Auric Cells are the only currency in Dead by Daylight you cannot earn. Bloodpoints come from trials, Iridescent Shards come from playing, Rift Fragments come from challenges — Auric Cells come from your card. That makes them the one currency where the maths is worth doing before you spend, and almost nobody publishes the maths.
This guide is current for Patch 10.2.0, the Mid-Chapter that went live on 6 October 2026, and for the store as it stands during the Academia Rift and the run-up to Haunted by Daylight.
Quick answer: what Auric Cells cost and what they buy
- Six packs: 500, 1,100, 2,250, 4,025, 6,000 and 12,500 Auric Cells, priced $4.99 / $9.99 / $19.99 / $34.99 / $49.99 / $99.99 USD.
- Real value ranges from $9.98 per 1,000 cells (the 500 pack) to $8.00 per 1,000 (the 12,500 pack) — the small pack costs 24.8% more per cell.
- Behaviour's own nominal rate is 100 Auric Cells = $1.00, confirmed by its 2024 price-cut post. Every pack above the smallest beats that rate.
- A current character is 500 Auric Cells, a full Legendary or Ultra Rare outfit is 1,485, and the Rift Pass is 1,000.
- There is no way to earn, farm, gift or redeem Auric Cells. No Dead by Daylight code has ever granted them.
- The single purchase that can pay for itself is the Rift Pass: its premium track refunds the 1,000 cells if you reach Tier 70.
How much do Auric Cells cost in Dead by Daylight?
The in-game Store sells six Auric Cell packs. Behaviour attaches an escalating bonus to each step up the ladder, which is why the cell counts are odd numbers rather than round ones.
| Pack | Bonus | USD | Cost per 1,000 cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | — | $4.99 | $9.98 |
| 1,100 | +10% | $9.99 | $9.08 |
| 2,250 | +12.5% | $19.99 | $8.88 |
| 4,025 | +15% | $34.99 | $8.69 |
| 6,000 | +20% | $49.99 | $8.33 |
| 12,500 | +25% | $99.99 | $8.00 |
Prices are the standard USD tiers listed on the PlayStation Store product page and matched across PC storefront listings; regional pricing varies, and some platforms occasionally run a one-time bonus on a first purchase.
The baseline to measure against is Behaviour's own. When it cut the price of eight original characters in 2024 it stated the new price in both currencies in the same breath: "From September 12th the pricing of eight of our Original Characters will be reduced, Ace Visconti, Feng Min, Kate Denson, Adam Francis, The Hag, The Doctor, The Clown and The Spirit. These characters will now cost 125 AC/$1.25 USD." That fixes the nominal exchange rate at 100 Auric Cells to the dollar, or $10.00 per 1,000.
Measured against that, the 500 pack is almost exactly par, and every larger pack is a discount. The 12,500 pack is 20% below Behaviour's own stated rate.
Which Auric Cell pack is the best value?
Strictly on cost per cell, the answer is the largest pack you will actually spend. That is not a dodge — it is the whole trap.
The ladder is monotonic, so there is no clever middle option: every step up is cheaper per cell than the step below it. Going from the 500 pack to the 12,500 pack saves $1.98 on every 1,000 cells, which across a full 12,500 is a $24.75 difference in effective value.
But cells you never spend are worth nothing, and the pack sizes are deliberately built so that you almost never land on zero. Consider the three most common purchases:
- A current character costs 500. The 500 pack covers it exactly — the only clean match in the entire system.
- A full Legendary or Ultra Rare outfit costs 1,485. The 1,100 pack is short. Two packs (1,100 + 500 = 1,600) leaves 115 cells stranded, and nothing in the store costs 115.
- A character plus a full outfit is 1,985. The 2,250 pack leaves 265 stranded.
The rule that actually holds: buy the pack that covers what you have already decided to buy, then stop. Topping up to "use the leftovers" is how a $4.99 purchase becomes a $19.99 one.
Why do the Auric Cell packs never match the prices?
Because they are not supposed to. This is standard premium-currency design, and Dead by Daylight players have been naming it for years. One widely-upvoted thread arguing for an exact-amount purchase option drew the obvious reply: "it's a money tactic used to make you always have a bit less or a bit more of whatever made up currency than you need."
It may not stay that way forever. The European Commission's 2025 consumer-protection guidance on in-game virtual currencies pushes developers toward exact-amount purchase options and clearer real-money pricing, as covered in this legal summary of the EU guidelines. Guidance is not law, and Behaviour has announced nothing. Treat the current ladder as the one you are buying into.
What can you actually buy with Auric Cells?
Auric Cells are a Store currency. They buy characters, chapters, cosmetics, charms and Rift progress — and nothing that affects gameplay power.
Characters. All characters, original and licensed, cost 500 Auric Cells at full price. Older original characters up to and including CHAPTER 27: Tools of Torment are permanently discounted to 250, and even older originals up to and including CHAPTER 9: Shattered Bloodline sit at 125. Characters from the free chapters — Trapper, Wraith, Hillbilly, Nurse, Huntress — have no price at all. Our full killer roster list covers who is original and who is licensed, which is what decides whether a Shard price exists at all.
Chapters. Licensed chapter bundles have run at 1,000 to 1,500 Auric Cells depending on the release — Silent Hill at 1,000, Resident Evil at 1,500 — and licensed content has no Iridescent Shard price whatsoever. If you want a licensed killer, Auric Cells are the only route.
Cosmetics. Behaviour standardised cosmetic pricing in Patch 7.7.0 and tied it strictly to rarity. Individual pieces run from 50 Auric Cells (Common) to 550 (Ultra Rare and Legendary). Full outfits run from 90 to 1,485. Visceral outfits, which unlock a unique Mori animation, cost 270 Auric Cells above the standard price for their rarity, putting a full Visceral set at 1,755.
The Rift. The Rift Pass is 1,000 Auric Cells, individual tiers are 100 each, and there is a bundle at 2,000 for 3,000 cells' worth of content.
What can Auric Cells not buy?
This is where most spending mistakes happen.
- Teachable perks. The Shrine of Secrets takes Iridescent Shards only — 2,000 per perk, or 2,700 for recent DLC perks. Auric Cells are not accepted.
- Bloodpoints. There is no conversion in either direction. Bloodpoints cannot be exchanged for Auric Cells, Iridescent Shards or Rift Fragments, and Auric Cells cannot buy Bloodpoints. If Bloodpoints are the bottleneck, the lever is the Bloodpoint cap and how to farm against it, not the Store.
- Community cosmetics. Anniversary design-contest winners and Left 4 Dead cosmetics carry an Iridescent Shard price only.
- Matchmaking advantage of any kind. Everything Auric Cells touch is cosmetic or a character unlock.
Auric Cells or Iridescent Shards: which should you spend?
For cosmetics the exchange rate is fixed and brutal: an Iridescent Shard price is always the Auric Cell price multiplied by 20. That 1,485-cell Legendary outfit is 29,700 Iridescent Shards.
Two rules decide it for you:
- Licensed content is Auric Cells only. No amount of patience earns you a licensed killer or a licensed cosmetic.
- Original-character cosmetics get a Shard price roughly a month after release. New cosmetics are Auric-Cells-only for their first 30 days in the Store. Waiting out that window is the single most reliable way to not spend money on an original-character skin.
One more quirk worth knowing: buying a complete outfit with Auric Cells is cheaper than buying its pieces individually, but there is no equivalent bundle discount when paying in Iridescent Shards.
What is the best Auric Cell purchase in the game?
The Rift Pass, and it is not close — because it is the only purchase that can refund itself.
Behaviour's official Rift FAQ states the price plainly: "Click on The Rift tab. Click the 'UNLOCK PASS' button below the Premium rewards. The Rift Pass can then be unlocked with 1,000 Auric Cells." The premium track then returns 1,000 Auric Cells to you at Tier 70. Finish the Rift and the Pass was free; the cosmetics were a bonus.
There is a second, less-known detail that changes when you should buy. From the same FAQ: "Rewards for previously completed Tiers will be earned upon unlocking the Rift Pass. For example, if you've progressed to Tier 10 in The Rift and unlock the Rift Pass, you will instantly earn all Premium rewards up to that point."
That inverts the usual advice. There is no penalty for buying the Pass late — the premium rewards you already passed are granted retroactively. The only hard deadline is the Rift closing: "Once a Rift closes, the Challenges will no longer be available." So the optimal play is to grind the free track first, see whether you are realistically going to reach Tier 70, and only then spend. Our Academia Rift breakdown covers the current Rift's reward track and window.
Can you get Auric Cells for free?
No, with two narrow exceptions that are not really exceptions.
The Rift Pass refund. Reaching Tier 70 on the premium track returns the 1,000 cells you spent to unlock it. That is a refund, not income — you cannot reach Tier 70 without first spending.
The Public Test Build. The PTB grants a sandbox account 12,500 Auric Cells alongside 1,000,000 Bloodpoints and every owned character at Level 50 / Prestige 3. None of it transfers to the live game, and the PTB is Steam-only. It exists so testers can re-buy characters they own on other storefronts, which are locked on the PTB build.
Everything else — "free Auric Cell generators", survey sites, cell-stuffed accounts on marketplaces — is either a scam or a terms-of-service violation that costs you the account. The economics also do not work: at $8.00 per 1,000 cells from Behaviour, anyone offering cells at a steep discount is selling you something other than cells.
Do any Dead by Daylight codes give Auric Cells?
No. Not one, in the game's entire history.
This confusion is structural rather than silly, because the Store bottom bar puts three different things next to each other: Main Menu, REDEEM, and Get Auric Cells. Those are three separate flows.
- REDEEM takes promotional codes. Dead by Daylight codes grant Bloodpoints, Iridescent Shards, charms, badges, banners or cosmetics — never Auric Cells. Our October 2026 code list tracks what is genuinely live, and the step-by-step redemption walkthrough covers the exact menu path.
- Get Auric Cells opens the six-pack purchase screen described above.
- Support a Creator lives inside that Auric Cell purchase flow, not in the Redeem box. A creator code typed into REDEEM returns the invalid-code error every single time. This is the most common "my code doesn't work" report in the game.
One extra note for anyone chasing currency codes specifically: most tracker sites conflate code types freely, and plenty of "Bloodpoint codes" circulating online expired months ago. We keep a separately verified Bloodpoint code tracker for exactly that reason.
Can you gift, share or transfer Auric Cells?
Not between accounts, and not fully between platforms.
Cross-progression shares most of your account, but Behaviour's support documentation carves out one explicit exception: "For Nintendo Switch, Auric Cells will stay with the platform account and cannot be shared. However, Bloodpoints, Iridescent Shards, and Rift Fragments will be accumulated and shared across all platforms."
So Bloodpoints, Shards and Rift Fragments travel. Cosmetics you already own travel, with platform-exclusive items excepted. Unspent Auric Cells bought on Switch stay on Switch. There is no in-game gifting of Auric Cells to another player on any platform — if you want to give someone content, you buy the storefront DLC as a gift through Steam, PlayStation, Xbox or the Microsoft Store instead.
Frequently asked questions
How much is 1,000 Auric Cells in Dead by Daylight? There is no 1,000-cell pack. The two packs bracketing it are 500 for $4.99 and 1,100 for $9.99, so 1,000 cells effectively costs between $9.08 and $9.98 depending on which pack you buy.
What is the cheapest way to buy Auric Cells? Per cell, the 12,500 pack at $99.99 — it works out to $8.00 per 1,000, against $9.98 for the 500 pack. In absolute terms, the cheapest purchase that gets you anything is the 500 pack, which buys exactly one current character.
Do Auric Cells ever go on sale? The packs themselves do not get discounted. What goes on sale is the content — Behaviour regularly runs character and cosmetic sales, and permanently cut older original characters to 250 and 125 Auric Cells. Buying during a content sale is the real discount.
Can I buy perks with Auric Cells? No. Teachable perks in the Shrine of Secrets cost Iridescent Shards only, at 2,000 per perk or 2,700 for recent DLC perks.
Why do I have leftover Auric Cells I cannot spend? Because no pack size divides evenly into the common price points. A 1,485-cell outfit cannot be bought with any single pack or any clean combination, which is intentional. Treat stranded cells as the cost of the purchase rather than a reason to buy another pack.
Are Auric Cells shared across platforms? Bloodpoints, Iridescent Shards and Rift Fragments are shared through cross-progression. Auric Cells bought on Nintendo Switch are not, per Behaviour's own support FAQ.
Is the Rift Pass worth 1,000 Auric Cells? If you reliably reach Tier 70, yes — the premium track refunds the 1,000 cells, making the Pass effectively free. If you typically stall out in the 30s or 40s, buy tiers or skip it. Because premium rewards are granted retroactively, you lose nothing by deciding late.
The practical version
Decide what you want before you open the purchase screen. Buy the smallest pack that covers it. If what you want is an original-character cosmetic, wait the 30 days and pay in Iridescent Shards instead. If you are going to buy anything this season, make it the Rift Pass — it is the only Auric Cell purchase in the game with a refund attached.
And whatever you do, do not trust a tracker that tells you a code will top up your cells. Behaviour has issued promotional codes steadily through 2026 — for Bloodpoints, Shards, charms, badges and banners — and not one of them has granted an Auric Cell.
Want the rest of the Dead by Daylight economy mapped out? We keep a running set of guides on codes, currencies and progression, all verified against Behaviour's own sources rather than copied between tracker sites.
