Hey everyone,
We've put a new alpha out for our next free update, introducing The Bank!
This is a brand new optional biome that randomly appears in your run, replacing the following biome if you choose to enter it.
To unlock it you just need to reach the Hand of the King once. If you've already reached the Hand of the King, then The Bank will start appearing the next time you start from Prisoner's Quarters.
We're also introducing more ways of using gold. When you finish a run there's often a ton of gold left, so we wanted to give it more utility through new weapons and mutations - it will change nothing for people who don't want to risk their gold, but those who do can gain strong but risky effects.
So how do you get there?
A flashy chest is guaranteed to appear at a random point in your run, in the transition area between biomes (but not before a boss). You can only enter The Bank by opening the chest right there, if you don't go for it then you lose the opportunity and the chest won't reappear in the same run.
The Bank will replace the next biome in your path. For example, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters, you will exit The Bank having skipped the biomes after Prisoner's Quarters - Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum (if you have The Bad Seed DLC of course!).
The Bank will contain one less scroll than the 'best' biome that's being replaced, i.e. the one with the most scrolls. It will also contain a guaranteed Cursed Chest. For example, if the 'best' replaced biome has 4 scrolls, the Bank will have 3 scrolls + a Cursed Chest.
There are several platforming sequences in The Bank that are tricky but give good rewards if you're willing to take them on. You'll also be able to take out a loan for gold at the beginning of the level, but you'll have to pay it all back at the end, so take care not to spend it all...
What's in it?
Enemies
Mobs will be present from all the biomes that The Bank has replaced. So, if you enter The Bank at the transition after Prisoner's Quarters you will face mobs from Toxic Sewers, Promenade of the Condemned and Dilapidated Arboretum.
There's also three new Bank-specific mobs:
Evil Guillain wants your gold and has the claws to get it.
Gold Gorger collects gold as it grows, but don't let it reach it's final form, it'll kick your ass!
Golden Kamikaze Bat is the same bat you know and love, but it drops more moneyyy!
Weapons
We're also adding three new weapons, all centered around gold of course!
Gold Digger - gives gold on hits plus critical hits if you're filthy rich.
Dagger of Cupidity - crits for 3 secs after picking up gold.
Money Shooter - fires your gold. If you run out of gold, no more shots...
Mutations
You can find three new mutations too! You won't believe it, but these are also focused on gold mechanics...
Midas' Blood - gives you gold when you lose health.
Gold Plating - you lose gold, not health, when you get hit.
Get Rich Quick - stack bonus gold by killing enemies while you have a speed boost and cash in when it ends. Gotta go fast...
Other changes
- Vampirism rework - now you sacrifice a percentage% of your maximum health and can recover % of your HP per attack and gain a speed boost for 10 seconds.
- Scarecrow outfits now have proper names!
- Maw of the Deep and Bladed Tonfas tooltips updated to reflect the changes made in the DLC3 hotfix.
How to access the alpha:
In and out, real quick. 20 minute adventure...
Back up your save first although the alpha shouldn't affect your saves (if the worst happens then there’s a save restore hack detailed here), then follow the instructions below to access the alpha:
- Go to your Steam game library.
- Right click on Dead Cells and click "properties".
- Select the tab "Betas".
- In the first dropdown box select "Alpha - Not for the faint hearted".
- Click close and wait for the upload to finish downloading.
- Start playing.
Bear in mind that everything is still being tweaked according to feedback, so some things may break, have strange interactions or just straight up crash the game.
If you want to leave feedback you can do so in the comments here, or on our official Discord - there are two channels called the-bank-alpha-discussion and the-bank-alpha-feedback. After a few days we might also send out a few questions but for the moment just have a mess around and see what's up!
Thanks for taking part :)
Cheers,
Matt, EE & MT