Dead Cells

I know a lot of people are gonna want to downvote this for not being the super-most-awesomest-ever-possible setup without actually commenting and providing anything better. So, in advance:

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EDIT: first and foremost, you need 5 Boss Stem Cells active to open the Astrolab door. This means you first need to beat the Hand of the King at least 4 times, each time with all available BSC active, and then beat the Giant with all 4 BSC active to get the 5th.

NOTE: equipping any Aspect at the Doctor in the Prisoner's Quarters at the start of the game will prevent this achievement from unlocking. I found that out the hard way and had to do yet another full run.

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My setup for this was:

1. Magic Missiles
2. Lightning Whip
3. Great Owl of War
4. Turret

For mutations:

1. Tranquility (bonus damage when no enemies nearby)
2. Emergency Triage (substantially faster use of potions)
3. No Mercy (automurderilate anything at low health)

The path I took was:

1. Prisoner's Quarters
2. Dilapidated Arboretum
3. Prison Depths
4. Morass of the Banished
5. Graveyard
6. Cavern
7. Guardian's Haven
8. High Rock Castle
9. Throne Room
10. Astrolab
11. Observatory

I got a couple of cursed chests and some challenge rifts. I sunk every scroll into Tactics when I could, and when I couldn't I just chose the highest percentage health increase between Survival and Brutality. I ended up with 6-32-7 at the end of my run.

I cannot stress how OP Magic Missiles is. I got some affixes on it that gave bonus damage against bleeding and electrocuted targets, which the Lightning Whip and Great Owl provided. By the time I got to the Collector, I was dealing significant damage.

I didn't upgrade any weapons to S level until the very end, and I toyed a bit with rerolling affixes but didn't get the +300% damage I was hoping for on Magic Missiles. It was still a very powerful weapon, with DPS around 60K. The blueprint for it drops from Arbiters - the enemies that drop exploding barrels when they die, which fire 6 projectiles in a star as they blow up. They can be found in the Cavern.

I also cannot stress how important Emergency Triage is to the Collector fight itself. The blueprint is dropped by the Time Keeper the 7th time you kill him.

So, I’ve done a lot of no-damage speedruns and I’d like to share one build for each class and what u should look for in each weapon/skill/power so you guys might have an easier time depending on your play style:

Lets start with my favorite
SURVIVAL:
This build focus on parries so if u are not that good with the timing u can always enable easier parries in the assist tab, there’s no shame on that btw.

- Giantkiller Sword (with the affix Crits do 20% more damage)
- Thunder Shield or Parry shield (with the affix atk after parry inflict 300% more dmg)
- Stun Grenade (with stun duration +50%)
- Mushroom Boi or Owl if colorless (with 100% more dmg inflicted/ 100% more dmg taken)

MUTATIONS
During th run I used
- What doesn’t kill me (to regen health as much as possible before each boss)
- No Mercy (to quickly run through Mobs)
- Necromancy (for the same reason as WDKM)

Just before The Collector boss room I changed my mutations to:
- CounterAttack
-Kill Rhythm
-Instinct of the Master of Arms

POINTS NEEDED:
20-30 On Survival
Any on Brutality
Any on Tactics

The main focus here is raw Crit damage, as the Giantkiller always inflicts crits on bosses. So u can force The Collector to change fases as quickly as possible with that. It’s the most fun build imo. The only thing u should look out for with this build is the Quake attack as it is “unblockable”and “unparriable”.
The owl has amazing dmg output if colorless, and the Mushroom boi has the best utility as he can interrupt some of the bosses atks giving u a window to dodge or make distance or whatever.
The Mutations, as u can see, help u boost atk speed and dmg. Therefore providing a better dps. Instinct is only there to give u more stun grenades.
The Stun is imperative for this build to work, as it gives u constant windows to atk and more importantly as soon as the boss drops the blue vial it guarantees u will be able to drink it without interruption (making Emergency Triage not needed as it would be otherwise)


TACTICS:
This build, of course, focuses on ranged battle so keep your distance (or not it works close range too)
- Magic Missiles
- Any of ur preference tbh
- Owl
- Corrupted Power

MUTATIONS
- Tranquility (if longer range) or Point Blank (if close ranged)
- Ranger’s Gear
- Emergency Triage

POINTS NEEDED:
25-30 is more than enough on Tactics
Any Brutality
Any Survival

This build focuses more on timed dodges and jumps to dish out the most dmg possible via Magic Missiles + Corrupted Power u just never stop firing. The missiles auto track so u can use them while jumping and they will still follow the boss. It’s pretty straight forward tbh as long as u focus on an element u should be able to melt the boss quite easily, I tend to go for an ICE focused more often than any other element but it’s up to u honestly. Both Tranquility and Point Blank ups ur dmg, same as Ranger’s Gear after using Corrupted Power.
Emergency Triage makes it so u can instantly use the Blue Vial once the Collector drops it. Note that u can replace this Mutation but he usually follows the vial drop with a combo, so its riskier.

BRUTALITY:
- Sadist Stilleto
- Frost Blast for utility/ Front Line Shield for defense
- Phaser
- Face Flask

MUTATIONS:
- Open Wounds
- Instinct of the Master of Arms
- Vengeance

POINTS NEEDED:
20-30 on Brutality
Any Survival
Ant Instinct

If u can’t tell yet this is a Bleed focused build, so try to have most affixes have bleed on them. This build works mostly by spamming Phase + Stilleto combo. it deals MASSIVE dmg overall with the Crits provided by the aforementioned combo, and the bleed effect is the cherry on top as it furthers the dmg dealt. Frost Blast is more situational thing, as it doesn’t scale with brutality. It serves to keep the boss in place to dish out a combo or drink the Blue Vial when he drops it. Face Flask is a means to trigger Vengeance without taking a hit. This is a very good combo and it doesn’t prevent the achievement from popping up.


TIPS and TRICKS:
- Don’t use any aspect before starting the run as it blocks the achievement from popping up.
- During his last fase u can go to the leftmost corner of the screen as soon as he uses his downwards beam to drink from the vial. the spikes for some reason do not hurt u, do with that information what you will, but be mindful that it won’t work for certain atks, they will still hit u nonetheless.
- You can “force” a save just before the boss room and save some time between each try by minimizing your game or going to the Home screen on Xbox and PS5 for a few secs. don’t do it in between phases because sometimes it reduces ur hp a few points which IS considered a hit.

Hope you guys enjoy!