Runes and Upgrades

Runes are permanent upgrades which enable the player to travel to locations and Biomes which are not accessible otherwise. Once acquired, the player's collected runes can be viewed in the saved game slot (in the main game menu, under "play"). The only way to acquire runes is to travel to specific zones and defeat a Boss or an Elite enemy, which spawn from certain Elite obelisks.

Upgrades are general improvements purchased from The Collector for cells, and function as improvements that introduce or improve various mechanics in some way that benefit the player. They are permanent and last between runs. Most are only available after completing a certain amount of unlocks and others must be acquired as Blueprints from specific locations before they are available.

List of runes
There are currently 8 runes in Dead Cells. All runes will drop after the guardian is defeated and can be picked up afterwards, save for the Homunculus rune, which is acquired automatically after the Hand of the King is defeated.

List of upgrades
Health Flask I must be unlocked before anything else.