Version 1.8, officially The Bestiary Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 22nd of April 2020 to PC, and on the 27th of May 2020 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.

The Bestiary Update added a long list of smaller new features, most notably two new items and six new enemies scattered around different difficulties and biomes, as well as addressing issues and missing features in The Bad Seed DLC.

Important features

• New affixes!
  • We added 11 new affixes on active skills, aimed primarily at growing the pool of affixes available for some items that didn't have enough. Yes Corrupted Power, I'm looking at you.

• 8 new normal affixes:
  • Ice, fire, bleed or poison on nearby floors or enemies when the effect of the used active ends
  • A grenade, a volley of arrows, or fire spreads when a deployable trap is destroyed
  • Get all your arrows back when using a skill

• 3 new starred affixes:
  • Oil and fire spread around when a deployable trap is destroyed
  • Push enemies around you when the effect of the used active ends
  • Extended duration for powers like Wings of the Crow or Smokebomb

• 6 New Mobs!
  • Six brand news enemies. 3 are biome specific, 3 are dispatched through various levels at differents Boss Cells. For the time being, and until the live release, we prefer letting you unveil their exact locations and types.
  • The 'common' enemy pool was getting a bit too small considering the addition of new levels, and the BC enemies were always too few and hence too repetitive for our tastes. 6 New Mobs!

• 2 New items
  • Crowbar (part of the 17.3 'Half-Life' pack patch). Fast brutality weapon that crits after breaking a door or a breakable prop.
  • Portable Door: Allows you to bring a door with you - covering your back while you take care of the mobs in front of you and allowing for an elegant stun effect when you decide to turn around.

• Half-life diet
  • Completing the Freeman' role play pack with medpacks for a true immersion.

• The Bad Seed | New lore rooms and secrets for the Arboretum and the Morass. Good hunting!
• The Bad Seed | Balanced bestiary:
  • We took the opportunity of adding new mobs to re-balance the bestiary of the levels in questions. While there isn't any new mobs in the 'Bad Seed' levels, we've tweaked the numbers to make these biomes fairer. Let us know what you think!

• Ten (10) new achievements!
  • Eight of them are related to The Bad Seed DLC. Classic achievements like "Reach the Arboretum" or more ... secret ones.
  • The other two are accessible by everyone. Version 1.8.3

• Community suggestion | A new feedback has been implemented for some weapons for weapon which have critical hits for a set duration. Version 1.8.3
  • Balanced Blade
  • Crowbar
  • Flashing Fans (from The Bad Seed DLC)
  • Frantic Sword
  • Oiled Sword
  • Rapier
  • Spite Sword
  • Swift Sword
  • Symmetrical Lance
  • Tentacle Whip

• Three new outfits have been added to the game.
  • Two are linked to the secrets and lore of The Bad Seed DLC. One is available for everyone that can rise up to the ultimate challenge. (Version 1.8.3)

Balancing

• The Bad Seed | Blueprint drop chances of the new items lowered.
• Cavern mobs' health and damage lowered in all difficulties to make up for the hell-ish bestiary down there,
• The Bad Seed | Mushroom Boi now break your invisibility on attack.
• The Bad Seed | Improved Tick Scythes hitboxes to better hit downward.
• The Bad Seed | Ticks now bump slightly on attacks.
• The Bad Seed | Ticks now drop five cells and some gold upon death.
• The Bad Seed | Improved Jerkshroom throwing curve to prevent direct hits from below.
• The Bad Seed | Thrown Jerkshrooms no longer hurt you when colliding in the air. Who the hell thought it was a good idea?! ... Oh.
• Knives Thowers now always dodge or dash once before starting to attack you.
• Added a protection to player when jumping down from one way platforms to avoid taking hits when a mob on the platform is attacking.
• Frozen enemies are now interrupted in their attacks. No more surprise hits after defrosting your Failed Experiment!
• Community suggestion | Removed Death Orb damage cap.
• Community suggestion | Marksman Bow can now have damage bonus affixes.
• Community suggestion | Ice Armor now gives damage reduction instead of bonus damages on higher levels.
• Community suggestion | Ice Armor and Ice Shield can no longer have affixes which break the ice immediatly. If you want to break the ice, you'll have to use some clever jokes instead.
• Enemy grenades repelled by Ice Shield freeze enemies on explosion.
• Shield Bearers can now damage deployables.
• Community suggestion | Improved reactivity of the crouching hitbox. Version 1.8.2
• Community suggestion | Reduced height of Dark Tracker hitbox to better match the animation. Version 1.8.2
• The Bad Seed | Community suggestion | The Mushroom Boi! no longer attacks when you are invisible. Version 1.8.3
• Community suggestion | Force Shield ammo decay is now way slower before absorbing one hit. Version 1.8.3
• Community suggestion | Small amount of damages will no longer break the ice (excepted Fire damages). Version 1.8.4

Level design

• The Bad Seed | Slightly improved the Prison exit to Arboretum.
• The Bad Seed | The Nest is now a right to left level to stay coherent with the Morass.
• The Bad Seed | Neighbourgh rooms in Arboretum are now inter-connected. No more maze-like structure.
• The Bad Seed | Reversed Arboretum, Morass and Nest transition to stay coherent with the levels. Version 1.8.1
• Community suggestion | Prevented the Arboretum entrance from appearing too close to the beginning of the game. Version 1.8.2
• Community suggestion | Added a teleport at the very beginning of Cemetery so mobs don't spawn too close to the entrance. Version 1.8.2

Graphics & UI

• The Bad Seed | Added FX for Carnivorous Plant bite.
• The Bad Seed | Added a (very small) cinematic when entering Mama Tick arena.
• Dead Cells window is now titled ... Dead Cells. Version 1.8.2

Quality of life

• The Bad Seed | Community suggestion | Improved Carnivorous Plant interactions. Notably with stomps and Telluric Shock.
• The Bad Seed | Added a warning before Carnivorous Plant bite.
• The Bad Seed | Added a better feedback for Rythm'n Bouzouki timing.
• The Bad Seed | Changed Rythm'n Bouzouki description to clarify that you can chain the last hit indefinitly given the correct timing.
• Some teleporters in the Morass and Clock Tower will activate from further away to avoid useless backtracking.
• Community suggestion | Elite Shrines are now colored diferently on the map.
• Community suggestion | Added a clear explanation of what went wrong when the loading of a mod failed.
• Community suggestion | Clarified what went wrong in the error report when trying to create a mod which may impact the DLC security.
• You can no longer grab ledges directly leading to spikes.
• Enigma doors (Courtyard's tower of roses, etc.) are now always open when the enigma has been solved once.
• Secret blueprints are no longer replaced by gems when they have been found once. The gold amount for the whole level stays unchanged. The goal is to avoid forcing you to go out of your way to seek those gems.

Music & SFX

• Community suggestion | Interrupt the charge attack sound when the enemy is killed or interrupted. Version 1.8.3

Bug fixes

• The Bad Seed | Fixed Carnivorous Plants closing while a cinematic is ongoing.
• The Bad Seed | Fixed Yeeters hitbox.
• The Bad Seed | Fixed some bugs with Mushroom Boi running in place.
• The Bad Seed | Fixed Rythm'n Bouzouki timing detection for the third hit. Oups?
• The Bad Seed | Fix rare camera problems and minimap display in the Morass.
• (Twitch) Fixed Dual-scrolls transforming into Triple Scrolls when nobody voted.
• Fixed Magic Missiles and Pyrotechnics always shooting twice even when tapping the button.
• Fixed a certain secret boss hitbox on thrust attack. No more crouching under, beware!
• Fixed some projectiles not colliding correctly with doors.
• Fixed Ice Armor not protecting from spikes.
• Fixed some crashes.
• Fixed item description not appearing when you are accompagnied by a friendly mob. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Earthquaker hitting through walls. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Comboter hitting through walls. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Conjonctivius drops sometimes not spawning. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Conjonctivius platforms disappearing on reload. Version 1.8.2
• Improved some crash error messages. So it crashes just as often, but now we know why. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed a typo in the french description of the Warrior Shield. An english patchnote entry for a french typo ... cool. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Lightning Whip hitting hidden blocks through walls. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed Tentacles hitting behind them while sweeping (the Hook should be safer to use on them now). Version 1.8.2
• The Bad Seed | Fixed a seed error in Arboretum. Ah! Bad seed ... ehehe. Version 1.8.2
• The Bad Seed | Fixed a crash on hero death while the Mushroom Boi! was active. Version 1.8.2
• Fixed missing collisions in some Clock Tower rooms. Version 1.8.3

References