Version 1.4, officially the Who's the Boss Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 13th of August 2019 to PC, and on the 9th of September 2019 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.
Important features[]
- Who's the Boss Update! This patch brings 7 new weapons (one for each of the five bosses of Dead Cells, one for a certain really challenging fight, and a mystery one) thematically tied to Dead Cells' bosses. Beat them and claim their weapon as yours.
- In addition to the new weapons, we welcome 6 new mobs - also thematically tied to the bosses - in the family. We hope you will love them as much as we do!
- Community suggestion | The Color Scaling of many items has been changed. We've been rethinking how each color should offer several specific approaches of the combat.
- Tactics: Glass Cannon with an emphasis on being well positioned. Survive by not being hit, and in dire need of suitable tools (defensive or helping with re-positioning) to do that job consistently.
- Brutality: A well balanced build focused on fast weapons, melee combat, damage-over-time and offensive skills.
- Survival: Slow weapons, great shields, lot of health, offensive skills with high cooldown but decent control alternatives. Everything tied to healing.
- Hence, why we felt the need to change a few of the current weapon scalings to be more in line with the global philosophy behind. Here is the full change list:
- Stun Grenade, Ice Grenade, and Root Grenade are now Tactics/ Survival instead of Brutality/ Tactics.
- Death Orb is now Survival instead of Tactics.
- Corrupted Power is now Brutality/ Tactics instead of Tactics/ Survival.
- Vampirism is now Brutality/ Survival instead of Tactics/ Survival.
- Tonic is now Survival only instead of Tactics/ Survival.
- Corrosive Cloud is now Tactics/ Brutality instead of Tactics only.
- Lacerating Aura is now Tactics/ Brutality instead of Tactics only.
- Throwing Knife is now Tactics/ Brutality instead of Tactics only.
- Meat Skewer is now Tactics/ Brutality instead of Brutality only.
- Assassin's Dagger is now Tactics/ Brutality instead of Brutality only.
Two of the 14th update’s new items have also received a color change, with Lightspeed becoming a Tactic/ Brutality, but with a higher cd than before. A certain other spinning skill has become Brutality/ Survival instead of Tactics/ Survival. Version 1.4.2
- Community suggestion | 3 New Tactics Mutations! Albeit not being designed to fit into range build but to make Melee purple an unstoppable killing machine. Until you take a hit.
- Scheme: Using a skill gives a flat bonus damage to your next melee attack.
- Initiative: Gives a flat bonus damage to your first melee attack against an enemy.
- Predator: Killing an enemy with a melee attack makes you invisible during X secondes.
We've been thinking about making an Assassin's build (Glass Cannon with the highest damage and great mobility but the lowest tankyness of the game) viable in Dead Cells for some time now, and the recolor of some items was the perfect opportunity to try it.
The Assassin is thought to be built around skills where you need to be at the center to make the most of it (Lacerating Auras, Knife Dance) and excellent defensive options or even panic buttons (Wave of Denial, Decoy, now Lightspeed and the control grenades). We also had the weapons fitting the gameplay theme of the assassin scaled with Tactics to give a few more options for this build.
These mutations are available to everyone by default for testing purposes at the moment. Version 1.4.2
Balancing[]
- When locked, the Rampager will now launch her attacks without waiting to be in range of the player. This will prevent cases where she will go on rampage, get locked, then attack the player without warning as soon as they get close.
- Increased level of items from Cursed Chest and Legendary Altar by one.
- Community suggestion | One-time damage buffs (from Grappling Hook and Counter Attack affix) don't trigger on some minor damage dealt (arrow affixes, grenade affix, Crossbow hook, Phaser, Grappling Hook itself).
- Community suggestion | Disengagement now removes all poison on the beheaded when it triggers.
- Poison will no longer kill you, but bring you down to 1HP instead. This will prevent some deaths that could feel unfair while still being pretty threatening.
- Valmont's Whip is now a Brutality/ Tactic weapon instead of Brutality/ Survival. It's survival scaling was justified back in the days when it was quite a slow weapon. It's not the case anymore, while a good positioning (a staple of Tactic gameplay) is still required to get the most out of the weapon.
- Community suggestion | Grappling Hook is now Tactics/Brutality instead of Tactics/Survival as being well positioned is needed to optimally using the weapon, but it fits the brutality playstyle more than the survival one.
- Magnetic Grenade is now a Brutality/Tactic weapon. Keep your foes from approaching while your turrets shred them.
- Community suggestion | Ripper damage increased. Version 1.4.2
- Community suggestion | Parting Gifts range and damage slightly increased. Version 1.4.2
- Phaser won't trigger Thorny's back damage anymore. Version 1.4.3
- Hook cooldown now resets when missing. Version 1.4.5
- Community suggestion | Elite Golems can no longer have the clone skill. Version 1.4.9
- Elite's turret skill increased cooldown between bursts. Change was actually live since 14.5 but we forgot to mention it in the patchnotes... Version 1.4.9
Level design[]
- Knife Thrower has been taken out from the ramparts to reduce the number of range enemies, from Clock Tower to reduce the number of invisible enemies and from Toxic Sewers where the knife thrower was redundant with the Scorpion (samey kind of horizontal range, invisible).
- Inquisitor has been taken out of the Cavern (redundant with its three-hands bigger brother Arbiter).
- Community suggestion | Added a light in each trap room in Forgotten Sepulcher. Version 1.4.3
- Community suggestion | Fixed some problematic rooms: floating walls, softlocks, projectiles leaking from challenge rooms, etc. Version 1.4.9
Graphics & UI[]
- Community suggestion | Infected Food now appears green on the mini-map.
- Community suggestion | Added an icon above enemies that still have a blueprint unlockable while wielding the Hunter's Grenade.
Quality of life[]
- Community suggestion | Added key bindings to move the camera with the keyboard (IJKL by default).
Bug fixes[]
- A certain enemy in a certain really challenging fight can now throw fireballs from inside the wall. This sounds like a bug but I swear its actually a fix. Pinky promise.
- The elite skill Cage will now correctly follow the elite mob when charging up again. Charge time was also increased a little for better readability.
- The Parting Gift now correctly scales with your Tactics level.
- Great Owl of War now correctly follows you through sub-levels.
- Prevented Legendary Altar from spawning in front of mini-teleporters.
- Root Grenade now applies poison or bleed correctly when it has the corresponding affix.
- Corrosive Cloud and Bloodthirsty Shield now work correctly with the affix "bleeding causes poisoning."
- Slasher's third strike will not go over gaps anymore.
- Kamikaze in Prison Depths or Ancient Sewers won't drop keys anymore. A kamikaze would not drop its key if it killed itself, and killing one while it was flying over a wall would make the key appear in weird places. This should fix all that.
- Various crash fixes. Complicated dev stuff, semi-colons and all that.
- Fixed Slammer and Rampager sometimes levitating. We listened to you, and now they will never feel the breeze under their wings again. You monsters. Version 1.4.1
- Friendly Worms no longer freeze enemy attacks. Version 1.4.1
- Replaced "stun" by "root" in The Boy's Axe description. Version 1.4.2
- Fixed "Legenday" typo in difficulty choice panel. Version 1.4.2
- Magnetic Grenade will not turn friendly bombs or traps into grenades anymore. Version 1.4.2
- No more stalactites falling after killing the Giant. Version 1.4.2
- Parry Shield now parries grenade on the ground without a small delay. Version 1.4.2
- Fixed enemies teleporting to you even when invisible in BC4+. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed Hook not applying its affixes to the next attack. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed being able to parry the horizontal AOE elite skill multiple times. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed Slasher shockwave hitbox. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed Failed Experiment not taking damage from spikes on the ground. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed Zombie jumping hitbox preceding the visuals. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed weird hit detection of Magistrate of Death. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed the legendary forge displaying the wrong error message sometimes. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed being able to stomp with your body when using homunculus rune while climbing a ladder. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed Protectors shielding Friendly Worms. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed some Spikes hitboxes. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed DOT and other alternative sources of damage not having increased damages in the very last phase of a certain secret boss. Version 1.4.3
- Fixed the prisonner floating in the air when climbing a wall with a platform behind his back. Version 1.4.3
- Multi-state items (Tonic, Vampirism, Great Owl of War, Lightspeed, etc.) don't swap places when used on the left slot anymore. Version 1.4.6
References[]
- ↑ Who's the Boss update Official patch notes, 2019-07-17
- ↑ Update 14th: Who's the Boss? available in the alpha branch. Steam blog post, 2019-07-17
- ↑ New mutations and more available on beta. Feedback requested! Steam blog post, 2019-07-30
- ↑ Update 14: Who's the Boss? Is out now for everyone! Steam blog post, 2019-08-13
- ↑ 1.4 update, "Who's the boss?", is now live on #PS4, #NintendoSwitch and #XboxOne! Twitter - Motion Twin, 2019-09-09
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