I can do that aaaaalllllll day, Golem.

TLDR; New Alpha branch opened with the level up system 2.1 /!\ Beware, it’s far from being finished at this stage. New forum subsections available to help us sort the feedback for each branch. A news box is now shown on the home screen of the game, to keep you up to date on the latest changes.


Hey there!

How’s everyone doing today? We hope you’re having fun exploring the new levels, finding new ways to get OP and of course, being crushed by the outrageously unfair traps and OP enemies in the Clock Tower.

At Motion Twin HQ, we’re continuing our quest for an improved level-up system on the foundations laid out by the 4th Update. We may break a few things in the process, filling some wastepaper baskets with discarded ideas or threatening violence when internal feedback from colleagues range from “I didn’t know we were developing a kid’s game” to nothing but salty tears and death stares...

As a consequence, we’re officially inviting those of you who really want to get a “behind the scenes” look at what we’re working on and how we iterate over Dead Cells, to join the early access of a beta of an early access game, our beta-est beta, the “alpha” branch!


Currently, the beta branch is a way for us to get help hunting bugs, finding and fixing crashes and balancing and polishing what is essentially a “release candidate”. The Alpha branch aimed at bringing us closer to the community and exposing issues earlier.

Now before you rush off to try said Alpha Branch, a few things to consider:

• As you can imagine, the Alpha build WILL be highly unstable. So, don’t panic if you don’t like what you see there, this is very much a behind-the-scenes build so it will probably feel unfinished compared to the more complete builds you’re used to seeing.
  
  
• Moreover, your progression won’t be transferable to your main save. When you launch the Alpha build, you will be able to either start from a fresh save or import your progression from one of your 3 slots. From there, you can continue unlocking things in the Alpha branch, but your progression will be erased each time the Alpha build is updated and you won’t be able to export your alpha saves to the other public builds. Basically, this allows you to start fresh or with your previous unlocks, while never jeopardizing your main branch saves.

Please note, that the Alpha branch is making an appearance now so that we can test specific ideas relating to the new leveling system. We may use it again later down the road, but we’ll cross that troll infested bridge when we come to it.


The main idea behind this design is to let players customize their playstyle through mutations, each mutation being linked to and scaling with your level of Brutality, Tactics or Survival. Some mutations don’t scale and as such aren’t linked to a specific color. Alpha testers will have access to all perks to give us feedback but some will have to be unlocked on future builds, making the progression a little less dense.

One of the other issues we’re trying to solve in this new design is the survival build. In Dead Cells, being tanky has always come with the trade-off of taking an eternity to kill an enemy. Adding green weapons just made the survival build outrageously OP by giving players health AND damage at the same time… So, we’re moving away from the old “give ‘em more life” fix and trying out something new. Now you’ll have an easier time recovering health with new ways of getting it back. Plus you won’t feel like you’re trying to “bite the monster’s bloody legs off!”



Damage scaling has also been reduced in order to better balance the game. We’ve notably reduced the amount of health that you get from each scroll of the same color, making single-stat builds truly risky. On the contrary, going hybrid will give you a little more wriggle room and offer up more variety in the choice of equipment.

Finally, the patch, of course, comes with heaps of balancing fixes to go along with the new changes.

Read the full Alpha Build patch notes here.

Now all of the fun stuff has been said, we’re also opening two new subsections in the forums, one for the feedback regarding the alpha branch and one dedicated to the beta branch. This is for obvious organisational reasons, but it’s something that we hope will give you a clearer idea of where to post when you’re raging about that new feature that nobody else seems to know about yet...

Last but not least, you may soon notice a news-box on the Dead Cells’ home screen in game. The idea is to make sure you’re notified when we push a new update, rather than finding out halfway through a run, that you ain’t in Kansas anymore...

Well, that’s all for today. Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think about all this change in the comments. Again, thank you all for your continuous support!




Hey all this is the ALPHA Branch forum. Here we'll be collecting information and feedback about the SUPER UNSTABLE and very unbalanced ALPHA version of the game. Don't be coming in here and complaining about how "it's not good/finished/perfect/whatever" we know, that's the whole point.

Please do be coming in here and saying things like "Hmmm, this mechanic X seems cool, but have you thought about what would happen if this was the case?" or, "I've tried out the new feature X, but I didn't like it because of Y and Z"

This kind of feedback will be invaluable for us! Thanks guys!

How do I get in?
To access the ALPHA follow these instructions:
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.

WARNING:
In this version of the game you will lose your save every time we push an update, which could be pretty often! This will not impact your old save files. You will be able to import the old ones in to this version, but not export them. This way you can play with everything you've already unlocked, without fear of frying your saves.

If you are still worried about losing you save then feel free to head over here: "steam\userdata\<ID>\588650\remote" and copy the files somewhere safe.

There is a special slot only for saves from this version that will appear. It's pretty self explanatory, but feel free to ask questions. :)

Thanks!

I can do that aaaaalllllll day, Golem.

TLDR; New Alpha branch opened with the level up system 2.1 /!\ Beware, it’s far from being finished at this stage. New forum subsections available to help us sort the feedback for each branch. A news box is now shown on the home screen of the game, to keep you up to date on the latest changes.


Hey there!

How’s everyone doing today? We hope you’re having fun exploring the new levels, finding new ways to get OP and of course, being crushed by the outrageously unfair traps and OP enemies in the Clock Tower.

At Motion Twin HQ, we’re continuing our quest for an improved level-up system on the foundations laid out by the 4th Update. We may break a few things in the process, filling some wastepaper baskets with discarded ideas or threatening violence when internal feedback from colleagues range from “I didn’t know we were developing a kid’s game” to nothing but salty tears and death stares...

As a consequence, we’re officially inviting those of you who really want to get a “behind the scenes” look at what we’re working on and how we iterate over Dead Cells, to join the early access of a beta of an early access game, our beta-est beta, the “alpha” branch!


Currently, the beta branch is a way for us to get help hunting bugs, finding and fixing crashes and balancing and polishing what is essentially a “release candidate”. The Alpha branch aimed at bringing us closer to the community and exposing issues earlier.

Now before you rush off to try said Alpha Branch, a few things to consider:

• As you can imagine, the Alpha build WILL be highly unstable. So, don’t panic if you don’t like what you see there, this is very much a behind-the-scenes build so it will probably feel unfinished compared to the more complete builds you’re used to seeing.
  
  
• Moreover, your progression won’t be transferable to your main save. When you launch the Alpha build, you will be able to either start from a fresh save or import your progression from one of your 3 slots. From there, you can continue unlocking things in the Alpha branch, but your progression will be erased each time the Alpha build is updated and you won’t be able to export your alpha saves to the other public builds. Basically, this allows you to start fresh or with your previous unlocks, while never jeopardizing your main branch saves.

Please note, that the Alpha branch is making an appearance now so that we can test specific ideas relating to the new leveling system. We may use it again later down the road, but we’ll cross that troll infested bridge when we come to it.


The main idea behind this design is to let players customize their playstyle through mutations, each mutation being linked to and scaling with your level of Brutality, Tactics or Survival. Some mutations don’t scale and as such aren’t linked to a specific color. Alpha testers will have access to all perks to give us feedback but some will have to be unlocked on future builds, making the progression a little less dense.

One of the other issues we’re trying to solve in this new design is the survival build. In Dead Cells, being tanky has always come with the trade-off of taking an eternity to kill an enemy. Adding green weapons just made the survival build outrageously OP by giving players health AND damage at the same time… So, we’re moving away from the old “give ‘em more life” fix and trying out something new. Now you’ll have an easier time recovering health with new ways of getting it back. Plus you won’t feel like you’re trying to “bite the monster’s bloody legs off!”



Damage scaling has also been reduced in order to better balance the game. We’ve notably reduced the amount of health that you get from each scroll of the same color, making single-stat builds truly risky. On the contrary, going hybrid will give you a little more wriggle room and offer up more variety in the choice of equipment.

Finally, the patch, of course, comes with heaps of balancing fixes to go along with the new changes.

Read the full Alpha Build patch notes here.

Now all of the fun stuff has been said, we’re also opening two new subsections in the forums, one for the feedback regarding the alpha branch and one dedicated to the beta branch. This is for obvious organisational reasons, but it’s something that we hope will give you a clearer idea of where to post when you’re raging about that new feature that nobody else seems to know about yet...

Last but not least, you may soon notice a news-box on the Dead Cells’ home screen in game. The idea is to make sure you’re notified when we push a new update, rather than finding out halfway through a run, that you ain’t in Kansas anymore...

Well, that’s all for today. Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think about all this change in the comments. Again, thank you all for your continuous support!




Hey all this is the ALPHA Branch forum. Here we'll be collecting information and feedback about the SUPER UNSTABLE and very unbalanced ALPHA version of the game. Don't be coming in here and complaining about how "it's not good/finished/perfect/whatever" we know, that's the whole point.

Please do be coming in here and saying things like "Hmmm, this mechanic X seems cool, but have you thought about what would happen if this was the case?" or, "I've tried out the new feature X, but I didn't like it because of Y and Z"

This kind of feedback will be invaluable for us! Thanks guys!

How do I get in?
To access the ALPHA follow these instructions:
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.

WARNING:
In this version of the game you will lose your save every time we push an update, which could be pretty often! This will not impact your old save files. You will be able to import the old ones in to this version, but not export them. This way you can play with everything you've already unlocked, without fear of frying your saves.

If you are still worried about losing you save then feel free to head over here: "steam\userdata\<ID>\588650\remote" and copy the files somewhere safe.

There is a special slot only for saves from this version that will appear. It's pretty self explanatory, but feel free to ask questions. :)

Thanks!

Cry me a river...


Hey there

The Fourth “Brutal” Update is now live for everyone. Aaaaaand we had a little trailer done to celebrate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpvSOxQ_orA
This update brings A LOT of changes to the Pre "Brutal" Dead Cells era, so we kinda need you to get in there, beat the crap out of it and give us some feedback.




Duel in the clouds
A new boss has arrived… Be polite and don’t let her wait around for you too much.

Explore and survive two new biomes:

• The Slumbering Sanctuary will need to be awoken before it will allow you to pass. However, its inhabitants might not be too pleased to see you hanging around in their domain. Can’t really blame them though...Who likes to be disturbed during a quick nap?

• You will need to climb to the top of The Clock Tower to ring the Bell of the Awa… sorry, wrong game. So yeah, climb to the top, if you can, because it’s more booby-trapped than a Mayan temple, with little room to fight in and full of teleporting monsters. But, hey, the view is incredible.

A whole new Scroll System! The Strength Meta is dead, long live the Survival Meta! Well, no, not really. It’s gonna be balanced… or… you know… killed.

Anyway, more about the new system here or in the full patch notes here.



Experiment with new means to kill! 10 new weapons/spells/shields/skills. Choose your weapon, chaps.



Parry your way through the island! Shields have been fully reworked and should be way more enjoyable to use. You can now hold it up to get a guaranteed damage reduction or risk a parry for a sweet effect and bonus damage. Also, they can send back arrows and projectiles. So. Dope.



New Foes! Why not invite them over for a tea, just to get to know them?



Walljump/grab/climb!


Yeah, I know I could have just double jump. Can't you be more supportive for once?

The Island has changed again! Biomes may not be where you’re used to finding them, and even the Watcher has been moved (against its will) from its “final-boss” position. It'll always remember these good ol’ days as the peak of its career.

A New UI has been implemented to accompany the whole scrolls/ weapons rework.

The most loved feature of Dead Cells now comes with even more choice! (I’m obviously talking about letting the player choose their diet)

Less placeholder skins: the various zombie hosts had a facelift.

And much more... Full patch notes here


Just so you know, the next update should come (unless we change our plans, which, can happen) with a new difficulty customization system as well as a meaningful way to spend your hard-earned cells. Also, balancing. Lots of balancing...



Hey friends. Thanks for the essential and continuous feedback you keep, well, feeding us... Two things are happening right now:

• We’re gonna keep experimenting and iterating with the new scroll system, so expect the game to be broken, very broken.

• We’re creating a “beta” forum subsection to centralize your thoughts on the latest builds.

Well, that's all for today. We hope you all have a great time discovering all the changes!

See ya!


Concepts by Gwen for the 4th Update vignette.

Cry me a river...


Hey there

The Fourth “Brutal” Update is now live for everyone. Aaaaaand we had a little trailer done to celebrate! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpvSOxQ_orA
This update brings A LOT of changes to the Pre "Brutal" Dead Cells era, so we kinda need you to get in there, beat the crap out of it and give us some feedback.




Duel in the clouds
A new boss has arrived… Be polite and don’t let her wait around for you too much.

Explore and survive two new biomes:

• The Slumbering Sanctuary will need to be awoken before it will allow you to pass. However, its inhabitants might not be too pleased to see you hanging around in their domain. Can’t really blame them though...Who likes to be disturbed during a quick nap?

• You will need to climb to the top of The Clock Tower to ring the Bell of the Awa… sorry, wrong game. So yeah, climb to the top, if you can, because it’s more booby-trapped than a Mayan temple, with little room to fight in and full of teleporting monsters. But, hey, the view is incredible.

A whole new Scroll System! The Strength Meta is dead, long live the Survival Meta! Well, no, not really. It’s gonna be balanced… or… you know… killed.

Anyway, more about the new system here or in the full patch notes here.



Experiment with new means to kill! 10 new weapons/spells/shields/skills. Choose your weapon, chaps.



Parry your way through the island! Shields have been fully reworked and should be way more enjoyable to use. You can now hold it up to get a guaranteed damage reduction or risk a parry for a sweet effect and bonus damage. Also, they can send back arrows and projectiles. So. Dope.



New Foes! Why not invite them over for a tea, just to get to know them?



Walljump/grab/climb!


Yeah, I know I could have just double jump. Can't you be more supportive for once?

The Island has changed again! Biomes may not be where you’re used to finding them, and even the Watcher has been moved (against its will) from its “final-boss” position. It'll always remember these good ol’ days as the peak of its career.

A New UI has been implemented to accompany the whole scrolls/ weapons rework.

The most loved feature of Dead Cells now comes with even more choice! (I’m obviously talking about letting the player choose their diet)

Less placeholder skins: the various zombie hosts had a facelift.

And much more... Full patch notes here


Just so you know, the next update should come (unless we change our plans, which, can happen) with a new difficulty customization system as well as a meaningful way to spend your hard-earned cells. Also, balancing. Lots of balancing...



Hey friends. Thanks for the essential and continuous feedback you keep, well, feeding us... Two things are happening right now:

• We’re gonna keep experimenting and iterating with the new scroll system, so expect the game to be broken, very broken.

• We’re creating a “beta” forum subsection to centralize your thoughts on the latest builds.

Well, that's all for today. We hope you all have a great time discovering all the changes!

See ya!


Concepts by Gwen for the 4th Update vignette.

Hey there everyone!

As our most dedicated beta testers, those brave souls taking on the bugs in the latest Dead Cells build may have told you, new monsters are waiting for you in the two new biomes. And they are no pushovers!

Duel in the clouds!


The Cannibal is an agile and energetic duelyst. Take care that your own corpse doesn't end up in its guts.

Let me go


The Golem! Quick tip: I know it’s tempting, but running away in panic may not be the best solution.

I told you to be careful with the blueprints guys


Seems like these ones found some cluster bombs hanging around and decided to use them…

Come here!


These guardians of the temple don’t like when you get to intimate, but once you’re there, the hard part is done.

Hope you’re as hyped as us for the live release of the next update!

Cheers!

Hey there everyone!

As our most dedicated beta testers, those brave souls taking on the bugs in the latest Dead Cells build may have told you, new monsters are waiting for you in the two new biomes. And they are no pushovers!

Duel in the clouds!


The Cannibal is an agile and energetic duelyst. Take care that your own corpse doesn't end up in its guts.

Let me go


The Golem! Quick tip: I know it’s tempting, but running away in panic may not be the best solution.

I told you to be careful with the blueprints guys


Seems like these ones found some cluster bombs hanging around and decided to use them…

Come here!


These guardians of the temple don’t like when you get to intimate, but once you’re there, the hard part is done.

Hope you’re as hyped as us for the live release of the next update!

Cheers!

Given that this is a beta update, we’re not going to make a big song and dance of it, most of you probably just read the patch notes when you want to know something anyway… Instead, below you’ll find the link to said patch notes and a brief overview of what you can expect to find if you have followed the instructions on how to access the beta here.
Check out the patch notes here.

So what’s going on here anyway?

The world has changed:
We’ve moved the bosses around and added in a new one! There are still more changes to come, so the final showdown will come later.

On top of that there are now two new levels for you to explore and take on.

New tier system:
We’ve updated the tier system to make your build choices more interesting. We’re trying to give you a real sense of control and strategy when you choose the tier that you want to upgrade. Each category; Brutality, Tactic and Survival will impact a different and disparate set of items. Some weapons and skills will cross both groups, this is where we hope things will get interesting.

As usual we’ll be counting on your feedback to help us balance out the new system. Bring us your ideas, you criticisms and don’t hesitate to let us know what you like.

Stats and affixes have been tweaked:
Now when you pick up items there will be a real choice for you to make instead of just taking the one that gives you +1 to Strength or whatever. Those kind of items will be much rarer, you’ll have to earn them and amulets will become much more powerful.

The Collector:
The upgrade system has been an issue for a while, so we’re canning it. The collector is now only there to unlock items. Something or someone new and more interesting will follow along real soon.

New way to unlock rare items:
It’s a process that you might be familiar with, but it will allow you to catch ’em all when it comes to those pesky hard to find blueprints. No more wading through long grass getting ticks and sacrificing your time to the grind obsessed gods of RNG.

Shield rework!
This has been on the cards for a while. You’ve been letting us know that the shields are a cool idea, but that we can do better… So here’s round two… Fight!

All right that’ll do for the big stuff. Check out the full details here.

To access the beta follow these instructions:
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.

WARNING:
If you play with your save files in the beta version, you will not be able to use them in the stable version, until we push the beta branch out to the public.

If you are worried about losing you save then head over here: "steam\userdata\<ID>\588650\remote" and copy the files somewhere safe.

You can have one save slot dedicated to the beta branch and one to the old branch simultaneously, but you must revert to the stable branch to be able to use it.
Thanks!

Given that this is a beta update, we’re not going to make a big song and dance of it, most of you probably just read the patch notes when you want to know something anyway… Instead, below you’ll find the link to said patch notes and a brief overview of what you can expect to find if you have followed the instructions on how to access the beta here.
Check out the patch notes here.

So what’s going on here anyway?

The world has changed:
We’ve moved the bosses around and added in a new one! There are still more changes to come, so the final showdown will come later.

On top of that there are now two new levels for you to explore and take on.

New tier system:
We’ve updated the tier system to make your build choices more interesting. We’re trying to give you a real sense of control and strategy when you choose the tier that you want to upgrade. Each category; Brutality, Tactic and Survival will impact a different and disparate set of items. Some weapons and skills will cross both groups, this is where we hope things will get interesting.

As usual we’ll be counting on your feedback to help us balance out the new system. Bring us your ideas, you criticisms and don’t hesitate to let us know what you like.

Stats and affixes have been tweaked:
Now when you pick up items there will be a real choice for you to make instead of just taking the one that gives you +1 to Strength or whatever. Those kind of items will be much rarer, you’ll have to earn them and amulets will become much more powerful.

The Collector:
The upgrade system has been an issue for a while, so we’re canning it. The collector is now only there to unlock items. Something or someone new and more interesting will follow along real soon.

New way to unlock rare items:
It’s a process that you might be familiar with, but it will allow you to catch ’em all when it comes to those pesky hard to find blueprints. No more wading through long grass getting ticks and sacrificing your time to the grind obsessed gods of RNG.

Shield rework!
This has been on the cards for a while. You’ve been letting us know that the shields are a cool idea, but that we can do better… So here’s round two… Fight!

All right that’ll do for the big stuff. Check out the full details here.

To access the beta follow these instructions:
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.

WARNING:
If you play with your save files in the beta version, you will not be able to use them in the stable version, until we push the beta branch out to the public.

If you are worried about losing you save then head over here: "steam\userdata\<ID>\588650\remote" and copy the files somewhere safe.

You can have one save slot dedicated to the beta branch and one to the old branch simultaneously, but you must revert to the stable branch to be able to use it.
Thanks!

Hey there,

Welcome back to our (almost) regular series about what’s coming in the next update. Today we tackle the revamp of the whole scroll system!

We’ve been thinking about tweaking this for a while now, but there are 3 main ideas behind the revamped mechanic:

• Making builds other than "STRENGTH EVERYWHERE" more viable.
  
• Ensuring that the tanky builds are more interesting and enjoyable to play.
  
• Bringing in a tad more reflection to your choice of scroll, instead of it just being "GIMME STRENGTH".

Therefore, the old tier system (ie. Strength/Skills/Health) has been replaced by a newer more interesting successor, that is: Brutality / Tactics / Survival. These tiers are represented by colors:

• Brutality - Red (includes all weapons except shields): Raises all red items' damage, reduces all red items' cooldowns, adds +10% life.
  
• Tactic - Purple: (includes all active skills): Raises all purple items' damage, reduces all purple items' cooldowns, adds +10% life.
  
• Survival Green: (includes all shields): Raises all green items' damage, reduces all green items' cooldowns, adds +30% life.

As you can see, each item in the game now belongs to a color. Some items (weapons or skills) might even have *dual colors*, which means they will be impacted by 2 different stats, and use the highest value. You may also find random Colorless items which will always use your best stat. The colorless items are currently only available through loot boxes cursed chests!

We can’t wait to hear what you think of it controller in hands!

In other news, we're in China! Or at least our chief bullsheet artist is... We're down there participating in the WePlay event in Shanghai, so come say 你好 if you're in the neighbourhood, it's a great chance to let us know what you think we can do better, or just what you like about the game.

We know you're probably sick of hearing about it, but if your friends haven't got the game yet we'll be -15% of for the duration of the Halloween sale!

Hey there,

Welcome back to our (almost) regular series about what’s coming in the next update. Today we tackle the revamp of the whole scroll system!

We’ve been thinking about tweaking this for a while now, but there are 3 main ideas behind the revamped mechanic:

• Making builds other than "STRENGTH EVERYWHERE" more viable.
  
• Ensuring that the tanky builds are more interesting and enjoyable to play.
  
• Bringing in a tad more reflection to your choice of scroll, instead of it just being "GIMME STRENGTH".

Therefore, the old tier system (ie. Strength/Skills/Health) has been replaced by a newer more interesting successor, that is: Brutality / Tactics / Survival. These tiers are represented by colors:

• Brutality - Red (includes all weapons except shields): Raises all red items' damage, reduces all red items' cooldowns, adds +10% life.
  
• Tactic - Purple: (includes all active skills): Raises all purple items' damage, reduces all purple items' cooldowns, adds +10% life.
  
• Survival Green: (includes all shields): Raises all green items' damage, reduces all green items' cooldowns, adds +30% life.

As you can see, each item in the game now belongs to a color. Some items (weapons or skills) might even have *dual colors*, which means they will be impacted by 2 different stats, and use the highest value. You may also find random Colorless items which will always use your best stat. The colorless items are currently only available through loot boxes cursed chests!

We can’t wait to hear what you think of it controller in hands!

In other news, we're in China! Or at least our chief bullsheet artist is... We're down there participating in the WePlay event in Shanghai, so come say 你好 if you're in the neighbourhood, it's a great chance to let us know what you think we can do better, or just what you like about the game.

We know you're probably sick of hearing about it, but if your friends haven't got the game yet we'll be -15% of for the duration of the Halloween sale!