Games like Dead Cells on mobile

Why you might like it

Skul: The Hero Slayer plays the most like Dead Cells of everything here. It is a side-scrolling action game built on runs, and the levels are put together differently every time. You fight a boss after every third stage, and at the end of each level you pick one of two doors, each leading to a different reward. You play Skul, a small skeleton and the only demon left free after adventurers and the Imperial Army stormed the Demon King's castle. Among the jokes and nods to other games hidden in it, its App Store listing mentions an official Dead Cells crossover.

How it differs from Dead Cells

Your build comes from heads more than weapons. Skul can take off his own skull and wear one he finds instead, which gives him the powers of its old owner, and he carries two at a time and swaps between them in the middle of a fight. The store listing says there are 100 skulls to play as, each with their own abilities. It costs $7.99 on the US App Store, which lists no in-app purchases. Google Play charges the same and says it has in-app purchases at $0.49 each, but it doesn't say what they are and we couldn't find out. Its description there presents the whole game, including the harder Dark Mirror mode for after the story, with nothing extra to buy. Skul is also in Google Play Pass, Google's monthly subscription that includes a set of games. It works with controllers and saves your progress to the cloud.

Why you might like it

If the part of Dead Cells you love is speed, try ScourgeBringer. Its App Store listing quotes Eurogamer describing it as "Dead Cells meets Celeste", Celeste being a hard platform game about precise jumps. You play Kyhra, a warrior exploring a dungeon that changes every run, and most of the fighting happens in the air: she can double-jump, cling to walls and chain dashes together, so you can clear a whole room without touching the ground. Each hit with her sword refills the ammunition for her gun.

How it differs from Dead Cells

A run is a string of rooms, arranged differently every time, and a map shows the rooms you have found so you can pick your route; there are no long levels to explore. Bosses drop Judge Blood, which you spend in the hub on a skill tree of upgrades that stay after you die, while smaller boosts called Blood Favors last only for the current run. When it first came out, the French site Gamekult called its fighting one of the strongest 2D action systems of the year but found the upgrades between runs less inventive.

It costs $5.99 on the US App Store with no in-app purchases listed, or $6.99 on Google Play, where it is also in Google Play Pass. The iPhone download is about 160 MB, against almost 1.9 GB for Dead Cells, which helps on a phone that is short on space.

Why you might like it

Rogue Legacy is about the part of Dead Cells where dying still moves you forward. The castle is built again for every life, and each time your hero dies, one of their children takes over. Every child has their own traits, and some change how the game plays: a colorblind heir sees the game in black and white, and an heir with dwarfism is short enough to fit through small gaps. The gold you bring out pays for upgrades to the family manor, so every heir starts a little stronger than the last.

How it differs from Dead Cells

Unlike in Dead Cells, the character you play changes with every death. Each heir has one of nine classes with its own abilities, so you adapt to whoever you get instead of carrying the same hero forward. It is the cheapest game here with runs, at $3.99 on the US App Store with no in-app purchases listed, and we found it on iPhone and iPad only, with no version on Google Play. The listing hasn't been updated since May 2021 and asks for iOS 11 or later. People were still reviewing it on the App Store in 2025, and the complaints in those newer reviews are about the touch controls and about PS5 controllers the game doesn't pick up, not about it failing to start.

Why you might like it

Blasphemous is for the Dead Cells player who likes the hard bosses best. You play the Penitent One, the last knight of a religious order, in a land under a strange curse, and you fight with a sword. Many enemy attacks can be parried if you block at the right moment, which leaves the enemy open to a stronger counterattack. It is grim and bloody to look at, and the App Store rates it 18+.

How it differs from Dead Cells

It has no runs: the world is made by hand and stays the same, and you open it up as you go. When you die, you leave a Guilt Fragment where you fell, and your rewards stay smaller until you go back and collect it. It costs $7.99 on both the US App Store and Google Play, with no in-app purchases listed, and the price includes all three of its expansions, among them Wounds of Eventide, which finishes the Penitent One's first story. It came to Android in December 2024 and to iPhone in February 2025, and it works with Bluetooth controllers.

Why you might like it

If you like the hard fights in Dead Cells and finding paths you couldn't reach earlier, Grimvalor gives you both in a story you play through once. You play a lone warrior sent to find out what happened to the lost king of Vallaris, and the fights against crowds and bosses are tough: Pocket Gamer warned that everything in it can kill you in a couple of hits. Along the way you learn moves such as wall runs and smash attacks, which open parts of the levels you couldn't reach before. It has an average of 4.9 out of 5 from about 9,800 ratings on the US App Store.

How it differs from Dead Cells

It is a story game in 3D, seen from the side, split into five acts of levels and dungeons, and you play it through once instead of in runs, forging new weapons and levelling up your hero as you go. On the US App Store it costs $5.99, and the listing says it has no ads or in-app purchases. On Android it works another way: the first act is free to play as often as you like, one $6.99 purchase unlocks the other four acts, and the Google Play listing says it contains ads. It is also in Google Play Pass. It plays offline and supports controllers.

Why you might like it

Dead Cells has an expansion called Return to Castlevania, where you fight alongside Alucard and Richter Belmont in Dracula's castle. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the 1997 PlayStation game in which Alucard, Dracula's son, wakes from a long sleep and goes into that castle himself. Konami brought it to phones in 2020 and calls this version a direct port of the console game, so it plays the same as the original, and it works with game controllers.

How it differs from Dead Cells

It is an action role-playing game set in one huge castle that stays the same every time you play, so you grow stronger as you explore it instead of starting over. It costs $2.99 on both stores with no in-app purchases listed, the lowest price on this list. It is rated 3.9 out of 5 on both the App Store and Google Play. We read the newest App Store reviews, and most of the low ones are about the touch controls, which people find small and slow to respond; several reviewers say it plays well with a controller. A few also mention sound problems, mostly with Bluetooth headphones.