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Dead Cells: How to Get Runes

This article is over 6 years old and may contain outdated information

How to Get Runes in Dead Cells

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While Dead Cells is first and foremost a roguelike game, you do not necessarily start each run as you would have done the first time you played the game. You can actually get permanent upgrades throughout Dead Cells that allow you to reach different areas so that you can progress further. You get these upgrades by finding runes, and here’s everything you need to know about how to get them.

Firstly, there are six runes available in Dead Cells, and they can all be found at different points of the game, and each unlock a different skill. To reach certain zones, you need particular runes, and they are found by beating elite enemies that spawn in particular places. These are the six runes you can get in Dead Cells, what they do, where you get them, and what enemy you have to defeat:

All Runes in Dead Cells

  • Vine Rune – Found in the Promenade of the Condemned, in an area below ground. Need to defeat the Undead Archer. Gives you the ability to sprout vines throughout Dead Cells so that you can reach the Toxic Sewers from the Prisoners’ Quarters.
  • Teleportation Rune – Found in the Toxic Sewers in a room with a switch operated door. Need to defeat the Slasher. Gives you the ability to teleport between the electric coffins you’ll see in most areas and lets you access the Ossuary and the Forgotten Sepulchre.
  • The Challenger Rune – Found by defeating the first boss, The Concierge, at The Black Bridge. It opens the Daily Run door in the Prisoners’ Quarters.
  • Ram Rune – In the Ossuary. Need to defeat the Elite Slasher. Gives you access to the Ancient Sewers by allowing you to break fragile ground using a dive attack. Also boosts the dive attack’s damage output.
  • Spider Rune – Found in the Slumbering Sanctuary and gives you the ability to wall jump and climb higher. You’ll need to defeat the Orb Caster, and allows you to go from The Black Bridge to The Slumbering Sanctuary, The Graveyard, and The Prison Depths.
  • Homunculus Rune – Found in the Prisoners’ Quarters after defeating the Hand of the King (the final boss) for the first time. Allows you to control your head separately from your body, so that you can reach different areas and get loot easily.

That’s all you need to know about each of the runes in Dead Cells and how to get them. For more on Dead Cells, be sure to search for Twinfinite.


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Author
Image of Tom Hopkins
Tom Hopkins
Having been Editor on multiple sites, Tom has a wealth of video game knowledge and is now Managing Editor at Twinfinite. He's an expert on Call of Duty, sports games, PlayStation exclusives, and blockbuster action games. If he's not playing the new release, he'll be grinding on EA FC 24.