To unlock The Bank, one must first reach the Hand of the King. After this, The Bank will randomly spawn after the Prisoner’s Quarters starting area. You can enter it by opening a “flashy” chest in the transition areas between biomes. In terms of new enemies, there’s the Agitated Pickpocket who tries to steal your gold; the Gold Gorger who grows with the gold it’s collected (and can become extremely powerful); and the Golden Kamikaze Bat which drops a lot more gold than the regular version.

New weapons include the Gold Digger gives gold on hits (and if you’re rich, then provides crits), the Dagger of Cupidity which crits for three seconds after picking up some gold, and the Money Shooter which will use your gold as ammo. The new Mutations are Midas’ Blood (gain gold when losing health), Gold Plating (gold lost when hit instead of health) and Get Rich Quick (gain bonus gold when killing enemies with a speed boost).

For other changes and quality of life updates, check out the patch notes below.

Balancing

• Items dropped after boss fights now have +1 item level. Boss loot felt unrewarding due to its level, so we increased it by +1.
• Vampirism rework – now you sacrifice a percentage of your maximum health to gain life leech on your melee attacks (double effect with heavy weapons) and gain a speed boost for 10 seconds.
• Increased War Spear damage. It is no longer flagged as a heavy weapon – this mainly impacts its affix pool.
• The Queen’s resistance to “crowd control” effects (Stun, Root, etc) has been increased.
• Removed ‘Shield on Use’ from Face Flask and Serenade affix pool.

UI/Graphics

• Scarecrow outfits now have proper names!
• Maw of the Deep and Bladed Tonfas text updated to reflect the changes made in the DLC3 hotfix.
• Conjunctivius’ eye now searches for the beheaded if invisible in tentacle phase.
• Custom mode Cursed Chest’s maximum curse increased to 999.

Quality of Life

• Added the last fight of the Servants in the training room.
• Upgrading an item in quality at The Blacksmith’s Apprentice doesn’t re-roll affixes anymore.
• Added permanent light in Servants boss rooms for the Follow the Light custom game gameplay modifier.

Bug fixes

• Maw of the Deep now properly displays crits.
• Fixed invisible bullets for out of screen traps.
• Fixed servants dying off screen after boss fight due to Barbed Tips.
• Fixed some custom mode softlocks.
• Fixed Giant’s slam attack not spawning crystals.
• Fixed various bugs and crashes for the Queen.
• Fixed Pause Bug. Hopefully for good this time.
• Fixed custom mode gameplay modifiers incompatibility.
• Fixed Spoiler Boss’s flask not appearing in the UI.
• Fixed falling through the ground on Carnivorous Plants.
• Cursed Sword now displays its true damage values.
• Various visual optimisations.

Along with sound effects, music and lore room text, there’s also been a good amount of balancing. Big Gold Gorger and Mimic have seen some nerfs to their damage while Evil Guillain has been buffed. The Survival skill Vampirism has had its effect doubled on heavy weapons and the War Spear has been buffed but is no longer considered a heavy weapon.

In terms of bug fixes, the “bag enemy” that the development team didn’t want to spoil is unavailable to fight in the Training Room. Furthermore, reaching the Crown (the final biome in The Queen and the Sea) now also serves to unlock The Bank. Check out the full patch notes below for more details.

Update 28 Beta

Balancing:

• Slight damage nerfs to Big Gold Gorger and Mimic
• Reactivity and damage buff to Evil Guillain
• Midas’ Blood now interacts with Face Flask
• Guillain can now spawn in Cliff after the Bank
• Survival Vampirism buff: effect doubled on heavy weapons
• War Spear damage buff but is no longer a heavy weapon
• Gold Plating doesn’t protect from curses anymore (as planned)
• Getting hit while using Gold Plating now properly resets the kill streak / breaks flawlessness on bosses

Bug fixes:

• “Bag enemy whom we try not to spoil” is now unavailable in the Training Room
• Shark now properly displays crits
• Reaching the Crown now also unlocks the Bank
• Gold Digger crash in Clock Room solved
• Dagger of Profit had no cooldown after its attacks, making it glitch weirdly and launch attacks while
• the previous one was still resolving and breaking its balancing and FXs in the process.

Localization:

• Various additions to existing U28 features (lore rooms, tooltips, etc.)
• EN corrections

Sound design:

• Lots of SFX
• Music mastering update

Maws of the Deep has also received a damage boost and now crits on Rooted enemies while the speed of the Wrecking Ball’s first two attacks has been increased. Furthermore, the Queen’s Rapier will now crit on all enemies it hits instead of the first. Another nice change is that hitting an enemy with the Rapier while it’s in your Backpack will create a Reality Slice, thus making it more viable.

If you’ve struggled with the Servants in the Lighthouse, then you’ll be happy to know that their health pool has been decreased (though the Queen’s HP has been increased in turn). Check out some of the hotfix notes below and the full notes here.

UPDATE NOTES:

Balancing

• Decreased the Servants’ HP.
• Increased the Queen’s HP
• Armored Shrimps no longer take damage from spikes.
• Bladed Tonfas rework. Damage no longer scales on speed. The first attack always jumps forward, with subsequent attacks always critting if the first one hit. Please note that we will only be able to change the description in the next major update, sorry about that.
• Hitting an enemy with the Queen’s Rapier in the Backpack triggers a Reality Slice.
• Shark crits on rooted enemies. Once again, we won’t be able to change the description until the next major update.
• Increased Shark’s damage.
• Gilded Yumi deals damage when releasing the enemy.
• Increased Wrecking Ball’s speed on the first two attacks.
• The Rapier’s now crits on all hit enemies instead of just the first one.

Quality of life

• Added screenshake to Machete & Pistol, Queen’s Rapier and Hard Light Sword.
• Disabling screen-shake disables screen-bump as well.

The new biomes include The Infested Shipwreck, which features floor sections that can be destroyed by enemies (along with a treasure hunt), and the Lighthouse, which is essentially a vertical chase to outrun rising flames. Make it to The Crown to light the beacon and you’ll have to face the new boss, and hopefully unlock a new ending in the process.

The DLC also includes nine new weapons like the Abyssal Trident, the Hand Hook and even a shark called Maw of the Deep that can be thrown at foes. There’s also the Wrecking Ball, a heavy cannon called the Scavenged Bombard and Throwing Cards that can cut foes. The Queen and the Sea DLC is available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

The Infested Shipwreck and Lighthouse are the newest biomes, with the former taking place in a shipwreck crawling with enemies. Platforms can break and along with armored shrimps, there are enemies that throw anchors at you as well. As for the Lighthouse, which is essentially a chase sequence against several highly skilled warriors. Flames rise from below and rope pulleys help in ascending faster, making this a completely new experience for fans.

Survive all of this to reach the top of the lighthouse and light the beacon, but only if you defeat the new boss. Several new weapons have been added to the mix including a trident, pirate hook, a new bow and even a shark that can be tossed at enemies. A new ending is also available for those who can survive all of these horrors. Stay tuned for more details (and a new animated trailer, most likely) in the coming weeks.

Though it launched in August 2018 for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, Dead Cells was in early access for a year and garnered a strong amount of acclaim. Along with numerous free content updates, it’s received two paid DLC – The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls. Interestingly, the developer confirmed that The Queen and the Sea will be the “epic conclusion” to the DLC trilogy.

This could mean that the team is shifting to a new project (presumably after some more free updates) or planning a new DLC storyline for the current game. Either way, The Queen and the Sea launches in early 2022 for $4.99 and includes two new late-game biomes, new enemies, new weapons, a new boss and a new ending. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

To celebrate the 20th year of Motion Twin and 6 million units sold of Dead Cells, we are happy to announce that "The Queen and the Sea" DLC a.k.a the epic conclusion of our DLC Trilogy will land on PC & Consoles Q1 2022!#deadcells #gaming pic.twitter.com/u4KBCMXOVt

— Motion Twin (@motiontwin) November 30, 2021

Some of the new areas include shipwrecks and a “soaring” lighthouse. A new boss is also to be expected (who seems to be related to the King) along with a new ending, new weapons and new enemies. The development team is even teasing this to be the end of the Beheaded’s journey out of the castle, perhaps finally providing an escape from the island.

Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea will release in early 2022 for PC and consoles. It will retail for $4.99 with funds going towards supporting the game with free updates and content (like the recent “Everyone is Here!” update that added weapons and outfits from games like Hyper Light Drifter and Guacamelee). Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.