Dead Cells

Additional Sections:

• Introduction
• Version History and Notes
• General Tips and Tricks
• The Collector/The Blacksmith
• Weapon List
• Skill List
• Mutation List
• Enemy List
• Achievement List and Guide
• Acknowledgments and Additional Information

Dead Cells is a challenging roguelike where death means starting over. Due to its random nature, levels and enemy placements change each run, requiring adaptability. However, several general tips can improve your experience across all playthroughs.

Cells and Upgrades

Grind For Cells

Cells are the primary currency used to purchase permanent upgrades and better weapons from The Collector. Unlike other currencies, you retain purchased upgrades between runs. These include carrying more health potions, keeping some gold after death, and unlocking more powerful weapons in the random pool. Since you lose all held cells upon death, it's best to spend them immediately. Grind cells by killing every enemy encountered and invest them in upgrades whenever you find The Collector. Even if you can't afford a full upgrade, partially investing cells counts towards the final cost.

Break The Collector's Door

The Collector's door, which prevents you from leaving with cells, can be broken by attacking it a few times. This allows you to save cells for the Blacksmith's valuable upgrades, especially if you haven't died before reaching him.

Prioritize Permanent Upgrades

When spending cells, prioritize permanent upgrades over temporary weapon or skill pickups. The Collector offers upgrades that enhance future runs, such as increasing potion capacity or allowing item rerolls in shops. The Blacksmith permanently improves the drop rate of higher-quality items. These persistent benefits make your character stronger and simplify the game more than most found gear.

Optimizing Your Build

The 8 - 7 - 13 Setup

Scrolls found in-game increase your Brutality, Tactics, or Survival stats. While it seems beneficial to collect all scrolls, exceeding a certain point can be detrimental. Enemies scale in damage with each scroll collected. Beyond a threshold, the increased damage enemies deal outweighs the health and damage boosts you gain. A balanced approach is recommended, with a sweet spot around 8 Brutality, 7 Tactics, and 13 Survival. This spread, tested against the final boss, significantly reduces incoming damage, making the game more manageable, especially for new players.

Damage Reducing Items

Items provide attack and defense boosts, but damage-reducing items are crucial, especially on lower difficulties (0-3 Cells). Familiarize yourself with these items and prioritize acquiring them to increase your survivability. There is a cap of 75% damage reduction, allowing you to take approximately four times more hits. Achieving this cap significantly eases progression.

Items that offer damage reduction include:

• All level 3 or greater amulets
• Corrupted Power
• Fire Grenade
• Flashbang
• Force Shield
• Hokuto's Bow
• Ice Bow
• Ice Grenade
• KO Shield
• Shove Shield
• Tonic
• Toxic Cloud
• Vampirism

A good amulet combined with two strong damage reduction items can get you close to the 75% cap. Upgrading these items at the Blacksmith increases their effectiveness. Even if you don't plan to use a shield or bow, holding onto a damage-reducing item provides valuable defensive benefits.

Author: Nikola Suprak

System: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch

Date: 10/07/2018

Version: 1.00

Twitter: @NikolaSuprak

Email: nikolasuprak (at) gmail (dot) com

I'd like to welcome you to my Dead Cells FAQ and Walkthrough. You came here because you have questions about Dead Cells. Or because you're lost. That's fine too, man. I hope to be able to provide you answers to all of your questions. Dead Cells is by no means an easy game. Hopefully with some tips and tricks, we can make things just a bit easier. We're going to go on an adventure together, you and I. I just hope it doesn't end with us being impaled by something extra pointy.

This guide will cover absolutely everything that has been released for Dead Cells up to the end of September 2018. There are almost certainly more updates coming after that, and I know for a fact that they are working on some fairly major expansion right now. However, this guide will only cover the "base" game and future DLCs may not be included at whatever time you're playing. It is likely I will come back to cover those sections in some detail after they're released, simply because I quite enjoy this game and it will be fun to dive back in and see what new tricks that game has in store. Beyond that though, almost every other thing in this game will be covered. Full details about every single level, including what to expect and how to get there are included. General tips and tricks are provided, and locations of every last blueprint will also be covered. This will (hopefully) be everything you could possibly need to know about Dead Cells and then some.

Finally, if you found this guide helpful, please consider clicking "YES" on the "Would you recommend this FAQ?" link above. I'd really appreciate it, and doing so is guaranteed to make all your drops in Dead Cells 70% luckier. Trust me, that's just science. Additionally, if you have any tips or tricks you feel like this guide is missing, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm sure there are some clever tactics I haven't discovered yet, so please feel free to contact me with questions or issues no matter how small.

With that, we are ready to dive right into the game. Dead Cells is fantastic to play, and has excellent controls and a lot of really fun ideas. You're quite the luck guy or gal to be jumping into this game just now. Or if you've played before and are just having a hard time getting through a specific part: welcome! There's no shame in that and I can assure you almost everyone has been stuck somewhere in Dead Cells at some point in their playthroughs. The most important piece of advice I can give you is this: just keep trying. There is no substitute for practice, and Dead Cells is one of those games that you really need to play more to get the hang of it.

Dead Cells is a rougelike in the vein of some of the classic Metroidvania style games. While it plays a lot like some of the best Castlevania games, the levels are entirely procedurally generated, and no two playthroughs will be exactly the same. And, if you lose, you will have to start over from the absolute beginning. This is a hard game, make no mistake about it, but that is half the fun. You'll start out on shaky legs, unsure of where to go or what to do exactly. You may die before you even reach the first boss, and that's fine. You're going to die a lot, so get used to it. But each playthrough you'll learn something more, unlock some new trick, and soon enough you'll be flying through the game and the only quest won't be if you beat it but how long it'll take you.

It is important to note that each playthrough doesn't quite start you over from the beginning. I mean, yes you're going to the first level again and yes you just know somewhere the devs are toasting to your tears because they're sadists and the only thing that makes them happy is your anguish. But, beyond that, you will keep all the cells you banked in between levels. This means progression towards unlocking new and more powerful weapons or permanent upgrades to your character or weapons. Each playthrough gets infinitesimally easier, but these little bits all add up. What you invest your cells in makes a difference, so be sure to refer to the appropriate sections at the end of the guide that cover all the weapons, mutations, and upgrades.

And with that we should just jump into it. Go ahead and start at the first level and, oh, you died already. Cool. That's cool. Keep reading and maybe we'll figure out how to keep that to a minimum.