The latest Dead Cells alpha update is here with plenty of new features. Motion Twin revealed in a new blog post that the update has brought new weapons and new mutations. Plus, the developers have been working on adjustments to the difficulty curve. Dead Cells Alpha Update 23 is available for download now on Steam.
The new Dead Cells update, also known as the “Whack-a-Mole update,” includes some quality-of-life improvements, balances, and bug fixes. Beyond that, Motion Twin has introduced some Whack-a-Mole-worthy weapons. “These are all Survival, one-slot and focus on smashing enemies with something heavy until they stop moving,” the update announcement read. Nice.
There’s The Big Axe, which can be used for chain-move hits to rapidly take enemies down. You can also smash enemies with a spiked wooden club, ogre-style. Perhaps the best new addition, though, is the Tombstone. You can pummel your enemies with a tombstone and then use the same tombstone to plant their graves. We love irony.
The update also comes with three new mutations. With Execution, you can instantly kill enemies who have under 5% health with one smash of a weapon. This only works on bosses, but Motion Twin implied with a “for now” that the mutation will work on other enemies at some point. There’s also Barbed Tips to “inflict X damage per second to enemies, per arrows stuck in them,” and Point Blank, to “inflict X% bonus damage” on close range attacks.
Dead Cells gets a new difficulty curve
The studio is working on improving Dead Cells‘ difficulty curve. Boss Stem Cells, or BCs, are awarded to players for beating the game’s final boss. Each cell can be applied to increase Dead Cells’ difficulty. The more you beat bosses with BCs activated, the more you earn. Motion Twin has asked players to provide any feedback on the new curve, as the developers are still getting it right.
Dead Cells takes players into a rogue-like, metroidvania castle environment with plenty of enemies to take down. Alpha update 23 comes just six weeks after the release of Dead Cells‘ Fatal Falls DLC, which brought players new biomes and a dangerous new boss.
