I’m back again to talk about Dead Cells (because this game is amazing, and if you haven’t tried it by now you’re missing out). Over the last few days I wrote about how Tactics is the best stat (https://scorum.com/en-us/cybersport/@reverendrum/dead-cells-why-tactics-is-the-best-build) and Survival is the worst (https://scorum.com/en-us/cybersport/@reverendrum/dead-cells-why-survival-builds-are-trash). There’s one other stat that I haven’t discussed yet, and that’s Brutality. I saved it for last because I find Brutality builds range from average to “meh”, to even a shrug. So what exactly makes Brutality builds so lackluster? Keep reading, matey, and find out:

1. Swords: Most Brutality weapons are swords and other bladed melee weapons (although there’s a hammer and some fist/foot striking weapons as well). Obviously this means if you’re running a Brutality build, you’re going to need to get up close and personal with your enemies. One on one, this isn’t typically dangerous. Some late game enemies do tend to be pretty strong and you’ll have the wail on them for a while to kill ‘em. Still shouldn’t be too hard if you know how to dodge. The real problem presents itself when there’s more than one enemy, which is most of the time in Dead Cells. Taking on multiple enemies at once is exponentially more difficult and dangerous, and if you get surrounded you’ll have wished you stayed at range and sniped them with a bow.

2. Grenades: Brutality doesn’t provide good tools. I wrote a bit about grenades in my Survival build post. Might as well repeat it: Grenades suck. You use them once, then have to wait for the cooldown to finish to use them again. Overall this makes their DPS abysmally low, and you’ll wish you had just picked up some turrets and done a Tactics build. The only good thing about grenades is that you can bounce them off walls, and you throw them in an arc so they can sometimes reach a higher ledge. That said, you can do all of that with turrets, and the turrets stay around and kill entire swarms of enemies within seconds with volleys of projectiles.

3. Mutations: The Brutality mutations are all passable. They typically proc once you’ve killed an enemy or take some damage, and they buff you for a few seconds. Clearly you’ll want to be running between enemies and in active combat as much as possible. Not my preferred style of play, but if you’re into maximum carnage these will be right up your alley. I still prefer the base “YOLO” and “+50% health” mutations, so even if I was running Brutality I’d only have room for one upgrade.

4. Boss fights: Fighting bosses is a lot harder with melee. Bosses will mess you up with a single hit, you need to be actively dodging at all times if you’re running a Brutality build. I’m not saying you can’t, but that’s above my skill level at least.

I think that pretty much sums up why Brutality is an average stat. If you’re into quick paced, button-smashing, risk-reward style close combat, Brutality might be for you. I’ll stick with the cunning and precision necessary for the Tactics build myself.

Side note: I tried using a tactics build with a bow and shield combo, and the shield’s passive defense ability was actually pretty good. I typically do either a bow + bow combo, or a bow + sword (for emergencies) combo, but I’m seriously leaning on bow + shield going forward. Obviously using traps too, because you’d be dumb not to. Hoping to get to New Game ++ with it. We’ll see.

Sources: gamepedia, Steam Store