Stats

Stats are a mechanic in Dead Cells which modifies the player's damage output and health pool, as well as properties of many mutations based on their level during a run. There are three different stats: Brutality, Tactics, and Survival. All stats are set to 1 at the start of every new run and can be increased through specific actions.

Many Weapons and Skills have the option of scaling their damage off of either of two stats - for these items, the larger of the two stats is used as the damage scaling stat (this is indicated by the larger stat's color dominating the item's icon; if both stats are equal, the icon is split equally into the two stats' colors). Colorless items (obtained from Cursed Chests) and dive attacks always scale off of the largest stat.

Damage scaling
When the player picks a stat, the damage of items scaling with this stat is increased by +15% (provided it is the highest value stat for dual-color items). The scaling formula is identical for all colors: if one picks a Brutality stat, the DPS of Brutality-scaling items will increase by 15%; if one picks a Tactics or Survival stat, the DPS of Tactics and Survival-scaling items will increase by 15%.

In the table below, you will find the cumulative multiplier applied to an item's base DPS as the player's stat number increases. In this example, it shows the cumulative multiplier and resulting increase in DPS for the Assassin's Dagger I, a Brutality-scaling sword, until 20 Brutality levels. The formula used is the same for all colors, i.e. [Base DPS] × 1.15(Stats - 1). In this example, the Stats value corresponds to the player's Brutality level.

As you can see from this table, the exponential nature of the scaling formula means that at high Stat levels, each additional stat grants significant increases in DPS. While the % increase itself does not change (15%), the absolute DPS increase becomes more and more important. For example, going from 2 to 3 stats only grants an additional 43 DPS, which may not feel like a big upgrade when fighting enemies, but going from 19 to 20 stats results in a 557 DPS increase. Thus, in late biomes where the player has high stats, taking one or two additional scrolls can often be the difference between killing enemies with only one versus 2+ attacks. A general rule of thumb is that the DPS is doubled with every +5 stats.

Health scaling
To determine the player's max health, the player's base health (100) is multiplied by 3 separate values, which rely on the current level of Brutality, Tactics, and Survival that the player currently has. Each color grants a different relative % of health increase, with Survival giving the highest upgrade and Tactics the lowest. For each additional stat, the relative health increase becomes lower (e.g. going from 2 to 3 Survival stats will grant a 41% total health increase, but going from 9 to 10 Survival will only grant a 12% increase).

Brutality
The Brutality stat gives a slightly weaker health increase than Survival (65% for second Brutality level) up until 70 Brutality levels.

Brutality can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Brutality +1 option while using Assassin's (Brutality/Tactics) or Minotaur's (Brutality/Survival) scrolls or Scrolls of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Brutality +1/+2 ( can be +3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Brutality levels up to 30 Brutality level (assume that Survival and Tactics are kept at 1 while Brutality is increased).

Tactics
The Tactics stat gives the weakest health increase (50% for second Tactics level) up until 23 Tactics levels.

Tactics can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Tactics +1 option while using Assassin's (Brutality/Tactics) or Guardian's (Tactics/Survival) scrolls or Scrolls of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Tactics +1 (can be +2/+3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Tactics levels (assume that Survival and Brutality are kept at 1 while Tactics is increased).

Survival
The Survival stat is the largest factor in determining the size of the player's health pool (gives 70% extra health for second Survival level).

Survival can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Survival +1 option while using a Guardian's (Tactics/Survival) or Minotaur's (Brutality/Survival) scroll or a Scroll of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Survival +1 (up to +2/+3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Survival levels up to 30th Survival level (assume that Brutality and Tactics are kept at 1 while Survival is increased):

Stat management/strategy
The best way to deal with your stats is knowing what they are going to affect in your run. Most of the time, having one stat at a higher number is a better option, since every stat will increase the damage respective to it. As seen above, the damage of every weapon with the respective type will increase by 15%, everytime. Health, however, will always increase in smaller amounts. Even though it might sound better to share them equally, the best way to manage them is analyzing your own build.

You should always analyze what is the most common stat between your items, and focus your stats on it. If most of your items have a Brutality scaling, focus only on Brutality scrolls, to maximize the damage of all of your items. But if your build has a larger amount of Survival scaling items, pick Survival as your main stat.

Mutations also have effects that scale based on player stats. For more details, see the main article dedicated to mutation effect scaling. With mutations reverse it and analyze your stats to choose your mutations, since they strengthen with your stats as well.

That said, wait for filling the other non-focused stats when reaching the end of the run, so it increases your HP for important boss battles or elite battles.

This also works great for Colorless/Legendary items, since they will scale with your highest stat, even if the item originally didn't scale with that specific stat at all.

Overall, the best strategy is picking your most common stat and using that for picking your scrolls, then selecting your mutations based off your highest stats.