Death Must Die 101:
The Complete Beginner's Guide

Introduction

I love playing Death Must Die. I believe that when it releases out of early access it has the potential to be incredible. There is a lot of growing depth to its mechanics, which is not always easily explained in game. Which can lead to frustration, and put people off an otherwise fantastic gem. This prompted me to make the Death Must Die 101: Complete Beginner’s Guide.

If you’re brand new to the game, or have a few runs under your belt, this guide is designed to help you elevate your gameplay to the next level. There are a lot of tips and resources gathered on this page, and by the end I hope that you feel confident enough to conquer every run.

Death Must Die is an exciting survivors style game, featuring a plethora of heroes and gods.
The skill combinations can be visually impressive to behold.

What is Death Must Die?

Death Must Die is a survivors style, roguelite RPG where you play as heroes who are trying to defeat the titular Death. What makes this game different from others in the genre, is that you are given blessings and boons by other gods to aid in your quest. It kind of plays like Vampire Survivors, mixed with Hades, with a smidgen of Diablo.

It’s an interesting blend of genres that come together to make an exciting game. Each run feels properly paced and rarely sluggish, and discovering new blessing combinations is always a blast.

The developers are also fairly active, and you can follow their updates on Steam.

Lore

The story of Death Must Die involves the heroes fighting against the forces of Death. The lore however, expands well beyond that. 

Lore is handled in a typical “souls”-ian style. As you play the game you discover the lore through three major ways:

  • Books
  • Character conversations
  • God conversations

While unique items have special quotes, they are generally more humorous than world building. 

Books

To discover books, you have to find bookshelves while in a run. If you examine them, a book will drop on the ground, so make sure to pick it up and add it to your inventory. 

Character Conversations

As you complete runs, you will sometimes be able to chat with the characters you did not take. These are perhaps the most entertaining lore pieces, as some of them can be quite detailed. You get to see the character personalities shine, along with their mannerisms and motivations.

God Conversations

Each time you level up, a god may chat with you before giving you a blessing. These conversations give you insight on why they oppose Death and their motivations for helping you. Additionally, you also learn how they feel about the other gods helping you. There are oftentimes a lot of animosity between the gods themselves.

I don’t want to get too far into spoilers, because discovering the books and conversations is part of the fun. And some of the book series are fairly in depth. It’s clear that the developers have a lot of story to tell in this world, and each run gets you closer to more understanding.

A primer showing off some minor details of the characters in Death Must Die.

Characters

There are six playable characters in Death Must Die, each with distinct playstyles. A large part of success comes from both finding a character that you enjoy, and playing to each character’s individual strengths. 

Unlocking Characters

The only way to unlock characters is by accumulating run time. This is time spent in actual run attempts, not game run time. Each run can take a max of 20 minutes, and the final character unlocks after 140 minutes of runtime. So it will take seven full runs to unlock all six heroes. However you are unlikely to succeed on your first seven runs, so you’ll likely have to make quite a few attempts. 

The Six Heroes

As I previously mentioned, all of the characters play differently and have unique strengths. I want to give you a brief overview of each character, and what they specialize in.

  • Avoron – Knight – Specializes in ‘Power’ type blessings. A melee attacker that covers a large area in front of him. The right Power blessing combo can make him VERY strong.
  • Merris – Sorceress – Specializes in ‘Cast’ type blessings. Has a range fireball attack that travels slow and can be tough to aim. Explodes on impact for AoE damage.
  • Nixi – Assassin – Specializes in ‘Strike’ type blessings. Fast melee attacks for low damage. But the fast attack speed enables you to proc on hit effects rapidly.
  • Kront – Barbarian – Dual specializes in ‘Strike’ and ‘Power’ type blessings. Has the highest base life and his third attack in the combo string hits a wide range.
  • Skadi – Warrior – Jack of all trades, but slight focus on ‘Summon’ type blessings. Has the fastest base movement speed. Skadi is tough to use well without talent investment. Summons can be unpredictable without good blessings and gear.
  • Lorien – Ranger – Dual specializes in ‘Strike’ and ‘Cast’ type blessings. Attacks fast with a long range arrow that pierces. The only downside is that the arrow has a small attack area, but he shoots so often it’s not really an issue.

Keep in mind, this list describes the characters at base. No gear, no talent points, no other investments. Once you start factoring in gear and talent points, these specializations can change dramatically.

Gods

Fighting against the forces of Death as a mere mortal is a herculean task. Thankfully there are a few others who have personal vendettas against the titular god, and are looking to settle the score. There are nine gods who will aid you in your quest, and bestow their power unto you in the form of blessings.

Whenever you level up, one god will offer you a choice of three blessings. Once you make a selection, it will be added to your repertoire for the run and cannot easily be removed. Each god has a different theme or focus with their blessing set, so make sure you take the ones that compliment your build.

Here is a brief summary of each god and their blessing types:

  • Summer – Goddess of Fire – Typically the first god to give aid. Focuses on causing burn to enemies.
  • Krom – God of Conquest – Focuses on knockback and rupturing enemies.
  • Mort – Daughter of Death – Focuses on setting up and resolving curses on enemies.
  • Moirai – Goddesses of Fate – Gives blessings that provide passive stat boosts and enhancements.
  • Winter – Goddess of Cold – Focuses on slowing and freezing enemies.
  • Leigong – God of Lightning – Has a lot of blessings that focus on chance, movement speed, and cooldown manipulation.
  • Lady Justice – Focuses on health and defense. 
  • Time – Focuses on experience points, leveling up, and spatial manipulation.
  • Ninh – Goddess of Earth – Focuses on stunning enemies and making your abilities hit wider areas. 

Not all the gods are available at the start of the game. Initially, you will only have blessing offers from Summer. But just like unlocking heroes, as you accumulate run time more gods will extend their services. You unlock the final god Ninh at 40 minutes of run time. So it doesn’t take long to gain access to all the blessings.

However not all blessings are created equal. Blessings come in a variety of different types and tiers, and are a beast of their own. Let’s dig a bit deeper into them.

Blessings

Blessings are boons given to you by the gods to help you on your mission to slay Death. They alter your character in a variety of ways, and are a major component to your builds. They can grant new abilities, enhance your attacks, and even confer powerful passive bonuses. Learning about blessings and how to properly manipulate them, will greatly increase your success rate in Death Must Die.

There are seven different types of blessings in Death Must Die: Attack, Dash, Strike, Cast, Power, Summon, and Passive. It is important to note that each character can only have a specific amount of blessings of each type. It’s part of what make creating a build so important. For instance, Avoron (the Knight) has four Power blessing slots. Merris (the Sorceress) only has two Power slots, but she has four Casts slots. Knowing these character restrictions can help you plan out a build and select passives that help boost your specialties. 

Two factors play a major role in determining blessing strength: level and rarity tier. As you progress in the game, one of your primary goals will be getting equipment that increases the odds of you getting the rarer blessing tiers.

While blessings are important, they are only one part of a character’s build. Another major component of what makes characters unique is their stats. And Death Must Die has a lot of stats to work with.

An example of different blessings and their rarities.

The stat screen in Death Must Die is comprehensive, with a lot of different values displayed.

Stats

So far we’ve talked about how blessings have this profound impact on our heroes, specifically their stats. Stats are the statistical breakdown of a character’s power and abilities. Each of the hero’s base stats are slightly different, and can be further specialized with talents and gear. As you can see from the picture to the left, Death Must Die has a lot of different stat values. And this isn’t even a full list.

The stats are broken down into several categories: Offensive, Attack, Dash, Strike, Cast, Power, Summon, Defensive, Utility, Cosmic, Blessing Slots, and God Blessings. Each of these categories has several different stats listed within. With this many options, it’s important to know what each stat does and how they interact with each other.

The good news is that while this can be overwhelming, it’s very easy to customize your stats with gear. Once you unlock the Holding Mimicbag, you can save gear loadouts so you will always have the stats and equipment you need.

What Are Signs?

As you’re searching for information about Death Must Die online, you’re bound to come across something called Signs. Prior to the talent tree update, completing achievements used to award you Signs. They were powerful buffs that you could assign to your characters. However, they have been removed from the game and largely incorporated into the talent trees. 

An example of the old signs that were repurposed to talents.
Progression in Death Must Die means learning how to counter enemy attacks and utilize blessings.
Eventually, you'll progress to Act 2 where the difficulty spikes.
Throughout the run you will find random encounters on each map. These encounters can boost or hinder the player.

How to Progress in Death Must Die

Progressing in Death Must Die is a daunting task for new players. Your first couple of runs will almost assuredly end with failure, and oftentimes you will be left wondering what you could do better. This section aims to assist you in learning from each failed run, and ultimately teach you how to progress in Death Must Die.

Gameplay Loop

First, I want to briefly discuss Death Must Die’s gameplay loop. The basic loop is as follows: begin a run, power-up with blessings, beat bosses, gain talent points, survive long enough to get mythic equipment drops, beat the final boss; rinse and repeat. In between runs you can spend your talent points and assign your gear, and purchase permanent gear and talent loadout slots. Then it’s time to get back out there and start another run.

Each run lasts 20 minutes, with special waves and bosses spawning at specific moments.  Special enemy waves spawn at minutes 4:00, 12:00, and 17:00. Bosses will spawn at 7:00, and 14:00 minutes into the run, with the final boss spawning at minute 20:00. The first major hurdle will be making sure you are ready for those waves. 

Make sure that you use your first few blessings to plan out your build. Once again, use alterations, banishes, and rerolls to lock yourself into the gods that you want for the current run.

Encounters

During an attempt, you can move around the map freely. Exploration is highly encouraged for several reasons. Firstly, moving around keeps you dodging and makes you harder to hit. Secondly, as you explore the map you will find random encounters that can potentially boost your character’s power.

Random encounters take the form of shrines, altars, or sometimes NPCs. Most are activated immediately when you choose to examine them. Sometimes you are given a choice, and your decision shapes the buffs you receive. Luckily, most of the shrines will tell you what buffs you’re going to get. However, there are a few that are more mysterious and vague. Learning about these trickier map encounters may mean the difference between life and death.  

Progression

Actual progression in Death Must Die boils down to four major things:

  1. Game Knowledge
  2. Items
  3. Talents
  4. Blessings

Game Knowledge

I know it feels cliché to list game knowledge as a form of progression, but in survivors style games its importance cannot be understated. As you go through your runs, you will naturally begin understanding enemy attack patterns. You’ll also get a feel for the attack ranges and projectile speeds. All this game knowledge makes you a better player, and that experience will help you moving forward. 

If you ever come across a troublesome enemy, make sure you take a moment or two to analyze its patterns. Even if it causes your run to end, if you are able to determine its weaknesses and best ways to counter, then it was worth it. 

Items

As far as character progression goes, without a doubt the biggest improvement you can make is gaining new items. Items and equipment have tremendous stat bonuses, and enhance basically all aspects of your character. A large part of endgame playing, will be farming for unique items.

Talent Points

Another form of progression comes from amassing talent points. As you beat bosses, you’ll gain talent points to spend on upgrades. Some of the final upgrades are incredibly powerful. Some talents will even need specific items to maximize their potential. 

Blessings

Blessings are another form of progression. As previously mentioned, the longer you play the game the more gods you unlock. More gods means more blessings and more viable builds. 

Obtaining talent points is another major form of progression in Death Must Die.
An immediate goal for new players is beating Act 1 and the Baron
Before jumping to Act 2, you should spend time farming Act 1 for extra items and equipment.

Early Game Goals

In the early game it’s good to focus on a few smaller goals on your way to beating Act 1. Your primary focus should be gaining as many talent points and items as you can. Both of these can be completed by defeating bosses, and luckily the first boss in Act 1 is relatively easy. Even if you fail the run, as long as you beat the Necromancer, you will find yourself making progress. Pretty soon you will be able to tackle your main goal, beating Act 1.

Beating Act 1

In order to beat Act 1 in Death Must Die, you’re going to have to defeat The Baron. This boss is a gear and knowledge check, and the fight can quickly go south with a few miss timed dodges. It may take a few tries, but the good news is that you’ll gain a lot of talent points on the way. If you’re lucky you’ll have accumulated a few mythic and unique items as well. Just keep at it and eventually the Baron will fall, and you will have completed your first major goal. 

Preparing for Act 2

After beating the Act 1 boss, Act 2 will officially become unlocked. You may want to jump right into the Endless Desert, but I would highly recommend holding off. The enemies in Act 2 are significantly harder than Act 1. The first boss is particularly challenging, and can end runs before you collect any useful items and gear. 

Take a moment to prepare yourself for Act 2 by farming Act 1 a little longer. More talent points and unique items will help you speed up your progression in the new area. In the long run it’s better to equip yourself now, then struggle against the first boss with little to no gain.

Builds

As you gather more and more talents and items, it’s time to start seriously considering your builds. The game is still in early access, so a lot of this information is likely to change. New gods, items, and levels are being developed, so the amount of viable builds will only increase. Let’s talk about what you need to do in order to create your builds.

Farming Items

Whether following or creating new builds, the first thing you need to do is farm the items required. Whenever you unlock a new unique item, make sure to store it in your stash. You never know when you’ll need it, plus if it is stored it gets removed from the drop pool. The best way to farm items is by defeating bosses. You may get lucky with enemy drops, but it isn’t a reliable method. Tier 1 items come from Act 1, while Tier 2 items come from Act 2.

Acquiring Specific Talents

In order to really unlock your build’s potential, you’re going to have to select talents that compliment your items. It’s here that you can really experiment with some fun ideas. Go nuts with Summon Skadi or make a hyper defensive Avoron. Make sure you unlock the Star Tablet, so that you can save multiple talent point loadouts. Remember, talents are character specific, so in order to gain more talent points you need to play with that character. 

A simple and quick combo of blessings to get come from Mort and Justice. Getting both the Fear and Radiance blessings give you an aura that racks up damage on enemies.

Example Builds

There are so many builds out there, that it would be impossible to put them all in this guide. A lot of the fun is seeing what items you get and then making builds off of that. But if you’re looking for some starter builds, here are a few relatively easy ones with minimal investment. They focus purely on god synergy, so you won’t need to worry about items and talents.

Can’t Touch This

  • No items necessary
  • No talents necessary
  • Gods: Mort and Justice. Specifically you need Mort’s Fear blessing and Lady Justice’s Radiance blessing.
  • Why it works: The combination of these two blessings give you a powerful aura that constantly damage enemies nearby. It’s great for killing off mobs and smaller enemies, but a bit difficult for bosses. 

If You Strike Me Down

  • No items necessary
  • No talents necessary
  • Gods: Leigong, Summer, Krom.
  • Why it works: This build focuses on Strikes and boosting your attack speed. Leigong has some of the best Strike blessings available. Summer and Krom can increase attack speed, causing strikes to proc more often. Krom also has the added effect of applying knockback, which can give you some much needed breathing room.

A Little Help From My Friends

  • Items not necessary, but extremely helpful.
  • Talents not necessary, but again very helpful (especially Skadi and Merris).
  • Gods: Mort, Winter, Summer. All three of these gods have summons that focus on numbers over raw damage. Mort also has a passive that straight up increases summon damage. While items and talents aren’t necessary, even having a few that increase summon damage/speed/slots will do wonders for this build. Be warned though, summons are unpredictable and may not be the most reliable. But they are extremely fun.

Release Info

As mentioned previously Death Must Die is currently in early access, with no solid information on a full release date. There are supposed to be five acts in the full game, and right now development on Act 3 is ongoing. If we are lucky, we may see a 2025 full release. The devs are active on Steam and Discord, and post updates there.

At the moment it is only playable on PC and Mac, with no information about future console release. 

Games Like Death Must Die

Can’t get enough of Death Must Die? I understand, it’s a good game and an excellent entry into the survivor style genre. Luckily for us fans, there are plenty of games similar to Death Must Die. Here are a few to help to scratch your itch:

  • Vampire Survivors – The grandpappy of the genre. This game put survivors style games on the map.
  • Halls of Torment – Probably the best value in terms of dollar per hour. This game is a ton of fun and a steal at the price point.
  • Deep Rock Galactic Survivor – If you like rocks, stones, and dwarves, look no further.
  • Soulstone Survivors – This game has been on my list, but admittedly I haven’t tried it out. Heard some great things overall though.

Credits

I hope you found the information in this guide useful, and are on your way to completing runs in Death Must Die. If you have any questions, notice any incorrect information, or just want to talk about the game, please feel free to email me at celxius@celxiusgaming.com.

A lot of information went into making this guide, and it would not be possible without the sources below. If you want more info or tips and tricks, definitely check them out.

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