After purchasing the Dead Cells Return to Castlevania DLC, you might be wondering how to unlock and activate it in the first place, since it’s not all that obvious. The add-on also breaks up the new Castlevania content in a few parts, so it can be confusing how to reach the Dracula boss fight at the end. Here’s a walkthrough detailing what you need to do in order to complete the Return to Castlevania DLC.
[WARNING: There are some minor spoilers for the DLC here, so fair warning before you head past this point.]
How do you reach Dracula in Dead Cells Return to Castlevania DLC?
Here are the steps you need to complete to reach Dracula in the Dead Cells Return to Castlevania DLC:
- Complete enough runthroughs of Dead Cells so that the Prisoner’s Quarters biome has hanging flasks
- Find Richtor Belmont near the Prison Start with a set of stairs that descend down toward the Castle’s Outskirts
- Get to the Castle’s Outskirts biome and meet with Alucard next to the elevator lift
- Finish Castle’s Outskirts and reach Dracula’s Castle
- Attempt to head through the last passageway and get dragged to the Defiled Necropolis
- Defeat Death in the Defiled Necropolis and then talk with Alucard at the end of the boss arena
- Finish the runthrough and start again. Talk with Alucard in the Prisoner’s Quarters and proceed specifically to the Clock Room biome
- Defeat the Time Keeper boss and find Alucard standing next to the Dracula’s Castle biome entrance once again
- Get through Dracula’s Castle again, this time defeating Medusa for the Petrified Key
- Unlock the final door to Master’s Keep using the key to reach Dracula in his throne room
- Defeat Dracula… if you can!
The main unlock requirements here are that you need to have completed several Dead Cells runthroughs first before this DLC will activate, and you need to complete one runthrough (in Step 7) before the second part of the DLC will activate.
Previous Dead Cells DLC includes Rise of the Giant and Bad Seed.