Version 0.5, officially The Foundry Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 22nd of December 2017 to PC.

Important features

• The leveling system has been updated and deeply re-balanced. The old secondary bonuses have been moved to the new Mutations mechanics. Points invested on tiers will now have the following effects:
  • Brutality : +15% damage on red items (mostly close combat weapons), +50% health
  • Tactics : +15% damage on violet items (mostly ranged weapons & skills), +50% health
  • Survival : +15% damage on green items (mostly heavy weapons & shields), +50% health
• The health bonus gets smaller as you keep investing on a single stat.
  • Example: "1st Brutality tier gives +50% health, 2nd one gives +45%, 3rd one gives +40%, and so on until 0%. But if you decide to start investing on another stat, you start again at +50% health."

• You can gain Mutations between each level, stacking up to 3 of them. These Mutations allow you to customize the extra bonuses you get from points invested in Brutality, Tactics or Survival. The philosophy here is to give the player ways to specialize and experiment.
• A mutation can be:
  • scaled on a specific tier (brutality, tactics or survival), like: "+X HP when killing an enemy", "+X DPS when enemies are far away", or "+X DPS for 2 seconds after a kill". The mutation will get more powerful as you invest points in the related tier.
  • generic (ie. not scaled), like: "All bows ammo x2", "Longer rally effect duration" or "Longer speed buff duration".

• Here are the concepts behind each tier:
  • Brutality mutations specialize on melee combat and damage buffs
  • Tactics mutations specialize on ranged & skills buffs
  • Survival mutations specialize on shields and healing from new sources (like leeching life from killed enemies).
• You can re-specialize between levels if you need to (like, before a boss-fight), but this costs gold.

• Community suggestion | All ranged weapons are now Tactics weapons first (some are dual-color).
• Balanced all mobs damage and life. The concept here is: "mono-tiered builds are glass canons (lots of damage, almost no resistance), 2-tiers builds are balanced, 3-tiers build are resistant but weak".
• It's now possible to drop level-up scrolls from random mobs. Such mobs have a yellow star above their head for you to spot them.
• Community suggestion | It's no longer possible to one-shot a cursed door.
• Most shields bugs should now be fixed (ie. shield capacity not triggering on parry, or parry not dealing crit damage). You shouldn't be control-locked anymore after a successful parry.
• All shields parry window have been reduced slightly.
• Enemy grenade repelling using a shield should now work all the time, even when the grenade is standing still on the ground.
• Boss Runes can now be obtained from... well, bosses. Use these nasty little things in the Prisoner's Cells at the beginning of the game to make the whole game harder! Higher difficulty means more powerful mobs, less Healing Fountains (down to 0 on hardest mode, so please to get hit too much) and more cell drops. Also, each may area of the game may see other specific changes based on your difficulty setting, like new mob types in a level etc. Version 0.5.3

• The Foundry is now open! It can only be accessed if you activated the Incomplete One Boss Rune. The Foundry will then appear after each boss fight.
  • It allows you to invest your Cells to upgrade any item you've unlocked. Each upgrade will give the item a permanent "Tier +1" affix (which depends on the item) and extra base power. For example, upgrading the Broad Sword once will add a permanent "Brutality +1" on it, and it will have more base affixes and more overall power!
  • As the Foundry is only accessible after specific levels in the game, you'll have to keep your cells with you instead of investing them with the Collector... Version 0.5.3

• We fixed incorrect HP values displayed in the window that shows up when you pick a scroll. Previously, successive scrolls would give +50% HP, +45% HP, +40% HP etc. Fixed display now shows +50% HP, +30% HP, +21% HP etc. Don't worry: the "new" HP values may seem lower BUT the actual gameplay values were not changed at all. We only fixed an incorrect display. Version 0.5.11
• Community suggestion | Hunter's Grenade can now transmute enemies even if they don't have an Elite version. In such a case, they turn into Elite Zombies. Version 0.5.11
• Community suggestion | Hunter's Grenade now extracts a relevant blueprint from the target enemy if you already carry other blueprints in your bag. Version 0.5.11

Balancing

• Slightly balanced the Rally effect
• Ice bow now shoots much faster and the freeze effect lasts longer
• Ice crossbow has longer casting time
• The long bow crit distance is slightly shorter.
• Double damage affix changed: x2 damage dealt, x3 damage received
• Quad damage affix changed: x4 damage dealt, x4 damage received
• Force shield now has a diminishing return mechanics when used a single mob (ie. a boss)
• Electric whip is now a ranged weapon
• The Hokuto bow mark now propagates to all nearby mobs when the victim is killed.
• Community suggestion | Gold nuggets now only require 1 hit to be destroyed.
• Buried mobs now raise more quickly.
• Fixed the orange slime hitbox when using Rapier
• The double bow bullet physics is now the same as other bows.
• Killing trash mobs no longer reduce Curse counter Version 0.5.1
• Timed doors rewards now include generic level-up Scrolls instead of single stat Scrolls. Version 0.5.3
• Updated all timed-doors timings Version 0.5.3
• Elite Archer now a twice longer shoot range Version 0.5.3
• Cell treasures should now contain more cells in advanced levels Version 0.5.5
• Balanced the spiked boots damage. It now deals weak damage by default, except when you crit (ie. when you hit an enemy preparing an attack). We also added a more complex sequence of kicks to this weapon. Version 0.5.8
• Updated the wrenching whip Version 0.5.10
• Community suggestion | Ice bow can no longer have "shoot arrow behind" affix Version 0.5.10
• Meat Grinder and Heavy Grenade are now Brutality skills too in addition of Tactics Version 0.5.11
• Quad damage affix now makes items more expensive Version 0.5.12
• Cursed sword can no longer get quad damage affix Version 0.5.12
• Community suggestion | Active skills can now receive Double damage affix Version 0.5.12

Level design

• Rooms improved and new rooms added for the Vine, Teleport, Stomp and WallJump Runes.
• Prison Depths is now a much smaller level
• Added extra map information for all Cemetery doors
• Added many minor secret area everywhere.
• Rooms added in Fog Fjord Version 0.5.3
• Secrets in walls should no longer be too close from each others Version 0.5.3
• Balanced Sepulcher content Version 0.5.5
• Fixed timed door position in Sewers (should always be quite close from the entrance) Version 0.5.5
• Added many teleporters to Fog Fjord Version 0.5.5
• Added some teleporters to Toxic Sewers Version 0.5.5
• Added some teleporters to Old Sewers Version 0.5.5
• Rooms added in the "Promenade of the Condemned" and "Graveyard" levels Version 0.5.10
• Secrets in walls should no longer be right near another one Version 0.5.12

Graphics & UI

• Dead leaves added in the "Promenade of the condemned"
• Fixed a motion sickness issue in Sepulcher
• Updated the ceiling turret skin
• Added mutations icons
• Standard turret design and icon
• New Golem's visual special effects
• The weapon shop and its merchant now have their proper skin
• New Character/Pause UI. All the informations has been split in 3 screens now : Options, Equipment & Inventory. We added some information too (mutations, play time, etc...) Version 0.5.1
• Cannibal grenade skin has been updated Version 0.5.3
• Fixed shop rerolls overlapping shop items Version 0.5.6
• Community suggestion | Healing fountain animation is now slightly faster Version 0.5.10
• Updated wall run animation (work in progress) Version 0.5.10
• Fixed flipped item icons Version 0.5.12

Music & SFX

• Many sounds have been updated Version 0.5.3

Bug fixes

• Food should no longer have random affixes
• Scrolls should no longer drop on teleporters
• Fixed many visual issues with the Crusher skill.
• Fixed the "dodge + use shield" exploit
• Being hit by the Darkness from Sepulchre should no longer block the climbing mechanics.
• Using stomp attack on Shield bearers should no longer create strange camera issues.
• Fixed the skip of the Knight NPC
• Fixed no longer infinite slam on Pirate Chief
• Fixed duplicate items in Prisonner Cells when you have "Random start weapon" upgrades Version 0.5.6
• Fixed Dualshock 4 controller detected but not working on OpenGL version Version 0.5.6
• You cannot grab anymore a cliff when there are spikes on the side of this cliff. Version 0.5.8
• Fixed dialog texts not disappearing when crossing doors Version 0.5.10
• It's no longer possible to throw grenades through walls Version 0.5.12
• Prevented Teleporters from opening too early in specific conditions Version 0.5.12
• Fixed timed doors wrong message Version 0.5.12

References