Dead Cells' new mini-bosses will teach you how to fight the big bads
Bossing you around
Though 2D combat classic Dead Cells was built to be tough, it could also be frustrating. In particular, a player can have a strong run swiped from them by a boss fight they were never prepared for in the levels leading up to it. That’s what Update 14: Who’s The Boss hopes to address, adding six new mini-bosses that prepare you for the big (oh so big) bads at the end of a run.
Losing an hour of your life in seconds to a giant bastard with unknowable skill is an Alt-F4 worthy end to what’s supposed to be an entertaining and rewarding dungeon jaunt. The neat solution developers Motion Twin have come up with will let you encounter the boss’s attacks before the boss itself. For example, before you reach the Concierge boss, and come face-to-flame with his unblockable fire attack, you’ll encounter the Sweeper, a more reasonably statted NPC with the same attack. Here it is in motion, because the game's pixels were made to be seen moving.
It's very smart game design, because the warning also serves to give you something newish to fight. To keep you motivated all the way to the final fight they’ve also added six new weapons. The twist here is that they're based on the game's bosses, and you unlock them by defeating the boss. Here’s a quick gif that ends with the best one: the Giant’s Fist.
This update has thrown a spanner into the works for my evening. I had planned to hop into No Man's Sky, but the finest roguevania in the land now has a frying pan as a weapon. I have some serious choices to make.