Frostbite: now stacks with slow effects and acts as a full stack on frozen targets.
  • Dead Inside: now doubles your life but prevents ALL healing sources.
  • Disengagement: there is no longer a cooldown but can only trigger once per biome. (I know, I know)
Other:
  • Slow effect stacks up to 5 times. Each stack has a greater slowing effect, then the affected enemy is frozen at the fifth stack.
  • The Mimic can now appear randomly in shops outside of the Bank biome. Mwahahaaaa

Rebalancing


Return to Castlevania Weapons:
  • Whip Sword: whip form now passes shields.
  • Whip Sword's transformation attack hitbox tended to bug, it should now be consistent with its visual FX, which means it wont only hit one single target anymore.
  • The ghosts gathered by Death Scythe's have a slightly smaller explosion radius.
  • Bible is a heavy weapon.
  • Throwing Axe can no longer roll Fire Bullet affix.
  • Alucard's Shield has better parry windows, and the whole combo instead of the next hit crits.
  • Rebound Stone: it deals slightly more damage and has a smaller but longer window before being able to "catch it" (i.e., trigger the crit). Its cooldown now starts upon its destruction.
  • Holy Water has a bigger vertical hitbox and deals damage in a more logical way. By logical, we mean the flame itself can cause damage now.
  • Medusa Head deals more damage and bumps further.
  • We added some security measures to prevent the Cat from being targeted by enemies. There is also a long cooldown when the Cat is killed by the Queen.
Mobs:
  • Medusa's flurry attacks should now have a small pause after the end of the attack.
  • Haunted Armor (the one with an axe) should now activate at a slightly longer range.
  • Elite Merman should now fire 2 big fireballs instead of a big one and a normal one.
Bosses:
  • Dracula (Humanoid)'s fire pillars are now slightly easier to avoid (in terms of intervals) but are not rollable anymore.
  • Dracula (Demon) is now a beast, along with Buer, Werewolves and Medusa (Crowbar wise).
And that's it!

How to access the alpha:


Back up your save first. The alpha shouldn't affect your saves but better to be safe than sorry. If the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/588650/announcements/detail/1696100248017690442) Then follow these instructions to access the alpha:
  • Go to your Steam game library.
  • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
  • Select the tab "Betas".
  • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
  • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
  • Start playing.
As always, everything is still being tweaked according to feedback. So some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord (link at the bottom of the post) - there are two channels called update34-alpha-discussion and update34-alpha-feedback specifically for these conversations, so please use them! Bug reports can be sent to us with the following form to help us collect all information on bugs and crashes in one place, this helps us to fix them quicker! https://forms.clickup.com/f/2b318-1807/WG3GMB5KUFQB4XRAHX Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


[ 2023-04-05 16:08:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mac users who are still getting crashes - can you report some details for us?

Hey, We've seen that some Mac users are still getting crashes. First things first, sorry that it's taking some time to completely fix this issue. We need some more information to figure out exactly where this is coming from, so if you're still getting a crash on Mac, we're asking that you follow the instructions below and send us the resulting information USING THIS FORM - https://forms.clickup.com/f/2b318-1807/WG3GMB5KUFQB4XRAHX Instructions:[olist]

  • Go to the game folder located in Steam/steamapps/common/Dead Cells
  • Right Click on deadcells.sh
  • Open with > Terminal
  • Report any errors from the terminal [/olist] Of course, if anyone else is having problems then you can use the same form to report the issue you're having. Thanks for your patience, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-03-20 15:48:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

  • Hotfix is live - fixing Mac crashes, Steam Deck save issue, softlock in DLC

    Hi everyone, Hope you've been enjoying the Return to Castlevania DLC! No rest for the wicked, the devs have been hard at work fixing some issues that came up with the DLC release and we've just released a hotfix to address a decent chuck of them:

    Major


    • Crash fix for Mac
    • Fix steam deck save issue - This shouldn't have been a save wipe situation, but a save lock situation, so your saves should be OK. If you're still having problems let us know
    • Fix parallax rendering on Castle's Outskirts
    • Fix softlock on Dracula's Castle for players without spider rune

    Minor


    • Fixed the Katana cancel technique being wrongfully removed from the game.
    • Fixed a crash when loading a very old save.
    • Fixed random crashes in Richter Mode when using certain affixes.
    • Fixed Richter Mode Vania-moves disappearing when trying to sell them.
    • Fixed a softlock in Castle's Outskirts when teleporting through a door with Snake Fangs.
    • Fixed Medusa's Head clipping through walls.
    • Fixed World Map vibrating up and down in certain resolutions.
    • Fixed random crashes on the title screen.
    • Fixed a random crash when blocking an attack.
    • Fixed Legendary Items spawning in biomes where loot is disabled.
    • Fixed Queen's reflected items not having the proper trail color.
    Have a great weekend and let us know if you've noticed anything else that needs fixing! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-03-10 14:02:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC is out now!

    Hey everyone, It's finally here, the Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC is available now! Storm Dracula's Castle on a new quest, meet famous heroes, fight classic monsters with iconic weapons and confront Death & Dracula in epic boss fights, all backed by original and re-imagined tunes! You can even play as all the main characters from the famous series with 20 new outfits!
    This is our tribute to the main inspiration of Dead Cells so we have put a ton of our time and effort into making this the best possible Castlevania x Dead Cells experience, we hope you enjoy it ^^ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania/ Our resident marketing artist Steve has created a pretty epic gameplay trailer to get you in the mood for some manic vampire slaying, check it out here: [previewyoutube=56n3spvD2M0;full][/previewyoutube] So what exactly is in the DLC? Well, there's a main quest featuring Alucard & Richter Belmont, where you'll fight your way several times through both Dracula's Castle and the main island on the way to a final showdown with Dracula in his iconic Throne Room. Straight from Prisoner's Quarters you'll find an entrance to...

    Castle Outskirts


    Before you can enter Dracula's Castle, you'll need to venture through the gardens, across the moat and up the ramparts while avoiding traps and fighting off countless evil minions. Don't get distracted by the view and keep your eyes peeled for hidden pathways, secret rooms and a certain energetic feline...

    Dracula's Castle


    Moonlight streaming through stained glass windows. Ornate pillars holding up ceilings of magnificent halls. Towering spires pushing into the night sky over fortified battlements.
    The beauty of Dracula's Castle hides a dark heart, as undead creatures wait to pounce from every direction. Make your way from the entrance hall to the top of the castle and find the lair of the most powerful vampire of them all...

    Boss Fights


    This DLC comes with not 1, but 3 new bosses! Death and Dracula take no prisoners and you are no exception. Be prepared for epic battles against majestic backdrops where the winner takes it all...
    If you manage to beat these two creatures then prepare yourself for our most ambitious boss showdown yet!

    Weapons


    14 new weapons can be won in this DLC, like the Vampire Killer, Throwing Axe & Holy Water. Each classic Castlevania item has been translated into the fast-paced combat of Dead Cells while keeping their original essence.
    Wield whips, crosses and holy powers to carve your way through hordes of the undead and tame the evil powers of the night.

    Richter Mode


    Hidden somewhere in the castle is a bizarre room that turns you into the indomitable vampire hunter, Richter Belmont! Unlocking a moveset inspired by his appearance in Symphony of the Night, you'll storm through a section of the castle finding vania moves and classic weapons that will push all the nostalgia buttons.

    Soundtrack


    We're giving you access to an alternative soundtrack made of 51 of the original Castlevania tunes, that can be heard across the entire game. On top of this, we've taken the 12 most iconic tracks, such as Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears and Simon Belmont's Theme, and reimagined them in the style of Dead Cells as a soundtrack for this DLC, while preserving the Castlevania ambiance of course.

    Outfits


    Unlock 20 outfits as you progress through the castle, letting you roleplay as all your favourite characters like Alucard, Richter Belmont, Simon Belmont, Maria Renard, Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, or even Dracula!

    How much is it?


    $9.99/9,99 (or equivalent). The increase in price from the previous DLCs reflects the extra work we've put in to this DLC, as well as the use of the Castlevania IP. The dev team have been working on this for a long time and we think that it shows!

    AMA


    We'll be running an AMA on r/gaming tomorrow at 16:00 CET, we'll post a link in the Community Hub and on social media, so come ask us all your questions! That's all, hope you all enjoy the DLC!! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-03-06 18:01:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    One last teaser and surprise reveal before Return to Castlevania DLC launch!

    Hey everyone, With the Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC arriving in just a couple of weeks, we wanted to share one last short teaser highlighting how the dev team packed the iconic Castlevania essence into every inch of the DLC, then we'll leave you alone! You'll have to listen to me waxing on about Castlevania for a hot minute, but watch to the end for one last surprise reveal... [previewyoutube=CsAyUBexG78;full][/previewyoutube] This is our last post before the release, so see you all on launch day! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-02-23 17:00:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Return to Castlevania DLC release date announced and first glimpse of gameplay!

    Hey everyone, You've waited long enough to know the release date of the Return to Castlevania DLC, we said Q1 2023 and we're already in February, so here it is! But first let's explore an essay about what's going on in the game industry today. We strongly feel that in the current climate of global titans and small independent studios, that we can extrapolate... 6th March! It's 6th March OK. Here's a short gameplay trailer to get your teeth into: [previewyoutube=QBBwIHYm8Mw;full][/previewyoutube] So what you saw there is about 5% of the content on offer, there's still loads for you to discover in March, and keep an eye out for more reveals in the future. That should have been your first true glimpse of the boss fights as well, which we think look pretty damn good, if we do say so ourselves... You'll have hopefully recognised the iconic Vampire Killer track at the end - if you didn't then go listen to the old soundtracks right now! I'll remind you that we have 51 of the original Castlevania tracks in this DLC, with 12 reimagined by our resident musician Yoann "Valmont" Laulan in his Dead Cells style. If that's not reason enough to check out this DLC then I don't know what is! If you haven't wishlisted it yet, here's a handy link for you: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania/ That's not all, there's a couple more bits of Dead Cells news!

    Dead Cells board game



    Yep, we've decided to bring high octane Dead Cells action to the board game world! Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game will be coming to Kickstarter this Spring: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scorpionmasque/dead-cells-the-rogue-lite-board-game It will be a cooperative, rogue-lite metroidvania inspired experience, where you explore the ever-changing island of Dead Cells as a group. Yeah, yeah, I know, you're getting a co-op Dead Cells experience in a board game and not the video game, don't shoot the messenger... Players will have to choose their path carefully within ruthless biomes and face Malaise-infected enemies or die trying. Each death is a chance to mutate into something far more powerful and go further every run. Explore. Kill. Die. Mutate. Repeat. So it's a pretty faithful representation of the video game, right. The team behind it is Scorpion Masqu, a multiple award-winning publisher with a strong expertise in legacy board games, that has been joined by Kaedama, a group of veteran and decorated designers (7 Wonders, Draftosaurus, Cyclades, The Loop) to bring their vast experiences to the design of this board game. We're confident that they're building a game that remains faithful to the Dead Cells style while translating well into the world of board games. We don't want to release something half-baked just for the sake of it! If you want more info, they've released a blog post here, go check it out.

    New Dead Cells wiki


    Finally, some seriously dedicated and kind folks from the Dead Cells discord banded together to move the Dead Cells wiki from Fandom to Wiki.gg - https://deadcells.wiki.gg/wiki/Dead_Cells_Wiki Without getting too into the details, Wiki.gg offers fewer adverts, faster and better editing, better looking pages and great admin support. What's not to like?! However, Fandom will still appear as the top result when searching for anything wiki related. You can find the new wiki easily by adding "wiki.gg" at the end of your search or by simply bookmarking the new wiki. The Fandom wiki won't get updates from the experienced editors anymore, so please don't rely on it for up-to-date advice and head over to the wiki.gg site. Thanks to everyone who helped out with this project! That's all for now, speak to you all again very soon :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-02-08 22:12:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

    New teaser for Return to Castlevania DLC and Keymailer open for content creators

    Hey everyone! We're back with a reminder that our next DLC, Return to Castlevania, is coming early this year! To get you mentally prepared for some whipping and vampire-slaying, we've created a little teaser giving a nod to the classic Castlevania games and some (very quick) glimpses of gameplay... [previewyoutube=q10fKa_MkW0;full][/previewyoutube] We've also opened up applications for streamers and content creators to apply for keys on Keymailer - https://www.keymailer.co/g/games/164855, but we won't be distributing any keys for a little while. If you haven't wishlisted the DLC yet, then get on over to the storepage and get that thing on your list! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania/ Back soon with more news... Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2023-01-19 16:16:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Castlevania is back! Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC coming Q1 2023!


    Hi everyone, After almost a year of keeping quiet, and we still can't believe that we get to say this, but our next DLC "Return to Castlevania" is coming in Q1 2023! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania/ Wishlist it now! Yep, one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, inspirations behind Dead Cells is being reimagined in our fast-paced, frenetic gameplay with our most ambitious DLC to date. Somehow we managed to convince KONAMI to let us recreate this truly iconic pillar of gaming, and we have loved every minute of crafting our very own love letter to the granddad of Dead Cells, bringing the Castlevania series back to its 2D action roots. We hope that we have done justice to the game that inspired a thousand more and it has been a ridiculous privilege to work on this project. Anyway, that's enough fanboying, let's get on with the post! First up is a brand new animated trailer to celebrate the DLC, courtesy of Bobby Pills: [previewyoutube=Eu3zfCDbRoU;full][/previewyoutube]

    What's in the DLC?


    You'll strike out on an adventure through the spooky outskirts and candle-lit interior of Dracula's Castle in two new biomes, where you'll wield iconic weapons such as the Vampire Killer, Throwing Axe & Holy Water against classic enemies like mermen, bone throwers & haunted armors on your warpath to vanquish Dracula himself. Three epic boss fights await you throughout the haunted Castle, no prizes for guessing who one of them is!
    The famous Richter Belmont and Alucard will be by your side in a new storyline, helping you to navigate the maze of Draculas Castle and providing you with strong weapons (sometimes willingly, sometimes not). However, where there is good there is evil, so watch out for powerful foes who will try everything in their power to stop you from reaching the throne room!
    If it wasn't already obvious, we've taken great care in creating that unmistakable Castlevania atmosphere. You'll find secret rooms, beautiful paintings and of course, chicken legs in the walls. OK, the chicken legs were already in the walls but we won't tell anyone if you don't. Oh and we hope you like the moon because that sucker is everywhere!
    Behind all of this, you can listen to a full in-game soundtrack of more than 60 Castlevania tunes, both original and reimagined. Full means full - we've got Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Divine Bloodlines, all the hits!

    How much is it?


    The DLC will be $9.99 or equivalent. Yes, this is an increase from our usual price of $4.99 for a DLC, but this reflects the fact that the scope of this DLC is quite a lot bigger than previous DLCs, as well as the inclusion of the Castlevania IP. We'll be back with a lot more information as we get closer to the release date, but in the meantime I'm just going to leave another link to the DLC store page here in case you want to add it to your wishlist... https://store.steampowered.com/app/2101430/Dead_Cells_Return_to_Castlevania/ Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-12-09 00:38:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fancy helping us test some new Dead Cells content in December?

    Hey everyone, We're once again asking for some intrepid Dead Cells players to test some exciting, shiny-new and very chunky Dead Cells content and help us get some final polish on it. We will be asking for feedback and there will likely be some game-breaking bugs and weird crashes, you have been warned! NOTE: People who applied after our Discord message a few weeks ago do not need to apply again! If you'd like to take part then please fill in the form using the link at the end of this post. You will need to provide your full name, email and Steam profile name - we'll only use those details strictly to contact you about the beta, but if it makes you uncomfortable to give us that information then unfortunately you won't be able to take part. However, we've done this three times now and never had any problems, so you'll be in safe hands You'll also need to sign an NDA before we start, then not share any details of the content with anyone outside the testing group until we release the content. If you do, we'll come after you with the giant Frantic Sword we keep in the office. Only half joking... Applications are open until the end of November, then testing would begin around mid-December. We will not send anyone any messages before the end of November/start of December, so don't worry if you don't have any contact from us before then. You can apply here: https://forms.clickup.com/2460712/f/2b318-21862/ION7S0V1385HHFV92D Thanks in advance to everyone who wants to take part! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-11-15 10:34:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for Everyone is Here Vol. II update

    Hi everyone, We've just released a hotfix for a load of small bugs and quality of life issues, here are the main fixed bugs:

    • Crash with Diverse Deck in custom mode
    • Glow effect issues with weapons and mobs
    • Generation issue with campfire lore room
    • Crash when using key to unlock Cavern biome
    • Flawless outfits not dropping
    • Duplicate icons for Hotline Miami outfit
    Full list here. Thanks, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-11-14 13:26:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The Everyone is Here Vol. II update is out now!

    Hey everyone, We're back with another indie crossover update - Everyone is Here Vol. II! We've added more weapons, skills and skins from our favourite indie games, so thanks to all the studios that let us add a piece of their creations to Dead Cells. Watch out for a bundle going live in the next few hours, more on that below... So, who's in the update? [previewyoutube=A_kmohIc-b4;full][/previewyoutube]

    Terraria


    I'm not sure if we can really call Terraria an indie anymore, but they definitely started as one! In any case, we're introducing 'The Guide' and the heavenly sword Starfury! Striking enemies with this gloriously pink sword causes fragments of stars to fall from the sky, dealing critical hits to other enemies around you. The drawback is that it's a relatively slow and static weapon, but chuck a few dodge rolls in there and you'll be fine.

    Shovel Knight


    Yeah yeah, we know we've already got a shovel in Dead Cells... But luckily the King Scepter exists, so Shovel Knight will be shoulder bashing your enemies to launch himself into the air, then spinning around the screen drilling enemies into the ground with critical hits. Bouncing on an enemy let's you charge again, so see how long you can keep the chain going! We needed to make it a bit tricky to keep hitting enemies from above as it could be too easy to cheese enemies with it (cough Pure Nail cough), so the movement is quite sensitive to make it hard to master.

    Hotline Miami


    Breaking down doors and pummelling the dazed enemies on the other side just got even more fun! Jacket and his trusty Baseball Bat are swinging into Dead Cells, with not one, not two, but three different masks. The Baseball bat crits on stunned enemies, so you're basically required to hit enemies while they're down... Look out for the damage number VFX pulled from Hotline Miami too!

    Katana ZERO


    Another head scratcher for us - we've already got a majestic katana in-game so what could Subject ZERO possibly bring to Dead Cells? Well, simply put, the answer is throwing stuff at people! Throwable Objects stun your enemies, allowing you to close the distance and get some shots in, or give you time to charge the katana's dash attack... You've only got 3 charges of throwable stuff, so you'll need to kill enemies to refill your stash.

    Slay the Spire


    Translating a deckbuilding card game into Dead Cells was pretty tricky but, after several days of tearing out their hair, the devs managed it. The Diverse Deck translates each of the 4 classes from Slay the Spire into one complex skill. You will initially gain a passive power from one class. You can play with this passive for as long as you like, then activating it provides a one-off boost effect, and the skill moves on to the next class. You will start with Barricade, which gives you an amount of permanent bonus health for the period that this 'class' is in play. Each successful parry grants bonus health for a short period of time. On activation, all current bonus health is removed and damage is dealt depending on the quantity removed. Then the skill moves on to Catalyst. Catalyst makes your melee attacks poison the enemies they hit. On activation, nearby enemies lose all their damage-over-time stacks, and are dealt the remaining damage of these effects in one blow. Next up is Electrodynamics, which creates a lightning orb that circles around you, dealing electric damage on impact with enemies. Each time you use the skill that you have in your other slot, an additional orb appears. On activation, all your active orbs are destroyed and one lightning strike hits a nearby enemy for each orb destroyed that way. After this, the skill moves on to the final class... Foresight lets you avoid the first instance of damage every few seconds. On activation, you become immune to all sources of damage for a period of time, then the skill goes back to Barricade and the cycle keeps going. It all sounds a bit complicated but in practice it's pretty intuitive!

    Risk of Rain


    Last, but definitely not least, one of the great roguelites of the last few years is arriving in the form of The Commando wielding the Laser Glaive! The Laser Glaive is irresistibly drawn to enemy after enemy, rebounding around the screen dealing damage to as many foes as possible. It gains damage after each extra enemy it hits and will start dealing crits after hitting multiple enemies. Not bad for crowd control...

    Where do I get all this?!


    The book of clues in the Prisoner's Quarters has mysteriously gained new pages - figure out these new riddles then complete the challenges to unlock the outfits. Just like last time, bizarre-looking lore rooms have appeared throughout the island, containing these strange & powerful objects from other worlds...

    Bundle


    We're running a complete-the-set bundle with all the games included (except Terraria & Hotline Miami) for just one week! It's right here so if you're missing a couple of games in your library or you have a friend who you want to get into some great indie games then check it out! If you want the complete details of everything in the update, with bug fixes and all that stuff, then go check out the full patchnotes on our site. We're also aware of a couple of issues which we're working on a hotfix for:
    • Crash with Diverse Deck in custom mode
    • Glow issue with some outfits and Assault Shield
    • Generation issue with campfire lore room
    • Crash when using key to unlock Cavern biome
    That's it for now, this update was a ton of fun to work on, so we hope you like it as much as we liked creating it :D We can't quite believe that this insane line-up of games all allowed us to pay a little tribute to them in Dead Cells, you've gotta love the indie community! We haven't forgotten about adding more 'pure' Dead Cells content, that adventure will continue in 2023 and keep an eye out for some news in December... Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @alm4nditte
    Re-drawer
    ?


    [ 2022-11-07 15:10:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Last hotfix for Boss Rush, hopefully! Outfits now fixed

    Hello, The latest and hopefully last hotfix for the Boss Rush update is out. We thought we'd fixed the missing outfits and the soft lock when you die against Time Keeper in the Boss Rush... turns out that in fact we hadn't, so this hotfix should rectify those two bugs now! Sorry for the delay! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-10-12 10:19:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Boss Rush update hotfix

    Hello, A hotfix just came out to fix several annoying bugs from the Boss Rush update, as well as adding Custom Mode settings to the Boss Rush. Quality of Life

    • Added Custom Mode settings to Boss Rush
    Bug fixes
    • Fixed missing door after stage 2 of Boss Rush
    • Fixed Boss Rush outfits not appearing at the Collector
    • Fixed item in Backpack disappearing after equipping a two-handed weapon
    • Fixed missing background in Panchaku lore room
    • Fixed softlock when dying to Timekeeper in Boss Rush
    • Fixed softlock when playing Boss Rush without the Spider Rune
    • Fixed crash when fighting servants in Boss Rush
    • Fixed Flint not scaling with gear level
    • Fixed Conjunctivius' projectiles being offset from their hitbox
    • Fixed Concierge always giving its Flawless achievement
    If you're still having issues with outfits not appearing (or other bugs) can you please fill in this bug report form - https://forms.clickup.com/f/2b318-1807/WG3GMB5KUFQB4XRAHX Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-10-10 13:36:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The Dead Cells 'Boss Rush' update is out now!

    Hey everyone, The Boss Rush update is available to play right now! Face off against 3 or 5 bosses back-to-back to unlock new goodies. Oh, and look out for some new souped-up boss versions too... We've made a little trailer to show off the highlights: [previewyoutube=bAEt_uWf5Es;full][/previewyoutube] Plus, for the people who prefer visual/audio over text, I quickly whipped up a VLOG to showcase the content: [previewyoutube=gCaZwowMm78;full][/previewyoutube] Here's the TLDR and then we'll get stuck into the details!

    • 4 stages to fight through - 3 bosses back-to-back - 3 enhanced bosses back-to-back - 5 bosses back-to-back - 5 enhanced bosses back-to-back
    • New weapon, skill & mutation
    • 8 skins
    • Customisable statue
    • New legendary affixes

    How do you access the Boss Rush?


    There is a new area, accessible through the basement door in Prisoner's Quarters, where you can also access the Training Room and the Tailor. Once you've gone through the basement door just follow the corridor until you come to the third door with the red boss head next to it. Through this door, you'll find another 4 doors, leading to 4 different stages where you will fight:
    • 3 bosses back-to-back
    • 3 enhanced bosses back-to-back
    • 5 bosses back-to-back
    • 5 enhanced bosses back-to-back
    What the hell are enhanced bosses?! Basically we've given them even more ways to kick your ass. Think extra limbs, healing powers, buddies to help them kill you - all the good stuff!
    The bosses are randomly selected from the following tiers: Tier 1 - Concierge, Conjunctivius, Mama Tick Tier 2 - Time Keeper, The Giant, The Scarecrow Tier 3 - Hand of the King, The Servants (just the final fight, not the entire tower!), The Queen Spoiler Boss is not in the Boss Rush BUT it is on the list to add later, if possible. The stages with 3 bosses back-to-back will pit you against one Tier 1 boss, then one Tier 2 and finally, you guessed it, one Tier 3. Simple! The stages with 5 bosses follow a similar path, but here you'll be fighting two Tier 1 bosses, then two Tier 2s, then one Tier 3. Not quite so simple... NOTE: You must have encountered a boss in a normal run for it to appear in the Boss Rush. You don't need to have killed it, just seen it.
    There is a choice between Brutality, Tactics and Survival at the start of each stage - choosing one will automatically give you stats focused on the one you chose, plus a relevant amulet, and give you a choice of builds focused on the one you chose in the following room. You'll also be able to choose mutations before you start the first boss fight. Between each Tier stage you will enter a transition where there are shops, items, weapon upgrade/rerolls, mutation rerolls and health refills (depending on your BC level of course). So in a 3 boss run this area will appear after the Tier 1 and Tier 2 fight. In a 5 boss run it will appear after the two Tier 1 fights, then after the two Tier 2 fights.

    New unlockables


    There are more goodies to unlock as you progress through the stages, if you can of course! New stuff will unlock depending on the length (3 bosses or 5 bosses), the mode (Normal bosses or Modified bosses), the difficulty (0+BC, 3+BC or 5BC) and your ability to flawless the entire run or not. Yep, the 5-boss 5BC Flawless reward is going to be a bit hard to get!
    Weapon - Glyph of Peril (Tacticsl): A ranged attack with 7 attacks in its combo. The more health that you're missing, the more of the combo unlocks. Critical hits will start after the third hit of the combo.
    Skill - Taunt (Brutality): Taunt an enemy, making it relentessly pursue you for 20 seconds. In doing so, it drops its guard, so it takes 75% more damage from melee attacks during its pursuit. I'll let you discover exactly what taunts the Beheaded uses, but I don't think you'll be disappointed...
    Mutation - Wish (Colourless): The next weapon you pick up is legendary. Once chosen it cannot be removed (like the YOLO mutation). Skins: There are 8 new skins to discover, with various barbarian/boss themes and some snazzy glowing parts. Customisable statue: You've got a fan! They're making a grand statue of you as tribute, and as you progress through the Boss Rush, you'll be able to add shiny new elements to it. Just try not to let your head get too big!

    New/updates legendary affixes


    We're also adding more legendary affixes to flesh out our last update. These are:
    • Spartan Sandals: Super Bump - bumps stuff even further
    • Oil Sword: Oil on Kill (again, quite self explanatory: spreads oil on the ground on kill)
    • Flint: Instant Charge - all attacks are fully charged without needing to hold the button
    • Katana: Deflect Bullets - all uncharged attacks deflect bullet (but not grenades)
    • Killing Deck: Random Effect - every card applies a random debuff on targets (any kind of DoT, crowd controls, etc. with a few exceptions that wouldn't make sense like item-specific effects)
    • Money Shooter: Pay to Win - refund the shot's cost if it kills a target + innate super pierce. Can trigger multiple times if a shot kills several enemies.
    • Knockback Shield: Super Bump
    • Wave of Denial: Super Bump
    • Pollo Power: Miracle of Life - eggs hatch into chicks that attack nearby enemies
    Full patchnotes are here. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @alm4nditte
    K-BoNe
    Vinceptix


    [ 2022-10-05 15:54:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Boss Rush beta hotfix is out

    Hi everyone, We've just released a hotfix for the Boss Rush update beta. Balancing

    • Conjunctivius balancing: - All projectiles are deleted when screaming. - The Shock Attack warning more accurately represents the hitbox of the attack. - Tentacles stop attacking during the bullet hell phase. - Tentacles swipe attack now has a visual warning.
    • Modified Conjunctivius attacks cooldown increased.
    • Boss Rush doors now get locked if the player hasn't unlocked enough bosses.
    • The new Skins now get unlocked with cells.
    • Boss Rush mode door does not appear if the player has never seen Hand of the King.
    • Boss Rush shops now only have main stats items.
    Quality of life
    • Beheaded now spawns next to Mentor Knight after winning a Boss Rush run.
    Bug fixes
    • Fixed a softlock when skipping Mentor Knight's dialogue.
    • Fixed a crash with the Grenade on Destroy affix.
    • Fixed Boss Rush disabled items showing up in shops.
    • Fixed Boss Rush disabled items dropping from bosses.
    • Fixed Boss Rush survival amulets not having scrolls.
    • Fixed Boss Rush legendary altars spawn
    • Fixed Mama Tick not attacking when angered with Taunt.
    • Fixed Giant's arms sometimes visually going crazy.
    • Fixed Queen not dropping cells at the end of a Boss Rush run.
    • Fixed legendary Flint scaling.
    Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-09-28 15:27:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Boss Rush update heads into beta

    Hey everyone, The Boss Rush update has moved into its beta phase. We haven't been able to sort out the issue with Linux and Mac so the beta is only accessible on Windows, sorry about that! For an overview of the update check out the alpha post. Here are the changes for the beta: Balancing:

    • Modified Queen is now impervious to damage during her slicing interphases.
    • Modified Scarecrow no longer spawns Spikers.
    • Modified Conjunctivius now has 15% less health and does not deactivate platforms periodically anymore.
    • The Servants are more aggressive in Boss Rush. Euterpe has been slowed down.
    • Glyphs of Peril and Magic Bow are now Tactics only.
    • Taunt now has a cooldown.
    • Taunt legendary affix - Troll: now taunts everything in range instead of just one target.
    • Glyphs of Peril legendary affix: Overshield on crit: grants 4% max health as overshield (blue health) for 15 seconds, stackable.
    • The 3 new items must now be unlocked for cells at the Collector.
    • Disabled the Giant Killer, Wish and spoiler weapon in Boss Rush.
    • Wish no longer works on weapons that have been recently equipped or are in the backpack.
    • Added a triple treasure at the start of the Boss Rush.
    • Rebalanced Boss Rush shops' prices and content.
    • Cells no longer drop from bosses in the Boss Rush, except the final one. The final boss doesn't drop gold anymore.
    Graphics & UI:
    • A few modified bosses recolors were changed.
    • Added all missing dialogues for Mentor Knight.
    • Polished intro cutscene of Modified Concierge.
    Music & SFX/VFX:
    • Boss rush transitions now have background music.
    • Added SFX for Mentor Knight, Glyphs of Peril and the Beheaded Fan.
    • Changed VFX of Glyphs of Peril.
    Bug Fixes
    • Arrow and Grenade affixes now properly scale with item damage multipliers
    • Malaise no longer increase in transition areas
    • Fixed a few items not displaying their synergy with stun in their descriptions
    • Fixed not being able to reset equipped Perks before starting a Boss Rush run
    • Fixed Servants fight music
    • Fixed Wish turning an already legendary weapon into the same weapon and getting consumed
    • Fixed two-handed weapons not having the same quality on both hands
    • Fixed talisman rerolling in Boss Rush every time stats are upgraded

    How to access the beta:


    NOTE: Playing the beta will lock your chosen save slot to update 31. You won't be able to go back to update 30 with this save slot during the entire duration of the beta. However, your progress in the beta will be automatically merged into the main game when we release update 31 officially. If you want to try out the beta and don't know how, first BACKUP YOUR SAVE FILE, then follow these instructions:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    You can leave any feedback here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called update31-beta-discussion and update31-beta-feedback, or leave a comment here. We also have a bug report form for issues and bugs. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-09-27 09:49:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Our next Dead Cells update "Boss Rush" is now in alpha testing - try it out!

    Hello, We're back with another alpha for our next slab of content - the Boss Rush Update!

    How does it work?


    There is a new area, accessible through the basement door in Prisoner's Quarters where you access the Training Room and the Tailor - one you've gone through the basement door just follow the corridor until you come to the third door with the red boss head next to it. Through this door, you'll find another 4 doors, leading to 4 different stages where you will fight:
    • 3 bosses back-to-back
    • 3 bosses back-to-back with modifiers
    • 5 bosses back-to-back
    • 5 bosses back-to-back with modifiers
    What are modifiers, I hear you ask? Basically we've given the bosses even more ways to kick your ass. Think extra limbs, healing powers, buddies to help them kill you - all the good stuff! The bosses are randomly selected from the following tiers: Tier 1 - Concierge, Conjunctivius, Mama Tick Tier 2 - Time Keeper, The Giant, The Scarecrow Tier 3 - Hand of the King, The Servants (just the final fight, not the entire tower!), The Queen Spoiler Boss is not available in the alpha and likely won't be available on release BUT it should arrive later. The stages with 3 bosses back-to-back will pit you against one Tier 1 boss, then one Tier 2 and finally, you guessed it, one Tier 3. Simple! The stages with 5 bosses follow a similar path, but here you'll be fighting two Tier 1 bosses, then two Tier 2s, then one Tier 3. Not quite so simple... NOTE: For testing purposes, in the alpha you will have access to all bosses regardless of your progress in your current save. In the official release of the update, the bosses that you encounter in the Boss Rush will only be bosses that you have personally encountered at least once in-game. There is a choice between Brutality, Tactics and Survival at the start of each stage - choosing one will automatically give you stats focused on the one you chose, and give you a choice of relevant builds in the following room.

    New unlockables


    There are more goodies to unlock as you progress through the stages, if you can! New stuff will unlock depending on the length (3 bosses or 5 bosses), the mode (Normal bosses or Modified bosses), the difficulty (0+BC, 3+BC or 5BC) and your ability to flawless the entire run or not. Yep, the 5 boss 5BC Flawless is going to be a bit hard to get!
    Weapon - Glyph of Peril (Tactics/Survival): A ranged attack with 7 attacks in its combo. The more health that you're missing, the longer the pause between each attack in the combo. So don't get hit! Critical hits will start after the third hit of the combo. Skill - Taunt: Taunt an enemy, making it relentessly pursue you for 20 seconds. In doing so, it drops its guard, so it takes 75% more damage from melee attacks during its pursuit. I'll let you discover exactly what taunts the Beheaded uses, but I don't think you'll be disappointed... Mutation - Wish: The next weapon you pick up is legendary. Once chosen it cannot be removed (like the YOLO mutation). Skins: There are 6 new skins to discover, with various barbarian/boss themes. Customisable statue: You've got a fan! They're making a grand statue of you as tribute, and as you progress through the Boss Rush, you'll be able to add shiny new elements to it. Such humility!

    New/updates legendary affixes


    We're also adding more legendary affixes to flesh out our last update. These are:
    • Spartan Sandals: Super Bump - bumps stuff even further
    • Oil Sword: Oil on Kill (again, quite self explanatory: spreads oil on the ground on kill)
    • Flint: Instant Charge - all attacks are fully charged without needing to hold the button
    • Katana: Deflect Bullets - all uncharged attacks deflect bullet (but not grenades)
    • Killing Deck: Random Effect - every card applies a random debuff on targets (any kind of DoT, crowd controls, etc. with a few exceptions that wouldn't make sense like item-specific effects)
    • Money Shooter: Pay to Win - refund the shot's cost if it kills a target + innate super pierce. Can trigger multiple times if a shot kills several enemies.
    • Knockback Shield: Super Bump
    • Wave of Denial: Super Bump
    • Pollo Power: Miracle of Life - eggs hatch into chicks that attack nearby enemies

    How to access the alpha:


    Back up your save first. The alpha shouldn't affect your saves but better to be safe than sorry. If the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/588650/announcements/detail/1696100248017690442) Then follow these instructions to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    As always, everything is still being tweaked according to feedback. So some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord (link at the bottom of the post) - there are two channels called update31-alpha-discussion and update31-alpha-feedback specifically for these conversations, so please use them! Bug reports can be sent to us with the following form to help us collect all information on bugs and crashes in one place, this helps us to fix them quicker! https://forms.clickup.com/f/2b318-1807/WG3GMB5KUFQB4XRAHX We have some known issues already:
    • Long load time after the Queen. It'll be fixed in the next patch.
    • Glyph of Peril weapon lacks polish.
    • The exit text when you win a run should not be "Do you want to abandon the run?", obviously.
    • The alpha is only available on Windows, not Mac or Linux - we have a problem which should be fixed for beta.
    Full patchnotes are coming tomorrow, but everything's basically already in this post anyway. Hope you enjoy the new mode, we'll gather feedback for a week or two then come back with the beta :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-09-19 15:43:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Price change for Argentina & Turkey

    Hello, Due to circumstances that we will explain below, we're being forced to increase our prices in Argentina & Turkey. We don't make this choice lightly, but unfortunately a significant portion of sales in the last year came from these two countries, without a corresponding increase in players there. To put this in context, the % of our total sales from a given country will roughly equal the % of our total players from that country. For Argentina & Turkey, their % of total sales is 3-4x the amount of the % of their total players. By no coincidence, the price of Dead Cells and DLC in these two countries are by far the lowest in dollar/euro terms, so it is extremely likely that people are changing their region to take advantage of a 70-90% reduction in price. Dead Cells is already not an expensive game at $24.99 and we regularly discount Dead Cells by 40-50%. With people taking advantage of the region pricing on top of this discount, hopefully you can see why this is impacting us so heavily. We realise that this will seem unfair to legitimate Steam users in Argentina & Turkey, but we are not a big studio and we are losing a very significant amount of revenue while trying to finance future projects and more Dead Cells content, so we are being forced to act. We hope that explains why we're making this change, we always try to be as open as possible with our community here on Steam and we are always open to feedback. Thanks, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-08-18 16:14:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The 'Enter the Panchaku' update is live!

    Hey everyone, We're back with our thirtieth update, 'Enter the Panchaku'! To celebrate this milestone of 30 updates, we're releasing 30 NFTs that unlock exclusive content in the game. The release date for these is never, because we're not touching that stuff. Gotcha... Here's the TLDR of the update:

    • panchaku and new 'flame head' Bobby outfit
    • rebalancing on weapons & items
    • rework of legendaries system
    • Soul Knight weapon and outfit
    • pet your pets
    • roadmap and Evil Empire/Motion Twin priorities
    We've made a little trailer to go along with the update: [previewyoutube=zlPJBqtiZKc;full][/previewyoutube] And here's a VLOG for people who don't like to read! [previewyoutube=HbDcWYRv9pM;full][/previewyoutube] Finally, the full patchnotes are here as usual. Let's get into it!

    Panchaku & Bobby outfit


    After numerous requests following the animated Bad Seed trailer, we're finally adding the panchaku to Dead Cells, with a new outfit inspired by Bobby Pills' trailers. We already had a 'Bobby' skin, but now the iconic pink flame head is here to make it complete. You can stop pestering us now, or just move onto the next shiny thing you reprobates want.
    Sorry for the potato quality, the 5MB limit on Steam just kills my gifs The panchaku is simply two frying pans tied together with a piece of string, which crits on enemies facing you and has a slick combo with hits behind and all around you. It can also reflect bombs and projectiles in the middle of the combo. So a slight upgrade on the Vorpan...

    Item reworks


    It's been a while since our last major rebalance of weapons, with the 'What's the Damage?' update releasing over a year ago. Since then we've had new items and mutations from the 'Everyone is Here' and the 'Break the Bank' updates, plus 'The Queen and the Sea' DLC, so there's a few imbalances here and there. So, we're making changes to 29 weapons and skills (and a mutation!) to rebalance the item pool. Why do we do rebalancing? This isn't a multiplayer game after all... Well, we need to do this to keep the variety element strong - a good roguelite should offer you difficult choices. If you're going to take the same 2 or 3 weapons every time because they're OP, then you're going to get bored very quickly. And we don't want you to get bored of Dead Cells! That's why we need to bring items to the same power level (or as close as possible) to encourage players to explore and use more of the item pool. Here's the buffs & nerfs: Buffs:
    • Hard Light Sword and Pistol: slight damage buff to the sword and attack speed buff to the pistol
    • Hokuto's Bow: damage bonus buffed
    • Queen's Rapier: the delayed slice hits sooner
    • Maw of the Deep: attack speed buff
    • Wrecking Ball: first and last attack are faster + greatly reduced lock on Wrecking Ball's third and fourth attacks
    • Leghugger: now jumps on a nearby target before launching its reactivation attack + keeps its growth state across instances of the object in a run
    • Killing Deck: damage buff on the first 2 attacks
    • Hand Hook: now also crits when the thrown enemy hits another entity + removed the first hit + greatly reduced the lock of the last attack.
    • Greed Shield: can now trigger once per enemy every 10 seconds + damage buff
    • Frantic Sword: crit multiplier is now inversely proportional to your life (when at or under 50% max life)
    • Abyssal Trident: slight damage buff
    • Shrapnel Axes: slight damage buff
    • Pollo Power: now fires 1 more egg + damage buff
    • Crowbar: now also crits on beast enemies (hand-picked, think "non-humanoid, non-mechanic")
    • Lightning Bolt: now crits one tick earlier and damages you 1 tick later
    • Spiked Shield: crit damage buff
    • Cudgel: Bullets parried will now stun enemies as well.
    • Gilded Yumi rework: - Reduced the ammo count to 2. - Now has a 2-hit combo, which shoots the second arrow faster. - Is now considered to be a Heavy Weapon. - Increased the overall weapon speed. - Increased the base damage, reduced the crit multiplier. - Damage no longer gets split between hit enemies. - Arrows now pierce all enemies. - Bosses get dragged by the arrow more. - Reduced the arrow's speed. - No longer stuns in an AoE on hit. - Can't roll ammo or pierce affixes anymore.
    Nerfs:
    • Smoke Bomb: scaling heavily nerfed (it was following the same formula as the stats)
    • Grappling Hook: same as Smoke Bomb
    • Boy's Axe: damage nerf + can't roll the Extra Ammo affix + can't be affected by Ammo mutation
    • Bladed Tonfas: slight crit multiplier nerf
    • Lacerating Aura: cooldown now starts at the end of the effect instead of starting at cast
    • Maw of the Deep: its root is now less effective on bosses
    • Crusher: its slow is now less effective on bosses
    • Hunter's Grenade: no longer provides stats
    • Rapier: damage nerf
    • Sonic Carbine: damage nerf
    • Hokuto's Bow: procs less often
    • Barbed Tips: damage of each stack is reduced the more arrows there are in the enemy. 1 arrow = 40dmg, 2 arrows = 74dmg, 3 arrows = 104dmg, etc.

    Legendary item change


    Moving on to the legendary item change, which weve wanted to do for a while. For those who dont know, legendary items are the gold-coloured items. In the old system, their damage would scale off your two highest stats (Brutality, Tactics and Survival), which wasnt intuitive with the stats system. Your average player usually just spread points between the off-colour stats to gain maximum health. As the legendaries power was affected by your two highest stats, it meant that you would need to put points on only one of the stats that you weren't using to get maximum damage from legendaries. Basically the whole thing wasnt very clear. It was also just not very interesting the only thing that legendaries gave you was more damage, that was it. More damage is always good, but we wanted to make it better! So to replace the old system, we're introducing legendary affixes (affixes are the tasty extra powers you get on items, like 60% damage to a bleeding enemy).
    All the legendary affixes have been specifically added to certain weapons so that they each have a synergy with their item's gameplay. This way, they'll be making legendaries stronger than your typical weapon version by adding an extra, complimentary gameplay element instead of just upping the damage.
    We've created a few brand new affixes as well as using some existing ones. There are a lot of legendary affixes in this list, so if you don't really care about specifics you should just scroll past! Melee Weapons
    • Balanced Blade: Run Speed on Crit
    • Spite Sword: Poison Skin Area
    • Assassins Dagger: Mega Crit
    • Blood Sword: Double Stack
    • Twin Daggers: Run Speed on Crit
    • Broadsword: Global Shield on Kill
    • Shovel: Better Secrets
    • Cursed Sword: True Evil
    • Sadist's Stiletto: Super Back Damage
    • Swift Sword: Run Speed on Kill
    • Giant Killer: God Slayer
    • Shrapnel Axes: Fire Bullet
    • Seismic Strike: Death Root
    • War Spear: Run Speed on Crit
    • Impaler: Super Back Damage
    • Symmetrical Lance: Quad Damage Free & Ignore Global Shields
    • Rapier: Run Speed on Crit
    • Meat Skewer: Super Back Damage
    • Nutcracker: Death Root
    • Spartan Sandals: Fire Feet
    • Spiked Boots: Run Speed on Crit
    • Hayabusa Boots: Super Back Damage
    • Hayabusa Gauntlets: Mega Crit
    • Valmont's Whip: Mega Crit
    • Wrenching Whip: Bleed on Hit
    • Oiled Sword: Poison on Hit
    • Torch: Double Stack
    • Frantic Sword: Heal Mid Life
    • Flawless: Run Speed on Crit
    • Flint: Fire on Hit
    • Flawless: Run Speed on Crit
    • Tentacle: Poison on Hit
    • Vorpan: Fire on Hit
    • Flashing Fans: Bleed on Hit
    • Scythe Claw: Death Root
    • Rhythm n Bouzouki: Fire on Hit
    • Crowbar: Super Back Damage
    • Snake Fangs: Double Stack
    • Iron Staff: Frost Shield
    • Ferryman's Lantern (Melee): Fire on Hit
    • Hattori's Katana: Mega Crit
    • Explosive Crossbow (Melee): Death Freeze
    • Tombstone: Cascading Tomb
    • Oven Axe: Run Speed on Crit
    • Toothpick: Heavy Stun
    • Toothpick (Broken): Rebuild on Kill
    • Machete and Pistol: Bleed on Hit
    • Hard Light Sword (Sword): Mega Crit
    • Pure Nail: Death Worm
    • Bone: Run Speed on Crit
    • Abyssal Trident: Run Speed on Crit
    • Hand Hook: Bleed on Hit
    • Maw of the Deep: Triple Bullets
    • Bladed Tonfas: Run Speed on Kill
    • Wrecking Ball: Speed Ball
    • Queen's Rapier: Super Slice
    • Dagger of Profit: Run Speed on Crit
    • Gold Digger: Heavy Stun
    • Panchaku: Fire on Hit
    Ranged Weapons
    • Multiple-nocks Bow: Double Bullets
    • Bow and Endless Quiver: Poison on Hit
    • Marksman's Bow: Heavy Stun
    • Sonic Carbine: Poison Bullet
    • Infantry Bow: Bleed on Hit
    • Quick Bow: Mega Crit
    • Ice Bow: Strong Ice
    • Heavy Crossbow: Super Pierce
    • Heavy Crossbow (Reload): Global Shield on Use
    • Repeater Crossbow: Super Pierce
    • Repeater Crossbow (Quiver of Bolts): Pierce
    • Ice Crossbow: Strong Ice
    • Ice Crossbow (Piercing Shot): Death Freeze
    • Explosive Crossbow: Super Pierce
    • Alchemic Carbine: Double Stack
    • Boomerang: Extra Ammo Few
    • Hemorrhage: Bleed Propagation
    • The Boys Axe: Extra Ammo Few
    • War Javelin: Fire Bullet
    • Hokutos Bow: Super Pierce
    • Nerves of Steel: Mega Crit
    • Throwing Knife: Bleed Propagation
    • Electric Whip: Super Back Damage
    • Firebrands: Double Stack
    • Ice Shards: Death Freeze
    • Pyrotechnics: Double Stack
    • Lightning Bolt: Global Shield on Kill
    • Fire Blast: Global Shield on Use
    • Frost Blast: Strong Ice
    • Magic Missiles: Super Pierce
    • Blowgun: Poison Cloud on Hit
    • Barrel Launcher: Death Fire
    • Ferrymans Lantern (Soul Shot): Fire Bullet
    • Hard Light Gun: Double Stack
    • Killing Deck: Bleed on Hit
    • Gilded Yumi: Fire Bullet
    • Money Shooter: Super Pierce
    • Magic Bow: Double Bullets
    Shields
    • Front Line Shield: Counter Attack
    • Cudgel: Long Stun
    • Punishment: Death Freeze
    • Knockback Shield: Death Root
    • Rampart: Frost Shield
    • Assault Shield: Heavy Stun
    • Bloodthirsty Shield: Double Stack
    • Greed Shield: Gold Damage Buff
    • Spiked Shield: Mega Crit
    • Parry Shield: Stun Shield
    • Force Shield: Frost Shield
    • Thunder Shield: Poison Shield
    • Ice Shield: Strong Ice
    Deployable Traps
    • Double Crossb-o-matic: Super Pierce
    • Sinew Slicer: Bleed Propagation
    • Heavy Turret: Super Pierce
    • Barnacle: Poison Bullet
    • Flamethrower Turret: Double Stack
    • Cleaver: Double Stack
    • Wolf Trap: Ice on Stop
    • Crusher: Ice on Stop
    • Explosive Decoy: Run Speed on Kill
    • Emergency Door: Deployed Dmg
    • Tesla Coil: Oil and Fire on Destroy
    • Scavenged Bombard: Double Speed
    Grenades
    • Powerful Grenade: Bigger Explosion
    • Infantry Grenade: Oil
    • Cluster Grenade: Echo
    • Magnetic Grenade: Echo
    • Stun Grenade: Long Stun
    • Ice Grenade: Strong Ice
    • Fire Grenade: Bigger Explosion
    • Root Grenade: Death Root
    • Oil Grenade: Death Fire
    • Swarm Grenade: Poison on Hit (yes, it applies to the biters attacks)
    Powers
    • Death Orb: Double Speed
    • Tornado: Double Speed
    • Knife Dance: Bleed Poison
    • Corrupted Power: Global Shield on Use
    • Vampirism: Oil and Fire on Use
    • Tonic: Extended Duration
    • Grappling Hook: Fire on Use
    • Phaser: Poison on use
    • Corrosive Cloud: Double Stack
    • Lacerating Aura: Bleed on Hit
    • Wave of Denial: Oil and Fire on Use
    • Wings of the Crow: Global Shield on Use
    • Great Owl of War: Super Pierce
    • Lightspeed: Global Shield on Use
    • Giant Whistle: Echo
    • Telluric Shock: Global Shield on Kill
    • : Run Speed on Kill
    • Smoke Bomb: Run Speed on Use
    • Mushroom Boi!: Poison Cloud on Hit
    • Lightning Rods: Fire on Stop
    • Scarecrow Sickles: Double Bullets
    • Ice Armor: White Walker
    • Serenade: Durability Up
    • Cocoon: Frost Shield
    • Face Flask: Oil and Fire on Use
    • Pollo Power: Death Worm
    • Leghugger: Bleed on Hit
    Legendaries will always roll their legendary affix and they cannot be removed, rerolled or replaced. Also just to be clear, we've removed the double stat scaling system, although legendaries will remain colorless in terms of scaling, which means that they scale off whichever of your stats has the highest value. More legendary affixes will be coming in future updates, so keep your eyes peeled. Oh and we're also adding an option in Custom Mode to allow 'legendary-only' runs:
    Look at all that gooooold!

    Soul Knight content


    We're also introducing content from Soul Knight, another roguelite that already has Dead Cells content in it, so we're returning the favour!
    The Magic Bow fires 5 slow-moving arrows, which make up for their lack of speed by homing in to their nearest enemy. Each arrow that successively hits the same enemy does more damage to that enemy. The Knight outfit adds the pint-sized adventurer and his oversized head as an option.

    Pet the pet


    The last bit of content we're adding is letting you pet the pets. In transitions between biomes you just need to long press the interact button to show some love to your latest companion. You won't get any benefit from this, it's just something fun for us to add. I mean why wouldn't we add this!
    Unfortunately the owl was too awkward to code this for, so it will never know the loving touch of the Beheaded...

    Other additions


    • Reworked the Outfit Selection UI. It is now a grid displaying the icons of all the unlocked outfits, as well as an in-game preview.
    • Added Teleportation Monoliths before the exits leading to Forgotten Sepulcher.
    • Added an exit to Clock Tower in Graveyard, for cases where the player would get softlocked otherwise.
    • In Ramparts, prevented the exit leading to Conjunctivius from being locked behind a Breakable Ground.
    • In Prisoners' Quarters, if the player has the Spider Rune but not the Vine Rune, the passage to the Sewers door will now use a specific room. Yes, this is a very specific change, don't ask about it.
    • Weapons' icons on the HUD now fade away when their controls are locked.
    • Uniformized the different speed bonus feedbacks.
    • Made double tap input option for Dive Attack more reliable and consistent.
    • Talisman DoT Affixes now scale based on the highest tier stat, instead of the tier average.
    • Gold Gorgers now can't attack or teleport to the player if they didn't see the player at least once.

    Bug fixes


    • Fixed Corrosive Cloud not triggering the Bleed Propagation affix.
    • Fixed Serenade sometimes losing its affixes on use.
    • Fixed Explosive Barrels not updating properly when not on screen.
    • Disabled gravity when picking up a scroll, to prevent a softlock when falling offscreen.
    • Fixed tier icons not displaying properly on colorless items.
    • Fixed the Bank Pop-up and the 1BC Pop-up overlapping.
    • Corrosive Cloud now correctly displays its synergy with Bleed.
    • Fixed the Cherry on the Cake bombs not dealing any damage to the player.
    • Added the missing world map transition of Distillery -> Lighthouse.
    • Fixed Conjunctivius sometimes shooting projectiles during the death animation.
    • Fixed the Hunter's Grenade not spawning back when thrown off a cliff, or when an enemy converted to elite fell of a cliff.
    • Fixed a crash when picking up an amulet with the Homunculus Rune in the Daily Challenge.
    • Fixed Mushroom Boi getting stuck in the dash animation after triggering the explosion.
    • Fixed Mutineers' melee attack not having the attack warning.
    • Fixed Invisibility not affecting the player's head or scarf.
    • Fixed Armored Shrimps moving while frozen.
    • Fixed the player getting stuck off-screen in some specific situations.
    • Fixed pets sometimes dying for no apparent reasons
    • Fixed the Leghugger not teleporting back to the player when too far away.
    • Fixed minimap refresh hiding part of the maps revealed by Explorer's Instinct.
    • Fixed Scrolls on the minimap not displaying their Stat icon, when triggering Explorer's Instincts.
    • Fixed mutations going higher and higher on the HUD every time the player changes the "place backpack next to weapons" option.
    • Fixed Queen sometimes getting stuck on the "Reality Slices" phase.
    • Fixed some powers and effects not working properly after going through a ZDoor, as well as their visual disappearing: - Ice Armor's sprite. - Cell Bonus FX. - Lacerating Aura FX. - Wings of the Crow FX.
    • Fixed elite Gold Gorgers using Elite Skills when transformed by the Hunter's Grenade.
    • Fixed Barbed Tips damage multiplier being applied one stack too early.
    • Fixed Two-Handed Weapons not properly generating their legendary affix.
    • Fixed the way DoT Effects damage scale was calculated, leading to some of them dealing less damage than intended.
    • Fixed Custom Heads being on the wrong layer after the player was thrown by the Queen.
    • Fixed DPS display on weapons not working properly with damage multipliers.
    • Fixed DPS display for the Bone.
    • Fixed options text getting out of the frame when opened on the main menu.

    Roadmap


    In case you missed our post the other week, we released the roadmap below. The basic idea is that we'll continue to add Dead Cells content into 2023 & beyond, and 2023 will be our biggest year since v1.0 was released!
    This also raised the question of whether there'll ever be any new games coming out. Dead Cells keeps getting new content so we can't be working on anything else, right? Well, we are. Motion Twin, the creators of Dead Cells, have not been working on Dead Cells for years. Although they do retain creative control over Dead Cells and have final approval on every addition Evil Empire makes to the game. Evil Empire is a separate studio made of ex-Motion Twin developers & some new blood, and we took over development of Dead Cells in 2019. Motion Twin have been working on their next project since then, but we all still work in the same office so it's a close relationship. Evil Empire are also working on our own projects too, but Dead Cells remains the priority for us. Essentially, don't worry, new games are coming! Finally, if anyone is going to PAX West in September we'll be there to show off a sneak preview of the upcoming Boss Rush update. Have a good one and we'll be back soon with news on the Boss Rush update! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community highlights:
    NNY666
    @FlameAozora
    @domxto


    [ 2022-08-03 14:13:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

    New changes for the current update 30 beta

    Hey all, Just a short post on yet another patch for the beta - we're taking as much feedback as possible on board! Here's the changes: Balancing:

    • Removed the pushback on Rampart's force field.
    • The recovery after Wrecking Ball's 3rd hit and 4th hit has been greatly reduced i.e. you can dodge roll/jump much quicker after the hits. The 3rd attack can also be cancelled without losing your combo.
    • Full Life Damage is not a starred affix anymore.
    • Increased Barbed Tips initial damage.
    • Barbed Tips damage of each stack is reduced the more arrows there are in the enemy. 1 arrow = 40dmg, 2 arrows = 74dmg, 3 arrows = 104dmg, etc.
    • Removed Hand Hook's first hit and greatly reduced the lock of the last attack.
    • Added new Legendary Affix, exclusive to Serenade: Durability Up, the sword pet never expires. Please note that the only translations of this affix are in French or English right now.
    • Gilded Yumi rework: - Reduced the ammo count to 2. - Now has a 2-hit combo, which shoots the second arrow faster. - Is now considered to be a Heavy Weapon. - Increased the overall weapon speed. - Increased the base damage, reduced the crit multiplier. - Damage no longer gets split between hit enemies. - Arrows now pierce all enemies. - Bosses get dragged by the arrow more. - Reduced the arrow's speed. - No longer stuns in an AoE on hit.
    Legendary Affix changes:
    • Double Crossb-o-matic: Super Pierce
    • Explosive Crossbow: Super Pierce
    • Heavy Crossbow: Super Pierce
    • Giant Whistle: Echo
    • Tornado: Double Speed
    • Spiked Boots: Run Speed on Crit
    • Cluster Grenade: Echo
    • Balanced Blade: Run Speed on Crit
    • Hank Hook: Bleed on Hit
    • Serenade: Durability Up
    Level design:
    • Added decorations in the Panchaku Lore Room
    Graphics & UI:
    • Weapons' icons on the HUD now fade away when their controls are locked.
    • Updated the credits.
    Quality of life:
    • Made double tap input option for Dive Attack more reliable and consistent.
    • Added an angry eye on some animations, with the Bobby Outfit.
    Bug fixes:
    • Fixed Scrolls on the minimap not displaying their Stat icon, when triggering Explorer's Instincts.
    • Fixed mutations going higher and higher on the HUD every time the player changes the "place backpack next to weapons" option.
    • Fixed the "Try 1BC" pop-up appearing when the player has already played 1BC at least once.
    • Fixed Challenge Portals graphics being messed up.
    • Fixed multiple crashes related to shader compilation.
    • Fixed being able to pet Serenade when holding it as a weapon.
    • Affixes now work on Leghugger and Mushroom Boi's attacks.
    • Fixed a crash when entering some biomes with the "secret zone visibility" option enabled.
    • Fixed Queen sometimes getting stuck on the "Reality Slices" phase.
    • Fixed some powers and effects not working properly after going through a ZDoor, as well as their visual disppearing:
    • Ice Armor's sprite.
    • Cell Bonus FX.
    • Lacerating Aura FX.
    • Wings of the Crow FX.
    • Fixed some sound effects getting randomly cut off. Hopefully it's fixed this time.
    • Fixed elite Gold Gorgers using Elite Skills when transformed by the Hunter's Grenade.
    • Fixed some fires and candles displaying as pink rectangles, not displaying at all, or displaying the wrong sprite.
    • Area effects that are directly triggered by Weapons, Grenades and Actives will now be properly affected by the source item's affixes.
    • Fixed Panchaku and Bobby Outfit not unlocking properly
    EDIT: Known Bug that we are working to fix - Gilded Yumi can roll Pierce and Super Pierce affixes even though it now has baseline Super Pierce. Let us know your thoughts in the Discord server or here in the comments :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-07-26 13:44:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 30 heads into beta

    Hey all, Update 30 has progressed from alpha to beta! If you don't know what we'll be adding in this update, go read the alpha post. Here are the changes we've made for the beta (also in patchnotes on our website): Important features:

    • Added unlocking conditions for the new content (Panchaku, Bobby Outfit and Soul Knight Content)
    Balancing:
    • Buffed the damage of the Back Damage, Super Crit and Super Back Damage affixes.
    • Reduced the damage and tick rate of Barbed Tips.
    • Increased the damage and crit multiplier of Gilded Yumi.
    • The Hand Hook pull attack now comes out way faster, but has more lag to compensate.
    • Legendary Weapons no longer roll a guaranteed Starred Affix
    • Bullets parried by the Cudgel will now stun enemies as well.
    • Rampart's forcefield now pushes enemies away for its entire duration.
    Graphics & UI:
    • Reworked the Outfit Selection UI. It is now a grid displaying the icons of all the unlocked outfits, as well as an in-game preview.
    Music & SFX:
    • Added proper sound effects to the Panchaku.
    Mods:
    • Custom Heads can now load custom atlases.
    • Added a new folder in the ModTools : ModHelperSkin. It contains a full custom outfit with differently colored points instead of a proper model, to help with making outfit mods.
    • We also provided a json file containing all the tracks of all the joints, for all the animations in the game. This data can potentially be used to roughly recreate the 2D animations.
    Bug fixes:
    • Corrosive Cloud now correctly displays its synergy with Bleed.
    • Prevented Death Root from triggering on non-mob entities.
    • Fixed the Tailor's Room decorations being offset from the center.
    • Removed the Flawless Outfits displaying two times in the Outfit Selection UI.
    • Fixed a crash when breaking the Bank's Golden Doors.
    • Fixed the bombs from the 'Cherry on the Cake' modifier in Custom Mode not dealing any damage to the player.
    • Added the missing world map transition of Distillery -> Lighthouse.
    • Fixed Conjunctivius sometimes shooting projectiles during the death animation.
    • Fixed the Hunter's Grenade not spawning back when thrown off a cliff, or when an enemy converted to elite fell of a cliff.
    • Fixed a crash when picking up an amulet with the Homunculus Rune in the Daily Challenge.
    • Fixed Mushroom Boi getting stuck in the dash animation after triggering the explosion.
    • Fixed Mutineers' melee attack not having the attack warning.
    • Fixed Invisibility not affecting the player's head or scarf.
    • Fixed Armored Shrimps moving while frozen.
    • Fixed the player getting stuck off-screen in some specific situations.
    • Fixed pets sometimes dying for no apparent reason.
    • Fixed Magic Bow and Scarecrow's Sickles interacting weirdly when reflected by the Queen.
    • Fixed the Leghugger not teleporting back to the player when too far away.
    • Fixed minimap refresh hiding parts of the map revealed by Explorer's Instinct.

    How to access the beta:


    NOTE: Playing the beta will lock your chosen save slot to update 30. You won't be able to go back to update 29 with this save slot during the entire duration of the beta. However, your progress in the beta will be automatically merged into the main game when we release update 30 officially. If you want to try out the beta and don't know how then first BACKUP YOUR SAVE FILE, then follow these instructions:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    You can leave any feedback here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called update30-beta-discussion and update30-beta-feedback. We also have a bug report form specific to this beta. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-07-19 14:34:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells 2022 roadmap & more to come in 2023!

    Hey everyone, We're taking a little breather from constant alpha/beta/update announcements to kill off the belief that, with the latest DLC 'The Queen and the Sea', we are at or near the end of Dead Cells' lifetime. We can see how people ended up thinking this, but reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated... To clarify the situation we're giving you a little roadmap for the rest of the year. We're reasonably confident on the release times and content, but there's no guarantees in game development so please don't take this as gospel truth.
    If you follow our Steam posts, you'll know all about our next update, which is currently in alpha. If you're not up to speed you can read the alpha post here. Quick TLDR: we'll be adding the long awaited panchaku and a new flame head outfit based on our beloved animated trailers, a ton of rebalancing on weapons & items, reworking the legendaries system to make it more intuitive & interesting, a Soul Knight weapon & outfit and you'll be able to pet the pets.
    Following that update we'll be adding a Boss Rush area! The basic idea here is to let you fight all the bosses you've met so far, one after the other, with unlockables to win as you progress. There should be a few different 'modes' in the Boss Rush to expand the challenge beyond that central idea and we'll potentially be adding a scoreboard to add a bit of friendly competition. Again just a reminder that this is all TBD so, for your sanity and ours, don't take anything said here as set in stone. Before Christmas there'll be yet another update dropping, but this one is still under wraps so you'll have to wait a bit to know what's in this one. Heading into 2023 we won't be slowing down, in fact we'll be stepping things up! It's going to be by far our biggest year since the 1.0 launch and we're thrilled to show you what we've been cooking up behind the scenes. What we're getting at here is that we're very much in the mid-life of Dead Cells. We're not sneaking out at night to get drunk on street corners anymore, but we've still got plenty of life in us before our knees start to give in, so prepare yourselves for more Dead Cells content. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-07-18 15:02:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

    New alpha is out - panchaku, rebalancing, legendary rework, pet the pet & more

    Hey all, Hot on the tails of our accessibility release, we're releasing a new alpha into the wild! In this update we'll be adding the long awaited panchaku and a new Bobby outfit to go with it, a ton of rebalancing on weapons & items, reworking the legendaries system to make it more intuitive & interesting, Soul Knight content and (game changer!) letting you pet your pets. Patchnotes are here if you just want to read the list, if you want a bit of extra info and some gifs then keep reading!

    Panchaku & Bobby outfit



    Your eyes aren't deceiving you, the long-awaited panchaku is finally coming to Dead Cells, with a new outfit inspired by the animated trailers by Bobby Digital. Yes, we already had a 'Bobby' skin, but now the iconic pink flame head is here to go with it. It crits on enemies facing you and has a pretty tasty combo if you can reach the end, now go out and relive the Bad Seed trailer!

    Item reworks


    It's been a while since our last major rebalance of weapons, with the 'What's the Damage?' update releasing over a year ago. Since then we've had new items and mutations from the 'Everyone is Here' and the 'Break the Bank' updates, plus 'The Queen and the Sea' DLC, so there's a few imbalances here and there. So, we're making changes to 26 weapons and skills to rebalance the item pool. Why do we do rebalancing? Well, we need to do this to keep the variety element strong - a good roguelite should offer you difficult choices. If you're going to take the same 2-3 weapons every time then you're going to get bored pretty quickly - we don't want people to be recycling 90% of weapons without even considering using them. That's why we need to bring items to the same power level (or as close as possible) to encourage players to explore and use more of the item pool. Here's what we're proposing: Buffs:
    • Hard Light Sword and Pistol: slight damage buff to the sword and attack speed buff to the pistol
    • Queen's Rapier: the delayed slice hits sooner
    • Maw of the Deep: attack speed buff
    • Wrecking Ball: first and last attack are faster
    • Leghugger: now jumps on a nearby target before launching its reactivation attack + keeps its growth state across instances of the object in a run
    • Gilded Yumi: charge time slightly decreased + now crits reliably on Mama Tick (to be consistent with Impaler)
    • Killing Deck: damage buff on the first 2 attacks
    • Hand Hook: now also crits when the thrown enemy hits another entity
    • Greed Shield: can now trigger once per enemy every 10 seconds + damage buff
    • Frantic Sword: crit multiplier is now inversely proportional to your life (when at or under 50% max life)
    • Abyssal Trident: slight damage buff
    • Shrapnel Axes: slight damage buff
    • Pollo Power: now fires 1 more egg + damage buff
    • Crowbar: now also crits on beast enemies (hand-picked, think "non-humanoid, non-mechanic")
    • Lightning Bolt: now crits one tick earlier and damages you 1 tick later
    • Spiked Shield: crit damage buff
    Nerfs:
    • Smoke Bomb: scaling heavily nerfed (it was following the same formula as the stats)
    • Grappling Hook: same as Smoke Bomb
    • Boy's Axe: damage nerf + can't roll the Extra Ammo affix + can't be affected by Ammo mutation
    • Bladed Tonfas: slight crit multiplier nerf
    • Lacerating Aura: cooldown now starts at the end of the effect instead of starting at cast
    • Maw of the Deep: its root is now less effective on bosses
    • Crusher: its slow is now less effective on bosses
    • Hunter's Grenade: no longer provides stats
    • Rapier: damage nerf
    • Sonic Carbine: damage nerf
    • Hokuto's Bow: procs less often + damage bonus nerfed
    I'm sure there's going to be some pain here, especially with the Rapier and Sonic Carbine, sorry about that but hopefully the explanation above made sense! Besides, none of this is finalised, we want to test the changes with a broader set of players and make some changes based on feedback anyway. However, we have our own thoughts, this doesn't mean you can convince us not to make changes to your favourite weapon by saying it feels too weak now...

    Legendary item change


    We've wanted to adjust the legendary items for a while. The current system where they scale off your two highest stats is pretty OP and out of whack with the rest of the scaling system, plus it's just not very interesting - all it does is give you more damage. It's also counter-intuitive for players who aren't clued in and will split the off-colour stats to gain max health, instead of focusing on one off-colour stat to get max power from legendaries. So, we've removed the double stat scaling system, although legendaries will remain colorless in terms of scaling. In it's place, we're introducing legendary affixes. We've created a few brand new affixes, including specific affixes for certain items. They have all been hand-picked and should have a synergy with the item's gameplay (or at the very least, somewhat thematically linked). This way, they'll be making legendaries stronger than your typical weapon by adding an extra, complimentary gameplay element instead of just upping the damage. There are a LOT of legendary affixes so I won't list them here, if you want to read the whole list go check out the patchnotes on our site. Legendaries will always roll their legendary affix AND it becomes a bonus affix, i.e. the item is rolled normally and then gains the legendary affix on top. Legendary affixes cannot be removed, rerolled or replaced. We'd like to have your feedback on all these, we're running a public alpha after all! Of course, we are not asking that you each test every legendary item in the game, although if you want to do that then be our guest. In this spirit, we added a new custom mode option (that will also be added in the release version of the update, it's not just for testing) which makes every item legendary.

    Soul Knight content


    We're also introducing content from Soul Knight that was already in the mobile version. Soul Knight is another roguelite that already has Dead Cells content in it, so we're returning the favour! The Magic Bow fires 5 slow-moving arrows, which make up for their lack of speed by homing in to their nearest enemy, and the Knight outfit adds the pint-sized adventurer and his oversized head to Dead Cells.

    Pet the pet


    Finally, we're letting you, well, pet the pets. In transitions between biomes you just need to long press the interact button to show some love to your latest companion. Unfortunately the owl was too awkward to code this for, so it will never know the loving touch of the Beheaded... You won't get any benefit from this, it's just something fun to add.

    Other additions


    • Popup window to tell you to try 1BC at the start of every 0BC run after killing HotK, if you've never tried 1BC (stops appearing after you try 1BC one time)
    • Sonic Carbine DPS display fixed
    • Damage cap (50%) added to the Servants (you can't one shot them anymore, sorry)
    • Conjunctivius' tentacles' damage cap increased to make them 2-shottable

    How to access the alpha:


    Back up your save first. The alpha shouldn't affect your saves but better to be safe than sorry (and if the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here - https://steamcommunity.com/games/588650/announcements/detail/1696100248017690442) Then follow these instructions to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    As always, everything is still being tweaked according to feedback. So some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord - there are two channels called update30-alpha-discussion and update30-alpha-feedback specifically for alpha conversations, so please use them! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-07-06 14:59:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix released - fixing analog stick problems, sound effect issues & more :)

    Hello, We've just released a hotfix to address some pressing bugs that were introduced with the latest update (and a couple from previous updates!) Here are the issues that we've fixed:

    • Can't use the down input with analog stick on controller. If the problem persists - reset the controller settings to default to fix it.
    • Glitchy sound effects
    • Crash when reloading a save where you are in Undying Shores
    • Issues with stat icons being misaligned and different sizes
    • "We recommend playing Dead Cells with a controller" message overlapping with "Show the update pop-up again" message
    • Boss HP resetting to full HP when you exit to main menu and reload
    • Affixes for oil dive attack and fire dive attack triggering at different heights
    • Auto-jump triggering while climbing, making it impossible to climb
    • Misplaced arrow in multiple lives selection
    • Dying to the vault challenge in The Bank with Continue Mode softlocks the game
    • Damage numbers on enemy hit have an arrow icon in the middle
    • Lock with dying on Time Keeper boss then Null Access crash on reload
    • Pollo Power effect affixes not working
    • Using Pollo Power while entering The Ossuary leaves you stuck in mid-air
    • Custom mode is displayed twice in the main menu
    • Sprite of item bought from a shop with a mimic remains on screen and can't be interacted with
    Thanks for your patience while we fixed these, please continue to let us know about any issues! We'll be back soon with more news :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-07-04 14:07:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    'Breaking Barriers' introduces accessibility options, Assist Mode & item reworks

    Hello everyone, Our latest update 'Breaking Barriers' is live and making Dead Cells more accessible to everyone. It's been five years since our Early Access release (yep, five freaking years!) and we realised it's about time we made sure that Dead Cells can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. TLDR

    • Loads of new options to improve accessibility, such as adjustable font type & size, input customisation and individual adjustment of sound effect volumes
    • Assist Mode including customisation of enemy health/damage, trap speed/damage and parry window. Plus options for multiple lives, auto-hit with primary weapon & full map reveal
    • Big reduction in cell cost of early-game weapons
    • 7 weapon reworks
    If you prefer videos, here's a VLOG showcasing all the changes. Warning for short attention spans: it is 9 minutes long! [previewyoutube=joDnuQaGXsg;full][/previewyoutube] So, we're trying to achieve this greater accessibility in two ways one is a whole bunch of newoptions, mainly based around visibility and mobility, such as outlining characters and objects in-game, holding a button to repeat actions, or changing the font style and size. There's a full list of these options below. The other part of the update is an Assist Mode that allows you to adjust elements of the game such as enemy damage, enemy health, trap damage, parry window and trap speed, plus options for auto-hit and multiple lives. There's also a rework of 8 weapons, and the cost of early game weapons is being heavily reduced to allow players to unlock weapons while also working towards the crucial upgrades like health flasks and gold.

    So, why are we adding the accessibility options?


    Hopefully we don't need to justify adding accessibility options, but we'd had quite a lot of feedback that the game can be inaccessible for a wide range of reasons. Dead Cells is intended to be tough but fair - sure, you die a lot, but you grow your skill while gaining new weapons & powers until you can beat the final boss. Then you add a Boss Cell to up the challenge and die to a rat on the next run, pick yourself up and go again until the next Boss Cell, and repeat. However, we realise that the way the game is designed can put up barriers to reaching this experience for some players. These new options are designed to allow tailored, specific adjustments of the game for those who need it, to make this "tough but fair gameplay" accessible, instead of adding arbitrary difficulty levels which don't actually address players' needs. We hope that these changes can let more players enjoy Dead Cells as we intended, and if the unaltered version of Dead Cells already hits the right balance of challenge and progression for you, then these changes are all optional - just leave the game as it is and continue having fun :) If you know anyone who didn't try Dead Cells or put it down because they found it inaccessible, then please do let them know they can come and give it a go!

    What are the new options?


    All the changes that are described below were tested with a panel of players with various disabilities at AbleGamers, and of course the usual legends in our Steam community. Thanks to everyone who helped us to figure everything out! Input These options are designed to address mobility disabilities.
    • Hold to second jump
    • Hold to roll
    • Shield toggle option, instead of long press
    • More options to customise controls, especially actions that require a long press or a complex input + joystick action

    Additional input options Visual These are designed for players with various visual disabilities such as limited visual acuity, colour blindness or who suffer from sensory overload.
    • Customisable interface size and transparency
    • Choice of game font styles (including pixellated)
    • Game font colour customisation
    • Font size can be changed for item names, item descriptions and dialogues
    • Stats (Brutality / Tactics / Survival ) colour customisation - affects the stats colour for the HUD, menus, icons, weapons, items etc
    • Texts in the stat selection menu no longer use "Red", "Purple" and "Green", but "Brutality", "Tactic" and "Survival"
    • Display stats icons (fist, lightning, plus sign) next to character stats
    • Add an outline to the Beheaded, projectiles, enemies, active skills, NPCs and secrets. Outline colours can be customised
    • Add a colored filter between the background and foreground. The color and opacity of the filter can be freely customized
    • Synergy and stat icons in equipment menu to help readability
    • No-blood mode
    • Adjustable particle limit (reduce the particle effect from enemies dying or weapon effects)
    • Option to toggle critical hit feedback
    • Adjust the size of the attack announcement exclamation mark

    Reduced UI size
    Transparent UI
    Font colour menu
    Stat icons displayed next to items
    Outlines applied to Beheaded and enemies (plus customised stats colours in bottom left) Sound Finally, we have auditory options.
    • Adjust volume of different sound effects separately
    Everything is collected in a specific accessibility menu to gather all these options in one place! There's no point making an accessibility menu inaccessible... Assist Mode This mode exists in it's own menu and allows you to make several adjustments to the gameplay.
    • Multiple lives each time you die you can resurrect from the beginning of the biome (this effectively already existed by quitting the game when you die, now it's just 'official'). You can choose between 1, 3, 7 or infinite lives. This is targeted for players who have involuntary movements or activity, such as muscle spasms, to have another chance if their run is ruined by something that is out of their control.
    • Auto-hit automatically target nearby enemies with your primary melee weapon. The one time that the mobile version was ahead of us! This will automatically attack with your primary weapon, allowing players to just manage their secondary weapon and skills, reducing the need for rapid inputs.
    • Adjustable trap damage, enemy damage and enemy health in % increments, plus toggable options for slower parry window and trap speed. This is meant to allow specific, dare we say delicate, adjustment of the games challenge. For instance, the standard trap speed can make a Challenge Room require a series of rapid inputs to get through it successfully, which might not be doable for some players. But, if they find the rest of the gameplay balanced already, they can just change this specific part of the game and leave the rest as it is.
    • Option to instantly reveal the whole map.
    NOTE: We wanted to add a game speed slider at the beginning but it just isn't possible without breaking the game. I don't really know where to put this in the post so it's going here, but the "Show Kill Count" option is now enabled by default as we've seen way too many people who don't know that this exists, which is criminal.

    Weapon Reworks


    This update also brings some reworks of older weapons, which were in pretty dire need of a tune-up:
    • Barnacle: new crit condition on bleeding or poisoned targets to make it less awkward (and bad).
    • Tentacle: lots of bug fixes. It should be way more reliable now.
    • Magnetic Grenade: full rework: it doesn't send enemies flying around (often in your head) but instead pulls them towards the explosion.
    • Biters pets: now way more resistant to attacks and effects that don't specifically target them.
    • Corrupted Power: now in % instead of a flat bonus. No other difference functionally speaking.
    • Wings of the Crow: lots of bug fixes.
    • Decoy: can be manually detonated after a few moments (it's not a grenade, but you don't have to awkwardly wait for it to explode if you don't want to)

    Early-game item cost reduced


    The cost of most of the beginner items has been drastically cut, to make the early game less tedious for new players and to make new items a viable unlock option while trying to get your flask, gold and other useful upgrades. This should also make it easier to catch up on your item pool when starting a new save.

    Negative feedback for Assist Mode during alpha & beta


    Thankfully we saw pretty much zero negative feedback on the general options that we're introducing. However, the Assist Mode has seen a certain amount of 'pushback'. Rather than ignoring this part of the community, we're going to address it here to be fully transparent with everyone. The Assist Mode is designed to let people to enjoy the game who would otherwise be excluded from doing so. We recognise that some people who don't 'need' the mode will use it anyway and as a result they will die less and won't learn from mistakes, which is a key part of roguelites. However, we've put multiple messages explaining this in-game, so it's on them if they want to go ahead and use the Mode anyway. It's also a single-player game, so people are free to play and enjoy the game as they want, and it doesn't affect anyone else's enjoyment of the game. The only area that it would have affected other players is the Daily Challenge leaderboard, and here we have prevented scores from being registered if players are using Assist Mode. We are also not disabling achievements for players who use these options. As said above, the intent of this update is to open the game up to players who would otherwise be excluded from enjoying it. We are not going to make that possible and then take achievements away from those players. If youre a Dead Cells player who doesnt need any of the content that were introducing in this update, dont worry we have plenty of shiny new things to introduce to Dead Cells this year! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-06-23 15:05:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Accessibility update moves into beta

    Hey everyone, We're back with a pretty expansive beta for our upcoming accessibility update. If you haven't heard about what we're planning, go and read our previous alpha post. Otherwise, here are all the changes that we've made with the new beta...

    Balancing


    • Reverted the changes on Crowbar.
    • Barnacle no longer crits on bleeding enemies.
    • Machete & pistol: The third hit now ignores side shields.

    Graphics & UI


    • Added an option to toggle the Crit Feedbacks.
    • Added an option to toggle Synergy Icons.
    • Tweaked the Crit Feedback on the HUD to something less visually jarring.
    • Changed all the Synergy Icons, as well as the Affect Icons, to make them more readable.
    • Outlines' colors can now be changed.
    • Added an option to toggle an outline for NPCs.
    • Added an option to change the text size of Item Names, Item Item Descriptions and Dialogues.
    • The HUD size can now be increased.
    • Added the Assist Mode to the Main Menu.
    • Added an option to increase the size of the Attack Announces.
    • The Brutality / Tactic / Survival color override now apply to the HUD, menus, icons, weapons, items, etc.
    • Added a new font to choose from: "Adys".
    • Added an an option to add a colored filter between the background and foreground. The color and opacity of the filter can be freely customized.
    • Reorganized the entirety of the Options menu and added a new "Accessibility" section.
    • Texts in the Stat Selection Menu no longer use "Red", "Purple" and "Green", but "Brutality", "Tactic" and "Survival".

    Quality of life


    • "Show Kill Count" option is now enabled by default.
    • The number of lives with Assist Mode's continue mode can now be changed.
    • Added an option to prevent "Auto-Attack" from breaking doors.
    • Added an Assist Mode option to instantly reveal the whole map.

    Mods


    • Added a way to modify the Assist Mode's values through mods.

    Bug fixes


    • Fixed a crash when scrolling through the credits.
    • Thunder Shield is now longer considered to be a ranged weapon.
    • Fixed a crash when entering Graveyard.
    • Fixed a bug where the mob displayed by the Mirror would appear glitched out in some situations.
    • Fixed Face Flask's "Volley of Arrows" affix not dealing any damage.
    • Fixed a bug where scrolling in the options felt "bumpy".
    • Fixed the left-most part of the HUD never fading back in, in case the player would ever be behind the HUD.
    • Fixed Options Sliders, with ranges different to 0-100, not working properly with a mouse.
    • Fixed the control label being wrong in the Controller or Keyboard Rebind menus.
    • Fixed a bug where Assist Mode's Continue would not work if the player died by a curse.
    • Fixed a bug with Options Lists, where the text would overlap with the arrows.
    • Fixed Golden Bat Kamikaze appearing in the ground in the Training Room.
    • Fixed the War Javelin being instantly thrown after teleporting, when "Hold to Attack" is enabled.
    • Fixed multiple issues when going back to an older version, after tweaking some settings in Update 29. Now, going back to an older version will create a clean version of the Options, while keeping what you changed on Update 29.
    If you want to try out the beta and don't know how then BACKUP YOUR SAVE FILE, then follow these instructions:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    You can leave any feedback here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called accessibility-alpha-discussion and accessibility-alpha-feedback. We also have a bug report form specific to this beta. Barring any shenanigans, the next post will be for the update release so keep an eye out for that! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-05-05 12:13:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

    New alpha with accessibility options, Assist Mode and beginner item reworks!

    Hello everyone, The alpha for our next update is live! This update will be all about making Dead Cells more accessible to everyone. It's been five years since our Early Access release, and it's about time that we made sure that Dead Cells can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. We're trying to achieve this in two ways one is a bunch of new accessibility options such as outlining sprites in-game, holding a button to jump/roll a second time, or button remapping (full list below). The other angle is an Assist Mode with sliders to adjust elements of the game such as enemy damage, enemy health and trap damage, options for slower parry window and trap speed, plus auto-hit and continue mode options. There's also a rework of 8 weapons, and the cost of early game weapons is being heavily reduced to allow players to unlock weapons while working towards the crucial upgrades like health flasks and gold.

    So, why are we adding the accessibility options?


    Well, Dead Cells is intended to be tough but fair - sure, you die a lot, but you grow your skill while gaining new weapons & powers until you can beat the final boss, then add a Boss Cell to up the challenge and die to a rat on the next run. And so it begins again... This is our vision of Dead Cells and we encourage players to try to beat the game as it is, however, we've received quite a lot of feedback that this experience is just inaccessible for a decent chunk of players with the game in its current state, for various reasons. These new options are designed to allow specific adjustments of the game, to make this tough but fair gameplay accessible, while leaving other parts of the game the same. We hope that these changes can let more players enjoy Dead Cells as we intended, and if the unaltered version of Dead Cells already hits the right balance of challenge and progression for you, then these changes are all optional - just leave the game as it is and continue having fun :)

    What are the new options?


    All the changes that are described below were tested (and are still being tested) with a panel of players with various impairments at Able Gamers, but if we're not addressing a need or are attempting to address it in the wrong way, please let us know how we could do better in the comments or on Discord. Input
    • Hold to second jump
    • Hold to roll
    • Shield toggle option, instead of long press
    • More options to customise controls, especially actions that require a long press or a complex input + joystick action

    Additional input options
    Control customisation menu Visual
    • Customisable interface size and transparency
    • Choice of game font styles (including pixellated)
    • Game font colour customisation
    • Stats colour customisation
    • Display stats icons next to character stats
    • Options to outline the Beheaded, projectiles, enemies, active skills and secrets
    • Synergy and stat icons in equipment menu
    • No-blood mode
    • Adjustable particle limit
    Making the text size adjustable is on our list too, but the game really, really, hates it when we make the text bigger. This was requested a lot, so we're not giving up yet, but we can't promise that it will be in the update.
    Font colour menu
    Stat icons displayed next to items
    Outlines applied to Beheaded and enemies (plus customised stats colours in bottom left)
    Synergy and stat icons in equipment menu Sound
    • Adjust volume of different sound effects separately

    There are some other options that we'd like to add which are proving a bit tricky to implement, so bear in mind that this isn't a complete list of what might be in the update at the end. We're also working on creating an accessibility menu to gather all these options in one place as they're all spread out in the options menu at the moment, but again the UI is being a bit tricky! Assist Mode
    • Continue mode each time you die you can resurrect from the beginning of the biome (this effectively already existed by quitting the game when you die, now it's just 'official')
    • Auto-hit mode automatically target nearby enemies with your primary melee weapon. The one time that the mobile version was ahead of us!
    • Adjustable trap damage, enemy damage and enemy health in % increments
    • Option for slower parry window and trap speed

    Weapon Reworks


    This update also brings some reworks of older weapons, which were in pretty dire need of a tune-up:
    • Barnacle: new crit condition on bleeding or poisoned targets to make it less awkward (and bad).
    • Tentacle: lots of bug fixes. It should be way more reliable now.
    • Crowbar: new crit condition on stunned enemies to make it less awkward too.
    • Magnetic Grenade: full rework: it doesn't send enemies flying around (often in your head) but instead pulls them towards the explosion.
    • Biters pets: now way more resistant to attacks and effects that don't specifically target them.
    • Corrupted Power: now in % instead of a flat bonus. No other difference functionally speaking.
    • Wings of the Crow: lots of bug fixes.
    • Decoy: can be manually detonated after a few moments (it's not a grenade, but you don't have to awkwardly wait for it to explode if you don't want to)
    Obviously this is an alpha so we might have been over eager with some of these changes. Have fun with that while you can, because we will be adjusting them where needed!

    Early-game item cost reduced


    The cost of most of the beginner items has been drastically cut, to make the early game less tedious for new players and to make new items a viable unlock option while trying to get your flask, gold and other useful upgrades. This should also make it easier to catch up on your item pool when starting a new save.

    How to access the alpha:


    Back up your save first. The alpha shouldn't affect your saves but better to be safe than sorry (and if the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here - https://steamcommunity.com/games/588650/announcements/detail/1696100248017690442 Then follow these instructions to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    As always, everything is still being tweaked according to feedback. So some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord - there are two channels called accessibility-alpha-discussion and accessibility-alpha-feedback specifically for alpha conversations, so please use them! Well, that's it for this post, and if you know anyone who bounced off Dead Cells because they found it inaccessible then let them know what's coming! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-04-12 13:17:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Patch for Break the Bank update

    Hey, Happy Monday! Weve just released a patch to fix some bugs introduced by the Break the Bank update. Here are the bugs weve fixed: General

    • Using Hunter's Grenade on Mimic and Gold Gorger spawns Elite Zombie
    • Tonic's health recovery is taken into account by Midas' Blood
    • Crash on Runner teleport and BC4+ mob teleports if hero is not in the room
    • Soft lock when queen dies while youre being resurrected by her when she has low enough health
    • Pickpocket bugged SFX
    Mimic bugs
    • Mimic pulls you through the floor
    • When using the Hunters Grenade on the Mimic, the item you attempt to buy is sometimes unavailable
    • Obtaining a two-handed weapon from the Mimic only upgrades the primary hand.
    • Extracting blueprint from mimic breaks the purchase
    • Food mimic + Hunter's grenade = bugged food
    Twitch integration bugs in the Bank
    • Streamer is able to navigate to the Bank before next level modifier vote is settled
    • During darkness modifier, player gets killed in the elevator before he can do anything
    • Twitch chest replaces special chest at the end of obstacle course, summoning enemies when you're unable to use conventional weapons, and seemingly disabling the outfit loot drop.
    Thats it, short & sweet, well be back very soon with a new public alpha! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-04-11 13:10:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Steam Deck issues with proton 7.0.1 and earlier - don't use compatibility layer

    Hey Steam Deck players, We've been made aware of an incompatibility with proton 7.0.1 and earlier. Dead Cells is a linux native game, so we highly recommend you keep on playing the game without any compatibility layer for the best experience. Additionally we cannot provide support with issues linked to unofficial forks of compatibility layers (ie. ProtonGE). Thanks, EE & MT


    [ 2022-04-08 15:11:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

    'Break the Bank' Update out now! New biome, 3 enemies, 3 weapons, 3 mutations

    Hey everyone, Our next update Break the Bank is here!
    TLDR:

    • New optional biome The Bank
    • 3 new enemies
    • 3 new gold-based weapons
    • 3 new gold-based mutations
    • More updates and DLC are coming
    • Many QoL changes and bug fixes - my favourite is items dropped after boss fights now have +1 item level, so no more unsatisfying boss loot!
    [previewyoutube=Ra1_wvRXZkI;full][/previewyoutube]

    What is it?


    The Bank is a brand-new optional biome that randomly appears in your run, replacing the immediately following biomes if you choose to enter it. To unlock it you just need to reach the Hand of the King once, easy right? If you've already reached the Hand of the King, then The Bank will start appearing the next time you start from Prisoner's Quarters.
    We're also introducing more ways of using gold. Let's face it, when you finish a run you usually have a ton of gold left, so we wanted to give it more utility through new weapons and mutations. This will change nothing for people who don't want to risk their gold, but those who want to roll the dice can gain strong but risky effects!

    So how do you get there?


    A flashy chest is guaranteed to appear at a random point in your run, in the transition area between biomes (but not before a boss). You can only enter The Bank by opening the chest right there, if you don't go for it then you lose the opportunity and the chest won't reappear in the same run.
    Hold on for this next bit, it's slightly wordy... The Bank will replace the next biome in your path. For example, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters, you will exit The Bank having skipped the biomes after Prisoner's Quarters - Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum (if you have The Bad Seed DLC). The Bank will contain one less scroll than the 'best' biome that's being replaced, i.e. the one with the most scrolls. BUT it will also contain a guaranteed Cursed Chest. For example, if the 'best' replaced biome has 4 scrolls, the Bank will have 3 scrolls + a Cursed Chest. So you'll always be able to gain the same number of scrolls that you would have got in a biome that The Bank replaced, we've got you covered! There are several platforming sequences in The Bank that are tricky but give good rewards if you're willing to take them on. You'll also be able to take out a loan for gold at the beginning of the level, but you'll have to pay it all back at the end, so take care not to spend it all...

    What's in The Bank?


    Enemies Mobs will be present from all the biomes that The Bank has replaced. So, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters, you will face mobs from Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum. There's also three new Bank-specific mobs: Agitated Pickpocket wants your gold and has the claws to get it.
    Gold Gorger collects gold as it grows, but don't let it reach it's final form, it'll kick your ass!
    Golden Kamikaze Bat is the same bat you know and love, but it drops more moneyyy! Weapons We're also adding three new weapons, all centered around gold of course! Gold Digger - gives gold on hits, plus it critical hits if you're filthy rich.
    Dagger of Cupidity - crits for 3 secs after picking up gold. Money Shooter - fires your gold. If you run out of gold, no more shots...
    Mutations You can find three new mutations too! You won't believe it, but these are also focused on gold mechanics... Midas' Blood - gives you gold when you lose health. Gold Plating - you lose gold, not health, when you get hit. Get Rich Quick - stack bonus gold by killing enemies while you have a speed boost and cash in when it ends. Gotta go fast... There's also 2 new bank-related outfits and some lore rooms.

    Other changes


    Balancing - Items dropped after boss fights now have +1 item level. Boss loot felt unrewarding due to its level, so we increased it by +1. - Vampirism rework - now you sacrifice a percentage of your maximum health to gain life leech on your melee attacks (double effect with heavy weapons) and gain a speed boost for 10 seconds. - Increased War Spear damage. It is no longer flagged as a heavy weapon - this mainly impacts its affix pool. - The Queen's resistance to crowd control" effects (Stun, Root, etc) has been increased. - Removed Shield on Use' from Face Flask and Serenade affix pool. UI / Graphics - Scarecrow outfits now have proper names! - Maw of the Deep and Bladed Tonfas text updated to reflect the changes made in the DLC3 hotfix. - Conjunctivius' eye now searches for the beheaded if invisible in tentacle phase. - Custom mode Cursed Chest's maximum curse increased to 999. Quality of Life - Added the last fight of the Servants in the training room. - Upgrading an item in quality at The Blacksmith's Apprentice doesn't re-roll affixes anymore. - Added permanent light in Servants boss rooms for the Follow the Light custom game gameplay modifier. Bug fixes - Maw of the Deep now properly displays crits. - Fixed invisible bullets for out of screen traps. - Fixed servants dying off screen after boss fight due to Barbed Tips. - Fixed some custom mode softlocks. - Fixed Giant's slam attack not spawning crystals. - Fixed various bugs and crashes for the Queen. - Fixed Pause Bug. Hopefully for good this time. - Fixed custom mode gameplay modifiers incompatibility. - Fixed Spoiler Boss's flask not appearing in the UI. - Fixed falling through the ground on Carnivorous Plants. - Cursed Sword now displays its true damage values. - Various visual optimisations.

    Quick word on future plans


    This free update is thanks to your continued support of our DLCs. So thank you to everyone for allowing us to keep making Dead Cells content and for getting Motion Twin's new project over the line. But, were not finished yet there'll be more DLC and free updates coming for AT LEAST another year and some of that content has got us very, very excited... Youll have to wait to find out what it is though! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights
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    [ 2022-03-30 14:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

    We need to cut some of the legacy branches - help us decide which ones to keep

    Hey, Hope you're all good and ready for the Bank to land! By the way, if you don't use legacy branches, you don't really need to read this post. Anyway, we have hit the maximum number of branches that Steam will allow, so we need to cut access to some of them, in order to accommodate newer branches. There are some that we're pretty sure are used more than others, v1.0 and Barrels o'Fun for example, but we don't have concrete data on which ones are used the most. This is a good problem for us to have as it means we've released a ton of updates and content - 27 updates since Early Access! But, it is still a problem... So, we've created this handy form for affected players to complete to help us figure out which ones need to be kept. Please use the form and not the comments, otherwise it's a massive pain to track what people are saying :) Back soon with more news, Matt


    [ 2022-03-15 14:46:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for the update 28 beta

    Hey, You might have noticed that we released a hotfix for the update 28 beta. The full list of changes are below: Bug Fixes: - Crash on loading into save on Bank - [MAC] Bank chest does not spawn in passage - Training room and world map biome images disappear - Crash when exiting then returning to Scarecrow during sickle attack - Null access after Vampirism dive attack - Leghugger actives crash - Crash when using Dagger of Profit with Scarecrow Outfit - Phaser makes the Queen get stuck on phase change - Enemies in the bank drop keys from the biome it is replacing - Gold Digger + Scarecrow crash Balancing - Gold Gorger crowd control resistance and HP nerf in its bigger form - Queen's crowd control resistance buff Language: - Languages are localised Let us know if you have any issues! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-03-02 09:30:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 28 now in beta, The Bank is back!

    Hello! The Bank has had a little polish, so we're here again with a new beta to check that we didn't break anything on the way. If you missed all the details of what's inside this shiny new biome, check out the last post from a week ago for the details. The changes for the beta are mainly balancing & bug fixing, but we've also added a load of SFX/music and lore room text, so the biome should feel closer to the real deal. Balancing:

    • Slight damage nerfs to Big Gold Gorger and Mimic
    • Reactivity and damage buff to Evil Guillain
    • Midas Blood now interacts with Face Flask
    • Guillain can now spawn in Cliff after the Bank
    • Survival Vampirism buff: effect doubled on heavy weapons
    • War Spear damage buff but is no longer a heavy weapon
    • Gold Plating doesnt protect from curses anymore (as planned)
    • Getting hit while using Gold Plating now properly resets the kill streak / breaks flawlessness on bosses
    Bug fixes:
    • Bag enemy whom we try not to spoil is now unavailable in the Training Room
    • Shark now properly displays crits
    • Reaching the Crown now also unlocks the Bank
    • Gold Digger crash in Clock Room solved
    • Dagger of Profit had no cooldown after its attacks, making it glitch weirdly and launch attacks while the previous one was still resolving and breaking its balancing and FXs in the process.
    Localization:
    • Various additions to existing U28 features (lore rooms, tooltips, etc.)
    • EN corrections
    Sound design:
    • Lots of SFX
    • Music mastering update
    To try out the beta just:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    You can leave any feedback here or on our official Discord - there are two channels called the-bank-alpha-discussion and the-bank-alpha-feedback. We also published a shiny bug report form specific to this update. Got nothing more to add here, so go and check out the changes we've made, or don't and wait for the official release! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-02-17 14:30:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 28 alpha open - try out a brand new biome!

    Hey everyone, We've put a new alpha out for our next free update, introducing The Bank!
    This is a brand new optional biome that randomly appears in your run, replacing the following biome if you choose to enter it. To unlock it you just need to reach the Hand of the King once. If you've already reached the Hand of the King, then The Bank will start appearing the next time you start from Prisoner's Quarters.
    We're also introducing more ways of using gold. When you finish a run there's often a ton of gold left, so we wanted to give it more utility through new weapons and mutations - it will change nothing for people who don't want to risk their gold, but those who do can gain strong but risky effects.

    So how do you get there?


    A flashy chest is guaranteed to appear at a random point in your run, in the transition area between biomes (but not before a boss). You can only enter The Bank by opening the chest right there, if you don't go for it then you lose the opportunity and the chest won't reappear in the same run.
    The Bank will replace the next biome in your path. For example, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters, you will exit The Bank having skipped the biomes after Prisoner's Quarters - Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum (if you have The Bad Seed DLC of course!). The Bank will contain one less scroll than the 'best' biome that's being replaced, i.e. the one with the most scrolls. It will also contain a guaranteed Cursed Chest. For example, if the 'best' replaced biome has 4 scrolls, the Bank will have 3 scrolls + a Cursed Chest. There are several platforming sequences in The Bank that are tricky but give good rewards if you're willing to take them on. You'll also be able to take out a loan for gold at the beginning of the level, but you'll have to pay it all back at the end, so take care not to spend it all...

    What's in it?


    Enemies Mobs will be present from all the biomes that The Bank has replaced. So, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters you will face mobs from Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum. There's also three new Bank-specific mobs: Evil Guillain wants your gold and has the claws to get it.
    Gold Gorger collects gold as it grows, but don't let it reach it's final form, it'll kick your ass! Golden Kamikaze Bat is the same bat you know and love, but it drops more moneyyy!
    Weapons We're also adding three new weapons, all centered around gold of course! Gold Digger - gives gold on hits plus critical hits if you're filthy rich. Dagger of Cupidity - crits for 3 secs after picking up gold. Money Shooter - fires your gold. If you run out of gold, no more shots... Mutations You can find three new mutations too! You won't believe it, but these are also focused on gold mechanics... Midas' Blood - gives you gold when you lose health. Gold Plating - you lose gold, not health, when you get hit. Get Rich Quick - stack bonus gold by killing enemies while you have a speed boost and cash in when it ends. Gotta go fast... Other changes - Vampirism rework - now you sacrifice a percentage% of your maximum health and can recover % of your HP per attack and gain a speed boost for 10 seconds. - Scarecrow outfits now have proper names! - Maw of the Deep and Bladed Tonfas tooltips updated to reflect the changes made in the DLC3 hotfix.

    How to access the alpha:



    In and out, real quick. 20 minute adventure... Back up your save first although the alpha shouldn't affect your saves (if the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here), then follow the instructions below to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    Bear in mind that everything is still being tweaked according to feedback, so some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord - there are two channels called the-bank-alpha-discussion and the-bank-alpha-feedback. After a few days we might also send out a few questions but for the moment just have a mess around and see what's up! Thanks for taking part :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-02-09 14:25:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for Queen and the Sea content is available to download

    Hey, Quick post to let you know that we've just pushed a hotfix sorting out various bugs introduced with The Queen and the Sea DLC, as well as some balancing changes too. The full list is below (or you can read them on our website) and I want to highlight the adjustments we made to the DLC weapons as we can't update their descriptions until the next update: Bladed Tonfas - Damage no longer scales on speed. The first attack always jumps forward, with subsequent attacks always critting if the first one hit. Maw of the Deep - Crits on rooted enemies. Also got a damage boost. Wrecking Ball - Speed on first two attacks increased. Queen's Rapier - Crits on all hit enemies instead of only the first one.

    Balancing


    • Decreased the Servants' HP.
    • Increased the Queen's HP
    • Armored Shrimps no longer take damage from spikes.
    • Bladed Tonfas rework. Damage no longer scales on speed. The first attack always jumps forward, with subsequent attacks always critting if the first one hit. Please note that we will only be able to change the description in the next major update, sorry about that.
    • Hitting an enemy with the Queen's Rapier in the Backpack triggers a Reality Slice.
    • Shark crits on rooted enemies. Once again, we won't be able to change the description until the next major update.
    • Increased Shark's damage.
    • Gilded Yumi deals damage when releasing the enemy.
    • Increased Wrecking Ball's speed on the first two attacks.
    • The Rapier's now crits on all hit enemies instead of just the first one.

    Quality of life


    • Added screenshake to Machete & Pistol, Queen's Rapier and Hard Light Sword.
    • Disabling screen-shake disables screen-bump as well.

    Bug fixes


    • Fixed Crows not moving in Fractured Shrines.
    • Fixed the Giant's Hands getting stuck when pushed out of the arena during an attack.
    • Armored Shrimps no longer attack when rooted.
    • Fixed Mutineers ascending after dodging their attack.
    • Kleio no longer acts during cinematics
    • Fixed Kleio phasing through the floor when killed while on the wall.
    • Fixed a crash if Euterpe is killed in less than two seconds during the chase sequence.
    • The Queen no longer drops Boss Cells with an Aspect equipped.
    • Fixed The Queen's Firewall attack not updating if it's off-screen.
    • Fixed a crash during The Queen's Grenade Slice attack.
    • Fixed a crash when killing The Queen during a phase transition.
    • Fixed a crash when dying to The Queen while she's teleporting.
    • Fixed a crash when killing The Queen by parrying the last Reality Slice of a series.
    • Fixed The Queen's animations freezing after being rooted.
    • Fixed multiple softlocks during the Spoiler Boss fight.
    • Fixed a crash when quitting and re-loading while Spoiler Boss drinks potion.
    • Killing a boss-summoned enemy no longer clears malaise.
    • Leghugger can no longer de-evolve into its first form.
    • Fixed the Hand Hook's DPS value in the pause menu being random.
    • Fixed a crash with the Hand Hook, when killing an enemy during the hook phase.
    • Fixed Wrecking Ball not triggering its crit condition.
    • Fixed Wrecking Ball's projectile despawning when offscreen.
    • Lava now deals damage to the player during the Pollo Power's transformation.
    • Fixed a softlock when dying with the Cursed Sword in the Training Room.
    • Fixed a softlock while jumping in the lava during Pollo Power's transformation.
    • Fixed a duplication glitch with the Crowned Key.
    • Fixed the player's Health Flasks not getting refilled when dying to the Spoiler Boss in the Training Room.
    • Fixed a generation error where the Toxic Sewers' Fisherman room would not be accessible without certain Runes.
    • Edited Shipwreck's level generation a bit to prevent a lot of softlocks, especially without the Spider Rune.
    • Fixed the Trident room not appearing in Shipwreck when the "disable lore rooms" option is on.
    • Fixed items spawning in Shipwreck's diorama.
    • The door to The Crown no longer hides its name.
    • Removed a Collector Sign duplicate in the transition level to The Crown.
    • Pulleys can no longer be activated with the Homunculus Rune.
    • The Homunculus Rune can be used after a Boss fight, even if the player is cursed.
    • Fixed a bug where the Flawless Outfits would drop no matter what, when quitting and re-loading during a boss fight.
    • Fixed a blueprint duplication bug in the Collector's UI.
    • Fixed a duplication glitch when picking up an item while the game is lagging.
    • Fixed a lag spike when breaking the ground in Shipwreck.
    • Fixed long loading times in Custom Mode.
    • Fixed Custom Mode's set equipment not giving a second skill.
    • Prevented already obtained achievements from triggering again.
    • Fixed some achievements not triggering on console.
    • Fixed achievements not unlocking after The Queen, if "Skip Cinematics" is on.
    • Fixed a crash when using any of the Scarecrow Outfits.
    • Fixed a crash when playing certain sounds.
    Hopefully we've caught all the major bits, let us know if there's anything that we missed! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-01-24 15:23:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Is there anything more we can do to make Dead Cells more accessible?

    Hello! Recently we've been having conversations about making sure that everyone can experience Dead Cells, because the whole world should know the sheer joy of sacrificing Mushroom Boi to save your own skin. Obviously we're doing our own research, but the best way to figure out what we're missing is an open dialogue with you, the players. So far we have several ideas that we're exploring, such as introducing options to:

    • Adjust font size & colour
    • Adjust color palette for colorblindness
    • Increase UI size
    • Adjust contrast of background
    • Enable autohit
    If you have any thoughts or requests then please leave a comment on this post and we'll see what we can do :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-01-17 12:47:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The Queen and the Sea DLC is out now!

    Hey everyone, The Queen and the Sea DLC is available now! Finish the path we started with The Bad Seed & Fatal Falls DLCs and try to reach the new ending! All that stands in your way is a monster-riddled hulk of an ancient ship, a towering lighthouse guarded by three insanely strong fighters and a final epic showdown with an old friend... https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580050/Dead_Cells_The_Queen_and_the_Sea Before we cover what you're going to find in this new content, let's take a moment to watch the latest installment of our animated trailers by Bobby Prod, featuring a battle-weary Beheaded and his new pet... [previewyoutube=ezDxvFUxDvc;full][/previewyoutube] Pretty cool eh? So, what's waiting for you in the new levels?

    The Infested Shipwreck



    Fight your way through the bowels of a rotten shipwreck with eldritch horrors lurking behind every corner. Platforms and sections of floor can be smashed by enemies, disrupting your movement and dumping you onto the spikes below. Armoured monsters chase you down and move vertically & horizontally with ease, letting them attack you from any direction. Finally, no journey into a shipwreck is complete without a treasure hunt! Collect the pieces of the torn-up treasure map and put it back together to find the mythical booty...

    Lighthouse


    This new style of biome is more or less a vertical chase scene & several miniboss fights combined, complete with rope pulleys, breakable barriers and deadly flames!
    Scaling this soaring tower will be no easy task, as you'll need to outrun rising flames from below, while fending off a trio of highly skilled warriors at the same time. Just another day on the island! Opportunities for rest will appear, but they will be short-lived. You are being chased by relentless killers after all...

    The Crown


    If you manage to make it through all of that unscathed (or at least alive) youll end up at the summit of the lighthouse in a bid to light the beacon and escape the island. However, to accomplish this feat you'll need to triumph in a final duel against a familiar foe, who seems to know how to fight back against all your attacks...

    Weapons


    Nine new weapons can be won in this DLC: - Charge enemies with the Abyssal Trident, impaling them on sharp prongs and shoving them while inflicting critical damage. Basically just messes up mobs.
    - Channel your inner pirate with the Hand Hook and grab foes to swing them behind you. Very useful for throwing enemies off ledges and onto spikes. - Throw a literal shark jaws-first at anyone who stands in your way with the Maw of the Deep, a throwable shark. Alternatively just bash them over the head with it, that works too.
    - Chuck razor sharp Throwing Cards into enemies until you throw a full spray, then recall them all to do extra damage to your targets. - The Scavenged Bombard is a big, heavy cannon that deals massive damage at the expense of rate-of-fire. You'll also need to stand pretty close to get it to fire, but it's worth it for the power of the cannonball. - Wrecking Ball requires good timing - it's effectively just a big chunk of metal, so it takes some force to get it moving. But once it's going you'll be obliterating crowds of enemies in one throw.
    - Damage scales with running speed when using the Bladed Tonfas, and you can run pretty fast in Dead Cells... This is one for the players who can clear biomes in a couple of minutes. - Literally take enemies off their feet with the arrows fired from the Gilded Yumi. This heavy bow packs a massive punch, its arrows crashing into enemies and flinging them off-screen. - Slice reality in two with the Queen's Rapier, if you can take it from it's owner... - The Leghugger pet evolves from a scrappy little shrimp-thing to a much bigger shrimp-thing after feeding off the blood of enemies with it's Alien-like inner jaws. Creepy... See some of this mighty weaponry in action in the DLC's gameplay trailer: [previewyoutube=AvS0JdWMjqw;full][/previewyoutube]

    How much is it?


    $4.99/4,99 (or equivalent). Like our previous paid DLCs, this helps to support the ongoing free updates that we regularly put out, as well as supporting Motion Twin as they develop their next project. If you havent tried the game yet and are reading this for some reason, then the main game is on sale right now with a 50% discount. A bundle of the main game and all paid DLCs is also on offer at $21.49. If you don't have any DLCs, we're running a DLC-only bundle for the first time too at $9.99! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23769/Dead_Cells_Road_to_the_Sea_Bundle/ https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/23841/Dead_Cells_DLC_Bundle/ Please don't hesitate to give us any feedback on the DLC in the comments or on any of our social channels :) Thats it for the post, we hope you enjoy the new content and well be back very soon! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights
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    [ 2022-01-06 17:00:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev stream showcasing The Queen and the Sea DLC begins at 3PM CET/ 6AM PT!

    Hello! It's finally release day for The Queen and the Sea DLC! We're running a dev stream right now, both here on Steam and on Motion Twin's Twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/motion_twin Come and ask questions about the new DLC, general Dead Cells stuff, our future plans and anything else you can think of! We're going to try and run it on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other channels as well, so if you prefer other platforms go check those out too :) Motion Twin Twitter Dead Cells' Facebook Motion Twin YouTube Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-01-06 14:05:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The Queen and the Sea DLC arrives tomorrow!

    Hey everyone, Just dropping in for a reminder that we will be releasing The Queen and the Sea DLC tomorrow at 18:00 CET/09:00 PT! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580050/Dead_Cells_The_Queen_and_the_Sea We'll also be running a dev stream tomorrow from 16:00 CET/07:00 PT until we get bored or things catch fire! So come and ask us questions, preview the new content and listen to our terrible jokes. You'll be able to watch it on the Dead Cells home page here on Steam, or if you prefer to watch it on Twitch we'll be running it on our channel there as well. We might even try Youtube, Twitter and Facebook too so keep an eye out! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2022-01-05 16:10:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea DLC arrives 6th January!

    Hey everyone, We're back with another Queen and the Sea DLC announcement - it will be available on 6th January at 9am PT/6pm CET! With this DLC we are finishing off the path that we started years ago with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls. Ending a trilogy needs some special touches and we believe we've put quite a few in this DLC. We have an awesome new boss which we're sure will surprise you multiple times, one of the new levels is completely different to anything that youve seen before in Dead Cells, plus if you beat this DLC you get a brand new ending! For a quick peek at what you'll be getting in the final chapter of the DLC trilogy, check out our new gameplay trailer: [previewyoutube=AvS0JdWMjqw;full][/previewyoutube]

    So what exactly is in it?


    We're adding two late-game biomes, which are alternative paths to High Peak Castle and Hand of the King, plus a boss biome.

    The Infested Shipwreck



    If the name of this biome didn't already give you a clue, you'll be fighting your way through the bowels of a rotten shipwreck with eldritch horrors lurking behind every corner. Weve introduced some quirks to make it fresh for you guys. There are platforms and floor sections that enemies can break, disrupting your movement and even dumping you onto the spikes below. Armoured shrimps chase you down and can move vertically and horizontally with ease, letting them attack you from any direction. Anchor throwersthrow anchors at you, whod have thought it! To combat this terrible threat, you'll gain access to a formidable arsenal of nautical weapons such as a trident, a pirate hook and a... shark?
    We're also introducing another pet in the form of the Leghugger, a not-so-cute armoured shrimp thing with an insatiable hunger for flesh and a tendency for sudden growth spurts. Finally, no journey into a shipwreck is complete without a treasure hunt! Collect the pieces of the torn-up treasure map and put it back together to find the mythical booty...

    Lighthouse


    Find your way through the shipwreck and you'll reach the base of the lighthouse. We promised you something different with one of the biomes and now it's the time to reveal what that is: the lighthouse is more or less a vertical chase scene & several miniboss fights combined, complete with rope pulleys, breakable barriers and deadly flames! Scaling this soaring tower will be no easy task, as you'll need to outrun rising flames from below. While fending off a trio of highly skilled warriors. At the same time. Just another day on the island!
    Opportunities for rest will appear, but they will be short-lived. You are being chased by relentless killers after all...

    The Crown


    If you manage to make it through all of that unscathed (or at least alive) youll end up at the summit of the lighthouse in a bid to light the beacon and escape the island. However, to accomplish this feat you'll need to triumph in a final duel against a familiar foe...
    Beat the final challenge to discover a brand new ending...

    Wishlist


    To get an amazingly useful alert when the DLC is available, you can wishlist it and Steam will send you an email as soon as it's live: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580050/Dead_Cells_The_Queen_and_the_Sea/

    Bundles


    Seeing as this DLC is finishing off the trilogy we started with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls, we will be releasing a discounted DLC-only bundle as well as the usual base game/DLC and base game/DLC/OSTs bundles. So if you've been waiting to buy a chunk of DLC (or the base game), January will be a pretty good time to take the plunge! We'll be back with the DLC release, but keep an eye on our social media for some DLC teasers over the holiday period. Speaking of, have a great holiday! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights
    @leafjuly
    K-BoNe
    u/JenniferIsAMaleName
    @DoodlesDreaming


    [ 2021-12-16 16:57:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells: The Queen & the Sea DLC is coming early 2022!


    Key art by the legendary Michel Donz TLDR

    • New DLC coming Q1 2022 - wishlist it here and we'll love you forever!
    • Teaser trailer out now on YouTube, check it out below
    • DLC will be $4.99 to fund continued Dead Cells development & Motion Twin project
    • It finishes the path started with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls, giving a new ending to the game
    • Free updates will continue until the end of time, well for another year at the very least
    Hey everyone, Were pumped to announce that our latest DLC The Queen & the Sea will be coming Q1 2022! The route that we started so long ago with The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls will be neatly tied off with a slightly unconventional bow. The usual two new biomes will be there, but one of them is definitely not the standard-issue Dead Cells level that you know and love... Of course theres also a deadly boss waiting for you at the end of the road no prizes for guessing who that is! Oh, and if you beat them you'll be getting a whole new ending. [previewyoutube=TLjfeJ5TIMg;full]Teaser link[/previewyoutube] The two new biomes are called the Infested Shipwreck and the Lighthouse - these will be a parallel to the High Peak Castle and Throne Room levels. Yep, the Hand of the King wont be the only final challenger anymore. Before you jump on me I know the spoiler boss exists as well! There's a couple of screenshots below to give you a taste of what's coming, and if you could wishlist the DLC for us we would be eternally grateful :)
    Yes, the Beheaded is wielding a shark. No questions please.
    These guys are as deadly as they look, so prepare your thumbs!
    The final arena... Therell be new weapons & enemies to play with of course, and a new not-so-cuddly pet - we'll be putting out more details on all that as we get closer to release day. The DLC will be $4.99 or equivalent, just like the other two. Charging this helps to support Motion Twin during the development of their next project, as well as continuing free updates of Dead Cells. After the DLC that is exactly what we'll be doing - releasing more free stuff! And we'll continue to do that for at least another year. There's already a good chunk of content planned and being worked on right now with some fresh ideas in play, so you shouldn't be getting bored with us anytime soon :D Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    Sketch of the Queen done by one of our alpha testers, SaltyFinalBoss

    @KennthBoNe
    @leafjuly
    @saelens16


    [ 2021-11-30 16:59:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fancy voting for us in the Labor of Love category for the Steam Awards?

    Hey everyone, Hope you're enjoying the Everyone is Here update! We'd just like to ask if you could take a minute to vote for us in the Steam Awards in the Labor of Love category. Dead Cells is currently up to it's 26th update, over 4 years since our Early Access release and most of those updates were free, so we think we're allowed to shoot for this one! Have a great weekend :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-11-27 17:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Mac is fixed!

    Hey Mac users, We managed to figure out what was going wrong and we've just pushed a fix to let you back in to Dead Cells. Enjoy the new update and please post a comment here if there's anything wrong :) Thanks for your patience and sorry again for the missed days of Dead Cells! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-11-26 15:59:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for 2.6

    Hey, If you noticed a tiny patch we've just pushed out a hotfix for a few small problems. Crash & serious bugs:

    • Fix broken animation with Drifter weapons on Scarecrow, Santa, Cultist and Snowman skins
    • Fix Guacamelee lore room not appearing if the option "deactivate lore rooms" is activated
    • Fix Crash with Pure Nail weapon in backpack
    • Fix Crash with Skull Bone weapon during whirlwind attack
    Gameplay bugs:
    • Fix Giant Staff weapon parry
    • Fix Face Flask not applying damage buff
    • Fix Face Flask breaking kill streak
    • Fix heal on Parry cooldown
    • Fix mod related UI input scheme
    • Fix Flawless Giant skin colors
    Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-11-24 11:20:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Everyone is Here update is available!

    Hey everyone, Surprise! A new update is available dcshocked Well maybe it's not so much of a surprise if you've been following our social media for the last 2 weeks... Anyway, this time around we're stoked to introduce weapons, skills and skins from some fellow indie studios, who kindly let us add a little taste of their games to Dead Cells! [previewyoutube=rUb-6F1TV6M;full][/previewyoutube]

    How do you get this free stuff?


    You'll find a book of clues in the opening area - figure out the riddles within and complete the challenges to unlock fresh outfits! You'll also find lore rooms dotted around the place, hiding bizarre and powerful weapons from other worlds... If you want the full details of everything right now then check out the patchnotes and the little summary below, if you want to keep some mystery then download the update and get into it!

    Hollow Knight


    The Knight was a bit too shy to show themself, so you won't be seeing them running around the island, but their trusty nail is here :)
    The Pure Nail can attack upward and downward. Attacking downward while airborne causes you to bounce on your enemies, dealing critical damage.

    Hyper Light Drifter


    Laser guns are finally in the game! The Drifter wields their trusty energy sword/gun combo, ready to wordlessly slay more monsters.
    The Hyper Light Gun marks its targets while also dealing damage. The Sword deals critical damage to the marked targets, increasing with the number of gun marks on the target. Sword hits also recharge the gun's ammo, which doesn't recharge passively.

    Blasphemous


    The Penitent One is here. Mea Culpa...
    Crush the Face Flask on your forehead, dealing low damage to yourself and transforming 35 percent of your missing health into recovery.

    Guacamelee


    The luchador Juan arrives, with a feathery surprise up his non-existent sleeve...
    Channel your chicken spirit with the Pollo Power, turning into a chicken for a few seconds while firing several explosive eggs around you.

    Skul: The Hero Slayer


    Tear your way through hordes of enemies as Skul, slaying mobs with a trusty bone club.
    Smash enemies with a bone club. Hitting with the second attack enables a whirlwind attack that deals critical damage.

    Curse of the Dead Gods


    That's right, mutton chops are in Dead Cells, we have now accomplished everything that we set out to do when we started this. Shut it all down.
    Slash twice with a machete. The third attack uses the pistol to bump and inflict critical damage to nearby enemies. Holding the attack button charges a slow and powerful ranged attack. That's it for the content, there's a few of the usual QoL fixes and what not too, so check out the patchnotes if you'd like to know more about that. If you haven't had the chance to play Curse of the Dead Gods, Skul: The Hero Slayer or Guacamelee 2, then we are running a bundle with them from 10am PT so go fill your boots and show some love for the indies! We'll be back soon with some more news, hope you enjoy the update and as always please don't hesitate to leave us feedback here or on social media :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @sad_accident
    @chizifsd
    @inkscrutable
    @Saelens16
    @ColaCarnage


    [ 2021-11-22 17:07:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Practice Makes Perfect update lands with training room & ease-of-use features

    Hey everyone, A new update has landed! This time there's no balance changes or new weapons, instead we're focusing on improving the ease-of-use and learning curve for everyone (particularly newcomers & occasional players), without altering the overall difficulty of the game. All the new features are entirely optional and designed to allow you to improve your skills with no ragequits! OK maybe you'll still have a couple... TLDR

    • Training room - hone your skills against all the mobs and bosses you've seen
    • Aspects - extremely strong powers to make your run easier (but you can't win the next Boss Cell if you beat the game)
    • World map - see the paths you can take through the island
    • When you pick up a scroll you can see the change to your overall damage for each colour
    • Multi-binding moved to Custom Mode
    • Lots of smaller quality-of-life changes

    The Training Room



    Before you reach Prisoner's Quarters you'll see an entrance to a new training room where you can practise against any enemy that you've already faced. The mobs will start as statues (like in Slumbering Sanctuary) and re-animate only when you press the button at the entrance of the room. We've even given you presets that reflect the bestiary of each biome to make your life easier, because we're just that kind.
    You can also train against all the bosses in their own environment, just go through one of the doors at the back of the main room to train against the big guns. Weapon tubes and a training Guillain are also there to provide you with all the tools you need to train, so get cracking!

    Aspects



    To help players reach new biomes and discover more of the game, we're introducing the Aspects - optional super-strong buffs equippable at the start of a run that make the game a lot easier. There are a couple of catches though: you can only equip one, and you cant unlock a new boss cell or flawless boss achievements while an Aspect is equipped, so you still need to rise to the challenge if you want to get to the next level.
    Aspects provide a specific buff, centered around a core synergy element such as fire damage or speed boosting. The update features 13 Aspects and new ones could be added in the future, if we manage to have any more ideas that is...

    World map


    Probably the most self-explanatory part of this update, the world map features all the biomes you've already discovered and displays the connections between each level, but again only the ones that you've seen will be displayed. You can find it in the map screen of your current biome.

    Other features


    • Reminder after killing the Hand of the King to use the Homonculus rune to exit the run (except in 5BC or after the first 0BC kill). No more panicky posts to answer for me, woohoo!
    • Total damage change is now displayed when picking stats from a scroll, time to retire the calculator...
    • Incentive (cell drop buff) for picking your least visited biomes. Yep, it's time to go back to the [insert your most hated biome here].
    • Return stones now teleport you outside their relative Z-door.
    • A few tidbits of lore hinting at something coming in the near future, found in High Peak Castle and Undying Shores.
    • Multi-binding is now properly removed from Normal Mode and available in Custom Mode.
    We hope you enjoy the additions, let us know your thoughts in the comments or through the social media links below! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    the G
    cobyanstly
    Nicolas Pertini
    Mori_Mosu


    [ 2021-09-16 15:30:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for the Practice Makes Perfect beta

    Hey everyone, A fresh hotfix for the current beta has just landed! Here are the changes... Important features

    • Everything is translated!
    Quality of life
    • Added Outfits descriptions in the Tailor selection menu.
    Bugs that have been fixed
    • Saving and reloading in a biome drastically decreases mobs' HP.
    • Giant drops loot in Training Mode.
    • Training Armory weapons scale with the player's BC.
    • Tentacles sweep attacks hitting a player turret will hurt the player instead.
    • Killing the Concierge at the end of the Daily Challenge doesn't end it.
    • Slow-motion instances don't get skipped when the 'Disable Gameplay Slow-Motion' option is on.
    • Some old, old typos in the French translation.
    • Spoiler boss softlock should be fixed.
    So there you go, now everyone can understand what's going on in-game and some annoying issues are sorted :) We'll be back soon! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-08-18 10:05:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Practice Makes Perfect update moves to beta!

    Hey, Back with another quick post to let you all know that update 25 is now in beta phase! Thanks for all the feedback from the alpha, we'd made some smaller changes already and have put the Spoiler Boss in the training room as many requested. Here's the main changes for the beta: Important features

    • Two Flawless Outfits : Gardener and Tick.
    • Incentive for picking your least visited biomes now makes mobs drop more cells and gems.
    Quality of life
    • Changed colors of the frames of the World Map to improve readability.
    Bug fixes
    • A lot of small bug fixes, including spoiler boss issues, translation issues, Training Room problems, and crashes.
    If you want to leave feedback (or bug reports) for the beta, please fill in this short form. We've had several reports that the Spoiler Boss won't come down from the cage after killing the surrounding enemies, but we can't reproduce the error... So if anyone can give us detailed information about this (e.g. operating system, items, seed number, where you went before the fight etc), please send it to us with the form :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @iseikaino
    @HumanIsPink1
    u/heronvitorsb93


    [ 2021-08-11 12:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

    "Practice makes Perfect" update in alpha phase - training room & superpowers!


    Hey everyone, We're back with another alpha! This time there's no balance changes or new weapons, instead we're focusing on improving the learning curve for everyone (but particularly newcomers & occasional players), without altering the overall difficulty of the game. All the new features are entirely optional and designed to allow you to improve your skills with no ragequits! OK maybe you'll still get a couple... TLDR

    • Training room - hone your skills against all the mobs and bosses you've seen, except the spoiler boss of course
    • Aspects - extremely strong powers to make your run easier (but you can't win the next Boss Cell if you beat the game)
    • World map - see the paths you can take through the island
    • When you pick up a scroll you can see the change to your overall damage for each colour
    • Multi-binding moved to Custom Mode
    • Lots of smaller quality-of-life changes
    How to play the alpha If you want to jump into the alpha without any more detail, back up your save first (if the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here), then follow the instructions below to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    Bear in mind that everything is still being tweaked according to feedback, so some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback (or bug reports) for the alpha, please fill in this short form. This lets us collect all the feedback in one place rather than spreading it over Steam, Discord, Reddit etc. If you really don't want to fill in the form then please continue to post in the usual places, we're not going to stop checking them out, but just be aware that we may miss things that are posted there.

    The Training Room



    The Tutorial Knight returns to help you reach your potential. Well, she'll try at least... Before you reach Prisoner's Quarters you'll find an entrance to a new training room where you can practise against any enemy that you've already faced. The mobs will start as statues (like in Slumbering Sanctuary) and re-animate only when you press the button at the entrance of the room. We've even given you some presets that reflect the bestiary of each biome to make your life easier, because we're just that kind.
    You can also train against all the bosses in their own environment, except for the spoiler boss. Just go through one of the doors at the back of the main room to train against the big guns. Special tubes and a training Guillain are also there to provide you with all the tools you need to train, so get cracking!

    Aspects


    To help players reach new biomes and discover more of the game, we're introducing the Aspects - optional super-strong buffs equippable at the start of a run that make the game a lot easier. There is a catch though: you cant unlock a new boss cell or flawless boss achievements while an Aspect is equipped, so you still need to rise to the challenge if you want to get to the next level.
    Aspects provide a specific buff, centered around a core synergy element. The update features 13 Aspects and new ones could be added in the future, if we manage to have any more ideas that is...

    World map


    Probably the most self-explanatory part of this update, the world map features all the biomes you've already discovered and displays the connections between each level, but again only the ones that you've seen will be displayed. You can find it in the map screen of your current biome.

    Other features


    • Reminder after killing the Hand of the King to use the Homonculus rune to exit the run (except in 5BC or after the first 0BC kill). No more panicky posts to answer for me, woohoo!
    • Total damage change is now displayed when picking stats from a scroll, time to retire the calculator...
    • Incentive (cell drop buff) for picking your least visited biomes. Yep, it's time to go back to the [insert your most hated biome here].
    • Return stones now teleport you outside their relative Z-door.
    • A few tidbits of lore hinting at something coming in the near future, found in High Peak Castle and Undying Shores.
    • Multi-binding is now properly removed from Normal Mode and available in Custom Mode.
    That's it for now, feel free to leave feedback or suggestions and we'll be back soon with the beta! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @Zyphexis
    u/BoostedButter
    @teeparkss
    @BizarreRayi


    [ 2021-08-03 15:14:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Mod tools tweaks

    Hey, Just a small update with some fixes for mod tools:

    • Fixed crash happening on TmxTool (hopefully)
    • Made TmxTool more user friendly
    • Adapted ModsDoc accordingly
    Will be back very soon with some meatier news! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-07-23 10:16:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Hotfix for Update 24

    Bonjour, We've just put out a small hotfix for update 24, to fix these bugs that had popped their dirty heads up:

    • Softlock when using Javelin during spoiler boss fight
    • Game freezing and not responding when minimizing it while the leaderboard is displayed
    • Serialization problem that caused game to be unable to load a save
    We also made a change in the room modding process - check out the documentation for full details about that if you're interested. The team is also working on a fix for the Linux users who are having issues, plus the Daily Challenge refusing to load, so keep posted for those :) I'll be back soon with more news! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-07-01 14:49:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells' What's the Damage? update is here!

    Hey everyone, Our Whats the Damage? Update is available to download! Patchnotes are in the normal place for anyone who wants to skip my ramblings. TLDR:

    • Balanced items so that historically weaker ones are now viable
    • Added rooms to Derelict Distillery and Fatal Falls biomes
    • Weapons that can reflect grenades now reflect all the grenades in range
    • Integrated Tiled for modders to make custom room design easier

    Item balancing


    The whole point of this update is to try and avoid a meta with only a small fraction of weapons being viable. We want you to be able to pick up whatever you find and be able to go nuts with it, not just instantly hit the recycle button - this is a roguelite after all goddammit! So, in short we are mostly buffing all the weaker items (70 items are being buffed with 21 slightly nerfed). You can read the full list below but it might actually be shorter to just play the game. Melee Weapons: Buffs: - Balanced Blade (weapon damage and damage bonus increased) - Assassins Dagger (weapon damage increased) - Twin Daggers (first two attacks weapon damage and breach bonus increased) - Broadsword (weapon damage increased + damage slightly redistributed among the 3 attacks) - Cursed Sword (weapon damage increased + all attacks now crit) - Shrapnel Axes (weapon damage increased) - Seismic Strike (wave damage increased) - War Spear (shorter charge + weapon damage and breach bonus increased) - Impaler (weapon damage increased) - Rapier (weapon damage and crit enabler duration increased) - Hayabusa Boots (weapon damage increased + last hit now reflects all grenades in its hitbox) - Wrenching Whip (breach bonus increased) - Torch (weapon damage increased (impact only)) - Flawless (weapon damage and crit multiplier increased) - Flashing Fans (crit multiplier increased + correctly enables crit upon bouncing a grenade back) - Tombstone (weapon damage increased + doom now stuns enemies it hits + slow mo reduced + slow mo can now correctly be disabled through the options menu + crit affixes not allowed anymore) - Oven Axe (weapon damage and breach increased, charge slightly reduced) - Toothpick (broken duration reduced) - Sadists Stiletto (crit multiplier increased) - Spiked Boots (crit multiplier increased) - Oiled Sword (crit multiplier increased) - Snake Fangs (weapon damage and crit multiplier increased) - Shovel (damage increased). - Tentacle (damage increased). Nerfs: - Sadists Stiletto (poison cloud affix removed) - War Spear (crit multiplier decreased) - Katana (invincibility frames removed and forward movement reduced on basic attacks). Please note that the charged attack is unchanged. Ranged Weapons: Buffs: - Bow and Endless Quiver (weapon damage increased + arrows work like other bows) - Sonic Carbine (weapon damage increased) - Ice Bow (freeze duration increased) - Boomerang (weapon damage increased + slightly faster travel speed) - The Boys Axe (weapon damage and breach increased) - Nerves of Steel (weapon damage increased) - Firebrands (impact damage increased) - Pyrotechnics (can now have both Pierce affixes) - Fire Blast (weapon damage increased) - Magic Missiles (weapon damage increased) - Blowgun (added a poison DoT) Nerfs: - Quick Bow (crit condition now at 3 arrows instead of 2) - Alchemic Carbine (DoT duration, cloud duration and dps decreased) - Hokutos Bow (DPS bonus, duration and aoe range decreased) - Electric Whip (DoT dps decreased) - Ice Shards (weapon damage, slow duration and crit multiplier decreased) Shields: Buffs: - Front Line Shield (bonus buffed to 50%, was 30) - Cudgel (stun duration increased) - Knockback Shield (weapon damage increased) - Assault Shield (weapon damage increased) - Greed Shield (weapon damage increased) - Spiked Shield (weapon damage increased) - Parry Shield (increased reflected projectiles damage) Nerfs: - Punishment (weapon damage decreased) - Thunder Shield (DoT dps and stun duration decreased) Skills: Buffs: - Infantry Grenade (damage increased) - Stun Grenade (damage duration and range increased) - Ice Grenade (freeze duration increased) - Root Grenade (damage increased) - Swarm (worm stats increased) - Tornado (damage increased + cd reduced) - Corrupted Power (damage buff increased) - Lightspeed (damage increased on both) - Lightning Rods (instant damage increased) - Scarecrow Sickles (damage increased) - Barnacle (damage increased) Nerfs: - Flamethrower Turret (DPS and duration decreased) - Tesla Coil (DPS, DoT and range decreased) - Lacerating Aura (DPS and duration decreased) - Great Owl of War (reactivated version dps decreased) - Crusher (damage decreased) - Tonic (duration and bonus health decreased) Mutations: Buffs: - Vengeance (bonus increased) - Adrenaline (duration increased) - Scheme (bonus increased) - Porcupack (starting value increased) - Ripper (now drops 6 ammos and damage per ammo increased) - Networking (starting value increased) - Point Blank (starting value and growth increased) - Soldier Resistance (starting value and cap increased) - Blind Faith (starting value and cap increased) - Counterattack (bonus increased) - What Doesnt Kill Me (starting value and cap increased + internal cooldown reduced) - Extended Healing (duration reduced, for the same heal) - Spite (damage increased) - Frostbite (damage increased) - Instinct of the Master of Arms (internal cooldown reduced) - Recovery (duration multiplier increased) - Necromancy (starting value and cap increased) Nerfs: - Barbed Tips (DPS and tickrate decreased + no longer causes ammo to drop when combined with Ripper) - Gastronomy (healing bonus decreased) - Heart of Ice (starting value and cap decreased) - Emergency Triage (healing and speed bonus decreased) - Disengagement (activation threshold decreased and internal cooldown increased) That's quite a big chunk of changes so please let us know how you find everything!

    Item Binding


    Item binding. My new most hated phrase The original plan was to move this option to custom mode, but then that wasnt working properly so we were going to remove it from the game completely for this update. There was all kinds of hoo-ha and it was frankly a bit of a mess. However, as the plans have changed a few times in such a short amount of time, were concerned that removing it completely might accidentally mess other things up. Leaving it be for another few months wont hurt anyone and we wanted to get this update out in the wild, so were going to keep it in the game FOR NOW. Expect it to be moved to custom mode in the future though

    Extra rooms


    The Derelict Distillery and the Fatal Falls biomes were feeling a bit empty, so we've added some extra rooms to give them more spice. The Distillery in particular has some new sequences in it so be sure to give it a run through...

    Room creation for modders


    Modders rejoice! We have new room creation support for you lot, in the form of Tiled. You probably know that its a free, open-source level editor and I have no idea what I'm talking about here so Im gonna shut up and just let you read the file written by someone more qualified than me. Just go to the Dead Cells Library page, then to 'Workshop' then 'About' and there is a Google Drive link on the right hand side under 'Related Links' -> 'View Official Documentation':
    That's it for this update, feel free to leave your thoughts about it in the comments, Discord, Reddit, Twitter etc and I'll be back soon with a new alpha :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @miokce
    @MewyFox
    @Octrepuss1
    @Octrepuss1
    @DoodlesDreaming


    [ 2021-06-10 14:34:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

    "What's the Damage?" update moves to beta

    Hey everyone, Update 24, now officially called the What's the Damage? update, has moved into beta. There's only a few changes from the alpha so I'll keep this short and sweet and all the changes are listed below so no need to go check out the patchnotes :) One thing you should do is to check out Derelict Distillery, we've made some decent changes to the room design so it has a different feel to it now - let us know what you think. Also, we've discovered that moving the multiple item binding to Custom Mode and keeping it isolated there is much trickier than we thought it would be. So, unfortunately it won't be available in Normal or Custom Mode when this update is officially released. Sorry, I know that's going to be annoying for some of you and if you desperately want to use key binding then there are 3rd party programs out there that can let you set it up manually, but for the moment it won't be an option in-game.

    Changes for the beta


    Weapons:
    • Ice Shards weapon now has a 3 second slowdown effect (down from 5).
    • Parry Shield counter projectiles now deal damage.
    • Shovel damage increased.
    • Tentacle damage increased.
    • Tombstone does not allow crit affixes anymore due to its specific behaviour.
    • Katana invincibility frames removed and forward movement reduced on basic attacks (we haven't change the charged attack)
    Level Design:
    • Added new extra rooms to Derelict Distillery - the place actually has quite a different feel to it now so check that out.
    • Fixed some minor visual issues on new rooms for Undying Shores and Fractured Shrines.
    Debug:
    • Preventing softlock when fighting Conjunctivitis boss with Snake Fangs weapon.
    • Preventing softlock while using the Hunter Grenade weapon on the Giant Tick enemy.
    • Preventing softlock if a double KO occurs during the true final boss fight.
    • Preserving active turrets when a multi-forms weapon is evolving.
    • Removing that damn pink square on the BC selector.
    • Skull icon for the kill counter is fixed when you get the gold version after reloading the run.
    • Elite Rampager enemies dont pause their charge anymore after roaring.
    • Slashers enemies cant override the Cannot be interrupted by an enemys attack affix anymore.
    • No more messages notifying a malaise tier increase when reducing infection.
    • Updating the integrated Mod Support documentation.
    • Some minor bug fixes.
    Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-06-03 14:15:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells Update 24 now in alpha

    Hey everyone, Were back with another public alpha! This time around were trialling our 24th update, which brings some more item balancing (before the pitchforks come out, check out the extra info below), more rooms for Distillery, Fractured Shrines and Undying Shores, plus some room creation support for modders. Were also killing multiple item binding, there I said it. You won't be able to use it in this alpha but you should be able to find it in custom mode when the update is officially released. Ill expand on this a bit later too. For the full list of everything affected, check out the patchnotes here.

    Item Balancing


    So, the idea of this balancing update is to buff the least used items, not to nerf everything powerful into the ground (I think as of right now there are 68 buffs and 20 nerfs, so roughly a 3:1 ratio of buff/nerf). Wed noticed that a lot of the old weapons are just never used after the item pool opens up because theres usually a better option to pick up and hack away with. That takes away from the whole roguelike feature of grabbing whatever the RNG gods give you and rolling with it because it can still kick ass. So, we wanted to give these items some more 'oomph' so you can have more freedom to play around with your build. As mentioned already, there are a few item nerfs. However, we're not trying to destroy their stats or remove key mechanics, we just want to stop the ridiculous stuff like melting the Giant in 3 seconds flat with Barbed Tips... Finally, a handful of weapons have had some mechanics tweaked, but these are basically to make things work how they were supposed to work in the first place, like weapons capable of reflecting grenades can now reflect all grenades in range. Let's call it spring cleaning.

    Binding


    We are also removing the option to bind multiple weapons and skills to the same button and moving it to Custom Mode only. It was a fun bug/feature at the beginning, but now its turned into a full on cheese tactic. It seems like a lot of you have a good time using it, which is why were going to keep it in the game, but we do need to keep Normal Mode resembling something of a normal game. For the moment it's disappeared entirely from the game in alpha, but should be brought back in Custom Mode when this update is officially pushed.

    Extra rooms


    The Distillery and the Fatal Falls biomes were feeling a bit empty, so we've added some extra rooms to give them more spice. Not much else to add here soooo yep, go check them out...

    Room creation for modders


    Modders rejoice! We have new room creation support for you lot, in the form of Tiled. You probably know that its a free, open-source level editor and I have no idea what I'm talking about here so Im gonna shut up and just let you read the file written by someone more qualified than me. Just go to the Dead Cells Library page, then to 'Workshop' then 'About' and there is a Google Drive link on the right hand side under 'Related Links' -> 'View Official Documentation':
    If were missing instructions in the document or anything doesnt work then let us know and well get it fixed. How to play the alpha So, if you want to play through the changes, back up your save first (if the worst happens then theres a save restore hack detailed here), then follow the instructions below to access the alpha:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    Bear in mind that everything is still being tweaked according to feedback, so some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback (or bug reports) for the alpha, please can you fill in this short form. This lets us collect all the feedback in one place rather than spreading it over Steam, Discord, Reddit etc. If you really don't want to fill in the form then please continue to post in the usual places, we're not going to stop checking them out, but just be aware that we may miss things that are posted there. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    MilkyCook
    HorizenDreamer
    CobrasPersonal
    Dawn1545


    [ 2021-05-26 14:46:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

    The Whack-a-Mole Update is live!

    Hellooo, The Whack-a-Mole update is ready to download! We're adding 3 new Survival weapons, 3 new mutations, the Collector's Intern and tweaking the difficulty curve.
    TLDR of the changes:

    • 3 big, heavy weapons
    • 3 damage-focused mutations
    • Altered the difficulty curve
    • The Collectors Intern - spend your cells in 5BC!
    • A fix to stop all seed error crashes. We hope...
    • Malaise balancing and UI
    • Fatal Falls balancing
    • UI & QoL improvements
    • A ton of bug fixes (yes, including the Me, Jealous? Achievement not triggering)
    • Random diet option
    The highlights are explained a bit below, for all the detail you can read the patchnotes here.

    New weapons


    These are all Survival, one-slot and focus on smashing enemies with something heavy until they stop moving. Oven Axe - Sweep your way through mobs as you would with any massive axe. The last hit can be chained to relentlessly swing into the sunset forever.
    Toothpick - Roleplay as your favourite troll/ogre/giant ugly creature. Smash with the normal attack, or hold the attack button to charge up a ferocious hit over the head of your foe, breaking your weapon in two.
    Tombstone - Kill enemies with a heavy dose of irony. Doom nearby enemies if you manage to kill something with the last hit of the combo. Doomed enemies have an ethereal tombstone fall on their head. Each kill starts a new wave of doom (up to 3 consecutive waves). Doom.

    New mutations


    Execution (colourless) - Instantly kill enemies with under 15% health when you hit them with a weapon. Works with bosses too, but only when they have under 7.5% health - we can't make it too easy for you after all... Barbed Tips (Tactics) - Inflict X damage per second to enemies, per arrows stuck in them. Point Blank (Tactics) - Close range attacks inflict X% bonus damage.

    New difficulty curve


    We felt that the difficulty curve still wasn't quite where we wanted it to be, so we've tweaked the frequency of health refills to smooth the increase in panic: BC0: Health fountains in every transition. BC1: Health fountain every other transition, with one minor flask when the fountain is missing. BC2: No more health fountain, one minor flask in every transition. BC3: One minor flask after the first boss and before the second. BC4: No more health in any transition, enemies teleport to your position. BC5: No more health, enemies teleport, malaise added.

    The Collector's Intern


    An enterprising Guillain has decided to put on a cloak and trade cells for blueprints in 5BC, so no more shifting down to 4BC to spend your hard-earned cells or trade in blueprints.

    Seed error fix


    We've worked some developer magic to maybe stop all seed error crashes... FOREVEEERRR! Essentially, if a seed error occurs when the game is loading the next level, then instead of crashing it will now start loading the level again but with a new seed. So we'll be trading crashes for occasionally longer biome load times, which we think is a pretty decent exchange.

    Best of the rest


    Legendary items now scale based on the sum of your two highest stats. Also, Legendary status no longer increases the item level. Malaise no longer increases the movement speed of enemies, plus mobs can no longer spawn or turn into Elites in the first few seconds after an Elite aggros you. When malaise increases, the changes are now shown by icons in-game to give you a better idea of what's about to hit you. Bonus scrolls added in Fractured Shrines from BC3+ and Undying Shores from BC4+. Option to toggle "Hold to chain attacks" added in the Gameplay tab of Options. Item description and affix list now scroll together in the Pause menu. Cursed gems require a long press to be picked up. We hope you enjoy the new update - if you have any feedback then as always just let us know in the comments here, on Discord, Reddit, Twitter, wherever! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @teeparkss
    falzelo
    Fire_Bay
    Hugo_Animey
    Roving_Neophyte
    leafjuly
    Jimmsytree
    Krypt0100


    [ 2021-03-30 16:00:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 23 moves to beta - Small reworks to Tombstone weapon & Execute mutation

    Hey everyone, The Update 23 alpha has given us loads of opportunity to tweak the new mutations & weapons and to fix the new bugs that inevitably pop up (whack those moles!), so we're moving the update into beta as of now :) There hasn't been a huge amount of changes to the new content, except a bit of a rework of Tombstone and the Execute mutation. So, the way Tombstone works now is: [olist]

  • When you kill an enemy with the third hit of the Tombstone combo, you 'doom' nearby enemies
  • A tombstone spawns above these 'doomed' enemies, dealing damage to them after a moment
  • If an enemy dies from this doom effect it adds another tombstone above the already doomed mobs (each new tombstone deals reduced damage)
  • This tombstone of doom combo chain has a cap of 3 and will fail if a wave of tombstones doesn't kill an enemy [/olist] The Execute mutation rework is removing the tier scaling and halving the effect on bosses. I did warn you that might happen... So, before it was "Instantly kill enemies with under 5% health (scales up to 15%) when you hit them with a weapon" and now it's "Instantly kill enemies with under 15% health when you hit them with a weapon. Effect halved for bosses". Much more simple! We've done lots of balancing on the other weapons like changing charge times, damage, speed etc, but nothing that drastic. If you want to see the full details of the update as of today, then check out the patchnotes. If you want to try out the beta and don't know how then follow these instructions:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    I wanted to add some community highlights but the Steam server doesn't want to play nice with me so I'll add them onto the update release post, which will hopefully be next week! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-03-24 14:51:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

  • Update 23 in alpha - 3 new weapons, 3 new mutations & tweaked difficulty curve

    Hey everyone, Its been a while since our last post, which was for the Fatal Falls DLC release in fact. Dear god that's nearly 6 weeks ago... Why is time so fast?! Anyway, since then we've been in the game dev kitchen cooking up some spicy sauce to put in our regular updates this year. Our next one, 'The Whack-a-mole Update' is heading into alpha today (access instructions at the bottom of this post for the impatient). TLDR of the changes:

    • 3 big, heavy, f-off weapons
    • 3 damage-focused mutations
    • Altered the difficulty curve (work in progress)
    • The Collectors Intern - spend your cells in 5BC!
    • A fix to stop all seed error crashes. We hope...
    • Malaise balancing and UI
    • Fatal Falls balancing
    • UI & QoL improvements
    • A ton of bug fixes (yes, including the Me, Jealous? Achievement not triggering)
    • Random diet option
    The highlights are explained a bit below, for the full picture you can read the entire patchnotes here.

    New weapons


    These are all Survival, one-slot and focus on smashing enemies with something heavy until they stop moving. The Big Axe - Sweep your way through mobs as you would with any massive axe. Apparently the last hit can be chained to become an unstoppable lawnmower-thing...
    The Big Club - Roleplay as your favourite troll/ogre/giant ugly creature. Smash with the normal attack, or hold the attack button to charge up a downward hit on the head of your foe.
    Tombstone - Kill enemies with a heavy dose of irony. Leaves a tombstone to mark your enemy's grave - why not plant your own death garden ^^

    New mutations


    Execution (colourless) - Instantly kill enemies with under 5% health (scales up to 15%) when you hit them with a weapon. Applies to bosses, for now... Barbed Tips (Tactics) - Inflict X damage per second to enemies, per arrows stuck in them. Point Blank (Tactics) - Close range attacks inflict X% bonus damage.

    New difficulty curve


    We're experimenting with a slightly new way of increasing the difficulty from one BC to the next: BC0: Health fountains in every transition. BC1: Health fountain every other transition, with one minor flask when the fountain is missing. BC2: No more health fountain, one minor flask in every transition. BC3: One minor flask after the first boss and before the second. BC4: No more health in any transition, enemies teleport to your position. BC5: No more health, enemies teleport, malaise added. We're particularly interested to have your opinion on that new formula, so don't hesitate to give us feedback!

    The Collector's Intern


    An enterprising Guillain has decided to put on a cloak and trade cells for blueprints in 5BC, so no more shifting down to 4BC to spend your hard-earned cells.

    Seed error fix


    We've worked some developer magic to maybe stop all seed error crashes... FOREVEEERRR! Essentially, if a seed error occurs when the game is loading the next level, then instead of crashing it will now start loading the level again but with a new seed. So we'll be trading crashes for occasionally longer biome load times, which we think is a pretty decent exchange.

    Balancing


    Legendary items now scale based on the sum of your two highest stats. Also, Legendary status no longer increases the item level. This is very subject to change and there is no visual indication of the changes yet, so bear this in mind please. Malaise no longer increases the movement speed of enemies, plus mobs can no longer spawn or turn into Elites in the first few seconds after an Elite aggros you. Bonus scrolls added in Fractured Shrines from BC3+ and Undying Shores from BC4+.

    Quality of Life


    Option to toggle "Hold to chain attacks" added in the Gameplay tab of Options. Item description and affix list scroll together in the Pause menu. When malaise increases, the changes are now shown by icons in-game. Cursed gems require a long press to be picked up. Access Instructions If you want to play through the changes, you can access the alpha like so:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    Bear in mind that everything is still being tweaked according to feedback, so some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game. If you want to leave feedback (or bug reports) for the alpha - we now have a fancy form you can fill in. This will let us collect all the feedback in one place rather than spreading it over Steam, Discord, Reddit etc etc. If you really don't want to fill in the form then please continue to post in the usual places, we're not going to stop checking them out, but just be aware that we may miss things that are posted there. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-03-05 09:50:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fatal Falls DLC out now!

    Hi everyone, We are excited to announce that the Fatal Falls DLC is now officially available, giving you two extra mid-game biomes with new enemies, weapons, traps, lore rooms and a green-fingered boss! Our traditional animated trailer by Bobby Prod has just landed too, introducing the new Brutality pet who's maybe a little too clingy for the Beheaded... [previewyoutube=ERbtq7Wp_xo;full][/previewyoutube] That should have given you some idea of what's in the DLC (basically more cartoon violence, as everyone was expecting), but if you want more visuals of what to expect in the DLC then check out our VLOG below. If you'd prefer to read the highlights and then discover the content for yourself just skip right on past :) [previewyoutube=GW84Vykp85w;full]VLOG link[/previewyoutube]

    New levels


    Fractured Shrines


    Home to a vicious pagan cult, these floating islands are connected with fragile ledges that are littered with traps and deadly drops. Expect giant snakes lobbing spears at you, even bigger statues wielding mighty axes and frenetic platform fights.
    Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it

    Undying Shores


    Descend a cliff caught in the middle of a storm while fighting off undead healers and strange experiments. The caves might offer you some refuge, but I wouldnt count on it...
    Insert Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man meme here

    The Mausoleum


    This ruin is now the home of a gardener who adores flowers and mushrooms. Unfortunately you are neither of those things

    Weapons


    Seven new weapons can be found in these regions, including our new Brutality pet Serenade. This sarcastic sword will fly around hacking at enemies until you call it to your hand to deal crits to the monsters it's already weakened. Others include: The Ferryman's Lantern, a combo melee/ranged weapon that harvests souls from melee kills which you can then fire as projectiles. Spooky.
    Channel you inner Zeus with Lightning Rods which call lightning bolts to smite anything lurking in between the rods you've placed in the ground. Snake Fangs that teleport you to the nearest enemy to inflict melee & poison damage, opening up some speedy slashing gameplay. Speedrunners rejoice!
    The Iron Staff parries melee attacks and the combo after a successful parry inflicts criticals. Basically you get to combo critical hit a stunned enemy which ain't so bad...

    How much is it?


    Pricing is $4.99/4,99 (or equivalent). Like The Bad Seed, this will help support further development of the game while Motion Twin work on their next project. By the way, one of our free updates will be coming shortly with some heavy-hitting weapons, mutations and tweaks to Malaise. If you havent tried the game yet and are reading this for some reason, then the main game is on sale right now with a 50% discount. A bundle of the main game and both paid DLCs is also on offer with a 15% discount if you want to go all in. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451460/Dead_Cells_Fatal_Falls/ Please give us any feedback you have about the DLC in the comments or on any of our social channels! Thats it, we hope you enjoy the DLC and well be back very soon! Cheers, Matt, Evil Empire and Motion Twin Community Highlights:
    R_Neophyte
    @ak.zel
    @kawaiiasabutton
    @komik_trips


    [ 2021-01-26 17:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Streaming the Dead Cells Fatal DLC live!

    Hey everyone, We've got some streamers to show you the new Fatal Falls DLC while the devs are busy, hope you enjoy it! Cheers, EE & MT


    [ 2021-01-26 17:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dev Stream at 3pm CET & others from 6pm

    Hey, Quick announcement that we'll be doing some Dead Cells streaming from 3pm to 6pm to celebrate the release of the Fatal Falls DLC today. It'll be on Twitch, in the community hub here (broadcasts section) and on our social media channels - I'll try and post links here when we're live: Steam Twitch YouTube Twitter Come hang out, ask questions and laugh at our noobiness (is that a word?) After that we'll have some actual streamers following on after us, including VeeDotMe! Hope to see you there, Matt


    [ 2021-01-26 11:34:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells goodies in the Steam Points Shop & Fatal Falls track on YouTube

    Hey everyone, We're into the last 2 weeks before the Fatal Falls DLC release, so obviously there's no news to give you on future updates. However, we do have a few things to keep you entertained until something more juicy comes along.

    Steam Points Shop


    Yesterday we had a load of items approved for the Steam Points Shop (all created by our resident artists). So if you want to tailor Steam to be a bit more "Dead Cells" then grab some bits on our page. So far there's a few avatars from the Bobby trailers:
    Loads of animated stickers of Mushroom Boi and Beheaded:
    And a couple of animated profile backgrounds, which I promise are perfect loops, but I had to cut this one a little short to be able to upload it here...

    Fatal Falls track on YouTube


    In other news, the mighty Valmont has worked his usual magic with the Fatal Falls soundtrack and he's kindly released the Fractured Shrines tune (the one from the gameplay trailer) on his YouTube channel: [previewyoutube=gMTHc78x8fo;full][/previewyoutube]

    Fatal Falls Comics


    Finally, we asked the talented Christopher Lewis Lee to do some Fatal Falls comics for us. You might not have seen these two on social media so I'll leave them here (4 more to come):

    That's all folks, have a good weekend! Cheers, Matt, EE & MT


    [ 2021-01-15 16:43:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fatal Falls DLC coming 26th January!

    Hey everyone, I hope youve all managed to take some time off and chill out a bit (and recover from the Christmas binge), everyone here is recharged and ready to kick on with making more Dead Cells. Thats my extremely subtle move into our announcement that the Fatal Falls DLC will be available on 26th January at 9am PT! For a taste of whats to come, check out our gameplay trailer: [previewyoutube=4eGJmv3Zr7M;full][/previewyoutube]

    What's in it?


    We have made 2 new mid-game biomes which are alternative paths to Stilt Village/Clock Tower and Slumbering Sanctuary/Forgotten Sepulcher. One is the Fractured Shrines, which is a load of floating islands connected by ledges that are covered with traps and ready to drop you into the abyss below. When you're not falling you'll be dealing with pagan snake people and giant statues with even bigger axes.
    After that you'll enter The Undying Shores where you need to descend a cliff in the middle of a storm. Some caves offer a way out of the rain but they're full of weird experiments and undead healers, so good luck getting out!
    Obviously, no DLC is complete without a boss to mess up at the end. So we've added The Mausoleum - the home of a gardener who adores flowers and mushrooms. Unfortunately you are neither of those things... And if you want a handy alert when the DLC is available, you can wishlist it and Steam will send you an email as soon as it's live: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451460/Dead_Cells_Fatal_Falls/

    Bundles


    If you already own Dead Cells, there will be a 'complete the set' bundle introduced on the 26th, which will save you 15% on The Bad Seed & Fatal Falls so make sure to look out for that!
    Happy New Year and we'll be back very soon :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights
    @AlchemistDoodle - before you ask, no this is not official canon :D
    @ClovergrassWang
    @megatronmeg


    [ 2021-01-12 17:02:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 21 available now!


    By David Thor Fjalarsson Hey everyone, Update 21 has just been released, introducing lots of new shiny things to play with over the holidays along with some broader gameplay changes. Theres a TLDR and an overview below, and if you want to get the full detail head here for the patchnotes. Boom, everyone's attention span covered. TLDR:

    • Colour scaling rework
    • Malaise rework
    • New mutations
    • New mob, weapon, outfits & diet
    • Backpack rework
    • Hand of the King lore room
    • Usual QoL fixes
    The reworks will need some explaining for people who haven't been keeping up to date through the alpha, so I'm going to run through all the 'minor' bits first!

    New Weapon


    The most requested weapon from the community is now in the game! The Katana allows you to chain a standard slash with a dashing charge attack by holding the button, for the full experience wear the Ninja outfit at the same time.
    We fully expect you to play with this for a day then start calling for Panchucks...

    New Mob


    This is the first mob in the game inspired by a Discord community suggestion (many thanks to Leylite#4491)!
    Using the Explosive Crossbow, the Demolisher will blast you from a safe distance (oh how the tables have turned). It can be found ignoring all health & safety rules and blowing shit up in the Distillery at BC0 and in several places later on, mostly as an alternative upgrade to the Knife Thrower.

    New Outfits


    You might have guessed from the key art, but there are some jolly new outfits introduced in this update, including 2 Christmas-themed ones. Enjoy!
    Ho ho ho, now I have a funny costume...

    Hand of the King lore room


    The mystery man becomes slightly less mysterious with a new lore room hidden somewhere in the castle...
    Katana *tick*, Hand of the King lore room *tick*, what's next...

    Cheese diet


    No self-respecting French studio can pass up the opportunity to let you eat cheese, so were giving you the option to heal yourself with a nice smelly slice of Camembert!
    So thats all the shiny pretty stuff, now on to the major changes.

    Weapon colour rework


    Colours had losta lot of consistency of playstyle between the 3 colours. So, we decided to change the colour scaling of a good chunk of items & mutations to refocus each statistic on its primary identity.
    • Tactics keeps all things related to ranged gameplay: turrets, range weapons, with some utility and damaging spells to support it. Dual scales with anything that wouldnt fit in that category but is poison or electricity gameplay (e.g. Sadists Stiletto is a melee weapon so it shouldnt scale with Tactics, but as its crits work on poison gameplay it is still a red/purple dual scaling weapon).
    • Brutality keeps its focus on fast melee weapons and everything related to jumping into the melee. Grenades stay mostly red. Dual scale with anything that wouldnt fit in that category but is fire or blood gameplay.
    • Survival keeps its focus on crowd control, survivability, shields and slow, heavy melee weapons. Also supported by heavy damage skills with the long cooldown that goes with it. Dual scale with anything that wouldnt fit in that category but is root or ice gameplay.
    In addition, the health points scaling of Brutality and Survival has been decreased in the late game while for Tactics it's been very slightly increased. However, it's mostly felt at high scrolls counts, so you wont feel it until late game at 3BC+.

    Backpack


    The Backpack was introduced in the 19th update to support transitioning from 2-slots weapons to two different 1-slot weapons. It's now a meta upgrade unlocked at the Collector, like Recycling or the random starting weapon tubes, and can be used with any type of weapon. You can store any weapons in your backpack, except 2-handed weapons and the Giantkiller (for obvious reasons), by pressing the backpack key (Y on Xbox controller, on a PlayStation one) when picking a weapon. Empty your backpack by holding the "use" key. Because we're all-round lovely people, video settings have also been added to accommodate everyone's backpack preferences. You can choose to put the backpack slot to the right of your skill slots or in-between your weapons and your skills, plus a slider for opacity.

    Mutations


    Five new mutations have been added, three were initially designed to support two-handed weapons through the backpack slot, but after some testing we've decided to let them be used with any type of build:
    • Acrobatic Preparation: Attacking with a ranged weapon also attack with the ranged weapon in your backpack. Roll to reload. (Tactics).
    • Porcupine Backpack: Rolling through enemies attacks them with the melee weapons stored in your backpack. (Brutality)
    • Tortoise Wheel: Rolling parry attacks and projectiles with the shield stored in your backpack. (Survival)

    Porcupine Backpack in action The fourth mutation, Fatal Cadence (Survival), increases your attack speed when alternating in-between primary and secondary weapon slot. The final mutation, Ranger's Gear (Tactics) is like Scheme, but for ranged weapons, so your next ranged attack after using a skill will deal extra damage.

    Malaise


    Thanks to all your feedback through alpha and beta, we think we've arrived at an improved Malaise mechanic:
    • The bar now fills with game time, but pauses in lore rooms, chest rooms, shops. The malaise contamination rate is tied to the number of enemies still alive in the level, the fewer enemies, the less quickly your malaise bar will fill. When only 10% of the enemies are left alive, the biome is considered "Malaise cleared".
    • The higher the malaise, the more dangerous the enemies (increased movement speed, quicker teleport, shorter reaction time and at the latter stages, increased damage).
    • Enemies will also randomly spawn around you and from time to time, an enemy will transform into an Elite. The spawn rate and Elite rate will also increase with Malaise.
    • Being hit doesn't increase your malaise anymore. Killing enemies, Elite, and Bosses decreases your malaise gauge.
    • Food looted in walls is always contaminated and will increase your Malaise bar, the "healthy" food looted on enemies doesn't decrease your Malaise bar. Healing with your flask does heal some Malaise too.
    • The "Malaise Cleared" event completely stops the bar from filling until the end of the biome, and even decreases your malaise gauge with the amount you would get by killing all the enemies left in the level. However, these enemies won't give you any more malaise reduction. Mobs and Elites will stop spawning for the rest of the level.
    We're aiming to give a cycling nature to the mechanic, with a Malaise that should stay in-between 3 and 7 during most of the run (except boss fights). Currently, all mutations and items interacting with the Malaise have seen that aspect of their design disabled and future updates will let us tweak it slightly if needed.

    Best of the rest


    • All biomes in BC3+ have less mobs overall.
    • An option to disable the gameplay slow-motion (most notably when elites die) has been added.
    • 2-slots weapons can now have different affixes on each part.

    Christmas & January


    Christmas is four days away, so obviously most of the team is imminently leaving for holidays (and panic buying gifts) until early January. We will be checking in just in case anything happens, but our hands are going to be full of food and drink for the next week, so don't expect much news until early January! Speaking of January, our next DLC, Fatal Falls, is just over a month away from release, if you want to chuck it in your wishlist we would be very grateful :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451460/Dead_Cells_Fatal_Falls/ The usual community highlights are below, but first we have a load of Motion Twin's concept art for rejected projects to show you, make sure to check them out below. That just about covers everything, we hope you have a great Christmas and we'll be back soon! Thanks, Matt, EE & MT Motion Twin concept art
















    Community Highlights:
    @Starbind_S
    u/hauntedcactus
    u/Teifling_Darkhalis


    [ 2020-12-21 16:34:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 21 moves into beta

    Hello everyone, The Christmas Update, also known as the Malaise update, is now available in beta! It mainly includes the rework of the Malaise mechanic, which is a 4 and 5BC exclusive, a lot of weapon color changes, an improved backpack and 4 new mutations, as well as the usual ton of QoL and bug fixes. Full patchnotes are here.
    Artwork by the fantastic David Thor Fjalarsson Since both the reworks to weapon colors and the Malaise have proven more controversial than expected among the community, we thought it would only be fair to explain the reasoning behind the changes and our plans for the future. Warning: This isn't the shortest explanation ever - we want to communicate properly with you and a TLDR doesn't really work for that...

    Malaise


    Previously, this mechanic ensured 4BC+ players wouldnt abuse HP stacking and rallying strategies so much, by introducing a maximum number of times someone could be hit without dying that wasnt dependent on those parameters. Reworking Malaise became one of the most recurrent requests over time, with players accusing this mechanic of ruining the fun by punishing jumping into the melee and encouraging waiting for its cooldowns. Dodging enemies without fighting became a very viable strategy, even the most effective way of beating the game according to many. Taking it slowly or dodging enemies was never something we wanted to incentivise, let alone reward. Thats why the new Malaise essentially treats time as a balancing factor (our previous post explains the new mechanic) - if you take your time, youve got less chance of being hit by enemies and the game is essentially easier for you, so we're increasing the difficulty the longer you spend in a level - this balances with the players who are spending less time in a level by going full hog on groups of enemies and putting themselves at greater risk of being hit. So you can still complete your runs with a slower playstyle, but you now get rewarded by actually playing the game and killing enemies, instead of ignoring them. However, we know timers often bring stress and anxiety, which then leads to 'stupid' mistakes and people getting pissed off and bored. Thats why were trying to soften this feeling as much as we can, by stopping the timer in plenty of situations (merchants, treasure rooms, once youve killed most of the levels enemies, etc.). Basically, if you prefer to take your time, you'll still have plenty of opportunities for a breather. Were also aware the increased RNG tied to the Malaise spawning mobs and turning others into Elite can create unfair situations, and were really working on identifying when and where to fix it with your input, like we did with the 21.1 patch. We really hope you'll give this new Malaise a chance and try to experiment with it before judging that it's not for you. In any case, weve added an option to disable the Malaise so you can experiment in the two last Boss Cells without it. Unfortunately, letting both types of Malaise co-exist would have been really complex, so, the 'old' Malaise wont be playable now or with future updates*. *For Steam players, you can always choose to keep Dead Cells with the old Malaise mechanic by choosing Update 20 in the beta tab of the game settings. This new Malaise is certainly not perfect, but we feel like its definitely more interesting than the previous 10 hits bar. And the work on this mechanic wont stop with this update release, but continue in future updates. So that's where we're at with Malaise, now on to the weapon color rework.

    Colors


    Broadly, we think each color should mainly be defined by a playstyle. Thats the compass which we use to decide which color each item should scale with. But we also want each statistic to be associated with one or more themes (chosen somewhat arbitrarily), helping with both a sense of identity and variety by allowing in some items that dont necessarily fit with the playstyle. Finally, we also want each color to be lacking something by design (and not because we havent implemented the needed content yet), to have a distinct feeling of comparative goodness in-between different runs with different colors, and to keep the colorless and legendary items interesting. However, and despite our best efforts, inconsistencies will most likely always be present, with items that are scaling with a color they shouldnt fit in with, or the contrary. These inconsistencies may have many reasons, for example, for the sake of balance, variety, or because it can be perceived differently by several players. Also, because of oversights on our end! Now that weve dug a bit in to how we see the point and role of colors, its time to do a quick overview of the colors in the newest update. Brutality Red lost 2 mutations aimed at increasing its survivability (Berserker and Soldiers resistance), but is absorbing the assassin playstyle of Melee Tactics, with Predator, Scheme and Initiative going red. Thematically, everything related to Fire and Bleed will also scale with Brutality, however poison isnt part of this color theme anymore (hence why Alchemic Carbine was made Purple only, while Pyrotechnics got its dual-scale). Red is considered in a good spot right now, although its a bit lacking in secondary weapons with only three shields and a handful of range weapons to go with. This is where we will focus our efforts to improve it in the next updates. To sum it up: Pro: Quick melee weapons, quick offensive spells. Theme: Bleed and Fire. Con: No access to defensive abilities, few ranged. Coming next: Secondary options. Survival Green is in a better spot than before, because of the Malaise rework, allowing it to enjoy its bigger HP pool without that secondary constraint. However, the reduced hp scaling late game and some changes like the Dead Inside mutations reducing the effectiveness of healing sources balance it out a bit. The new green mutation, Tortoise Shell, now allows survival players to benefit from the parry mutations* and effects while handling the Scythe Claws or the Crossbows, which definitely makes that strategy more viable and coherent. The color has now access to a good arsenal of offensive and defensive skills, but is comparatively to the other a bit poor when it comes to main weapons. A Survival pack of classic heavy weapons in the vein of the Broadsword or the Bouzouki would be welcome to add a pinch of variety there for Survival players, hence our priority for Survival in the next updates. To sum it up: Pro: Best shields, bigger health pool, defensive skills. Theme: Freeze, Root. Con: No access to quick melee weapons, 1h range weapons or quick offensive skills. Coming next: pack of 1h melee weapons. *Yes, it doesnt work as of right now - were aware and are working on the issue. Sorry! Tactics Purple got it pretty hard, with the loss of 3 mutations and most of its melee scaling weapons in favor of brutality. Lots of skills were also initially taken out, because we didnt think it was really coherent with the color identity. However, we reverted this decision following negative feedback from tactics players arguing that these skills were quite good at completing range strategies. On our end, when playtesting more, we were also a bit frustrated, because Purple had become mainly dependent on turrets, which led to many runs feeling a bit too samey. Now, our priority for Tactics is to implement new mutations, which the color is currently lacking severely. We also want to keep some melee weapons in tactics, but the idea would be to make them able to benefit from the range purple mutations, one way or another. To sum it up: Pro: Ranged weapons, Turrets. Theme: Electricity, Poison, Knockback. Con: Few melee weapons, low HP pool. Coming next: Mutations, melee weapons working with tactics mutations.

    Beta


    We're listening to all your feedback, in the Discussions here in the Steam Community, on Discord and on Reddit, and we hope that the adjustments to the weapon colour rework and Malaise that we've made going into the beta have fixed most if not all of your concerns. If you want to try out the beta and don't know how then follow these instructions:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Beta".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    That's it for now, we'll be back soon with more news! Thanks, Joan, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    @blaskoart
    u/1sombras1
    u/Teifling_Darkhalis


    [ 2020-12-16 18:28:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Update 21 alpha open now

    TL;DR:

    • Alpha for update 21 is available.
    • Malaise has been reworked.
    • Colours have been changed, with a re-focus on their primary identity.
    • Backpack will now be a meta upgrade and not dependent on two-handed weapons
    • 4 new mutations, 3 are tied to the new backpack.
    • The much requested Katana has finally been added to the game.
    • New Mob, found in the distillery in 0BC and in some other levels in higher BCs
    • The most ridiculous skin ever done in DC, and 4 slightly less ridiculous outfits.

    Hello everyone, We hope youre doing well in these times of uncertainty. On our side, weve been busy with the next DLC (see the announcement here) as well as spending a fair bit of time cleaning the code behind the game to make it easier to maintain in the long run. However, weve also been working on the next update which will mainly be focused on reworking the Malaise, the 4/5BC mechanic, as the current version is often called out as detrimental to the overall experience. Were aware that the new implementation isnt perfect, however, we think its time to get it in public alpha and keep improving it with your help. So, if you want to access the alpha go ahead and follow the instructions below. If you'd just like to see what's going to be arriving in the update, skip ahead:
    • Go to your Steam game library.
    • Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
    • Select the tab "Betas".
    • In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
    • Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
    • Start playing.
    Before going into the detail of everything that has been added/changed in the update, please remember that the major changes are a work in progress and are likely to be tweaked. The list below is the 'highlights', for full detail check out the patchnotes. Anyway, let's get to the meaty stuff...

    Malaise rework


    The Malaise bar is still there, but now it fills with time (game time - which means it wont fill in lore rooms, merchants, treasure rooms, etc.) rather than when youre hit. It also doesnt destroy your health at 10% once you reach 10 malaise points anymore. Instead, enemies become more and more dangerous as your Malaise bar fills, dealing more damage, moving and detecting you faster. Mobs will randomly spawn around you, and some mobs will unexpectedly transform into Elites (without the random skill though). The malaise contamination rate is tied to the number of enemies still alive in the level, the fewer enemies, the less quickly your malaise bar will fill. When only 10% of the enemies are left alive, the biome is considered "Malaise cleared". Easy right?

    Colour changes


    A lot of item and mutation colour changes have been made too, specifically designed to re-focus each stat on its primary identity:
    • Tactics keeps all things related to ranged gameplay: turrets & ranged weapons, with some utility and damaging spells to support it. Items that don't fit in that category but have poison or electricity gameplay will still dual scale with Tactics (e.g. Sadist's Stiletto, a knife that crits on poison targets, is not a turret or ranged weapon but has poison gameplay elements - so it will still scale with Tactics).
    • Brutality keeps its focus on fast melee weapons and everything related to jumping into the fray. Grenades stay mostly red. Non-melee weapons that have fire or blood gameplay will dual scale with Brutality.
    • Survival keeps its focus on crowd control, survivability, shields and slow, heavy melee weapons. Also supported by heavy damage skills with the long cooldown that goes with them. Unrelated weapons with root or ice gameplay will dual scale with Survival.
    You can find the full changelog here, including the various nerfs and buffs coming with those changes. Also, the health scaling of Survival and Brutality has been reduced. Its not really significant without a high scroll count, so it will only impact the mid/late game of BC3+ players. Tactics got a slight buff, so there will be less difference between Survivals hp pool and Tactics hp pool.

    Updated backpack


    The backpack will now be independent of two-handed weapons, so weve been working to make it less awkward to use and more customisable. You can now empty your backpack by holding the use button, and you access your backpack storage when taking an item on the floor by pressing your secondary weapon button (Y on Xbox controller for instance). In the video settings, you will also find an option to set the backpack slot opacity to your convenience, as well as an option to place it in the middle of the weapon and skills slots instead of to the right.

    4 New mutations


    3 new mutations have been added to go along with the new backpack:
    • Acrobatic Preparation*: Attacking with a ranged weapon also attacks with the ranged weapon in your backpack. Roll to reload. (Tactics).
    • Porcupine Backpack: Rolling through enemies attacks them with the melee weapon stored in your backpack. (Brutality)
    • Tortoise Wheel: Rolling parries attacks and projectiles with the shield stored in your backpack. (Survival)
    The fourth mutation added, Fatal Cadence, increases your attack speed when you switch between the primary and secondary slot. Its specifically designed for two-handed weapons, but can also be used with others. As a side note, the two-handed weapons can now have different affixes on each slot. *All names are placeholders until we find the time to think of better ones!

    New weapon


    With Christmas just around the corner, we thought we had to fulfill long-lasting requests from the community that gives us so much during the rest of the year. The Malaise rework is obviously a part of it, but we wanted to give a little something to everyone, not only to people with the crazy gaming skills able to beat the highest BCs. So, here it finally is: the Katana, allowing you to attack swiftly by smashing the button, or to slice through mobs by holding it. We hope you enjoy using it!

    New mob


    Armed with Explosive Crossbows, the Demolisher can be found wandering in the Distillery (because there arent enough explosions there already) as well as in other biomes in other BCs.

    New outfits


    Massacre your merry way through the island as Santa Beheaded or try and hold your concentration as the Snowman. Nothing stands in the way of us becoming Game of the Century now *evil laugh*

    New diet


    One glaring hole in the game was the lack of smelly cheese to heal yourself with. As a French studio we had to rectify this immediately, so you can now scarf a whole wheel of cheese like a real Skyrim warrior. Vive la France! Phew! That's it for now, we're going to let the alpha run for a week or so, and if you want to leave some feedback after trying it out then head over to our reddit thread here. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    krystofkykynkolar
    lhaagillustrations
    lazyapatheticturtle


    [ 2020-12-03 17:31:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Fatal Falls DLC landing early 2021!


    Hey everyone, Were stoked to announce our new DLC Fatal Falls will be available early next year! The Beheaded will be getting some much-needed fresh air in two mid-game levels outside the castle. There's also a new boss happily minding their own business until you drop in to say hello... Be a legend and Wishlist it for us eh?

    What's in it?


    The two new biomes, Fractured Shrines and The Undying Shores, are a parallel to the Stilt Village, Clock Tower & Time Keeper areas and their alternate paths. So if you need a break from getting slaughtered by undead pirates or hearing "Let's finish this", then you're in luck! Check out some screenshots and our relaxing teaser for a small preview of what to expect: [previewyoutube=EZgMSdfwsc0;full][/previewyoutube]
    Leap between floating islands dotted with deadly traps and treacherous ledges at Fractured Shrines
    Descend a cliff face in the middle of a storm at The Undying Shores, where some familiar faces lie in wait
    Yeah, it rains a lot in this one... At this point we hope it doesn't need to be said, but the DLC will also be stuffed with new weapons & enemies - you'll be hearing more about those soon.

    How much is it going to be?


    Just like The Bad Seed, Fatal Falls will be $4.99 (or equivalent). This will continue to help support the development of Dead Cells, i.e. allowing the free updates to keep dropping, and in the meantime Motion Twin can develop their next project.

    What else is happening?


    We're in the last month of the year (insert obligatory "WTF was 2020" comment here), so it's as good a time as any to give you a small update on our situation - both for Dead Cells and the devs. When The Bad Seed was announced last year we said there was at least 2 years worth of content left to build - and that's still the plan. Any maths geniuses out there will work out that there's at least a year of content to go, and we're pretty sure that we have more than that in our heads. To be honest, if we locked Joan alone in a room for a week he'd probably come out with about 20 years of content scribbled on the walls... Basically you can fully expect more of our regular updates to continue next year. In fact, one will be coming in a few weeks - check out our last post for a bit of information about that. Motion Twin are still working on their new project - unfortunately we can't share any information at the moment, but we can share some concept art for projects that didn't reach the light of day:


    Finally, Dead Cells has passed 3.5 million copies sold on all platforms, which we never expected to happen at the start of all this, so thank you for all your support! We'll be back soon with Update 21 and some more news about Fatal Falls, until then stay safe and healthy :) Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    vinegarclown
    u/snowbelli
    u/luckynumber7games
    u/ISaidHoratioDies
    You Can (not) Draw


    [ 2020-12-01 17:03:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Yep, were still alive!

    Hey everyone, Sorry for the few months of silence, weve been extremely busy blooding several new team members, plus going through a second lockdown, so we havent had much of a chance to say anything until now. There's still not a huge amount to update you on, but with just over a month to go until Christmas, were nearly done preparing a new update full of little stocking fillers to keep you entertained for a bit longer, including:

    • New weapon
    • New mob
    • Lore room
    • New skins
    • New diet option
    • A few other changes that we're still testing so we can't confirm them yet...
    That should be landing in mid-December and well let you know when its arrived, as per usual. You can expect a few more pieces of bigger news dropping over the next couple of months too. Cheers, Matt, EE & MT Community Highlights:
    u/DascSwem This must have taken ages!

    These two are both from u/Roving_Neophyte (second linked here)

    Another two from the same artist, u/velleiteaa, and who doesn't like a Hollow Knight crossover? (second linked here)


    [ 2020-11-20 16:33:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

    Dead Cells
    Motion Twin Developer
    Motion Twin Publisher
    2018-08-06 Release
    GameBillet: 10.99 €
    Game News Posts: 91
    🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
    🎮 Full Controller Support
    Overwhelmingly Positive (137387 reviews)
    Public Linux Depots:
    • Dead Cells Linux Depot [766.14 M]
    • Dpt: Dead Cells For Press Linux [1.1 G]
    Available DLCs:
    • Dead Cells: Rise of the Giant
    • Dead Cells: The Bad Seed

    Roguelite? Metroidvania? Roguevania!

    You grew up with the roguelikes, witnessed the rise of the roguelites and even the birth of the roguelite-lites? We'd now like to present for your consideration our RogueVania, the illegitimate child of a modern Roguelite (Rogue Legacy, Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Spelunky, etc.) and an old-school MetroidVania (Castlevania: SotN and its ilk).

    Features:


    • RogueVania: The progressive exploration of an interconnected world, with the replayability of a rogue-lite and the adrenaline pumping threat of permadeath.
    • 2D Souls-lite Action: Tough but fair combat, more than fifty weapons and spells with unique gameplay, and of course, the emergency panic roll to get you out of trouble.
    • Nonlinear progression: Sewers, Ossuary or Remparts? Once unlocked, special permanent abilities allow you to access new paths to reach your objective. Opt for the path that suits your current build, your play style or just your mood.
    • Exploration: Secret rooms, hidden passages, charming landscapes. Take a moment to stroll the towers and breath in that fresh sea mist infused air...

    Interconnected levels and progressive unlocking of access to the island provides you with a real incentive to explore your surroundings. Add in a degree of evolution for your character and permanent weapon upgrades and you can see where Dead Cells borrows from the long line of MetroidVanias that precede it.

    At the end of the day though, it’s YOUR skills as a player that matter most! Roguelites are about constantly getting better, until what was an insurmountable obstacle becomes a walk in the park. Unforgiving combat wed to the absence of any kind of safety net makes for an adrenalin pumping ride each and every run and unrivaled replayability.

    Dead Cells left Early Access on August 7th 2018 and comes with:


    • 13 Levels - Each one with its own atmosphere, foes and secrets to discover.
    • 4 Bosses - Made by the most sadistic of the devs, raised on the salt of the testers.
    • 90 or so weapons and skills - Spears, swords, bows, freeze blast, etc.
    • 4 special powers, unlocking new areas and paths (metroidvania gear lock items).
    • 1 epic responsive, fluid and fun to play combat system.
    • 1 Daily Run Mode Complete with leaderboards for lording it over your mates.
    • Hours of fun (depending on your skill, anything from 10 to 30 hours or more).
    • A few rage-quits, Ok a lot of rage quits… But you’ll git gud… Eventually.


    MINIMAL SETUP
    • Memory: 2 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia 450 GTS / Radeon HD 5750 or better
    • Storage: 500 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: OpenGL 3.2+
    RECOMMENDED SETUP
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 460 / Radeon HD 7800 or better
    • Storage: 500 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: OpenGL 3.2+
    GAMEBILLET

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