This is not a good help page, but, hopefully, it is better than nothing.

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 is essentially a building with a number of rooms. Each biome must be traversed from left to right, with some choice as to which rooms are visited and which are by-passed. After each biome is traversed, there is an inter-biome stop and then another biome.

It is not possible to finish the game on the first pass. Each time you are killed, you become stronger, and, similar to the Groundhog Day movie, you can restart back in the prison.

Display

If you click the two-headed arrow on the right of the screen, you will see a listing of the seven boards (for a two-player game) which make up the display, stacked from top to bottom.

1. 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.
2. Annexe board
3. Combat board For the combat in the current room, this shows where your enemies are, with up to three at varying distances in front of you and perhaps one behind you.
4. Combat log
5. Player 1
6. Player 2
7. Mutation Board.

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.

Additional Help

The Player Aid PDF provides a lot of valuable help.