10. Toxin Lover

When you equip Toxin Lover, poison has the opposite effect on you, slowly healing you instead of damaging the player. This transforms you into the Dead Cells equivalent of a constantly wired line cook, ingesting all sorts of carcinogens that would be lethal to anyone else but somehow make you even stronger! Luckily, this effect only applies to you and not any of the monsters you come across, so the same refreshing cancer clouds that restore your health will still melt mobs from the inside out

When to use Toxin Lover

• You’re planning on taking a trip through the Toxic Sewers. With Toxin Lover, the pools of poison that used to end your killstreaks now help you make them even longer
• If you have any skills that release a Toxic Cloud you can use them to heal yourself
• When you kill a poisoned enemy they burst into a toxic cloud, meaning you could walk away from an encounter with more health than you had going in

Toxin Lover Description

• Poison no longer affects you
• You slowly restore HP while standing in a pool of poison or a toxic cloud

9. Grenadier

Grenades are some of your strongest and most straightforward skills, and the Grenadier aspect lets you use them as your primary weapon. Grenadier makes it so that when you kill an enemy with a grenade it resets your cooldown, and when you have two grenades one kill resets both cooldowns. You’ll always have a grenade ready to use with this Aspect, letting you excavate entire biomes with an endless stream of explosives

When to use Grenadier

• You’re planning your next run’s build around massive burst damage 
• You want to try getting through an encounter with only your grenades, an option that’s only viable with this Aspect
• You just unlocked a new grenade and want to test it out in your next run

Grenadier Description

• Killing an enemy with a grenade resets its cooldown
• If you have two grenades equipped a kill will reset both cooldowns

8. Firestarter

If you like playing with fire, chances are you only care about one thing; raw power. Well, Firestarter has you covered, doubling your fire damage and tripling the damage burning oil deals! In other words, fire does big damage, oil and fire does even bigger damage. This pairs well with any of your ranged fire weapons, like Firebrands, Pyrotechnics, or Fire Blast, and is a safe choice as an Aspect because there’s a good chance you’ll come across something that burns enemies

When to use Firestarter

• You’re planning on building your run around fire damage
• You’re practicing using oil and fire together
• You want your damage over time to deal some real damage 

Firestarter Description

• Fire deals +100% more damage
• Burning oil deals +200% more damage

7. Superconductor

Taking Superconductor at the start of a run is risky, but has a great payoff if you find the right item! Superconductor is an Aspect that causes stacks of electric damage to bounce between enemies, even passing through walls. If you shock one enemy with this Aspect, chances are it’ll spread to everyone else on screen! However, unless you’re playing in Custom Mode, it isn’t guaranteed that you’ll find an electric weapon, since shock is one of the rarest status effects in Dead Cells, but who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky this time!

When to use Superconductor

• You’d rather roll the dice for the chance of a powerful effect than have a guaranteed shot at breaking the game
• You’re playing on custom mode and can increase the chances of finding a shock weapon
• You like watching the shock effect bounce around

Superconductor Description

• Electric DoTs rapidly bounce between enemies, increasing it’s own damage by 50% every time it jumps to a new target
• Electric DoTs can bounce between walls and floors

6. Menagerie

We all love our pets, and Dead Cells has plenty of companions who’ll follow you around and assist you, but with Menagerie they love you back. This Aspect doubles your damage for every pet you have, and gives you +25% extra health per biter, for a maximum damage boost of 300%, or four times your normal output! With Menagerie, you’ll shred through enemies, melt bosses, and leave no scraps for your pets

When to use Menagerie

• Menagerie is the closest aspect to a straight damage buff, use it when you need just a little more firepower and don’t mind losing out on a skill slot
• Biters give you an extra +25% damage, being capped at 8 for a max of +200%. You can get biters through the Swarm grenade or any item with a “Biters crawl from the dead” modifier
• There’s a wide variety of pets in Dead Cells, and if you want to see what they can do, take them for a spin while you’re using Menagerie

Menagerie Description

• You deal +100% more damage for every active pet
• You deal +25% more damage for every active biter

5. Blood Drinker

Mmmmm, refreshing! The Blood Drinker Aspect restores 3% of your health every time you land a melee hit on a bleeding target. The healing effect keeps you from being too low for too long, and you have enough ways to inflict bleed that you should be able to get a couple HP points from every enemy you come across! Out of all the aspects that affect your status effects, this one is the most consistent and is the better way to regenerate your health

When to use Blood Drinker

• You have the Open Wounds mutation and want a guaranteed way to take advantage of your Aspect
• You need a consistent way to regenerate your health to make it past the biome you’re stuck on
• You want to play as a vampire for your next run

Blood Drinker Description

• Every melee attack against a bleeding target will restore 3% of your max HP

4. Gotta Go Fast

You probably noticed the speed boost you get after killing several enemies in a row, but did you know you can make it one of the best passive effects in Dead Cells? Gotta Go Fast is an aspect that makes your speed boost last twice as long, but also increases the damage you deal and reduces the damage you take. The Speed Boost can also be buffed with certain mutations, like Velocity, Frenzy, or Get Rich Quick, making Gotta Go Fast the cornerstone of a unique build that’s built around speed

When to use Gotta Go Fast

• Mutations can make Gotta Go Fast an even stronger Aspect. Velocity makes the speed boost three times longer on top of already being twice as long, and Frenzy restores some HP when you attack an enemy while you have a speed buff
• The Swift Sword is a weapon that deals critical hits while you have a speed boost, which works well with the double damage from this Aspect
• Having a speed boost that lasts nearly the entire level can make getting that time bonus a breeze

Gotta Go Fast description

• Speed Boosts last twice as long
• While Speed Boosted, deal twice as much damage and receive half

3. Assassin

Assassin is where Aspects start to get overpowered, if not game breaking. With this Aspect, when you’re invisible your first attack instantly kills every enemy except for bosses. Normally this is balanced by the fact that invisibility is a hard status effect to come by, only ever appearing as an amulet modifier. However, the Predator mutation briefly turns you invisible after killing an enemy and lets you chain together one hit kills. If you can keep up the aggression, Assassin can turn even the hardest biomes into a walk in the park!

When to use Assassin

• You love playing stealth games, and just like any stealth gamer you’d rather be aggressive than actually sneak around
• You hear “one hit kill”, and you’re already sold
• You’re trying to conserve as much resources as possible for the boss fights, since with this Aspect you won’t need to use much to get past any of the biomes

Assassin Description

• First attack while invisible instantly kills it’s target, except against bosses

2. Damned

Curse is one of Dead Cells most interesting mechanics when it comes to risk and reward, but what if it carried less risk and even greater reward? With Damned, you’ll come across twice as many cursed chests and curses won’t kill you with a single hit, instead increasing the damage you take and deal. Believe it or not, you want to be cursed as often as possible with this Aspect, because the extra damage you deal outweighs the damage you take, and with twice as many curses you get twice as much loot

When to use Damned

• For seasoned players who can already handle playing with a curse, this is hands down the best Aspect you can take. For everyone else, it’s a good way to practice not taking hits while cursed
• On top of dealing extra damaged while Cursed, the scroll inside each chest helps you increase your damage output exponentially
• If you have the Cursed Sword, Damned lets you take advantage of it’s extremely high DPS without the downside of dying to a single hit

Damned Description

• Cursed Chest spawn rate is doubled
• Instead of killing you in a single hit, Curses double the damage you take and deal

1. Relentless

Relentless is by far the most overpowered Aspect in Dead Cells, busted to the point where you might as well have already won just by picking it. “What does it do?”, you ask? It makes it so you can’t die. Well, not exactly, it makes it so that you’re invincible while you have HP that can still be recovered, but that’s basically a force field that pops up around you every single time you take a hit! If you have Relentless and for some reason you want to die, you’d have to put in a lot of effort just to kill yourself, and that’s why it’s the strongest Aspect in Dead Cells

When to take Relentless

• If you have the Recovery mutation, which makes recoverable HP drain slower, you can stay invincible for even longer
• Relentless is a great choice if you’re struggling to get past a certain obstacle on your run, it’ll give you the defense to get past a tough biome or challenging boss
• For newer players, it can be a great way to learn how HP recovery works in Dead Cells

Relentless Description

• You cannot take any damage while you have HP that can be recovered

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• Dead Cells Rune Guide: Everything You Need to Know
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• Top 10 Dead Cells Best Melee Weapons