Dead Cells Fear The Rampager Update Brings New Enemies, Mutations

Dead Cells has been out almost a year (plenty more if you count early access), but the developers at Motion Twin keep churning out update after update, building upon the incredibly strong base they made for the roguelike metroidvania. This update is the 13th since release, and it adds a new enemy, a couple of mutations and a whole slew of balance changes.

The titular Rampager is a new kind of monster you’ll encounter in difficulty level Boss Cell 3 and above. It’s a zombie-type enemy that’s really fast and follows you around the entire level once it spots you. If that sounds familiar, you’ll be happy to know that the Arbiter has been restricted to the Cavern, so you can go around it completely.

The new mutations we’ve mentioned are both brutality-based, since they felt brutality builds have a harder time getting healed up than others. Adrenaline lets you gain life steal on melee for a few seconds afterdodging an attack. Frenzy gives your melee attacks life steal while you’re in speed boost.

They’ve also tweaked the way elites work. They won’t have as much minions, and won’t bump you mid-fight anymore. Probably the most important balance change is the Powerful Grenade nerf – they’re reduced both its damage and area of effect, based on community suggestions. Thanks for that, you guys. On the upside, Valmont’s Whip has had its critical hit zone “improved”, so maybe I’ll go play with that instead.

There are just too many changes to list them all here, but I feel these were the most important ones. However, I found playing on Boss Cell 1 too difficult, so you might disagree. For a pure, factual look at the changes, untainted by noob bias, visit the game’s site.