Dead Cells – Tier List: Primary and Secondary Weapons

This guide will help you to know which weapon you need during your travel.
This tier list is ranked from E (This weapon is not useful at all) to S (This weapon is really strong). Some ranks may be blank ’cause no weapon could be considered in that tier. This tier list does not rank with weapon’s talents like biter ou bomb spawning, double damage, leech life, etc…

Starting with the swords, Bows, shields, other primary weapons, and accessories last (maybe some weapons are missing).

Other Dead Cells Guides:

Swords

S: Twin Daggers / Rapier

Those two are deadly for anything in sight. Basic enemies and boss included. Crits are really easy and makes place to a huge DPS. Take them if you can.

A: –

There are no swords “that” good.

B: Blood Sword / Assassin’s dagger / Cursed Sword / Frantic Sword

Swords with a normal DPS and acceptable passives except Cursed Sword which is around 3 or 4 times a normal DPS. (And be careful, the cursed sword is really difficult when it’s for surviving…)

C: Flammable Sword / Spiteful Sword

Normal DPS swords, except the swings doesn’t really link. The startup and recovery are kinda long, so except a blank between two swings.

D: Sadist Sword

Not that good, passive is pretty bad imo.

E: –

There are no swords “that” bad. Hopefully.

Bows

S: Infantry’s Bow

Crits made this bow one of the strongest weapon in the game. The closiest you are, harder will be the hit!

A: Bow and Infinite Arrows

Good bow against bosses and long range enemies, you don’t have to look after the arrows you have. DPS is correct.

B: Hunter’s Longbow / Quick Bow

Those two are quite good, but kind of situationnal. One for long range, the other for spamming arrows.

C: Heavy Crossbow

Startup is reaaaaaaly slow. And damage is only good in close combat. Infantry’s bow is clearly better in all point.

D: –

E: Ice Bow

3 arrows only, around a 0 DPS, only for freeze… Pick an ice Grande instead. It will not take the place of a possible useful item.

Tips: If you want to take back your arrows from a monster, be sure you have another weapon to kill it, or a shield and parry an attack (even ranged, it works), it will shake the foe and make arrows out of him.

Shields

S: –

Why shields are not that great actually (it may be patched) : when you parry a hit, you can’t do anything out of it and it makes you vulnerable. If two enemies tries to attack you, pray they are not slightly delayed, you will pay for it.

A: Force Shield

Because of the situation explained, the force shield is the only shield that guarantee you no counters after a parry.

B: Sturdy Shield / Spiked Shield

Stun or damages, that makes then good shields.

C: Blood Shield / Assault Shield

Not sure about the blood effect, not the dash one. Not the best but could be useful.

D: –

E: Greed Shield

When I start a game with the 85% of my gold when I died, and already have 40k gold. I don’t need this few mexican pesos.

Others

S: Electric Whip

Auto targeting, can destroy doors and secret runes at long distance. Good DPS, can be godly with “2x damage”.

A: Spear

Good DPS with crits. Crits can proc with two entities (monsters/doors/runes/… all that can be destroyed) Efficient for melee fighting. Good range but low startup.

B: Fire Torrent / Burning Mace

Fire effects are really good on this weapon (preference for Fire Torrent) Good DPS. Burning Mace has slow recoverys and startup, but Fire Torrent need you to not move.

C: Lightning Bolt

Same as Fire Torrent except you have a counter part damage if you spent to much time casting your spell. Otherwise, crits are pretty strong.

D: Whip / Throwing Knife

The Whip is really difficult to play. Hitting the perfect spot to crit is really dfficult. Besides, whipping is really slow. Throwing knives don’t do that much damages, useful against birds but that’s all it could do.

E: Frost Blast

No damages, only freezes. Range is not that good for the effect… Need a serious buff.

Secondary Weapons

S: Ivy Grenade / Magnetic Grenade

Ivy grenade is one of the best CC you can have. It immobilize EVERY enemies in the game. That includes the Watcher, spam bomb him and it will be defenseless.
Magnetic grenade is good too, not on the Watcher, but for all ennemies it will be Hell, because it passes through walls.

A: Flashbang / Flamethrower turret

Flashbang is a strong CC weapon. Flamethower is a good DPS secondary weapon, take this instead of all DPS secondary weapon.

B: Death Orb / Damage buffer / Biter Swarm / Cluster Bomb / Ice Grenade

Death orb, Biter Swarm and Cluster bomb are quite good DPS.
Damage buff can really help you out with some weapons (Electric whip/infantry’s bow/Rapier).
Ice grenade is below the stun one, i consider Stun is far more efficient than freeze cause the enemy stay inert after attacking.

C: Meat Grinder / Bear Trap / Horizontal Turret / Phaser

Meat grinder, bear trap and horizontal turret need a placement for being efficient. (horizontal turret can die fast, faster than the flamethrower)
Phaser synergizes with few weapons (rapier/twin daggers/infantry’s bow)

D: Grenade / Fire Grenade

Grenade don’t do that much damages. Fire grenade maybe even less.

E: Knife Storm / Grappling Hook

Knife storm is not useful. Never.
Grappling hook don’t stun the enemy you grab, so it can act directly after being grab. “How can I die? by grabbing the enemy I wanted to OHKO before me”…

Written by Purple Sea.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 15057 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices.

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