Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea is out today with a freaky shrimp pet

The third DLC is playable on PC and consoles

Dead Cells has rolled out its third DLC release, The Queen and the Sea, on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch today. It’s a testament to the game’s finely-tuned chaos that fans are still showing up, excited as ever to jump and roll and slash the night away.

To set the mood, Motion Twin and Evil Empire have a new animated trailer.

So, what are we in for this time? As the video suggests, there’s a lighthouse with a rising fire to keep you moving and an imposing figure up top. The Queen and the Sea adds the Infested Shipwreck and Lighthouse biomes (as stand-ins for the High Peak Castle and Throne Room), along with a new final boss and ending. This DLC is a continuation of the story elements in The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls — can we actually get off this island?

The rising flames and vertical nature of the Lighthouse make me think of that monstrous saw that chases you up trees in Donkey Kong Country 3. I always hated that obstacle as a kid, and while I’ve since gotten more comfortable with the ever-present threat, it still induces some anxiety. I’m expecting to make a lot of panicked slip-ups in Dead Cells.

There are new weapons and skills to experiment with, too. Here’s the list:

• Abyssal Trident — Charge towards your enemies and impale them, to inflict critical damage.
• Hand Hook — Grab your foes and throw them behind you, for easy kills off the side of platforms, as well as that little bit of crowd control.
• Maw of the Deep — A literal shark. And you can throw it. Yep. No, for real, where did the Beheaded find this.
• Bladed Tonfas — whose damage scales upon your running capacity, with a big critical jump when at max speed.
• Wrecking Ball — the heaviest weapon of them all. Quite hard to throw, but it will tear through crowds of unsuspecting mobs with ease.
• Queen’s Rapier — Tear through reality (and your enemies) with the favorite weapon of the so-called Queen of the island!
• Throwing Cards — Shoot cards in various patterns and stick them in your enemies, before recalling them all to deal major damage!
• Gilded Yumi — the heaviest bow of them all, with the heaviest arrows, and the heaviest hits. So heavy, in fact, that those arrows might just pick mobs up off the ground, and bring them along to their inevitable death.
• Leghugger — A new pet, a baby evil shrimp, although this one seems to be quite more friendly. Let it free and it’ll quickly bite the life out of your opponents.
• Scavenged Bombard — The Beheaded took inspiration from those pesky pirates and made his own automatic turret-cannon. The reloading is quite slow, but the damage it deals makes up for it.

The weaponized shark might be flashy, but I am one-hundred percent down for the baby shrimp companion and so-called turret-cannon. Forget min-maxing; go with your heart!

Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea costs $4.99, and Steam has a three-DLC bundle for $9.99 for a limited time if you’re coming in fresh. The journey starts in the Toxic Sewers.

I feel like there should be noticeable diminishing returns by now — for some of you, maybe there are — but three packs in, I’m still loving this frantic yet fair roguelike.