General Tips and Tricks

Discover essential Dead Cells tips and tricks to survive and thrive. Learn about cell grinding, permanent upgrades, optimal stat distribution (8-7-13), and damage reduction for easier runs.

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.