"You need the Rise of the Giant DLC for this"

[Natty La Ridge]

What I suspect this actually means is, you need to have beaten the game at your current difficulty level before you can access the new content. Beat the game once, then activated a stem cell to advance the difficulty? You can't get into the DLC until you beat it again.

Either that, or something's wrong with how the game detects (or fails to detect) installed DLC.

Can anyone confirm?

[EDIT 4/1] forget the speculation about difficulty levels. It's become clear that this problem occurs cross-platform, can sometimes be resolved on Windows 10 by launching the game from the DLC store page, but appears to be intractable on Linux and Mac OS.

[SilkySmooth]

I don't think that's the case because the boss cells are a difficulty enhancer and you can access the new content even in 0 BC (i know this first hand). The only thing that requires you to beat the game on 4 BC is unlocking the 5th Boss Cell which unlocks a new area and a new boss... after beating the whole game again on 5 BC

[Nyronus]

I'm having the same bug. Are you on Linux?

[Natty La Ridge]

No @Nyronus, I'm on Windows 10.

I've beaten the game on 0 BC in the current playthrough, but haven't finished 1 BC yet (a prior playthrough was wiped when I reinstalled Windows). Whether I start the game from my current 1 BC save slot, or use a new 0 BC save slot, I get the message shown above when I try to go through the RotG portal in the Prisoner's Cells.

[Natty La Ridge]

To clarify: the RotG portal doesn't even show up in a new 0 BC save slot. You must beat the game at least once at the current difficulty level before it appears, is my understanding.

[Nyronus]

Originally posted by Natu La Ridge:

No @Nyronus, I'm on Windows 10.

I've beaten the game on 0 BC in the current playthrough, but haven't finished 1 BC yet (a prior playthrough was wiped when I reinstalled Windows). Whether I start the game from my current 1 BC save slot, or use a new 0 BC save slot, I get the message shown above when I try to go through the RotG portal in the Prisoner's Cells.

People are saying you just need to "purchase" the DLC, but I did so and it's still not working for me. Any luck on your end with that?

[Natty La Ridge]

Originally posted by Nyronus:

People are saying you just need to "purchase" the DLC, but I did so and it's still not working for me. Any luck on your end with that?

Actually, YES. I could swear I tried this before, but I just performed the following steps, and it worked:

1. Navigated to the DEAD CELLS store page from my library;
2. Navigated to the RISE OF THE GIANT store page from the DLC list;
3. Clicked Download to "purchase" the DLC, which launched the game;
4. Selected my active BC 1 save slot;
5. Entered the Prisoner's Cells, and was now able to pass through the RotG portal.

After doing this, I exited the game and restarted from the Steam Library, without going through the store pages. Again, I was able to pass through the RotG portal.

Clearly something is off with the way the DLC is registered or recognized, but it does appear that starting the game from the RotG store page fixes the problem, at least some of the time.

Good luck!

[mruuh]

The RotG portal doesn't work for me either, even though I see the RotG banner in game's main menu. I've also tried the steps above. Running on Linux.

[breversa]

Same as you, @mrruh. Doesn't work on Linux.

[manelik]

Same, doesn't work on linux

[糖]

Same, doesn't work on Mac

[enronhubbard]

Not working for me on Mac either

[Bitflipping]

Not working for me on Mac

[Pijng]

Seeing "Launching Dead Cells Rise of the Giant" in a steam popup, but trying to interact with door in-game still throws "You need RotG DLC".
Mac as well, mojave.

[cubicruler]

Same here, Mojave. Works well under the same account on Windows 10, but not Mac. Can't even exit the area on Mac from a save made on Windows

[AFFIRMATIVE]

Go to the game's properties in your library. Check the "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" option, and have the latest version of Proton selected.

Launching under Proton will now allow you to enter the cavern in the game (or at least it did for me, as a linux mint user). Once you enter it, exit the game and uncheck the Proton option and launch it normally on native Linux.

This should now allow you to enter it normally.

Credit goes to this guy https://steamcommunity.com/app/588650/discussions/2/1769259642875721460/