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.

Icon	Name	Biome	Description	Location	Elite Guardian or Boss	Grants access to
	Vine Rune	Promenade of the Condemned	This permanent rune lets you make climbing vines grow.	In a room accessed by entering a door found at the base of a large overhang	Undead Archer	Toxic Sewers, Ramparts
	Customization Rune	Ramparts	This permanent rune unlocks the Custom Mode.	In a room close to the entrance of the Ramparts	Undead Archer or Zombie	Custom Mode
	Challenger's Rune	Black Bridge	This permanent rune provides access to the daily challenge (Prisoners' Quarters).	Defeat the Concierge	The Concierge	Daily Run
	Teleportation Rune	Toxic Sewers	This permanent rune lets you use teleportation monoliths.	In a room found beneath a switch-operated door with the switch directly behind the door	Slasher	Ossuary, Forgotten Sepulcher, Dilapidated Arboretum,TBS Morass of the BanishedTBS
	Ram Rune	Ossuary	This permanent rune lets you break through certain floors.	In a room with spikes that is in front of a switch-operated door	Slasher	Ancient Sewers
	Explorer's Rune	Forgotten Sepulcher	This permanent rune reveals the whole map and its points of interest (scrolls, merchants, etc.) once you've explored most of the level.	In a room that is after two elite room, which is at the end of the biome	Two Dark Trackers	N/A
	Spider Rune	Slumbering Sanctuary	This permanent rune lets you cling to walls.	In a room with a dropdown and a banner	Caster	Slumbering Sanctuary (if entered from Black Bridge/NestTBS), Graveyard, Prison Depths, Corrupted Prison
	Homunculus Rune	Throne Room	This permanent rune lets you leave your body.	Defeat the Hand of the King	The Hand of the King	CavernRotG

List of upgrades

Health Flask I must be unlocked before anything else.

Icon	Name	Description	Cell cost	Requirements	Notes
	Health Flask I	Unlocks a health potion that can be used at any time.	5	Must be unlocked first.	Heals 60% of your health over a few seconds. Each use removes 150 points (3 bars) of Malaise.
	Health Flask II	The health potion can be used 2 times.	50	Health Flask I
	Health Flask III	The health potion can be used 3 times.	150	Health Flask II, unlock 10 items
	Health Flask IV	The health potion can be used 4 times.	300	Health Flask III, unlock 25 items
	Gold Reserves I	Preserves up to 500 GOLD when you die.	5	Health Flask I
	Gold Reserves II	Preserves up to 1000 GOLD when you die.	35	Gold Reserves I
	Gold Reserves III	Preserves up to 1500 GOLD when you die.	100	Gold Reserves II, unlock 8 items
	Gold Reserves IV	Preserves up to 2000 GOLD when you die.	200	Gold Reserves III, unlock 15 items
	Gold Reserves V	Preserves up to 2500 GOLD when you die.	400	Gold Reserves IV, unlock 30 items	Only available after finding its blueprint in the secret maze room in the Ancient Sewers. Requires the Homunculus Rune to get.
	Recycling I	Transforms objects found on the ground or in chests into gold.	25	Health Flask I	7% of the sale price
	Recycling II	Transforms objects found on the ground or in chests into gold. More than the previous version.	120	Recycling I	15% of the sale price
	Random Melee Weapon	The starter melee weapon is drawn at random from your unlocked weapons.	65	Unlock 2 items
	Random Starter Bow	The starter bow is drawn at random from your unlocked bows.	65	Unlock 2 items
	Random Starter Shield	The starter shield is drawn at random from your unlocked shields.	65	Unlock 2 items
	Restock	Refreshes a shop's stocks at a very reasonable price.	300	Unlock 20 items	The player can interact with a pedestal at any shop to change the items on display. Can be used 5 times per shop, with the shopkeeper's prices increasing by +40% every time it is used.
	Specialist's Showroom	Unlocks a special shop in the Prisoner's Cells. There you'll find all sorts of rare and expensive oddities for only the most experienced and discerning shoppers.	150	Unlock 20 items	Makes the Specialist's Showroom spawn in Prisoners' Quarters each run, which contains a Hunter's Grenade, a Forgotten Map, and the Golden Outfit blueprint.
	Hunter's Mirror	Unlocks a mirror near the Scribe that may come in handy during your hunts.	150	Specialist's Showroom	Shows a random enemy or boss that carries a blueprint you don't have yet, Will not show any items that cannot be unlocked at that difficulty, but the mirror can show you inaccessible enemies.
	Merchandise Categories	The merchants will offer a wider range of categories.	300	Unlock 30 items	Found in the Graveyard. The Architect's Key (found randomly in a wall) is needed to get it. You can now pick between 3 categories in item shops. This will force the shop to have only the items selected. (Does not affect the food shops.) Weapon and skill shop categories can be chosen between the 3 stats: Brutality, Tactics, Survival. This can be changed in Custom Mode to work as it did prior to v1.9 which allowed the choice of different weapons (Melee, Ranged, Shields) and skills (Deployable Traps, Grenades, Miscellaneous Skills)
	Advanced Forge I	You can increase the quality of an object at the forge twice instead of once.	200	Gold Reserves IV, unlock 40 items	Only accessible after defeating Conjunctivius for the sixth time.
	Recycling Tubes	Allows you to choose between a few sets of starting equipment, each containing a melee weapon, ranged weapon, shield and two skills.	150	–	Only available after you get its blueprint by defeating the Hand of the King on 1 BSC mode. Replaces your starting equipment with a large room that holds 4 sets of starting equipment. (If you do not have a Random Starting X upgrade, you still get the basic weapon).
	Backpack	Allows you to carry a spare weapon. Hold the interact button to empty the backpack.	100	Unlock 15 items	Cannot hold skills, two-handed weapons or the Giantkiller.
	Training Room Key	Unlocks the Training Room.	–	–	Looted off the corpse of the Tutorial Knight in Prisoners' Quarters.

Notes

• The Ram Rune will also buff the player's dive attack damage and range (long fall dive attack only).
• The Homunculus Rune allows the player detach their head and control it separately from their body to access certain areas. It can latch on to a single enemy, dealing damage to them and leaving the player with full control of the player's body. The damage is scaled on the player's highest stat. The head can also climb walls indefinitely.
  • The head will return to the body instantly, going through all obstacles, under any of the following conditions: Reaching the max distance away from the main body, the player taking damage while the head is latched onto an enemy, the head defeating an enemy, the head remaining attached to an enemy for ~7 seconds, or if the player presses the assigned button again.
  • The base damage dealt is 12, and it hits 5 times per second.
  • The cooldown for this rune will not start unless the head attaches to an enemy but returns before the enemy is defeated. The cooldown is instantly reset if the enemy is defeated, should the head be still on that enemy.
  • The head can also take items and blueprints before bringing them back to the player. However, they will be dropped if they encounter any enemy. They will also be dropped if the head jumps.
  • Using the rune breaks invisibility.
  • This rune can't be used if the player is affected by curse, except if the only source of curse on the player is the Cursed Sword.
• For the Explorer's Rune, once the player has explored 80% of the biome's map, the entire map of the biome and the map inside BSC doors are revealed, showing all points of interest, enemies, as well as items and scrolls of power (but not blueprints).
  • Additionally if an enemy is carrying precious loot, like an item or scroll, it will be marked in the map with a star, but it doesn't reveal any layouts or terrain.
  • This effect is similar to the map-revealing effect of the Forgotten Map.

History

0.0: Teleportation Rune introduced. Vine Rune introduced. 0.3: Challenger's Rune introduced. 0.4: Spider Rune introduced. Ram Rune introduced. 1.0: Homunculus Rune introduced. 1.1: Customization Rune introduced. 1.2: Customization Rune can now be obtained in the Ramparts as well. 1.5: Explorer's Rune introduced. 3.0: Reduced requirement for Random Melee Weapon from 12 items to 2.

Footnotes

Navigation wiki