The amount of weapons in Dead Cells — even now in its Early Access infancy is quite impressive — and as a player it means you have a whole lot of flexibility. A new run, a new weapon and skill combo, and a new way to play.
You find that each weapon attacks in a different manner, on top of their special effects. The Flammable Sword has a slower but wide attack, while the Burning Mace attacks slowly and with a smaller range — but has the benefit of setting enemies aflame. You’ll get used to each of their attack styles and choose your favorites, but you’ll also have to accept you won’t necessarily get your favorites each run.
In this guide we’re going to go over the effects of each of the current weapons in Dead Cells, along with where you can find their blueprints. Some blueprints can only be obtained via monster drops, while a couple others are hidden away for you to find.
The weapons here are sorted by type (melee, ranged including magical, and shields) and then by the order you’ll probably unlock them. If you don’t want to have the weapon types currently in the game spoiled for you, you may want to skip this guide. If you’re at your wit’s end, push on. You’ve got some castle crawling to do.
Melee Weapons
Twin Daggers – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Inflicts a critical blow on the third consecutive strike.
Blood Sword – Blueprint dropped by zombies.
Inflicts bleed on hit.
Flammable Sword – Dropped by the brown flying enemies in The Promenade of the Condemned and The Graveyard.
Inflicts oil on enemies, which does large damage if hit with flame.
Assassin’s Dagger – Found above the platform at the start of The Promenade of the Condemned.
Inflicts a critical blow when you backstab.
Double-jump to the left and jump up to find the Assassin’s Dagger blueprint.
Sadist’s Sword – Dropped by the mushrooms in The Old Sewers.
Inflicts a critical blow on bleeding enemies.
Spiteful Sword – Dropped by the red flying enemies in The Ramparts.
Inflicts a critical blow if you’ve been hit recently.
Rapier – Dropped by the scorpions.
Inflicts a critical blow immediately after rolling.
Burning Mace – Dropped by the slime dispensers in the Ossuary.
Inflicts burning on enemies.
Frantic Sword – Dropped by the flying enemies in the Prison Depths.
Inflicts critical blows when below 50% heath.
Spear – Dropped by the mechanical spiders in the Prison Depths.
Inflicts a critical blow when attacking several times consecutively.
Cursed Sword – Dropped by The Watcher.
Has very high damage, but if you die if get hit with it equipped.
Ranged Weapons
Throwing Knife – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Inflicts bleed on hit.
Electric Whip – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Automatically targets the closes enemy.
Frost Blast – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Freezes enemies on hit, but does no damage.
Bow and Infinite Arrows – Dropped by the archers.
Has unlimited ammo.
Infantry Bow – Dropped by the archers.
Inflicts a critical blow when attacking at close range.
Ice Bow – Dropped by the archers.
Freezes enemies on hit.
Quick Bow – Found above the entrance of Prisoners’ Cells up some ledges.
Inflicts a critical blow if an enemy has 3 or more arrows stuck in it.
Jump up the ledges in the starting room then roll left to get the Quick Bow blueprint.
Whip – Dropped by the worm enemies in the sewer stages.
Inflicts a critical strike when hitting enemies from max range, and ignores shields.
Lightning Bolt – Dropped by the mages in The Ramparts and The Graveyard.
Continuously casting deals critical strikes, but will overheat and damage you.
Hunter’s Longbow – Found behind the Time Gate in the Ossuary.
Inflicts a critical blow if attacking from afar.
Heavy Crossbow – Dropped by the Incomplete One.
Shoots multiple bots at once.
Fire Torrent – Dropped by the clerics in The Graveyard and The Prison Depths.
Inflicts burning and does damage from afar.
Shields
Sturdy Shield – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Stuns on parry.
Greed Shield – Unlocked at the start of the game.
Drops a 20 gold tooth on parry (once per enemy).
Blood Shield – Dropped by the shield-wielding skeletons.
Inflicts bleed on all nearby enemies on parry.
Force Shield – Dropped by the shield-wielding skeletons.
Triggers a force field on parry.
Assault Shield – Found behind the Time Gate in The Promenade of The Condemned.
Makes you charge forward while blocking.
Spiked Shield – Dropped by the small running zombies in The Fog Fjord.
Deals heavy damage when parrying.
This is a hefty amount of weapons, and the game is only going to get more as it edges toward full release. Weapons that are patched in will be added to this guide as they come. In the meantime, good luck and have fun with your runs!
