Motion Twin and Evil Empire today released the final update for Dead cellsending things after six years of DLC, removed content, and patches. As the great Samwise Gamgee once said, “Yes, Mr. Frodo, it’s over.”
Update 35, aptly named ‘The End is Near’, refuses to end with a whimper. The final update is packed with new additions like new weapons and curses, reward customization, and some new accessibility options to keep us coming back for just one more run.
Full update 35 patch notes have been shared by the developers on Steam and we have gathered them for your reference below.
Dead Cells Update 35 (August 19, 2024)
In short:
- 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 want to risk it for extra rewards.
- New legendary prefix.
- Over 40 new heads for customization options.
- New Routes: You can now visit both biomes in Return to Castlevania in one run.
- More accessibility options.
Added new curse:
3 new mobs:
- Sore Loser: a cute girl who can’t hurt you but is extremely clingy and annoying, always trying to get close to you and rush past you. When you kill her, you will be cursed.
- Doom Bringer: Each of its melee attacks will do no damage, but will apply 2 curses and stun you, and you will die instantly if you have 50 curses. Sounds pretty fair right?
- Curser: it fires a slow projectile that can pass through walls. If you “accidentally” get hit by this projectile, you will take damage and receive 5 stacks of curse. Another surprise! If you get close to it, it will hit you with its stick.
Please note that cursed monsters will not appear randomly during your turn! (yes, we know cursed monsters sound a bit scary and even annoying)
There is a new biome effect, Cursed Biomes, which has new cursed mobs in exchange for extra rewards. You can choose to go into it with its rewards or go to other biomes that don’t have any scary cursed mobs.
Here’s more information on how Cursed Biome works during your run:
- Cursed biomes only appear in turns with a Boss Cell level 2 or higher (biomes fought against bosses will not be cursed).
- Like the biome rewards, there will be a specific icon above the cursed biome exit, so you can choose to take on this challenge or just head to other normal biomes.
- A cursed biome always contains 9 (+/-2) randomly selected cursed mobs from Curser, Sore Loser, and Doom Bringer.
- Of course, there is a reward for that risk: all items dropped in cursed biomes will have their gear level reduced by 1, regardless of their source (shop, loot, etc.). The chance of a cursed chest spawning is also increased by 10% in such biomes.
- There is a limit to the number of cursed 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 (i.e. in 5BC, there is no limit).
- This limit only limits the number of Cursed Biomes you can visit in a single turn, it does not mean you have to go through that many Cursed Biomes to complete your turn.
- Once you reach the limit, no more cursed biomes will appear that turn. Until you reach the limit, cursed biomes will continue to appear.
- As long as you haven’t reached the limit, a biome always has a 25% chance of being cursed. There is always at least 1 biome that has no cursed monsters at any given time during your playthrough, no exceptions.
With the new monsters invading, we have of course prepared stronger weapons and mutations for you:
3 new weapons:
- Anathema: rips Mushroom Boi’s heart out to fire a heavy indirect projectile that deals AOE damage. There is a price to pay for being a savage though – you get cursed if your attack hits anything. Well, you only get cursed if you hit anything. Whoever made these curses didn’t care how many mushrooms you ripped off, only if you hit anything afterwards. Makes you think…
- Indulgence: Call down a beam of vengeance on the nearest enemy, dealing critical damage if you are not cursed. Targets killed by the beam will remove 3 curse stacks instead of 1. Fires 1 additional beam for every 5 curse stacks you have (max: 5 per cast).
- Misericorde: Deals a critical strike if the target has less than 50% HP. Curses you if the critical strike fails to kill the target.
3 new mutations (all colorless):
- Cursed Flask: Your health potion has infinite charges but also curses you 20 times every time you use it. But can you survive those 20 curses? BE CAREFUL, my friend…
- Damned Vigor: When you are critically damaged, you will survive at 1 HP for 2 seconds. If you kill any enemy while under this effect, you will be saved. Conversely, when the effect wears off or you are attacked while under this effect, you will die instantly without any protection applied.
- Demonic Strength: Damage is increased by 30% if you are cursed. This bonus increases by 2% for each stack of curses you have. Cursed Sword counts as 1 stack for this effect (it has no special bonus, but you can still stack curses on top of it).
Additionally, after taking in a bunch of suggestions from you guys, we’ve made a bunch of necessary tweaks and rebalances to legendary weapons.
New legendary suffix:
- Perfect: NEW Near Perfect: Killing an enemy within one second of being hit allows you to continue to critically strike.
- Gold Digger: NEW Filthy Rich: Critical strike multiplier increases with your gold.
- Punishment: NEW Punishment Combo: Reapply AOE effect if it kills at least one target.
- Rampart: NEW Mirror Coating: Reflects damage from attacks received while under the influence of the shield’s force field. This damage scales with the attack received (i.e. the stronger the attack, the more damage the shield reflects).
- Cocoon: NEW Block Chain: Each consecutive block reduces Cocoon’s cooldown at the start of the next one.
- Escape Door: NEW Armored Door: Door cannot be destroyed by enemies (except bosses).
- Bones: NEW Tornado: Increases the tornado duration of the final attack by 2 seconds for each enemy killed.
- Wrenching Whip: NEW Retiarus: First attack throws 3 bird footprints in front of you (has the same internal cooldown as the grenade effect).
- Detonator: NEW Infallible: The item’s cooldown will be instantly reset if the explosion fails to hit at least one target.
- Barrel Launcher: Triple Bullet (ie not a new add-on, but we changed the previous add-on).
- Leghugger: NEW Mitosis: Summons 2 Leghuggers instead of 1.
- Shield Attack: NEW Charge Attack: Holding the shield button will charge up a more powerful version of the attack, which can then be used by releasing the button.
- Ice Shard: NEW Bounce: Bullet bounces on the ground twice before disappearing.
- Fast Bow: New Gunner: Critical hits will reload one bullet.
- Bladed Tonfas: NEW Lacerator: Only uses the first attack of a combo.
- Grappling Hook: NEW Octavio: Also shoots a chain behind you.
- Tesla Coil: NEW Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.
- Lightning Rod: NEW Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.
Some notable balances:
- Banking is a little easier at 2, 4 and 5BC. Yes, SMALLER…
- Throw Master’s bone bullets deal less damage in the Return to Castlevania DLC.
- Reworked Alienation: Instead of healing the player each time the curse is reduced, it will now heal the player when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health restored based on the maximum number of curses you have (for that curse instance). The effect only starts to trigger when the player has more than 5 curses, and it takes 35 curse stacks to fully heal you.
Customize new head:
What do we have in the secret treasure of the seamstress’s daughter?
- The Flame Head draws on Beheaded’s many different shapes over the years to ensure you’re always wearing a suit and tie.
- Heads of bosses like Queen, Timekeeper, etc. As if you could be as cool as those bosses with their smart brains.
- And lots of strange and mysterious heads, like the Cell Head, are waiting for you!
New route
- We also changed the connections between biomes:
- Added exit to Master’s Keep in High Peak Castle.
- Added escape route to the Ruined Prison and Bone House in the Castle Outskirts.
- Added exit to Dracula’s Castle (original) in Ruined Prison and Toxic Sewers.
- Added exit to Black Bridge in Dracula’s Castle (soon).
- Added exit to Defiled Necropolis in Ossuary.
- Replaced the Fractured Shrines entrance in Defiled Necropolis with a Graveyard entrance.
- Added light source to the Mimic Hint lore room when it appears in the Forgotten Sepulcher.
- Added exits to Dracula’s Castle (later versions) at the Tomb, Guardian’s Paradise, and Clock Room.
That’s right, this means you can now visit both biomes in Return to Castlevania in just one run…
More accessibility options:
- Added two new control icon sets and the option to choose them. You can choose “Legacy” (current icons), “New” (new, cleaner set), or “Big” (accessibility focused, easier to read).
- Changed the opacity of the boss arrow in Daily Challenges to make it easier to see.
- Added new input option for “walk through platform” action.
- Added option to change controller trigger deadzone.
- Reworked the auto-attack support mode option. It will no longer force the use of a melee weapon in the first slot.
- Added option to add background to most in-game text. Background color and opacity can be adjusted.
- The left joystick can now be used to scroll through item descriptions in the pause menu.
- Added option to completely reverse player and camera movements.
- Added a bunch of options to adjust camera behavior. Can customize the effect of player movement, combat, or points of interest.
- Split the “joystick dead zone” into two options, one for each joystick.
- Added outline option for spikes.
- Added button to center minimap with player.
Evil Empire and Motion Twin ended with a thank you to everyone who has 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 wouldn’t be what it is today without all of you.
And a huge thank you to everyone who worked on the game, from the previous Motion Twin members to everyone at Evil Empire.
It seems like neither team wants to rest as Dead Cells is… um… die. The evil empire has done Triple-i Initiative earlier this year to reveal its next roguelike project, The Rogue Prince of Persiawhile Motion Twin was announced Blown away by the wind last year Game Prizes. Currently, no projects have been announced for Switch, but we’re still hoping. Maybe a “Switch Successor” release..?
