Version 1.1, officially the Pimp My Run Update, and also known as the Custom Mode & Balancing Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 22nd of December 2018 to PC, and on the 14th of February 2019 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.

This was the release date version^[a] for iOS and Android. It was released on the 28th of August 2019 for iOS, and on the 3rd of June 2020 for Android.

Important features

• Community suggestion | A vast number of items have been updated to make them more useful or powerful. The idea here was to make many "auto-recycle" items much more interesting.
• New custom game mode released! You can now customize your runs the way you want, like unlocking/relocking items, enabling special gameplay adjustments, changing rules etc. You are under control, have fun :)
• Community suggestion | Homunculus skill has been vastly improved: you can now grab your own turrets, cancel a grab, it deals more damage, breaks invisibility etc.
• Community suggestion | Most mutations have been reworked & balanced in order to make some of them more useful. See other notes for more details.
• Community suggestion | The "mob auto-scaling" mechanic has been removed completely. All the levels now have a fixed "difficulty" that won't adapt to you in weird ways anymore. This affects the game in the following ways:
  • in 0-cell mode: things will be a little bit easier (just a little bit)
  • in 1 & 2-cells modes: difficulty is roughly the same as before
  • in 3 & 4-cells modes: you'll have to be really careful to be properly equipped before getting to late levels (picking cursed chests scrolls is highly recommended)
• Community suggestion | All the cooldown reduction mechanic has been redone from scratch. The mutations that granted free CD reduction (for active skills and grenades) were removed. They were replaced by 4 new mutations to give you new active ways to reduce your skill cooldowns: by killing enemies in close combat, by killing at distance, by parrying and by dealing critical hits.
  • For example, one of these mutations reduces all your ongoing skills cooldowns by 2.5 sec for each successful shield parry, and this time value even increases based on your Survival stat.
  • The one that reduces CD for each critical hit is a new colorless mutation that will scale on your highest stat.

• Community suggestion | Bosses no longer drop Legendary items, but 1 weapon and 1 active skill instead. Legendaries are now "world drop", so you may encounter them when killing mobs or on the new "legendary altars". The level generator has also been adjusted to ensure you find a "Legendary Altar" in most of your runs. You may also get legendaries as rewards of advanced challenges, like beating a boss without getting hit.
• Community suggestion | Damage Reduction has been heavily reworked. Most items no longer grant DR anymore, their power has been increased as a compensation. Damage Reduction is not a mandatory strategy anymore and the whole game difficulty has been rebalanced accordingly.
• Community suggestion | You can upgrade the Forge with the Collector and unlock the ability to upgrade an item quality more than once.
• Community suggestion | Balanced the way money profits/costs scale on higher difficulty settings. Costs now scale faster than profits. Also, Recycling profits are no longer based on the the buying cost of the item, but on its reselling value, which scales slower (TLDR; recycling no longer breaks the whole economy).
• New secret holes can now spawn below your feet. Pay attention to hidden runes in the ground and use your stomp move to break them!
• Most mobs in 4-cells difficulty are now more aggressive: they can teleport, they have a better detection range and they cannot be distracted by deployed traps.
• Community suggestion | New challenge doors in transition levels will require you to kill X enemies without getting hit in a row. Their rewards are equivalent to Timed Doors. Note you can get hit before or after a serie of X kills, this won't invalidate this challenge.
• New challenge doors after bosses will grant Legendary items if you kill a Boss without getting hit once.
• Community suggestion | Timed doors have all been moved to transition levels. They now offer a multi-purpose reward instead of Scrolls. You can now choose 1 reward for free among 3 (picked among weapons, skills and talismans). Their quality level (+/++/S) is guaranteed, based on the current difficulty setting.
• Healing items (Tonic) & mutations (Necromancy, What doesn't kill me) now heal a percentage of your max life, and this percentage scales with your stats.
• Elites enemies have been reworked. All of them will now have an additional random elite skill in addition of all their normal skills. Expect many different things, from lightning walls, clones or shield pylons.
• Community suggestion | Killing a mob while the homunculus is stuck on it no longer triggers the homunculus skill cooldown, allowing you to use constantly, as long as your target dies. If you recall it before the enemy death, it will trigger the penalty cooldown.
• The Achievements are now visible ingame!
• You may now find Legendary Altars in some levels. They grant you a legendary item but you'll have to kill all the nearby enemies first. Version 1.1.2
• Fighter Endurance is a new mutation that increases your HP by a percentage which scales with your Brutality. Version 1.1.3
• Upgrading items in Forge now costs a fixed flat price that doesn't scale with difficulty. Upgrading "from ++ to S" for example should now be more affordable in BC3 & BC4. Version 1.1.3
• The Homunculus will now retract if it touches traps like Spikes. Version 1.1.3
• The 5th money blueprint is now available ingame. Version 1.1.3
• Community suggestion | The way the player's HP scales has been vastly rebalanced for Brutality and Tactic. You should have much more HP at higher levels, preventing from being one-shot (if your build is balanced).
• Brutality used to give extra HP until level 14, it now caps at level 45 (30 for Tactic). Version 1.1.6
• Community suggestion | Increased HP given for each scroll you pick. The new values are +60% HP for Brutality, +50% HP for Tactic and +70% HP for Survival. Version 1.1.6
• Community suggestion | 3 shields are now Survival/Tactic: Punishment, Parry Shield and Knockback Shield. Version 1.1.6

Balancing

• Community suggestion | Electricity based weapons now deal critical hits if the target is standing in water.
• Community suggestion | Elite sidekicks mobs can no longer be grabbed by Homunculus
• Community suggestion | Increased (a lot) Homunculus DPS
• Using the Homunculus now breaks invisibility
• Community suggestion | You can recall the homunculus when stuck on an enemy
• Community suggestion | Fixed Homunculus enemy grab distance
• Community suggestion | Pushing a grenade with a shield no longer triggers the "lock penalty timer" of the shield.
• Pushing grenades lying on the ground using the Parry Shield now properly creates additional bonus grenade.
• Magnet grenade deals electric damage (crits in water)
• Community suggestion | Countered bullets can now fly through walls if the countered bullet does.
• Countered bullets now pierce first enemy.
• Player Turrets no longer block enemy bullets.
• Community suggestion | Fixed elite Inquisitor wake distance (at last!)
• Homunculus can now climb ladders.
• Countered bullets will now go back to the enemy that sent it (yes, we're looking at you, Inquisitor!)
• Fixed Lightning Whip not dealing electricity damage in water
• The frontline shield (which won the "Most useless thing" award in 2017) has been updated. It can now be holded to grant invincibility, but this ability needs to be recharged (using parries or just waiting). It's no longer a zombie blueprint.
• Vampirism has been redesigned: it now causes bleeding to all nearby enemies and you get free healing when you kill them. It recharges when using your potion.
• Tonic recharges when using your healing potion. It's blueprint requirement was removed too, so it's available very early in any new game.
• Community suggestion | Partial hits (like the ones you get from blocking instead of parrying with a shield) no longer give you Infection markers.
• Spiteful sword no longer stun enemies if the attack wasn't successful (eg. hitting a shield)
• Added and fixed scores on some monsters for Daily Run Mode
• Community suggestion | Homunculus comes back to you if your main body gets hit.
• Fixed elites level
• Legendary items rerolls at the Forge are now much more expensive, as expected.
• Balanced refine/reroll costs for most items at the Forge. S-tier items cost much more gold in the Forge.
• Ice Crossbow now has a much higher shooting rate but its range has been decreased.
• Community suggestion | Almost tripled the pickup distance of some precious rewards (gold teeth, gold cells etc.)
• Removed incompatible affixes for the Frantic Sword (like "moar damage when full life").
• The Electric Whip has been updated: it deals more damage and has a 3-steps attack sequence.
• Community suggestion | All gems are now automatically picked up as you walk past them.
• Poison cloud now scales damage instead of giving damage reduction.
• Community suggestion | Shields no longr grant damage reduction. Parry damage has been increased for many of them.
• "Combo" mutation deals much more damage but lasts less time.
• Vengeance mutation now reduces damage taken by a fixed percentage after getting hit.
• Community suggestion | YOLO mutation now locks its mutation slot if it was consumed (you cannot remove it). You can still remove it if it wasn't used.
• Community suggestion | You don't get any healing from food when you have the "Dead Inside" mutation.
• Increased damage reduction on "Tough Nut" mutation. It now grants you a move speed buff when you get hit by a trap.
• Community suggestion | "Ripper" mutation now removes up to 3 arrows from enemy's body, dealing damage for each arrow.
• Community suggestion | The "Melee" mutation lasts a little bit longer if the conditions are not met anymore (2 mobs or mob around you).
• Community suggestion | New perk reset costs (very cheap on first use, very expensive for all the next ones).
• "Gastronomy" mutation now grants a DPS buff when you recycle food. This buff lasts 5 min and stacks. It still increases food efficiency if you eat it.
• "Counter Attack" mutation deals almost twice more damage.
• Community suggestion | Cluster bombs spread much farther and each sub grenade deals more damage. It also has a slightly higher attack breach chance.
• Oil Grenade now applies oil on twice larger area, and it lasts longer.
• Community suggestion | Ice Bow now deals more damage but its freeze duration is now 0.5s. This weapon is meant to be an long-range "interrupt" weapon.
• Community suggestion | Fire grenade now scales its damage with the item level and no longer grants damage reduction.
• The Boomerang weapon now goes through all enemies, making it much easier to play. It no longer crits, but its damage were been increased accordingly.
• You may now drop a temporary "increased cell drops" bonus from enemies.
• Affixes like "Shoot an arrow in front of you" or "Throw a grenade" can no longer interrupt enemy attacks.
• Nut Cracker no longer stuns enemies but deals critical strikes to frozen/stun/rooted enemies instead.
• Doubled Spartan Sandal knockback power.
• Swarm Grenade now invokes 2 minions but can be repeated to have up to 8 minions. It now has a 1 sec cooldown. Minions last much longer, and disappear if they are too far from you.
• Alienation mutation now increases the number of enemies you have to kill by +50%
• Acceptance mutation now inflicts Curses when you eat food.
• Community suggestion | Cursed Items no longer have a "+20% dmg taken" penalty (which never actually worked anyway, thanks to a bug). They are now always "++" tier and Colorless.
• Community suggestion | Increased Alchemic Gun attack speed (the DPS didn't change).
• Toxic Cloud is now an "acid" cloud that inflicts bleeding and poisoning. It lasts twice longer.
• Community suggestion | Elemental affixes (ie. "extra damage on fire/bleed/poison") have been balanced. Fire got nerfed.
• Community suggestion | Sadism mutation was removed.
• "Open wounds" is a new mutation that inflicts bleeding on every critical hits you deal to enemies.
• Community suggestion | You can no longer use your Homunculus while cursed.
• Community suggestion | Pyrotechnics weapon deals less damage and has a slightly longer initial casting time.
• Fire Blast weapon description has been updated and its range has been increased.
• Oil disappears more quickly on burning enemies.
• Punishment Shield deals more damage and repels + stuns nearby enemies.
• Community suggestion | Death Orb now explodes after a specific amount of damage dealt, or if the player is too far.
• Slow-down effect after freezing now has a diminishing return limit (ie. it no longer works after X uses on the same enemy).
• Community suggestion | "Long Slow-down after freeze" affix now is 2x longer instead of 4x.
• Community suggestion | Lightning Bolt weapon can now be held beyond the overflow limit. You'll just take damage as long as you hold it.
• Death Orb no longer has a "rally effect" (recover recently lost HP).
• Frost blast now has limited ammunition that automatically refills over time. It also has a slightly longer recovery time.
• The speed buff you get from killing enemies is now twice higher and lasts slightly longer.
• The Grappling Hook now adds a percentage based damage buff that scales with your stats and stuns the victim on your first attack.
• Polished and balanced the Time Keeper! Will be more difficult to beat!
• Balanced some item prices.
• Community suggestion | Spartan Sandal has a much faster casting time and now has a 3-steps attack sequence. The last attack ignores most knock-back resistances.
• Community suggestion | The Rapier "crit window" lasts longer after a roll, allowing for more critical hits if you're fast enough.
• Repeating Crossbow now roots enemies and has 4x more ammo. It inflicts critical hits to rooted targets.
• Repeating Crossbow is now a Tactic/survival weapon
• Increased quality level of all items in shops.
• Community suggestion | Reduced "extra damage on slowed down target" to 25%
• Fixed item duplication exploit.
• Blood Sword bleed lasts much longer but inflicts less damage.
• Increased Hand of the King root resist.
• Community suggestion | All the unused cells you have with you after you beat the Hand of the King will drop in a bag at the beginning of your next game, in the Prison.
• Slightly increased Heavy Turret damage.
• Increased Powerful Grenade damage so it's now actually much more powerful. Its cooldown was decreased.
• Infantry Grenade has a lower cooldown.
• Added "Bleed on parry" affix.
• The BroadSword now inflicts critical hits on 2nd & 3rd strikes.
• Community suggestion | Balanced Blade has almost no chance to interrupt enemy attacks (ie. stagger).
• Community suggestion | Elite sidekicks no longer stop arrows. Version 1.1.1
• Community suggestion | Boomerang can no longer receive "Ammo +3" affix. Version 1.1.2
• Community suggestion | Decreased Cudgel damage. Version 1.1.2
• Spiteful sword now deals critical hits if you're cursed OR if you got hit up to 8 sec ago. Version 1.1.2
• Acceptance mutation now inflicts 5 curses when eating food. Version 1.1.2
• Prevented some affixes to be added to skills with very short cooldown (ie. Swarm). Version 1.1.2
• Corrupted Power cooldown was halved. Version 1.1.2
• "Bow & Endless Quiver" now deals more damage and inflicts a critical hit on last arrow. Version 1.1.2
• Quick Bow deals more dmg for critical hits and has 1 extra ammo. Version 1.1.2
• Duplex bow now shoots 3-arrows at a time and is considered a Tactic/Survival weapon. It's slower, but deals more damage. Version 1.1.2
• Decreased Fire Grenade cooldown. Version 1.1.2
• Decreased Explosive Decoy cooldown. Version 1.1.2
• Decreased Lacerating Aura cooldown. Version 1.1.2
• Decreased Wings of the Crow cooldown. Version 1.1.2
• Community suggestion | Dead Inside mutation now increases your HP by +50%. Version 1.1.3
• Community suggestion | Mobs attacked by the Homunculus will now aggro the hero in BC4. Version 1.1.3
• Community suggestion | Impaler spear now has knockback effect when hitting enemies. Version 1.1.3
• Infantry Grenade now deals about twice more damage. Version 1.1.3
• Beating the HotK is now rewarded with cells. Version 1.1.5
• Fire Turret cooldown is now twice shorter. Version 1.1.5
• Community suggestion | Phazer cooldown was reduced. Version 1.1.5
• Wave of Denial is now twice more powerful, its cooldown is twice shorter and it can repel enemy bullets. Version 1.1.5
• Lacerating Aura can no longer interrupt (stagger) enemy attacks. Version 1.1.5
• Lacerating Aura has a shorter cooldown and a slightly larger area of effect. Version 1.1.6
• Limited the frequency of scrolls on mobs. Version 1.1.6
• Fixed DashShield not properly stopping Thorny mobs when they roll over your face. Version 1.1.7
• Punishment Shield inflicts damage to nearby enemies when blocking arrows or deflecting bombs. Its damage was slightly increased. Version 1.1.7
• Player's diving attack no longer stuns enemies if they are under a full shield protection. Version 1.1.7
• Ice Shard weapon now throws 3 grenades at a time, is twice faster and slows down enemies for twice longer. Version 1.1.7

Level design

• Scrolls lying on the ground should no longer be too close from each others in levels.
• Community suggestion | Updated Roofs & Clock tower for speed runners.
• Added a connection between Prison Depths and Ancient Sewers that requires 1 activated boss cell.
• Sepulchre now has 5 triple scrolls and no doubles.
• Ancient Sewers now have 4 triple scrolls and no doubles.
• Cemetery lost 1 triple scroll.
• Added 3 boss-rune locked doors to Fog Fjord village.
• Added 2 boss-cell locked doors and a few extra stuff in Ancient Sewers.
• Community suggestion | Removed many rooms from Ancient Sewers to make it shorter.
• Minor balance adjustments in Prison Depths.
• Rooms added for Ossuary and The promenade of the Condemned
• New traps added in secret portals!
• Triggered doors now open almost instantly when walking on a pressure plate.
• Minor level design fixes
• Added permanent lights near boss-cell locked doors in Sepulchre. Version 1.1.3
• Spikes in the Throne room now retract after the HotK combat. Version 1.1.4
• Sewer rooms have been updated : the sewers are now narrower Version 1.1.7

Graphics & UI

• Community suggestion | Lightning Bolt color feedback is now more legible.
• The forcefield wall fx (the one surrounding some bosses) has been updated & optimized
• Pause & map are now available in Homunculus mode
• Community suggestion | Added cooldown feedbacks to homunculus skill (hero eye changes color)
• Fixed blood shield showing an area effect on blocking instead of on parrying only.
• Added a feedback to invite you to choose a item to replace
• Some polishes on Pause and HUD: you can now see if an item is a colorless or legendary, and see what tier is used for it
• Fixed boss lifebar weird resizing
• Some little UI fixes
• Bats position on ceil has been improved
• Pendulum can be tingled by bullets now.
• Added cell animation in Collector UI
• Improved camera during Boss Battle
• Added a label in Save UI to know if these are from the Early Access.
• Clock Tower: fixed color doors and polish in background
• Cursed Treasure have now a background + the treasure color in the map
• Added various feedback on various UI window
• Added a fourth panel in GameInfos to show the current gameplay modifiers
• You can no longer access to superior forge rank if you don't have the required boss cells.
• The door behind the Guillain's Mutation shop now shows a better explanation if you try to open it while it's locked.
• "Nerves of Steel" bow and "Boomerang" skins have been updated.
• Improved a lot of UI for our mouse users!
• Community suggestion | Updated some confusing translations ("victim burns", etc)
• Fixed Hayabusa Gauntlets description.
• Community suggestion | Added a limit to the "critical hits" related screen flashing.
• Made many cinematic animations (like teleporting, or crossing doors) a little bit faster.
• Added "Resist" feedback on mobs that can resist to all slow-down effects (ie. Hand of the King)
• Fixed Twin Daggers damage in its description.
• Weapons that have unconditional critical hits (like Twin Dagger or Broadsword) now only show a single DPS value in their description. Version 1.1.2
• Long-press feedback (like when recycling items) now shows up on top of everything. Version 1.1.3
• Community suggestion | You can now break hidden wall blocks using the "Activate" button/key (useful if they are difficult to hit with your current weapons). Version 1.1.3
• Removed blood fx for critical hits on background props. Version 1.1.7

Bug fixes

• Ammo stuck on Hand of the King now drop if he jumps.
• Community suggestion | Fixed Hand of the King attack that did damage the player before the animation actually hits. It also no longer hits player if he's behind the boss on 3rd strike.
• Fixed Hand of the King issues with Bear Traps.
• Lightnings generated by an affix no longer hit nearby doors.
• DirectX "device removed" errors are now handled correctly.
• Fixed Infection reset exploit during loading screens.
• You can now sell an item directly from a dual altar.
• Fixed crash after reloading a game during a Gameplay Twitch vote
• Oil Grenade now applies oil on its target properly, even if the target was already burning.
• Community suggestion | Deflecting a grenade with a shield now properly triggers shield "on successful parry" effects (if they can apply), and it no longer locks player controls for 0.5s.
• The Hunter Grenade no longer has any gameplay affix.
• Ally worms no longer attack doors
• Fixed bullets through walls exploit
• Homunculus attacks can no longer be blocked by shields.
• Fixed multi activating item with one activate button push
• The Collector door will automaticaly open if you have nothing to unlock
• Fixed blueprints not showed in Collector UI the first time
• Community suggestion | Fixed gastronomy mutation description
• The mouse cursor is now correctly hidden (DirectX version) Version 1.1.2
• Fixed PoisonSkin affix (poison enemies if you receive dmg) affecting mobs that shouldn't be affectable. Version 1.1.3
• Boss Cell should no longer drop in spikes after HotK combat. Version 1.1.3
• The first bomb (that splits into smaller ones) thrown by the Grenader enemy now properly inflicts damage. Version 1.1.6
• Fixed small grenades from Grenader mobs that couldn't be countered. Version 1.1.7
• Wrenchip whip no longer ignore shields on 3rd hit (it's a kick, not a whip hit). Version 1.1.7
• Fixed Elite Archer asynchronous attack anim. Version 1.1.7
• Fixed asynchronous animations when a mob is slowed down (using frost weapons for example). Version 1.1.7
• Fixed Wave of Denial being sometime resisted for no reason. Version 1.1.7
• Fixed enemy bumps (like using Spartan or Wave of Denial) being resisted for no reason. Version 1.1.7
• Fixed Spartan boots hit box (not hitting enemies that are too close from you). Version 1.1.7

Footnotes

References