1. The Rogue Prince of Persia
  2. News

The Rogue Prince of Persia News

Excellent new roguelike from Dead Cells dev gets huge weapons update

If you love roguelikes, you need to play The Rogue Prince of Persia. It might be in Steam Early Access, but it's already shaping up to dethrone my favorites. Between the slick combat, movement, and unique art style, it offers an incredibly different experience from the genre you're used to. The problem is, it doesn't have nearly the number of players it deserves. Despite the pedigree of Dead Cells studio Evil Empire, the launch hasn't been that big. 2024 is filled with updates for the game, though, and the most recent one makes it well worth trying.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

The Rogue Prince of Persia release date estimate and the latest news

New The Rogue Prince of Persia patch makes whole game much tougher

The Rogue Prince of Persia early access review - Cute and deadly

Tripled Weapon Pool: Weapons Within Update is out!

Hey everyone,

September is here and our copywriting HERO, best Marketing Manager EVER, charming English LEGEND...Matt, is finally on his well-deserved summer vacation. To fill in for him, especially with such a chunky update, we had to send over not 1 but 2 marketing bastards, XYZ & Berenger. As you know, Matt is so talented, so funny, and you guys are so dear to him that only 1 person is insufficient to hold his moustache. (Yeah Matt, I know you are embarrassed to read that from your hammock... that was the point.)

But you don’t really care about XYZ and Berenger, the only thing you want to know about is what we’ve promised in our update roadmap which is :

MORE WEAPONS

Behold: [h2] The Weapons Within Update![/h2]
(Yes, this title makes sense only if you get the Warrior Within reference, we couldn’t help it, sorry.)

Watch the trailer here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]TLDR:[/h3]
  • 13 new weapons + 7 old weapons reworked + Falcata removed.
  • Weapon Rack added + lower weapon drop rate.
  • Rework on how you can spend spirit glimmers.
  • Gameplay: rework on resin effect & Vayu's Blast (speed boost) rebalancing.
  • UI / Menu Tweaks.
  • Skill tree: a new perk added under Mithra.
  • Some bug fixes.


Since the release, we’ve received a lot of feedback related to weapons, which is mainly about: underwhelming performance, lack of variety & power fantasy, some useless special attacks and overall, just not enough weapons. So, the update brings you…

[h3]13 NEW WEAPONS, 7 OLD WEAPONS REWORKED [/h3]



The plan was to offer you more toys to slay the Huns and improve the general weapon experience.

Regarding the weapon performance, we adjusted the stats and tweaked some minor mechanics. We haven't neglected legacy weapons, which have all been reworked to be on par with the new ones.

What about the Build and synergy effect? One thing we can say is we’ve laid the groundwork weapon-wise in this update, but you probably won’t notice until the Medallion Rework of the next update.

Ok, enough high-level explanation, let’s take a closer look at what we have in this update!

[h3]YOU CAN FINALLY CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON AT THE BEGINNING OF A RUN![/h3]
It's crazy we didn't make it happen earlier, but better late than never...
Now, you will find a weapon rack at the start of Hun's Camp and Zagros Village, you have to select your initial loadout from the items on the rack or break through biomes with your bare hands.


[h3]The Mechanics Adjustments:[/h3]
  • Triggering the special attack: for some weapons, you now only need to long-press the attack button, then special attack will perform automatically when it’s ready. This slight tweak makes combat smoother and the control more intuitive. Try it and tell us if it works!
  • Special attack with charge damage: in this case, you still have to long-press and release the button to perform it, because how long you press the button will decide how much damage you can charge and cause to the enemy.
    Heavy Axe here as an example: press longer, charge more, damage more!

  • Critical Damage: finally, you can cause crit when you achieve some conditions in combat. It should encourage you to play with those toys and enjoy the beauty of rhythm in combat.


[h3]New Weapons - Devs' Choice[/h3]
Listing 20 weapons could be dull, and would also spoil the fun, so we asked some Evil minions to pick out their favorites :

  • The champion is undoubtedly the Cestus, 7 people voted for it. Because, as the sound they made, it’s ORA ORA and MUDA MUDA. Also, this weapon reminds our video artist, the guy who made all the trailers, of every fist fight he had when he grew up in the hood.
    Special Attack: stun nearby enemies. Crit after several successive hits.


  • Monk Staff is also a hit, people like it being simple and elegant. Also, you can “kick projectiles back with it”.
    Special Attack: Repel enemies. Crit when the combo’s third strike hit on stunned enemies.

  • As the writer of this post, XYZ’s choice is Poisoned Claw, because it’s light and intuitive. And the poisoned effect goes well with some medallions.
    Special Attack: throw poisoned daggers. Crit with last strike of the combo on poisoned enemies.


[h3]Other NEW Weapons Waiting for Your Testimony:[/h3]
  • Imperial Axe: Special Attack: Break shields. Crit for several seconds after breaking a shield.
  • Corrupted Sword: Special Attack: Switch between light and heavy weapon. Crit when it’s the last hit of the combo.
  • Chained Dagger: Hit enemies to mark them, special attack deals massive damage on marked enemies. Crit on enemies that are not marked.


  • Berserker’s Axes: Special Attack: Activate fury mode, increasing attack speed, damage inflicted and damage taken. Crit after taking damage.
  • Hammer & Knife: Increase energy gained when you hit a certain amount of enemies. Special Attack: Inflicts bonus damage if energy is insufficient to use the tool. Crit after using the tool.
  • Corrupted Axe: Special Attack: Consume 40 energy, boost damage for once. Maximum 120 energy can be consumed. Crit if energy is lower than certain value.
  • Slayer: 3-hit combo. Special Attack: the later in the combo you trigger the special attack, the higher the damage. Crit after special attack .
  • Iron Mace: Special Attack: Weaken enemies, making them susceptible to critical damage.
  • Dented Pot: everything is random on this one! Just enjoy the uncertainty!


  • Corrupted Spear: Special Attack: Spawn spikes on the ground. Crit if enemy’s HP less than certain value.
    Well this one is actually adapted from old spear, but it's corrupted. And we've managed to create something completely new.


[h3]Old Weapons Rework[/h3]
  • Bagh Nakh: killing an enemy charges the special attack (3 max). Special Attack: Consume charges to increase the damage. Crit after a special attack.
  • Broadsword: Special Attack: Keep holding the button to keep spinning. Crit on shielded enemies.
  • Censer: Special Attack: Burn the censer for a few seconds. Crit with the third strike of the combo on burning enemies.
  • Double Daggers: Special Attack: Perform a lightning breakthrough wounding enemies. Crit after a dodge.
  • Javelin: Special Attack: Long press the attack button to charge, release to launch the weapon to pierce through enemies (more charge, more enemies will be pierced). Crit: the next hit of the last hit of the combo causes crit.
  • Royal Sword: Special Attack: Trigger a chain of devastating fast attacks. Crit after killing an enemy.
  • Tabar: Special Attack: Long press the attack button to charge, release to cause damage (more charge, higher damage). Crit after a special attack.


[h3]Falcata Removed[/h3]
As all the new stuff comes, we decided to remove Falcata (R.I.P), because the devs think it's too similar to other weapons. But the good thing is, they are considering to apply its "damage stack" effect into the design of Trinkets.

[h3]Lower Weapon Drop Rate[/h3]
  • You cannot get weapons from chests anymore (the chests in challenging rooms are the other case).
  • But we added 1 extra Weapon Altar in each biome.


[h3]Rework on how you can spend your glimmers:[/h3]
  • Instead of directly unlocking an item, you can now be a rational investor and allocate your glimmers for different items, skills or currency exchange as you wish.
  • But we suggest investing all your glimmers all the time, because glimmers not used in the Oasis will now be lost upon starting a run.


[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
  • Rework on the Resin effect: it will now only lower movement speed, and will prevent ranged mobs from using their dash (everyone hates that pink rolling beast, I know...)
  • Vayu's Blast (speed boost) rebalancing: the duration has been increased to 6.6s, but the actions to fill the gauge have been slightly changed.
  • Increased max durability for weapons with "Awakening of Transience" equipped.


[h3]UI / Menu[/h3]
  • Rework on HUD art to make it less cartoony and more like an action game.
  • Vayu's Blast (speed boost) gauge added.
  • Added gauges to meta progression unlocks in Oasis.
  • Energy cost is now visible on tools' tooltip


[h3]Skill Tree[/h3]
  • New perk added in the Mithra skill tree: Mithra's Light
  • Changed 6th skill tree's name from Behram to Verethragna


Before we get into the long list of bug fixes, there is a known issue in this build that the team is working on it, a hot fix can be expected tomorrow to fix this bug:
Potion counter and energy bar values will sometimes stop displaying.
The temporary workaround is to switch between full screen and windowed mode (press ALT+Enter twice).

[h3]Bugfix:[/h3]
Awakening
  • Fixed an issue with "Awakening of the unexpected" that caused the Hatchets to still spawn
  • Fixed fountain's map icon still appearing with "Awakening of the insurmountable/Inevitable" equipped
Skill tree
  • Fixed a typo with the Vayu's Protection perk
  • Fixed "Corrosive Resin" perk not dealing damage to protective auras
  • Corrected "Anahita's Barsom" perk description
  • Fixed "Vayu the Gilded" perk triggering on summons
  • Fixed "Divine Flame" perk not applying the bonus damage
  • Fixed an issue with "Berude's Gauntlet" that could alter the Prince's jump speed
  • Fixed "Prayer to Anahita" perk not triggering when hit by projectiles in close range
Visuals
  • Fixed gold bags clipping with floor
  • Corrected a text issue with Astara's tooltip
  • Fixed black boxes spawning in Temple
  • Fixed lingering VFX when The Prince was hit by Berude's shockwaves
  • Fixed some unintended water leaks in Aqueduct
  • Fixed pause menu still displaying some visual effects
Gameplay
  • Fixed an issue with resin that caused VFXs to be delayed
  • Fixed an issue with the biome progression bar in the loading screen displaying the wrong stage upon resuming a save
  • Fixed weapons buffer during combos
  • Fixed ledge grab ignoring doors


So voila! That’s everything we have in this update. It’s just the first shot in our roadmap for the next couple months before the end of 2024, medallion rework, more biomes & boss, art overhaul and more content is coming soon!


Cheers,
XYZ, Berenger & EE

Our Roadmap for 2024

Hello everyone,

As promised last week, here's a roadmap for the next few months – please don’t take this as set in stone, this is game development and stuff often changes including content and timings!





So let’s go a bit more in depth into what’s coming up in the rest of 2024…


[h3]Weapons update[/h3]
Right now there is quite a limited weapon pool, and the weapons themselves don’t encourage many different playstyles.

This will change with a sizeable expansion of the weapon pool, I mean we’re talking triple the amount of weapons in-game. This includes a rework of how the existing weapons work too, so don’t get too comfortable.

If only I could find a way to un-blur this image to show you the roster... mwahaha

Different weapons will encourage different playstyles like rushing enemies, crowd control or getting timings right. This should put more decision-making and strategy in your hands, especially when combined with what our later updates will bring.

If you want a hint for one of the new weapons, the devs like to call it the 'dagociraptor'...


Speed boost

There’ll also be some adjustments to the speed boost – we’re adding a gauge to show its progress, more visual feedback on what is actually triggering the boost, it will be more difficult to trigger (and easier to lose) and the visual effects will be calmed a lot.

So it should end up being more rewarding to trigger and have more urgency to it once it’s triggered, and won’t assault your eyes half as much :D


[h3]Medallion, ‘Rescue’ feature and Bestiary update[/h3]
Let’s talk about medallions first. These are what should allow you to create your ‘build’ – a key part of pretty much every roguelite.

Right now the whole system is too complicated/obscure, so people don’t see where to create synergies, and many medallions are too niche so their triggers/synergies are rarely seen even if you know what you’re doing.

This has two effects – people don’t realise that there’s this whole other layer to the game so they think the game is too simple, which is rarely a good thing, and they also don’t know how to reach higher levels of damage that you can get from good builds and so they get stuck at lower difficulties.

No surprise then that this will have a pretty extensive rework – we’re keeping the medallion system but it will be chopped and changed quite a bit to make it much more intuitive and to allow you to have more agency when crafting your builds. Of course we won’t give you all the tools to make the exact build you want each run, you’ve gotta have some RNG and trade-offs in there somewhere to keep it interesting!!

So yeah, the name of the game here is to add more variety and choice to your runs, more replayability and to improve comprehension of the game for new players.


Rescue

The ‘Rescue’ feature will test your platforming skills while adding some variety to your run and giving you the opportunity to win big rewards... We won’t say more than this but it’s going to be fun 😉

Here's a small clue, beautifully hand-drawn by our game director :P


Bestiary

The Bestiary will do exactly what it says on the tin – you’ll be able to see all the different enemies’ information, but there’ll also be challenges to complete for each enemy type to win rewards, and maybe some other things too!


[h3]Mother of all updates[/h3]
The big one. The bee’s knees. The best thing since sliced bread. The dog’s bollo-

This hefty chunk of content will bring you biomes (yes, multiple), bosses (yes, still not a typo, multiple), a new story act, complete dialogue refresh, new enemies, an overhaul of ALL the art design, a polish of the skill tree system and some other bits and bobs.

As this is quite far away, we can’t really say much more about it except that it’s going to rock your socks off.


[h3]Update timings[/h3]
You’ve probably noticed in the roadmap that the updates have moved to every month, not every 2-3 weeks.

First off, this is a rough roadmap so the timings might change anyway.

Secondly, it is likely that we’ll be dropping minor updates in between the big ones to add bits of polish and other things, so we’ll still be present.

Thirdly, considering the size of each update, the timings are actually still quite quick ^^’

Lastly, the big November update needs a lot of developer time and testing considering all of its content, and on top of that it’s being developed in parallel with the other updates by our small team.

So yeah, our producer has a constant headache called ‘Rogue Prince of Persia production planning’.


OK, just one weapon tease


Voila. That’s what’s in store for the rest of the year and we’ll probably find something to add in December too. Lots of chopping, changing and reworking, but this is Early Access and this is exactly why we wanted to do it – to hear from you about what works, what doesn’t and then changing, removing or adding things to make the game better.


We can’t wait to show you what we’re cooking up and we’re very confident that everything which is coming in the rest of 2024 will put the game in a really solid position to build on with you after the end-of-year break!


Thanks for playing,
Matt & the EE team

Discord Twitter Tiktok
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube


New The Rogue Prince of Persia patch makes whole game much tougher

The Prince of Persia series has always been tied to difficulty, with even the first game having a brutally uncompromising time limit and some dastardly hard levels - I'm looking at you, level seven. New roguelike The Rogue Prince of Persia continues in that tradition and was already the opposite of a cakewalk, but the most recent update for the game has just made it so much tougher.


Read the rest of the story...


RELATED LINKS:

The Rogue Prince of Persia release date estimate and the latest news

The Rogue Prince of Persia early access review - Cute and deadly

Prince of Persia roguelike finally sets new Steam launch date

The Warrior's Ascension update - difficulty modifiers, many new skills & more!

Hi everyone,

We have a major new update live for you all! Sorry for the delay on this as a lot of the team were off sick last week, but we can now present to you "The Warrior's Ascension"!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This one is all about improving the roguelite loop and pushing you to the limit:
  • The Awakening - difficulty modifiers that you progressively unlock and combine to increase difficulty
  • New skill tree layout + many more skills/improvements to unlock (7 trees!)
  • New currency - Corrupted Blood
  • Projectile reflect - kick arrows back at your enemies!
  • Kick animation improvement to make it even more satisfying
  • New mob - Knife Thrower
  • Bomber bombs do friendly fire damage
  • Roadmap for rest of 2024 coming next week




[h3]The Awakening[/h3]
We heard your requests and difficulty modifiers are now here! After completing a run, the Prince finds himself transported to a mysterious area with a disembodied voice... We'll let you discover the rest of that mystery, but once the Prince returns to the Oasis, an altar with a mask has been revealed...



Here you can choose stones which add difficulty to your next run, like an invincible scarab that attacks you the entire run, harder hitting enemies, weapons that break etc. You unlock a new stone each time you complete a run.

Each stone has a different score depending on its difficulty - beating a run with a certain score 'total' unlocks a new stone slot, allowing you to add progressively more difficulty.

When you have difficulty enabled you will earn a new currency, Corrupted Blood, as you kill enemies. The higher the difficulty, the more Blood you earn. What is this used for? Well...

[h3]New skill trees & Corrupted Blood[/h3]

The Oasis has revealed even more secrets! A new section is now unlocked where you can find your skill trees and buy points to unlock these skills with Corrupted Blood.



We've also added way more skill trees, which you now need to unlock with Spirit Glimmers or Corrupted Blood. So those are the uses for Corrupted Blood, for now at least...

Each skill tree has a theme with complementary skills so choose where you spend your next skill point carefully!

[h3]Projectile reflect[/h3]
The Prince can now kick arrows and knives straight back into the faces of their unsuspecting owners. Not much more else to say about this except it's really fun!



[h3]Kick improvement[/h3]
The kick itself has also had more 'oomph' added to its animation. We felt that it lacked some punch considering it's power and gamefeel - let us know what you think!

[h3]Knife thrower mob and bomb thrower friendly fire[/h3]
Apart from all the new features and everything, we're not forgetting to add the "basic" stuff like mobs.

The latest addition is a tricky new ranged enemy who dodges your attacks with ease and throws knives with deadly accuracy. I think we can all agree that a new ranged mob was sorely needed (we only had the archer and bomb thrower)!

Speaking of the bomb thrower, their bombs now damage the other Huns, giving you the opportunity to create some fun moments :D

[h3]Recap[/h3]
If you're reading this and haven't been following the recent updates, here's a little summary of what's been added in the 2 months since launch:
  • Temple of Atar biome
  • 1st iteration of skill tree
  • 7 enemies
  • 3 weapons
  • Speed boost mechanic
  • Lots of polish/improvements
  • Lots of bugfixes
  • + Everything we added today!
[h3]Roadmap next week[/h3]
Thanks to your feedback, we've been busy planning the upcoming updates for the rest of 2024, including 2 more big chunky updates and one absolute monster of an update (like at least 4x the size of any update we've done yet!) - more info coming next week!


That's all for this update, before we go we want to point out that our brother-in-arms Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is launching later today on Steam, go check it out!


Cheers,
Matt & the EE team