[Dead Cells] is a roguelite Castlevania

webber

I have died twice in the same spot of the graveyard. Those chain dudes destroy me.

Delzhand

The game really likes to start me out with the whip and infantry bow. The whip suuuuucks.

I'm finding that skills builds are definitely the way to go. I had double turrets on my last run and it was ridiculous (right up to the point where an elite skeleton warrior tore my spine out through my asshole)

captaink

The whip seems okay as a secondary weapon. But to only have it and, like, a bow is really rough.

webber

I think the whip can crit for a whole lot, and it hits mulitple enemies, but you probably need to practice with it enough to know the necessary distance.

Fiskebent

I have a run with some pretty good combos going.
Blood Sword + Sadist sword. Hit once with the blood sword to apply bleeding and then crit for days with the sadist sword. Usually you only have to hit once.
Fire grenade + meat grinder. The meat grinder has +100% damage on burning targets. And after enemies die, they release biters. This can clear a whole group of enemies really fast.

I made it through Ossuary for the first time with this.

Mostlyjoe13

Whips not that bad actually, but it's more a 'have to lead your foes' kinda weapon. Wish there was an upgrade for it, like a decent one.

Also very happy this is a 'out of the park' early access.

Aegis

From watching a stream of the game, and playing it myself, I thought amulets topped out at 10-15% damage reduction.

Until I found a 30% damage reduction amulet in a shop. Suffice it to say, that run killed the first boss no problem.

Delzhand

I had a ridiculous run featuring that amulet earlier.

Fire Mace with +35% to bleeding targets
Throwing Knives with "enemies who die while bleeding spread bleeding to nearby enemies" (the range of which is way bigger than you'd expect)
Knife Storm with "enemies explode when they die"
Meat Grinder with +35% to burning enemies

Throwing Knives seem underrated. You don't have to aim them so they're fantastic at killing the fliers.

Aegis

Some patch notes are out on the beta version for a bit before moving over to live in a week (?). I appreciate that there are a good number of changes and additions in there.

Dranyth

Yeah, you can opt-in to the beta version on Steam if you want it early.

Delzhand

The stuff in the beta is awesome. My first new run I got an amulet that left fire as I ran, and paired it with the Oil Sword and Fire Mace (which now has much faster attack).

But it also introduces a fatal error that crashes to the desktop, so... maybe wait for a stable release.

captaink

Faster freeze blast and some shield improvements were definitely needed. Same with the ice bow buff. Excited to play with some of the new oil and electricity stuff. I can't remember much standing water in most levels though? A little in Ramparts and I guess the sewer sludge counts.

Delzhand

I finally made it to the last boss, I think. While I typically favor the safety of skill builds, this time I built an early lead with strength and then picked up my favorite combo - throwing knives and sadist's sword.

azith28

The beta is amazing...they definately toned down the enemies a bit...i actually killed the first boss without cheating....either that or the new weapons are just massively op. I had the sword that applied oil and the flame brand and the brand just rocks everything. I found 3 or 4 new weapons. One is a spear that crits if the enemy is up against a wall? (I havent unlocked it yet), the other is a sword thats called a 'balanced' sword that allows endless combo's...which is pretty great. Also, I found the broadsword, its actually on a corpse you interact with but its slow, and im not a fan of slow weapons. I think I would prefer they keep this level of difficulty available as an 'easy' mode...its still difficult, but much less daunting than before while still being challenging.

Delzhand

I didn't expect the Nutcracker to be any good when I unlocked it, because I assumed it'd be slow like the broadsword, but it actually comes out pretty fast and is a good way to consistently stun enemies and set them up for further punishment. I ran with Nutcracker/Impaler last night and really liked it.

azith28

What is the nutcracker anyway? It showed up in my list of equipment without me finding a pattern for it, but have not seen it spawn yet. Is it a mace?

Delzhand

It's a hammer. It popped up the first time I talked to the Collector after getting the beta. Its special effect is that it stuns enemies with over 75% health. I don't think it carries a ton of DPS, so it is best used probably as a secondary with a reliable crit weapon like Assassin Dagger or Twin Blades.

Zxerol

Let me express my adoration of molotov cocktails.

The fact they are (ammo-less?) weapons and not items with cooldowns is just cake.

Al_wat

this game is really fun

I've played like, 3 or 4 deaths worth.

I'm not sure if I made it to the first or second boss. Because I fought a dude who seemed like he was a boss, but then the second guy I fought that was a boss was definitely a boss. I died to him but I almost beat him.

Maybe the first guy was only a mini boss?

second guy:

He was big, white, had a flame shield move and a flame wave type move

Zxerol

The for-reals bosses have named introductions and a big-ass healthbar as a proper videogame boss should. The duders you fought previously are elite monsters, from which you get stuff from the first time (and then they appear randomly on the maps).

There are two bosses in the game ATM.

Aegis

First guy was a mini boss I believe as a way to introduce you to more terrifying enemies and a way to gate the runes. Second Guy is the first boss.

Al_wat

first guy i fought definitely seemed too easy to be a real boss

Delzhand

Oh, right - the Vine/Teleport guardians. They're one time fights you'll probably clear in the first few hours of play, and then forget they exist.

Fiskebent

My favorite route now is Ossuary and Prison Depths. It's pretty hard, but if you make it through you come out on the other side with some stupid good equipment.

Also, fighting elites in the Prison Depths is super intense and fun.

Drellok

Myself and @Erevar have been playing this like crack. The game is definitely satisfying as a roguelite. I'm ~ 20 hours in and I think Erevar has about 70+ hours (probably some idle time in there, but still).

Have any of y'all opted into the beta for it? How's it running for you? I've gotten a handful of Fatal Errors, the majority of which occur when going into the Promenade level.

Delzhand

Yeah the Promenade bug happens maybe every 1 in 5 runs. But since the game autosaves as you enter the in-between area with the Collector, you never lose any progress. Well worth it for the new items, IMO.

Drellok

Delzhand wrote: »

Yeah the Promenade bug happens maybe every 1 in 5 runs. But since the game autosaves as you enter the in-between area with the Collector, you never lose any progress. Well worth it for the new items, IMO.

Agreed. Worth it for the beta items, yes, but sometimes it's just a momentum killer for me.

Erevar

Definitely glad I picked this up!

Skills are the way to go, man. Strength is just too risky.

Also Damage Buffer + Death Orb is OP. (20-ish MB mp4, assuming the link works + SPOILERS if you haven't fought the last boss)

Fiskebent

I made it to the watcher for the first time and got wrecked. Even with a VII Death Orb and 8 points in Skill. I think it did 3300 damage per second.

Erevar

Death Orb is a skill, but it behaves like a weapon for the purpose of the Rally mechanic - if you take damage, but then Death Orb mobs, you can recover your orange health.

azith28

I usually put my scrolls into strength when given a choice because the skill only scrolls seem a lot more common than str only scrolls.

I dunno how you guys are getting death orb to do so much damage the one time i tried it it seemed really really weak.

Fiskebent

When I started out, I put most points into strength as well. But lately, I've begun to put more into skill. Using stuff like flamethrower and grenades is much safer and gets me further - even if it takes longer.

chuck steak

Has anything been said about the likelyhood of progress getting wiped at some point?

azith28

I'm guessing thats unlikely. When i activated the beta, it automatically used my current save game, so its probably saved to a file for easy loading between updates/versions.

Fiskebent

Is there any way to activate something when there's an item on the ground right in front of it? I'm stuck in one of the small rooms you get to by teleporting. Unfortunately, one of the monsters in the room dropped something right on top of the statue, so I can't get out

Dranyth

That was something that was fixed in the beta path, according to the notes. Items dropping in front of usable things.

Fiskebent

Ah, OK. Guess I'm screwed then...

Erevar

Fiskebent wrote: »

Is there any way to activate something when there's an item on the ground right in front of it? I'm stuck in one of the small rooms you get to by teleporting. Unfortunately, one of the monsters in the room dropped something right on top of the statue, so I can't get out

Usually you can jump and leave the room while airborne.

azith28

Humm.. found some new stuff last night. I don't think i like the nutcracker. too unwieldly.
The balanced sword is still pretty great, but without a cool affix, its kinda bland.
Still hate shields.
spears don't feel great. maybe as a secondary weapon they might work better but the limits they have on them seem off. like hitting an enemy against a wall is pretty limited, same with the other spear but i cant recall exactly what it did.

The wierd thing is that the best normal weapons are ones that act like the special weapons. Like the throwing knife, or the flaming brand. I like bows too, but they have an obvious range of 'annoyingly useless (ice bow)' to 'holy crap thats OP' (just about every other bow).

More weapons to choose from is good i suppose but every new weapons makes getting that perfect combo of weapons (like oil sword and flaming brand for instance) harder to find.

I love this game.

Penumbra

I felt like I cheated the game hard last night. Early on I got a 30% DR neck that allowed me two extra jumps. And before I left the first area, I had two horizontal turrets. I never thought you could have two of the same skill, but boy it was more than a little overpowered.

I leveraged that into getting the teleport rune finally and made it all the way to the graveyard. I feel like skill builds are far and away the easier way to play this game. I can't think of a reason I'd ever use any shield just because they're so clunky.