Dead Cells fans impatiently awaiting the arrival of the game’s massive free Rise of the Giant DLC on Switch, following its PC release in March, may now unclench: developer Motion Twin has confirmed via a post to the console’s News channel, that it’s coming next week, on 23rd May.
Rise of the Giant, for those that haven’t been staying abreast of Dead Cells developments, is a bit of a whopper, expanding on the dungeon-crawling rogue-like’s unflappably excellent core in a multitude of ways. Fire up the game after the free update and you’ll be treated to two new areas and bosses, ten new enemies, three new skills (including a flying pet), ten new weapons (such as the Giant Killer and Bo Axe), and a new Skinning system.
The latter enables players to spruce up the game’s flame-headed protagonist with a choice of 50 outfits, unlocked by acquiring blueprints from fallen foes and elsewhere.
Elaborating further (expect mild spoilers ahead), the first of Dead Cells’ two new DLC areas is known as the Cavern, and is home to Rise of the Giant’s titular boss. It can be unlocked after beating the game for the first time. The second (secret) area and boss can only be accessed after reaching Boss-Cells 5 – meaning you’ll first need to defeat Dead Cells’ final boss five times.
Rise of the Giant’s ten new enemies, meanwhile, are liberally sprinkled across the whole game. Some are specific to the new locations, while others appear throughout the experience on higher difficulty settings. That’s the end of the spoilers!
Previously, Motion Twin explained that Rise of the Giant was an attempt to offer a “proper conclusion to the story and to explain things a little big more”. That additional narrative illumination will finally be available to Switch players from 9am (local time, according to Motion Twin) on 23rd May. There’s no indication of when the update might arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it hopefully won’t be too far off.
