Version 2.4, officially the What's the Damage Update, and also known as the Balancing Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 10th of June 2021 to PC, on the 12th of August 2021 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch, and on the 21st of September 2021 to iOS and Android.

The What's the Damage Update rebalanced numerous items in the game, improved mod support, and brought new combat rooms to Fatal Falls DLC biomes as well as the Derelict Distillery. Furthermore, this version brought the long missing Custom Mode to iOS and Android.^[8]

Important features

Main changes made in this update:

• Multi-binding removed (Edit: cancelled for now, will be done in a future update)
• Weapons that can reflect grenades now reflect all the grenades in range
• Disengage now always prevents death if it’s off cooldown
• One-hit protection doesn’t go on cooldown if Disengage triggers to save the player
• Mod support enhanced (now using Tiled to create rooms)
• New extra rooms for Derelict Distillery, Fractured Shrines and Undying Shores

Balancing

Melee Weapons:

• Buffs:
  • Balanced Blade (weapon damage and damage bonus increased)
  • Assassin’s Dagger (weapon damage increased)
  • Twin Daggers (first two attacks weapon damage and breach bonus increased)
  • Broadsword (weapon damage increased + damage slightly redistributed among the 3 attacks)
  • Cursed Sword (weapon damage increased + all attacks now crit)
  • Shrapnel Axes (weapon damage increased)
  • Seismic Strike (wave damage increased)
  • War Spear (shorter charge + weapon damage and breach bonus increased)
  • Impaler (weapon damage increased)
  • Rapier (weapon damage and crit enabler duration increased)
  • Hayabusa Boots (weapon damage increased + last hit now reflects all grenades in its hitbox)
  • Wrenching Whip (breach bonus increased)
  • Torch (weapon damage increased (impact only))
  • Flawless (weapon damage and crit multiplier increased)
  • Flashing Fans (crit multiplier increased + correctly enables crit upon bouncing a grenade back)
  • Tombstone (weapon damage increased + doom now stuns enemies it hits + slow mo reduced + slow mo can now correctly be disabled through the options menu)
  • Oven Axe (weapon damage and breach increased, charge slightly reduced)
  • Toothpick (broken duration reduced)
  • Sadist’s Stiletto (crit multiplier increased)
  • Spiked Boots (crit multiplier increased)
  • Oiled Sword (crit multiplier increased)
  • Snake Fangs (weapon damage and crit multiplier increased)
• Nerf:
  • Sadist’s Stiletto (poison cloud affix removed)
  • War Spear (crit multiplier decreased)

Ranged Weapons:

• Buffs:
  • Bow and Endless Quiver (weapon damage increased + arrows work like other bows)
  • Sonic Carbine (weapon damage increased)
  • Ice Bow (freeze duration increased)
  • Boomerang (weapon damage increased + slightly faster travel speed)
  • The Boy’s Axe (weapon damage and breach increased)
  • Nerves of Steel (weapon damage increased)
  • Firebrands (impact damage increased)
  • Pyrotechnics (can now have both Pierce affixes)
  • Fire Blast (weapon damage increased)
  • Magic Missiles (weapon damage increased)
  • Blowgun (added a poison DoT)
• Nerfs:
  • Quick Bow (crit condition now at 3 arrows instead of 2)
  • Alchemic Carbine (DoT duration, cloud duration and dps decreased)
  • Hokuto’s Bow (DPS bonus, duration and aoe range decreased)
  • Electric Whip (DoT dps decreased)
  • Ice Shards (weapon damage, slow duration and crit multiplier decreased)

Shields:

• Buffs:
  • Front Line Shield (bonus buffed to 50%, was 30)
  • Cudgel (stun duration increased)
  • Knockback Shield (weapon damage increased)
  • Assault Shield (weapon damage increased)
  • Greed Shield (weapon damage increased)
  • Spiked Shield (weapon damage increased)
  • Parry Shield (increased reflected projectiles damage)
• Nerfs:
  • Punishment (weapon damage decreased)
  • Thunder Shield (DoT dps and stun duration decreased)

Skills:

• Buffs:
  • Infantry Grenade (damage increased)
  • Stun Grenade (damage duration and range increased)
  • Ice Grenade (freeze duration increased)
  • Root Grenade (damage increased)
  • Swarm (worm stats increased)
  • Tornado (damage increased + cd reduced)
  • Corrupted Power (damage buff increased)
  • Lightspeed (damage increased on both)
  • Lightning Rods (instant damage increased)
  • Scarecrow Sickles (damage increased)
  • Barnacle (damage increased)
• Nerfs:
  • Flamethrower Turret (DPS and duration decreased)
  • Tesla Coil (DPS, DoT and range decreased)
  • Lacerating Aura (DPS and duration decreased)
  • Great Owl of War (reactivated version dps decreased)
  • Crusher (damage decreased)
  • Tonic (duration and bonus health decreased)

Mutations:

• Buffs:
  • Vengeance (bonus increased)
  • Adrenaline (duration increased)
  • Scheme (bonus increased)
  • Porcupack (starting value increased)
  • Ripper (now drops 6 ammos and damage per ammo increased)
  • Networking (starting value increased)
  • Point Blank (starting value and growth increased)
  • Soldier Resistance (starting value and cap increased)
  • Blind Faith (starting value and cap increased)
  • Counterattack (bonus increased)
  • What Doesn’t Kill Me (starting value and cap increased + internal cooldown reduced)
  • Extended Healing (duration reduced, for the same heal)
  • Spite (damage increased)
  • Frostbite (damage increased)
  • Instinct of the Master of Arms (internal cooldown reduced)
  • Recovery (duration multiplier increased)
  • Necromancy (starting value and cap increased)
• Nerfs:
  • Barbed Tips (DPS and tickrate decreased + no longer causes ammo to drop when combined with Ripper)
  • Gastronomy (healing bonus decreased)
  • Heart of Ice (starting value and cap decreased)
  • Emergency Triage (healing and speed bonus decreased)
  • Disengagement (activation threshold decreased and internal cooldown increased)

Other changes:

• Ice Shards weapon now has a 3 second slowdown effect (down from 5). Update 24.1
• Parry Shield counter projectiles now deal damage. Update 24.1
• Tombstone does not allow crit affixes anymore due to its specific behaviour. Update 24.1
• Shovel (damage increased). Update 24.1
• Tentacle (damage increased). Update 24.1
• Katana (invincibility frames removed and forward movement reduced on basic attacks). Please note that the charged attack is unchanged. Update 24.1

Level design

New rooms:

Added some new rooms in each of the 3 following biome to enhance diversity and fighting situations:

• Derelict Distillery
• Fractured Shrines
• Undying Shores

Mods

Tiled integration:

Mod Support is evolving with Tiled integration to foster new rooms creation by the community. Please refer to the updated documentation to follow the guidelines.

Bug fixes

• Preventing softlock when fighting Conjunctivius boss with Snake Fangs weapon. Update 24.1
• Preventing softlock while using the Hunter Grenade weapon on the Giant Tick enemy. Update 24.1
• Preventing softlock if a double KO occurs during the true final boss fight. Update 24.1
• Preserving active turrets when a multi-forms weapon is evolving. Update 24.1
• Removing that damn pink square on the BC selector. Update 24.1
• Skull icon for the kill counter is fixed when you get the gold version after reloading the run. Update 24.1
• Elite Rampager enemies don’t pause their charge anymore after roaring. Update 24.1
• Slashers enemies can’t override the “Cannot be interrupted by an enemy’s attack” affix anymore. Update 24.1
• No more messages notifying a malaise tier increase when reducing infection. Update 24.1
• Some minor bug fixes. Update 24.1
• Option to prevent the Malaise cure from potions in Custom mode is fixed. Update 24.2
• Preventing a softlock camera issue on Morass of the Banished biome. Update 24.2
• Mod Support documentation improvements. Update 24.2

References