Stats

Stats are a mechanic in Dead Cells which modifies the player's damage output and health pool, as well as properties of many mutations based on their level during a run. There are three different stats: Brutality, Tactics, and Survival. All stats are set to 1 at the start of every new run and can be increased through specific actions.

Many Weapons and Skills have the option of scaling their damage off of either of two stats - for these items, the larger of the two stats is used as the damage scaling stat (this is indicated by the larger stat's color dominating the item's icon; if both stats are equal, the icon is split equally into the two stats' colors). Colorless items (obtained from Cursed Chests) and dive attacks always scale off of the largest stat.

Damage scaling

When the player picks a stat, the damage of items scaling with this stat is increased by +15% (provided it is the highest value stat for dual-color items). The scaling formula is identical for all colors: if one picks a Brutality stat, the DPS of Brutality-scaling items will increase by 15%; if one picks a Tactics or Survival stat, the DPS of Tactics and Survival-scaling items will increase by 15%.

In the table below, you will find the cumulative multiplier applied to an item's base DPS as the player's stat number increases. In this example, it shows the cumulative multiplier and resulting increase in DPS for the Assassin's Dagger I, a Brutality-scaling sword, until 20 Brutality levels. The formula used is the same for all colors, i.e. [Base DPS] × 1.15^{(Stats - 1)}. In this example, the Stats value corresponds to the player's Brutality level.

Brutality Stat Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Cumulative multiplier	1x	1.15x	1.32x	1.52x	1.75x	2.01x	2.31x	2.66x	3.06x	3.52x	4.05x	4.65x	5.35x	6.15x	7.08x	8,14x	9,36x	10,76x	12,38x	14,23x
Assassin's Dagger I (base DPS)	100	115	132	152	175	201	231	266	306	352	405	465	535	615	708	814	936	1076	1238	1423
Assassin's Dagger I (critical DPS)	300	345	397	456	525	603	694	798	918	1055	1214	1396	1605	1846	2123	2441	2807	3228	3713	4270

As you can see from this table, the exponential nature of the scaling formula means that at high Stat levels, each additional stat grants significant increases in DPS. While the % increase itself does not change (15%), the absolute DPS increase becomes more and more important. For example, going from 2 to 3 stats only grants an additional 43 DPS, which may not feel like a big upgrade when fighting enemies, but going from 19 to 20 stats results in a 557 DPS increase. Thus, in late biomes where the player has high stats, taking one or two additional scrolls can often be the difference between killing enemies with only one versus 2+ attacks. A general rule of thumb is that the DPS is doubled with every +5 stats.

Health scaling

To determine the player's max health, the player's base health (100) is multiplied by 3 separate values, which rely on the current level of Brutality, Tactics, and Survival that the player currently has. Each color grants a different relative % of health increase, with Survival giving the highest upgrade and Tactics the lowest. For each additional stat, the relative health increase becomes lower (e.g. going from 2 to 3 Survival stats will grant a 41% total health increase, but going from 9 to 10 Survival will only grant a 12% increase).

Brutality

The Brutality stat gives a slightly weaker health increase than Survival (65% for second Brutality level) up until 70 Brutality levels.

Brutality can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Brutality +1 option while using Assassin's (Brutality/Tactics) or Minotaur's (Brutality/Survival) scrolls or Scrolls of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Brutality +1/+2 ( can be +3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Brutality levels up to 30 Brutality level (assume that Survival and Tactics are kept at 1 while Brutality is increased).

Brutality Stat Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Max Health	100	165	229	292	354	416	476	535	594	651	708	763	818	872	924	976	1027	1077	1126	1174	1221	1267	1312	1357	1400	1442	1484	1524	1564	1603
Cumulative Multiplier	1x	1.65x	2.29x	2.92x	3.54x	4.16x	4.76x	5.35x	5.94x	6.51x	7.08x	7.63x	8.18x	8.72x	9.24x	9.76x	10.27x	10.77x	11.26x	11.74x	12.21x	12.67x	13.12x	13.57x	14x	14.42x	14.84x	15.24x	15.64x	16.03x

Tactics

The Tactics stat gives the weakest health increase (50% for second Tactics level) up until 23 Tactics levels.

Tactics can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Tactics +1 option while using Assassin's (Brutality/Tactics) or Guardian's (Tactics/Survival) scrolls or Scrolls of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Tactics +1 (can be +2/+3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Tactics levels (assume that Survival and Brutality are kept at 1 while Tactics is increased).

Tactics Stat Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Max Health	100	150	198	243	286	327	366	402	436	468	498	525	550	573	593	611	627	641	652	661	668	673	675
Cumulative Multiplier	1x	1.5x	1.98x	2.43x	2.86x	3.27x	3.66x	4.02x	4.36x	4.68x	4.98x	5.25x	5.5x	5.73x	5.93x	6.11x	6.27x	6.41x	6.52x	6.61x	6.68x	6.73x	6.75x

Survival

The Survival stat is the largest factor in determining the size of the player's health pool (gives 70% extra health for second Survival level).

Survival can be increased during a run by using Epic Scrolls of Power, selecting the Survival +1 option while using a Guardian's (Tactics/Survival) or Minotaur's (Brutality/Survival) scroll or a Scroll of Power, or equipping a Weapon or Skill with a Survival +1 (up to +2/+3/+4 on amulets) affix.

The table below shows values for health increase as you get more Survival levels up to 30th Survival level (assume that Brutality and Tactics are kept at 1 while Survival is increased):

Survival Stat Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Max Health	100	170	240	310	380	450	520	590	660	730	800	870	940	1009	1079	1149	1219	1289	1359	1429	1499	1569	1638	1708	1778	1848	1918	1988	2057	2127
Cumulative Multiplier	1x	1.7x	2.4x	3.1x	3.8x	4.5x	5.2x	5.9x	6.6x	7.3x	8x	8.7x	9.4x	10.09x	10.79x	11.49x	12.19x	12.89x	13.59x	14.29x	14.99x	15.69x	16.38x	17.08x	17.78x	18.48x	19.18x	19.88x	20.57x	21.27x

Stat management/strategy

The best way to deal with your stats is knowing what they are going to affect in your run. Most of the time, having one stat at a higher number is a better option, since every stat will increase the damage respective to it. As seen above, the damage of every weapon with the respective type will increase by 15%, everytime. Health, however, will always increase in smaller amounts. Even though it might sound better to share them equally, the best way to manage them is analyzing your own build.

You should always analyze what is the most common stat between your items, and focus your stats on it. If most of your items have a Brutality scaling, focus only on Brutality scrolls, to maximize the damage of all of your items. But if your build has a larger amount of Survival scaling items, pick Survival as your main stat.

Mutations also have effects that scale based on player stats. For more details, see the main article dedicated to mutation effect scaling. With mutations reverse it and analyze your stats to choose your mutations, since they strengthen with your stats as well.

That said, wait for filling the other non-focused stats when reaching the end of the run, so it increases your HP for important boss battles or elite battles.

This also works great for Colorless/Legendary items, since they will scale with your highest stat, even if the item originally didn't scale with that specific stat at all.

Overall, the best strategy is picking your most common stat and using that for picking your scrolls, then selecting your mutations based off your highest stats.