Your favourite builds and other tips and tricks

If your using a shield and are early with your parries, press and hold block when you parry - if you are early, at least you still get normal shield damage reduction if you get hit.

Same here, I can kill every other boss with no problems at this point, even when I'm trying a new build, but the Hand just kills me super quick. He is so much harder than everything leading up to him. I am clearing every level, including the High Peak Castle with the optional key and every room, but then face him and make it to just past the first Elite spawn wave before he just annihilates me completely.

@quipido: This is basically every run for me now to a T, down to the exact moment I die haha. Granted, I will blow it occasionally when I get cocky with curses, but I don't count that!

@quipido: Five seconds of not attacking, that's the one! You're right. That invisibility amulet isn't effective against bosses in the moment, at least if it is, it isn't immediately apparent. I saw it as a way to farm every scroll and to kill every enemy safely to make yourself a monster in preparation for the bosses. I used the phrase "seemingly invisible to bosses" because I think my friend was invisible to them for a moment, but he was attacking so much it was hard to really say. It wouldn't surprise me though if someone smarter than me found a way to exploit it.

It wasn't him falling to the Time Keeper that gave me anxiety, it was watching him play his gift hand so recklessly. In the end, he accomplished basically what I would have playing conservatively. It's just frustrating sometimes watching someone play antithetically to how I would play. Plus, I would've stomped the Time Keeper.

@omegadef: Sure, I understand. Watching somebody else play this game can be frustrating!

I can consistently clear every level with the occasional death on the cursed chest here and there, collecting every scroll and still get evaporated on the last boss. After a week I am taking a bit of a break to replay Red Dead Redemption and clear my head in the old West before diving back in Dead Cells.

Also it's worth mentioning my strategy changed considerably since the first post, it's good to try every weapon and gadget, even if they seem not great at first. That expands your options and possible combinations of drops you'll encounter. It's a great game, shame there is such a huge difficulty spike at the "end" there.

I'm right there with you. I have no problem killing everyone and farming everything, only to get humiliated at the end. Playing like a god for an hour then getting wasted in seconds is a bit much, but I'm too stubborn (foolish?) to quit. I'm sure there's just something I'm not quite grasping yet.

Update on the invisibility amulet: I just tried it and it does not work on bosses. I had a crossbow so that should make for a decent damage, but the boss just attacked me as usual (the first boss). Also I fucked up and had a curse coming into this fight so I only managed to get him down to 40-ish % before I died. Make sure there are enemies to kill in the level before taking up on a curse!

@quipido: Man, that's like some NES Wizards and Warriors shit. I never got this amulet but I assume it makes you invisible as well? So basically against bosses it just makes it harder for you to see yourself while bosses wail away on you?

Anyone have any successful strategies for the Hand? I've gotten to him a several times and gotten crushed each time. The most successful run I had I managed to get him down about 1/3 of his health and then he got unbelievably fast, filled the screen with bombs, and killed me in about two seconds. And that was with a best case weapon/mutation set that had laid waste to nearly everything before it (legendary flame turrets, wolf traps, assassin's dagger, and freeze blast plus brutality, efficiency, and support mutations).

I've tried turret builds, ranged builds, melee builds, and crit based builds. About the only thing I haven't tried is a shield build, but I'm garbage pulling off the parry and I have doubts about if would even work - he seems either immune to most debuffs or they last a pathetically short amount of time (my traps hold him for about 1/4 second), so it seems like the parry stun wouldn't be any different, but maybe that actually works?

@therealturk: I just beat him using a turret build with an ice bow and a sword that deals more damage after I get attacked. (cant remember the name)

That coupled with the mutagens (dead inside, vengeance and tainted flask) resulted in a good damage/health balance. It also helps to have level 2 gear if you can afford it.

The most important thing is to not use traps and evade his shove. Traps are usefull against pretty much everything except this bastard. (and flying things)

@quipido said:

If you're having issues with him, I highly recommend picking up any Damage Reduction items you can find on your run. Amulet can get 20%, bows like Hokuto's or Ice Bow can get 20% (or 40% from legendary versions), Fire and Ice grenades, many shields, some turrets can roll DR as a random stat, etc.

Getting a 20% amulet, 30% from Cudgel shield even if you don't use it to block/parry, and a 15% from a decent Ice Grenade will make a total world of difference in that fight while you're learning it.

This was my first winning build:

Another fun pair of weapons to keep an eye out for is Spiked Shoes/Frost Bow or Frost Blast or Ice Shards. Since the boots crit on anything that's attacking, the slow effect widens the timeframe to land those crits - and that distinct crit sound over and over is quite satisfying! Ice Shards can make this a straight red build, so you can throw in grenades with reduced cooldown - Fire and Oil Grenades for added damage, or dual Ice Grenades for increased slowed effects.

@karlhungus01: so this might be a stupid question (and equal parts an "ah ha!" moment for me) but when the Ice Bow says like, -25% damage or some such thing that means damage RECEIVED? I always took it to mean damage dealt for some reason. So I would end up getting rid of it usually in favor of the Ice Haduken.

I've been thinking about it and I'm getting very similar feelings with this to what I ended up having with FTL. I absolutely love the general gameplay and it feels like there are so many fun and varied combat options but then the bosses seem like they play by different rules. I've reduced myself to doing one run a day but I am constantly walking away frustrated now.

@karlhungus01: Good call. I'm usually so focused on my DPS, I forget about the other stats.

@therealturk: Huh, must of skipped straight past that. Definitely going to remember that.

Not like I forgot the Ossuary existed... definitely didn't just keep going up the elevator at the end of the Promenade. Nope...

@karlhungus01: Thanks for that advice, I tried to focus on those damage reducing items and by the time I got to the High Peak Castle, I had a cumulative -100% damage received!! Obviously there is some kind of hard cap bellow that, so I was nit invincible, but I was taking a fraction of the amount of damage with all that. And I indeed finished that run, the final boss was still a fight, but waaay easier that time, I only healed once. Seems to me incorporating those items is crucial, meaning one almost has to carry grenades, shields and/or bows, which is fine, considering those are more of a support items, as opposed to turrets and melee weapons, which focus on dealing direct damage.

Who uses shields?

I've been sticking with a bow mainly. But are Shields worth exploring?

I like shields a lot. Maybe because some of the first legendaries I got were shields.

Parry timing is very generous in this game, and shields that inflict status on parry are great fun.

At what point are the regular weapons better than the legendary ones? For instance, I will pass up level 5 regular weapons in favor of a level 1 legendary that I get early.

No surprise, but this was my first winning combo. This was the first run where I actually used the traps to cheese my way through. No regrets. Now I'm trying to get to the only area that I have not been to: the graveyard.

Ok this crossbow is sick, changed it up before the concierge, previously it lobbed a grenade before the shot came out. You need a stun/freeze because it's slow. But oh boy it does the business. So satisfying rolling up on an enemy freeze then gibbing them.

oh, and in the promenade, once you have the spider rune... maybe, try climbing... you know... wink wink.

Finally got around to playing 1.0, fresh save file and all. Shook up some of the dust in my head, so here's a few random tips:

1) Probably the biggest tip I could think of: rather than spend all your cells, you can break down the door past the collector, similar to the pay doors in the dungeon without the curse. This way, you can start grinding early towards getting + rank and higher gear in your runs at the forge when you feel confident in a consistent run past the first boss.

2) Always talk to the collector after picking up a blueprint! If you don't, you haven't deposited that blueprint yet. This'll only really creep up on you when you start finding a flow in your runs and have less things to unlock, which could lead to skipping the Collector altogether. It's always disappointing seeing a blueprint fly out of you on death you forgot you grabbed two or three zones ago.

good

Got the Hand. Brutality build, 5k health, 80% damage reduction (thanks again for that tip) and a Frantic sword that had a crit of around 3.5k when my health was below 50%. I finally remembered to roll through his charges and use the platforms, ended up just tanking him through his last third of health. Nice adrenaline spike at 1 am. I'll give hard mode a shot tomorrow, but I don't think I'll be beating it above normal.

Got to the hand with basically this build, upgraded it a few times... Boy, panic sure is a thing right...

Unrelated, I still need to beat the hand.

Unlocked a boomerang though.

@moondogg said:

Ok this crossbow is sick, changed it up before the concierge, previously it lobbed a grenade before the shot came out. You need a stun/freeze because it's slow. But oh boy it does the business. So satisfying rolling up on an enemy freeze then gibbing them.

oh, and in the promenade, once you have the spider rune... maybe, try climbing... you know... wink wink.

@sakesushi: Boy, did I learn your second point the hard way...

So, can someone answer for me if the Hakoto bow works with turrets? I died due to my affliction of always needing to push the envelope with curses before I finished the Clock Tower so in the long run it didn't matter, but it didn't seem to he working as intended with turrets. Or maybe I'm reading it wrong? I took it as, attacks while marked would do an additional (in this case like, 600 dps). Is that not correct? I've seen people rave about this bow and I guess I'm maybe just not understanding it.

I realize that this bit is a little played out but, the Venn diagram of the times I've said "FUCK IT" and took on a curse and the times I've said "WHY DO I DO THESE THINGS!?" upon death are very close to a perfect circle at this point.

@sethmode said:

Me every time I come across a cursed chest:

@therealturk: I really wish that I had this level of self control. I will definitely think about this clip in the future...immediately after I die from one hit due to a curse.

@therealturk: I felt the same way until getting to the higher difficulties. At that point stacking a high health pool is absolutely critical because you will not be able to refill your health and potion supply between stages so getting hit even once begins a quick downward spiral to death. The goal of any run on the higher difficulties should be to have more than half of your life bar upon reaching the Hand and NO potions used. You will also find less power up scrolls so your health pool will be lower overall so you NEED to open cursed chests to get that guaranteed scroll. One tip I would give to new players is start slowly and memorize the enemy attack animations as well as what enemies spawn on what stages. Once you do this this it becomes much easier to rush through the first few stages to get to the timed doors which will guarantee you scrolls and cells to offset the ones you missed by rushing past enemies. Also don’t sleep on the torch as a weapon, it may look like it does terrible DPS but don’t be fooled, it is an absolute beast. Pair it with any item that covers the enemy in oil and you will breeze right through every stage

@atom_splitter: The torch is great for those green dudes that drop the worms when they die. I actually bundled the torch with the sadist blade(?) last night. I was playing like crap so I died on conjunctivitis. But with the sadist perk as well it could be a great combo.

I'm actually liking the speedboost=crit sword as well more than I thought I might.

This thread is great! I've only had about 15 runs so far, got the first boss to 50%. Realize I didn't have great skills to handle him/Frostblast didn't seem that useful against him.

Going to try to spec more into Tactics builds based on these comments. Plus I agree turrets are awesome.

Part of me is just happy to plug away at filling all the jars... that might take some time.

This was funny for about a level. Mark and then machine gun.

Didn't stay useful though, but there might be something there.

Ice bow and turrets with daggers. Although the ice blast is really fun too. Only downside to that you have to get close to the enemy. Also there is slight hack on ps4 if you die. You can restart the level if you quickly press guide and close the app. Then just reload, which the game is really quick at doing. Not completely full proof because if your build is weak then you can just hit a brick wall especially when it comes bosses. Just thought I'd share that.

Meat Skewer is easily the best weapon I've found. Teleporting behind enemies is ridiculously fun and it's the first time I've ever felt like a badass in that game.

Sword + Whip is great. I also like traps a lot for fighting bosses.

This is what I'm using right now. I'm one level away from the Hand. (sorry its a little blurry, took with my phone of the Switch)

Just beat the boss with 2 Boss Cells with this build:

Since the 1.0 update capped damage per hit (I think someone said it's at 5% boss health?), I've found my early access build of Heavy Crossbow/Ice Bow to be far too slow; there's a big difference between 3-shotting and 20-shotting a boss. I aimed for a loadout with big, quick damage to keep mobile, so I threw all my money at these items right before the Hand. The mods on the sword were insane, plus a bonus of oil on the stun grenade to boost the fire grenade. I still have a hard time dropping the Ice Bow, since stacking dmg red is huge as you add on the Boss Cells. Then the trap damage reduction mutation as security from the spikes.

Tips for HOTK?

I can get there everytime, but... gotten a third off his life at max maybe... He seems like a poo face.

@moondogg: Get 75% damage reduction (that's the cap), you have to stack it from items like bows, grenades and amulets. That's the number one tip. If you look at the screenshots posted in this thread, you'll see that that's what everyone has been doing. It's a bit disappointing because it pushes you towards a specific kind of build.

Forgive me if everyone already knows this, but I did a lot of digging, and something I kept coming to was how the enemy scaled with how many scrolls you picked up (starting at the beginning of a new biome). This information is never surfaced. So, for every scroll you pick up, the enemies go up 8% HP and 9% DPS. If you pick up a scroll that is giving you less than 8% HP, in some ways you are making the game harder for yourself. The enemy attacks will get stronger and they have more health, and you get diminishing returns by dealing slightly more damage with way less health. Following this strategy, the math works out the ideal numbers to be 8/7/13 (brutality/tactics/survival).

I struggled with HotK until I went this route. And it worked okay for 0-2 boss cells. But on the third boss cell, HotK was impossible, even with full health and full flask. The fight just went on too long. So, I changed my strategy to taking all tactics scrolls (with a full tactics build), and only taking whichever brutality or survival scroll offered more HP. I was made of paper, but at this point I can make my way through the game barely being hit. Three boss cell HotK could 2-shot me, but he went down FAST.

I also think by the time I got to 3 boss cells, I just knew how to avoid his attacks better. So, this strategy probably works earlier than that. But if you are still learning, 8/7/13 can help you survive long enough to get his patterns down and still probably beat him. And as always, -75% damage reduction and synergy is clutch.

I don’t think I’m going to do a 4 boss cell run. I’m certain I could now, but I kind of soured on the game after realizing they were withholding information that would allow you to make an informed decision on how you want to build. If picking up a scroll can hurt you more than help you (depending on playstyle), then it’s hard to not be irritated that I played for a long time without that information being surfaced. I still think it’s a great game, but I didn’t appreciate that at all.

Here’s the build I used to beat HotK on 3 boss cells.

One thing I really love to know: You can touch the enemies without taking damage. Only their attacks hurt you, not their body.