How to unlock Return to Castlevania content in Dead Cells
Dead Cells’ latest DLC expansion, Return to Castlevania, is an excellent piece of content for both Castlevania and Dead Cells fans. As we said in our review, it’s one of the best Castlevania games in years, and the content fits perfectly into Dead Cells as a whole.
Unfortunately, players who are buying Dead Cells just to play the Return to Castlevania content are in for a long journey ahead of them, as the content isn’t unlocked from the start of the game.
In this guide we’ll show you exactly what you need to do to unlock Return to Castlevania content in Dead Cells, and how to get started.
How to unlock Return to Castlevania
Unlike some previous DLC expansions for Dead Cells, which had complex unlock methods, Return to Castlevania is relatively straightforward to unlock. That said, it’s not a quick or easy process, taking a lot of time, skill, and determination to get there.
To unlock the Castlevania content, you’ll need to complete one full run of Dead Cells, from start to finish. That means you’ll have to defeat The Concierge on Black Bridge, The Time Keeper in the Clock Room, and finally The Hand of the King in the Throne Room.
If you want to Return to Castlevania, you'll have to talk to The Hand first.
It’s unlikely you’ll be able to defeat all of these bosses on your first run through the game, with the average expected time to get through it all being about eight hours. That can be reduced somewhat by activating Assist Mode, which can help you survive for longer on your runs, but it’s still going to be quite a few hours before you can get started on your path to Dracula’s Castle.
How to start Return to Castlevania
Richter Belmont, seen here alongside our headless hero, will not stick around for long.
Once you’ve completed a full run through of Dead Cells, and defeated The Hand of the King, you’ll be placed back in the Prisoners’ Quarters for a fresh run. From there, you’ll want to head east, where you’ll hopefully bump into Richter Belmont. If you see him, he’ll speak to you briefly, letting you know you aren’t far from a new biome entrance to Castle Outskirts.
If you want to get started in Return to Castlevania, you’ll need to head to the Castle Outskirts biome, which after having defeated The Hand of the King, will always be available from the Prisoners’ Quarters in subsequent runs.
The Castle's Outskirts will always be available from the start of any run after defeating The Hand of the King.
Don’t enter any other biomes you might stumble upon first — once you’ve entered a different biome, you won’t be able to access any Castlevania content until your next run. Later runs might ask you to go to different biomes as part of the Return to Castlevania story, but to get started you always have to go to the Castle Outskirts.
