Dead Cells News

Metroidvania roguelike Dead Cells' new Bank biome is in beta

Last week, Dead Cells developer Motion Twin rolled out an alpha build for the roguelike's next update, which introduces a brand-new optional biome called The Bank. After some testing, Update 28's been given a good going over for a new beta that's now ready to try out.

"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," Motion Twin says in on Steam. "The changes for the beta are mainly balancing and 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." There's no detail on the new lore text and SFX beyond some vague notes noting their addition, but it sounds like it'll be a decent step up from the previous alpha version in these areas.

In the way of balance changes, the beta addresses a bunch of different facets of The Bank. One of the three new biome-specific mobs, Evil Guillain, gets some damage and reactivity buffs, and it can now spawn in Cliff after The Bank. Big Gold Gorger - the greedy mob that gobbles gold as it grows and can "kick your ass" if you let it hit its final form - gets a slight damage nerf, along with Mimic, too.

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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 doesn’t 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

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.

[h3]So how do you get there?[/h3]

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...

[h3]What's in it?[/h3]

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.

[h3]How to access the alpha:[/h3]

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 there’s 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

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.

[h3]Balancing[/h3]

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.

[h3]Quality of life[/h3]

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

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

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

Dead Cells devs are looking for accessibility ideas

Dead Cells is an excellent side-scrolling roguelike game, which means it would be sad if someone couldn't play it. That thought has occurred to developer Motion Twin, which is currently seeking ideas for enhancing Dead Cells' accessibility. The studio has asked its player community to share their suggestions on how to make the game more accessible to more people.

"Recently we've been having conversations about making sure that everyone can experience Dead Cells," the developers write in a Steam post, "because the whole world should know the sheer joy of sacrificing Mushroom Boi to save your own skin." While the developers are looking into ways to increase accessibility on their own, they thought players might have valuable input as well.

Motion Twin has identified a few features that might help enhance the game's accessibility: adjustable font sizes and colours, a global colour palette adjustment option for different types of colourblindness, an option to increase the UI size, the ability to bump up the background contrast, and an option for autohit.

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