In Dead Cells, the only way to add new weapons, mutations, and skills to your random biomes is through the Cell Forge. Between each area (or biome) you’ll find a Cell Forge — in exchange for Cells, you can unlock items or permanent upgrades. Really, you’re just adding items / skills to the random number generator, but any mutations you unlock will instantly appear on your roster. Getting the best weapons, skills, and mutations costs a whole bunch of cells, though.
So, with a little bit of research, I’ve been looking into the best, fastest, and easiest ways to earn tons of cells in a single run. The trick here is that I want to earn cells fast, with minimum fuss. That means I won’t just say “get to High Castle” — going the straightforward route takes at least thirty or more minutes just to get to the end, and it’s a whole lot of work. Let’s focus on a few different strategies for fast cell earnings.
More Dead Cells guides on Gameranx:
- Dead Cells: How To Find Keys & Cash In The Promenade | Secrets Guide
- Dead Cells: How To Get The Vine, Teleportation, Ram & Spider Runes | Locations Guide
- Dead Cells: Want To Make Easy Progress? Equip Double Turrets | Powerful Build Guide
- Dead Cells: How To Access Every Area | Hidden & Optional Areas Guide
- Dead Cells: All Secret Key & Blueprint Locations | Gardener’s Keys, Architect’s Key & More
Best (& Easiest) Routes To Farm Cells | Faster Upgrades Guide
Earning cells can be a painfully slow process if you stick to the early portions of Dead Cells. The cells don’t start really pouring in until you reach the Tier 5 and Tier 6 biomes — the Clock Tower and High Peak Castle. At the lowest difficulty level, you’ll typically find 50+ Cells in each area.
If you’re still struggling to complete Dead Cells and don’t have much experience with the bosses and enemies, follow these simple steps to get the most cells out of a standard run.
- Kill every enemy on the map. Even the weak ones — there’s always a chance they’ll drop a cell.
- Search every corner for locked gold doors. Early on, you’ll sometimes find gold doors with cell containers.
- Follow the standard path — defeating the Concierge and the Time Keeper will give you a bunch of cells. Both bosses aren’t too difficult if you scrounge for items on the base difficulty level.
That’s the simplest of the simplest strategies — just complete stages, kill everything, defeat the bosses, and save your cells. If you’re looking for a faster method, and you’ve unlocked some equipment / permanent upgrades, so you’re prepared for a speedier run, then we’ll move onto the real strategy. Instead of taking it slow, this method is all about moving fast.
Farming Cells – Speed Run Method
No, you don’t need to be a speed runner to do this method, but you do need to move fast. Skip enemies, roll-dodge through them, and sprint to the exit of each biome. This method was shared by Redditor MonsterHunterNecris.
Your goal is to move as fast as possible, so skip the optional paths. If you find yourself moving into a dead-end, rush back to a teleporter and fix yourself. Stick to the main hallways, and top level of biomes.
NOTE: To complete the speed run method, you need all four movement runes.
Why? Because every biome has a Time-Lock Door. At the start of each area, after the first one, you’ll encounter a Time-Lock Door blocking a treasure trove of items. If you’re fast enough, you can hit up all of the Time-Lock Doors, grab the treasure, and rush to the next one in sequence.
- To get cells fast, complete areas fast to reach the Time-Lock Doors and collect the free cells inside each one. Play through the levels in the following order — we’re going for an optimized run, where you’ll hopefully get the most cells per run.
- Promenade of the Condemned – 2 minutes
- Ossuary – 8 minutes
- Black Bridge – 15 minutes (Kill the boss. Found in the post-boss passage.)
- Stilt Village – 17 minutes
- Forgotten Sepulcher – 26 minutes
- Clock Room – N/A (Kill the boss.)
- Following this path, you’ll get about 260~ cells per run. It should take less than 30 minutes per run. This run is most useful after you’ve already unlocked Boss Cell 1/2 difficulty, and you’re only playing Boss Cell 0 for easy cells.
If you’re struggling with this route, you can shorten it and just go to the Black Bridge and turn in your cells there. You’ll still earn an easy 120~ cells in just 15 minutes.
