This help page is incomplete and in progress.

Dead Cells is a co-op game for one to four people. The default for Board Game Arena is two players.

Each player is a person who has been beheaded. The goal is to make it from the prison to freedom through a number of biomes. Each biome contains a number of rooms and branching paths which are traversed from left to right. After each biome is an "interbiome" step where you can rest and heal up before moving on to the next map.

The game is not designed to be finished on the first pass. Each time your group fails, you become stronger for the next run. When you start a rematch with the same players, BGA automatically treats this as a continuation of your existing campaign and gives you access to cards and abilities that you unlocked previously. You may choose to play as different characters than your previous run.

Display

Click the (+) and (-) icons in the top right to zoom in and out on the game boards. Click the circles below those icons to see which cards are available in your player and equipment decks as well as rules references. (Biome-specific rules are found here, including rules for the final boss.)

• Biome board. This shows a structure with about 9 rooms. It must be traversed from left to right, with some choice as to which rooms are by-passed.
• Annexe board. This holds the decks of cards as well as your accumulated resources (cells, teeth, and other loot).
• Combat board. Up to four enemy cards are placed here during combat: three in front of the party and one behind.
• Combat log. During combat, this area will summarize the actions available to each enemy and party member. Each round's actions appear on a single line and are carried out from left to right.
• Player boards. Each player has four tracks representing their health and abilities. Each track has a marker with an arrow pointing left. This arrow indicates the current level of that track. (At the start of the game, each player has 3 hearts on the health track, 1 scroll on the green and purple ability tracks, and no scrolls on the red ability track.)
• Mutation Board. This board shows the current level of the healer, merchant, and collector who allow you to purchase upgrades between biomes. You will also unlock permanent upgrades which can be placed here for later games.

At the bottom of the screen is your hand of up to three cards. If you place your cursor on the correct spot on a card, the cards will pop up where you can conveniently read them.

Moving and Interacting

All characters move together across the board, represented by the group token. The first player is responsible for advancing the token along the path. Most of the time there will only be one option to move forward, but sometimes you get to choose a route.

Click a space on the board with a glowing outline to flip over its token and reveal the encounter. The type of encounter (treasure chest, combat, etc) is pictured on the front of the token but you can also use the token's shape as a guide: circle (free resources), square (combat), beveled square (elite combat), pentagon (resources available for purchase), hexagon (usually beneficial but sometimes hazardous).

Sometimes there will be an icon between two encounters representing a type of check or challenge along the path. They come in different styles:

• A deck check requires the active player to flip the top card of their deck and inspect the symbols in the upper left, which might be green, purple, or red.
• A hand check requires the active player to discard a card from their hand with a specific symbol in the upper left.
• A rune requires that the party have unlocked a specific rune in order to travel along that path. Runes are permanent once acquired, expanding your options in later playthroughs.
• Some biomes have special rules for checks that apply only to that board. Click the icon in the upper right of the display to expand a rules explanation.

Combat

When a combat tile is flipped over, it indicates the number of enemies to be added to the board of each type (normal and elite) as well as any loot that can be earned. It might also indicate that the first player token (the crown) should be rotated to the next player.

BGA will take care of placing enemies into the correct positions on the board. Then players play combat cards based on the number of players in the game:

• 1 player: play two cards (see rulebook for instructions on solo play). Actions on the cards are resolved in the order that you play them, which sometimes ends up mattering a great deal.
• 2 players: the first player plays two cards as above. The other player plays one.
• 3 players: each player plays one card.<nowiki>
• 4 players: one player is removed from combat and will not play cards, take damage, or receive items. The remaining players each play one card.

Once all players are ready, the combat log fills up with the actions from their cards as well as from the enemies on the board. BGA automatically advances through each combat step in order. (First the enemy positioned "behind" the party, then the players in turn order, then the rest of the enemies from left to right.) Effects like poison trigger at the end of a round, and then enemies move up to fill any gaps between them and the players. Note that bosses do not move up.

Additional Help

The Player Aid PDF provides a lot of valuable help.