Enemies in Dead Cells are relentless, the bosses are tough to beat, and coming up with a good build can be time-consuming. This is where our Dead Cells Builds Guide comes in. You won’t be able to survive if you ignore your skills and weapons.
While some skills/weapons in the game are straight overpowered, you must learn to use them effectively to utilize their true potential. In this Dead Cells Builds Guide, I have listed some builds to help you breeze through the game. Finally, note that I highly recommend experimenting with these builds to see what works best for you, and these builds are still valid if you are playing Dead Cells in 2024 and beyond.
Burn Damage Build
- Main Weapon: Oil Swords
- Sub-Weapon: Firebrands
- 1st Skill: Flamethrower Turrent
- 2nd Skill: Oil Grenade
- Mutations: Killer Instinct, Instinct of the Master of Arms
- Stat Color: Brutality
Oil on fire is a serious damage dealer. Not only does it apply fire damage, it also has an overtime effect even when the enemies are in the water. To bring this devastating pair into play, you will be using this build. The oil grenades and oil sword will apply oil onto the enemies whereas the firebrands or the flamethrower will do the rest.
Stunshot Build
- Main Weapon: Baseball Bat
- Sub-Weapon: Throwable Object
- 1st Skill: Wolf Trap
- 2nd Skill: Stun Grenade
- Mutations: Armadillopack, Kill Rhythm, Instinct of the Master of Arms
- Stat Color: Survival
The Baseball bat is a serious hitter as it inflicts critical hits on a stunned enemy. We all know how useful critical hits can be. Using any throwable can stun an enemy and what better way to greet a stunned enemy with a swing to the face? Use this combination along with stun grenades and wolf traps to have a critical hit frenzy of your own.
Glass Cannon One-Shot Build
- Main Weapon: Electric Whip V
- Sub-Weapon: Fire Torrent IV
- 1st Skill: Damage Buffer
- 2nd Skill: Ice Grenade V
- Amulet: Ruby Amulet
- Mutation: Point Blank, Crows Foot, Disengagement
- Stats Color: Tactics
When we talk about this build, it is all about maximizing your damage potential. It is important to note that the build is glass-cannon meaning that even the smallest of mistakes can cost you a lot. Remember, you must play safe when running with this build.
First, the Electric Whip V not only has incredible base damage, but it will also allow you to deal/receive x2 damage. Combine this with the Damage Buffer, you will attain +1 Strength and increased damage for every hit. The 2nd skill works well with your sub-weapon.
The Ice Grenade V not only freezes nearby enemies but also deals a crazy amount of damage, you can follow up with Fire Torrent IV which deals +25% increased damage to stunned enemies.
Finally, when it comes to the Ruby Amulet, it reduces the received damage by 10% but burns enemies from jump attacks.
Machine Gun Build
- Main Weapon: Repeater Crossbow (takes two slots)
- 1st Skill: Great Owl of War
- 2nd Skill: Wave of Denial
- Amulet: Damage Reduction
- Mutations: Barbed Tips, Tranquility, Crow’s Foot
- Stat Color: Tactics
Yes, you read that right, it’s a machine gun (sorta) build. Using the crossbow, we are making a playstyle that is best suited for people who love rapid fire. A crossbow is very useful in this regard and with the right mutations, it can be a hard hitter in the game. This combination deals a huge amount of damage and can also become your go-to for boss fights.
The skills help keep any enemy that might have crossed the line of fire to be taken down. As you will have only one weapon at your disposal, it is best to have skills that support your close-range encounters just in case.
Tactics Build
- Main Weapon: Any Ranged of Choice
- Sub Weapon: Ice Bow
- 1st Skill: Death Orb
- 2nd Skill: Death Orb
- Mutations: Barbed Tips, Disengagement, Armadillopack
- Stat Color: Tactics
Drain all points in tactics as this will increase the damage of the death orb and reduce cooldown reduction of Efficiency mutation. You will have raw HP, but that won’t matter as the entire point is not to get hit. Use affixes that deal bonus damage and synergize with your equipment. Do not pick a melee weapon as you won’t be using it and risking getting close. Instead bows like Hokuto’s Bow should be used to deal ranged damage.
In 4 cells, survivability may fall apart due to the Malaise stack. So to deal with that, the best option is not getting hit. This is where tactics build comes in handy.
Now, this is a slow build and not fun at all to play with, but it gets the job done everywhere. The build allows you to get heavy ranged damage, without getting close enough ever to get hit even once. It also demolishes bosses due to the extremely high damage of the death orb skill. The only catch is that it takes a lot of time to gather all the items.
Bleeding Build
- Main Weapon: Rapier V
- Sub-Weapon: Throwing Knife V
- 1st Skill: Knife Storm V
- 2nd Skill: Ivy Grenade V
- Amulet: Ruby Amulet
- Mutation: Open Wounds
- Stat Color: Brutality
This build is all about maximizing your ‘Bleed’ damage and chaining ‘Bleeding’ to inflict the status on as many enemies as possible. Your Rapier V should allow you to land a Critical Hit immediately after rolling that deal +30% more damage against bleeding target.
In order to inflict ‘Bleeding’, the Throwing Knife V is the perfect option since it causes ‘Bleeding’ for 2 seconds. The best thing about the Throwing Knife V is the fact that if the ‘Bleeding’ enemy dies, the nearby enemies will begin to Bleed as well.
In addition to this, your Knife Storm V should also allow you to dish out Bleed damage for 4 seconds and deal +50% increased damage to a Poisoned target. The Ivy Grenade V is another good skill that deals +30% additional damage to a ‘Bleeding’ target and immobilizes enemies for 4 seconds.
