Motion Twin and Evil Empire released the final update for Dead Cells today, wrapping things up after six years of DLC, content drops and patches on Switch. As the great Samwise Gamgee once said, “Yes, Mr. Frodo, it is over now.”
Update 35, aptly named ‘The End Is Near’, refuses to go out with a whimper. The latest update is packed with new additions like new weapons and curses, additional customization, and a handful of new accessibility options that keep us coming back for just one more run.
The full patch notes for Update 35 have been shared by the developers at Steam and we have collected them for you to look at below.
Dead Cells Update 35 (August 19, 2024)
TLDR:
- New additions based on one of our most famous mechanics, Curse: 3 new mobs, 3 new weapons, 3 new mutations and a new biome effect for you to choose whether to risk for more rewards or not.
- New legendary accessories.
- 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 can’t hurt you, but is super clingy and annoying, always trying to be near you and rush through you. When you kill him, you will be cursed.
- Doom Bringer: Every melee attack from him will deal no damage, but will apply 2 stacks of curses and stun you, and you’ll die instantly if you already have 50 stacks of curses. Sounds pretty fair, right?
- Curser: Launches a slow homing projectile that can pass through walls. If you are “accidentally” caught by this projectile, you take damage and 5 sets of Curse. Another surprise! If you get close to him, he will hit you with his staff.
Note that cursed mobs will not appear randomly in your run! (yes, we know a cursing mob sounds a bit scary and even boring)
There is a new biome effect, Cursed Biomes, which features new cursed mobs in exchange for additional rewards. You can choose to enter it with its rewards or go to other biomes that don’t have scary haunted mobs.
Here’s more information on how the Cursed Biome works in your run:
- Cursed biomes only appear in races with Boss Cell level 2 or higher (boss fight biomes will not be cursed).
- Just like the biome prompts, there will be a designated icon above the exit to the haunted biome, so you can choose to accept this challenge or just go 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 items dropped in a haunted biome will drop 1 gear level higher, regardless of their source (trade, loot, etc.). The chance for Haunted Chests to spawn is also increased by 10% in such biomes.
- There is a limit to the number of haunted biomes you can pass through on your route, depending on the BC level, set as follows: from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (ie in 5BC, there is no cap).
- This limit only limits the number of Cursed Biomes you can go to in a run, it doesn’t mean you have to go through that many Cursed Biomes to complete your run.
- Once you reach the limit, no more haunted biomes will appear in that run. Until you reach the maximum value, cursed biomes will continue to appear.
- As long as you haven’t reached the cap, biomes always have a 25% chance to be cursed. There will always be at least 1 biome without haunted mobs at any point in your run, no exceptions.
With the new infected monsters, of course, we have prepared more powerful weapons and mutations for you:
3 new weapons:
- Anathema: Rip out Mushroom Boi’s heart to fire a heavy indirect projectile that deals AOE damage. However, there is a price for being the ultimate savage – you’ll be damned if your attack hits anything. Yeah, you’re only damned if you hit something. Whoever makes these curses doesn’t care how many mushrooms you rip apart, just whether you hit something afterwards. Makes you think…
- Yielding: Summons a beam of vengeful light at the nearest enemy dealing critical damage if you are not cursed. Targets killed with the beam release you with 3 curse stacks instead of 1. Fires 1 additional beam for every 5 curse stacks you have (maximum: 5 per cast).
- Misericorde: Inflicts crits if the victim is below 50% HP. Curses you if the critical point doesn’t kill its target.
3 new mutations (all colorless):
- Cursed Bottle: Your health bottle has infinite charges, but it also curses you 20 times every time you use it. But can you survive those 20 piles of curses? BE CAREFUL, my friends…
- Cursed Power: After taking lethal 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 wears off or you get hit while under it, you die instantly without any applicable protection.
- Demonic Power: Damage is increased by 30% if cursed. This bonus increases by 2% per stack of curses you have. Cursed Sword counts as 1 set for this effect (no special bonus for it, but you can still stack curses on it).
Also, after trying a bunch of your suggestions, we did a bunch of rework and rebalancing on legendary weapons that needed it.
New legendary accessories:
- Flawless: NEW Near Perfect: Killing an enemy within one second of being hit allows you to continue dealing critical hits.
- Gold Digger: NEW Filthy Rich: Crit multiplier increases with your gold.
- Punishment: NEW Punishment Combo: Reverses the AOE effect if it kills at least one target.
- Rampart: NEW Mirror Coating: Reflects damage from attacks received while under the effect of the shield’s force field. This damage increases with the attack received (ie the stronger the attack, the more damage the shield reflects).
- Cocoon: NEW Parry Sequence: Each successive parry reduces Cocoon’s cooldown the next time it is triggered.
- Emergency Door: NEW Armored Door: The door cannot be destroyed by enemies (except bosses).
- Bone: NEW Whirlwind: Increases the duration of the last attack’s whirlwind by 2 seconds with each enemy killed.
- Wrenching Whip: NEW Retiarus: The first attack throws 3 crow’s feet in front of you (with the same internal cooldown as the grenade addon).
- Explosive Decoy: NEW Bug-proof: Item cooldown is instantly canceled if its explosion fails to hit at least one target.
- Barrel Launcher: Triple shot (ie not a new accessory, 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 Bounce: The projectiles bounce off the ground twice before disappearing.
- Quick Bow: NEW Sharpshooter: Critical hits will charge one ammo.
- Bladed Tonfas: NEW Lacerator: Uses only the first attack of the combo.
- Grapple: NEW Octavio: Also fires a chain behind you.
- Tesla Coil: NEW Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown time.
- Lightning Rods: NEW Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown time.
Some significant balances:
- Bank is slightly easier in 2, 4 and 5BC. Yes, A LITTLE…
- Throwing Master’s Bone Missile deals less damage in the Return to Castlevania DLC.
- Alienation Rework: Instead of healing the player per reduced curse, it will now heal the player when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health recovered based on the maximum number of curses you had (for that curse instance). The effect only begins to activate when the player has more than 5 Curses and requires 35 stacks of Curses to fully heal you.
New head customization:
What do we have in the secret stash of the Tailor’s daughter?
- Flaming heads based on different Beheaded looks over the years to make sure you’re always in a suit and tie.
- Boss heads like the queen, time keeper, etc. Like you can become as badass as those bosses with your clever brain.
- And lots of weird and secret heads, like Cell Head, are waiting for you!
New routing
- We’ve also changed the links between biomes:
- Added an exit to the Master’s Keep in High Peak Castle.
- Added exits to the damaged prison and ossuary in the suburbs of the castle.
- Added exit to Dracula’s Castle (early) in damaged prison and toxic sewers.
- Added exit to Black Bridge in Dracula’s Castle (early).
- Added an exit to the Desecrated Necropolis in the ossuary.
- Replaced Fractured Shrines exit in Defiled Necropolis with Graveyard exit.
- Added a light source in the Mimic Hint knowledge room, when it appears in the Forgotten Sepulcher.
- Added exit to Dracula’s Castle (Late) in Mausoleum, Guardian’s Sanctuary and Clock Room.
Yep, that means you can now go to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one run…
More accessibility options:
- Added two new sets of control icons and options to select them. You can choose either “Legacy” (current icons), “New” (a new, cleaner set), or “Large” (focussed on accessibility, easier to read).
- Changed Daily Challenge boss arrow opacity for better visibility.
- Added new input options for the “walk through platform” action.
- Added options to change controller trigger deadzone.
- Reworked mode option for auto-hit assist. It will no longer force the use of melee weapons in the first slot.
- Added option to add background to most text in game. Background color and opacity can be adjusted.
- You can now use the left stick to scroll through item descriptions in the pause menu.
- Added options to fully rotate player and camera movements.
- Added a bunch of options to adjust camera behavior. The impact of player movement, combat or points of interest can be adjusted.
- Split the “control stick dead zone” into two options, one for each stick.
- Added outline option for spikes.
- Added a button to center the minimap on the player.
Evil Empire and Motion Twin wrap things up with a message of thanks to all those who have played and supported Dead Cells over the years:
To the players – Thank you for everything. Thank you for all your dedication, passion and feedback. Dead Cells would not be what it is today without all of you.
And a big thanks to everyone who worked on the game, from the previous members of Motion Twin to everyone at Evil Empire.
Neither team seems to be taking a break now that Dead Cells are… well… dead. The evil empire has taken over The Triple-i initiative earlier this year to reveal his next roguelike project, The Rogue Prince of Persia, while Motion Twin presented Blown by the wind at last year’s Game Awards. No Switch projects have been announced at the moment, but we hope so. A “Switch Successor” launch perhaps…?
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