[Beginner Guide] The right order of General Upgrades

Investing your collected Cells in General Upgrades (and other Unlockables, like Gear) is one of the most important constant tasks in Dead Cells.

However, if you invest in expensive but not yet helpful Unlocks, or if you spread your investments over too many different Unlocks at once, you may find yourself struggling early- to mid-game, as collecting Cells can be pretty time consuming & exhausting.
It can be very frustrating to feel "stuck" because of that.

After I had unlocked almost everything, I was thinking about a solid priority list in case I ever wanted to start a fresh save file.
And there we are. The following order is just a suggestion, my subjective view on things. I hope it helps you to have a smoother start.

Feel free to comment and to like or to dislike.


A Guide for Dead Cells [version 2.3]

For Beginner Players

 Last Update: 2024 

• Legend

Prio
Priority of unlocks

BP
Blueprint

req.
requires

BC0, BC1, BC1+
Boss Cell Level 0 (Starting difficulty),
Boss Cell Level 1 (after beating the game once),
Boss Cell Level 1+ (1 and above) to a max of 5

unlocks
involves any kind of unlocked items such as weapons, spells, mutations or outfits

(*)
After unlocking the Specialist's Showroom, each run 3000 gold are required
on the first map to buy the Hunters Grenade, if you want to hunt a guaranteed blueprint
(check the wiki for BP drop locations: https://deadcells.gamepedia.com/Gear)

• Order of General Upgrades (at the Collector)

-- Early Game (BC0) --

 Prio.	Name of the Upgrade	Cost	Requirements			Comments

 1	Health Flask I		5	---				Forced first unlock.
 2	Gold Reserves I		5	---				cheap unlock.
 3	Health Flask II		50	---				very important early.
 4	Recycling I		25	---				more gold during runs ...
 5	Recycling II		120	---				... and moar!
 6	Gold Reserves II	35	---				and keep more after dying.

-- Mid Game (BC0) --

 Prio.	Name of the Upgrade	Cost	Requirements			Comments

 1 a	Starter Bow		65	2 unlocks			optional, if you focus on
									ranged & traps (purple) &
									have a few unlocked.
									[recommended to unlock
									this first, as the ranged
									gear available by default
									is very strong]

 1 b	Starter Shield		65	2 unlocks			optional, if you focus on
									shields (green) & have a
									few unlocked.

 1 c	Starter Melee		65	2 unlocks			optional, if you focus on
									melee (red) & have a few
									unlocked.

 2	Health Flask III	150	10 unlocks			your first goal after 10
									total unlocks.

 3	Backpack		100	15 unlocks			carry a back-up shield or
									DoT weapon for bosses.

-- Late Game (BC0) --

 Prio.	Name of the Upgrade	Cost	Requirements			Comments

 1	Gold Reserves III	100	8 unlocks			not that important early
									on, but required for the
									upcoming BP hunting.

 2	Gold Reserves IV	200	15 unlocks			one more boost to prepare
									for BP hunting.

 3	Specialist's Showroom	150	20 unlocks			first goal after 20 total
									unlocks; opens up ability
									to hunt for BPs. (*)

 4	Merchandise Categories	300	30 unlocks + find BP in		useful to optimize your
					Graveyard (req. Architect Key)	build during a run.

-- NG+ (BC1) --

 Prio.	Name of the Upgrade	Cost	Requirements			Comments

 1	Health Flask IV		300	25 unlocks			more heals; becomes
									important on BC1+.

 2	Shop Restock		300	20 unlocks			becomes more viable when
									you have a lot of gear
									unlocked later in game.

 asap	Recycling Tubes		150	find BP by defeating 		as soon as you got this,
					Hand of the King on BC1		unlock it; otherwise,
									keep on farming cells and
									BPs, and practice.

-- Very Late Game (BC2+) --

 Prio.	Name of the Upgrade	Cost	Requirements			Comments

 1	Gold Reserves V		400	30 unlocks + find BP in		more start gold, why not.
					Ancient Sewers (req. Homunculus)

 2	Advanced Forge		200	40 unlocks + find BP by		A little bonus, but 
					defeating 6x Conjunctivius	not that useful.

 3	Hunter's Mirror		150	Specialist's Showroom		pretty useless until very
									very very late game,
									if you wanna collect every
									blueprint there is.

[SpeedyCookie]

You might want to update this guide! The Random Melee Weapon now only requires 2 unlocks instead of 12 (change happened in 3.0)

[EvenOdder]

nice

[Local Tax Evader]

very helpful

[Sherrieღ]

thank u