In Dead Cells, upgrading your weapon quality tiers is a key component of progressing through the game and enhancing your arsenal. This process primarily involves two essential forges: the Minor Forge and the Legendary Forge. Each plays a distinct role in developing the quality of your weapons, enabling you to take on tougher challenges as you advance.

Unlocking Weapon Quality Upgrades

Minor Forge Upgrades
The Minor Forge serves as the primary means of upgrading individual items. When you first access this forge, you can upgrade an item from its base quality to a + quality. However, this initial upgrade provides a limitation; you cannot upgrade an item further at this forge level without additional enhancements. To achieve a double upgrade—meaning upgrading an item from base to +, and then from + to ++—you must unlock the “Advanced Forge I” upgrade at the Collector. This enhancement effectively enables you to upgrade an item twice at the Minor Forge, significantly increasing its quality and affix potential.

Legendary Forge Upgrades
In contrast, the Legendary Forge offers a broader impact by permanently influencing the quality tiers of items dropped during your runs. Appearing after specific boss encounters, the Legendary Blacksmith allows you to spend cells to upgrade the forge itself rather than individual items. For instance, investing your cells in the first tier of the Legendary Forge ensures that all items found in future runs will be of at least + quality. As you continue to invest, reaching the second tier enhances the likelihood of encountering ++ tier items, while higher levels unlock the coveted S-tier quality items.

This upgrade process fundamentally alters the types of items you will find throughout the game world, facilitating greater opportunities to acquire high-quality loot. Once you obtain these better-quality items, you can then visit the upgraded Minor Forge to enhance them with further upgrades.

Summary of the Upgrade Process

1. Unlock “Advanced Forge I” at the Collector: This crucial upgrade allows you to enhance items twice at the Minor Forge, significantly boosting their potential.

2. Defeat Bosses: Progress through the game, defeating key bosses to access the Legendary Blacksmith.

3. Invest Cells in Legendary Forge Tiers: Allocate cells into various tiers of the Legendary Forge to elevate the baseline quality of items that will drop in future runs. This investment is essential for acquiring higher-quality items like +, ++, or even S-tier weapons.

4. Enhance Acquired Items at the Minor Forge: Once you’ve secured higher-quality items through your exploration, return to the Minor Forge to further upgrade these items, maximizing your efficacy in combat.

By effectively combining the capabilities of both forges, players can strategically increase the quality tiers of their weapons, leading to improved performance and survivability in the challenging world of Dead Cells. This multi-faceted approach to upgrading reinforces the importance of both exploration and resource management in ensuring a successful run.