Version 2.5, officially the Practice Makes Perfect Update, is a major update to Dead Cells that was released on the 16th of September 2021 to PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the Nintendo Switch.

The Practice Makes Perfect Update introduced several new Quality of Life features to assist the general player-base, including a training hall, Aspects (which are like super-powered mutations), as well as a World Map that logs available routes between biomes which have been previously explored.

Important features

This update has brand new features to help onboarding of new, returning or casual Dead Cells players.

• Community suggestion: Training Room
  • Prisoners' Quarters just got a bit less inhospitable! An old acquaintance makes a surprising return to help the Beheaded train against the many threats of the island!
  • To unlock this feature, you'll need to find a key on the corpse of a certain short-lived NPC in Prisoner's Quarters...
  • Enter the Training Room from the starting section of Prisoners' Quarters, spawn mobs that you already fought and train against them! You can also fight bosses that you encountered in previous runs.
• Aspects
  • Aspects are super strong yet optional perks equippable at the start of a run to make the game easier. There is a catch though: you can't unlock a new boss cell nor unlock flawless boss achievements while an Aspect is equipped.
  • 3 are unlocked by default and you get a new one at random every time you die.
  • Aspects are unlocked right after the introduction runs at the start of the game.
• World Map
  • Access the World Map from the existing Biome Map. It features all the Biomes you have already discovered, as well as the paths between all of them! (We unfortunately cannot guess what transitions you already discovered, time to explore all that again...)_.
  • It will also show you the path you took during your current run.
  • We hope you'll like the look of locked biomes, it's been a... heated subject, to say the least.
  • The World Map is unlocked by default.
• New No-Hit Outfits
  • Beat your favorite bosses without taking any hit to unlock an Exclusive Golden Outfit! (aka, bragging rights.)
• Incentive for picking your least visited biomes. The info is available at the Exit Door and on the World Map when applicable. Mobs will drop more cells in those biomes.
• Multi-Binding is now properly removed from Normal Mode and only available in Custom Mode. A new menu in custom mode has been created to configure an alternate binding profile that enables Multi-Binding, and to enable it for your next custom run.

Level design

• New lore rooms.

Quality of life

• Reminder after killing the Hand of the King to use the Homonculus Rune to exit the run (except in 5BC or after the first 0BC kill).
• Community suggestion: You can now sell Flask Refills.
• Current total damage update is now displayed in the Scroll Picker menu.
• Return Stones now teleport you outside their relative Z-Door.
• And a few more coming in the upcoming testing phases.
• Added a hint as to where to find the fifth Boss Cell, for the unfortunate misguided ones.
• Blueprints blocked by DLCs are now indicated on the Collector's UI
• New sign after the Collector, gently asking you not to break the door.

Bug fixes

The Backpack has received some love, in the form of... bugfixes! (yay)

• Can no longer drop the backpack item mid-cutscene.
• Fireblast and Lighting Bolt used in main hands can trigger Acrobatipack
• Fireblast and Lighting Bolt used by Acrobatipack can no longer trigger indefinitely.
• DoT effects applied by your Backpack weapon have their damage nerfed accordingly.
• Switching the Backpack's UI position no longer sets your stats to 0.
• Putting your Backpack weapon into an empty slot doesn't hide the UI anymore.
• Parrying with Armadillopack only applies the affixes of your Backpack shield instead.
• Everything can be parried with Armadillopack! (At least we hope)
• Using Porcupack with Seismic Strike roots enemies.
• War Javelins fired with Acrobatipack return instantly.
• Hitting a Thorny's back while having Porcupack equipped properly deals damage.

Misc. fixes

• Crystal Turrets spawned from Elite Mobs won't lose track of the player.
• Demolishers and Oven Knights no longer turn around when rooted.
• A certain room in a certain spoiler level had floating props... not anymore.

Crashes, so many crashes

References