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Dead Cells

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Dead Cells is a 2018 roguelike metroidvania game developed and published by Motion Twin. The game was released for Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 7, 2018. A mobile port for iOS was released on August 28, 2019, and an Android port was released on June 3, 2020. In the game, the player takes the role of an amorphous creature called The Beheaded. As The Beheaded, the player must fight their way out of a diseased island in order to slay the island's King. The player gains weapons, treasure and other tools through exploration of the procedurally generated levels, using them to fight various mutated creatures. Dead Cells uses a permadeath system, causing the player to lose all items and other currencies upon dying.

Production of Dead Cells began after Motion Twin planned development for a follow-up to their previous browser game Die2Nite. Inspirations for the game included Team Fortress 2, The Binding of Isaac, and the Dark Souls series. After release, Motion Twin supported the game with several updates and expansions. The game received positive reviews from critics, who praised its combat style and level design, with specific praise being directed toward the randomized levels and weapons. By March 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies.

An expansion titled Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania was released on March 6, 2023 which features characters, weapons, enemies and music from the Castlevania series, under official license from Konami.

Gameplay[]

Dead Cells is a 2D side-scrolling "roguevania", a combination of procedurally-generated roguelike games and action-exploration-based metroidvania games. The player controls The Beheaded, an amorphous creature that can possess human corpses. The Beheaded explores a fictional island infested with mutated monsters, which must be traversed so the Prisoner can kill the island's King. When the player dies, they lose all weapons and upgrades obtained in a playthrough, excluding a few permanent items. Weapons primarily include swords, bows, shields, and placeable traps that harm enemies that come near them. The Beheaded can move across the ground to engage in melee combat, or can use ranged weapons and traps to harm enemies from a distance. The Beheaded can dodge across the ground to avoid the attacks of enemies, or jump over the attacks. Dodging into an enemy's space allows The Beheaded to move through them and attack from behind. When falling from a height, The Beheaded can slam into the ground, allowing them to hit enemies and stun them, or allow the Prisoner to fall from heights without getting stunned themselves.

The game's combat is comparable to the Dark Souls series, with difficult enemies possessing certain behaviors the player can learn, and where frequent player character death is a fundamental part of the game. As they explore a series of dungeon levels and fight the creatures within, the player can collect an in-game currency called Cells from defeated enemies. Cells can be used to purchase permanent items such as potions that restore hit points or additional weapons that may be randomly obtained during a playthrough. These Cells must be spent at the end of a dungeon section; if the player dies before then, they'll lose all collected Cells. Blueprints can be collected from inside dungeons, which must be taken out of the dungeon to be collected. Collecting Blueprints allows for more weapons and items to be purchased from shops.

Levels are procedurally generated by the merging of predesigned sections in a random configuration, creating dungeons with many different placements of enemies and items. Between dungeons, the player can obtain a limited number of mutations, upgrades which grant unique bonuses to The Beheaded's capabilities that last until the player dies. The player can reforge weapons during this time, giving the reforged weapons new effects during combat. Inside the dungeons, the player can find hidden Power Scrolls, which increase The Beheaded's hit points and increase the damage of weapons depending upon the tool's classification of Brutality, Tactics, or Survival. The player can also find multiple permanent upgrades called Runes, which allow for new methods of travel in the game's levels. Runes can be obtained by defeating powerful Elite enemies, which are located inside the game's levels. Each upgrade requires the previous Rune in order to obtain the next one.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania[]

The expansion, released on March 6, 2023, includes four new biomes (areas): Dracula's Castle, the Castle's Outskirts, the Defiled Necropolis, and the Master's Keep. The DLC also unveils the new playable character, Richter Belmont. Alucard, Maria Renard and Shanoa also appear as non-playable characters, with the latter being a replacement for The Collector. The Master Librarian also appears as a merchant. Other iconic assets from Konami's classic Castlevania series included in this DLC are weapons like the Vampire Killer, throwing Axes, Holy Water, etc., and enemies such as Bone Throwers, Knights and Mermen, to name a few, and two bosses: Death and Count Dracula himself. It also features a soundtrack filled with new arrangements of classic tunes from across the franchise.

The expansion also features over 60 iconic Castlevania music themes, including both original and remixed versions, with well known tracks such as "Vampire Killer", "Bloody Tears" and "Divine Bloodlines", just to name a few.

In the True Dracula's Castle, a statue can be found that teleports the player into the Reverse Castle from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. By examining this statue, the player can enter a room with Richter Belmont trapped in a cage. The player can break Richter out of the cage, but that's all they can do during that playthrough. If they return in another attempt, they'll then be able to interact with the cage and activate Richter Mode. This mode acts as a continuation of the player's current run, but now playing as Richter, who controls like a mix between how he moves in Castlevania: Dracula X and Symphony of the Night. The player can no longer double jump, and if they jump forward, they can no longer change their momentum. The backflip doesn't shoot the player backward and is instead mainly used to make the player reach slightly higher.

Throughout the Richter Mode sidequest, the player can find certain power-ups which will improve their ability to move throughout the map; these being the dash and the high jump. These are based on Richter's signature Tackle and Uppercut moves, respectively, but won't deal any damage this time around.

While the map is auto-generated, there are always two paths to take in order to reach the final boss. Somewhere in the map, the player will be able to find Alucard, who will drop blueprints for the Alucard Sword the first time he's found. After beating the boss, the player will be able to keep their cells, their "no-damage" kill count, and a Richter Belmont outfit; but otherwise, any progress made as Richter will be lost, including play time. Richter Mode also includes an exclusive enemy, the Bone Pillar, which can't be found anywhere else in the game.

Certain characters are obtainable via skins, unlocking their own personal dialogues when confronting Dracula:

  • Hector is obtainable as a drop from the Dire Werewolves.
  • Simon Belmont is obtainable after interacting with Carmilla's Mask.
  • Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades are found in the secret room above Dracula's chamber.
  • Richter Belmont is a playable character with more than just aesthetic differences. A skin of him can also be obtained after completing Richter Mode.
  • Alucard is found right before the player fights the final boss.
  • Maria Renard is found in a locked chamber, which can be opened after the player catches Byakko.
  • Haunted Armor is obtainable as a drop from the Armor Knights.
Note: Beating Dracula or Death on various difficulties will also unlock skins, although they're simply clothing, not new characters.

There also exist certain secret landmarks which can be found around both variations of Dracula's Castle:

  • A room with Legion can be found, with a drumstick infected with the Malaise.
  • A room with Camilla's Mask can be found, as mentioned above. The mask will bleed after the player examines it.
  • A Save Room can be found, based on the one from Symphony of the Night. If the player has multiple lives, they'll respawn there after dying.
  • A room with a pair of Ghost Dancers can be found. Oddly enough, even interacting with them when with the Castlevania Music setting enabled won't play a song directly from the Castlevania series, as the usual "Dracula's Castle" remix will play instead. After waiting in this room for two "Dracula's Castle" loops, a different song will play, only to revert to "Dracula's Castle" again when finished.

The inverse room with Richter trapped in the cage can only be found in the 'True' variation of Dracula's Castle, as well as Medusa's Chamber, which holds a key necessary to complete the biome.

There are multiple obtainable blueprints in the game which allow the player to create new weapons:

  • Alucard's Shield is obtainable in a hidden room past the player's first encounter with Alucard in the Castle Outskirts.
  • Alucard's Sword is obtainable in a secret room in Richter Mode.
  • Bat Volley is a drop from the Vampire Bat.
  • The Bible is a drop from the Werewolf.
  • The Cross is a drop from the Throw Master.
  • Death's Scythe is obtainable after beating Death.
  • Holy Water is a drop from the Merman.
  • Maria's Cat can be obtained after catching him to obtain the key he holds, followed by petting him in Maria Renard's cell.
  • Medusa's Head is a drop from Medusa.
  • The Morning Star is obtainable after inputting the Konami Code.
  • The Rebound Stone is a drop from Buer.
  • The Throwing Axe is a drop from the Axe Knight.
  • The Vampire Killer is obtainable after defeating Dracula.
  • The Whip Sword is a drop from the Harpy.

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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Dead Cells. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with the Castlevania Wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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