Runes and upgrades

Runes are permanent upgrades which enable the player to travel to locations and Biomes which are not accessible otherwise.

Once acquired, the player's collected runes can be viewed in the saved game slot (in the main game menu, under "play")

The only way to acquire runes is to travel to specific zones and defeat a Boss or an Elite enemy, which spawn from certain Elite obelisks.

There are currently eight runes in Dead Cells: the Vine Rune, the Teleportation Rune, the Challenger Rune, the Ram Rune, the Spider Rune, the Homunculus Rune, the Customization Rune, and the Explorer's Rune. All runes will drop after the guardian is defeated and can be picked up afterwards, save for the Homunculus rune, which is acquired automatically after The Hand of the King is defeated.

List of runes

Rune	Icon	Biome	Location	Elite Guardian or Boss	Grants ability	Grants access to
Vine Rune		Promenade of the Condemned	In a room accessed by entering a door found at the base of a large overhang	Undead Archer	Ability to sprout vines from special green blobs.	Toxic Sewers, Ramparts
Teleportation Rune		Toxic Sewers	In a room found beneath a switch-operated door with the switch directly behind the door.	Slasher	Ability to teleport between pairs of electric sarcophagi.	Ossuary, Forgotten Sepulcher, Dilapidated Arboretum, Morass of the Banished
Challenger’s Rune		Black Bridge	Defeat The Concierge	The Concierge	Opens the daily run door in the Prisoners' Quarters.	Daily Run
Ram Rune		Ossuary	In a room with spikes that is in front of a switch-operated door.	Slasher	Ability to break fragile ground (marked with yellow sign) with any dive attack. Buffs up your Dive attack's damage and range (long fall Dive attack only).	Ancient Sewers
Spider Rune		Slumbering Sanctuary	In a room with a dropdown and a banner.	Caster	Ability to climb the walls and wall-jumping.	Slumbering Sanctuary (if entered from Black Bridge/Nest), Graveyard, Prison Depths, Corrupted Prison
Homunculus Rune		Throne Room	Defeat The Hand of the King.	The Hand of the King	Allows the player detach their head and control it separately from their body to access certain areas. It can latch on to a single enemy, dealing damage to them and leaving the player with full control of the player's body. The damage is scaled on the player's highest stat. The head can also climb walls indefinitely. Upon reaching max distance away from the main body, the player takes damage while the head is latched onto an enemy, it defeats an enemy, or if the player hits the assigned button again, it will return to the body instantly, going through all obstacles. The cooldown for this rune will not start unless the head attaches to an enemy but returns before the enemy is defeated. The cooldown is instantly reset if the enemy is defeated, should the head be still on that enemy. The head can also take items and blueprints, before bringing them back to the player. Using the rune breaks invisibility. This rune can't be used if the player is affected by curse, except if the only source of curse on the player is the Cursed Sword.	Cavern
Customization Rune		Ramparts	In a room close to the entrance of the Ramparts.	Undead Archer or Zombie	Unlocks Custom Mode on the main menu.	Custom Mode
Explorer's Rune		Forgotten Sepulcher	In a room that is after two elite room, which is at the end of the biome.	Two Dark Trackers	Once you explore 80% of the biome's map, the entire map of the biome and the map inside BSC doors are revealed, showing all points of interest, enemies, as well as items and scrolls of power (but not blueprints). Additionally if an enemy is carrying precious loot, like an item or scroll, it will be marked in map with a star. Doesn't reveal layouts and terrain.

Notes

Navigation wiki