Dead Cells Update 35 “The End is Near” released, patch notes

Hello everyone!

It's taken longer than usual to prepare, but better late than never: The End is Near, Update 35, is here! In this update, we're packing in new mobs, weapons, mutations, and biome effects, all of which expand on the curse mechanic, over 40 new head skins, nearly 20 new legendary affixes, additional accessibility options, and more!

In short:
New additions based on one of our most iconic game mechanics, “Curse”: 3 new mobs, 3 new weapons, 3 new mutations, and a new biome effect that lets you choose whether or not to take the risk for more rewards.
New legendary affixes.
Over 40 new heads for customization options.
New routing: You can now reach both Return to Castlevania biomes in one playthrough.
More accessibility options.

New Curse Additions:

3 new mobs:
Sore Loser: a cute guy who can't hurt you but is super clingy and annoying and always tries to get close to you and run through you. If you kill him, you'll be cursed.
Doom Bringer: Each melee attack does no damage, but inflicts 2 stacks of curse and stuns you. Also, if you already have 50 stacks of curse, you die instantly. Sounds pretty fair, right?

Curser: He shoots a slow, homing projectile that can penetrate walls. If you are “accidentally” hit by this projectile, you take damage and 5 stacks of curse. Another surprise! If you get close to him, he will hit you with his staff.

Please note that cursed mobs do not randomly appear in your run! (yes, we know cursed mobs sound a bit scary and even annoying)
There is a new biome effect, “Cursed Biomes”, which offers the new cursed mobs in exchange for additional rewards. You can choose to go in with the rewards or go to the other biomes that don't have any scary cursed mobs.

Here's more information on how Cursed Biome works in your run:
Cursed biomes only appear on runs with a boss cell of level 2 or higher (boss battle biomes are not cursed).
Just like biome incentives, a special icon will appear above the exit to a cursed biome, giving you the choice to accept that challenge or just go to the other normal biomes.
A cursed biome always contains 9 (+/-2) cursed mobs, randomly selected from the categories “curse”, “sore loser” and “doombringer”.
Of course, there is a reward for this risk: all items dropped in a cursed biome drop 1 gear level higher, regardless of their source (shop, loot, etc.). The spawn chance of cursed chests in such biomes also increases by 10%.
The number of cursed biomes you can cross on your route is limited depending on your BC level as follows: from BC 2 to 5 respectively: 2, 3, 5 and 8 (i.e. in 5 BC there is no limit).
This cap only limits the number of cursed biomes you can reach in a run. It does not mean that you have to go through that many cursed biomes to complete your run.
Once you reach the cap, no more cursed biomes will spawn in that run. Cursed biomes will continue to spawn until you reach the cap.
Until you reach the limit, biomes always have a 25% chance of being cursed. There will be at least 1 biome with no cursed mobs at any point in your run, no exceptions.

In addition to the new infected monsters, we have of course also prepared more powerful weapons and mutations for you:

3 new weapons:
Anathema: Rip out a Mushroom Boy's heart to fire a heavy indirect projectile that deals area damage. However, being an absolute savage comes at a price – you'll be cursed if your attack hits anything. Yes, you'll only be cursed if you hit anything. Whoever casts these curses doesn't care how many mushrooms you rip apart, only if you hit anything afterward. That makes you think…

Forbearance: Calls down a beam of vengeful light on the nearest enemy, dealing critical damage unless you are cursed. Targets killed by the beam relieve you of 3 curse stacks instead of 1. Fires 1 additional beam for every 5 of your curse stacks (max 5 per spell).
Misericorde: Deals critical hits when the victim is below 50% HP. Curses you if the critical hit fails to kill its target.

3 new mutations (all colorless):
Cursed Bottle: Your health bottle has infinite charges, but also curses you 20 times with each use. But can you survive those 20 stacks of the curse? BEWARE, my friends…
Damned Power: When you take fatal damage, you remain alive with 1 HP for 2 seconds. If you kill an enemy while under this effect, you are saved, otherwise you die instantly without having any protection when the effect disappears or you are hit while under this effect.
Demonic Strength: Damage increases by 30% when you are cursed. This bonus increases by 2% for each stack of curses you have. The cursed sword counts as 1 stack for this effect (no special bonus for it, but you can still stack curses on it).

After incorporating a lot of your suggestions, we also made a ton of reworks and rebalancing to the legendary weapons that needed it.

New legendary affixes:

Flawless: NEW: Nearly Perfect: If you kill an enemy within one second of being hit, you can still score critical hits.
Gold Digger: NEW: Filthy Rich: The crit multiplier increases with your gold.
Punishment: NEW Punishment Combo: Recasts the AOE effect when at least one target is killed.
Rampart: NEW: Mirror Coating: Reflects damage from attacks received while under the effect of the shield's force field. This damage scales with the attack received (i.e. the stronger the attack, the more damage the shield reflects).
Cocoon: NEW: Parry Streak: Each consecutive parry reduces Cocoon's cooldown on the next launch.
Emergency Door: NEW: Armored Door: The door cannot be destroyed by enemies (except bosses).
Bones: NEW Whirlwind: Increases the duration of the whirlwind of the last attack by 2 seconds for each enemy killed.
Wrenching Whip: NEW: Retiarus: The first attack throws 3 caltrops in front of you (with the same internal cooldown as the grenade affix).
Explosive Lure: NEW: Foolproof: The item's cooldown is immediately reset if its explosion does not hit at least one target.
Barrel Launcher: Triple Bullet (so not a new affix, but we changed the previous one).
Leghugger: NEW: Mitosis: Summons 2 Leghuggers instead of 1.
Attack Shield: NEW: Charged Sprint: Holding down the shield button charges a more powerful version of the sprint, which can then be used by releasing the button.
Ice Shards: NEW: Bouncy: Projectiles bounce off the ground twice before disappearing.
Quick Bow: NEW: Sharpshooter: Critical hits refill one ammo charge.
Blade Tonfas: NEW: Lacerator: Only uses the first attack of the combo.
Grappling Hook: NEW: Octavio: Also fires a chain behind you.
Tesla Coil: NEW: Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.
Lightning Rod: NEW: Dual Use: You can use the skill twice. Each use has its own cooldown.

Some notable balances:

The bank is a little easier in 2, 4 and 5BC. Yes, SLIGHTLY…
The Throw Master's bone projectile does less damage in the Return to Castlevania DLC.
Alienation rework: Instead of healing the player per curse reduced, they will now be healed when the curse is lifted, with the amount of health restored based on the maximum number of curses you had (for that curse case). The effect only triggers when the player has had more than 5 curses, and requires 35 stacks of curses to fully heal you.

New head adjustment:
What do we have in the tailor's daughter's secret stash?
Flame Heads are based on the Decapitated Man's various appearances over the years, so you'll always wear a suit and tie.
Heads of bosses like the Queen, the Timekeeper, etc. As if you could become as badass as these bosses with their smart brains.

And lots of strange and secret heads, like the Cell Head, are waiting for you!

New route
We also changed the connections between biomes:
An exit to the Master's Keep in High Peak Castle has been added.
Added exits to the corrupt prison and ossuary on the outskirts of the castle.
An exit to Dracula's Castle (early) has been added in the Corrupted Prison and Toxic Sewers.
An exit to the Black Bridge in Dracula's Castle was added (early).
An exit to the desecrated necropolis in the Ossuary has been added.
The exit to the broken shrines in the desecrated necropolis was replaced by an exit to the cemetery.
A light source has been added to the Mimic Hint lore room when it appears in the Forgotten Sepulcher.
An exit to Dracula's Castle (later) in the Mausoleum, the Guardians' Refuge and the Clock Room has been added.

Yes, that means you can now get to both Return to Castlevania biomes in one playthrough…

Further input aids:

Two new sets of control icons have been added and an option to select them. You can choose either “Legacy” (current icons), “New” (a new, cleaner set) or “Big” (accessibility-focused, easier to read).
The opacity of the Daily Challenge boss arrow has been changed for better visibility.
Added new input options for the “Walk through the platform” action.
Added options to change the deadzone of controller triggers.
The Auto Hit Assist mode option has been reworked and no longer forces the use of a melee weapon in the first slot.
Added option to add a background to most text in the game. Background color and opacity can be customized.
You can now use the left stick to scroll through the item descriptions in the pause menu.
Added options to completely reverse player and camera movement.
A number of options have been added to optimize camera behavior. The influence of player movement, combat or points of interest can be adjusted.
Split the “Controller Stick Deadzone” into two options, one for each stick.
An outline option for spikes has been added.
A button to center the minimap on the player has been added.