Mortal Shell took the market by surprise last year and gave fans of the ever-growing Souls-like genre a new challenge to sink their teeth into, but it underwhelmed some with a fairly short campaign and lack of notable end-game content. These issues are about to be addressed in full in the coming week as brand new DLC is released, titled The Virtuous Cycle, which adds a new mode, character, weapon, and more. You can watch the announcement trailer below.

🔥The Virtuous Cycle: Coming August 18🔥

💀 New Roguelike expansion
💥 New playable Shell
⚔ New transforming weapon

Steam, PS5, Xbox X|S, PS4, Xbox One, EGS, GOG pic.twitter.com/4oMsggvJA2

— Mortal Shell (@MortalShellGame) July 28, 2021

The new mode coming to Mortal Shell will reshuffle and cycle enemy placement upon each death, making this already tough adventure randomized to boot for the real sadists among you. It comes with over a hundred new abilities for players to unlock and entirely new talent pillars to spec into, providing even more build variety.

Speaking of builds, Hadern will finally be playable as the fifth and final shell with his own upgrades and skills to unlock. Players can even equip their shell of choice with the all-new Axatana. Yes, you read that right: The weapon switches between a heavy great-axe and two nimble katanas. Both forms will have their own move sets which shells can swap between mid-battle to get the edge over their opponents.

But do you know what’s even better than DLC? Free DLC. As Videogamer reports, Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle will be completely free up until August 23rd, five days after launch. Any players who download the DLC before then will be able to keep their new content without paying a dime. Publisher Playstack explained their decision to give away the DLC:

Since we launched Mortal Shell back in August 2020 we have been thinking about how to give our fans something truly special that demonstrates our sincere appreciation for their support.

After the 23rd, Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle will return to $6.99, so get it while you can! Mortal Shell: The Virtuous Cycle releases August 18th for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC.