Dead Cells - Metroidvania Roguelite in Early Access

Ahh, OK I must not have it yet. I keep finding stuff, blueprints, some gems, new weapons. Do I get to keep these things when I die, or should it be a surprise?

It looks like I found a new area because it has a name - Promenade of the Condemned…

Woo I just found the Collector. Making more sense now.

This is pretty good. Still going - just found the ramparts. I need to take a break though. I’ve got to make some lasagna.

The nice part is, you can quit anywhere in the game at any moment. It saves the game at the moment you quit, and you can come back another day and continue from there.

New DLC boys! First paid one

There are new two-handed weapons that fill the two main slots, but have extra range and two attack modes.

I’m still having fun with this on Gamepass. I think I’ve visited 7 areas or so.

I need to remember to use my skills more. Dropping an ice bomb or the thing that starts shooting really can help a lot but I find myself focusing on X and Y attacks so much that I forget to use them when things get hairy. In fact, this is probably so much easier if I take it slow and use the skills a lot more and wait for them to charge back up. I’m trying to get the ram rune and that boss is pretty tough because I’m usually wounded by the time I get there.

IMO the easiest way to advance early on is to go heavy Tactics (purple) and rely exclusively on ranged weapons (bows, especially) and traps to kill things for you. Even without anything unlocked, you can quite easily beat the game with Sinew Slicer and Wolf Trap alone.

Relying on traps leaves you a lot more attention to focus on learning enemy attack patterns and dodging. That’s the most important skill in the game.

I’m having a good game this time. I got the Ram Rune and kept going. In the Clock Room now. I have a great bow (4182 dps), the Double Cross B - o - matic (472 dps) and an ice bomb - all high level. Things are just melting when I drop it down and step to safety. Some of them are the gold color.

Edit: Wow, the clock room guy dropped in like, 10 seconds. On to High Peak Castle.

I think I just won. I killed the king.
Is it worth continuing? I know there are some areas I never got to as I just got the ram rune on my last run so I never used it in the earlier areas to get to places I maybe couldn’t reach.

You keep doing that over and over (sort of), it’s part of the game.

You finished the first difficulty. Which is pretty easy. the second difficulty is ‘Normal’, try that. It’s notably harder :P

New update
https://dead-cells.com/patchnotes

New content:

A new skill has been added, the Ice Armor. Covers your body with ice that explodes, freezing enemies, when you activate the skill again or after a few seconds. If you take a hit while it still active, you don’t take any damage/ malaise and the ice explodes, but the cooldown is doubled.

A new shield has been added: the Ice Shield which, surprise, freeze all enemies around you on a successful parry. Parried projectiles will also freeze the enemies.

Frostbite a new survival mutation, has been added, turning the “slowed” status into a dot in addition to its usual effect.
Cold Blood, a survival mutation, has been added. Reduces cooldown when you melee hit a slowed, rooted or frozen mob.

Three weapons reworked:

Meat Skewer has been reworked, with the first strike of the combo dashing and piercing through mobs. The weapon next attacks inflicts critical damages on the enemies pierced with the first strike.
Frontline shield has been reworked, it now gives you a damage boost on melee strikes after a successful parry.
Lightning Whip does more damages, and will also deal damages to the enemies close to the target (currently 50%).

Trailer for the dlc

Awwwww yeah. Just when I thought I was out.

This DLC is really really good. I love how it expands the early game unlike so much other add on content which expands the end game. The two new areas I’ve seen so far are really beautiful and also have some super fun enemies in them!

I did it! I beat the game! I don’t know how long I’ve owned Dead Cells, but I’d pick it up every few months and chip away at it a little. I would never make it past the first boss guy on Black Bridge, so I spent a lot of time re-running sewers etc every time I’d play.

Then this new DLC came out and I figured that even though I always seem to hit a brick wall in this game I like it enough to blow $5 extra bucks on it, especially as the DLC said it was early game content.

Well, after installing the DLC I managed to murder the shit out of the Black Bridge guy, even though I don’t even know if I ran into any of the new DLC stuff, maybe I had DLC weapons, /shrug

Anyway, after killing that first boss for the first time I never had a problem with him during any subsequent encounter. I’m still not sure why. I’m guessing they made him easier in recent months, but I can’t be arsed to go look for patch notes.

I still have no idea what the DLC is doing for me, because I never got far enough early on to see what’s different before and after it, but it looks like there still a whole bunch of stuff to unlock in the game on subsequent run-throughs.

Congrats! You beat the casual mode. Now it’s time to play the real Dead Cells, in BC1. The difference is… pretty substantial.

The DLC adds two new areas and a few enemies and weapons.

YOU’RE A CASUAL MODE

Hah, more or less you are right, as I needed almost 100 hours to beat the game on Hard mode (BC1). Don’t think I’m the bestest at this game.

I’m just saying, there is a big gap of difficulty between BC0 (Normal) and the rest of difficulties, and also, before an update the game BC0 difficulty was actually kind of how BC1 is now.