Things you should know about Dead Cells!

Dead Cells is coming out of Early Access, promising a combination of retro-looking graphics and lovely gameplay mechanics in a challenging environment that will test skill and patience. As I got to play this game for a while, I’m going to share a few tips and tricks to help you have a smoother progression:

Metroidvania meets Souls

The punishing gameplay of Souls-like games is meeting the navigation of Metroidvania in a rogue-lite that’s difficult, frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Prepare to navigate using a sidescrolling camera through a shapeshifting procedurally generated world that holds powerful enemies, unique items and secrets.

Weapons define styles

Dead Cells is following the trend set by the Souls games providing players with multiple options of style defining weapons which have limited but different move sets and randomized stats. While you don’t have control over the weapons you’ll gain, make sure you’re comfortable with the weapons you’re equipping because they can be tricky to use.

Dodge

The dodge mechanic is a powerful and versatile tool which can be used in defensive and offensive situations, but has to be understood first.
Dead Cell’s dodge is not using invincibility frames but instead it provides avoidance for the whole animation’s duration. On use, dodge cancels the current action working a safety net when overextending with the attacks. Lastly, as Dead Cells has a lot of platforming involved, the dodge has been adjusted to be useful in such situations and can be performed mid air or during climbing for the same protective effects.
Use dodge with confidence, it’s a key mechanic in beating this game’s ever-shifting challenges.

Healing

While every attack is avoidable, it’s hard not to take damage in a game of this nature. Healing plays a crucial role in advancing as further as possible and in my experience with the game, damage can be healed in a few ways:

• The first is the conventional potion which starts with 1 charge that can be replenished in designated safe zones usually located between each level. Potions can be upgraded for additional charges.
  
• The second way of healing comes in the form of food dropped by the mobs or found in secret areas.
  
• The third way of healing works in a similar fashion to a mechanic present in Bloodborne. Freshly received damage can be healed back up by dealing damage within a short time frame. This is a neat mechanic designed to avoid wasting resources on every little mistake.

Persistent progression

Death is not the end, at least not in Dead Cells. The player’s character respawns back to the beginning of the game in a newly generated world losing the stats and weapons gained up to that point. But do not despair; your character doesn’t come back empty handed. While progressing through the levels, enemies can drop blueprints for new items and cells. The latter are used at a specific NPC to turn the blueprints into new items for your loot table or to unlock mutations, outfits and even some permanent effects.
While there are plenty of options to advance your character including multiple weapons and skills, gaining cells isn’t a trivial task as they are lost on death. Make your way to the designated NPC and spend your cells to increase your potion’s charges and retain gold after death before you start to experimenting with new weapons and gadgets.

Secrets!

There isn’t a rogue-lite game without secrets and Dead Cells does not deviate from this rule. Wall blocks with a blinking rune marking on them can hide precious loot like gold or carrots and sometimes even portals opening up timed challenges for skilled players. Pay attention to the walls so you won’t miss useful loot that could help you progress even further.

Explore the levels

While Dead Cell does favor speed, which I’ll talk about in a bit, exploration comes with its own benefits. Each level has its enemies, secrets and items. By exploring them, new gear can be found and stats can be upgraded which will drastically increase the surviving odds. Persistent progress can also be made through exploration, as new recipes can be discovered and more dead cells can be gathered and subsequently spent. Don’t rush through the levels, explore them, enjoy them and use what they have to offer to progress further.

Use the skills

The skills in Dead Cells have to be looted and are lost on death like any other equipment item. But while easily lost the skills are extremely good at keeping you alive. The Flashbang and Ice grenade provide good crowd control allowing a few free hits before the enemies can react again. The Horizontal Turret and the Bear Trap are efficient against stronger enemies like bosses. And various other types of grenades are great at dealing burst damage.
Use the skills you looted to destroy your enemies but make sure you replace the ones you’re sure you don’t need because there are only two skill slots available.

Stunning tricks

Dead Cells’ combat is easy to get into but part of a pretty difficult and getting an advantage is important. Farming for hours and hours could get you in a good position but it’s always handy to know the gameplay tricks that you can constantly use.
The best way to start a fight is by crowd controlling and several skills are great at controlling enemies. But why rely on loot when you can stun drop on your enemies? Enemies can be stunned just by dropping down on them from a good enough height (mid-air, latter or droppable platforms). This combo can be performed by pressing the down key immediately followed by the jump key. Doors can also be used to stun enemies by hitting them when the enemies are in proximity giving you enough time to land a few unopposed strikes.

Don’t be afraid to fall

There are a lot of things set to kill you in the procedurally generated world of Dead Cells but dropping from a big height isn’t one of them. It surely will stun you for a moment or two, which is dangerous when enemies are around, but you won’t lose any health just by falling. This self-stun can be avoided by using the air stunning trick from the section above.
Having this knowledge might ease your fear of heights but beware that dropping down a bottomless pit does cause considerable damage as a price to be respawned back on the ledge.

Timed content

Dead Cells is a game of skill and patience, while the two could go hand in hand their compatibility isn’t assured in every situation. Being a patient player can get you a long way but there is an incentive to be fast in this game. There are time barriers that can stop you from getting new rewards or winning challenges meaning that sometimes you have to take risks for greater rewards.
Let's see those speed runs!

Use mouse and keyboard with confidence

This type of games isn’t usually friendly for mouse and keyboard controls and the developers at Motion Twin warn you about this right from the main menu. But as an almost purist I found no problems playing Dead Cells with my favorite peripherals. The horizontal nature of the attacks allow for a good character control without the need of an analog stick. So don’t be afraid you’ll need a controller for this game you won’t, at least not with its current mechanics.

The Daily Challenge

The Daily Challengeis a competitive game mode featuring a new map every day. In this mode the players have to collect as many points as possible and defeat the boss within a time limit. Each player’s final score is tracked on a leaderboard. The Daily Challenge also provides rewards based on the number of runs completed. In order to unlock this game mode the players have to beat the first boss in the game.

Ending note

I hope I provided you with enough information in this short guide to ease your pain and help you get better at the game. There is a lot to learn and the process of trial and error is unavoidable. As I continue to enjoy Dead Cells, I will update this guide with information that I find useful.
(This article is based on a press copy of the game provided by the developer.)

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[Nodrim]

I think they changed it.

[Ghaisan2103]

i never saw that door in my previous gameplay in the "Timed content" tab

[Nodrim]

I updated the guide to reflect the changes made to the game.

[Akito Kamimura]

I cant get my controler to work, playing with keyboard isnt as easy for me, i would like to try it with controler at least once. Someone told me how get this to work, but it doesnt work.
So can anyone share his secret how to use an controler?
I have an xTrust PS3 Controler with an W-lan function. My pc has the newest software for the controler. But the game doesnt want this controler o.o

[Akaviri Forever]

Do any of you guys know how to get to the next page when spending your cells? I haven't had any luck with all of the keys on my keyboard to move over.

[Neo]

You can fall unless it turns out to be a bottemless pit with no warning, but still love the game.

[泥藕爱吃鱼]

@snootle booper Yes. It's the end of current version.

[lof]

so I beat the eye boss, and every time I get killed by a tentacle at the port after the boss... why? end of content? or what?

[Purple Sea]

Okay let's farm the remparts for the Xth time. Demn. I killed the first boss so many times I should have it by the time.

[Nodrim]

It's Broad Sword. I can't remember exactly but I think the blueprint drops in the Ramparts or from the first boss.