After speaking to a whale I was given an item called Barricade. The description says:
Draw: you gain 72 bonus health that persists indefinitely.
Passive: each successful parry grants 24 bonus health for 15 sec.
Discard: remove all current bonus health and deal damage depending on the quantity removed.
I believe this item is a reference to the card game Slay the Spire, but how does drawing and discarding work in Dead Cells?
Barricade is a card belonging to an item called Diverse Deck.
Diverse Deck is a power skill with four cards each with its own effects that the player cycles through:
All cards have a passive effect that is active as long as the card is drawn, some cards also have an effect that triggers on the drawing action. When a card is drawn, it enters cooldown, when the cooldown is ended the card be discarded and the next card drawn. All cards have an effect that activates when discarding the card.
Discarding a card also draws the next card.
You can find more info about the other cards on Dead Cells wikia.
Also yes, that card is a reference to the game Slay the Spire.
