You are a member of the Belpaese family, a renowned bloodline of vampire hunters hellbent on driving a stake through the corpse of those nasty bloodsuckers. You trekked and trekked through forests, libraries, jungles, and more until you reached the finale. But there was none. There were no ruinous creatures of the night to slay.

Only a thousand more monsters lying in wait, coming from the depths of the abyss where ancient horrors lie.

Hell is empty, the devils are here, and there’s no place to run or hide.

Vampire Survivors is a ‘minimalistic’ time survival game shoot-em-up (with roguelike elements) developed by poncle. While not the flagbearer of its genre (the title belonging to Magic Survival), you, the player, are placed in a location of your choosing, and you have to survive within a set amount of time. You are beset by all sides with monsters wanting your flesh.

The real problem for them is that you’re not stuck with them; they’re stuck with you.

Up until Death wails on you after a specific time period.

Despite how its control option is limited to movement, Vampire Survivors continues to give its players a memorable and addicting experience, either through its graphical or sound design. Of course, you can’t get this Experience if you die a couple of times.

With the help of this Vampire Survivors Beginner Guide we can assure you that your character survives long enough to find a survivor! Quite a mouthful, but not sufficient without any tips, tricks, and strategies to dominate any stage of the game and find yourself at the hands of Death itself! Let’s pick a character, grab your favorite Weapon, and jump right into this awesome game!

Overview

NOTE: As this is the mobile version of the game, there will be no talks about the DLC. As such, this is suited to the base game itself.

Vampire Survivors is one of those games where it is easy to learn but hard to master. Its minimalistic gameplay consists of using only a directional button (or a virtual joystick in any part of the screen) and the occasional touching of the screen. As you play the game, you are placed on a stage (of your own choosing at later parts of the game) and are besieged on all sides.

All sides are also a complete understatement. Enemies can pop up out of nowhere. They can come out of waves. They circle around you. Even if you run to the other side of the map, the game is set so that whenever you go past them, they spawn back to your screen. The same goes for Bosses, with their imposing figures completely standing out above the rest.

Simple in its design, elegant in its execution. And highly addicting at best.

Let’s gloss over a few things first before tackling a few things.

Levels

Before we really get started, the Levels in this game are different from how it is imposed in other games. Essentially, grabbing an Experience Gem gives you the amount that you need to level up. If you level up, it doesn’t give you stats or whatnot. Instead…

Items

When you’re picking your character and suddenly thrust into the game, you have no idea or expectations whatsoever as to what you will do. You level up because you chose a blue gem on the ground, and suddenly that’s that. You’re suddenly introduced to an option: picking three items that you would want.

Or four if you’re lucky. Not much else.

Items are the lifeblood of your character. They are the only thing standing between you and the monster that wants to maul you to Death by touching your pixelated avatar. They are separated into two categories: weapons and passive items.

Weapons are what you use to maul at certain opponents. They can range from a vampire-killing whip that does not take inspiration from Konami’s game, or an item that deletes anything in the game regardless of its ludicrous HP. There are multiple weapons in the game, and the only way to get them is by leveling up your character. Weapons also have variants ranging from Evolutions, Unions, Gifts, and Counterparts.

Let’s not get a bit too in-depth on the following. Evolutions are essentially weapons that have been ‘evolved’ after the Weapon’s level is maxed out. Unions are self-explanatory: they unite weapons. Gifts aren’t: they can only be obtained via Treasure Boxes but only under certain conditions. Counterparts can only be got when you have a certain Arcana (more on that later, that’s too).

Passive items are your item powerups, your trinkets, and baubles. Some give EXP, and some offer increased damage output. Some make Vampire Survivors even more challenging by making enemies tougher and more plentiful. They are also presented in the choices that you get when you level up, but the difference is that they can be picked up on the ground whenever you venture far enough on the map. Some maps have their own passive items, so take note of them.

However, as you get a weapon or an item, you also get the chance to upgrade it should you choose to do so when leveling up. Weapons are upgradeable up to Level 8, and Passive Items… depend on what properties they have.

They are the complete core mechanic that you will be enthused with. There’s a lot more to them than meets the eye. They make and break your run.

Relics

Alright, finished the first stage? Good. Now, you notice something. Why are there green arrows pointing toward this particular stage? You wander off on your own, ignoring the mass amount of Mudmen wanting to muddle your hide… and then find something rather special. Is that an item? You pick it up.

Nope, it wasn’t. It was a Relic.

Relics are permanent items that unlock new mechanics and features once you obtain them. These items are scattered around multiple stages, and obtaining them opens a new feature in the game. Quite a nice progression feature, init? Once taken, they will never be in the same place ever again and will be immediately added to your Collection, alongside their benefits.

And you got a new map too from that. Now what?

Enemies

Oh, right, them.

Well, there’s not much to your enemies aside from wanting you completely dead. There is no lore as to why; there’s not even a particular reason behind said monsters. They just see you as human, and that’s that.

Maybe they see a mangled corpse as a monster counts as their own twisted way of corruption.

Killing enemies rewards you with Experience Gems. They’re necessary for you to level up. As stated earlier, enemies act as is. They will go towards you and then murder you. But they come in different flavors and spawn in different ways.

The usual lackey of a monster from Hell gives you the measly blue Experience Gem spawned from the screen. Bosses also do the same way (there are those in specific conditions, but that’s for another story). There are certain enemies that can only be spawned on certain occasions. And on those particular occasions, they’ll interact in their own unique way.

That’s all there is to them, aside from their Resistances, HP, Damage, Speed… the knockback that they take when hit by the player’s Weapon.

All you need to remember is that they’ll just home in on you. And murder you. That’s it.

Arcana

You’ve gotten quite well into your run. You go on headstrong in your attempt to finish the game, only to find yourself lacking and completely obliterated with your character being Lvl. 50. You die, you go on and play the game.

And then you get this screen after you entirely dismiss the results screen. What are those cards? And why do they have suspiciously lovely benefits?

And downsides. Downsides?

Arcanas is the modifier system of the game. They are unlocked once you obtain the Randomazzo relic (found in Gallo’s Tower) that gives you the cards. Card, singular. You have to get your own set by reaching Level 50 with certain characters or by reaching a specified time in some stages. There are a total of 22 Arcanas to choose from; only 3 can be taken at each run.

Powerups

After every run, you go back to the main menu, picking a new run. Each time you’re on the menu, you’ll more likely be interested in what ‘Powerups’ are.

These Powerups are purchasable Stats that give you permanent bonuses throughout your runs. They are essential to your ascension in the game, and they make things a bit easier…

Or harder, it depends on how you like it.

They range from making you stronger, making you level up faster, or ending up spawning more monsters than you need to. They make the game interesting on their own. Each time you purchase a Powerup, their cost increases. Bear in mind which ones you want to get initially.

Oh, and completely upgrading a Powerup allows you to switch it on or off at your convenience.

Overall Strategy

So now that we’ve basically gone through what we needed to know, let’s break all pretense and get down to business.

Your only defense in this game is the offense. Killing your opponent before they could have a bite of you is the easiest way to win the game, as weapons tend to overscale once you have built them from the ground up (as well as surviving). Defense and survival items? Throw them in a trashcan. They do not scale well after you breach the 20-minute mark. They do not allow you to breach a path or sit tightly around a corner and watch as the horde, unsurprisingly, cannot phase through your wall of projectiles.

However, using defense items will be inevitable as the game balances it out using Weapon Evolutions. You’re bound to get a Defensive Passive Item either way to get a better weapon.

But in all seriousness, how a run comes and goes boils down to a few things: you chose the wrong items to go with. There’s not much else to this game either than to make sure the enemy swarming towards you is dead before they can touch a sliver of your character.

However, as this is a beginner’s guide, we can go through a few things as to what you can get and what you should avoid early on in the game. Let’s start with powerups.

Picking Powerups

Going to Mad Forest on your first run is actually hard. You don’t have no idea what item combinations to choose from, and you don’t have Powerups to push through the hordes that want your shiny butt. You just move around, make sure you don’t die, get a few golds along the way, and poof. You go back to the menu and pick up some Powerups.

But before you purchase said Powerups, let’s specifically go for ones well-suited for you.

Early Game

Dealing with damage isn’t much of a problem that you will encounter in your first runs. It is your coffers running low the moment you end the run and purchase a new character. We’ll have to check on that in the next section of this Strategy section.

Maximizing Greed should be your first priority. Getting more coins in runs allows you to quickly purchase anything in the Powerup Selection relatively easily. Move Speed and Magnet will enable you to be flexible at gathering pickups in the stages and ensuring you don’t get hit by monsters along the way.

These powerups should be enough before you reach…

Mid Game

At this point of the game, you’ve now managed to power up and get a few coins to use. At this point in the game, reaching 30 minutes is now your main priority. Beating up anything that stands in your way is your only option now. As well as a few options that allow you flexibility and mobility.

Now, we max out Move Speed and Magnet to move around the map and focus more on finishing enemies and gathering Experience Gems without moving an inch closer to them. To breach the latter half of stages, upgrading Might to the max allows you to deal 1.5x more damage than you usually can, quickly destroying anything up to that point (with the best options that you have, of course).

The Amount may seem like an odd pick, but having more projectiles than just one is a game-changer in its own right. Specific synergies later on in the game only allow such a Powerup to completely shatter the balance of the game.

The Whip at its first level only barrages the Area to which your player is looking at. The picture above is only an example, and the character turns just as the attack is released. Level 2 has you get your front and back. Getting Amount immediately?

The first level of the Whip has you immediately get the front and back. The second level has you repeat the Whip’s Front attack. Having consistent damage is critical to not only surviving but also thriving amongst a sea of endless monster waves. This is much more prominent in the later stages of the game, of course.

Luck may not seem to be the best of both worlds, but it allows you a fourth option of choosing an item after leveling up… as well as a few things in the game that you can control.

Finally, Growth. +15% Experience gained means 15% of your run cut into a faster segment. The faster you can level up, the less of a problem monsters become… unless they’re also scaled to your level as well. But even so, that means more time to venture and evade.

Late Game

You’ve done your best, and now it’s time to breach 24 minutes with relative ease. The next powerups are pretty simple: Cooldown to get your weapons to deal more damage faster, Area to have your Santa Water completely drown everything in its holy musk, and Speed to effectively have your Runetracer blast everything more quickly.

And Duration so that your Runetracer ends up ending at the latter half of your next Runetracer barrage. Consistent damage is still your priority, but now making sure that it stays that way and ending up with more damage becomes your newest one.

Final Picks

You’ve demolished anything in your way, and now it’s time to make sure you stay that way. You were fragile once, and now your priority is to remind the monsters from Hell that it will be like that throughout all runs. Of course, the defense doesn’t win games, as stated before, but it guarantees your chances ultimately.

Not only that, but a safety net in the form of Revival allows you to do risky strategies as well as a few grabs on specific runs. Do not treat it as if it’s throwable. If anything, play like you usually do and never let Revival go.

Curse

You’ve been noticing this thing for a while now in the previous screenshots. What the Hell is Curse? And why is something so ominous purchasable in the game?

It’s a challenging item that you can activate and deactivate at your whim. For every checkmark (or rank) that you give to Curse, it gives you 50% enemy movement speed and health, as well as 50% more enemies and faster enemy spawning. Why would you want that other than a challenge?

Curse does give you the benefit of having more enemies. Since more enemies are the only way to get more Experience Gems, the difficulty of Curse revolves around how to mitigate the ever-increasing need for damage. It makes the game faster as you get more Experience, but the early stages of a run become more complex than it usually is.

As if you’re back in Mad Forest all over again, doing your first run.

Skip, Reroll, Banish, Seal

You hate it. You hate the fact that you were about to pick something better and ended up with an item that you ultimately do not want in your life at all. You want to throw away either that Knife or Laurel that you don’t need in your run. Those inconveniences are immediately mitigated by either Skip, Reroll, Banish, or Seal.

Skip allows you to skip getting an item completely for that level, and the game rewards you with a bit of EXP in return. Banish acts similarly to Skip in terms of how it’s considered an option, but the difference is that it completely removes the selected item from any future level-ups. This also includes items that are upgraded. Reroll is what you’d expect, but you can get to choose which item after ‘rerolling’; thus is the better option.

Sealing is different.

Charm

If ever you feel like you can’t take the brunt of Curse yet, Charm is an alternative solution for more monsters = more Experience Gems. However, take note that it does not do percentages but rather a set amount of monsters that it will provide per wave. With its initial Amount being 20 and its maximum being 100 at max upgrade, Charm should only be taken when you can overcome monsters with relative ease.

Which Characters to Pick…

Vampire Survivors has 25 standard characters to choose from, with 16 secret characters to unlock through various means. We won’t exhaust ourselves on which characters to choose from but rather on which ones are the best to start with. We can exhaust Weapon Combinations in its entirety, but the Characters are different beasts themselves.

Let’s gloss over them instead!

Imelda Belphase

One of the first characters you’d see in the game with an unlocking price of 10 gold, Imelda ranks high due to her passive experience gain. By Level 15, you’d have a 30% Experience Gain. That’s 30% faster than getting a higher level. Her Magic Wand is a good start for beginners who are confused with the Whip’s mechanics.

A good beginner’s pick.

Arca Ladonna

The seemingly not Alucard wields the random-firing Fire Wand, making for a difficult start. But weapon cooldown as his own passive makes him a viable choice if you wish to clutter the entire map with projectiles that spew out at high speeds.

Unlocked after upgrading the Fire Wand to Level 4 in any run.

A fine choice for those needing a bit of a kick for DPS.

Pugnala Provola

Definitely not a Bayonetta reference, Pugnala Provola is the immediate definition of beginner friendly. Her +1% Might passive has no level cap to it, and her starting weapons are Phiera Der Tuphello and Eight the Sparrow. Obtaining the Phieraggi makes her a complete monster, especially when getting synergizing Arcanas.

She can be unlocked by going to the question mark in Mad Forest after obtaining the Milky Way Map.

A powerful pick for those wanting an easy win.

Zi’Assunta Belpaese

Zi’Assunta Belpaese is unlocked after opening her coffin at the Capella Magna stage. This female vampire hunter’s Weapon of choice is the decent Vento Sacro, a holy whip that deals multiple strikes to where she is looking. Movement is a decisive factor for her Weapon, but her most significant upside is her passive. Each level means she gets stronger at every turn.

As she has Vento Sacro, it’s only a matter of time before getting Bloody Tear for something monstrous. You just have to deal with her early game. Vento Sacro slaps like a noodle on a monster, and her +10% Curse is just as a nitpick at best.

A monstrous pick for veterans and newbies alike.

Mortaccio and Yatta Cavallo

Mortaccio and Yatta Cavallo are basically two sides of the same coin, that coin being more projectiles. They are easy to unlock due to their requirements (killing 3000 Skeletons/Lion Heads, respectively). Of course, they have the obvious that their most significant advantage against almost all characters in Vampire Survivors is due to more projectiles.

Mortaccio may have a worse early game compared to Yatta (Cherry Bomb just bounces off and explodes by chance) due to the poor skeleton’s starting Weapon… up until you upgrade it.

For those wanting to pick a bone, literally.

Sir Ambrojoe

At times, you just have to admit there’s always someone out there who starts out strong and ends up going stronger. Sir Ambrojoe stands on top of the previous two by his temporary Amount bonus (that ends at Level 6). His starting Weapon, the La Robba, punts out high-damaging, bouncing furniture. He also begins with +20% Luck, Greed, and Magnet than the other two.

You can unlock him by killing 6000 Stage Killers (and their elite variants).

In case you want a better edge than Mortaccio and Yatta Cavallo.

Queen Sigma

And all arguments cease the moment the Queen herself arrives. She stands on top of everyone. Her character description basically describes what she is. She. Owns. Everything.

Her baseline stats make her impossible to die unless the player finds a way to do so. She wields the almighty Victory Sword, a vicious streak of strikes that slashes anything around her vicinity. She can obtain five Arcanas at her whim instead of random ones. She is the quintessential winning character.

That is if you can unlock everything in the Collection.

Queen Sigma stands atop everyone with her sole solution. If you can reach the apex.

Anyone Else

Anyone else that isn’t mentioned in the list is situational picks or downright not a good start for those who are just beginning with the game. Lama could’ve been a part if not for how much Curse plays a vital role in her gameplay. Dommario could’ve been one as well, but his slow movement speed certainly won’t make newbies happy at all.

Secret Characters also are their own niche picks. While characters such as Gains Boros and Mask of Red Death are good beginner picks, how they are obtained certainly doesn’t fit well with the guide. Queen Sigma may have been one, but she stands there as a constant reminder that there’s always a better option overall.

Weapon Combinations

Even if you have the best movement, the best set of powerups, and the best passive items—if you can’t kill them, then consider your entire screen completely swarmed with the monsters you just can’t kill.

Weapons are your first and last defense against the monsters that want you dead. So, let’s talk about them. However, before we get into anything serious, I’ll point it out for you: there’s no such thing as a ‘bad’ weapon. Nearly every item in Vampire Survivors is tailor-made, specifically on how weapons, passive objects, and the character (and Arcana—especially Arcana) themselves synergize with the player’s option.

The only wrong choice is the one that doesn’t allow a character to reach their full potential. Meaning you randomly picked stuff without thinking twice.

Let’s talk about those choices now. Side note, we’ll be glossing over them since this is a Beginner’s Guide. In the end, remember to just pick one that suits well with your character. You will never play the same game twice. But since this is a Beginner’s Guide, we’ll rank weapons based on how you can adapt to them reasonably quickly from the get-go.

The difficulty is given by how easy it is to obtain and use with its initial weapons, as well as how it is used overall. These are the only two factors used.

Combinations available to the player.

Evolution Weapons

Bloody Tear

Requirement: Whip + Hollow Heart

Definitely not an apparent Castlevania reference, Bloody Tear makes the decently damage-scaled Whip into a more potent weapon. EachWWhipf the Weapon gives you an 8 HP life steal. When Roast Chicken isn’t the option, Bloody Tear is.

It’s not the end-all-be-all Weapon, however. It scales a bit too poorly later on in the game… but it has something that spices it up.

Rating: Moderate and worth the effort only when going for its Union counterpart.

Holy Wand

Requirement: Magic Wand + Empty Tome

The Magic Wand is your beginner-friendly Weapon, firing at the nearest monster without thinking. Imagine that, but you have a machine gun in your hand.

The Holy Wand rattles anything that goes towards you with a high volume of Fire. Now added with the fact that it synergizes with the Empty Tome as well… it’s a minigun in the palm of your hand.

Rating: Objectively Easy and incredibly worth it.

Thousand Edge

Requirement: Knife + Bracer

The Knife requires you to move your character toward a direction to throw it. It gives mediocre damage. So why not make it a Gatling gun as well?

Straight out of DIO’s handbook, Thousand Edge is the penultimate boss knockback Weapon, throwing multiple knives per second at an astonishing rate.

Sadly, its damage is… as sad as it can get, and it is only taken because the Bracer is used for other weapon synergies.

Rating: Moderate and situational.

Death Spiral

Requirement: Axe + Candelabrador

Death Spiral changes the Axe’s up-top throwing gimmick with a better one: attacking from all angles. It’s not the best Weapon per se in terms of damage, but given that its requirement is the Candelabrador allows it to shine as well as the rest.

Rating: Easy and somewhat worth it.

Heaven Sword

Requirement: Cross + Lucky Clover

The Cross is a gimmick weapon in which it targets the nearest enemy and then goes in the direction opposite of its initial vector.

Heaven Sword is precisely the same, except it’s ten times larger than the Cross and can do critical damage. That’s all there is to this, aside from angling your attacks.

Only an Arcana is its saving grace.

Rating: Hard, but worth it with a few Arcanas.

Unholy Vespers

Requirement: King Bible + Spellbinder

When there is talk about “there’s no such thing as a bad weapon,” there’s always one about “there’s one exception to the rule””

Unholy Vespers is a monster of an Evolution Weapon. It has everything that you wanted from it: damage, knockback, and AoE. The fact that it starts out as a defensive, orbiting weapon and then suddenly to a ‘no-monster’ allowed radius speaks for its damage output.

While it does not synergize well with Spellbinder due to its ‘infinite length,’ it synergizes with other weapons in the arsenal that you have.

Rating: Basically an essential if you want to win.

Hellfire

Requirement: Fire Wand + Spinach

Hellfire is the upgraded version of the random-firing Fire Wand. It can pierce through all monsters and deal high amounts of damage. Its synergy with Spinach gives it higher amounts of damage.

However, it shines better when it has an Arcana or two. And then, will the Unholy Vespers have its own rival.

Rating: Moderate and worth it, more so with the Arcana.

Soul Eater

Requirement: Garlic + Pummarola

You’d think that having a no-monster land weapon is the best, when in fact, it becomes utterly useless once you reach the 24-minute mark.

The Soul Eater relishes the fact that it’s not easy for one to upgrade. The Garlic’s upgrade path is… pathetic at best. Pummarola being a defensive item that heals only for about 0.5 HP, doesn’t help its case.

It can be saved with an Arcana. However, you are left to your own devices once you reach a point where you can’t effectively one-shot opponents. That’s when you know it’s not even worth the effort to get it.

Rating: Hard and not worth the effort.

La Borra

Requirement: Santa Water + Attractorb

The monsters are from Hell, so using Holy water is no exception. The Santa Water provides early damage, but its randomization makes it relatively hard to use.

But once you reach La Borra, prepare to see an arc of large circles surrounding your character, with said circles going toward your surface. While it doesn’t have the benefit of knockback… do you really need it when they die before they get to you? That… and increasing its area-of-effect makes it deadlier as the water circles stack.

Rating: Hard, but worth the effort.

NO FUTURE

Requirement: Runetracer + Armor

A high-damaging Evolution Weapon that starts out as laughably worthless at first. It’s one of the only weapons that start out with full piercing, but NO FUTURE takes the cake by making it fast and bounces all over with explosions in the corner.

While the armor isn’t precisely a synergizing option, not much else can be overstated on how this thing wrecks with projectile Speed, cooldown, and much more.

Rating: Hard and worth it.

Thunder Loop

Requirement: Lightning Ring + Duplicator

The Duplicator is a must when it comes to runs, but you’d want to have its synergy weapon in order for a gun not to be wasted. Even then, the Lightning Ring doesn’t start off strong.

Up until you get the Evolution. And it all becomes undoubtedly clear. Area-of-Effect with a lessened cooldown and strikes at the same place twice? Combine with a few knockback items, and the Thunder Loop is a welcome mainstay to your arsenal.

If you can survive with a worthless ring at first.

Rating: Hard, but worth it.

Gorgeous Moon

Requirement: Pentagram + Crown

The Gorgeous Moon is a powerful item that wipes the screen of monsters regardless it is a Boss or not. Combined with its ability to turn anything it erases into gems, it turns anything within its aura into Experience Gems. You got an item that synergizes well with the Crown, one that gives Experience. Oh, and it suctions Experience Gems as well after the fact.

Of course, reality sucks. And you have to deal with the Pentagram first. It wipes out the screen of everything, from Experience Gems to Chests. Upgrading it mitigates the earlier mistakes… but risking yourself to Luck isn’t exactly the greatest of things.

Good on paper, bad on execution.

Rating: Objectively hard and not much worth the effort.

Vicious Hunger

Requirement: Gatta Amari + Stone Mask

Vicious Hunger is large cat eyes that turn anything it touches into Gold. It’s good on paper up until you remember you have to consider synergies. Stone Mask does not do anything aside from granting you additional Gold per level you give to it. Gatta Amari is even worse. The Weapon is just randomly spawning cats that do damage randomly and go around randomly. And then it eats your Roast Chicken. Imagine that in a scenario.

Rating: Only when you want more money because it’s BAD.

Mannajja

Requirement: Song of Mana + Skull O’Maniac

The Song of Mana allows you to have decent horizontal protection in the form of an abruptly-bursting beam of magic that deals damage as long as its Duration hasn’t expired. Actually good when you consider it with cooldown, duration, and area upgrades. Mannajja also sounds good on paper because it slows down enemies and gives better damage.

But in a Beginner’s Guide for Vampire Survivor, don’t take this Weapon.

The biggest clue-in you have is the Skull O’Maniac. In order to use this Weapon, you have to subject yourself to a passive item that forces you to have stronger enemies around the map.

Rating: Only when you’re forced to take it.

Valkyrie Turner

Requirement: Shadow Pinion + Wings

You can laugh at Soul Eater all you want, but at least that Weapon is still viable with a few Arcanas to strengthen it up. Vampire Survivors is a game that’s all about movement and making sure you don’t have to stop just to deal damage. Congratulations, Valkyrie Turner, is the opposite of what you should do. And it’s classed alongside Wings, a passive item that allows you to escape dire clump-up situations.

While it deals large amounts of damage, its DPS is mediocre compared to the powerhouses around it. You have to stop and then deal damage. You have to stutter step just to make some of your opponents vanish. Shadow Pinions and Valkyrie Turner may pierce through enemies, but their damage just makes it a sad option overall.

Rating: Remember the ‘no bad weapon’ talk? It’s hard to talk about it when this thing exists.

Infinite Corridor

Requirement: Clock Lancet + Silver Ring (Maxed Out) + Golden Ring (Maxed Out)

Clock Lancet, by its lonesome, sucks. The only thing it can do is freeze an enemy that hits its clockwise beam attack that originates from the player. This ‘weapon’ deals no damage at all other than giving breathing room to the player. Even upgrading the thing does not guarantee absolute safety. It’s only delaying the inevitable.

But once you get Yellow Sign, once you get the Silver and Golden Rings, the Infinite Corridor completely annihilates anything on the screen. It is what Gorgeous Moon wishes to be in the long run. While the acquisition of it requires you to venture around the map (which can be mitigated with certain Arcans), it is a worthwhile weapon. After all, anything on the screen has its entire HP halved. The results screen speaks for the Weapon itself.

Rating: Hard, but worth it in the end.

Crimson Shroud

Requirement: Laurel + Metaglio Left (Maxed Out) + Metaglio Right (Maxed Out)

The Laurel is a defense item that gives you invulnerability for a specified amount of time. Upgrading it allows you to get more stacks of said invulnerability, as well as the cooldown between the stacks. Absolutely worthless when a horde has clamped up on you. So, why is it here?

Simple, it trivializes your fight against the Grim Reaper. While Infinite Corridor is enough to time-stop the Reaper, Crimson Shroud ensures any damage toward you cannot go past 10. This not only increases your survivability, but it also makes any attempt to kill you absolutely laughable. Combine it with a few weapons, and nothing can really kill you… unless you make inevitable mistakes.

But is it necessary to get one? Not much, unless you want to kill the Reaper. Otherwise, leave it for a weapon if you’re not going to kill the poor bastard. Even so, its items do synergize. One gives you more Experience by punting more monsters, and one gives you better HP regen.

Rating: Only when you want to kill the Grim Reaper.

Anima of Mortaccio

Requirement: Bone + Chaos Malachite

Mortaccio is a niche pick that becomes a top one due to its projectile amount. What better way to make it competitive is by giving the Bone a unique Upgrade? By making him larger and deadlier.

The Anime of Mortaccio can only be unlocked by a Level 80 Mortaccio.

Rating: Only if you play Mortaccio.

Bi-Bracelet and Tri-Bracelet

Requirement: Bracelet (for Bi-Bracelet), Bi-Bracelet (for Tri-Bracelet)

The Bi-Bracelet is unique in that you only require the Bracelet to unlock it. It is also unique in that only has 6 levels overall as opposed to its 9 levels, allowing it to be quickly evolved. However, its viability is shattered, and it targets random opponents at best. Made worse that its Arcana only makes it effective after the projectile has expired.

The same goes for the Tri-Bracelet. Not much to work on it.

Rating: Only if you don’t have any other option.

Ashes of Muspell

Requirement: Flames of Mispell + Torrona’s Box (Maxed Out)

Remember that weird orange thing that comes out whenever you destroy a light source (which will be covered in a bit)? It has a weapon counterpart, and its name is the Flames of Misspell. It acts the same as the original. But it can be better; it can be upgraded.

Ashes of Muspell spew out flames like it’s nothing. Imagine the Whip, but now you spew flames at both sides. But its most prominent mainstay isn’t the raging flames or how you can continuously spout more of it: 5000 kills after obtaining it gives it 1 base damage. Considering that you’d get this Weapon later on in the game and that its requirement is a maxed-out Torrona’s Box (that gives Curse, mind you), it’s worth the effort.

If anything, Vampire Survivors is just fanning the flames. You’re just here to make it burn brighter.

Rating: Good Luck, but it is worth your time.

Union Weapons

Compared to Evolution Weapons, Union Weapons—you guessed it—require specific counterparts that allow them to become even stronger. Their status in the game is at the highest, but obtaining them is as good as shooting a foot to yourself in the early stages of the game. None of the Union Weapons are wrong, and they end up giving better damage overall. Obtaining a Union Weapon refunds you a Weapon Slot, allowing you to have one more Weapon to use.

Let’s gloss over the three weapons.

Phieraggi

Requirement: Phiera Der Tuphello + Eight The Sparrow + Tiragisú

Two weapons that fire at cross-directions don’t sound good on paper, up until you see they deal high amounts of damage immediately. And when they get upgraded, oh boy, do they ever stay the same.

The Phieraggi is one of the best weapons in the game, turning what used to be Touhou’s bullets into a complete beam weapon that extends to the screen and rotates. Does not help with the fact that it can be upgraded to have better coverage and cooldown.

The Tiragisú is, however, a defensive item. It introduces you to the concept of ‘letting mistakes fly.’ That is until you get an Arcana that makes each Revive you do make stronger. Oh, and the Tiragisú disappears when you use it up, allowing for better options. Overall? A perfect weapon.

Rating: Powerful mainstay that requires patience.

Vandalier

Requirement: Peachone + Ebony Wings

These two little birds circle around the specified Area and bombard that said Area. The moment you see them in action, you’d cry a little bit inside for how… measly they are. They orbit their attack zones around the player, and it fires on their own, allowing no control whatsoever to them unless you continue to upgrade them. Expensive, but the Vandalier makes it worth it.

Once the game reaches a certain period, the Vandalier becomes an orbiting strike zone that ensures nothing goes inside that radius. Constantly blasting a stream of projectiles is one thing, but adding in additional upgrades allows it to stay indefinitely as well as cover more ground. Consider any corner that spawns enemies long gone.

Of course, it’s good on paper, but executing it is as good as committing to two poor weapons at the start.

Rating: Hard to master. Good if you’re forced to take Peachone/Ebony Wings. Skippable otherwise.

Fuwalafuwaloo

Requirement: Bloody Tear + Vento Sacro

Bloody Tear gives you life steal, but its attack pattern forces you to move downward in order to take maximum effect. Vento Sacro is a weapon that you’d not want to have at first. It has multiple strikes that give knockback, but that’s all there is alongside its mediocre damage. It’s more robust when you have to move constantly. Stutter-stepping is a good idea, but not worth the carpal tunnel you’d get from it.

You’d have to sacrifice 16 levels and a defensive item slot just for one Weapon. But boy, oh boy, does the Fuwalafuwaloo blows Phieraggi out of the water.

The marriage of Ultimate Offense and Defense, the Fuwalafuwaloo gets the blood-steal effect of Bloody Tear, the frontal barrage of the Vento Sacro… and the complete death radius coming from Unholy Vespers. Every hit that you make with this Weapon guarantees your safety. Not only that, it explodes whenever it does a critical hit without an Arcana. And grabbing another Arcana only makes the Fuwalafuwaloo a better option than Unholy Vespers.

Definitely, a weapon to surpass the Vampire Killer.

Rating: Easy and definitely worth the effort.

The Typical Run

Vampire Survivors, overall, doesn’t give a single damn about what you pick in the end. All it cares about is sending a swarm of monsters on you until you’re dead. In some way, you are fighting against a real obstacle than a ‘virtual’ one. Gameplay will never be the same in each run, but there will be consistencies that you’d have to follow.

• Getting a weapon that kills the initial waves (Whip, Magic Wand, Fire Wand, etc.).
• Getting an Area-of-Effect Weapon (King Bible, Garlic, etc.).
• Get a passive item to evolve the Weapon
• Get anything on the ground.
• Move.

Depending on the number of choices that you get when you play further, it’s hard not to see that each run will mostly likely have a different outcome. Make sure that you don’t end up getting items that won’t benefit you in the long run or are not needed to begin with for the run.

Picking a Stage

Stages have their own time limits (either 15 minutes or 30 minutes). Stages are defined by either being a Standard one, a Bonus one, or a Challenge one. We can ignore the Challenge ones for now, as they require specific setups as well as fully-powered Powerups from the selection menu. Each stage gives its own Bonuses, with each increasing stage giving more Gold bonuses than the last. They also have their own Passive Item pickups (which can be tracked easily via the Milky Way Map), allowing you to exceed the standard 6 Passives that you get.

Each stage has its own Hyper mode (which can be unlocked after reaching the 15/30 minute mark) and its own Hurry mode (same as before). They are also challenge modifiers, so ignore them for now. Each stage is different from the last, so let’s gloss over the ones we can really pick. Let’s say… the Standard ones!

The Mad Forest

Collectible items: Skull O’ Maniac, Hollow Heart, Pummarola, Clover, Spinach

[Vampire_Survivors_20] The first map that you are thrown to. This map may look easy at first, but it’s actually one of the harder ones in the game as you are constantly bombarded from all sides, as well as how difficult each wave can get. It has a total of 3+ DPS Check waves that you must have the damage needed to survive. This is where the whole ‘offense is defense’ moniker came to be.

And that’s not to say the ring of high-HP flowers turns into a mini-arena alongside a boss. That happens three times on the map.

Only pick this map when you have decent starting stats.

Inlaid Library

Collectible items: Empty Tome, Stone Mask

Unlocked after reaching Level 20 in The Mad Forest, the Inlaid Library is actually the easiest map available to the player in a heartbeat. If ever you are doing unlocks for a character, this is the definitive stage that you go to every time. Mobs have piss-poor HP, and DPS checks rarely come often up until the later stages of the game.

Its horizontal linear design allows the player to hug a wall or stay in the middle to limit the flow of monsters spawning. Combine it with everything else, and you have a Stage that is easier as it gets (alongside a green Experience Gem near the beginning of the level). Made better than getting the Yellow Sign shows that the items you need for a certain something are far easier to get compared to other stages. If not, well, there’s also a glitch that makes killing enemies easier.

Cheesiest map out there. Recommended to pick for beginners and pros alike.

Dairy Plant

Collectible items: Candelabrador, Attractorb, Wings, Armor

If you want to have a bad time, the Dairy Plant is the worst place a Vampire Survivors beginner should be in. The magically-machinated milking factory houses dairy-driven monsters that are stronger and are far few in quantity. The stage is littered to the core with many walls, objects, and the like. There may be a few minecarts to help you solve the railway problem for some monsters, but it doesn’t change the fact that these narrow paths make it more challenging than it should be.

The worst is that this map introduces enemies that have projectiles. Playing Garlic/King Bible isn’t just mandatory; it’s necessary to keep these shooters and their bullets at bay.

Your only purpose here is to get a map. Anything else, good Luck.

Gallo Tower

Collectible items: Spellbinder, Bracer

It’s like the Inlaid Library, but vertical. But the comparison stops there wholly.

The Gallo Tower is a mix of Dairy Plant and Inlaid Library. It has the traps, projectiles, and spell effects of the former and the design philosophy of the other. It’s more accessible compared to the former map that was before it, but it certainly isn’t as easy as the Inlaid Library due to the circumstances specified above. Of course, horizontally-fired weapons are useless in this map… but anything that fires vertically, like the Mannajja, has a decisive role here.

Another pick in case you get bored of Inlaid Library’s laughable difficulty.

Capella Magna

Collectable items: Tiragisú, Duplicator, Crown

The Capella Magna is the final stage out of all the Standard stages. The Yellow Sign item placements are similar to that of the Inlaid Library, and its design philosophy nearly mirrors the Inlaid Library. It’s not an easy map per se due to the ludicrous difficulty spike that comes after the bats, but not as much as the Dairy Plant itself.

The Gold Bonus that it gives, however, is a big incentive if you want to make a quick buck. It is also one of the few levels that has a reason why it has three Rosaries in it. It’s up to you to know precisely why it’s there. It just pertains to why these things are as it is.

An odd map for the bizarre player but plentiful for those wanting Gold.

Item Pickups from Light Sources

Like in Castlevania, hitting anything that remotely gives light can give you items. These are the following:

Name	Weight (Probability)	Description
Gold Coin	50	Gives 1 gold coin.
Coin Bag	10	Gives 10 gold coins.
Rich Coin Bag	1	Gives 100 gold coins.
Rosary	1	Destroys all enemies on the screen.
Nduja Fritta Tanto	1	It emits cones of flames in front of you.
Orologion	2	Freezes all enemies for 10 seconds. The player can pass through frozen enemies harmlessly.
Vacuum	2	Gathers all experience gems on the stage.
Floor Chicken	12	Restores 30 health.
Gilded Clover	1	Unlocks Fever Mode for 10 Seconds. Fever Mode: Gain money for every enemy you kill. Time replenishes for every coin-related item you get.
Little Clover	1	Temporarily increases Luck until the end of the run.

Tips and Tricks

Eh, eh? Tips and tricks aren’t as fangled as it is… why not add an adjective to it?

Now that we’ve discussed a great deal about a few matters, why not talk a few more on little things that we can share so that you can maximize your Experience with this game? Without any purchasing matters, Vampire Survivors prove to be a strong contender for a time sink of a game. The game is constantly updated with newer characters, stages, and add-ons.

It’s no surprise that people flock to how outrageously priced. This game is… especially on mobile. Let’s give you a few tips and tricks to win this game.

Finish Unlocks and Collection First

The Unlocks Menu is a guide for you to know which items you can unlock by doing specific tasks. It can either be surviving with a character or staying long enough on a stage. They give you a good idea as to how to become stronger.

Pick / Upgrade Weapons First Except the Duplicator

One of the safest strats to pick in Vampire Survivors is to mitigate its randomized item pickings whenever you Level Up from Experience. As options such as Banish and Skip are luxuries, with Reroll being one of the highest ones, take any weapon choice first before the Passive Items. However, if you do happen to stumble upon the Duplicator, take it first unless your situation does not call for it.

Save Pickup Items For Later Use

An easy trap for beginners is the immediate usage of Pickup Items such as the Rosary or the Vacuum. Save them for later when the going gets tough, or you need a quick increase of Experience Gems after pummeling your way toward a Passive Item lying on the other side of the map.

Never Underestimate Luck…

Luck plays a significant role in the game, yet it has been consistently ditched over for more powerful stats such as Might and Area. It still gives a massive boost when you really need it, however. Critical hits require Luck in order for them to guarantee. Five-item chests are rare unless one goes for higher amounts of Luck.

And getting a Clover guarantees you the Heaven Sword. What else is there not to use it?

…And Restart If You Have Bad Luck

There’s no one stopping you from leaving the game, and Vampire Survivors does not penalize you for doing so. In fact, it’s encouraged to leave a run once you hit a quota. If you only need to survive a few minutes with a character, then there’s no need to push a run further aside from getting a few Gold Coins to spare and a flex.

Refund Your Powerups If Ever

From the screenshots above, you can see that there is a variable difference between the upgrade prices of the two Powerups. This is a well-known glitch within the community, and a suggestion would be to refund the Powerups and then start to price them up all over again. This may be a hassle to do, but this allows you to get your upgrades running faster than farming more and more at a ridiculous price.

Conclusion

And with that last tip, we wrap up our Beginner’s Guide for Vampire Survivors. How it lacks any sort of ‘confrontational’ story, Vampire Survivors thrive in its ability to give the player complete control of their own game. Don’t be afraid to try out a few things after you have mastered the game, as more options allow you to have a challenge of your own.

Hopefully, the tips and tricks we shared in this article will enhance your gameplay. If you have played Vampire Survivors and found additional strategies, feel free to drop us a line!

See you in the next run, Vampire Survivor!