The hype around this $3 Early Access game is real. Learn all about how to survive till minute 30:00 and what you need to evolve your weapons. Plus, secrets!
When randomly browsing Steam last weekend, I stumbled across this lo-fi, 90s era-looking Vampire Survivors game. Strong Castlevania flavors and the low price pulled me in, as well as a promise of becoming an insanely powerful monster slayer. Over this week, the game has been exploding in gamer communities, even garnering up to 80k views on Twitch. The likes of Lirik, MOONMOON, Sodapoppin, and so many more have streamed the game. Word spread organically about this little game (that barely has two levels!) without the need for any marketing or effort, really.
Vampire Survivors isn't that easy, especially at first. In a game where you're continuously assaulted by bigger and bigger monster waves, your character needs to carefully move around the endless stages, taking as little damage as possible. By gathering gems, your character levels up and gets new weapons, each one firing automatically. Getting the right combination of weapons and accessories takes a bit of practice. Read on with our guide and delve into your own hype runs.
Vampire Survivors Weapon Evolutions
| Weapon | Requirement | Evolved Version |
|---|---|---|
| Axe | Candelabrador | Death Spiral (axes spiral out, pass through enemies) |
| Cross | Clover | Heaven Sword (can crit and covers more area) |
| Fire Wand | Spinach | Hellfire (passes through foes) |
| Garlic | Pummarola | Soul Eater (steal life from enemies) |
| King Bible | Spellbinder | Unholy Vespers (Bibles always circle you) |
| Knife | Bracer | Thousand Edge (fires non-stop) |
| Lightning Ring | Duplicator | Thunder Loop (lightning strikes twice) |
| Magic Wand | Empty Tome | Holy Wand (fires non-stop) |
| Pentagram | Crown | Gorgeous Moon (makes more gems) |
| Phiera Der Tuphello | Eight the Sparrow | Also needs Tiragisu, scales with Revives |
| Runetracer | Armor | Explodes while bouncing around |
| Santa Water | Attractorb | Pools stay longer and follow a bit |
| Song of Mana | Skull O'Maniac | Mannajja (may slow enemies) |
| Whip | Hollow Heart | Bloody Tear (can crit and lifesteal) |
| Peachone | Ebony Wings | both weapons at level 8 unlock Vandalier |
The recent updates have added a bunch of new weapons, though they don't have evolutions yet. Yep, there are cats now.
Remember, to evolve a weapon, first level them to max, then have at least 1 level of the needed accessory. Then, the next chest you pick up should reward you with an evolved version of the weapon. It's definitely recommended to go for 2-3 evolutions with each run.
How to unlock Arcana in Vapmire Survivors
You need to find the Randomazzo relic in the Gallo Tower, one of the newer stages. It's in the far north, and you have an arrow showing you where it is.
Arcanas are big buffs that change up weapons. You can have up to three equipped, one at the beginning, then another at the 11 minute mark and the last at the 21 minute mark.
They're mostly unlocked by leveling certain characters to 99 during a run (Krochi, Giovanna, Lama, Poppea, Arca). There are only a few available now, but they will eventually reach 22 (same number as the Major Arcana cards in Tarot decks).
Vampire Survivors General Tips & Tricks
- It's rather recommended to pick up the EXP gems as fast as possible (always keep an eye out for green ones, and red ones especially). However, if you kill monsters and don't pick up EXP, the game will eventually merge them together outside of your screen to prevent lag, so you can find yourself suddenly gaining a bunch of levels. That, or the Attractaorb pick up will help you!
- For an easy run, pick Imelda. Her bonus EXP stacking with Crowns can have you gaining so much more value per enemy, leading to a big power surge. The faster you can kill, the more EXP you can get. Make sure to have something that can kill groups effectively before leaning into the Crown too hard.
- Generally, try to level up one weapon more over gaining a bunch. A few upgrades on certain weapons give them powerful abilities. When the Magic Wand or Knife weapons start to pierce more than one enemy, they become much better at clearing crowds.
- Play around your weapons. If you have Knife, make sure to aim at the biggest crowd to start thinning them down. If you keep running and aiming somewhere else, you could be wasting damage and EXP gain. Both Bird weapons can be annoying to aim with, but you can angle yourself to barrage a crowd of ghosts, plants, or witches.
- You can find some free accessories on the ground. In the Inlaid Library, if you keep going right, you will find the Stone Mask, and if you keep going left, you eventually stumble across the Empty Tome. If you already have 6 accessories, these extra ones will ignore the limit, and give you more options. The recent patch also added a Hollow Heart to the redesigned Mad Forest area.
- Once you find the map in the Dairy Plant, press ESC to see where items are in the level. This will also help you find the coffin.
Vampire Survivors Secrets
Unlock an additional character:
- Type x-x1viiq in the main menu. It needs to be done pretty quickly, and you will hear a sound to confirm.
- There's rumor about another secret character, but to do that, you might have to defeat Death... (that can't be done without modifying the game!)
Vampire Survivors is still in Early Access on Steam, so the game is constantly getting updated. However, make sure to refer to our Weapon Evolution chart, as that's the key to good runs. Keep on vanquishing and surviving!
